Four weeks ago, Snotlout and the twins had been completely overwhelmed by Sandbenders, who immediately snagged Toothless and the other dragons. The dragons fought back against their attackers as best they could, but eventually they got overpowered and the moment they put muscles over their mouths they were defenceless.
Snotlout could only watch helplessly as the dragons were being dragged away across the desert.
"Sorry guys," he said before he lost consciousness.
Once the Sandbenders were goods safe distance away from the library they immediately came to a stop. The chief's son, then removed the cloth on his mouth and approach the dragons.
"Ransack their saddles, who knows what treasures are stacked in there," he said to his fellow Sandbenders.
Several Sandbenders approached them, but the dragons roared at them viciously causing them to back away.
"They're tied up good," said the chief's son. "They can't hurt us."
Immediately the Sandbenders began to search through their saddles. However, the dust around Skull then caused him to sneeze and he unleashed an earsplitting roar that slammed right into a sand sailor sending it flying into a dune.
A Sandbender looked at the chief's son. "What your father going to do when he finds out that we lost a sand sailor?"
"Nothing, it's the one that we stole from the Sand Rider Tribe," he said. He then turned to the Sandbenders ransacking the dragon saddles. "Did you find anything in their saddles?"
He then began to look around the items they had pulled out from the saddle, but most of it were just spare weapons, supplies and books.
"That's it!" he roared. "Nothing but garbage! Doesn't matter, we'll still make a profit for selling him to those Cavern Crasher merchants."
They didn't waste any time making their way to a small trading outpost, where they saw several merchants surrounded by several Cavern Crashers. The leader of the merchants then began to examine the dragons with great curiosity.
"How are their temper?" he asked.
"Uh… pretty good," said the chief's son.
Toothless then growled at him viciously causing everyone to jump. The merchants then looked towards the chief's son, who smiled nervously at them.
"Most of the time."
One of the merchants looked at his leader. "I bet someone will pay a handsome price for them in Meridian."
The merchant leader nodded and looked to the Chief's son. "All right, you've got a deal."
Soon the transaction was complete and the Sandbenders left without delay with their ill-gotten calling. The merchants then tied the dragons to their Cavern Crasher and then began to drag them onto a cart and anchored them down inside of it.
However, Toothless then heard Hiccup's dragon call and immediately jumped to life. He began shaking the card he was on violently.
"They're your problem now!" the chief's son yelled laughing as the saled away.
"What?" the merchant stared.
Toothless was in the only one shaking the cart, the other dragons were following his lead and eventually they were able to free their wings. Where a few powerful flaps they managed to soar into the air while still attached the cart and were practically dragging the Cavern Crasher along with them.
"We need the Dragon Root arrows!" the merchant leader cried.
"Got them," said the merchant pulling out a bow and arrows. Immediately aimed towards Toothless. "Okay big fella, you're going to take a nice little nap."
He then fired and the arrow stuck Toothless, he immediately felt his body go limp and crashed to the ground. The other merchants then began to do the same to the other dragons, sadly one of them got a lucky shot between Skull's armour. As for Meatlug, Gronckles were immune to Dragon Root, but her wings weren't as strong as the others and she was immediately pulled down by the merchants.
Toothless was doing everything to remain conscious and saw flames erupting in the distance and he knew instantly they belong to Hiccup. Then the two merchants approached him, with grim expressions on their faces.
"We've gotta get rid of them," said the merchant leader. "They're too much trouble."
Toothless then felt his eyelids dropping and soon fell fast asleep.
"Ah, I understand you've had a rather hard time," said a voice.
Toothless opened his eyes and saw someone wearing Fire Empire clothing. He clearly wasn't a soldier in the colour suggested that he was in a circus. Toothless also discover that he was in a tent in a cage and not too far way were Stormfly and the others also in cages.
"That's too bad," said the man. "You probably felt you had no choice, but to behave outrageously. Like a wild animal, but don't worry… you won't any more. Because I'm going to break you and your friends."
Toothless looked at the others. 'What happened?' he roared.
Stormfly looked at him. 'We're in a circus tent, those merchants sold us to a circus,' she squawked angrily.
'I hate cages!' Hookfang roared angrily.
'I'm sure that Hiccup and the others will rescue us,' Meatlug growled encouragingly.
'They don't know we are here,' Skull reminded. 'We don't even know they managed to survive the desert, I hate to say that without our help…'
'Let's not lose hope,' Windshear squawks. 'Our riders are very resourceful, I'm sure they made it out.'
Toothless nodded. 'We just need to figure a way out of this predicament. Our best chance to escape would be when they take us into the ring to perform to the crowd. We just need to make it look as if we are very obedient.'
Skull gave him a sceptical look. 'With Hookfang and Barf and Belch our side that plan might be a lot harder than you might think.'
Toothless couldn't help but agree, though it was their only option.
The beast tamer had been spending the past few days trying to break them, for the majority they obeyed his instructions. They had to make it look convincing, sadly every time they disobeyed one of his commands he struck them with a fiery whip of flames. He also denied them food when they didn't obey him as well as such they were getting hungry.
Days went by and eventually the circus was open for business, members from the nearby Empire colonies were making their way towards the circus. That was when they saw a young boy passing the tendon saw them trying to get their mouths on some fish.
Skull looked at Toothless with a defeated look. 'Toothless, I'm not sure this plan of yours is going to work. We are dreadfully hungry, I doubt that we have the strength to fly let alone escape.'
Stormfly squawked in agreement. 'And the shackles make it almost impossible to walk on foot.'
The young boy just smiled at the dragons and could tell they were dreadfully hungry. Then the boy's father emerged behind him and he could tell from a glance that he was not a well devoted father.
"I'm going to get some sizzle crisps," he said sternly. "Stay here and stay away from those monsters, behave yourself or you will regret it."
However, the moment that his father banished the boy immediately disobeyed him. He then immediately rushed into the tent and began feeding fish to the dragons which they happily ate. Toothless looked at the young boy and then immediately licked him and began to eat happily with the fish he had given them.
The boy then heard movement close by and immediately rushed out of the tent.
It was then that Toothless and the others saw the beast tamer and the ringmaster arguing with one another.
"They are difficult creatures," said the beast tamer. "Stubborn and wilful, the Night Fury in particular. I need more time with them, it's too risky right now."
"Too risky?" the ringmaster snapped. "What are you talking about! This is the circus, home to fear and danger! I want these dragons to perform tonight!"
The ringmaster of them walked off and the beast tamer immediately narrowed his eyes at the dragons.
"If you do not behave yourselves, you'll regret it," he said and immediately pulled out his whip.
He then struck the dragons as you out flames to run down it and they roared in pain. The boy had seen the entire thing from behind the tent and he was sympathetic to the dragons, who looked directly at him.
Immediately the boy's father returned and dragged him away. "Let's go!"
"See you later, buddy," the boy waved.
Toothless looked very solemn.
Skull looked at him. 'You're thinking about Hiccup, aren't you?'
Toothless sighed. 'That boy reminds me so much of him when he was his age.'
'At least the boy has given us the strength to fly,' Stormfly squawked. 'Plus the ringmaster seems completely oblivious how dangerous we can be. This may be our only chance to escape.'
'But if we fail, the beast tamer is not going to feed is for week,' Hookfang growled.
'We don't know will have another opportunity like this,' Toothless growled strongly. 'We are making a move tonight, and that is final.'
Soon the entire people the Empire began sitting in their seats watching the circus. Young boy from earlier trying to get some snacks from his father, but he immediately pulled them away and then ate them.
The ringmaster then stepped forward. "Ladies and gentlemen, now for something truly special." The ringmaster then spread his hands out in flames covered them. "We now present you a beast so rare that it has not been seen for nearly 20 years. I gave you the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, the Night Fury!"
He then immediately fired flames from his palms night is a curtain and soon revealing to all were Toothless and the other dragons. Sadly they had been dressed up in fancy and ridiculous garments and upon seeing the crowd laughed, young boy from earlier just looked at them in sympathy.
'I feel ridiculous,' Hookfang growled angrily.
Toothless gave him a forceful eye. 'Just wait until the right moment.'
The beast tamer then approached them and cracked his whip on the ground. "Up!"
Immediately they began to soar up into the air and the crowd just watch in amazement as the gracefully sored upwards.
'Now!' Toothless roared.
Stormfly then immediately fired several spines from her tail directly at the beast tamer, who barely got out of the way. Hookfang then immediately ignited himself burning the ridiculous clothes and Barf and Belch began unleashing explosions everywhere which way. Windshear flew around using her tale to slice an opening through the tent.
Toothless eyes then turned towards the boy from earlier.
"Go, you can do it," he said encouragingly.
Toothless looked at the others. 'It's time to make our leave.'
They began to fly towards the hole that Windshear had made, but the beast tamer then immediately fired a fire blast directly at them.
"Get back here you stupid beasts!" he roared.
Skull immediately landed directly in front of him and immediately struck in with his bone-like tail. The beast tamer was literally tossed right out of the tent and found himself landing in a water trough.
Toothless waited until Skull flew back up towards them before they made their exit, ditching their ridiculous outfits. The young boy just smiled happy that they got their freedom.
Toothless and the others had been flying for days and the eventually reached the desert. However when they reached the location of the library they found that he had completely vanished.
'What happened to the library?' Meatlug growled as they landed.
'No clue,' Toothless roared.
Hookfang looked at him as they landed. 'Why have we come back here? Do you truly expect our riders would have stayed for us?'
Toothless shook his head. 'No. But this is the last place we know they were and if we want to track them down were going to need their scent.'
Stormfly began sniffing the air. 'Their scent is lingering in the air, though it's very faint.'
Skull looked at her. 'Is it enough to track them?'
Stormfly gave them an ensuring look.
'We better start looking after we get some well-earned rest,' Toothless growled.
The next morning the dragons soon took to the air and began their search for their missing riders. Stormfly led them throughout the desert, they had a brief confrontation with the Sandbuster, but they got out of it were relatively unscathed.
They kept on flying throughout the night until they got out of the desert, but they were starting to get tired and hungry. With no other choice they landed on a small farm and in waste any time drinking from the water trough in the barn. They also did had any time to be picky about their food and aid what they gave the pigs, it tasted terrible.
Eventually they close their eyes and fell asleep.
Toothless then began dreaming back when he first met Hiccup, when he was 12 years old. He was Hiccup's birthday present and Stoick was escorting him into the great Hall with the festivities were taking place.
"And now it's time for me to present my gift," said Stoick.
Everyone then immediately went quiet as Stoick approached young Hiccup. Valka had covered his eyes with her hands and smiled when Stoick approached them with Toothless.
Stoick then nodded and Valka released her hands. Hiccup then saw Toothless right in front of him and practically jumped for joy.
"A Night Fury!" Hiccup beamed.
"Happy birthday, son," Stoick smiled.
Toothless didn't waste any time and practically pounced on Hiccup, earning a few gasps from the crowd. However, Toothless then began looking his face constantly and Hiccup found himself drenched in saliva.
"Don't do that!" he cried as people laughed. "It doesn't come out!"
The dragons were then violently awoken by yells and saw the farmer holding a pitchfork towards them.
"Argh! It's some kind of monster!" he cried.
Toothless looked at the others. 'Let's get out of here!'
Toothless then fired a plasma blast of the ceiling and immediately he led the other dragons out of the barn.
They then continue to fly until they reached Scauldron's Pass and actually flew over the ferry that was carrying Eret and Bjorn. Eret was fast asleep, but Bjorn saw the dragons flying overhead and gasped.
"Uncle," said Eret awoken by his gasped. "What are you looking at? Is there something out there?"
The last thing Bjorn wanted was his nephew to go hunting for the avatar when they were so close to Meridian.
"It's nothing, go back to sleep," he assured.
Eventually the dragons found themselves in the peaceful looking forest and immediately flew down towards some sort of ancient ruin. In truth they actually crashed the ground since they were completely exhausted and starving, not to mention the shackles on their legs were digging into their flesh.
Stormfly looked at Toothless weakly. 'I don't know how long we can go on, we haven't eaten in days.'
Hookfang snorted. 'Correction… only some of us haven't been eating in days.'
His eyes then immediately turn to Meatlug, who began eating some nearby boulders.
She looked at them innocently. 'If it makes you feel any better that the worst boulders I've tasted.'
Skull roared loudly. 'Let's not get at each other's throats, things are bad enough without as killing one another.'
'Let's just get some sleep,' Toothless growled tiredly.
With that they all took shelter within the ruins and then began to fall asleep.
The next morning, in the exact same forest, Mala, Throk and other members of the Defenders of the Wing were picking herbs from the forest.
Throk looked at Mala. "You sure it was wise for us to make our way to the mainland?"
Mala looked at him. "Avatar Hiccup has risked his life for us, I don't see how we can do anything less."
"Ma'am I found something," said the Defender.
Mala and Throk then approached the defender and held out the black scale.
Mala immediately took it. "It can't be."
Throk looked at her. "There's only one dragon that I know that has such black scales."
The two of them then looked up and saw some broken tree tops and then began to follow them. Their search led them to a small hill and there they saw several shadows hiding within an old ruin.
"It's Toothless and the other dragons," Mala gasped.
Throk joined her by her side. "But where is the Avatar and his companions?"
"I don't know," said Mala gravely. "Though what I do know is they are deeply wounded." She then looked directly at them. "Get the others and bring some food for them."
Throk nodded and began to skid down the hillside and Mala looked at the dragons.
"Don't worry, you're safe now," she said calmly.
Throk soon returned with the others and they brought some medical supplies along with some food.
"No sudden moves, they appear to be wounded and hungry," said Mala looking at all them. "As we all know a corner dragon is very dangerous when it's in this state. When we approached them stay low and quite, do not wish to start."
A Defender looked at her. "I can't believe we found the Avatar and his companions dragons, but where are they?"
Throk looked at him. "According to the reports I heard that the Avatar was making his way to Meridian. Clearly something must have happened on their journey which caused them to be separated."
"Which means it's our mission to reunite them," said Mala looking at each and every one of them. "This could be our most important mission yet."
They then began to climb to the hill and upon seeing them the dragons immediately backed away growling.
"Give them some space!" Mala commanded.
Throk and the rest of the Defenders began to spread out and Mala began to approach them calm. She diverted all her attention onto Toothless, knowing that he was acting as leader for them.
"Toothless, it's me Mala," she said slowly and calmly. "I'm a friend. I want to help you and the others, you're hurt and hungry. We can help you feel better and we can help you find Hiccup and the other Riders."
Toothless relaxed slightly as Mala extended her hand and placed it on his snout. Toothless then began to relax from the touch and when he relax so did the other dragons.
Once that was done Mala and the rest of the Defenders began to remove their shackles and gave him some well needed nourishment as well as attending to their wounds.
However, before they could do anything else Toothless and the other dragons immediately sensed something. Seconds later, Mala and the Defenders heard movement and suddenly blue flames heading straight towards them out of nowhere.
The flames struck a tree causing it to collapse to the ground and then suddenly appearing from over hillside were Devi, May and Talia on their Singetails.
"My my, you dragons are really easy to find," said Devi holding out some scales. "It's really astounding that Captain Eret hasn't captured you get."
Mala and the defenders immediately drew their weapons.
"What do you want with us?" Mala demanded pointing her sword towards them.
"And who will you be?" Devi asked.
"My name is Mala, leader of the Defenders of the Wing and Avatar Maaike's granddaughter," said Mala narrowing her eyes. "And if you're looking for Avatar Hiccup you're out of luck."
May sighed. "I knew this was a waste of time."
"No Avatar, huh?" Devi shrugged. "Well, that's okay any friend of the Avatar is an enemy of mine!"
She then quickly jumped off her Singetail and fired blue flames towards them, but two Defenders immediately jumped out and blocked them with their shields. May and Talia then immediately jumped off their Singetails and landed next to the Defenders.
May pulled out some dagger then immediately tossed them at the Defenders, she managed to pin one to a tree and then she fired several bolts towards Throk. He quickly pulled out his axe and sliced through them and charged towards her.
Talia was also fighting against several Defenders, one of them charged towards him with a sword. However, she was able to avoid it and then quickly dealt a few quick jabs and she collapsed to the ground unable to move. Another Defender then attempted to strike her with a dart, but she quickly avoided it and hit the Defender with a powerful kick to her chest sending her flying.
Devi was doing battle against Mala, who was busy defending the dragons. Mala was doing her best to avoid the flames, but Devi was extremely skilled.
"Toothless and the others get out of here!" Mala yelled she charged towards Devi with her sword.
Windshear looked at them. 'We've got to help them.'
Toothless gave her a regretful look. 'Devi no doubt has some Dragon Roots arrows on her, she can easily use us as leveraged to get Hiccup and the others. We can't risk that.'
Stormfly looked at her. 'I don't believe Mala behind either, but Toothless is right.'
Regretfully Toothless and the others immediately took off and soon disappeared off into the distance.
Mala was eventually pushed back by Devi, but she kept a sword held in hand and narrowed her eyes at her.
"You don't know when you're beaten, do you?" said Devi and charged towards her.
Mala then did the exact same thing and the two of them clashed.
Toothless and the others were now completely lost, Stormfly had completely lost the scent. They began flying through open mountains and raging storms, until eventually they reached an Air Temple.
'That's the Eastern Air Temple,' Skull growled. 'We should be safe there for a while.'
'And do what?' Hookfang growled impatiently. 'We have no idea where our Riders are and Mala and her Defenders have no doubt been captured. Let's face it we're on our own.'
No one dared to argue back against Hookfang, because of them secretly agreed with him. Hiccup and the others could be anywhere in the world by now and they had lost their only lead.
Meatlug then looked at Skull. 'I thought the Temples were deserted?'
Skull gave her a confused look. 'They are.'
'Then who's that sitting down there?' she growled pointing one of her claws down.
They all looked down and saw sitting there cross-legged was an old man wearing a robe. He was overlooking the view from a balcony next to the stables.
'Let's find out,' Toothless growled.
They then immediately descended towards the balcony and landed upon it, the old man did not look surprised upon hearing their descent. He then picked himself up and turned to face them, with a rather cheerful look on his face.
"I have been expecting you noble dragons," he said with a bow. "I am the Druid Eadric." Toothless and the other dragons gave him a careful eye and growled at him. "I know that I'm not someone you had been expecting… and to be honest I didn't expect to meet such a wide vary of dragons. The world is for surprises."
Toothless could tell that he meant no harm and immediately growled to the others and Eadric picked himself up and made his way over to Toothless.
"I thank you for your trust," he said and looked directly into his eyes and then nodded sadly. "Oh dear, you have been through so much recently. Hurt and betrayed, so twisted up inside. You are still full of love, but a sphere has moved in where trust should be. I have been expecting you and the young Avatar for quite a long time. I had a vision many years ago of helping him, that is why I came to the Eastern Air Temple.
He sighed and stood up straight. "But we can discuss that later you and your companions deserve a nice rest and at the moment your motions are so turbulent, like swirling storm clouds." He then placed a hand on the top of Toothless' head. "Let the storm clouds be gentle and peaceful ones."
He then did the same thing to Stormfly and the other dragons and almost instantly they began to fall asleep.
They awoke the next morning to find fish being laid out in front of them and all of them were far too hungry to refuse such a treat. They then began to fall the trail to the meditation grounds where Eadric was meditating and was badly covered head to foot in forest animals.
"It would seem as if you're all very well rested," he said with a small laugh.
Eadric spent the entire day with the dragons in order to earn their trust and he had succeeded as Toothless lines down next to him.
He then got to his feet and held out a scroll. "I have prepared a message for Hiccup, may I attach it to your leg?"
Toothless nodded and presented his leg to him, Eadric then immediately tied it around it. He then faced Toothless with a very solemn look.
"You and the Avatar's energies are mixed," Eadric informed Toothless. "You have an unbreakable bond, by reading your energy I can sense where Hiccup is."
Toothless responded with gratitude by licking him.
Eadric smiled at him. "Funny how invisible strings connect us all." He then immediately placed a hand on Toothless' head and images flowed into his mind. "I shall see you again noble dragon."
Toothless then promptly lead the other dragons and none of them dead argued with his directions. They soon found themselves flying over Meridian, but sadly their arrival did not go unnoticed by the Jade Vipers.
Toothless was still trying to track down Hiccup, but then they heard a dragon roar that resembled Hiccup's and without hesitation he led the dragons downwards. They soon landed in a dark alley, but they soon discover that he had not been Hiccup calling them but in truth it was Lambert who had mimicked Hiccup's dragon cry flawlessly.
The dragons were about to attack, but Lambert slammed his foot into the ground and the stoneground they were standing on flipped over and they vanished into thin air.