The cover was made by me, this and other drawings like Camicazi and her dragons are in my DA account, the link is in my profile.

Thanks so much for the reviews, guys! I'm so happy! Please continue reviewing!

And on with another chap, that is now edited and corrected by my wonderful beta!

Enjoy and Review! :D

Chapter 4

Recovery Time

Hiccup slowly opened his eyes, still a bit fuzzy and confused. The stinging pain coming from the right side of his abdomen was still there, but considerably better. He stirred and let out a moan of pain as he tried to sit up. Suddenly, a gentle hand touched his shoulder and pushed him back down on the bed.

"You have to rest."

"Cami?" He called her by the nickname, recognizing her unmistakably cheerful voice.

Hiccup raised an arm to rub his eyes, feeling tired, soon he felt a hot breath brushing his auburn hair and a soft nudge he knew it was from Toothless.

"Yes. Of course it is me, after all, I'm the only one who'd bother to wait for you to wake up. Well, I can't possibly compete with Toothless, but you know what I mean." Camicazi told him. "You must be the luckiest guy I know. But I think it's only fair, since you're also the clumsiest. You're kinda bound to have luck if you've lived this long."

"Cami, what exactly is your definition of luck?"

"Oh, don't pay attention to the details. But really, the cut actually wasn't deep and didn't hit any important organs or anything. Yes, you fainted and lost a lot of blood, but the healer said if it had taken one more hour before you got here, you'd probably be dead right now. Though, I think she might be exaggerating just a bit to add some drama. Anyway, thanks to Toothless you're alive, since he's a very fast dragon."

Camicazi went on. Sometimes, the girl could speak nonstop, so Hiccup decided to ask something before she ran out of breath.

"How long have I been out?"

"Not long, I guess, only a day or so…"

"An entire day?" He almost yelled, startled, trying to get out of bed and being easily held down by one of her gentle hands.

"Yeah, but don't worry. It was because the healer gave you something to make you sleep. You were in too much pain and too restless. She told us you might sleep a lot; anyway, though I didn't know it would be that much. Now stay calm, you're still getting better."

"But, Camicazi, I've got stuff to do!"

"Well, I'm holding you down with a finger and I'm not even using strength while doing so. If you think you can stand up and walk away, be my guest."

"Oh, Cami, stop being such a nag! And stop talking to me like I'm moribund! I'm not a useless cripple, you know!"

Her eyes immediately went down his legs under the sheet. He followed her gaze and realized he didn't really choose the best words to express himself. Bullies had called him useless his entire childhood, but he wasn't that anymore, he had grown out of it. Yet, he was indeed crippled, since he had lost part of his left leg.

"Okay, so maybe I am crippled, but you get the picture! I'm not helpless or anything!"

"Yes, I know, Hiccup. But I'm worried about you." She said, petting her purple terrible terror friend she called Stormcloud. The dragon crooned with happiness in her hands and Toothless crooned to get his human's attention, the Night Fury was also worried and nudging Hiccup gently.

"Oh, Toothless, it's okay. I'm alright." The young man, said petting his best friend. "Well, 'alright' might be too strong of a word, but anyway…"

"See? Even you admit you're not exactly fine."

Hiccup rolled his eyes. Camicazi stood up and set the purple dragon on the headboard, right above Hiccup's head. Stormcloud immediately laid down and got comfortable.

"Don't worry about anything. Everyone is fine and we're making shifts for patrols, we're all aware of the 100 ship Berserker armada, they didn't attack, just so you know. If you need something, anything, send Stormcloud to find me and I'll come right away. Or send her with a note if you need me to bring you something on the way here. Don't think about the stuff you should be doing, 'cause we're handling it, and you're always flying to the edges of the world with Toothless on a weekly basis. The healer said you'd be fine to walk around in about two days, so stay in bed for only one more, okay?"

"Okay…"

He mumbled stubbornly, looking away and trying to get comfortable, though he was already restless from staying in bed for so long. He hated being unable to walk around freely, and he knew Toothless wanted to be able to fly again, albeit even if the dragon could, he wouldn't fly while his human was hurt and on bed rest.

"Oh, by the way, this is a new book about dragon knowledge that we're developing, I think you haven't had the time to read it yet, but now you do. Hope you like it." Camicazi informed him as she put the book on the bedside table, where there was also water for him.

"Thanks…"

"By the way, I'm taking Sharpshot with me, you know he can't stay inside for too long or he feels imprisoned."

She said lifting a restless green and red terrible terror from the table on the other side of the room. The little dragon hurried up to her shoulders and kept looking from one side to the other, yearning to get out of there. She opened the curtains a little bit to let the daylight in and Hiccup thanked her, waving goodbye as she closed the wooden door on the way out.

Hiccup sighed heavily, trying to cede the fact of being stuck there for an entire day. Toothless rested his head on the edge of the bed besides his human and Hiccup gently stroked the dragon's favorite spot, right behind the ears as he crooned with delight.

Flashback 4

Bertha looked at the new sword she had gained. It was really beautiful and well made, but all she could think about was the craziness that the boy had done. She was in her house, and the sun was setting over the horizon.

She thought she had never seen craftsmanship like that, but in the back of her mind, she knew it was not true, she had seen something similar on an island she hadn't visited for a while. A village called Berk. Gobber, the blacksmith, used to make fine metal work like that. Maybe Ric learned a thing or two in there. She should ask him if he had stayed on Berk before and if he dared to show them that thing about the dragons, the Hooligans were even worse with dragons than the Bog Burglars were.

"Mom, are you okay? You didn't hear me enter…"

"Yes, I am… Oh Gods, is that a dragon?" She asked, amazed, seeing the purple terrible terror lying like a cute bunny in her daughter's arms.

"It's alright, mom. Stormcloud is a sweetheart."

"You named that thing?"

"She's a she, not a thing. Ric opened my eyes to the world, Mom. Really, Stormcloud is not going to hurt you or me, just look at her. She's harmless." The small dragon nudged the blond girl tenderly and Bertha face palmed trying to absorb all that information. "By the way, Mom, there's something else you should know. It's about the nest. I know you're one of the few chiefs that is not crazy and trying to find it, so I guess there's not a problem if I show you."

Bertha followed her daughter to the woods, only to find… nothing. Camicazi knew Hiccup would be crazy enough to go after that monster again, but she didn't know it would be that very night.

"Oh, no… I think he went by himself… Come on, mom, we need to get Ric's ship!"

"And go where?"

"To the nest. I've got a bad feeling about it, mom. I can't let him go alone. It's too dangerous."

"How did he go without his boat? How does he know where it is? And, most important, how are we going to find it? Tribes have been searching for it for ages!" Bertha exclaimed, almost panting, running after the hurried messy haired girl.

"Only a dragon can find the nest, and luckily, that's exactly what we have."

Both mother and daughter jumped in the boat docked and set sail in Helheim's direction, following the tiny purple terrible terror, that pointed the way with her snout. In just a few hours, they were navigating through the sea stacks that Camicazi knew surrounded the island. Bertha kept asking if this was a good idea, feeling an eerie silence around them as they approached the nest.

Camicazi was worried, she only had been there once, and it was already enough to give her nightmares. Hiccup had been a few more times, but he admitted he almost died once, so she was concerned for the boy, and she didn't want him to go alone because if something happened, there'd be no one to help him.

Besides, Toothless wouldn't be able to fly away and take him to safety if for any reason Hiccup was in no condition to fly or if something happened to the prosthetic. It wasn't like she thought about it that much, she wasn't scared when he flew out at night, she knew he could take care of himself. But they were talking about a giant dragon-eating monster here.

When the island came into sight, Camicazi felt her heart stop for a moment and the blood freeze in her veins, because what she saw was one of her worst nightmares. The Red Death was out of the nest and chasing a tiny black spot she knew was Toothless and Hiccup.

"Odin's beard, what is that?" Bertha asked amazed at the sight of the Red Death.

Earlier that night, both dragon and rider were getting closer to the island. They sneaked into the nest and Hiccup observed the queen, searching desperately for any weakness. Little did he know that the giant queen was already tired of them and wanted to get rid of that petty black nuisance who dared to let a filthy human ride on its back.

She noticed their presence and she didn't intend on letting them live this time. Enraged, she tried to follow them out of the mountain that imprisoned her, until she managed to force herself out of there. Neither Hiccup nor Toothless expected that reaction from her. Up until now, she hadn't been able to get out of there. Hiccup didn't want to engage in a battle, not now; he wasn't ready for a fight, yet. But things ended up that way. All he wanted was to study her a little. Now, Toothless was rapidly flapping out of the way of her giant jaws.

Hiccup soon noticed that the immense size of the Red Death made her lazily slow, which was an advantage. The boy maneuvered the tail fin with ease, he'd been training for almost a year now and he had grown used to it. His body responded automatically, making the correct movements as needed.

"That thing has wings." Hiccup wondered out loud as they flew around the Red Death, still on the ground and trying to bite them but always being too late to catch the pair. "Let's see if it can use them."

Confused and almost terrified, the dragon looked at his rider as if he was insane.

"What, bud? Don't you trust me? You didn't think I'd say it if I didn't have a plan, right?"

It wasn't like Toothless didn't trust him or anything like that, and, deep down, the boy knew it. However, it also wasn't like he had really a plan, either. He was just going to improvise. The dragon shook off his fears and made a sudden, tight twist to turn the flight around.

Toothless retracted his wings and almost free fell in the direction of the immensely huge monster. At the right moment, the Night Fury shot a powerful purplish blow at her, and no matter how fast he was, he never missed. The blow was enough to make the queen lose her balance and fall against the mountain that she was once trapped in.

Stretching out her giant wings, the queen was soon airborne and trying to follow the Night Fury, but she was never fast enough to catch them. Hiccup looked up at the smoky sky, an idea suddenly forming in his mind.

"Toothless, time to disappear!"

That's when mother and daughter got to the island. The huge monster was right behind a small black dot flying higher and higher. Then all Bertha and Camicazi saw was darkness and beams of light occasionally followed by an outburst of flames.

In the sky, what was happening was the Red Death was searching for them but not able to find the duo in the middle of the darkness. She started being attacked from side to side; she never knew where the next blow would come from. Disoriented, she felt the attacks hitting her wings and damaging her flight.

Soon, she grew tired of that black-scaled nuisance and tried to incinerate the entire cloud they were in to burn him, even though dragons were fireproof. That is, they're fireproof on the outside. But Hiccup knew the inside was different. Toothless managed to escape the fire, concerned for his human rider who was most definitely not fireproof.

However, Hiccup noticed that, unfortunately, the tail fin had not escaped the flames and soon it'd be gone.

"Okay, bud, it's time."

They free fell in front of the queen who didn't lose time following them. The Red Death prepared the gas to finish them off, once and for all. Maybe she couldn't take down the Night Fury with fire, but she would be pleased enough to just kill that puny little irritating human.

"Hold, Toothless, wait. We're good, just a little bit longer…" Hiccup told the dragon, hearing the gas from the queen preparing to be lit. This is it! He thought nervously. "NOW!"

Toothless turned and let out a powerful last blow right inside the huge queen's mouth, igniting the gas in an enormous explosion inside that monster. Hiccup could never forget that scene, almost a year ago, when Toothless let a tiny blow inside a greedy terrible terror that dared to steal his food. The boy remembered the tiny dragon almost exploding from the inside, though Toothless wasn't trying to really harm the green dragon, he just wanted him to back off. This time was different, the Night Fury attacked with all he had.

Dragon and rider tried to escape from the explosion, but without the tail fin it was impossible, since the prosthetic had just been burned off. Unfortunately, they couldn't fly properly and they hit the end of the queen's tail, which made Hiccup fall unconscious. Dazed at first, Toothless struggled to understand what had happened, and then, he saw his human falling into the fire. He needed to do something and fast!

Toothless used all the strength left in him to flap down as quickly as he could.

Meanwhile, on the water, Bertha and Camicazi saw that giant monster exploding and hitting the cold hard ground with an impact so strong it felt like an earthquake for a second or two. And then, everything went quiet. An eerie silence surrounded the entire island as ashes slowly and gently fell down.

The boat hit the dirty sand and Camicazi jumped out yelling Hiccup's name. Bertha jumped out behind her a little confused.

"Cami, why are you calling Hiccup? Isn't his name Ric?"

"Yeah, about that, I'll explain later… Right now, we need to find them!"

"Yes, you're right."

The purple terrible terror flew off of Camicazi's shoulder to help search. Soon, she came back to the yelling girl pointing her snout in some direction.

"What is it, girl? Did you find them?" Stormcloud kept nuzzling in that direction and flew there, mother and daughter followed running, only to stop in front of a fallen dragon black as night.

Camicazi slowly approached the Night Fury with watery eyes. The dragon was fine, maybe tired and hurt, but breathing and moving. However, the burned saddle and torn up prosthetic tail fin indicated that the boy was long gone.

"Hiccup…" She mumbled sadly. As the dragon heard her, he moved his tired wings to reveal the unconscious boy safely in his dark paws. "Hiccup!"

She ran to him and searched for a pulse, hearing his heart beat. It was weak and slow, but it was there. He was alive!

"Mom! He's alive! Look! Toothless saved him! Hiccup's going to be alright!"

Bertha stepped closer, noticing something her daughter probably hadn't.

"Yes, Camicazi. He's alive for now, but…" She trailed off, not knowing what to say. Her voice was sad and careful. The blond girl followed her mother's gaze and she spotted his leg.

She instinctively covered her mouth from the enormous shock. Stormcloud landed on her shoulder, looking and trying to understand what was wrong. Hiccup's leg was bent at an odd angle right below the left knee and, as it got to the end where the foot should be, it was burned. His face was peaceful, only because he was probably too passed out to feel anything, thankfully, because he didn't deserve to feel that pain.

"We need to take it off and soon, before it gets infected, otherwise, he'll die anyway."

Camicazi knew that. All she needed to do was see it to know it was damaged beyond repair. She nodded and ran back to the boat, praying that he left some kind of first aid kit in there. Luckily, he did. It wasn't much, but what she had was enough. They needed to cut off the torn up leg soon, waiting to get back to the Bog Burglars island was not an option, especially if he woke up before they reached the island. That was unlikely, but it could happen.

"But it's dangerous, we'll need a healer. Can't the dragon fly him there? Maybe you and him could go faster?"

"No. Toothless can't fly anymore, not now. Look at his tail, it is incomplete. Besides, the dragon must be too tired to go. The leg is bleeding too much, I think we need to cut it, sew it and head back home as fast as we can.

Bertha sighed heavily, her daughter was right. They did it right then and there, pushing to reach their island just before sunrise. Hiccup stayed unconscious for days, during that time, Bertha and her daughter explained everything to everyone. The reason behind the raids, the Red Death's control and Hiccup and Toothless's bravery to fight against a mountain sized dragon-eating monster.

Some people took a while to believe that, after all, it seemed to be too surreal. So the chief searched for evidence. There had to be something left from the Red Death, the explosion didn't destroy everything. Burned, broken bones were scattered all over the place and some teeth were still intact, the bigger ones being the size of an adult. It was hard to carry, but when everyone saw it, there was no doubt about it.

Soon, the Bog Burglars started to get used to dragons around, not attacking. Some of them just flew by, played a bit, made a little mess and were off. Few people got attached to a dragon. Anyway, they also got used to the mighty Night Fury being much more like an oversized cat, even though they barely got to see the dark dragon, since it almost never left the chief's house, where Hiccup stayed during his recovery.

A new kind of world was just beginning right on that tiny island, because of that unusual boy and the powerful bond between him and a rare dragon; a world that seemed to be full of peace. But of course, not everything is always what it seems to be, and absolute peace is something that only naïve and optimistic little children believe.

Like it? Then, please review! It's the best way to make an author happy!

So please leave a review in the box below and tell me what you're thinking about the story!

Itban Fuyu