Toothless and I flew on for hours, far away from Berk. We flew to a small island, one I had only visited once: Crescent Island. I had to make sure no one would ever suspect that I was there.
It was almost night by the time we landed. I stayed slumped on Toothless for a minute before I got off. Then, I slowly crawled off his back. I walked over to a tree and leaned against it.
Survival. I needed water. Shelter. Fire. Food. I should find them before the sun set the rest of the way. I had to start looking immediately, because the night was sure to be dark and cold.
But I didn't. After years trying to prove how tough and viking-like I could be, I finally gave up. I sank down to the ground and cried.
I must have drifted off to sleep eventually. I woke up in the pale, misty morning with Toothless using his wing to keep me warm. Feeling me move, Toothless awoke, stretching out his wings.
"Morning," I said. Toothless purred in response. "I guess it's just you and me from now on, Bud. What say we go get ourselves some breakfast?"
Toothless bounded up. I slowly stood up and stretched, making my way through the forest. I had to find fresh water first of all. I went down to the beach and followed it along the shoreline. Eventually, I found a stream that flowed from a spring only a few hundred feet beforehand.
After taking a long drink, Toothless and I went back down to the beach. Using some vines I found at the edge of the forest, I made a simple fishing net, just large enough to catch a single fish. Using the net, I caught several small fish. After Toothless had eaten his fill, he lit a small fire for me so I could roast a fish for myself.
When I was finished eating, I asked Toothless, "Wanna check things out?" He eagerly crouched down so I could climb on top of him. We took off, shooting for the highest point on the island.
Looking down, I could see evidence of many, many dragons living here. I could even hear their calls. Glancing up at the horizon, I saw some specks flying toward me.
They were the dragons from the ring.
The Monstrous Nightmare, the Deadly Nadder, the Gronkle, and the Hideous Zippleback came flying up to Toothless. I heard them make grunts, roars, and other dragon noises to each other. "What is it, Toothless?" I asked. "Why are they here?"
In response, Toothless cooed. "It's because dragons are loyal, isn't it?" I realized. "You freed them; now they'll stay with you."
Toothless looked back at me and caught my eye. In the look that passed between us, I could tell that Toothless was agreeing with me.
The next several days passed fairly uneventfully. Because Toothless was accepting me, the other dragons slowly started to as well.
On the fifth morning after I arrived, Toothless and I were flying close to the cliffs by the ocean. We were swooping low over the water, when a Scauldron came up out of the sea without any warning.
A Scauldron is a dragon that lives its life underwater. I read about it in the dragon manual; it was the one that shoots boiling water at its victims.
The Scauldron was ready to shoot at us. Yelling in terror, I directed Toothless up. We cleared the area faster by flying up along the cliffs. But when we reached the top, Toothless's tail fin scraped the rough edge of the cliff. I urged Toothless to the ground once we were far away from the Scauldron.
I jumped off and examined the cloth. It had a small rip in it, about the size of my little finger. It would slowly get worse; I had to fix it before it got too bad. I had no materials.
They were back on Berk.
"What do we do?" I pondered aloud, pacing back and forth on the grass. "We can't go back. They'll drive us away, or lock us up, or…" I stopped short, an idea hitting me. "… Or they'll never even know we're there."
It was a simple plan. It was five days; they would have figured out that I was no longer on the island. They would have stopped looking, if they ever looked for me in the first place. No one would suspect us swooping in at the dead of night, taking a few things, and leaving.
That night, Toothless and I flew back to Berk, with the other dragons following us. We stayed high above the clouds so the watchman wouldn't see us. Thankfully, there was no dragon attack going on that night as we came upon the village.
Diving down, I landed in the woods near the edge of town. "Stay here," I told Toothless. I wanted him holding the other dragons back in the woods, ready to strike in case of an emergency. With that taken care of, I sneaked toward the forge.
As I entered the forge, I listened closely. I couldn't hear Gobber anywhere. Swiftly, I took my leather black smithing apron off its hook and filled it with extra metal rods I had made while designing Toothless's saddle. I grabbed the pile of leather I hadn't used yet, and I bundled it all up, tying my leather-and-tools bundle with a little bit of rope. Thinking a little more, I grabbed a small knife and tucked in in my belt, hidden by my vest.
Part one was complete. Now, just to grab a few necessities...
I slipped through the village, avoiding any bright spots. I opened the door to my house – well, Stoick's house. Not mine anymore.
I opened the door just a crack. Inside, I could see Stoick and Gobber, sitting before the fire, talking in low tones. Holding my breath, I sneaked through the house and up the stairs. In my room – my old room – I found my things. I grabbed everything I could think of… fishing line, fishing hooks, spare boots, clothes, a blanket, pens, ink…. Pushing them into a bag, I slipped back down the stairs. Pausing halfway down, I listened to what Stoick and Gobber were saying.
"I just don't know where I taught him wrong," Stoick said. "I lived and breathed dragon killing. My whole life was built around it."
"Ah, you can't win 'em all," said Gobber. "We both knew he was something different."
"Why would he prefer to be with those beasts than with his own tribe? His own family?"
"If I recall, he wasn't the only one in the family to take to the beasties."
Stoick's shoulders sank. "No. Valka always urged me to stop the fighting." Valka was my mother. "Every time I think of Hiccup on that dragon, I think of Valka being carried off as she tried to protect him in his cradle. She succeeded in protecting him that day. I failed every day since."
"Don't be too hard on yourself," Gobber said. "The lad's fifteen years old, even if he doesn't look a day over twelve. He made his own choice."
"Yes," Stoick said. "But I can't let his choice affect the whole tribe. I need to find the dragon's nest. We've only got a few months before the hard freeze of winter sets in."
I slipped out of the house. Running back to where I left the dragons, I didn't notice the slim figure following me.
Just as I got to the edge of the woods, I heard a voice behind me. "Hiccup."
I froze, then relaxed when I realized that who it was.
"Astrid. Look. I'm- I'm- I'm so sorry. None of this is as it should be."
"Hiccup, don't worry about that. Just tell me what you're going to do now."
"I don't know. Go back to the island where I was hiding before, I guess."
"I've got a better idea. I don't know where you were before, but now, go to the island where the dragon nest is."
"What? Why?"
"Just do it, and stay there. Or near there. I'll get permission to hunt on nearby islands. I'll meet you somewhere over there soon, and we'll figure out what to do from there." She turned around to go back to the village. "Don't forget."
"I won't." As she took a few more steps forward, I said, "Hey, Astrid?"
She turned around, with a question in her expression. "Thanks," I said, hoping my eyes would tell her more than my words did. She smiled, and I smiled back. Then she turned and went away into the village.
I went back to the dragons. I climbed onto Toothless, and instead of flying back to Crescent Island, I flew to the island with the volcano. In my mind, I was starting to think of it as "Dragon Island."