A/n: TNT's idea again. Well, not exactly, but the basic stuff is there.
"Have you seen Gothi?" Astrid asked. Hiccup looked at her, slightly concerned.
"No." he replied. "Why? Was someone hurt?"
"No! Nothing like that," Astrid assured him, "It's just that nobody's seen her in a while. Bucket saw her yesterday, but nobody's seen her since then."
"What was she doing?" Hiccup wondered. "Going to get some more herbs?" Astrid nodded. "Well, if she was, she'll be in the forest. I'll go look for her now."
"Thanks," Astrid said gratefully. "Hope you find her soon!"
"Don't worry!" Hiccup laughed, hopping onto Toothless's back, "So long as there isn't a random spread of disease, we should be fine!"
Astrid sighed as Hiccup flew off. Of course he'd say that. There'll be an outbreak now...
'You know there's going to be some random disease now, right?' Toothless asked Hiccup as they flew over the forest. 'Because with your luck, and the universe in general...'
'Yes, I know.' Hiccup sighed. 'I only realised once I'd said it. Well, if we can get to Gothi soon enough...'
'What do you think it'll be?' Toothless asked conversationally, 'Perhaps eel-pox. Haven't had that one in a while.'
'And thank Thor we haven't.' Hiccup said pointedly. He still remembered the last eel-pox outbreak; it had ended in Toothless getting sick, and himself being knocked unconscious after being slammed into a tree. Not the best day.
Scouring the forest floor for any sign of the healer, Hiccup sighed. 'This isn't working, is it?' he said. 'Try going a bit lower?'
Toothless complied, dropping down and swerving between the trees. It gave a better view of the forest floor, but took up too much of Hiccup's concentration from having to concentrate on not crashing for it to be worth it. 'Gonna have to take control, bud...' Hiccup told Toothless, who nodded and switched the tail function.
That's better, Hiccup thought, able to concentrate much better now. Now, let's find Gothi.
"Any luck?" Astrid asked hopefully, watching Hiccup drop down in front of her. She was leant against a tree, having nearly fallen asleep waiting for him to return.
"Nope." Hiccup said dully. "I assume the village is being ravaged by disease as we speak?"
"Yep." Astrid confirmed. "Eel-pox."
'Aha!' Toothless cried out triumphantly, 'Called it!'
Hiccup glared at him. 'That isn't a good thing.' he reminded the night fury in a deadpan tone. "Well, not much we can do now..." he consoled himself. "Do you know where that list of ingredients is, again?"
"I'm sure Fishlegs does..." Astrid didn't answer directly, "I'll go ask him." With a cry of 'Stormfly!', she called her dragon to her and took off towards the village.
Hiccup watched Astrid retreat. This is just great... he thought sarcastically, turning to his own dragon. 'So, what now?'
Hiccup wandered around the village, not surprised to find that it was empty. From what Astrid had told him, it seemed that the entire village had caught eel-pox already, in keeping with its highly infectious nature. By now, everyone would be up at the hall, wondering where Hiccup was and probably complaining about the lack of a healer. The gods hate me... he decided silently, kicking the floor in protest. All that managed to do was knock him over, leaving him to be caught by Toothless.
Astrid and Fishlegs had set out a while ago with the list of ingredients, and he was awaiting their return so that he could go off to eel island, for what would hopefully not turn out as a repeat performance of his last visit to the area.
In the meantime, he had a village to look after.
"We've got the ingredients!" Astrid yelled, touching down beside Hiccup.
"That's great..." he said distractedly.
"Is everything okay?" Astrid asked, frowning in concern.
"Oh, yeah." Hiccup said, livening up, "Just glad we've nearly got the cure. Snotlout's starting another 'dragon rebellion'."
"Good to see you've been keeping busy, then." Astrid joked. "Twins starting their science again?"
"Yeah. Ruff and or Tuff cream is being made once more..." he shuddered at the thought. "Weird... Well, see you!" he announced, nudging Toothless awake, "We'll be off now."
"Come back sooner than last time!" Astrid yelled after him.
"I'll try!"
Hiccup and Toothless returned half an hour later, the former holding an eel up triumphantly. "No incidents, no time spent unconscious!" he declared as he landed, handing the eel to a waiting Astrid.
"That's great." she said. "You know what's even better?"
Hiccup turned his head to the side. He didn't know what was better. Unless she meant the fact that the cure was finally being made...
"Gothi's back!"
"What?" Hiccup said, incredulous. "Where was she? When did you find her?"
"Arrived just after you left." Astrid reported. "It was Skullcrusher that found her. Apparently, she was looking for herbs then got distracted... or something... I don't really understand what she was trying to say."
"She got side-tracked by her terrible terrors." Fishlegs explained, as the only of Hiccup's friends to understand the healer.
"Well, it's good that she's back," Hiccup said. He leant back against Toothless, closing his eyes. "Now where's that cure?"