Chapter 1: Where Did All the Dragons Go?

…This is Berk boasting the kind of balmy fun-in-the-sun climate that'll give you frostbite on your spleen. The one upside is our annual holiday. We call it Snoggletog. Why we chose such a stupid name remains a mystery, but with the war long over, my cloak hiding my dragon half long gone, and dragons living amongst us, this year's Snoggletog promises to be one to remember.

Hiccup stopped writing in her journal at the sound of Toothless jumping on the roof and yelling for her to come out. Her ears went down with annoyance.

"Come on Hiccup, wake up! You've been in their long enough! It's time to fly! Wake! Up!"

Hiccup shook her head at the impatient dragon. She closed her notebook, and placed it down on the stand nearby.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!"

"…stupid reptile" she then muttered.

"I heard that!" he exclaimed and jumped on the roof once more. Hiccup was afraid he might one day make the roof give out and fall through. She'd have to fix his sleeping arrangements; maybe have him sleep in her room instead of the barn.

Since Toothless and the dragons began living in Berk Hiccup's Dragonese had improved immensely; she was able to find out that Toothless never had a real name only two months after the war ended. Evidently dragons didn't have names. They never had the concept for it, instead identifying each other by smell or looks. When speaking about one dragon or another they would simply use a name based on a description of the dragon in question. Toothless was actually grateful to be given an actual identity.

Now, she understood every word the dragons said; speaking, however, was a different story. Dragonese was a more complex language than she thought. The sounds sounded so similar but meant so many different things she couldn't mix up. Sometimes Toothless would just laugh during their lessons, either at how funny Hiccup sounded concentrating so hard, or when she mixed up a word for another. One example was when she said 'pig' instead of 'dad' when trying to say 'Dad said we could go flying today'; Toothless couldn't stop laughing and they had to stop the lesson short. It wasn't even that funny.

She grabbed her helmet and headed into the crisp cold winter air. Once outside Hiccup saw Toothless quite impatiently waiting for her while perched on the roof.

"Well good morning Mr. Bossy."

"I'm not bossy!"

"I'm not bossy", she tried mimicking in a tease. It came out sounding funny, but it was better than her last hundred attempts. And at least she said every word correctly.

"Do we always have to get up so early to go flyiiinn'—" She slipped on the ice with her metal leg, but Toothless caught her as always.

"Stupid leg", she muttered in an annoyed whisper.

"You okay?"

"Oh yeah, thanks buddy, I'm okay. We-we can go flying now—Ew-ew, what? Toothless?!" She exclaimed when he burped in her face.

"That's what you get for being late", he replied nudging her face affectionately.

She rolled her eyes at her stupid 'brother' and got out his prosthetic to go flying. Once they were in the air, above the clouds, they both couldn't wait to do some fast flying and tricks.

"Come on! Let's see what you've got today!"

Toothless dived down through the clouds to the ocean, Hiccup yelling out with glee, when they came across an arch. Instead of simply going over or under it, though, they were going to perform a new trick they had been trying for weeks. It allowed Hiccup to practice her flying a little while also flying with Toothless so he wouldn't feel left out. She was particularly excited to try to perform it again, even if Toothless wasn't—he could sometimes worry too much.

"Okay, you ready?" Not waiting for an answer, she unhooked her prosthetic from his, momentarily closing his fin up, and stood on his back. Toothless freaked out a little by it.

"Easy", she said, telling him to try to keep steady and to also calm down.

When they came up to the arch Hiccup jumped and spread her wings out, flying over the arch as Toothless flew underneath, and then she landed in his saddle opening the tail fin once more before he could fall.

"Yes! Finally!"

It might have been sloppy, but at least she was finally in the air for more than three seconds.

Meanwhile, decorations were being set up for Snoggletog in the village by both dragons and Vikings working together.

Aric and Astrid were putting up shields as decorations for the tree made from wood with their dragons, having a little competition.

"Are you ready girl?" Astrid asked Stormfly. She threw three shields up into the air, and Stormfly used her tail to shoot her spines into the shields to hang them up onto the tree.

"Ha! Beat that", she said to her brother.

He threw his three shields in his hands and then two more he quickly picked up into the air, and using her Nadder-like tail, Shadowstar shot her spines with perfect aim and speed into each shield and onto the tree.

"Beat that", he shot back smugly, proud of his wonderful Midnight Nadder.

"By Odin's beard Gobber. Vikings spending the winter holiday with dragons. What would our fathers say?" Stoick exclaimed to Gobber as they walked checking the progress of the preparations.

"They'd think we've lost our minds", Gobber responded.

Stoick let out a joyous laugh and stopped in front of the 'tree' to speak his approval to the village. "Well done! Well done, all of you! I've never thought I'd live to see this day; peace on the island of Berk. This will surely be the greatest holiday we've ever seen."

The crowd all cheered, Vikings and dragons alike, until a roar was heard. Everyone looked up and saw hundreds of dragons all flying in the same direction over Berk.

"What in Thor's name?" Gobber wondered, as did everyone else. A Monstrous Nightmare then roared out on one of the roof tops and all the dragons began to fly away, following the large group.

"Come back! Where are you going?!" Snotlout shouted, hanging from a roof.

Fishlegs gasped. "Meatlug!" he yelled, and he ran for his dragon.

All the Vikings stood there unable to understand what had gotten into their dragons, some beginning to panic.

"Where's Hiccup?" Aric worried. He turned to his sister but she had no clue either, and worried if she was okay as well.

"What do you say, bud? Want to go again?"

Toothless didn't get to answer though when a mass of dragons came flying towards them in the clouds. They swerved out of the way, trying not to get knocked out of the sky, when a dragon knocked Hiccup's helmet off.

"Oh no, my helmet! Woah…!" she screamed. At the exclamation of her helmet Toothless abruptly dived down to catch it.

"Toothless! Nononono! Whoa whoa whoa…wait! Toothless… stop." He finally did before hitting the water. "We'll get it later bud. We need to get back and figure out what's going on."

Toothless looked down at the water wanting to find the helmet that meant so much to his 'sister', being from her mother, but complied and they flew back to Berk.

When they arrived it was a mess. Vikings were trying to stop their dragons but to no avail.

"Nonono don't leave, Stormfly, don't go!"

"Shadowstar, no, comeback! Please!"

"Aric!" Hiccup called as she hopped off of Toothless immediately after landing.

"Hiccup! What's going on?! Where are they going?!"

Hiccup didn't get to answer as she was suddenly bombarded with questions from everyone, causing her tail to involuntarily go in between her legs with slight anxiety and stress.

"Why did they leave?!"

"What's happening?!"

"What if they never come back?!"

"Stop! Wait!" Hiccup tried, but only when her father intervened did they stop.

"Calm down! Give her a chance to speak!" He yelled, pushing his way through the crowd harshly. "Hiccup, where are all our dragons going?"

"Dad, I don't know…"

She turned to the sound of Toothless and Shadowstar.

"Come on Toothless."

"I can't, I'm sorry."

"Oh right…your tail", she said apologetically. "Why not just ask Hiccup? I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"No…I've got something more important to take care of. Just go."

"If you say so…" Shadowstar said as she began to fly off with the rest.

"…but I know who might", Hiccup finished. "Toothless!" she called as she ran up to him. "Where are all the dragons going?"

"They're all going to have their hatchlings. Why?"

Hiccup ignored his question to translate what he said to her father and the village. "He says they're all going to have their babies."

"Does he know when they'll be back?!" a Viking in the crowd asked.

She turned her head to Toothless who was now beside her, and he shook his head. "No", she said sadly.