If I owned HTTYD, would I be here right now, typing on a website when I could be making an animated thingy?

Nope.

I don't own HTTYD.

Here's Chapter 4!

Read and enjoy!

-Mitti

- - § - -

"Hey bud, how you holding up?"

A certain black-scaled dragon purred with confirmation of being just fine, making Hiccup feel a little less uncertain. They had been flying for most of the day; it was now the late afternoon. They had entered the foggy part of the ocean about an hour or so ago.

In Hiccup's mind, with hardly anything to do while flying except control Toothless's tail wing, had kept going back to how the fog seemed to be hiding creatures that were ready to pounce on him, whether he and Toothless were up higher or not. He tried to push away this sudden and completely absurd paranoid feeling.

It didn't exactly work.

"Can you smell anything?" Hiccup questioned his dragon. "Anything like another dragon?"

Toothless sniffed loudly for a moment, then looked up at his rider with green eyes that said, "Nothing". The duo was all alone, and they could maybe be said as "lost" during this time. It would never be admitted by either of them throughout this journey, however. Maybe wondering where they were, and maybe thinking that they couldn't find something they had hoped to. Yet they never considered themselves as lost.

Hiccup had decided to make a map. Entering the foggy atmosphere, the green-eyed boy had noted that their starting mark was a tiny island with a lone red pine tree growing on it. The pine certainly looked old and nearing its fallen days, but even so there would be the tree on the ground, or the stump, still there afterwards. It had gone down in a few empty pages Hiccup had torn out of the back of the Book of Dragons, because they could always be replaced.

Hiccup's wood pencil, which always lay within the Book of Dragons, still looked healthy and smelled faintly of spruce wood, or maybe cedar. It's ink that rested at the tip had not quite yet receded to nothingness, and it wouldn't for quite a long time. Hiccup had found, in one of the ink-covered book's pages, that there was fresh ink oozing continuously out of the other dried up pages.

Hiccup helped Toothless avoid a steep rock that appeared in their invisible path through the fog. It materialized quickly, and the two had a narrow few inches from scraping the side. Realizing that it had a strange, jagged peak at the top, the brown-haired boy quickly sketched it onto a sheet of paper, noting at the bottom of the drawing: "Jagged point found about an hour after flying north." At least, he thought it was north.

Toothless made a deep throaty sound as they approached another island, this one being flat. It had sandy beaches and tall grasses that grazed the middle of the island.

"What d'you say, bud, wanna take a look?" Hiccup asked his dragon, who purred in complying.

"Well, then, let's go look for the UnderIce."

- - § - -

Back from the mystical fog that was the hiding place of this so-called UnderIce dragon, and where Hiccup and Toothless were beginning their search upon a sandy beach, was a familiar island.

It's name was Berk.

In all honesty, it was the most populated island for a nice-sized radius. Even more so now, that it had dragons as allies. People on Berk realized how dragons weren't the enemy after the battle with the Red Death, and soon became open to trying a different lifestyle, one that included dragons as everyday life.

Berk had several hundred people. And strong people, at that. They were always ready for a dragon attack before, but now had half-trusted their dragons to keep nightly watches for the safety of their beloved island. Tonight was one of these nights.

Now, the dragon on watch, Lolly, named by a soft-hearted Viking woman named Nia, was a Nadder with slightly more orange-tawny scales that formed jagged stripes along her tail. She had classic teeth for her species, but her scales were tinted indigo as well as the sky-blue that was considered normal. It was rather clear, however, that she was not as old as the rest of the dragons on the island. In fact, she had just been born earlier, during the holiday Snoggletog. Her eyesight was very good, just like all dragons, and Nia had asked her if she would fancy taking the night watch.

Now, these are a few facts about Lolly. She was happy to comply to anything Nia had to say unless they took out something she cherished most: food, water, flight, and light.

There was no light out at this hour.

Lolly had hated the idea of all the torches going out at around midnight. She knew she had to keep watch, but within her dragon mind she wondered how she was supposed to see something if there was no light.

The moon wasn't full, and provided little help. Lolly, being her adventurous and carefree self, had decided there was no harm in flying down to the shoreline and go fishing for a while.

Of course, Lolly being so young, she didn't anticipate her weariness. And didn't fight it when it came after her fishy meal, so the Nadder had promptly curled up and fallen into a deep sleep within minutes of arriving on the shore.

If perhaps Nia had chosen another dragon, one that was not her own, to do the shift, then perhaps the Night Fury would not have been able to get away with flying out in the middle of the night. And maybe the Guard Dragon would have sounded the alarm, which was it's classic call. Nia would have come out of her home, shouting at the figure, waking the whole village after each house produced its own ruckus. And maybe, just maybe the rider of that dragon would have felt guilty enough to turn back.

But, of course, this was not the case.

Not that it was Nia's fault, and not that it was the two-year-old boy's fault either. No, it wasn't anyone's fault. Not even the dragon who had soared off in the night.

Not even the rider, who would soon cause searches that were wide and desperate. It was just how the rider and dragon were created; with a taste for adventure and a hope of all dragons.

And, after a futile attempt to find this brown-haired and scrawny-looking boy, a blonde fifteen-year-old had stared up into the sky and wondered, in all honesty, when he would make it back.

Not why he left, not why he never said goodbye.

But when he would return. Because he would return.

Astrid knew Hiccup enough to understand why he had left. He did tell her about the UnderIce dragon species, after all. She also knew that no matter how many close changes there were, Hiccup would always survive.

And then he would return, with information or not.

The only question left was when.

- - § - -

Hiccup was drifting in and out of consciousness.

The sky had darkened completely for a while now, and the duo was looking for a place to spend the night. Toothless was exhausted from flying, but he was always quick to slap his rider with his ear when that brown-haired rider slumped forward, dozing.

"Wha -?!" Hiccup said, jerking awake. "Sorry, bud."

Toothless groaned in response, as if to say that he was tired also. The sandy island, which had become a new marking point for the trail home, had only housed a few Terrible Terrors, ranging from the colors green to blue to in between. There had been a few wildflowers as well, which Toothless wasted no time in jumping, rolling, and chomping on them, but otherwise there was just grass and sand. And a few rocks.

The two had resumed their search. It had seemed hopeless for that day, but Hiccup understood that a journey like so wouldn't be over in a day. It would take maybe a week, or maybe two. That was as long as Hiccup dared stay away from home, knowing how nervous his friends might be.

And Astrid.

Oh gods. He hadn't put too much thought into the brutality of Astrid's fury. While the village might be angry with him for a few days, she could be irate for weeks. Hiccup knew; it wasn't as if he had always stayed on her "good side" (they weren't friends in the beginning!). She might also be personally hurt that he never said anything directly to her.

But, hopefully she understood that he couldn't?

Or, could he have?

No, she would have surely said something.

But maybe if she understood how important this was for Hiccup, she would have agreed.

And then she would want to come along, Hiccup sighed, speaking mentally. Despite her being stronger than him, he didn't want her to get in trouble or in any danger (but it was most likely going to be vice versa; Hiccup getting into trouble). She might have leaked news out to the other riders, and then soon Hiccup would have what could compare to a flock of crows that would never leave something (or someone, in this metaphor) alone.

And then, of course, Stoick the Vast would know about it.

It was just one explosion after the other.

"I really couldn't have told her," Hiccup decided out loud, confusing his black-scaled friend. Bitter as he felt inside of not, Hiccup pushed those thoughts out of his mind and focused rather on finding an island that could shelter him and his dragon for the night.

That search didn't have to go on for too long.

After several moments, it seemed, a rather tiny island came into view. Toothless started landing immediately, and Hiccup, not willing or having the spirit to argue that it was too small (because he was just as exhausted and did think that the island could be a comfortable place), let him. Much to the relief of both of them, they were soon on the ground, lying down next to each other.

Toothless curved around Hiccup's smaller frame, while Hiccup half-sprawled and half-laid on the grass that was only a few inches taller than his anklebones (or, make that anklebone and a few inches taller than the metal part of his foot). Tiredness swept over both of their minds, pulling them until they obliged (which they did so in a heartbeat) and soon fell into a deep sleep.

One's dreams were filled with dragon-nip that grew inside a wide hollow holding a lake. Fish swam everywhere and were easy to catch. There were no eels anywhere, and there were no other dragons.

There was a saddle on this dreamer's back, and the gears were all fixed in place. All that was missing was the rider, but he had to tend to his own dreams that he would nurture for countless nights, hardly remembering any.

This rider dreamt about how he had found a dragon that he had shot down and injured. It was also about a blonde teen sharpening her axe with a stone, casting angry glances at him. Once, just before all went black and he remembered no more, her face and expression was sad and full of angst.

She just wanted him home; in both the dream world and the real world.

But he wouldn't be home for a while.

- - § - -

In his eyes, mornings were supposed to be light.

Not that it got lighter, because it did, fog or not. But mornings meant color in the deep sky abyss. Peach, salmon (and a mix, since there practically the same color), orange, yellow, teal, and blue colors all lined the sky in perfectly blended wavy stripes. When he awoke, he would have a full view of the dark navy blue sky in one direction, and the brilliant array of light in the other. By then, his excitement to go up and be apart of the glorious light was very great, and he would demand for his rider to come out to take him.

In Toothless's eyes, mornings were the best time of day.

But not on this one.

Looking up, the black-scaled dragon was sad to see zero sky lights; rather, he saw fog that was slowly becoming whitish-gray instead of the nightly black. His rider was still sleeping, and was laying against Toothless's side. So as not to disturb him, Toothless stopped moving his body, but rather pivoted his head to look at their surroundings.

The tiny island wasn't that magnificent. Toothless realized that there was another island in view, but it was swampy-like and looked even worse as a sleeping location. The dragon flattened his ears in disgust at the thought of finding that island instead of the one which they were located. The duo would have had a very cold, damp, and unsettled sleep.

Toothless must have moved his wing or leg without noticing, because Hiccup began rousing. Knowing that his rider would want to get started right away, Toothless purred to say; "You wanna go? Then get up, sleepyhead!"

- - § - -

Toothless had already been awake when Hiccup woke up. He had been feeling woozy and disoriented from his awkward sleep, but he was able to get Toothless flying once again.

Hiccup felt just as excited as he had been when he discovered the history of the UnderIce dragons. He thought of himself and his dragon as being "close" to a dragon of that species. This might not have been true, but it could always be a motivation for his mind.

"C'mon, bud, let's have some fun," Hiccup said, breaking the glass wall of silence that seemed to forever lurk within the fog. Toothless, feeling rather freaked out by the quiet, agreed.

This happened not once, not twice, but three times that day. The duo began doing flips, making both of their stomachs feel as if they were squeezed tightly for a few moments. Nevertheless, they had fun.

- - § - -

Their journey might be broken into shattered bits that may seem vague, but this was honestly how their trip went. So, being an uneventful trip, it will be mostly skipped.

For the next two days, the duo of Toothless and Hiccup found nothing. They searched islands, even passed Dragon Island where the Red Death used to dictate the other dragons into feeding it. They were not comfortable there whatsoever, and quickly searched and moved on. That did become a landmark for Hiccup's directions.

On the third day of searching, Toothless had become very sad at not finding anything, and had begun to think as the situation being so strange, it was hopeless. Hiccup was slightly more optimistic, but by that evening his cheeriness had started wearing down too. He didn't want to give up, after all he had been through (like betraying Berk and his friends) but he knew Toothless was tired.

And he was tired.

Maybe . . .

Maybe they should turn back. Maybe this whole thing was just a myth, and the UnderIce dragon species never existed, or became extinct. Hiccup usually didn't think negatively, but today . . .

They were lost in fog. What do you expect.

"Hey, bud?"

Toothless growled in response, but it wasn't an angry growl. It sounded more as if he was saying, "Yep. Listening, but also flying, so not looking at you."

"Do you think maybe we -"

But after a surprised cry and the screeching of a Night Fury, the question would never be finished.

- - § - -

Ending for now. :)

Life, laugh, love,

And don't choke on your food!

-Mitti