Chapter Three: Nightfall

"Where did it go?!" Ruffnut scratched her head as she and Tuffnut hovered above the sheep on the top of the cliff, "The disc was strapped to one of them I swear!" She squinted down at the panicking sheep, terrified by the hovering Zippleback, and spotted the disc with their symbol on it. "There!"

Barf began to swoop towards the sheep but, as Tuffnut was still blindfolded, Belch remained stationary and the dragon lurched forward. It flopped heavily into the small field, sending the sheep fleeing in panic in a mess of wool and legs.

"It's right next to you!" Ruff tugged on her pigtails as the sheep with the disc scrambled past her brother.

Tuff grabbed wildly at the air and managed to snag a sheep, "Did I get it?!"

"No!"

He repeated the process a further three times, each time grabbing the same sheep as before. Ruffnut dragged her hand down her face and groaned, impatient and annoyed at her twin's lack of sight.

"I'll get it!"

Tuff seemed to take offense at that and started running in all directions, sending the sheep into a frenzy. They charged towards the only escape, the edge of the cliff, and Tuffnut followed the sounds of their stampeding feet and terrified baas.

Hiccup heard the sheep before he saw them and, once he had in fact set his eyes upon the fluffy creatures, it was too late. They flooded over the edge of the cliff like a waterfall of wool, most of them landing safely in the treetops, others spiralling down onto the grass in a heap of fluff. Toothless lost his grip. The Night Fury scrambled, clawing at the rocks as he and his rider slid away from their disc. That was the least of Hiccup's worries, however, as Toothless completely lost his traction on the rock face and pushed away from it with his wings. Automatically, Hiccup kicked his leg to stable the dragon's tail but without his foot nothing happened. They began to plummet towards the ground at an alarming speed, Toothless flapping his black wings furiously as he tried to fly.

"This is bad," Hiccup breathed as they continued their descent.

"Hey, Hiccup!" Ruff had her hands cupped over her mouth as she yelled from on top of Barf as the dragon flapped high above, "Do me a favour?"

"Kind of busy right now, Ruff!"

"Oh…" Ruff seemed dejected as she shrugged her shoulders, "I was just going to ask if you could catch Tuffnut for me."

"Catch…?"

Beside Hiccup, Tuffnut was freefalling through the air, blindfold still around his eyes. He didn't seem too panicked about it as his face held a kind of tranquil look. Hiccup's eyes bulged and Toothless just looked extremely confused as he continued to feebly flap his wings.

"Wow," Tuffnut sighed contentedly, "Belch has never flown this smoothly before."

"Um, Tuff?" Hiccup grabbed the blonde's helmet and yanked him onto the still-falling Toothless, "You weren't on Belch."

"Oh… Was I on a sheep? Because it was a great flyer."

Hiccup mumbled something under his breath and returned his attention to their impending death. Toothless was slowing their descent by flapping his wings but they were still going to collide too hard with the ground. Hiccup had to think of something to slow them further.

"Not to be a moaning Ruffnut, but are we still falling?" Tuffnut held on tightly to Hiccup's waist, "This rescue doesn't seem to be working very well."

"I can't slow us down! We're going to crash!"

Suddenly, with a thud that made Hiccup's very bones vibrate, they stopped falling. He squinted his eyes to see what damage his poor dragon had taken only to realise that they hadn't hit the ground at all, they'd landed on Barf and Belch.

Ruffnut smirked from her perch atop Barf and slowly lowered them all to the ground.

"I was tempted to let you fall to see what sort of pattern you'd make, you know like ink. Maybe if I saw something in it I'd know my future or something." She shrugged nonchalantly, "But then I remembered I don't care."

"Did we die?" Tuff stumbled off of Toothless' back and lurched forward, arms out.

"No!" Hiccup patted Toothless' head and smiled, "Thanks, Ruff!"

"No problemo," she was more interested in what she'd just plucked from her ear.

Toothless was sniffing at something on the ground; he pawed at it gently and then cooed to get Hiccup's attention. The dragon trainer hopped down from his dragon awkwardly and picked up the small object Toothless had found. It was their first disc, it must have fallen when the sheep fell from the cliff.

"Good job, bud!"

Beside them, Tuff was reaching a hand down his pants. He looked almost pained as he scraped and scratched, trying to dislodge something that wasn't supposed to be there.

"Um, Tuff? You okay there?"

The twin nodded, "Sure, fine. There's just something… Here!" He pulled his hand free and, strangely, the disc with the Zippleback symbol etched onto it.

"I do not want to know how that got there," Hiccup shuddered as Ruffnut high-fived her twin. Well, it would have been a high-five if he could see anything but, as he was currently sightless, it was more of a high-face.

"So now what?" Ruffnut asked as she held onto her brother's hair to stop him wandering off.

"It's getting pretty dark," Hiccup gestured to the purple sky as a rumble of thunder sounded, "We should probably find somewhere to camp for the night.

Inside the cave in which Snotlout and Hookfang had been stuck earlier, Astrid and Fishlegs were setting up a fire. Astrid had been looking for somewhere to spend the night and had seen the glow of Meatlug's lava from the sky. It seemed like as good a place as any to set up camp and so they'd agreed to share the cave, which was much more spacious further into the mountain. They were just about to start roasting some fish when a hungry Night Fury bounded up to the fire, tongue lolling out.

"Toothless!" Astrid patted his head and threw him a fish before looking behind him, "Where's Hiccup?"

"I'm here!"

His voice echoed through the cave until he finally came into view, the light from the fire illuminating his face. He was leaning on the twins, using them as crutches as he hopped along looking exhausted.

Tuffnut sniffed the air noisily, "Do I smell mutton?"

"Cod, actually," Fishlegs corrected.

Tuffnut shrugged, "Eh, same animal." He crossed his legs and sat beside Fishlegs with his mouth open, ready to receive a morsel of the sweet-smelling fish.

"You know," Astrid gestured to Tuffnut's blindfold, "I think you can take that off when you're not on the mission."

"Ha! You think I'd fall for that?!"

"Yeah," Ruff plonked herself down beside her brother, "We'd forfeit if he took that off, we know that!"

"Okay, whatever you say."

Astrid watched as Hiccup leaned on Toothless and slid down onto the dusty floor. He looked less than pleased at his current situation and the Night Fury seemed to know, always attuned with his rider. Toothless purred lightly and nuzzled Hiccup's cheek with his own but then became more interested in the fish Ruffnut was waving around her brother's head. Before Tuff could figure out where it was, Toothless snatched it from Ruff and swallowed it whole.

"Hey!" Tuff scrambled on his hands and knees and reached out for Toothless, "Give that back you fiend!"

His reply was a sort of gurgling chuckle from the black dragon but Tuffnut had no time to retaliate as something was glowing at the entrance to the cave. Moments later a squishing, squelching sound started to get closer and closer to the group, followed by a low moaning.

Astrid jumped to her feet, fists balled up and ready to smash something if the need arose. Fishlegs and Meatlug huddled together, the twins continued their fish battle and Hiccup was still struggling to get up when the dripping creature came into view by the fire. Of course, it wasn't a creature at all, just Snotlout who'd apparently been caught in the sudden downpour outside. Hookfang's head poked into the cave, his body blocking the view of whatever storm was arising outside, as Snotlout tried to get warm by the fire.

"Hey! You got off your dragon! That's cheating!" Ruffnut poked her brother for back up and he proceeded to glare menacingly at Stormfly, mistaking her for Snotlout.

"It is not!" Snotlout sniffled and wiped his hand across his nose, "I'm allowed to get off him when we're not looking for the disc, Muttonhead!"

Fishlegs took another bite of fish and handed the rest to Meatlug before turning to Snotlout, "I thought you were heading further to get the second disc?" He looked almost smug as he spoke, knowing that Snotlout must have had to turn back.

"Yeah, well," the dripping lad took off his helmet and poured the water from it beside the fire, "The storm got too severe to continue. And Hookfang doesn't like getting wet." The Monstrous Nightmare grumbled from his place at the cave entrance to reiterate his rider's words.

"Okay," Hiccup lay down and pulled one of Toothless' wings over himself like a blanket, "Let's just try and get some rest for now. Who knows what'll be in store for us tomorrow."

As the six dragon riders and their dragons began to fall into a restless sleep, the rain continued to pour and the river began to rise…