Chapter 3

The next day all the dragon riders split up in search. Hiccup had brought pieces of Toothless' saddle so the dragons could track his scent. At sunset everyone returned with nothing. This was discouraging since even Skullcrusher could not smell Toothless.

"How do we even know Toothless headed North?" Snotlout asked while everyone ate at the campfire that night.

"Toothless wanted to find other Night Furies as much as I do. There are legends that they lived in the North where no humans would bother them," Hiccup explained.

"So that's why no one ever sees a Night Fury," said Eret.

"If that's true then why did Toothless live on Dragon Island and join in raiding Berk?" Fishlegs asked.

Tuffnut rolled eyes thinking he was stating the obvious. "Uh Berk is North. It's freezing and snows all the time."

"I meant about staying away from humans. If Night Furies like to isolate themselves, then attacking them with other dragons does not make sense," Fishlegs replied.

"Well if you remember, the dragons only raided us because they had to feed their Red Death Queen. It was controlling them and they had no choice," Astrid added.

"So if Toothless was never enslaved by the Red Death, he probably would of lived with other Night Furies far from Berk," Hiccup concluded. He did not really like thinking how the only reason he met Toothless was for his dragon to live for years being enslaved before he shot him down.

"Do you guys think there really is other Night Furies? If so I want one!," said Ruffnut.

"Yeah then I wouldn't have to share a dragon," said Tuffnut.

Barf and Belch who were lying nearby sat up and both head butted their riders.

"Although you guys really understand the art of a good head butting," Tuffnut said to their Zippleback.

"Honestly, I don't know if there are other Night Furies. If not then Toothless will be all alone and that is just another reason to find him," Hiccup said determinedly.

"What if this isn't Toothless' plan at all? Maybe he just needed a little vacation from you and had Cloudjumper fill in till he got back. You can be pretty demanding," Shotlout said to Hiccup.

Normally everyone would just brush Snotlout's comments off as just being annoying and rude, including Hiccup. But Hiccup was already extremely distressed without Toothless so he did not have the patience for him to question his every decision. He had seen Spitelout question his father constantly and it was apparently hereditary. Hiccup stood up and walked over to him with his fists clenched. Snotlout stood up too to face him. "Don't insult me and question my plans. I put up with that for years when I was the dragon rider leader, but I am your chief now too. I know my dragon more than anyone and you are here to help me. Not keep us from making the right decisions," Hiccup said sternly and pointed his finger on his chest.

Hiccup then walked away before saying over his shoulder to everyone, "Get some rest, we are flying to a new basecamp in the morning."

Hookfang snorted some smoke in Hiccup's direction before Snotlout said to him. "I know Fangster, he needs to lighten up."

Two Weeks Later

The dragon riders sat around the fire at their temporary campsite in silence. No one had complained or questioned their leader since the incident with Snotlout but it was quite obvious no one was in high spirits. That was no comparison to how Hiccup was feeling. Every night he became very frustrated when everyone reported to have no leads. He kept wondering how they have still not even had a dragon pick up a trace of Toothless' scent. To make matters worse it had rained all day yesterday which made tracking even more difficult.

For the last several nights Hiccup kept isolating himself from the group and only spoke to them when he had new plans. He was currently sitting against a tree in the dark away from the group carving something out of some wood.

"I'm worried about him. He keeps getting more distant and we have made no progress for him," Astrid said out loud.

"Well what do expect? He lost his dragon and we're all here with ours," Ruffnut pointed out.

"Maybe it wouldn't be so hard for him if some of us weren't so obvious about that!" Tuffnut snapped at Fishlegs.

The larger viking was currently hugging Meatlug while she was wagging her tail and licking his face. He let go and they both looked guilty.

Stormfly head butted Astrid's arm so she rubbed her nose and sighed, "I know it's hard for him, so we need to find Toothless to make things better. Ugh! Why haven't we found any clues!"

"Yeah isn't Skullcrusher supposed to be really good at that?" Ruffnut asked Eret before making a flirtatious wink when they made eye contact.

"He is but with Toothless being way faster, he could be only leaving a small trail that would fade away shortly after," said Eret.

Skullcrusher made a sad grunt at not being more helpful.

"I say we give this search a few more days before we band together and tell Hiccup we are all flying home," said Snotlout.

Fishlegs who was sitting across from him suddenly went wide-eyed at him. Snotlout raised an eyebrow at him and said, "What? We're all thinking it."

It was then that he realized that Fishlegs was actually looking behind him. Snotlout turned around to a very angry Hiccup standing a few feet behind him.