Back again! Didn't mean for this to go so long without an update...like, at all. I absolutely love the idea of a HTTYD/Ninjago crossover! Andddddd...I loved writing the contents of particularly the Hiccup POV in this chapter...

Anyway, thanks so much for favoriting, reviewing, and following! Y'all really make my day when I come on and find out that my story was decent.

And now to the chapter (wow, short author's note, who knew Sivi had it in her? Ha ha, I can hear you, ya know.).

Hiccup POV

As soon as Toothless lands at our most recent campsite, I rush to pack my satchel with the few stuff I don't carry with me at all times. Might have to get rid of those soon. Can't drag stuff that'll only weigh me and Toothless down if we ever need to get away. Besides, they aren't essential, but I'm not going to take the risk that that dragon that red-haired girl has will track us down if we leave it, so as soon as I find somewhere else that'll throw them off our tracks (if they decide to follow us. I know what I'm hoping for and what is most likely to happen, though), I'll dump the nonessentials.

My mind works fast under the potential enemy.

They see us as a threat. Not as a friend. Not as a potential ally. A threat.

You know, the fireballs shot at us kinda tipped me off.

Then there's the possibility that they may be working with the Dragon Hunters.

I don't think it's likely – well, I'm not entirely sure what I think, actually. That dragon might be a one-off case of a dragon being OK with humans hunting down its species (unlikely, but I suppose it could happen). And I've learned that Dragon Hunters aren't just one type of people. I should have guessed, really, but I guess I was just hoping that that tribe of Dragon Hunter Vikings was the only case of that. Either way, I'm not risking Toothless for that. We've already been attacked by another group of Hunters once and very nearly lost, and I'm not letting that happen again. Toothless is all I have.

And anyway, the short stay here at the Land of Lost Things was nice, but we really need to find Berk.

Hopefully, I'm not leading an enemy to my village.

We take to the air almost a minute later. Too slow, in my opinion. We could have been caught. Normally, I'd be open to the idea that that attack was an accident, but there's a time to be wishful and a time to be cautious.

I choose to be cautious. I need to find other Vikings. I need to find my father, the other Riders…Astrid. I need to keep Toothless and myself safe.

And most importantly, I need to be ready in case something bad happens. And to do that, Toothless and I need to survive. That's something Toothless can do. That's something I can do. I'm good at hiding in the shadows. I'd been doing that before I shot down Toothless, besides the few times I tried to prove myself a Viking.

Survive and keep fighting Dragon Hunters.

Easy.

Straight-forward.

I can do that.

Toothless warbles concernedly, jolting me out of my thoughts. He wants to know why I'm so worried, why I'm so tense.

"It's going to be OK, bud," I whisper, though I know he can hear it as loud as a shout in a cave even with all the wind. I pat his head as he shifts to fly above the clouds to keep us shielded from the prying eyes of the maybe-enemies below us. "It's going to be OK…right?"

Toothless gives me the dragon equivalent of a shrug before grunting and focusing on flying. He may not be worried, and he may have far better instincts than I do, but that doesn't stop the sick feeling in my gut. I fidget with the handles of his saddle as I stare off into space. Toothless will let me know if he needs me.

Meanwhile, I plan out what we're going to do.

The supplies in my satchel are awfully low….

"Hiccup!"

Astrid's eyes are panicked as the ground shakes again and the sky suddenly goes red.

Where's the sun?

This can't be Ragnarok? Right? I mean…the Great Winter didn't happen, nor did any of the other signs. Then again, this could be a sign, maybe, hopefully not.

The ground shakes again, flinging the two of us onto the ground, Astrid landing on top of me and knocking the air out of me.

"What's happening?" she asks, though she knows just the same as I do. It's the first time I've seen her this scared. Fearless Astrid Hofferson. I want to say something to make everything seem better, but I can't.

I'm at a loss for words.

A loud crack startles me, sending a jolt through my entire body as the winds pick up. Astrid jumps to her feet and roughly pulls me up, not bothering to apologize for the way she almost yanked my arm off. It doesn't matter. Astrid will be Astrid and we don't have time right now to get into a fight. We need to be ready for when the storm really hits.

Half the village must be here now, filling the space on the outcropping overlooking the ocean. This is the best place to watch the storm as the winds howl and shout strong enough to make it hard to keep my feet on the ground. One particularly small child yelps as he's knocked over and the wind literally lifts him into the air. An adult – one of his parents, presumably – grabs the boy's arm, holding onto him for dear life. I notice that several other adults are doing this and that many are struggling to stay upright.

It isn't until I'm knocked off my feet that I notice the crack in the sky.

The outline is blurred, bright, electric in a way I thought only lightning could be, red and blue, and the crack's lines seem to jump and fluctuate. I shake my head, trying to get my eyes to focus on the crack that seems…is it growing?

I think I'm going to be sick.

Where's Toothless?

Just as I'm climbing to my feet, the ground splits and a piece of it is torn away from the outcropping. Other Vikings who are on that piece manage to jump to the part that isn't falling. I don't. The force of the land ripping away from its mother makes me fall yet again, and as I stumble, the falling piece of land is ripped further away from the outcropping, too far away from me to make the jump.

"HICCUP!" Astrid shouts, reaching out for me even though it's futile.

I lift my arm as if maybe we could grab each other.

It's stupid, I know.

And then, before I can register it, Toothless is jumping to me, shielding me from the shower of boulders from the crumbling outcropping. I hear screams, shouts of pain, names, and the constant howling of the wind. The flying piece of land spins, rising, falling, rising, falling, spinning spinning spinning. Too fast. It makes me dizzy enough to feel like I'm about to vomit and then…everything stops and somehow I know.

We're alone.

I wake with a start, finding that Toothless has landed and slipped me off his back and onto the ground. I'm lying on some grass, slightly scratchy when I concentrate on it brushing against my hands. It was just a dream…this time, anyway. It really happened, but it won't happen again. I clench my fists, trying to get the rest of me to relax, to not panic because it's a stupid reason to panic; that storm is over. But that doesn't change the fact that that storm took my entire village away from me. It's just me and Toothless. I have no idea where I am. I have no idea who I can trust because while I'm sure there are a lot more good people in this world now, I also know that there are surely more bad people, too. Just a dream. A dream about when Astrid and my friends and my dad were…–

No, I tell myself, Enough thinking about that. Get up. Get up and be strong.

So, groaning, I sit up and ask Toothless, who is drinking from a nearby lake, "Why didn't you wake me?"

He lifts his head from the water and coos at me. But his pupils suddenly turn to slits, his whole body tenses, and he whirls at something in the distance.

W-what was that?

Kai's POV

"You did what?" Lloyd cries as Cole finishes telling him what had happened.

Cole didn't see all of it, so it's obviously altered, but that doesn't change the fact that it's my fault.

Wyldfyre smirks from where she sits on Heatwave, confident that she won't get a punishment. Because again, Cole didn't see all of it, and what he did was all me. It's fine, though, because I shouldn't have instigated it. I should have scolded her as soon as that first fireball almost hit the Rider and the dragon. I should have known she would try to intimidate them.

I do know that she meant it was a warning, not a threat or an attack. I know that the fireball that did hit the two was just a result of her poor precision. I know that I shouldn't have told her to hit the red part of the dragon's tail, the part that would've downed the duo, because it made it sound like we were attacking like we thought they were a threat.

Lloyd wanted to meet the guy and I needed to explain. Them flying away would've made that a lot harder, and look, they got away so now that's a lot harder. I was right.

But that doesn't matter now. Now I have an angry Lloyd, an annoyed Cole, a smug Wyldfyre, and a brand new, probably impossible mission: find the Rider.

It's more of a payback mission, the kind of mission that Lloyd only gives when he's mad. Like the time he told Sora to clean out the dragon stables without any help from the dragons, the others, or any kind of technology (guess which one she ignored) because she accidentally crashed her mech into the Monastery wall for the fourth time. Or the time Wyldfyre set fire to one of the many descendants of Christofern (which I guess was his father's pet plant?) and Lloyd told her to go find the Mechanic and put him back in jail (since she refused help from everyone, it took longer than necessary).

Long story short, I just need to make good progress on looking for the guy then just sit back and let Lloyd steam. Besides, I know Lloyd's logic behind this, even if it's mostly done out of anger: the Rider might be a good ally. And with all the chaos from the Merge, though it's been several years since it happened, and all the chaos from the Mergequake Storm, we need them. That was clear with our scrape with Imperium guards before being saved by the Imperium Teen Resistance Force.

And besides, it's better to have a guy and a dragon who'd been hiding in the shadows for who knows how long on our side than on any of our enemies' sides.

So, I shrug and not fight Lloyd over it.

It isn't until Lloyd says that Wyldfyre's coming that he meets some resistance.

Well, mostly from Wyldfyre – she doesn't like working with "ancients," after all – but also from me.

Hey, I'm trying to set an example for Wyldfyre and trying to work on my hot-headness, but some things I just can't stand.

Such as going on an impossible mission with an impossible child that can be really, really hard to get along with.

That's a lot for a guy, especially for someone who's still learning to keep his temper in check. So I'm still working on it, give me a break!

"Why do I have to go on it?" Wyldfyre demands, pointing at me and adding, "He was the one who scared the Rider away in the first place!"

"I know that," Lloyd says, turning his green eyes to me, which tell me he doesn't believe that entirely. So my brother does have a little faith in me. Good to know. "But I have a hard time believing he'll be able to do this by himself and he could use a dragon expert to help him find them."

He's appealing to her sense of pride. Wise move. Definitely one he's practiced on me.

"You're right. He's kinda hopeless without me," the kid replies, tapping her chin thoughtfully and patting Heatwave's back behind her.

"Wait, we're going right now?" I ask, looking at Lloyd for some indication.

"I mean, you're going to be able to track him better if there's less distance between the two of you, right?" Cole points out.

"Or she," Nya reminds us.

"He's a 'he,'" I reply, "That much is obvious."

"Oh, really?" Nya counters, turning to me, "Weren't you convinced Samurai X was a 'he'?"

"We don't have time to argue about this, and anyway, it's ridiculous," Lloyd cuts in, then to me: "Get going."

"Right." I nod at Wyldfyre, who immediately runs to mount Heatwave. I follow behind her, "my place," as she calls it. It's better to pick my battles. Better to pick my battles. Better to pick my battles.

That's what I have to tell myself.

Seriously, is this what Wu felt when he was training me? Is this really a taste of my own medicine?

'Cause I'm not sure I can handle a possibly long, slow dragon flight to who knows where trying to track down who knows who/what.

"You sure you don't want to play a game or something to pass the time?" I ask, slightly incredulous by the fact that Wyldfyre doesn't seem in the slightest bored.

"Nope. Your games are boring. Besides, Heatwave's looking for something to find that dragon."

"You mean the dragon and the Rider," I correct her.

"Yes, and the Rider. So that we can free the dragon from him," Wyldfyre adds.

"What if they're like you and Heatwave?" I point out.

"There's no way. I don't put things on Heatwave. Did you see what he put on his dragon?" Wyldfyre asks.

"The saddle?"

"That's what it's called?"

I frown. Does Wyldfyre really not know what a saddle is? I mean, I guess she could since she hasn't lived with people all her life, but didn't she have a caretaker bot? Wasn't "saddle" in its databases?

"I thought they were smaller," Wyldfyre adds.

"You saw the red part, right? Maybe it helps the dragon fly or something," I guess.

"It looked like he couldn't fly without the Rider's help," she tells me, looking me straight in the eye. Once again, I'm reminded that just because she was raised in the Wyldness with a bot that didn't have everything in its programming to teach Wyldfyre what supposedly everyone else knows doesn't mean that Wyldfyre is stupid. She's actually quite bright and really…what was that word Zane used once? Intuitive? That sounds about right. "If he hurt that dragon so it couldn't fly unless he wanted to…" Wyldfyre clenched the hem of her shirt, balling it, and twisting it.

"H-hey, stop torturing your clothes," I say, "If this guy's hurting the dragon, then we'll deal with him. And we'll make sure the dragon's OK."

"Promise?" she asks.

"Promise," I say, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Good," she replies, looking forward and going back to the side of Wyldfyre I don't usually get to see: the patient side. Maybe it's just 'cause she's flying because it's what it feels like to be a dragon. She always takes things concerning dragons seriously, so I know how much it means to her that this guy could possibly be exploiting this dragon.

Suddenly, I realize why she had tried to scare the guy off. Maybe she was just trying to scare him off, or maybe she was trying to send a message to the Rider: you better not be hurting that dragon or I'll take you down.

I know her intentions were good, but the way she goes about them…

Trust me when I say that it's not good being the person people are scared of. Sure it helps in battles, but it's not when you're trying to be closer to your friends; it feels like they have to tiptoe around your emotions and it's not fair to them, at all.

I just hope that one day she'll be able to open up to the others the way she occasionally does for me. Hopefully, I'll be able to turn that "one day" into sooner rather than later, or she might live to regret it. Like I do.

"You napping back there?" she teases before gasping when Heatwave abruptly dives and makes me almost fall off, her hand shooting forward to grab the front of my gi.

"Thanks," I grunt, holding on tighter as Heatwave continues the dive, before pulling up several yards before we crash into the ground, landing in a few seconds.

I immediately jump down, stretching as Wyldfyre pats and thanks Heatwave. Then she joins me.

"We taking a break or did he find something?" I ask Wyldfyre. Heatwave's her family, weird as that may seem. Well, I call a Nindroid and an Oni/Dragon/human hybrid my family, so I guess I can't talk about what's weird and what isn't.

"Found something," Wyldfyre confirms, pointing at a cluster of bushes ahead.

Just then, they start moving, snapping me to attention. As soon as I put myself into a ready, alert stance, Wyldfyre follows.

That reminds me of something, a major, glaring thing that still needs to be addressed. Right. Well, if that's our guy, I gotta do this now before it's too late and we have to track him down again. "OK, so Wyldfyre, we're not going to automatically attack whoever comes out from the other side, right?" I ask, glancing in her direction. Why do I get the feeling that once upon a time someone might have said that to me? Man, raising this kid is like taking a look in a mirror or something.

"Right. Unless he's hurting a dragon," Wyldfyre replies.

"And unless you can actively see him hurting a dragon," I add.

Wyldfyre ignores me, and I'm about to force her to promise me she won't attack unless we're attacked and she needs to defend herself or if a dragon is being mistreated when the bushes rustle. I face the bushes again, battle-ready in case it comes to that, just as someone bursts out of it.

Yay! We made it to the end of this chapter! Dw, I don't plan to have a lot of cliffhangers, or maybe you've already guessed what happens next...hmmmm...

Well, please leave a review! I'd love to hear what I'm doing well and maybe gain some constructive feedback. It'd really make my day! *puppy-dog eyes* Wait...no, let's go with: *Toothless's puppy-dog eyes without the "McBrow"*

Until next time, then!