Hey guys! Thanks so much for the warm welcome back! It means a lot to me :)

Here's the next chapter!

Chapter 2: A Visit From Disaster

The cold wind whipped through Hiccup's hair as they glided above the water. The salty ocean smell filled his nose. They had been flying for hours now, and the sun which would have shone high in the sky was now blocked out by a grim screen of thick, gray clouds. Hiccup now was starting to feel a little bit tired. He loved flying, but for some reason, he found his enthusiasm dwindling as the dark waters kept going on and on and he thought where they would lead him to.

He was not like Fishlegs who would have loved the opportunity to study the exotic flora of Healer's Island. And he preferred flying greatly more when he had no destination in mind. Then he could take whatever path he wanted to. Part of him began to question why in Odin's name he decided to give up his entire day for a stupid supply run.

Then he scolded himself when he remembered that Gothi needed it to take care of the people. This was bigger than him and a break for him. Besides, he was doing his father a big favor. Hiccup should be happy that he had another chance to help.

Hiccup was shaken from his thoughts when he heard Toothless give a draconic yawn.

"Yeah, I feel ya, bud. I'm tired, too," Hiccup smiled and gave his dragon a sympathetic pat on the head. "But we've got to be half-way by now."

Reaching into the saddlebag, he pulled out his map to check, tracing an imaginary line from their home island to their destination in the east. He gave a small nod in self-confirmation and tucked the map away.

"Just three or four more hours." He gripped back on the saddle handles and looked forward towards the gray horizon.

He narrowed his eyes as if not fully understanding. Was it his imagination, or were the clouds getting darker the further they went East? And the wind seemed to be growing colder and sharper so that the tips of Hiccup's ears stung from its frigid touch. Hiccup gave a slight, tentative glance to the left when he thought he saw a faint flash, and his dragon mirrored him. Toothless gave a concerned warble and met his Rider's glance.

Hiccup was beginning to think that maybe he should have paid a little more mind to his father's warning. Another flash from in front of him, this one brighter and closer than the last, confirmed it. Thunder rumbled out over the open ocean, loud and deafening, like a loud, wrathful battlecry. Hiccup groaned wincingly and ducked his head down as the clouds opened up and rain poured down from the sky.

"Perfect," Hiccup muttered, and he shivered as the buckets of water drenched through, soaking him to the skin. He wiped his dripping bangs from his eyes, but this gesture proved useless when the water dripped from his forehead into his vision. "Bucket just had to be right, didn't he?"

Toothless growled and sputtered as the infinite tumult of raindrops splashed onto his scales with no intent of slowing or stopping. Hiccup squinted, trying to see through the curtain of rain, but he hardly knew what he was looking for. Perhaps somewhere, just up ahead, there was a break in the storm, a hole in the wet canopy where the sun shone through. But there was nothing in the unceasing downpour, and the size of drops seemed to grow the further they went in until they were roughly the size of bola weights.

"We're gonna have to turn back, bud, I can barely see," Hiccup shouted over the rain.

Wasting no time, the Night Fury turned tail and headed back in the direction of Berk, but the wind was beginning to swirl around them. Toothless flapped his wings hard. But it was nearly impossible to fight the gusts which pushed him this way and that like a toy ship. Hiccup's hands automatically clutched tightly around the handles as they rocked and dipped this way and that.

"Just keep pushing, Toothless. We can do this, we can do this," he encouraged, but it was more to himself.

He could not help but feel afraid when a blinding flash exploded a mere ten feet from them. Having had a disastrous near-death experience from being struck, Hiccup was less than enthused to be caught in the midst of this turbulent storm. He would have gone his entire life happy if he never had to be two inches from a lightning strike again. But, it seemed, disaster had other plans.

Toothless screeched in effort and beat his wings with redoubled determination. They had to get out of this storm. The rain was so thick, Hiccup could hardly see Toothless' ears in front of him. But the roaring, screaming wind spiralled around them, twisting and turning faster and faster. It was as if Hiccup and Toothless were now trapped in a storm in the world's largest bottle.

Ducking quickly down, Hiccup yelped when a white-hot lightning bolt cracked dangerously close to Toothless' left wing. Another crackled next to them, then another and another, each one closer than the last. Toothless shrieked in horror while he did his best to dodge them, but it was as if Thor himself were trying to blast them out of the sky.

"We've got to get lower!" Hiccup shouted, but his words were all but lost in the voice of the howling wind. "I think we're too close to the-"

But he screamed again when another bolt crackled right in front of them and Toothless came to a screeching halt. Without warning, the Night Fury dipped left and turned back. He beat his wings frantically. He was not even trying to get back to Berk anymore. He was just trying to escape the lightning.

"No, Toothless, go back!" Hiccup screamed, his body flattened down against the saddle to shield himself from being struck. "We have to go back, you're going the wrong way! Turn around!"

But he did not turn. Either it was because he was trapped by his own fear, or it was because Hiccup's voice was blocked out by the wind. Whatever the reason, the Night Fury did not hear. A bolt reached for the dragon's left wing, and another for his right. They attacked, swarming them and firing from all sides. Hiccup and Toothless were fish in a barrel out here. All it took was one strike.

ZOOOOOOOM! Hiccup ducked down just in time as a massive white-blue bolt shot towards him. It narrowly missed.

Or so he thought.

He had not even a moment's relief before Toothless' shriek and his unsteady flapping wings warned him that they were in deep trouble. Frantically, Hiccup whipped around to see what was wrong. His heart skipped a beat. Toothless' tailfin was burning like a safety flare.

It took only two seconds before they were sent shooting downward into the wet darkness like a comet.

"No, no, no, not again! Come on, come on!"

Hiccup pulled desperately on the handles of the saddle, but nothing could stop the inevitable. They were going to crash. Just when Hiccup failed to see how things could get worse, his prosthetic dispatched from the stirrup, and he was separated from his dragon.

With a frantic shriek, the Night Fury dove after him, but he was tumbling helplessly as he had no control over his wings. Hiccup tried to get closer to Toothless, clawing at the air, but it did not work. They were falling fast. Desperately, Hiccup reached with all his might for Toothless' saddle, but it remained just out of the reach of his fingers. If he could just grab it, if he was just a few inches closer. . .

It was too late. The next thing that Hiccup knew, he was tumbling through a soggy, black-green blur of what felt like branches, colliding with every single one of them which tore greedily at his clothes, scraping against his face like tiny, wooden claws. Before he blacked out, the last two things he registered were a sharp crack in the side and a rueful thought: Why does this always happen?