The Shimmer in the Mist

They flew over to the foreign land they had just discovered. Toothless searched for a good place to land, but found it difficult to see through the dense mist. Hiccup looked down from his majestic Night Fury. He was afraid he'd have to leave and explore this mysterious island another time with this arduous task to navigate through the fog.

Toothless sighed. He moaned at Hiccup, trying to convince him to start turning back to Berk. Hiccup disagreed.

"Just a little longer. Who knows? Maybe this fog will lighten up while we're still here."

Toothless rolled his eyes, but obeyed his rider and continued his flight.

Ten more minutes passed, and Toothless was growing impatient. Toothless decided to go against Hiccup and turned around in the opposite direction towards Berk.

"What are you doing, bud? We still have plenty of time before we need to get back."

Toothless ignored him and kept flying. Hiccup was becoming a little annoyed at his dragon.

"Come on, Toothless. Who knows when we'll be able to visit again? You know I don't have much time to do these things anymore."

Ever since Hiccup's father passed away and he took on his duties as Chief, he had been too occupied with the wellbeing of his people and less time exploring. Lucky for him, Astrid, who was now Hiccup's wife, could see the desperate look in Hiccup's eyes that he wanted to get back out and explore and was kind enough to give him the morning off while she took over during his absence. Hiccup didn't want to spend his morning away without a decent search of the island's surface.

"And who knows what's on that island? There could be dragons waiting to be discovered. Maybe even a Night Fury."

Hiccup's train of thought was soon interrupted when he noticed something shimmer deep in the mist. He had no idea what it was, but he wasn't going to leave until it was found.

"Toothless, I saw something! Over there!" Hiccup pointed to where he had last seen the mysterious glimmer.

Toothless didn't believe him. He thought it was just an excuse to continue the search. He immediately changed his mind when he also saw the shimmer in the fog. Carefully, Toothless hovered closer to where the dim light previously was. To his surprise, he had managed to land safely onto level ground while searching for the object.

Hopping off Toothless, Hiccup switched his prosthetic to his "walking mode" before turning to his dragon."Alright. I think we'll have better chances find the source by splitting up. I'll go this way. You can go that way."

Toothless wanted to object, but Hiccup had already left. Toothless decided to go on his way.

Fortunately, the fog had begun to lighten up, making it better to see where you were going. With no luck, Toothless turned around to see if Hiccup had found anything. Toothless started to feel uncomfortable as he wandered on. It felt as if someone, or perhaps something, was watching him. Tooth turned in circles to see who was there, but only managed to get dizzy. Now the Night Fury had no idea where his rider was. Because of the fog still surrounding him, he wasn't able to see the pupiless eyes staring at him this whole time.

Hiccup, however, was enjoying himself. It felt good to get away from the responsibilities waiting back at Berk. He felt free from the growing stress that was being lifted off his shoulders as he continued he search.

Hiccup was surprised that the shimmering object still hasn't showed up. He wondered if it was just his imagination, but remembered Toothless had also seen it. He wondered if this fog had played a game on their minds, but dropped that thought when he saw something shining in front of him. He started to go towards this light, delighted that he had found the shimmering object, but when he was nearly a foot away, the shimmer had disappeared once again.

"This fog must be playing games with me." thought Hiccup. "I guess I should get Toothless and go."

Hiccup then turned back to where they had landed, hoping he would run into Toothless momentarily. He just hoped he was walking in the right direction.

Hiccup was disappointed that his search was a waste. He would have to go home with nothing new to tell his wife or people. He didn't even see a dragon roaming about.

Because of the fog that still covered the ground, Hiccup didn't see the rock in front his foot and tripped, falling hard on the ground, almost bending his prosthetic leg. Hiccup was knocked out instantly when his head came into contact with another nearby rock.

Meanwhile, Toothless began to sniff the ground, hoping he would be able to track down Hiccup, or at least catch the scent of his own tracks so he could follow his own path back to their starting point. Not only was Toothless on edge with the feeling something was stalking him, he was getting bored. It felt like he had been on that island for eternity, and hasn't even caught a scent of a foreign dragon, but like he would be able to smell anything with the fresh scent of the water molecules gripping the air.

Toothless kept on searching, nevertheless. He decided to walk straight forward in whatever path he chose and hoped for the best. Toothless tried to entertain himself by seeing what shapes he could make out of the fog like he and Hiccup sometimes did when flying under or above the clouds. And with the itch of someone watching him gone, Toothless was now feeling at ease.

Lying on the ground, Hiccup blinked his eyes open, looking at nothing but fog and rocks. Moaning, Hiccup put his hand to his forehead, soon regretting when it had only worsened his pain. He removed his hand from his head immediately. Looking at his palm he watched as his blood dripped onto the stone that he had hit his head on and stain its surface.

"Stupid rock." He mumbled.

Hiccup sat up and leaned against a nearby boulder and stayed down until his dizziness was gone. When his vision had cleared up, he could see it. He could see the shimmering light right in front of him, only, instead of a gem, it looked like a pair of eyes. Pupiless eyes. They looked as if they were floating in midair. Only did he realize the eyes belonged to the cloud of fog that had dispersed from the surrounding mist and was coming closer to him. The mysterious mist began to shift into an apparition of a dragon. A Night Fury, to be exact. Hiccup didn't know where this was going, but he knew it wasn't good.

"Uh, Toothless, I think we should be heading back right now!" Hiccup shouted, hoping his friend would hear him.

The mist took a step closer, now baring its teeth at Hiccup. Its teeth looked as sharp as the tip of a brand new sword. Hiccup was beginning to panic.

"I really think we should be going, Toothless!" he said in a louder voice.

Hiccup slowly stood back up, getting ready to run for it. The misty dragon sensed he would try to flee and charged at Hiccup, knocking him to the ground and sank its razor sharp teeth into his arm.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH! TOOTHLESS!" he yelled out in pain.

Hiccup kicked about, trying to pull his arm away from the monster. His efforts to get away failed as the Night Fury bit harder, making the pain unbearable. Hiccup quickly took out his sword and lit it on fire, swinging it as the beast as hard as he could. Unfortunately, the sword did no damage and went straight through the torso, not causing any pain to the dragon. The sword was extinguished by the dragon's damp form.

"My sword will go through this dragon, but its teeth can't go through me!" thought Hiccup, dropping his useless sword on the ground.

In excruciating pain, Hiccup thought this was his fate. He believed he was going to die by this creature if he didn't die from blood lost first. He wasn't even sure if his own dragon had heard him shouting for him.

But Toothless had heard Hiccup. He had heard him the first time he called, only he didn't know he was in serious trouble at the time. Now, Toothless was running at lightning speed to find his friend, before it was too late. Although the fog was still too thick to see him far away, Toothless could still hear Hiccup's cries, making the dragon more desperate to find his friend. As the cries for help became louder, he knew he was in the right direction. Toothless soon found Hiccup lying on the ground with the dragon from the mist mercilessly biting his friend. The enraged Night Fury ran straight at the transparent dragon, claws extended out. The mist saw Toothless coming towards him and quickly blended back into what was left of the surrounding fog. Toothless ran to Hiccup's side and fired at the dragon, but the dragon was gone.

Toothless turned his attention back to his wounded friend, hoping he wasn't seriously injured. Blood ran down Hiccup's arm, creating a red puddle underneath it. Hiccup saw the beast had left a tooth in his arm, but was in too much pain to care.

Hiccup looked up at his best friend, "Help me up, Toothless. We need to get back to Berk."

The Night Fury helped Hiccup onto his back and grabbed his sword before lifting off. The fog was now thin enough for Toothless to see clearly and safely travel back to Berk.

Back on the mysterious island, the misty Night Fury emerged from the fog, watching them leave with a sinister smile. A new tooth had already taken place of the one he had lost to the human. The dragon ran his tongue across his upper row of teeth, licking off the same substance he had just secreted into the boy that was now flowing through his system.