Ch.6
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Hiccup woke up in a cold sweat, and he looked to see the sky still dark with only the light reflecting off of the moon to distinguish one object from another. He blinked, looking around at the frozen landscape before him. "This is bad; I should've saved the Zippleback gas instead of using it to yesterday to escape from those Monstrous Nightmares." He paused before speaking again."If I start moving, I should warm up, right?" Hiccup stood and brushed the ice from his clothes before half walking, half staggering into the forest to warm up. A few rays of sunlight filtered down into the trees as the sun began to rise a little bit later. Hiccup noticing this ran into a clearing and stood for several minutes in a patch of sunlight warming up before he realized where he'd ran. It turned out to be small grassy meadow surrounded by trees, as the shadows began to fade as the sun rose, the morning dew glistened on the grass as the light hit it.It was a breathtaking sight, but Hiccup saw only danger. "I've got to find shelter if I'm going to spend another night here. Anything is better than sleeping under a bush."
Across the meadow Hiccup thought he heard a rustling noise, he dismissed it, it was only when he heard it again that he acknowledged it wasn't in his head. A tiny ember of hope began to glow within him, fueled by this unexpected noise. "Toothless? Is that you?" The noise ceased and did not return, whatever had made the noise hurried off away from his voice. "At least it's not another Monstrous Nightmare" he muttered under his breathe—which was still visible in the chilled morning air. Later around noontime Hiccup came across the carcass of a long departed Deadly Nadder. Little meat remained, and what did remain was rotten to the core. Hiccup, quickly recorded his finding in his journal finding it both fascinating and profoundly disturbing.
"This Nadder looked to have lost a fight and had it's spine crushed," Hiccup muttered to himself as he examined the dead dragon's remains further. The dragon's spikes, however, were not posed for an attack, this gave rise to the idea that the dragon was ambushed and killed instantaneously. "What dragon would do this? And why would it sneak attack?" Hiccup wondered out loud as if expecting the wind to respond to him., "a Hideous Zippleback maybe? No, this dragon died from force, not fire." Determining what killed this Deadly Nadder took Hiccup's mind off the chill of his clothes; but only temporarily. Hiccup kept walking, it was a little over an hour before he found another dragon carcass, but this time, it had company. "At least now I know why the island is empty," Hiccup observed looking at a Monstrous Nightmare that had been skewered by several Deadly Nadder spikes, looking further he noticed a total of five corpses; Three Monstrous Nightmare, and two Deadly Nadder. "What happened here?" Hiccup was dumbfounded, it was clear the dragons had killed each other but the reasons why bothered him. "I don't see any nests or smashed eggs" Hiccup was quite thankful for that. He recorded what he'd found alongside his previous find; this time however, he included a sketch of one of the dragons. Hiccup did not idle long. He quickly ventured onward still hoping to find his dragon and leave.
By early afternoon Hiccup had exhausted his energy looking for Toothless, stopping for a break he flopped down onto the ground questioning what he should do next. He awoke to the sound of loud rustling near him and realized that he must've fallen asleep. Looking around for the source of the noise he nearly fainted; a Night Fury was eating a bush, or at least he thought it was eating a bush. "TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup exclaimed loudly. The Night Fury stopped and looked at him, surprise evident on its face. It stared at him for several seconds before taking flight without making another sound. "HEY WAI-" it dawned on Hiccup that this Night Fury did not have any trouble flying on its own. Furthermore, he couldn't be sure if he'd seen a saddle on the Night Fury. "I knew it; I'm dead." He said to himself not sure if anything was real anymore. "Toothless where are you bud?" Hiccup sank to the ground in despair, looking to the sky trying to spot the dragon again. It was no good; the Night Fury was gone, vanished as if it never was there. "Was it really there?" Hiccup found himself wondering, and he couldn't be sure one way or the other.
By sunset, Hiccup was becoming worried that he wouldn't find sufficient cover before nightfall. He'd passed a few possible shelters but refrained from entering out of fear that something vicious would be happy for the dinner walking into it's home. As Hiccup came to yet another clearing, hollowed out trunks and small patches of blackened ground revealed, it wasn't always a clearing. A Monstrous Nightmare carcass remained pinned under a fallen tree; its neck badly mangled. Hiccup stopped, taken aback by the scene. The sun chose that moment to vanish, leaving Hiccup in the dark. Acting fast he wedged himself underneath a wing, and bedding down for the night. It was not an ideal choice by any means, but he preferred it over freezing. "At least it's somewhat protected from the cold." He thought, feeling a slight draft. It was several minutes before sleep finally overtook him and he drifted off.
Hiccup awoke in the dead of night to find himself halfway out from underneath the makeshift shelter. He repositioned himself underneath the wing and waited for sleep to return when a loud ruckus shattered the calm silence. The noise, muffled by the wing, but he could still make out screaming, loud crashes, and finally a sickeningly bone-like snap. A few seconds later nothing remained but an almost mournful silence. Hiccup gulped, "which dragon won? Is there more than just the two dragons I've encountered?" This thought persisted as Hiccup drifted off again. He was abruptly awakened later on by a clap of thunder sending tremors thru the ground. A few moments when by before the area around him lit up bright as daylight, another thunderclap echoed off the trees as the light died away. He began to hear the pitter-patter of rain droplets on the wing, it started as a light drizzle but quickly evolved into a flashflood-like sound. Thanks to the wing's positioning, Hiccup remained for the most part; dry. After what seemed like forever, the rain decreased in power to a steady downpour, the rhythmic beating of rain on the wings exterior finally sending Hiccup to sleep; for the third time that night. In the morning when Hiccup awoke again, he found icicles formed on the wing, As stared, they began to glow, indicating the first sign of daylight.