Chapter 1

Hiccup woke up early the next morning at his desk but decided to stay awake since he was determined to make things up with Toothless. He yawned and stretched his arms before turning around in his chair. He assumed Toothless had flown home after he fell asleep and was in his bed. The twenty year old gasped to see the stone bed empty. He rushed over to it and felt the surface. It was cold which told him it had not been lit on fire for a long time.

Tripping and nearly falling down the stairs, Hiccup ran to the ground floor and rushed outside. The sun was up and a few early riser vikings were seen in the nearby village. "Toothless!" Hiccup called. When he got no response, he cupped hands over his mouth and yelled his name louder. Valka ran outside and asked her son what was wrong.

"Toothless didn't come home last night! He flew to the cove because he was upset yesterday and I fell asleep waiting for him," Hiccup explained quickly starting to panic.

Val noticed him breathing faster so she caressed his face with her hand to calm him. "It's okay son, he wouldn't of gone far. I'll get Cloudjumper and we'll search the cove."

Hiccup nodded while trying to mentally convince himself that they will easily find him. Valka called her dragon and the mother and son quickly rode him to the cove. They got off him and loudly called for Toothless. Hiccup even tried his accurate Night Fury call. Cloudjumper watched them and realized why they were at this place. He decided to save their time and get the painful shock over with. He roared at Valka and she knew by the sound that he wanted to tell her something. She approached him and he motioned for her to get on his back.

"Hiccup! I think Cloudjumper knows something!" she called and climbed back on him.

Hiccup did not need to be told twice as he joined her. Cloudjumber landed back in front of their home which confused the vikings. They dismounted and Valka stared into her dragon's eyes trying to read his emotions. He showed sadness which greatly worried her. After a moment he turned away and walked to the back of the cabin. The two humans nervously stayed put waiting for him. The stormcutter returned carrying something in his mouth and dropped it in front of them. Valka gasped when she realized it was Toothless' saddle and turned to Hiccup. The viking chief was silent for a long moment as he stared down at the object that he was completely aware of what it was.

Valka expected Hiccup to have an explosion of emotion at any moment so she nervously placed her hand on his shoulder. Hiccup flinched as he was snapped back into reality and seemed to go into denial.

"The saddle must of been bothering him last night so he wanted a break from it. He's probably just having breakfast at the feeding station," Hiccup explained more to himself than to Val.

Then without another word he headed down the hill to the fish troughs. Unsure of what to do, his mother followed him. The two vikings went to Berk's dragon care center. It held tons of fish basins and a grooming station for the dragons. Hiccup usually fed Toothless his favorite fish at home but he would sometimes join the other dragons if he was hungry. Hiccup had started to jog when they were almost there and instantly looked around the whole area for the black dragon. Hiccup called for Toothless not caring at all about how it was getting nearby dragons and vikings' attention. Astrid was at the grooming station with Stormfly when she heard her boyfriend. Both her and her dragon stopped what they were doing and went over to him. They walked up behind him and got his attention.

"Hiccup are you…" she began but was cut off by a desperate Hiccup.

"Have you seen Toothless?" he asked her.

This worried Astrid since she was sure the Night Fury would of returned to Hiccup by now. "No I haven't. Do you smell him Stormfly?"

Deadly Nadders were known to have a good sense of smell. But she simply squawked and shook her head. Stormfly then suddenly raised her head interested in something behind the vikings. The other dragons did the same so Hiccup, Astrid and Valka turned around. Cloudjumper had just landed nearby and all the present dragons stepped towards him and bowed to their new Alpha. There was no doubt now, Toothless had left and was not coming back.

Both dragons and vikings nearly jumped out of their skins when they heard someone scream. "NO!"

They turned to see that someone was their chief. Hiccup became hysterical and shouting to himself and to the gods. He clutched his head and started to have a panic attack. Astrid bolted to him and grabbed his hands to try and calm him. Hiccup did not seem to even know someone was trying to help.

A lot of vikings and dragons crowded around wanting to know what was wrong. Seeing this as a problem, Valka and Gobber pushed through the crowd to Hiccup and Astrid. Gobber started clearing a path and loudly undermining the situation to the village. Valka got Hiccup to start walking with her as Astrid still held his hand.

They went to Gobber's forge where all the others were told to not worry and continue with their day. The large upgraded forge was a lot more quiet and deserted. Hiccup sat on a bench and put his head in his hands. Eret, Fishlegs, the twins and Snotlout were now present but Hiccup did not seem to care about anything around him. Valka filled them in on the situation so Hiccup would not be interrogated.

Astrid handed Hiccup a mug of water that he took and started to breath more normally. Everyone was silent not knowing what to say for awhile. When someone did speak up it was of course the loudmouth Snotlout.

"I don't get it. Why would Toothless leave? He has a great life here."

Annoyed, Astrid replied, "We don't know Snotlout, that's what we need to figure out".

"Because I drove him away," Hiccup said softly.

Everyone looked at their chief and Eret spoke up. "That's ridiculous, haven't seen a viking and dragon closer than you two on this whole island."

Hiccup put down the water he did not drink and stood up. "He must think I blame him for killing my father. And I made stupid decisions like not spending enough time with him."

Hiccup had begun to pace around the forge and stare at random objects as he thought. Everyone was surprised by the sudden lack of emotion in his voice.

"Well that's clearly a mistake so we need to go after him and bring him back," Astrid said trying to sound confident.

"But no other dragon can fly as fast as Toothless," said Fishlegs.

Everyone glared at him and Tuffnut smacked him on the side of the head to shut him up.

That reality had already crossed Hiccup's mind, but someone saying it out loud made it even more real and sparked something within Hiccup. Right after Fishlegs said this, he stopped pacing with his back to everyone and his fists clenched. Then to everyone's surprise, he grabbed a nearby ax, yelled out and used it to smash a small wooden sculpture to splinters.

A lot of his friends gasped at this. No one had ever seen Hiccup swing a weapon-let alone use it to effectively destroy something. Everyone including Astrid was nervous to approach him as he breathed heavily and tossed the ax away.

"We are going to find him! He may be faster but he can't fly forever. I will find him it I have to go off the edge of the world!" Hiccup stated.

Everyone nodded before Hiccup started giving orders. "Ruff, Tuff, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Eret, Astrid and I will be beginning the search in an hour, so start packing for a long trip. They agreed and went to gather supplies leaving Hiccup, Gobber and Val behind. The two older vikings tried to leave too but Hiccup stopped them. He told his mother he needed her to run the village while they where gone and with Cloudjumper the Alpha now he had to stay too. She reluctantly agreed before Hiccup addressed Gobber. He wanted Valka to have a good friend to help her if she needed it. He also pointed out that his dragon Grump would never want to make the journey. Gobber glanced over at his lazy Hotburple to see he was sleeping in the forge the entire time so he agreed as well.

As Gobber walked to the forge to get Hiccup some tools the chief turned back to Valka. His mother sighed sadly, "Be safe son, and don't be gone too long."

"I'm not coming back till I find him," Hiccup declared.

She nodded reluctantly before giving him a hug. When they pulled away, he asked her. "You know more about Night Furies. Do you have any idea where Toothless would go?"

"Well I've only heard stories from my grandfather that Night Furies lived far up North in caves of uncharted mountains. If he is trying to find other Night Furies he may go there. But Hiccup I really think he is the last of his kind."

"Thanks mom, I have to try I don't think Toothless knows that for sure." said Hiccup.

An hour later the gang flew away from Berk and did not know when they would return.