Once everyone slid down the rope to the Gateway's rocks below, they headed immediately to the Moss Columns. Zephyr noticed Fourlegs was clearly still in awe of The Hidden World. Spearhead looked like she'd rather be anywhere else in the world than back with the dragons. Booboo appeared surprisingly normal. Nuffink and her parents? They'd seen this hundreds of times.

Dragons soared above their heads and dove into the water of the Moss Columns. But to Zephyr, for some reason, The Hidden World seemed empty. Maybe it was because she knew her dragon wasn't there. Shadow Streak could be oceans away by now.

They stopped by the cabin to pick up their saddles. Every single one of them was needed now. Then, they followed Zephyr's father into the Fury Grove. Zephyr halted right before she entered. Shadow Streak wouldn't be here today. She wouldn't be in Swirling Waters either. Tears pricked at Zephyr's eyes and she wiped them away with her hand before entering the Fury Grove along with everyone else.

The Nightlights, Toothless, and Burst didn't appear as usual. Usually, they would smell anyone who entered and meet them by the entrance, but today only a Zippleback tramped by them. Having two heads and two tails, it really freaked Spearhead out. So much so that she backed up against the wall.

"So," Nuffink said. "What do we do now?"

"We wait," Zephyr's dad said.

They waited. The furies didn't show up.

"Whoever you're looking for must not be here," Spearhead said. "So, let's leave this dragon nightmare and never come back here again."

"Spearhead, we're not leaving," Nuffink said. "They're probably just somewhere else."

Zephyr noticed a shadow creeping up on them from way on the other side of the Fury Grove. Its bright green eyes were warily watching them. Well, her. It kind of looked like Toothless, but its paws were white. It was Crackle.

"Hey," Zephyr said. "Isn't that Crackle?"

"Yeah," Nuffink replied hopefully.

Crackle stopped advancing in the dark and crouched down.

Zephyr strode over to Crackle. "Do you know where Toothless or Cla—"

Crackle jumped out of the shade of the rocks and trees. He knocked Zephyr over and pinned her to the ground with his claws, his mouth radiating with plasma. Her parents rushed to help, but they wouldn't reach her in time. Zephyr stared into Crackle's eyes, terrified. Why was he doing this? The realization hit her. She had lost Shadow Streak, his sister. He must see her as a threat.

A dragon bellowed a roar from the entrance of the cave. Crackle looked up and then backed off. Zephyr sat up, breathing heavily. Her mother ran over to her.

"Are you okay?" her mother asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Zephyr said, her voice quivering. She looked to the entrance of the cave. Her father was taking to Toothless, who had just entered. Toothless was panting and had his head lowered, dragon posture slouched. He must having been looking for Shadow Streak, Zephyr realized. He also must have been the one who growled at Crackle. After all, Toothless was the Alpha Dragon.

Toothless flew over to a small pond of water and started drinking. After he was finished, he growled. Claw flew into the grove.

Zephyr's father saddled up Toothless and Nuffink saddled Claw. Zephyr looked to where Crackle had been. He was nowhere to be seen. Burst hadn't appeared either. Considering Crackle's earlier reaction, Zephyr was kind of relieved. She was still shaking. She noticed Spearhead also looked scared, starring wide-eyed at where Zephyr had been attacked.

"Do I have to do this?" Spearhead pleaded with Zephyr's parents. "Can't you just drop me off at New Berk? Please, I'm begging you!"

"No," Zephyr's mom said.

"I don't want to be dragon food," Spearhead said. "I don't want to be an enemy prisoner. I don't want to be a warrior. I don't want to die! And right now, it looks like the odds are extremely against me."

"That was a rare incident," Zephyr's mother said, helping Zephyr off the ground.

"I don't care if it was a 'rare' incident!" Spearhead yelled. "Dragons can burn you to smithereens. They can claw you through your heart. They can drop you from thousands of feet above the ground. There are millions of deaths dragons can give you. All painfully awful. And you all are still telling me these things are safe? If that dragon hadn't ordered that other dragon to stop, Zephyr would be dying in horrific pain right now. You all know that, right?"

"I…I'm fine," Zephyr said. "Enough," she added under her breath.

"All of you just don't care, do you?" Spearhead asked. "Look at Zephyr! She loves dragons and she's still shaking by almost being eaten by one!"

"Crackle wasn't trying to eat Zephyr," Zephyr's father reassured Spearhead. "He's just upset his sister is lost. That's all."

"Oh. That's all?" Spearhead replied. "So another thing that's Zephyr's fault. Now she's got a dragon to go after us for revenge!"

"Give Zephyr a break, Spearhead," Fourlegs interjected, scowling and stepping up closer to Spearhead. "She's already stressed out enough."

Zephyr stared at Fourlegs, surprised. He never said much, especially if he risked being yelled at. Spearhead stared too and stopped talking, clearly surprised at the normally quiet Fourlegs speaking up. Fourlegs's face reddened and he bowed his head.

"Okay," Zephyr's father called out, taking charge of the conversation again. "Time to find the dragons you guys have already ridden. I'll take Zephyr, Fourlegs, and Nuffink. Astrid, you take Spearhead and Leif the Second. Meet up here once everyone has a dragon."

Everyone nodded…well, except for Spearhead. As they left the cave, Zephyr walked parallel to Fourlegs. "Thanks," she said appreciatively.

"It was nothing," he answered, turning his head away and leaving her side to converse with Nuffink. Right, even though he had defended her, he still was avoiding her.


Spearhead tramped over glowing plants following Nuffink's mom. Booboo trailed slowly behind. It was amazing that kid had survived the battle. Seriously, he had gotten hurt multiple times, rammed into ships and such, but he was still alive.

Once they reached a pond of glimmering water in wherever-the-heck-they-were, Nuffink's mom began calling out a dragon's name. Or at least Spearhead assumed.

Soon a blue and yellow dragon covered in deadly spikes flew over to them. Nuffink's mom saddled the dragon while talking encouragingly to it.

"Now," Nuffink's mom addressed them. "Time for you to get your own dragons."

"How are we going to find them again?" Spearhead asked.

"Call out their names."

"Mine doesn't have a name," Booboo said.

"How do we even know they'll hear us?" Spearhead asked.

"What species is yours?" Nuffink's mom asked.

"It changes color," Spearhead said.

"Mine's a baby," Booboo explained. "At least that's what I heard Zephyr and Nuffink say."

"A Hobblegrunt and a baby…" Nuffink's mom pondered. "At least we can probably find the Hobblegrunt here. The baby we might have to track down though. Spearhead, call out your dragon's name."

"Can I please just go home?" Spearhead begged. "All I want is to go home."

"I miss my family too," Booboo said, turning to sympathetically meet Spearhead's gaze.

"I said I wanted to go home," Spearhead snapped back. "Not see my stupid family again."

"It doesn't matter what you want," Nuffink's mom said. "We're flying dragons."

"What if it doesn't come?" Spearhead argued.

"Then we'll search somewhere else."

Spearhead sighed. She stepped forward, closer to the pond. "How do we even know it's here?"

"This is one of the three spots Hobblegrunts live in," Nuffink's mom explained.

Spearhead groaned. She didn't really want to see the dragon she had ridden. Yeah, it had helped her destroy the enemy ships, but when Zephyr's dad, the chief of their village, had ordered her to land, she'd been so relieved.

"Slasher," Spearhead whispered into empty air. She repeated it again, just barely loud enough for Nuffink's mom and Booboo to hear. This was so embarrassing, and dumb. Before Spearhead knew it, she was yelling out the name in frustration. "I don't know what you expected to happen but this isn't working!"

"Then we'll search somewhere else," Nuffink's mom encouraged.

"I guess," Spearhead said.

They began walking away when a purple dragon swooped towards them. It landed next to Spearhead and sniffed her. Spearhead shrieked.

"Oh, it's you," Spearhead said to Slasher. "Well, I guess I found my dragon."

Spearhead took her saddle from Nuffink's mom and saddled up Slasher best she could. And the best she could meant someone else had to redo it.


Zephyr walked into the Dragon Springs. It was hot and wet today like always. There were two temperatures she hated: bitter cold and hot and wet. She usually didn't mind either when she was in The Hidden World, but today the weather just added to her misery.

Fourlegs began calling out to Fishmeat. When Fishmeat barreled through the leaves to meet Fourlegs, Zephyr jumped at the sight of the dragon. That had never happened before. She had never been scared of a dragon, not even for a few seconds. Her parents said she had been terrified when she was younger, but she could only remember being scared the first time she had met a dragon.

Zephyr told herself it was stupid to fear a dragon, to fear a seven-foot wide and tall, fire breathing, flying dragon with claws and thick scales. Still, Zephyr lingered behind, well out of reach of the dragons as they headed back to Fury Grove.

Her father slowed. "Nuffink and Fourlegs, you go ahead to the Fury Grove with your dragons. We'll catch up."

"Okay…" Nuffink said. He and Fourlegs flew ahead. Toothless stayed behind with her father.

"Are you okay?" Zephyr's father asked her once Nuffink and Fourlegs were barely out of sight.

"Yeah," Zephyr covered. "I'm fine." She wasn't though. She was scared that she was scared of dragons!

Her father tilted his head and eyed her knowingly, seeing right through her lie.

Zephyr sighed. "No, I'm not alright. I was just nearly killed by a dragon. Why would I be alright?"

"You shouldn't be," her father said.

"You were attacked by dragons numerous times. I shouldn't be so jumpy when I've just been attacked once," Zephyr insisted. "I know Crackle isn't the friendliest dragon so I shouldn't…" She trailed off when she looked at Toothless. Crackle was his son. Maybe she shouldn't say that out loud right next to Toothless.

"Once we get Shadow Streak back, Crackle will calm down. Everything will be fine," her father said.

Zephyr nodded.


Booboo stepped into a room lit by a giant glowing crystal, searching for Zephyr's mom and Spearhead. Just his luck. He had gotten lost, like always. He'd been following behind Spearhead, but stopped to look at a really crazy looking plant. Maybe his parents were right and this wasn't such a good idea. But he had his reasons for going, and they understood.

Booboo kept walking. "Hello? Is anyone there?...Okay…Well, I'm here...All by myself, with no dragon."

No one answered. Then he spied a shape overhead. It was a small, well, smaller, white dragon with green eyes. That was it! That was the dragon that had pushed him off the cliff. It was flying in the opposite direction luckily. Until it looked back and spotted him.

The dragon changed course and headed straight for Booboo. He ran, but the dragon followed close behind. It caught up and grabbed him by his shoulders with its claws. The dragon flew him right over the crystal and his knees banged against it as he was dragged across its glassy surface.

Once they reached the end of the crystal, the dragon flew upwards. Then, it dropped him. Booboo plummeted towards the ground. He wasn't worried though. After they had ridden the dragons the first time, and he had actually fought in a battle, he had figured out the key to the happenings of his life. And he was certain, he wasn't going to die…not now.

Just as he had predicted, he didn't reach the ground. His big, red, baby dragon seemingly came out of nowhere and caught him about halfway to the ground.

"Thanks," Booboo said patting his dragon. His legs hurt, but it didn't appear that he had broken anything. "Now let's find the others."


Zephyr sat on a rock and watched her mother return with Spearhead, Booboo, and their dragons. Everyone was ready. Her dad had Toothless. Her mom had Stormfly. Her brother had Claw. Fourlegs had Fishmeat. Spearhead had Slasher. Booboo had his baby dragon. And Zephyr… She had lost Shadow Streak, but now they were going to get her back.

"Let's go," her father said. "We'll choose a place to stop for the night after a few hours of flying."

Spearhead groaned.

They mounted their dragons. Zephyr climbed up behind her mom. They flew out of the jungle of the Fury Grove, and then through the Gateway and up out of the waterfalls. But as they left, they didn't see their ship. Only a Light Fury retreating back into The Hidden World. Zephyr noticed Booboo scowling at the Light Fury.

"Where did the ship go?" Spearhead asked.

"I think I have a vague idea," Booboo said.

"The Light Fury that just rushed back into The Hidden World?"

"Yeah, that's the one," Booboo said. "We're going to have a lot of sunken ships to clean up when we get back."