I swear, taking a writing course really makes you notice things that you've never noticed before. For example, I indirectly quoted the script of 'Pride and Prejudice' that we used for the school play in Chapter 10. Bonus point for those who spot it!

Also, I quoted 2 lines from an Owl City song in this chapter, and probably the most famous line from The Wizard of Oz. More bonus points!

And to cut down on my review-responses, I'll respond only to reviews that I can actually respond to. :P

Guest 4/29/13: Good idea, although I already have an idea of how Hiccup is going to get back into the village. Part of your guess is correct though!

Booknerd39: Nope, I've decided the transformation is a one-way thing. Maybe in another story though!

Comet Moon: Correct, he's staying dragon!

Bluebird42: Hooray! Now there is a button for the next chapter! Not on this one, though. But next week there will be. As for the science, since Torin is the main know-all person, the explanations will be in the bottom AN. And I didn't think of it off the top of my head either, it took a couple days research.

Guest 5/7/13: Yes he will!

Anyways, enjoy this week's 3,000 word, 6 page chapter!

A young doe trotted through the forest, the sound of fallen leaves crunching beneath the hooves echoing throughout the otherwise ominously silent forest. The doe cautiously paused, sniffing the air, before lowering its head with the same hesitant wariness. The light fought its way through the dense leaves, shining some of its light on the speckled white coat of the doe. The sound of crackling leaves brought the doe to a halt. Its ears twitched, trying to catch another hint of a sound. A black blur momentarily caught the doe's attention, before its neck was snapped as a heavy mass slammed into it.

"Ew, ew, I think it touched me."

"I think its offended. Oh wait… it's alive!"

Hiccup squealed as the liver was thrown on him, quickly followed by a piece of the intestine. "Dear gods, stop!"

Toothless chuckled, returning his attention to the doe. "I'll never understand your aversion to the insides of an animal."

"It's just the thought that this was a living animal."

"Says the person who killed it."

"We need to live, right?"

"Correction: We need to eat to live. And that means eating this." Toothless raised his head as a piece of the stomach hung out of his mouth. With an obnoxiously loud slurp, he sucked it into his mouth. "Juicy!"

Hiccup poked the piece of intestine, wincing slightly at the sound it made. "Urk… I'm starting to understand why you like fish."

"And it only took, how long have we been together?"

"A couple of months I think… I have no idea. It seems like yesterday I tried to draw you."

"Which I still think was incredibly stupid."

"And I still agree."

The conversation ground to a halt, Hiccup haltingly eating, while Toothless had his entire muzzle in the carcass. At this rate, of course, Toothless finished the doe as Hiccup finished his (small) portion. Toothless glanced at Hiccup, liking his muzzle clean of the blood and small pieces of meat.

"Alright, fess up, what's been bothering you."

"Huh? Nothing, everything's fine, just great. I've never felt better."

"Well now I know something's wrong. Tell me."

"I told you, I'm fine."

Toothless gave Hiccup his best 'I-don't-belive-you-and-I-know-you're-hiding-somet hing' look. Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"Fine, you nosy thing."

More silence.

"Hiccup?"

"Well… Toothless, I can't stop thinking about Berk."

Toothless recoiled at the mention of Berk, his eyes narrowing as memories that were best left untouched came to life. "Why are you thinking about that cursed place?"

"Ever since I met you, I've realized dragons were intelligent. But now that I actually am one, I'm only just realizing exactly how rational you are. You have a civilization, a pecking order, you have healers like Torin, heck, you guys have a more advanced understanding of the world than we do! If dragons had hands to create things with, you'd be an unstoppable force!"

"And this all leads to Berk how?"

"Think about it, Toothless. Humans and dragons have fought since gods know when-"

"About 630 years."

"Yeah, tha… wait, 630?"

"Vikings weren't the first people around, you know."

"Ok, but that's besides the point. We're still fighting, and thousands of dragons and humans are getting killed. We think that dragons are mindless, bloodthirsty beasts and you guys think we're…"

"Annoying furless demons from the pits of Hel?"

"Well that's a bit extreme don't you think?"

"I was exaggerating. Most dragons refer to you just as 'those idiotic little 2-legged gnats'.

"Ok, but back to what I was saying, we need to stop it."

Toothless cocked his head slightly. "Hiccup, do you realize what you're trying to do?"

"Cease a 630 year war that both sides have no intention of stopping?"

"Yep."

"In that case, yes, I do. But we need to at least try Toothless! I can't just sit here on this island and do nothing!"

"Hiccup, we'll leave soon, but stopping that war is impossible! Humans have despised dragons ever since we've shown ourselves to them. There is no exception," Toothless paused, then muttered, "…except one."

Hiccup cast his eyes to the ground, before his ears perked up. "Wait, one?"

"I knew I shouldn't have mentioned that."

"Where?"

"It's in a really distant land. The natives call it zhong guo, but other people call it 'China'."

"If we visit them, maybe they can help us stop the war? If they managed to stop it-"

"And that's where the problem lies. They never had a war."

"But still, if we could get them to come over here, they could-"

"Did I mention it would take a couple months just to get there? Then take into account the amount of time it would take to understand their completely different language, get them to trust us, and then spend 2 more months travelling back."

Hiccup was startled, and his rational mind took the opportunity to make him see how unrealistic it would be to travel there. "Ok, so we can't go to China, but we can still try here!"

"No, Hiccup!" Toothless growled. He was rapidly nearing the end of his patience. "This is a suicide mission. If the humans don't kill you on first sight, the dragons will for suggesting such an incredibly stupid idea!"

"Toothless, we just have to do something similar to when we first met! We just need someone to go out alone,"

"Without their weapon, sneak up on them without them running away, let them get away, and then pray they don't bring the entire village back with them."

Hiccup was running out of ideas. Toothless was right on every account. The chances of a Viking going out unarmed were as small as Loki becoming an honest, respectable God. Wait a second…

"Toothless!"

"Are you still going on about that idea?"

"Yes, but what if we started at a different island? One that wasn't so against dragons?"

"In other words, a land not inhabited by Vikings or some other anti-dragon people?"

"Yeah!"

"No chance of that either. Apparently, outside of the Viking lands, there's a religion called 'Christianity'. Almost everyone believes it, and the people who do regard dragons as a form of the 'Devil', which is the ultimate form of evil. They even have special dragon killers, called 'Knights'. If you wanted to find a place not affected by this religion, it would take as long as going to China."

Hiccup was beside himself, pacing frantically as his tail swung behind him. "So in other words the only chance we have of ending this war quickly is to take our chances with Berk?"

"No Hiccup, we are not going back."

Hiccup huffed, looking down. "Fine. Can we at least leave this island soon?"

"…Tomorrow, we'll leave. In the meantime, we need to work on your fighting. We're going to go to our Nest, and you need to know how to handle yourself."

As Toothless turned around to go to their practice clearing, he didn't see the small grin that passed across Hiccup's face.

{EvilHiccup?}

The rest of the day was devoted to fighting. Hiccup vastly improved in his ability to defend himself, but he was still horrendous at actually attacking. He claimed it was because he didn't want to hurt Toothless, who then proceeded to pin him down and poke fun at him while Hiccup tried to throw him off.

Torin had collected dinner for them, and, much to Hiccup's relief, it was fish. They had informed Torin of their plans, who had then proceeded to stuff them as full as he could with fish. Of course, morning seemed to take its sweet time. The instant the suns rays chased away the darkness, Hiccup was practically bouncing on Toothless.

"Wake up you lazy sack of scales!"

"Ugh, we'll leave later."

"You know you're the one who always says that the sooner we get up, the sooner we get stuff done."

"Yes, well, next time I say that, you have my permission to slap me."

"Come onnn Toothless!" Hiccup whined. When Toothless didn't respond, Hiccup crouched down, grinning wickedly. "Ohhh Toothless!" Hiccup sang as sweetly as he could.

Toothless peered through one eye, curious at the sudden change in attitude. When he saw Hiccup crouched down, he rolled over. "Pounce and you're a dead dragon."

Hiccup frowned, standing back up. He trotted over to the pile of fish Torin had laid out for their breakfast and threw one at Toothless. Toothless hardly moved, and the fish slowly slid off his head, leaving a trail of slime behind.

"Come on, you're never this lazy when I sleep in!"

"Like I said, you have my permission to slap me next time that happens."

"I'm running out of ideas to wake you up!"

"Good."

Grumbling to himself, Hiccup started to eat the fish. "You know, there'll be no fish left for you if you don't get up."

Toothless heaved himself up, and slowly made his way to the pile of fish, tail dragging in the dirt behind him.

"It's a miracle! The lazy one awakens!"

Toothless shot Hiccup another glare, but ended up rolling his eyes.

Breakfast was quick, thanks to Hiccup's urging, and shortly afterwards they were off.

{We'reOffToSeeTheWizard!}

Hiccup was ecstatic to say the least. He was doing flips through the cold air, letting out whoops of joy. Toothless didn't join him, however he watched the tricks with a grin. When they arrived at Dragon Island, Hiccup would be feeling the consequences of his current actions. Or it may be as soon as halfway there. It all depended on how well the weather would cooperate; Not At All, Blown Off Course or Haha You're Screwed.

And it was as such that, come midday, Hiccup was lagging behind.

"Come on, we have to get there by sundown!"

"Yeah, although… can we take a break at the next piece of land we find?"

"I don't know. I mean, I'm pretty eager to get there, you know. I might bug you the entire time you're trying to rest."

"I said I was sorry."

Toothless chuckled, finally deciding to stop tormenting Hiccup. "Alright, next land we see, we'll stop at."

Of course, with the duo's luck, they didn't come across a landmass until it was late in the day. And, with a dash of misfortune, it was Berk.

"No."

"Toothless, you promised!"

"I am NOT going down there."

"We can stay on the far side of the island."

"I still don't trust that place."

"We'll stay hidden, and it's only for an hour or so."

Toothless frowned, mulling it over. "Fine, but you have to stay within my view the entire time."

Hiccup let out a quiet whoop of joy, pulling his wings together and entering into a dive. Toothless followed, allowing the wind to sweep his worries away as he chased after Hiccup. With a look behind him and a taunting look on his face, Hiccup slightly opened his wings, entering the maze of trees. He could hear Toothless behind him, easily keeping pace with him. A risky move suddenly popped into his head, and with reckless abandon, Hiccup flared open his wings just as he turned a corner, pulling into a stop almost instantly. He then closed them just as quickly, allowing himself to fall. He saw a black blur shoot above him and grinned as the flaps slowed down.

"Hiccup?"

Said dragon was moving silently through the trees. His paws stepped over the twigs, treading softly on the forest floor. Toothless was in the center of a clearing. He looked around, calling out again, "Hiccup?"

Now.

Hiccup leapt from the cover of the trees while Toothless' back was turned. Hiccup smiled as he actually managed to knock Toothless over. Toothless had quickly identified it was Hiccup, and stopped himself from fully retaliating, instead rolling onto his back and letting his larger weight pin Hiccup. Only when Toothless was almost on top of him did Hiccup realize that he hadn't actually knocked him over, but that Toothless had let himself get pushed. And by then it was too late.

"Let me up!"

"We agreed that you'd stay within my sight, remember?"

"Oh come on! I came back!"

"Nope, you must suffer the consequences!"

Hiccup was about to respond, when the sound of a twig snapping interrupted them. A voice muttering to itself quickly followed. Toothless was on high alert the second the twig snapped.

"Get up!" Toothless hissed, rolling off of Hiccup and running for the cover of the trees. Hiccup was right behind him, scrambling up a tree at the first opportunity he got. Hiccup tried to still his pounding heart, watching the clearing with fearful eyes. The voice got louder, and a blonde emerged from among the trees. Hiccup's heart went into overtime as he recognized the person.

Astrid.

The urge to run away almost got the better of him, although Hiccup was pretty sure he was shaking at this point. Astrid continued into the center of the clearing, before lying down on the ground. She lay there, relaxed, completely unaware of another person, not 10 meters away, who was trying hard not to leap out of the tree and fly as far away as he could. Hiccup glanced about, hoping to find a way out of the tree, but Astrid was too quiet and too close. If he tried to get out of the tree, he'd be noticed. In other words, he'd have to wait here until Astrid left.

Hiccup peered through the leaves, watching Astrid. The initial fear he felt slowly dissipated, being replaced by confusion. Why was Astrid out here in the first place? Usually when she was out alone she was training. Astrid got up, and reached into a pack he hadn't noticed before. Out of it she pulled… a book? Since when did Astrid read?

Astrid looked at the cover a little, before opening it to read. The book seemed oddly familiar. Familiar on the nice level, as if he had seen it every day. But he couldn't remember where he saw it. Was it the Book of Dragons? No, it was too small. What about…

His attention was drawn to some shadows moving and the sound of twigs snapping. Astrid slammed to book shut, throwing it to the ground and taking out her axe.

The axe.

It wasn't the same axe that killed him. That was lost at sea when Toothless had taken it out. But it was strikingly similar. The same double sided, curved blade. The same handle. However, it was much newer. Much shinier. It brought back memories, if they could be called such. Hiccup would rather call them nightmares.

More twigs snapped, and Astrid picked up the book, stuffed into the pack, and put it on her back. With another glance around, she started to back away from the source of the sound. Once she was out of sight, Hiccup could hear her break into a run. Toothless emerged from the trees.

"Hiccup? Hiccup? Where are you?"

"H…here…" Hiccup muttered. The axe was still fixated in his mind. He could easily imagine it swinging through the air, sharp enough to cut through his scales, maybe even go clear cut through his body.

"HICCUP!" Toothless shouted.

"Yeah, I'm here." Hiccup repeated.

"Snap out of it!"

Hiccup felt his head being slapped. Probably by Toothless' tail. That was the most flexible part of a dragon. It was also the weakest. Any damage to it and it wouldn't be able to fly. From there, it's easy to track it and ambush it. A downed dragon is a dead dragon, after all.

Hiccup felt another slap, this time knocking him out of the tree. It was actually kind of stupid of him to climb up there. There was only one entrance and exit, seeing as the surrounding trees prevented going up into the sky. But he could always glide into the cleari-

"OW!" Hiccup cried as his head collided into the ground. It wasn't a pleasant way to land, it really wasn't.

"Hiccup? Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I told you coming to Berk wasn't a good idea. Come on, we need to get moving. We've had a long enough break, and after that close encounter I have no desire of staying here any longer."

"Alright." Hiccup rubbed his head, wincing as he felt more pain. "Ok, let's go."

Toothless quickly took off. Hiccup glanced around the clearing. There was something else that was bothering him…

"Hiccup! Come on!"

"Coming!" Hiccup replied. It could wait till later, he decided as he spread his wings and took to the sky.

Yes, 6 pages in Word. Single spaced.

Anyways, this week is review week, and next week are the finals. However, contrary to most people, this actually allows for some more time. We can go home early if we don't have any other tests that day, and in between tests we (technically aren't allowed, but still) can have our phones out, meaning more writing time! Joy!

Anyways, see you next week!