Flying slowly, the Red Death watched with great satisfaction as Toothless cartwheeled and barrel rolled at the edge of the tether to stay in the air, since she couldn't hover like a Gronkle but would not fly in any direction except forward. She could have made it so much easier if she could have borne flying by his side for a few moments before rocketing back towards the edges of her restraints. But what kind of show would he have if she did that? He took pity on her and flapped hard twice, gliding forward and letting the barrier move with him.

When she felt the lack of pressure from in front of her, Toothless shot forward out of her dive and relished the feeling of finally getting somewhere. She knew where they were headed from the direction and some discreet words from Cloudjumper before they left, but that didn't matter. Just being in the open air made her much happier. That was, until she hit the barrier again. She growled. The Red Death loved playing with her far too much.

He chuckled as she crashed against the barrier again and looked out over the scenery. Where was that oak tree? He should have been able to see the crown by now. But perhaps he'd been going too slowly to get there so soon. There was no reason to suspect anything was wrong.

Still, his wing beats quickened.

When they landed on the shores of the lake and found a downed oak tree with no blue-eyed white dragon, The Red Death growled. The beast had finally broken free, it seemed. But how had the tree fallen, with no great storms? When he looked at the earth around the base of the tree, he got his answer. Those Whispering Deaths would leave him alone if they knew what was good for them! Now he would have to find another tree to put the trunk in. He began looking for his death.

The moment they landed, Toothless began listening for any telltale sounds of movement. There! A twig had snapped somewhere in the woods! She looked over at the bigger dragon, mumbling under his breath and not paying attention to her at all, before slipping into the forest, following the sounds.

Please, let it be Hiccup.

Moments later, she saw the green back laden with luggage and almost trumpeted to the world. It was him! She raced forward to touch him, embrace him, say how much she'd missed him when, inches away from his form, the barrier crashed against her outstretched hand. Curses! She roared her frustrations and Hiccup whipped around to see what dragon was after his hide now.

"Toothless!" He covered the distance between them in a single step and wrapped his arms around her scaly neck. They stayed like that for a few moments, simply holding each other before the dragon pushed him away and took off her skin, quickly wrapping it around her as a dress.

"You need to get out of here," she said. "Thanatos is by the tree. You need to get away before he sees you."

"Great!" he replied, startling her. "I have the coal. I can take him down now." A roar from the clearing indicated that he was right and that the Red Death had just found that out.

But Toothless still smiled. "Do you have a plan?"

"No," he admitted. "I don't even know how to use the coal, really."

"You have to get him to swallow it." Hiccup ran that over a couple times in his head. Okay, to do that, he'd have to open his mouth. Wait, did he have to be in dragon or human form for this to work? He asked Toothless. "He has to be in dragon form. That way, the coal can light up his fire holes and set all the gas in his body on fire, making him explode from the inside out. But how are we going to even get it there?"

"Well first, you're going to change back into a dragon and I'm going to get him mad. Once he opens his mouth to fire at us, in goes the coal."

She shook her head. "You'll never get close enough."

He smiled. "I don't need to." And he unhooked his bow.

A roar sounded through the clearing. Toothless covered her ears but the pull of the Red Death's summoning spell was already taking effect. Quickly, she turned back into a dragon and Hiccup hopped on her back, bow in one hand, coal in the other, and quiver on his back. He drew an arrow and jammed it onto the end of one of his arrows. "Let's go."

The Red Death scoured the beach, flinging the sand in all directions under his huge feet in an effort to find the coal. How had this happened? No one should have been able to crack that stone, let alone get past all the other protections he'd had in place. He called Toothless back with a roar, planning to make her help him in his search of the missing ember.

He was Thanatos, lord of death. He had gone through too much to attain this level of invincibility to give up now. He had slaughtered the king of now his castle and used his staff to plunder the neighboring kingdoms. Only the domain of the Haddock family had remained untouched by his onslaught. He grinned to himself at that thought. Once he had his coal securely hidden away again, perhaps he would visit that kingdom. They'd grown wealthy in the years since his rise to power. Perhaps they would be worth plundering now. But first he had to find that blasted coal!

Toothless flew upwards, to the very limits of the chain magic combined with the tug from the summoning. Hiccup leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "Okay. Can you swoop down and blast him? We need to get his attention." She warbled her yes and tilted her whole body downwards, letting the plasma pool in her mouth. As soon as she was in range of the blundering behemoth of a dragon, she let loose and the whole sky was filled with the giant's roar. The battle had begun.

This is one of those chapters that I could have cut in half and attached to the previous and next one, but let's face it. I haven't been able to write and I'm running out of chapters. I've just lost the spark.

Please review and help me get it back!