Early on in our friendship I became acquainted with Hiccup's scream. It sounded like a combination of a midget dragon and rusty metal and was ridiculously loud. The next morning I was napping when I swore I heard it. Somehow, I knew that my human was in trouble. I realized then how close we were. Frantically, I literally clawed my way out of the cove and ran to where his scream was coming from, gliding when I could and desperately wishing for my other tail fin. When I got there I took the situation at a glace.

Some sort of fighting ring had been hewn from the rock and was capped with metal bars and chains. In the ring a Monstrous Nightmare had Hiccup pinned down. The list of who could hurt Hiccup contained only two, and the Nightmare was not on it. Not even bothering to slow down, I blasted my way into the ring and jumped onto its back. A short fight ensued, with me trying to get it away from Hiccup. The Nightmare was no match for me, and I was able to get between it and him. This was my human, and no one could kill him except me. With a few threats the Nightmare ran off. Hiccup ran up and pushed me in an effort to get me to leave.

"Alright Toothless, go! Get out of here!"

Maybe he had forgotten the slight detail that I couldn't fly anywhere without him on my back. Humans began pouring into the ring, and Hiccup became more urgent.

"Go, go!"

A particular human caught my attention. He was the leader of the humans, the one most dragons called the Brown Death and probably the most dangerous. He also happened to be in front of the only available exit and running in my direction. Knocking other humans out if the way, I ran and pinned him to the ground. I was about to blast him when I heard Hiccup shout, "NO!" A little unsure, I stopped and looked at him. Are you sure about this? Something hit me in the side of my face and a bunch of human tackled me and pinned me to the ground. I glared at the Brown Death, unable to move, waiting for him to take the weapon someone held out to him and kill me. Instead, he pushed the weapon away.

"Put it with the others."

Making no attempt to be gentle, the humans quickly muzzled me and dragged me into an enclosure. The doors shut, leaving me in total darkness. I felt around and quickly discovered that the space was tiny and had only one exit. Discouraged, I spent the time wondering who I wanted to kill first: Hiccup, the Nightmare, or the Brown Death. I was sure Hiccup didn't mean for this to happen. The Nightmare was just defending itself. That left the Brown Death, who, I was sure, was responsible for Hiccup almost getting killed in the first place. I was coming up with the most painful ways to kill him when the doors opened. By the time my eyes adjusted to the light I was trussed up and being dragged in a most undignified manner to a cliff overlooking where all the ships were. I was forced through metal hoops set in thick wood so that I couldn't use my wings. Then they put a huge section of a tree, chained to the wood under my feet, around my neck. After being forced to suffer through all that, they put me on one of their ships. Yep, life pretty much sucked. The Brown Death walked past me.

"Lead us home, devil." he spat.

I glared at him before hanging my head in defeat. This was the end. Sorry, Hiccup, it was nice knowing you.

I had mixed emotions as we sailed. Anger at the Brown Death and fate, of course, and a bit of sadness and regret. But there was also fear. Yes, I was frightened for the second time in my life. I was once again completely at the mercy of a human, and this one seemed to be the total opposite of Hiccup. We reached the mist-enshrouded rocks that marked the beginning of dragon territory. The pull became so strong that I, to my shame, led the humans right through the mist. The sound of dragons grew louder, reaching a crescendo as my ship hit the pebbly beach of the Nest. The Brown Death jumped out, and the noises stopped. Someone had intruded upon the abode of dragons.

"We're here."

The other humans landed and began setting up rock throwers and unloading weapons. Stakes were sharpened and thrust in the ground. The stakes were going to be next to useless if a dragon set them on fire. At last everything was ready, and the rock throwers began pelting the mountainside. A hole opened into one of the many tunnels that wound through the mountain. There were cheers as the Brown Death stood in front of it. With a couple of signals the cheers stopped and a fireball was launched into the hole, revealing hundreds of dragons covering almost every inch of the tunnel. The Brown Death yelled as he charged in, and the dragons took flight. Those stupid humans thought they had chased them off and cheered. I sensed different. The Green Death was coming, and it wasn't going to be pretty. The Brown Death must have sensed something as well, for he told the others to form their ranks. Sure enough, the rocks began splitting and a massive roar caused the ships to rock at anchor. The humans began running as the Green Death emerged. The rock throwers only served to make it angrier and were destroyed one by one. Someone yelled for everyone to get to the ships. Idiots. The Green Death spewed flames everywhere and the ships caught fire, including the one I was on. This was probably the end for me.

The humans were running, all except the Brown Death and another who, during the course of the voyage, I had begun to think of as Stumpy. They seemed to be trying the distract it from the other humans. They were both about to die when a burst of flame struck the Green Death. Four dragons flew by, each with one or two humans on them. After some more flying a Nadder flew close. Hiccup jumped off and told Astrid, also on the Nadder, to go help the others. Astrid flew off, and he pulled the muzzle off and tried to free me. My relief at seeing him faded as the various methods he tried failed. The Green Death's tail struck the ships, causing a mast to almost crush Hiccup. It stepped on the front of the ship, and the ship disintegrated. I plunged into the icy water, still trapped. Hiccup dived in after me and continued to try to free me but was still unable to do so. Bubbles escaped from his mouth as he let go, succumbing to the cold and lack of air. We were both going to drown. Something grabbed him and pulled him away, much to my alarm. A few seconds later the Brown Death swam in front of me. We stared at each other for a moment, then he broke open the collar. I got out from under the hoops, grabbed him, and shot our of the water. Dropping him on the beach, I landed, shook the water off, and looked at Hiccup. Time to deal with the Brown Death later.

"You got it, bud." Hiccup said as he ran and jumped on.

"Hiccup!" the Brown Death caught hold of his arm, "I'm sorry. For-for everything." OK, I'd think about not killing him.

"Yeah, me too." Oh, no. Now was not the time for a heart-to-heart talk.

"You don't have to go up there." Um, yeah, he kind of did.

"We're vikings. It's an occupational hazard." Could we just go already?

"I'm proud to call you my son."

"Thanks, Dad." The Brown Death was Hiccup's dad? Whoa, didn't see that coming. Hiccup looked at me and we took off, soaring into the air. As I climbed I saw one of the humans jump off the Green Death's head (why on earth was he up there?) onto a Zippleback. The Green Death began sucking the Nadder—and Astrid—into its mouth. A fast dive and a blast in the mouth stopped it, but knocked Astrid off in the process. I turned and dived, catching her by the foot.

"Did you get her?"

I looked down. Astrid smiled, and I smiled back. Deftly flipping her so that I caught hold of her arms, I set her down and flew off. I had bigger problems to worry about than Hiccup's girlfriend. As we passed over the Green Death, Hiccup said, "That thing has wings! All right, let's see if it can use them!" My guess would be that it could. Only one way to find out. We flew up, turned, and dived. A picture-perfect hit, then back into the air.

"You think that did it?"

The Green Death roared behind us. I'd say yes.

"Well, it can fly."

Duh. We flew in between the rocks. The Death just crashed through them, getting a little too close for comfort.

"OK, Toothless. Time to disappear!"

We shot upwards, towards the overcast sky. Narrowly avoiding a jet of flame, we made it into the clouds. Once we were relatively safe, Hiccup told me to aim for the wings. Nothing easier. Those things were too big to miss. The Death roared as it turned this way and that, trying to find us. I hit it from behind and veered around it, hitting the wings with my usual impressive accuracy. Very angry, the Death began spewing fire everywhere. We barely managed to miss it, but in the process of dodging the tail fin caught on fire. Oh, great.

"OK, time's up. Let's see if this works."

With a bit of catch-me-if-you-can and other taunts we dived, the Death close behind. I was beginning to get nervous, as my steering was approaching nil.

"Stay with me, buddy. We're good. Just a little bit longer."

I sure hoped Hiccup knew what he was doing. We were getting pretty close to crashing.

"Hold, Toothless." I hoped he timed this right. "Now!"

I flipped over and shot a blast into its mouth. Fire blossomed. Then we were out of the clouds. The Death opened its wings, but had too many holes in them to stop. I flipped right side up and opened my wings, almost flying right between its jaws. It crashed and...exploded. Not a wussy little boom. I'm talking about the kind that could level half the island the humans lived on. The explosion raced upwards. We were flying along the death's back, unable to get clear. I had practically no control. The Death's tail loomed up suddenly, and we crashed into it. Hiccup was knocked off and fell towards the inferno. I did my best to catch up to him, racing gravity and flame. We were in the fire before I caught hold of him. Wrapping my wings around him to keep him safe from the flames, I prayed that we were not too far above the ground. Fire battered at me, trying to get me to relinquish my prize. When I did find the ground, I hit it so hard I was knocked unconscious.

A voice. I opened my eyes. Hiccup's dad was kneeling in front of me, looking sorrowful. OK, not on my hit list anymore.

"I'm so...I'm so sorry." his voice choked with emotion. All right, he was clear. I unfolded my wings and showed him my precious burden.

"Hiccup!" he stumbled over and took Hiccup. Throwing off his helmet, he pressed an ear to Hiccup's chest to see of he was alive, which of course he was. Why would I have saved him if he wasn't?

"He's alive! You brought him back alive!"

There was cheering, and I noticed all the other humans, as well as some dragons, gathered a short distance away. Hiccup's dad put his hand gently on my head. I was too hurt to object.

"Thank you, for saving my son."

Stumpy came over. "Well, you know, most of him."

I would like to point out that one, Hiccup was alive, and two, I didn't see you out there risking your life to save him. Too tired to really be angry, I let it slide.

I don't remember much of the trip back, except that I got to one of the surviving ships under my own power, slept most of the way, and stayed as close to Hiccup as possible. Sometime during the trip, when I was asleep, they took off the ruined flying gear. I was fine with that. It wasn't of much use now. With a little bit of growling on my part I was allowed to stay in the same place as Hiccup. They even moved is bed into the big area so I wouldn't take up all the room. After a few days I was fully recovered. It took that long for Hiccup just to wake up. I was waiting—very patiently, I might add—by his bed when he opened his eyes. I nudged him gently, relieved that he was OK, then a little more forcefully. He'd been lying in bed long enough. I'm afraid I accidentally stepped on him, so I backed off. He moaned a little before stopping in surprise.

"I'm in my house. Um, you're in my house..."

I was so glad he was awake I didn't listen to what he said next but bounded around, nudged him, then jumped up onto a wooden beam. This place had all sorts of interesting things in it.

"Toothless! Aw, come on..." he made a move to get up, stopped, and lifted up the blanket. I got down and took a few steps towards him. He looked sad as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. The right foot was fine. The left, ironically, had been replaced with a wood and metal contraption. I sniffed at it, being unfamiliar with it, before looking up at Hiccup. He had my empathy. Now we were both cripples. He took a couple of deep breaths and stood. I backed off a bit. He managed to take one step, took a deep breath, and tried another, but stumbled and fell. I caught him and helped him back up. He put his arm around my neck and leaned on me.

"OK."he said softly. Then, louder, "Thanks, bud."

For some reason, I didn't mind him calling me all those ridiculous names anymore. We headed for the door. He opened it and immediately slammed it shut again when he saw a Monstrous Nightmare's head.

"Toothless, stay here."

All right, but not for long. He opened the door again and stepped outside to see dragons and people everywhere.

"I knew it. I'm dead." I hoped not, after all that work I put into saving him. Hiccup's dad laughed as he came up.

"No, but you gave it your best shot. So, what do you think?"

They walked down the stairs and were soon surrounded by people. I also happened to notice a midget dragon or two. Great. Astrid punched Hiccup before kissing him. With any luck he wouldn't get so infatuated that he forgot about me. I wasn't too worried about that, though. I had ways of making my presence known. I waited until Stumpy gave Hiccup what could only be new flying equipment before bounding down, jumping over or on people when they wouldn't get out of my way. Just as I thought, Hiccup was holding a newly-made saddle and tail fin. I almost shuddered with anticipation. It was time to go flying.

...

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