Chapter 17: On Your Own

Berk

May 16

Darkness surrounded him and nothing else.

"Hello?"

The echo of his own voice was his only response.

Hiccup looked around anxiously trying to find a way out of this darkness or anyone who might try to help him. It didn't take long for him to notice something that looked a bit far away: two small yellow lights.

Hiccup smiled. "That looks like a way out."

He began making his way towards the two yellow lights which seemed to be making their way towards him. As he got closer and closer, he noticed something about the two lights and he squinted a little to have a better look.

It was then he realized that there were two black circles against both of the lights' yellow color. These weren't lights, they were eyes.

Hiccup had to admit they were very beautiful eyes. So beautiful in fact that he couldn't stop looking at them. It was as if he were hypnotized.

However, the eyes were getting too close for his comfort so Hiccup tried to back away but the yellow eyes just kept coming closer and closer. No matter how hard he tried to back away they just seemed to keep following him. And then…

"Ow!"

Something sharp like the tip of a knife gently stabbed into his chin. Hiccup put a finger to the spot on his chin where his tiny scar was and felt a droplet of warm liquid. Lifting his finger he noticed a tiny bead of fresh, bright red blood resting on the tip of it before sliding down the rest of his finger.

His eyes wide with fear he turned away from his finger. It was then he realized that the yellow eyes had disappeared and he was back in the blackness.

"What's going on here?" Hiccup asked himself aloud.

"VALKA, RUN!"

He recognized it as his father's voice.

"Dad?!"

Although Stoick's voice was clearly telling his mother to run, running was exactly what Hiccup was planning to do. And he began to run forwards through the darkness, desperate to escape no matter how long it took him.

"No, don't!"

That was a woman's voice.

"Mom?!" Hiccup exclaimed as he stopped running, his eyes wide. "Mom, is that you?! Where are you?!"

"HOLD ON!" came Stoick's voice again.

"Dad?!" Hiccup called, looking around him frantically. "I'm trying to hold on but I don't know where you are or where I am!"

"NO! AH! STOICK!" came his mother, Valka's voice.

"VALKA!" Stoick's voice cried out.

"MOM!" Hiccup was shouting now. "MOM, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"STOICK!" Valka's voice called out again but this time she sounded distant.

"MOM, WHERE ARE YOU?! COME BACK, MOM! PLEASE COME BACK!"

Hiccup dropped to his knees, confused, terrified and alone. He didn't know what else to do.

"Hiccup?" That was Stoick's voice again. But this time he sounded calmer and more worried. "Hiccup?"

He felt something heavy but gentle on his shoulder.

"Open your eyes, son."

And open his eyes he did and he was no longer surrounded by darkness.

He realized he was lying against the wooden mattress of his bed. Right above him was the wooden, slanted ceiling of his bedroom. And right in front of that ceiling was the green-eyed, red-bearded, worried-looking face of…

"Dad!"

With a big smile, Hiccup stood up on top of the mattress and threw his arms around Stoick's neck and wrapped his legs around his wide waist. Stoick grunted in surprise but he too wrapped his arms around his son.

"Morning, Hiccup," came the familiar voice of Gobber.

Looking up, Hiccup noticed the blacksmith standing near the stairs.

"Morning, Gobber," Hiccup greeted.

"Everything all right, son?" Stoick asked.

"Yeah, I guess I was just dreaming," Hiccup admitted, nodding.

"What were you dreaming about?" Gobber asked.

"Uh…I don't want to say it in front of Dad," Hiccup said hesitantly.

"But Dad might want to know so he could help you," Gobber pointed out.

"Aye, son, you can tell me," Stoick offered.

"Well," Hiccup began. "I dreamt about a bad thing that happened long ago when I was a…when I was about this big." He spread out his hands to show the size he was talking about which was about the size of a baby.

"You don't have to speak cryptically, son," Stoick said. "I know you were dreaming about the time Mom was stolen away."

"How do you know?" Hiccup asked.

"Because I too have those dreams once in a while," Stoick replied.

"Plus you were moaning things in your sleep such as 'Where are you, Mom?' or 'Please come back, Mom'," Gobber added.

Hiccup sighed and leaned his head on his dad's shoulder. "I don't like having those dreams, Dad."

"I know, son. I don't like having them either," Stoick said sympathetically.

"I know you told me yesterday to try to stay strong for Mom. But how can I do that when I keep dreaming about her being taken away from us?"

"Well, I, for one have a technique for getting rid of nightmares," Gobber announced proudly.

"You do?" said Hiccup eagerly.

"Sure," Gobber said, walking over to Hiccup's desk.

He picked up a miniature axe from on top of a pile of papers and lifted it up.

"Next time, those nightmares come back, just pick up this axe I made just for you from the time you were born and use it to chase them away like this…" He swung the axe in front of him twice and snarled, "Get away from me you nightmares!"

"Let me try," Hiccup said.

Stoick placed Hiccup down and he ran to Gobber who handed him the axe.

Putting on his best tough face, Hiccup waved the axe twice and said, "Get away from me you nightmares!" Looking up at the two men, he asked, "How was that?"

Stoick and Gobber glanced at each other before Stoick suggested, "Try acting a little tougher."

"Like this?!" He squinted his eyes and clenched his teeth a little harder and said in a louder voice, "Grr! Get away from me you nightmares!" and swung the teensy axe in front of him twice before looking up at Stoick and Gobber.

Stoick shook his head. "Still not tough enough."

"But you've got to admit, it does look kind of cute," Gobber admitted.

"Vikings are not supposed to be cute, Gobber," Stoick insisted. "They're supposed to be tough."

"I'm sorry, Dad, I'm trying to be tough," Hiccup said softly.

"Of course you are, laddie," Gobber said gently. "Tell you what, why don't you put your tiny axe away and head downstairs? Your Dad and I will be down after you and we'll fix you some breakfast."

"Okay."

Hiccup ran to his desk, climbed up onto the chair and placed the mini axe on top of the stack of papers. Then he ran past the two men and hurried down the stairs.

"Don't worry, Stoick," Gobber assured his friend. "He'll become tougher as he grows up."

"I hope so, Gobber," Stoick said worriedly. "If he's ever gonna go off on his own someday, he's gotta learn to toughen up. Like you said yesterday, the world is full of dangers…even in its most beautiful places."

…

May 16

Off the coast of Night Fury Island

(Quick Note: Appropriate music for this sequence would be the second half of Stoick's Ship starting at 1:30. Be sure to have lots of tissues close by.)

A gentle rain was falling around him as Toothless laid dully on that sea stack he had been resting on since that…terrible thing.

The rain had put the entire fire out. Not that it mattered. The beautiful island where he and his family had dwelled and grew up on was ruined. All of the trees now resembled gnarled, black skeletons and the ground looked completely hard and bare without the grass and flowers. And the rain didn't seem to wash away that awful, poisonous smell the tusked dragons had left behind.

A mix of emotions filled Toothless' heart. Mainly sorrow, anger and confusion. Sorrow over the loss of his family, anger towards the dragons who took them from him and confusion about why they had done it.

His parents and his siblings were gone forever and it was all because of those dragons. But why? Why had they killed his family and destroyed his home?

Dusk had often told him and his siblings stories about male dragons fighting each other over leadership, mates and territories. But those tusked dragons couldn't possibly have wanted to take over their island since they had left not long after they had killed and destroyed.

Why else would they have killed a family of dragons who had never done them any harm?

Toothless had to admit that something didn't seem quite right about those dragons. But he had been too busy trying to get away to see what was wrong with them.

His thoughts trailed back to that tangle of tan-colored vines Sapphire had got herself caught in and those reflective, clanging objects attached to one of those vines. Those monsters had to have been very clever to have found such strange items and left them there in order to trap them. But Toothless was certain that even other dragons would never had seen or heard of such things like the clanging things and the snaring tan vines. If the tusked dragons hadn't put them there, then who or what did?

His question made him think about that whistling noise he had heard in the distance when he was hiding from the beasts – the whistling noise that had lured the beasts away from him. It was right after he had heard that noise that all those tusked dragons had gone without a trace.

The only other creatures he had known to make whistling noises were birds. But birds couldn't possibly order dragons to attack other dragons and destroy their homes, could they? No, he was sounding ridiculous.

Toothless was certain he would never understand what had happened last night or why it had happened and maybe he was better off not finding out.

Toothless stood up on the rocky floor of the sea stack and looked up towards the gray clouds and the rain falling down from them. Then he looked out towards the horizon, the sea water below it a charcoal gray from the clouds.

Then he turned back towards his ruined island. There was no reason for him to stay there any longer. It was time for him to go out into the great beyond and find another home. After all, his family would have wanted for him to do that.

"Goodbye, Mother, Father, Big One, Biter, Soft Paws and Noserubber," he purred softly.

Then turning away and looking towards the horizon, he unfold his wings, jumped off the ledge of the sea stack and flew towards the seemingly-never-ending sky and sea with no thoughts of where he was going or what was going to happen to him.

It felt odd flying all by himself. He thought about what Sapphire had said to him yesterday before all those awful happenings: "Yes, flying is fun. But it's even more fun when you have someone to share it with."

But that was before. Now he no longer had anyone to share flying with.