Chapter Three

Hiccup screams as he and Toothless slam into the water, their bodies immediately being engulfed in complete icy-darkness. They thrash about, struggling to work their way back to the surface. But Hiccup realizes, a bit too late, that his dragon's wings are still unfolded, making it nearly impossible for Toothless to swim. The most he can do is wiggle around, trying to close his wings to become more dynamic in the water.

I need to get the others to pull him out before he drowns! Hiccup decides, reaching down to unbuckle himself from his saddle. He presses down on the switch and pulls. He freezes. The buckle isn't opening. He pushes again, tugging with all his might. But it's no use. He's trapped, steadily being dragged to the bottom of the ocean right along with Toothless. Oh crap, this isn't good! At this rate, we're gonna-

But his thoughts are interrupted as a pair of hands grab his shoulder and pull him up. Once more, he feels resistance from the buckle. It presses into his stomach, pushing all of the air out of his lungs. Bubbles flood from Hiccup's mouth and his vision goes dark around the edges. A moment later, he sees Astrid swim in front of him and take her knife out. With a few simple cuts, the chord snaps in half and Hiccup is free. She grabs him again and they swim back up.

Both teens gasp for air as soon as they break the surface. Hiccup coughs violently, water gushing from his mouth.

"Are you okay?!" Astrid asks, panting.

"I'm o-okay." He coughs again. "H-help Toothless!"

"Right. Snotlout!" Astrid motions to the water and helps Hiccup swim out of the way. "Can you and Hookfang get him out?"

Snotlout nods, confidently. "We got this, babe." He pats Hookfang's side and the Monstrous Nightmare hovers closer to the water, sticking its massive head under, he stays like that for a moment. A second later, Hookfang's head reappears. There's a saddle clutched in his mouth, yanking Toothless back up.

The Night Fury thrashes, letting out desperate growls. Water pours down his face and he shakes, trying to get the salty water out of his eyes. Toothless tucks his wings in and pulls out of Hookfang's grip, offering a coy mew of thanks to the other dragon.

"Toothless..." Hiccup sighs in relief, seeing his friend is okay.

Toothless's ears perk up, hearing Hiccup's voice. He turns around in the water and forces a gummy smile.

"I'm glad you're okay too, bud."

"Only one more problem." Fishlegs mutters as he flies over with Meatlug. "How're you going to get home? You can't exactly fly now..."

Hiccup frowns. He hadn't thought of that. He had been so focused on not drowning... "Someone will have to go back to Berk and bring help."

"All of you go back together, in case that dragon attacks again." Astrid reasons. "Stormfly and I will stay with Hiccup and Toothless." She looks around and finds a patch of sand and stones jutting up from the water. "We'll wait for you over there, on that sandbar."

Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins nod. "You sure you'll be okay?" Fishlegs asks.

"We'll be fine." Hiccup assure him.

"We'll be back as soon as we can!" And with that, the other Riders fly off in the direction of Berk to get help.

"Come on," Astrid says. "Let's get to that sandbar before anything else bad happens."

"Right." Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless swim toward the little patch of land while Stormfly glides over and waits for them. Astrid ends up having to nearly drag Hiccup out of the water because he's still so shaken up that his legs don't seem to want to work. They both collapse into the sand, panting heavily. Toothless coos and lays down beside his friends, nudging Hiccup once again. "I'm okay, bud..." He mumbles, reaching up and petting him.

"Man," Astrid props herself up on her elbows. "That was crazy."

Hiccup grunts in agreeance.

"But I'm glad you're both okay." She adds, quietly. A small blush on her cheeks at the admission.

Hiccup tilts his head to look at her and smiles. "Me too. I don't know what I would've done if Toothless had gotten hurt..."

She nods and looks over at Stormfly. "I know how that feels." Then, with a small shake of her head, she says, "Well I guess this means no training later?"

"Huh?" Hiccup rolls over, still not sitting up. "Why?"

She frowns at him. "Well, for one, you almost drowned!"

"I'm fine!" He insists. Toothless purrs, as if to say 'so am I'.

"Plus, look at your dragon's tail. No way you're going to be able to fly."

"Pff!" Hiccup pretends to laugh as if the idea of training being canceled is absurd. "You doubt my skills, Miss Hofferson. I'll have a new connecting rod made by this afternoon."

She smirks but folds her arms. "Aren't you being a little cocky?"

"Hey, I'm a viking. Cockiness and arrogance are two of the things we're best at." He points out.

"That and stubbornness." She mumbles.

"So training at our normal time?" Hiccup asks, flashing her his trademark grin.

With a dramatic sigh, Astrid says, "Fine."

Hiccup laughs and pushes himself to a seated position, reaching up to wipe his soaked bangs from his eyes. He scoots over so that he's sitting next to Toothless. The Night Fury's purrs continue and he wraps his tail around Hiccup, resting his head on his front feet.

Astrid smiles as Stormfly follows their lead and sits down behind Astrid so her Rider can lean on her. "Seems like the dragons are a little tired too."

"Yeah, seems like it." Hiccup agrees as he pets Toothless's head. "Oh yeah, and remind me to never fly in front of the twins ever again."

Astrid giggles but shakes her head a little. "Those two are out of their minds. You're not mad at them are you?"

"Nah, they can't help it." Hiccup shrugs, his nose crunching up in a silent chuckle as Toothless rolls over so that his belly is facing the sky. "I'm just thankful it wasn't anyone else. We would have had a rough time getting a bigger dragon out of the water."

"Yeah." Astrid watches him as he closes his eyes and leans back against Toothless. "I hope they show up soon. I'll feel better about all this once we're back home."

Hiccup nods but doesn't say anything. He seems content just sitting there, curled up against his best friend. In all honesty, Toothless seems pretty okay with the situation as well. Then again, Toothless seems happy whenever Hiccup is safe and close by.

Astrid smiles and rolls her eyes. A boy and his dragon...

A few minutes later, the sky darkens as a large dragon passes across the sun. Astrid's first instinct is that the Monstrous Nightmare has returned again. However, as the creature comes closer, she makes out a distinct azure coloring to its skin...as well as a rather familiar figure seated on top of it.

"Hey, Hiccup...help is here."

Hiccup sits up and squints into the glaring light, shading his eyes to get a better look of who is coming. Once he realizes who it is, he seems to shrink back. A guilty look going over his face. "Oh man, did they have to tell my dad?"