AN- Heres chapter 4. it's the longest chapter yet at 3,448 words. over a thousand more than usual. this was gonna be split in two chapters at first. but i combined them. thought i'd spoil all my followers and reviewers since you guys are awesome. XD
also, i only just figured out i had to manualy accept reviews from visitors. so i did that. i'll reply to visitors at the bottom. i'll also try and reply to those who have already reviewed as well through pm. i just get stuck on what to say. i'll give my thx at the bottom.

anyway, please do enjoy the chapter and tell me what you think :)

Disclaimer - I don't own HTTYD

As Hiccup drifted into consciousness he smelt a weird concoction of scents like gunpowder, fish oil, forest and mud. His dazed mind realised his head was gently bobbing up and down as something breathed beneath him. He figured he should be frightened that something living was beneath him and had it's arms wrapped around him. But he didn't. He felt an odd comfort from it.

He faintly remembered what had happened the night before. An hour or so after hiding within the cave, he'd awoken to the sound of thunder and the start of rain. A storm was incoming. Normally he'd panic, being trapped outside in a storm. But now, he felt relief. If they were gonna come after him, it would be when the storm ended. The rain would wash away his tracks making it near impossible for them to find him, especially since he was camouflaged in the pitch black cave.

There was fresh water he could reach if he needed it which he would do under the darkness of night. Food could wait until they gave up the hunt. It was far safer to stay in the cove for now until he could figure out if it was possible to change back or at least learn to fly so he could escape the island.

His thoughts had been interrupted by a scuffling sound. Something was making it's way into the cave! Fear resurfaced, was it an animal seeking shelter? Or was this it's home? Maybe the hunting party had ignored the storm and found him?

The scuffling grew closer and he let out an involuntary growl out of terror. The figure gasped. He could make out it was a person. He couldn't smell any metal on them though. Even without his heightened dragon senses he was familiar with the smell after working the forge so many years.

He felt them place a hand on his tail, "Go away," he hissed. Even without weapons, they could still be strong enough to beat and kick him to death as he'd seen his father do plenty of times before. So when the figure didn't move away, he made the first move. He pounced and pinned the person to the ground.

He gave them a sniff to make sure they really didn't have weapons on them, instead he could smell mud, forest and rain. Under that was the smell of fish oil in their long hair and gunpowder and soot on their clothing. He decided to take a look remembering his enhanced vision. The figure looked female until she came more into focus.

It was Ruffnut! what was she doing here?
Even though he knew she had been cruel to him, played pranks on him and laughed at him with the other teens. He forgot all that for a moment. He was so scared and so alone he started to cry and rub his head against her for comfort. She clearly couldn't harm him in her current position and seemed like a good a time as any to show he wasn't a threat.

And it seemed to work as she began petting him and letting out calming words to comfort him. She said she wouldn't hurt him which made him relax into her touch as she hugged him.

The piled up fear, confusion, panic, pain and sorrow finally took it's tole and he fell asleep in her embrace. Hoping she would keep to her word and not hurt him when the storm let up and morning came.

She was still asleep. He could see her more clearly now the sun had come out. Sure he could see well in the dark, but it was more of a black and white picture where living things and object reflected the light more clearly than when he was human.

In the day he could see how mud caked her skin and hair, green and brown twigs and leaves sticking out here and there. But at the same time it looked like the mud had run down due to contact with water. The rain maybe? Why wasn't she wearing her helmet? Where was her weapon? Why was she even down here alone? So many questions went through his head until he heard he coming too.

She opened her eyes and looked at him in a dazed trance for a few seconds before she screamed. She clearly wasn't expecting a dragon to be on her.
He backed off a bit and cowered low to the ground of the cave, making himself even smaller and harmless.
Then she seemed to remember the night before and apologised.

"Sorry. You startled me there. I won't hurt you okay. i did say i wouldn't right? Can you understand me?" She asked.
Hiccup carefully lifted his head and gave a small nod.

"So you can understand me!" She looked rather surprised. It was expected though. Hiccup was surprised when he found out dragons had a whole language of their own when before, dragons were seen as mindless beasts. He could only understand the dragons language because of the spell though.

He wondered if other dragons could understand humans or it was only him since he knew Norse already. Would they have bothered to learn viking if the vikings hadn't bothered to learn dragon? He'd have to try asking any other dragons he came across.

"Come on lets get out of this cave, the storms stopped and I'm starving. I didn't eat dinner last night because i got stuck down here after my brother abandoned me."

Tuff had abandoned her, was that usual? He never could really understand the twins and their antics.
He hesitantly followed her out of the safety of the cave.

"Wow! so you are a dragon!" She exclaimed."I've never seen one like you before though. Small and black. You're actually rather cute"
Cute! He was cute! He figured he didn't look ferocious... but cute!

He noticed her start to check herself over.
"Dam, i must have lost my helmet when i fell."
So she had fallen huh? he wondered if she fell into the cove like he had.

Keeping and cautious eye on her he headed over to the river for a drink. He was rather thirsty after all the running last night and hadn't had a drink since he'd left to go drawing.
He saw his reflection in the calm water of the pond. Ruff was right, he did look cute. He had big green eyes with large square pupils and frills coming out of his head.

"What, you never seen your reflection before?" She asked.
He shook his head.
She took a look over him. "Why are your wings drooping like that? Won't they get damaged? Can't you fold them?"
He shook his head again and tried moving them a bit.

"Huh. It's like you can't control them properly. Are you some kind of hatchling or something? Not learnt to fly yet?"
Hiccup was surprised at how intelligent her questions were. With how reckless the twins acted, he figured they were idiots. But here she was, asking him practical questions.

He gave a nod since the nightmare had called him a hatchling anyway so he probably was one. Humans most likely aged faster than dragons or something.
"Awwww. No wonder you're so small. Did you lose your parents?" She said looking around for any potential threat of an adult dragon that would attack her for being near it's hatchling.

He gave nod. Then he looked down and started to cry again. In a way he had actually lost his parents. his mother was dead and his father tried to kill him since he didn't realise who he was. He could no longer go back to the village. As much as he despised the way they treated him, at least he had had a home and some people who cared for him. Now he was completely alone and in the wilderness.

Then he felt arms around him, he panicked slightly until he realised she was hugging him. Hugging felt strange, but nice. Even as a human no one ever hugged him, not even his father.
"It's okay, you'll find your parents again, they can't be too far away right?" She asked.

He shook his head and leaned into her.
"Their not dead are they?" She hesitantly asked. He bowed his head giving her all the answer she needed.
"I'm sorry."
They stayed like that for a while. Her hugging him as he leaned into her, crying.

When they finally parted she had a determined look on her face.
"Right, well if your an orphan then i can look after you if you'd like"

Hiccup was shocked. Ruffnut would go against viking rule of killing dragons and actually help one survive. Sure she'd been comforting him until now which he hadn't put much thought into since he was so lost in sorrow and in need of human contact. But permanently caring for him! Like some kind of replacement mother? She could get in serious trouble if she was caught. But... why did he care? This was Ruffnut. She'd hurt him plenty of times over the years. Laughing at him when he messed up and got in trouble.

But then, she didn't know he was Hiccup the useless turned into a dragon!
And she'd shown a caring side that he'd never thought he'd see in her toward his dragon self.
Still, he needed to survive until he found a cure, going under her care would be beneficial to him.

She most likely wouldn't get found out easily anyway. He knew how sneaky she and her brother could be when setting up their pranks.

"Oh you poor thing! Your injured" She suddenly said.
He looked around at his leg. He'd somehow forgotten it. It looked terrible.
Not only was there a deep gash in his leg but infection was setting in. it didn't smell too good and there was yellow and green ooze coming from it.
"Quickly! get into the water. I'll wash it out for now."

I knew why she was in a hurry about it. Infection was deadly. If it wasn't treated fast enough, the whole limb would have to be amputated. Even worse still, if left even longer, the infection would spread to the blood and you'd be a gonner.

For dragons it was worse, lost limbs were a common occurrence for vikings, but to a dragon it meant death. How could a dragon hunt and defend itself properly with a missing limb? Not to mention flight and landing.

So he walked into the water and let her scrub it out with some moss she'd found growing on a nearby rock.
It hurt a lot! He cried out a few times and resisted the urge to bite her the best he could.
"Shh shh, it's okay, it'll be over soon."

With her comforting words he bared with it, even when it felt like she was rubbing sandpaper over the raw flesh.
When she finally got rid of all the pus, it started to bleed again. She tore off some fabric from her clothing, wrapping it around his leg to put some pressure on it.

"That should do for now. I'll have to gets some herbs and bandages from Gothi. You must be hungry. Can you hunt at all?"
he shook his head. The pain in his leg now just a nagging ache.
"I'll bring back some fish as well then."

So she was leaving now. It made him scared. Her company had made him feel safe.
"Please don't go" he said. but of course she only heard warbles and growls.
She seemed to get the message though as she saw the pleading look in his eyes.

"Don't worry, I'll be back okay. I won't let anything happen to you." She gave him a kiss on the head and a hug then headed to a slope that looked like the way out of the cove. She must have spotted it earlier.
When he couldn't see her anymore, he limped back to the cave to hide till she came back. That hunting party was still imminent after all.

She didn't understand what had come over her. She was protecting a dragon! Sure he was only a cute little hatchling but any other viking would have just killed him before he could grow into a strong fearsome enemy.

And why was she calling it a he? She couldn't tell the gender of a dragon! But for some reason she just knew, like some kind of sixth sense that the little black dragon was a he.
Should she give him a name?

"AAAGGGGHHH" she cried rubbing and tearing her hands through her hair. "What is wrong with me? I'm a viking."
Before she knew it she was back in the village. She noticed some kind of commotion going on.

The chief stood in front of about twenty vikings. All carrying weapons and travelling gear.
"Right, so is everyone ready?" Stoic said in his booming voice
"YEEEEAAAAHHHHH" cried the group of vikings.
"Lets go find Hiccup"
With that he turned toward the forest and began leading the group in.

Ruff spotted her brother and marched up to him. She gave him a good punch over the head. But before she could ask him what was going on he started talking to her.
"Oh, hey sis. I see you got out of the trap." He stated completely unfazed from the punch to the head.
"I NEARLY DIED," she shouted. "It was awesome"
"Aww no fair, you had fun after all and without me." He sulked.

She punched him in the arm, "serves you right for leaving me and eating my pudding."
"So in what way did you nearly die? Did that night fury find you?"
"Night fury?"
"Yeah, didn't you hear? Oh well i guess you didn't being stuck out there. But apparently this night fury turned up in the raid last night and attacked the chief. Shot a blast right at his chest. It went straight through his armour and gave him some wicked burns. Wish i could have seen it." He said excitedly.
"Cool! Do you know what it looked like?"

"Yeah, the ones who saw it said it was small with black scales and sleek body. Also for some reason it was dragging it's wings on the ground as it ran away. They think it must have injured them or something. The chief managed to strike it on it's leg though so it couldn't have gone too far. That's what that search parties about. Oh and something about Hiccup missing or whatever."

Ruff just stared into space. That little dragon she had grown attached to was a night fury! And the chief gave him that awful wound. But wait, Did Tuff just say something about a hunting party! They were gonna find and kill him! NO! She couldn't let that happen. She'd told it that she'd be it's replacement mother.

Although she wasn't too serious when she stated it before, now she felt a strange motherly protectiveness wash over her. Remembering those pleading eyes when she left. She felt like she'd die to keep him safe.

Tuff began waving his hand in front of her face. "Earth to Ruffnut, are you in there?"
She blinked rapidly "hey! get your stinking hand out of my face."
"You were really zoning out there. Did you hit your head or something?"
"No dumb ass"
"Oh-Oh, tell me how you nearly died. I really want to hear it!" he said excitedly.

"Later" she said as she shoved past him. She needed to protect her hatchling. Her hatchling? Where did that come from? aagh that didn't matter now.
She figured she had some time to get the medical supplies and some fish before she headed to the cove. The hunting party didn't know where he was and it had been raining so he wasn't as easy to track.

She ran to get the some fish first not caring if anyone saw her. They'd just think she was setting up a prank or something.
Then she rushed to Gothi's. Luckily she was out so she nabbed up what she needed and disappeared into the forest. She knew what was needed for cuts since she and her brother had been to Gothi's plenty of times after all their dangerous stunts.

She made sure to stay clear of the hunting party as to not be asked what she was doing out here. Especially with a night fury on the lose.
What else had Tuff said? Something about Hiccup missing? He must have not returned from one of his forest adventures or something. Perhaps the chief was worried that something had happened to him with the night fury out here.

She doubted the little thing would have hurt him though. He was clearly lost and scared and wouldn't have bothered fighting off a weakling like Hiccup. Hiccup didn't look like a threat at all. She'd probably end up running into him on her way to the cove, catching him goofing off as his father worried about him.
She put her thoughts aside and soon reached her destination.

Stoic was frustrated and worried. He had wanted to set out as soon as Gothi was finished with him but then that storm hit. It would have been too dangerous to search in it with all that lightning and the rain would have blinded them of any clues.

Not like there was much to go on now that it was over. There weren't any footprints due to the rain washing them away. All they could do was look for any broken branches or objects Hiccup could have dropped while calling out his name.

They were also looking for the night fury, but his son came first. He still hadn't returned after the storm and it only increased his worry. He could be injured or worse. No. He didn't want to think about that. His son was alive, he had to be. He had already lost his wife to a dragon, he couldn't lose his son too.

They combed the forest as best they could, still no clues. until he heard one of his men give a shout. "Stoic! I've found something."
He rushed over to see what had been found to stand still in shock.

Clothes. Hiccups clothes, torn to shreds on the ground. Dark stains covered most of the shredded fabric that could only be described as blood. If there had been anymore of it the rain would have washed it away.

He knelt down and picked a piece of green tunic in his hands. Everything he was wearing the last time he saw him was there. and for this much blood to be on just the clothing... there was no way he could be alive. His heart learched in pain and his ears rung in shock. reality felt distant as he took in what had happened. The painful truth tugged at his chest and stung his eyes as a tear slid down his cheek. He shakely stood up and screamed with all his might to the heavens.

"AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH! DAM YOU NIGHT FURY. DAM YOU TO HELL. HE WAS TOO YOUNG TO DIE. MY ONLY SON. WHEN I FIND YOU, I'LL GUT YOU ALIVE AND RELISH IN YOUR PAINED SCREAMS. THEN I'LL HANG YOUR SKIN IN MY SONS HONOR! I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

He fell back onto his knees before breaking down into tears. The chief was strong, he shouldn't cry. But his heart ached too much to care for pride. his son was gone. He'd failed his wife's wishes, he couldn't protect their son. Just like he couldn't protect her.

Gobber limped over to Stoic and rested a hand on his shoulder. No words were needed as he also began to cry over the boy he'd gotten to know less like just an apprentice and more like a son.

They'd get their revenge. They'd make that night fury pay.

Poor hiccup, it's all a misunderstanding. will stoic find and kill him? will he hide well enough and escape? will he find a cure? you'll just have to wait and find out. :P

visitors - snowflake - thanks for reviewing each chapter. your messages are so enthusiastic it pumps me up to get the next chappy done faster XD and i'm glad i did ruffnut well. hopfully she didn't slip out of character with all the careing in this chapter, but don't worry they'll be plenty of fun and daring stunts later :)

Lady - there won't be hicstrid in this fic i'm afraid. sorry. i do like the pairing, but it doesn't really fit into the story i have planned. plenty of the pairing out there though.

thx to - datubaman, Hiroshiboy and Csk214. welcome to the fic.

And special thx to maximumride1444 and Breyannia for the continued support :)