Hello, ladies and gentlemen, another chapter! I'm rather fond of this bunch, if I do say so myself. Now, about #24, 'Eternity,' it is the continuation of #23, 'Seconds,' that you all wanted. And yes, you may beat me with a cheese grater when you're done reading it. I'm sorry. Also, I'm sure you've all heard or said those lame comebacks that are so popular now? You know, "So's your face!" and "Your mom!" and a couple of other popular ones? They were my inspiration for #25. You'll get it. And (I'm almost done, I promise) I know that a lot of you have posted excellent questions in your reviews, and if I haven't replied, I'm sorry. I'm lazy. And when I'm not being lazy, I'm really busy. I'll try to answer as soon as possible :) But I will answer one question, because I get it every once and a while, and it drives me nuts: just because a character dies in one of these drabbles, does not mean that they stay dead in the rest of them. These drabbles have no effect on one another, unless otherwise stated, and therefore deaths only retain to the drabble that they occured in. Now, go read, and beat me with a cheese grater for #24, because I deserve it. Enjoy!

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24. Eternity

They had thirty seconds. Thirty seconds before Astrid hit the water. Thirty seconds to gather their wits, get over the edge of the cliff, and catch up with Astrid's free-fall.

And already those thirty seconds were ticking by.

Toothless staggered to his feet, testing his wings as he scrambled over to where Hiccup waited, kneeling on the brink of the cliff, staring down. Under normal circumstances, both of them would be freaking out. But there was no time to lose it now, no time to fall apart. They had only thirty seconds—even less, now: twenty-four, twenty-three, twenty-two. . .

Within a moment the boy was perched on the dragon's back, and then they were gone, tossing themselves out over the open water after the girl who's seconds were numbered: nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen. . .

But Toothless wasn't in his prime. He was in so much pain, he had become numb to it. He couldn't feel his legs, and his vision blurred in and out of focus as he fought to control the completely vertical nose-dive he found himself in. His wings wavered dangerously. He could hear Hiccup edging him on, but he could barely process the words.

It was the shortest thirty seconds of his life—it wasn't nearly enough time to reach Astrid. But it was also a thirty-second eternity.

And they were too far behind. Toothless hadn't been fast enough.

They saw it happen. Toothless was there—still twenty feet above her head when she broke the surface at full speed, the impact of hitting that water from such an incredible height killing her instantly.

And that thirty-second eternity hadn't been long enough.

25. Quote

"For the love of Thor, Hiccup, don't do it like that, are you completely—"

"That's what she said!"

Everybody stopped so stare at Snotlout. He was looking rather proud of himself—it was obvious that he'd been waiting a long time for the right opportunity to say that.

Toothless didn't get it. And judging by the way everyone else looked at Snotlout, he wasn't the only one.

Astrid raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"It's like—you know—do you people seriously not get it?"

Nobody did. Except, of course, the only one of the group who thought similarly to Snotlout.

Tuffnut smirked. "She might have said it, but not to you!"

The two burst out laughing. Toothless had no idea why.

"That's great, man! You just wait—someday, everybody will be saying it!"

The dragon doubted that.

26. Tough

Thwack!

Toothless winced as Hiccup hit the ground—again.

"Ah, Astrid, what was that for?"

"You're supposed to fight me, Hiccup, not stand there and take it!"

"You know I'm incapable of defending myself with a weapon! That doesn't mean you need to blind me. I'm already down a leg—sight loss isn't going to help me any."

"Shut up and defend yourself. Stop complaining—I'm not going to kill you. Not on purpose, anyway."

Hiccup couldn't fight. It had been proven time and time again. And yet Toothless found that the boy was still press-ganged by Gobber and Stoick into fighting lessons with his peers. And he suffered for it.

Smack!

"Ohhh, gods, I'm gonna feel that one in the morning."

"Hiccup, you're hopeless."

Toothless watched with amusement as Hiccup hauled himself unsteadily to his feet. Almost immediately, Astrid tripped him and rammed him between the shoulder blades with the handle of her heavy ax, and he went down again.

"Remind me again why you're beating me up?" Hiccup asked from where he was lying on the ground.

Astrid stood over him, propping the handle of her ax on his chest and leaning on it, making him groan. She gave him a smile that was smug, evil, and just a little bit understanding. "Call it tough love, Hiccup. Tough love."

Toothless grinned. There was a confession in there somewhere.

27. Daisies

Toothless shot a furtive look over his shoulder as he gathered together the hasty bouquet of little white and yellow flowers. Picking daisies was not what he usually chose to do with his free time, and indeed, if Hiccup or Snotlout ever saw this, the dragon would never hear the end of it.

But he had decided that the risk was worth it. Today, anyway.

Scooping up the sizable bunch of flowers in his mouth, he scampered happily off toward Berk in search of the recipient of his gift—and she took a surprisingly short time to find (which was good, because the longer he ran around with his mouth full of flowers the more of a chance there was of him being spotted).

Ruffnut looked up at Toothless, turned back to the river, paused, then turned again to watch the dragon as he approached, glancing at the odd package of flowers he carried.

Toothless stopped in front of her and extended his neck to offer Ruffnut the daisies. For a moment she stared at him skeptically, and he worried that the warrior girl would not accept his spontaneous present. After all, there was no reason for him to be giving her flowers, besides the fact that she had looked lonely, standing here at the river by herself.

But then she reached out and gently took the bouquet from him, and Toothless realized that she had probably never been given flowers before. Smiling slightly to himself, he turned around and started back the way he had come, off in search of something else to pass the time. And when he looked momentarily back over his shoulder, Ruffnut was smiling too.

28. Clever

Nobody ever thought much about Fishlegs. Toothless didn't understand why. After all, Fishlegs was a part of the gang, wasn't he? He was one of Hiccup's friends. He got into trouble with the rest of them, and had helped save Berk, and was always there for his friends when they hit a bump in the road.

But. . . for some reason, people just didn't think about Fishlegs very often. How that was possible, Toothless didn't know. The Viking teenager was so big and made so much noise (because he was incredibly clumsy and forever knocking stuff over) that he was almost impossible to miss.

Fishlegs was clever, too. He was the only Viking besides Hiccup that knew what the word 'enunciate' meant, or what a hypotenuse was. He was one of the very few that read extensively, and although he didn't often show it, he was quite a schemer at heart.

He made mistakes, but they all did, didn't they? So if Fishlegs was so clever—and Toothless knew he was—then. . . why didn't anybody pay any attention to him?