Chapter 4

Troubling

The world turns mad when balance breaks

The peace of normal no more

Be ready when the tide goes out

To deal with dangers of lore

It had been a week.

An entire week, and no sign of Spitfire had shown up. That was worrying enough for everyone as rarely a day went by without the Changewing following me around the village (or Hiccup when I wasn't around), but there was another factor compounding the issue: Spitfire was no longer the only dragon to turn up missing now.

Granted, all the permanent village dragons that had bonded with one of the Vikings were still around, and showed no signs of leaving, so Orha, Toothless, and the other teens' dragons were still around. But what had set the alarm bells ringing had been the day in late May, after I had returned home from work and dropped off Holly at the house, when I walked through the portal to find Phil and all the other Terrors gone from the vicinity of the portal.

A chill ran down my spine, and I immediately bolted for the village. Hiccup wasn't in his house, so I headed for the forge, and nearly ran Astrid over in the process.

"Hey! Watch it Hawken!" she snapped, standing back up and brushing her skirt off. "Where are you in such a hurry to?" "Sorry," I apologized quickly, "but we have a problem. A big problem. Find Thorn and then follow me."

Astrid raised an eyebrow and was about to reply with another question, but I'd already taken off once more. Luckily, Hiccup and Gobber were both within the forge. The former smiled when he saw me and held up what looked like a Mysteel breastplate. "Hey Hawken, we figured out how to make armor!" he exclaimed excitedly. "This should be even sturdier than the dragon scales!"

I nodded curtly. "That's great Hiccup, but we have another matter to attend to at the moment," I replied. Hiccup's smile began deflating almost immediately. "What, exactly, do you mean?" "Phil and his friends are missing as well now," I explained. "Spitfire's not the only one. Something's going on."

"Now that ye mention it," Gobber spoke up, walking over to the forge window, "I noticed the Nightmares that hang around the docks have nae been showin' up either fer some time. I thought perhaps they'd found another means of helping the fishermen, but no word of them has come in."

I nodded, frown deepening as I turned to glance behind me. Thorn had shown up finally and was landing, and Astrid jumped off shortly after. "Alright, so what's the deal?" she asked irritably. "And you'd better have a good reason for bowling me over."

"We need to search the island," I said. "All of the riderless dragons are disappearing. If they're on the island somewhere still for some reason, we probably don't need to worry, but if not…I mean, it's not mating season for another month or two, so that possibility is out of the question, and even if it were dragons still don't vanish for more than a few hours then either."

Astrid's irritated glare melted to an expression of concern, and she pursed her lips. "I'll gather the rest of the gang and head around the east side," she suggested. I nodded and turned to Hiccup and Toothless. "We'll take the west, meet at the other end of the island, and come down the middle together." They nodded in agreement, and as Astrid took off around the village to round up the others, Hiccup and I began skirting in the direction of the western shore.

"So, uh, why are we doing this again? I mean it's not like any of our dragons have turned up missing," Snotlout complained, before yelping and ducking out of the way as Thorn threw a spike at him.

"So you're saying that you don't care at all about Spitfire?" Astrid growled back. Snotlout shrank back a bit under her glower.

"Plus," Fishlegs added in, Meatlug nodding in agreement, "if the dragons are disappearing, it may mean something out there is posing a threat to them, and thereby ours as well. No offense Orha, but Snotlout you remember when we first started having problems with the 'Shadow Lord,' how dragons started disappearing from the meadow they were in?" "Yes, but this is so boring!" Snotlout groused.

"Oh, would you just shut up and focus already!" Ember snapped, before turning her own gaze worriedly to the island below them. "Fishlegs, shouldn't there at least be a handful of dragons living in the cliffs?"

The group all turned to face the jagged eastern side of the island. Composed of thousands of crags and small caves, the cliff face was eerily silent, empty of activity save for the calling of gulls.

"Wow, it is really quiet here," Tuffnut commented softly. He glanced at Ruff, and they both grinned. "Let's blow it up!" They dove toward the caves, before the two teens nearly went flying off of Barfbelch when Orha clamped down onto the Zippleback's tail.

"Are you insane?!" Ember yelled, hair turning red. "You should know that by now," Ruffnut replied nonchalantly. Ember groaned in reply, before glaring at the two again. "We are on an important, time-sensitive mission here," she snapped. "There is no room for messing around at the moment, especially when it involves blowing up dragon habitat!"

Orha gave an agreeing nod, before growling and jerking on Barfbelch's tail, throwing the dragon and his riders back into line and then gliding back into his own position. Ember took another look down at the cliffs, before glancing over at Astrid. "We definitely need to tell Hiccup and Hawken about this."

"Anything at all?" I called as I swooped up from among the sea stacks. ::Nada,:: was Toothless' reply. Hiccup nodded in reluctant agreement with the Night Fury.

"The forests are empty, nothing at all in the mountain foothills, not even a sign of any Nadders near the falls," he added in. "It's as if everyone just dissolved into thin air. I don't get any of this!"

I frowned. "Well, they had to go somewhere. And I would have noticed during my leisure flights of we had any dragon hunters in the area," I muttered. "It's really hard for them not to take a shot at a lone Night Fury."

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, tell me about it. Had that experience as well a while back." He looked at me seriously. "So, what could have happened to them all? If it were a dragon like when we first encountered Orha, at least one would have noticed and alerted us." I sighed and looked off to the horizon. "If only I knew, Hiccup. If only I knew," I whispered.

We flew in silence for most of our trip, each of us checking various parts of the shoreline and the island's inner edge as we went, before we finally reached the opposite end from the village. As I flew, I also made up my mind about another important subject: it was time to use one of the gems I had been given, as I had a really bad feeling that we were all going to become busy over the next few weeks. I needed to get everything on automated systems at home so that I didn't have to be around constantly, and while my parents probably wouldn't be overly pleased with part of what I was planning, it was going to be necessary.

Surprisingly, Astrid, Ember and the other teens were already waiting for us on the northern beach. "Wow, you guys work fast," Hiccup commented.

"We also had more than twice the number of dragons as you guys did," Astrid replied. "But we don't have any good news, I'm afraid. The eastern cliffs and the forests are completely barren."

I grimaced. "Then, that means unless they're all in the mountains, the island has been wiped clean of wild dragons."

Silence took over for a minute, before Fishlegs spoke up. "Well, there is always the chance they went to that one island way up north," he suggested, "as we've seen lots of dragons come and go from that direction, but we would have to check that out on another day; there wouldn't be time with the daylight we have left."

Hiccup sighed and nodded. "Yeah, there's that chance, but we also won't have time for a couple of days, at least." He looked around at the group, then gestured toward the mountains. "Let's finish this search though, and report back to my dad. Toothless?" The Night Fury nodded and spread his wings, taking off and leading the rest of the group down the center of Berk.

There was nothing. Not a scale, not a burn mark to be found anywhere. We landed back in the village, weary from the tedious flight, and were greeted by an anxious chief.

"Anything?" Stoick queried worriedly. We all shook our heads in unison. "Not a thing showed up," Hiccup said. "We're going to check that big island up toward the northeast later, but that will have to wait a couple days at least."

Stoick didn't say anything for a couple moments, wringing his hands and looking around the village. Then he nodded slightly. "Very well then. Hiccup, you keep working on that armor you and Gobber had going; Ember, you too. Astrid, keep the other teens up to date on sparring practice; I have a feeling we may need it soon enough." He then turned and headed briskly down the path, presumably to spread word and to halt the escalating argument breaking out between Mulch and Hoark nearby.

The teens began to disperse, their dragons following along, and I turned to take off as well (some chores still needed taking care of). But before I even spread my wings, however, another idea hit me.

"Hey, Hiccup?" I said, turning back to him. "Hmm?" he replied, one foot in the air as he was about to head to the smithy. "I won't be here to help with the armor and such, at least for tomorrow, but if you get the chance," I looked around to make sure the others were out of hearing range, then leaned in and whispered, "find out what happens if you mix the dragon scale armor with Mysteel."

Immediately I saw the glimmer of curiosity and invention spark in Hiccup's eyes, that imagination he was well known for, and he nodded, smiling. I glanced at Toothless. "And you make sure that he doesn't overdo anything and hurt himself, alright?"

The Night Fury nodded and smirked slightly, and the pair sauntered off again toward the forge. I, meanwhile, turned and spread my wings, taking off toward the portal. My job the next day (besides the literal job at the nursery I worked at) was to prepare for a possibly costly summer, and that meant that I needed to figure out how to utilize one of the jewels in the bag I had hidden away. That, in turn, meant I needed to find a dealer willing to purchase them, and that I feared would take long enough in itself, time being something we all had very little of now.

A/N-Let me know what you think in a review!

Also, I intend to start working on a chapter for the Book of Dragons titled A Basic Understanding, compiling info like life history, anatomy, reproduction, and chemistry of fire for dragons in general. Any input on information that should be included is welcome, let me know!

And last note: I have caught up on typing, and am working on chapter 5 as we speak for this book. As such, I cannot guarantee there will be an update next weekend, but I will continue working on it. This story will not be abandoned!