Following his father's death Hiccup is determined to do Stoick proud and fill his shoes in Berk. And he does... by slowly chipping away at himself. Sensitive Toothless knows his boy is getting lost but that's not the only troubling thing happening...
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Hiccup fell into an irritable silence as we traveled. He seemed to be retreating into his own thoughts and whatever they were they weren't good. Toothless sensed his boy's tension and grew nervous.
Fishlegs and Snotlout argued over how they thought the Hunters could wreak such great havoc on the Defenders. Dozens of theories were tossed back and forth. The twins spaced out, bored with all the rationalizing and Hiccup clutched the saddlebag with Trooper in it closer.
"You know what? It doesn't matter what any of us think because we don't have enough information. Just hurry up so we can get there before nightfall and piece this stupid puzzle together." He finally said.
The cloud cover fell upon us, becoming thick fog. Toothless led the way with echolocation.
We found ourselves shrouded in an unearthly darkness.
A north wind filled with ash and steam hit us. We were getting close.
Ebony snorted. She shook her head.
"What's up, girl?" Fishlegs asked.
Her wide yellow eyes looked around to each of our dragons. They rested on Toothless. She hissed and chattered her teeth. Flying out in front, the dragon cut-in to veer us off-course.
Toothless nimbly avoided her and continued. Our dragons watched her brake off as they followed their alpha.
Ebony grunted and came alongside Stormfly. Without warning she body slammed into my Nadder. Stormfly rawked, falling out of formation and almost running into the twins.
"Ebony!"
Pushing and shoving, she tried to force the others to follow her.
"It's okay girl," Hiccup tried to sooth her as she grew more agitated. "Calm down."
Ebony ignored him and turned to Hookfang. She cooed and coaxed and urged him to break away. He enjoyed pretending not to even notice all the attention.
Desperate, she fell back and yanked on his tail. In surprise and anger the Monstrous Nightmare turned and spat a small fireball at her.
"Okay. This Nightfury is officially broken." Snotlout growled. "Every dragon knows you don't pull a Monstrous Nightmares tail."
After wiping the flammable spit from her face Ebony decided to try a new tactic.
"Whoa hey! Stop it!" Hiccup yelled.
She had zipped passed us and tried to swipe Trooper's satchel away from Hiccup. They battled tug-of-war style for a few brief seconds. Ebony meant business and barred her teeth as she pulled. If Toothless hadn't intervened she probably would have tugged Hiccup right out of his saddle.
SNAP! Went Toothless' teeth a little too close to Ebony's beating wings for comfort. She let go.
Hiccup righted himself and adjusted the saddlebag, dumbfounded.
