"Maybe things are worse than we think they are." Hiccup couldn't help but worry, while Toothless exited the top of the mountain.

"It's possible." Toothless agreed. "But there isn't much more we can do given the circumstances. We've given them as much slack as we can without just returning to the way things normally are. I'll admit it would be nice to hear back some from someone. So many are out there now, I can't imagine what would be preventing them from getting back to us with something, anything. Just to know what's going on." Toothless let his shoulder down and Hiccup hopped off.

"You're telling me. I've been a bundle of nerves since we first learned that something was happening."

"I'm very aware of that." Toothless nuzzled into Hiccup's hair. "It's pretty obvious that you've been having trouble sleeping lately. Given that all you do now is toss and turn and keep me up because of it."

"Oh? R-really? Sorry, we can sleep apart then." Hiccup sighed.

"Don't worry about it. Not like that works for us anyway. Remember last time we did that, you ended up waking me up in the middle of the night asking me to move my leg so you could get into your normal spot. It's pretty easy to tell that the best thing for us both is to simply keep sleeping the way we have for years now. No matter how much you keep me up." Toothless smiled. "Besides, I like watching you sleep."

"That's creepy Toothless." Hiccup joked.

"Says the person with more than a few drawings of me sleeping."

"Okay fine you got me there." Hiccup laughed. The pair grouped up with the others. "You guys ready to go?" We've got everything settled here."

"I believe we're ready." Stoick confirmed. Hiccup climbed onto Toothless' back.

"Okay just follow us to where we'll be hunting. When we get there we'll set up camp, then go hunt for dinner." The pair watched all the others awkwardly mount their dragons. But they all eventually got mounted up and ready to go. "Alright bud, don't go so far that they can't follow us." He patted Toothless' side. "Ready when you are." Toothless started to run and jumped off the mountain, moments later he opened his wings slowing them down. He started to pump his wings, getting them back above the edge of the mountain. The other dragons quickly followed suit and jumped from the mountain and grouping up with Toothless and Hiccup. As they got together Toothless turned around and started heading the direction of their destination and gaining height. Soon the group was high above the clouds, resting on an airstream, allowing the dragons to not have to flap their wings as much or as hard. Effectively floating on the air.

"It's always so nice to fly." Hiccup held out his arms. "It's a shame humans can't fly like this, I'd do it all the time."

"Gods it would be just another thing that I'd have to watch you for."

"Hey. I'm not that much of a danger to myself. Plus I probably wouldn't fly without you. Much."

"Oh, I believe that."

"Okay yeah. You'd have to watch me." Hiccup giggled. "Hey, how long do you think it'll take to get there? We should update the others, just give them a heads up."

"Hmm I don't know. We're going faster than it looks, and we got lucky with a nice tail wind. We left pretty late but I don't think it'll be dark before we arrive. Don't think we'll be able to do any hunting today though."

"That's okay. It'll give people a chance to leave tonight."

"I find it interesting that you are even allowing them to leave like that. What happens if they tell others?" Toothless wondered.

"Who'll believe them? Hiccup is a king of dragons and he lives in a volcano in the middle of the sea, and I flew home on the back of a dragon who's my friend now. That would be hard for me to believe and I live with dragons and am mated to one." Hiccup laughed. "Okay, group up with them so I can tell the others." Toothless changed the pitch of his wings, slowing him down and settling in with the other dragons. "Hey." Hiccup called out to the other humans. They all looked to him. "It's still going to be a while until we reach where we'll be hunting. There's a few small islands in between here and there if you need to land to go pee or whatever. Otherwise we'll be landing pretty late, so we'll set up camp and have the dragons go fishing for dinner tonight."

Hiccup slowly moved to lay down on Toothless' back, resting his cheek against the back of his dragon's head.

"I'm going to take a nap, don't drop me."

"Don't roll off my back then."

"That only happened once."

"Once too many." Toothless chuckled.

"Yeah well it won't happen this time. Wake me up when we're close." Hiccup closed his eyes. He listened to Toothless' calm breathing and strong heartbeat while he fell asleep. When he woke up the first thing he noticed was the wind whistling in his ears. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He looked around and saw land on the horizon. "Looks like I woke up at just the right time." He scratched behind Toothless ears. "How was the flight?" Hiccup stretched.

"As easy as they come." Toothless lazily swooped back and forth.

"That's good. How much longer until we land?"

"We're gonna head a bit inland. There's a spot I found a while back that I think will make a good spot to camp."

"Hey everyone." Hiccup called out. "We'll be heading a bit inland. Toothless knows a spot that he thinks will be good so we're headed there." Hiccup stretched his neck. "How's your flight been dad?"

"Well, I'm not as scared as I was the first time." The large man laughed. "But I didn't think it would be this tiring."

"It's probably cause you don't have a saddle. So there's nothing helping you stay in place. We'll figure something out. I'll think about it while we're here."

"Gods above how did I go from hating these beasts to getting a saddle for one." Stoick pressed his palm against his forehead."

"Just wait until they start molting, that's a lot of fun to deal with."

"I don't even know what that is, Hiccup." Stoick sighed.

"It's when they shed their scales and skin. They are reptiles after all, for the most part. It only happens about every year or so but as their friend and someone with hands at least you'll help them get shed off their heads and parts of their tails mostly. Spots they can't reach or rub something against easily."

"And you expect people not to treat them like they're pets."

"Well it's not like they need for someone to help them. They normally take care of themselves. But it's easier if you help them get hard spots. It's like having any other large creature around. Sometimes you gotta help them and stick a hand somewhere you don't really want to."

"You're not helping your case Hiccup. You should probably shut up before I rethink this whole allying with you thing."

A/N: Happy Snoggletog