A/n: Another one, already. I know - it's ridiculous... and I'm well on the way to finish another... I have a problem... but still, I apologise for nothing! Except perhaps terrible plots, ooc-ness and bad writing, but still... dragons.

Berk was farther away than he'd first thought.

That was the first thing that occurred to Hiccup as he, Gobber, his unlikely group of friends and vigilante-dragon-liberation woman of a mother flew in chase of Drago.

He had managed to shake the grief, for now, of his father's death, instead deciding to concentrate on people - or dragons - that were still alive for him to save.

"Are you okay?"

Thank the gods for Astrid, and her amazing perceptiveness. "Yeah," Hiccup said, shifting his grip on the baby dragon, "I..."

Astrid understood what the unfinished sentence meant, even if Hiccup himself couldn't quite articulate the jumbled thoughts bouncing around his skull. There were so many, and so fast, that at times it was almost as though he wasn't thinking anything at all.

"You're doing great," she reassured him, strained smile wavering slightly as her eyes betrayed her concern. "You couldn't have stopped this; you know that, right?"

Hiccup nodded, sighing slightly. "Now's not the time..." he said slowly, taking his eyes from Astrid to glance at the mist-shrouded course ahead.

"I think it's a great time," Astrid insisted, gaze still boring into him when his back was turned. "It's not like we have anything better to do, and we won't get to Berk for a while."

"Dragon!"

No sooner than the words had left Astrid's mouth, the universe brought the correction to her statement. This time, it was in the form of a thunderdrum.

"Great," Hiccup said sarcastically, "Now we won't even make it to Berk, let alone on time."

It was Hiccup's turn to be corrected, as Valka hopped onto the back of the opposing dragon. She patted him with an ease resembling someone greeting an old friend, though Hiccup knew she'd never seen the dragon before. She couldn't have - there were no thunderdrums in her entire sanctuary. 'Well... none that I've seen.' What was another surprise, after the day he'd had?

"Who's that?" Eret asked the question for everyone else. He'd grasped the concept of naming dragons quite quickly, Hiccup realised, and would probably fit right in to life on Berk. 'If there's a Berk left to have a life on by the time we get there...'

"No idea!" Valka laughed, scratching the thunderdrum's neck. She hopped off the dragon and back to the baby from the sanctuary. "Coming with us?" she invited.

The thunderdrum looked at her for a few seconds, then turned to the others. Its gaze passed completely over Eret, then stopped as it landed on Hiccup. He shifted uncomfortably for a while under the intense stare of the dragon, until he noticed that it looked almost... expectant.

That, and familiar. That's... "Thornado?" Hiccup whispered, barely heard by Astrid.

"Wait, you think that's..."

Hiccup nodded, swallowing thickly. Stoick's dragon. Of all the times to arrive... He noticed that the arrival of the new dragon had caused the babies to slow to a halt, and nudged his slightly to get it to start moving again. Thornado followed alongside them.

"I expect you're looking for Stoick..." Hiccup sighed. Gods, he did not need this right now. "Well... he's..."

"That's Thornado?" Ruffnut asked, head tilted in the dragon's direction, "But Stoick died -"

"Thank you, for that wonderful observation," Hiccup snapped. The twin at least had the decency to look ashamed, but she made no move to apologise for her lack of tact. "Yes," Hiccup continued to the confused dragon, "he's dead. I'm... sorry."

Thornado's eyes widened. He shook his head slightly, then dived back into the mist without another sound.

"Where's he going?" Tuffnut asked unhelpfully, "We need his help!"

Another (not at all) interesting note: this chapter is written in a different person than last time, and the next is 1st person present tense, for some reason...