Hey, everybody, another update. Thank you so much to all of my amazing reviewers. You guys rock. Period. :)

~.~

29. Puzzle

Toothless had decided that Berk was like a puzzle.

All the individual people and places made up the pieces to this puzzle, each one a necessary part that was needed to make a whole. Each and every person and building and landmark in the Viking village contributed to the big picture, even if it didn't know how or why or where it fit in. They all were needed in order to create the big, beautiful colorful creation that was Berk.

Of course, some pieces of the puzzle had some difficulties with each other. Some of them just clicked, simple as that—like Gobber and Stoick, and the friendship that molded their pieces together. Others were stubborn and refused to stick together the right way even if they obviously went with each other, like Ruffnut and Tuffnut. And other puzzle pieces, Toothless knew, were aware of each other's presence but were still finding out how they fit together, such as Astrid and Hiccup.

But they still fit together. Somehow. Every last one of them was, in some way, a little part of the complete picture.

Toothless already knew where he fit in the puzzle—now he needed to start teaching others where they fit in, too.

30. Thunder

Being a mighty, fearless, indestructible Night Fury, there wasn't much that really scared Toothless. Most normal fears didn't effect him—he wasn't afraid of spiders, or the dark, or heights (obviously), or crowded places. It was, in fact, very difficult to scare Toothless.

Unfortunately, Hiccup had found the dragon's weakness.

"Lovely weather we're having, eh buddy?" the Viking boy inquired innocently as he lay on top of his bed, still fully clothed, listening to the sounds of the thunderstorm that raged outside.

As he pressed himself to the floor against the side of the bed,Toothless didn't find his best friend's jests funny at all. How could he help it if thunder made him jumpy?

Outside the window, white lightning flashed. "Oh, look, Toothless, you know what comes—" Hiccup was interrupted by a roar of thunder that shook the very floorboards. Cold, slushy rain dashed against the walls of the hut, and the chilling wind moaned through the trees.

Toothless cowered against the ground, his pupils narrowed to slits in his discomfort. Hiccup draped a hand over the edge of the bed to scratch the dragon's ears. "Poor Toothless, you don't like thunderstorms much, do you?" he asked sympathetically, but the Night Fury could hear the grin in his voice.

Another rumble of thunder echoed over the sea, and even though Hiccup's question had been a rhetorical one, he got his answer when Toothless leaped up and shoved the boy off the bed and onto the floor as he scrambled to hide beneath the blankets.

Hiccup was laughing openly now as he lay on the floorboards, the quivering dragon haven taken his place on the bed. "I thought not."

31. Reasons

"Hiccup, you are the absolute worst Viking I have ever had the misfortune to meet."

Oh boy. There they went again. Be it playful banter or not, Toothless could already feel the headache coming. And dragons didn't even get headaches.

"I get that a lot, Astrid. Mind to elaborate?"

Toothless watched as the fierce blonde girl stalked along the water's edge. She shot an annoyed glance back over her shoulder at the boy who limped along behind her, still not quite steady on his feet so soon after the loss of his leg. "Well for one," she started, "have you seen yourself fight recently?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Why don't you point something out besides the obvious for once?" he asked sarcastically.

"But its the obvious reasons that are the problem," Astrid shot back. "For instance, the fact that you are a vegetarian. Seriously, I knew you had issues, but of all the things—"

"I am not a vegetarian, I am considering becoming one. There's a difference, you know."

Toothless sighed, and Astrid gave a sharp snort of laughter. "Either way, Hiccup, you are officially the first person in Berk to even consider eating nothing but grass for the rest of your life."

Toothless could tell that this conversation was a lost cause, and Hiccup knew it too. "Fine," the boy snapped, "so I'm a vegetarian. What else is new?"

"On top of the fact that you can't fight and you are a picky eater," Astrid continued, "you are a dragon-tamer. And as awesome as that is, that is the last profession a Viking would ever consider. You also read, which is weird beyond belief, you're artistically gifted, and you're sensitive to hygene, which, in case you haven't noticed, completely breaks every last Viking custom out there. You are without a doubt the worst Viking I have ever met."

By this time, Hiccup had grown numb to Astid's critiquing of his personal habits, and simply plodded along behind her with Toothless.

"And," Astrid ground out from between clenched teeth, as if the confession was physically hurting her, "you're cute. I mean, really, Hiccup, Vikings don't come in 'cute.' It's unnatural. Can you truthfully tell me that you've ever met a cute Viking?"

That statement had caught the attention of both the boy and the Night Fury, and Toothless glanced sideways to see a sly smirk growing on his friend's face. "Actually, I have met a cute Viking," Hiccup said, but only loud enough for Toothless to hear. "I'm looking at her."

32. Future

The future had not turned out the way it was supposed to.

That was all that Toothless could think of as he dashed through the wreckage of Berk, leaping over smoldering remains of what had once been a thriving Viking village. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Toothless was never supposed to be alone.

The dragon fought against the panic that was threatening to burst from his chest. That panic had been there for a long time, suppressed within him, controlled.

But not anymore.

For the first time in a very, very long time, Toothless felt completely alone. He barely recognized his village, the home he had learned to love over ten years ago. There was nobody here now, since the entire population had been evacuated, and the real action had moved out into the forest. Now there was nothing but burning rubble and destroyed buildings and the sound of combat and terror from the direction of the woods. And Toothless.

And maybe—just maybe—Hiccup. That's the only reason that Toothless had come back. Four hours ago, his best friend had vanished into the smoke, running back towards the chaos, in one last, desperate attempt to save his only son.

When he had been informed by a sobbing, bleeding Astrid that they hadn't shown up with the survivors, Toothless had known that his last hope was here, among the remains of Berk.

The future had not turned out the way it was supposed to.

33. Fix

Hiccup is very good at fixing things. Toothless knew this for a fact.

His best friend is a complete know-it-all when it comes to anything mechanical. Be it tools or weapons or machines, simple or complicated, new or old, Hiccup can fix it.

This talent works on dragons, too. Hiccup is constantly repairing Toothless's prosthetic tail fin, making it better and stronger every time, upgrading it, making it feel more and more natural.

Hiccup can also fix people. He doesn't display this talent quite as often as the others, but it's a proven fact. Toothless knows that whenever Astrid is broken, be it her pride or her heart of her logic, Hiccup can heal her when he holds her close.

Fixing is just one of those things that comes naturally to Hiccup. And, in he best friend's opinion, it's a pretty handy little gift, too.