Astrid was not in a good mood.

After a few hours fitful dreams when she did manage to fall asleep, she was tired and angry – at the Outcasts, at everything. All she had to help her rescue Hiccup was two dragons; Toothless would be a big help, but she could tell the other Night Fury was still hesitant, and the dragon had wanted to kill her a little three hours ago.

She lay uncomfortably on the hard ground. There was no grass on the island. Maybe if they had Dragon Nip the savage people would've been able to tame dragons; thank Thor they hadn't managed it. But with Hiccup in their clutches...

She rolled over from her side onto her back and looked up at the sky. The storm clouds that had still been drifting through it were retreating, and the sky was dotted with stars still; there was no point in getting up. She closed her eyes, willing herself to fall back asleep, but it was useless and the blonde girl knew it.

She sat up. Toothless was near her, and he lifted his head from his paws to look at her, his green eyes shining with concern. She scratched underneath his chin and he made a sad purring sound as he pushed his head further into her palm. "I know," she told him sadly. "I'm worried about him too." He made a crooning noise.

A pair of luminous blue eyes in the dark a little while away told her the female (it's growls had been higher pitched, so she could only assume) was awake as well. Astrid couldn't meet her eyes, so she looked back at Toothless, seeing a sliver of the familiar brown saddle on the dragon's back.

"That can't be comfortable," she said to Toothless. She stood up, stretched and moved to the saddle. "Do you want me to take it off?" She asked and put a hand on one of the various straps. Toothless shook his head. She frowned, but she didn't know the dragon like Hiccup did, so she left it at that. "Alright you stubborn reptile." She scratched the area near his ear plates, her tone filled with affection.

Then she sat down again, oddly feeling a bit better. "Try to get some sleep Toothless." She rolled over, and closed her eyes; her eyelids were strangely heavy. Within a few minutes, she quickly fell asleep, hoping to rescue Hiccup and find Stormfly soon.

Toothless made a quiet but pleased rumbling noise at the sight of it. "Good. She'll need her strength." He felt that someone was staring at him, so he turned to look at Jaci. "What?" It came out sounding harsher than he meant it to; but after all, it was partially her fault Hiccup had been captured in the first place.

"Your concern for the humans," she answered. Dragon vision was much better than human's – especially Night Furies, since they were born to fly at night – and he could see her tail sweep across the dirt and stop near the side facing him. "It's interesting. Unusual."

"I'm an unusual dragon," he said shortly.

"Clearly," she agreed. She paused for a moment. "How did you befriend him?"

"You mean Hiccup?"

He could see her nod.

"It's a long story." The last thing he wanted to do was talk or think about Hiccup. Who knew what those Outcasts were doing to his boy!

"I don't think we'll be leaving any time soon," she countered.

He snorted, annoyed. He supposed it was better than endlessly worrying about the Viking. "Alright. Well, it begins on an island the humans call Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. His village; in a word? Sturdy. It's been here for seven generations, but every single building was new – well that's what Hiccup tells me. They have fishing, hunting and a charming view of the sunsets. I've seen them; it's beautiful... Getting off topic.

"Anyway, us dragons had to attack this island to feed the queen of our nest, who would eat us if we didn't. So one night I was leading a raid, and doing my usual thing – blowing stuff up and striking fear into the hearts of men, whatever -" Jaci smiled. "- when out of nowhere, this thing comes at me and traps me and I fell all the way to this place on Berk called Raven Point. I was just gaining consciousness, and all I could think about was the pain – cause it hurt like Hel – when I heard this tiny little voice. I managed to open my eyes to see Hiccup.

"Anyway, he was holding a little dagger. He was saying he was going to cut my heart out and take it to his father. All I could do was stare at him and wait for death. But then he cut the ropes." Toothless lifted his head slightly and then put it back on top of his paws. "And you have to understand," he added. "That if he had followed through, it would have fixed everything bad in his life.

"He told me all about it, because I was the first person who ever listened to him. His dad was always disappointed, all the other kids bullied him, and everyone thought he was weak. A screw-up."

Jaci's blue eyes widened, pity swelling up inside of her. She forced it down. This was a boy. A human boy.

"If he had killed me, his village would've accepted him. He would've been famous, loved by his father. All these problems would've gone away. But he couldn't do it. So once I was free, I pinned him down and was prepared to kill him. . . But I couldn't do it."

"Why not?" Jaci asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

" I. . . I looked at him, and I saw myself." Toothless closed his eyes, thinking of all the horrible things the Outcasts' could be doing to His Boy. When he got his claws on them. . . They would wish they had never been born. "We eventually became friends and he helped me fly again. Our first real flight was a disaster, but it was then I realized how much he meant to me. A few days later, he came back to the cove where I was, saying that we were taking a little vacation – forever."

"He was running away?"

Toothless nodded. "In his village, killing a dragon was everything, and I guess they train the young how to defend themselves, and the best fighter is chosen to have the so-called honour of killing a Monstrous Nightmare. And due to befriending me, he had become the best. He knew he couldn't do it, so he decided to run away. Only things didn't work out. One of his peers – the girl," He jerked his black head towards Astrid's sleeping form, "followed him before we left, and she discovered me.

"He managed to convince her to go for a ride and changed her mind. He went to the Nightmare-killing, only he tried to show that we weren't ruthless killers but his dad provoked it and it attacked him. I managed to claw my way out of the cove and rescue him, but I got captured and was forced to take them to the Nest. Hiccup had convinced the other teens to ride on the other dragons but once they were out of action, Hiccup and I took on the Queen. We managed to defeat her by shooting a plasma blast in her mouth and it made her explode – but my artificial tail fin got burned, so I couldn't move out of the way and the huge tail hit us.

"H- Hiccup was knocked off of me." Toothless' voice cracked. "I managed to dive into the flames after me and shelter him with my wings, but in order to do so I grabbed his leg with my teeth. They couldn't salvage it. They managed to get him to the island by going on dragon-back and he woke up after a few weeks. I was the only one there at the time, and I helped him walk to the door."

Jaci was silent for a long time, and just when Toothless thought she had fallen asleep, she spoke. "He took away your ability to fly, and you. . . forgave him?"

"Yes. I took his leg, and he forgives me." Smoke curled out of his nostrils, his large green eyes full of sadness. "I hope I get him back soon. Who knows what those humans are doing to him."

Jaci closed her eyes, and although the other Night Fury fell asleep a few minutes later, she stayed awake for a long time. This boy was dearer to Toothless than even a hatchling would be to its parent – she had never seen something like it, not even between two dragons, let alone a dragon and a human.

This Hiccup boy was special, and she would do her part to rescue him.

###

The ropes dug into Hiccup's skin as the Outcasts tightened the net and then tossed him into a cell. He hit the hard floor with a groan, but landed on his back, so it felt like nothing was broken. A small knife was tossed next to him. Savage leered at him.

"Have fun getting yourself outta that boy. We're gonna go Night Fury hunting." The burly man left.

Hiccup, with restricted limb room, struggled to get the knife handle, but eventually managed it, and began to cut himself free. He had to get out of here and make a new tail for Toothless. Astrid was still out there, and what he had made her promise at the Kill Ring still stood.

Astrid, if something... goes wrong, just make sure they don't find Toothless.
I will.

After a lot of sawing the thick ropes with the dagger, he was finally free and sat up, rubbing his sore wrists. He vaguely wondered where the other dragons were and the other teens, and if the two Night Furies and Astrid were alright. The scrawny boy hoped so.

He knew the Outcasts wouldn't kill him while they still needed him, so he would stand firm in his resolution. He couldn't train their dragons.

"Be safe Toothless," he whispered to himself, staring up at the stone ceiling and wishing he could just see his friends safe and well. "You useless reptile."

He fell asleep hours later.

###

Sunlight hit Astrid brightly in the face. Her vision was blurry, and she blinked it away. Toothless and the female Night Fury were perking up already. She pushed herself into a sitting position, checking that Hiccup's old dagger was still in her boot, but not taking it out due to the untrained dragon.

The blonde Viking went to get up, but winced at the twinge of pain she felt. Toothless saw it on her face and moved over to her. There was a cut on her arm that went unnoticed in the adrenaline, worry and darkness of the night before. Toothless licked the cut. It stung, but slowly the cut faded to a small scab.

"Thanks Toothless." She gave the dragon a small smile and scratched behind his ear plates. The female dragon watched them curiously, Astrid noted.

"It's alright," she said, using Hiccup's words whenever he encountered a wild dragon. "I'm not going to hurt you." She took a few steps forward and Jaci bared her teeth. Astrid stopped moving. "It's okay," she tried to reassure the female. She then realized the dragon could probably smell the metal of the dagger. She reached into her boot and took it out and tossed it a good distance away.

Jaci cocked her head to the side, thinking hard.

"It's alright," Toothless told her. Jaci gave him a cautious look, and then slowly moved closer to the teenager. Astrid brightened considerably, and, encouraged, took a few steps forward. Jaci didn't do anything to stop her.

Finally, when they were very close, Astrid stretched out her arm, her palm inches away from Jaci's snout. Jaci ducked under it – she was not going to bond with a human. She was still a Night Fury. Toothless had needed Hiccup to fly – she didn't need anyone, and she wasn't going to let anything like that happen.

Astrid felt disappointment settle in her stomach, but figured it was the best she was going to get out of the dragon. Toothless shot the female dragon an annoyed look, and Jaci growled at him. Astrid took a few steps back, wary, wondering if she had done something to upset the female.

Very quickly, Jaci's head snapped towards the trees surrounding their clearing. There were loud voices. Astrid gasped, happiness swelling up inside of her like a balloon.

"Ouch!"

"Would you stop being such a big baby – jeeze Fishlegs –"

"It's not my fault, these branches are pointy and rough – and we haven't found the others or our dragons and it's been a few days –"

"I'm here, we're fine –"

"Fishlegs?" Astrid called, joy creeping into her voice. "Snotlout?"

Snotlout – looking battered and tired – came stumbling into the clearing quickly; she had never been so happy to see him in her life. Fishlegs came too, his fur dress-like outfit caked with mud like a trim. Jaci growled angrily and backed away quickly, stretching her wings.

"It's alright, they're friends!" Toothless said hastily. Jaci still kept her distance and continued to growl quietly.

"Are you okay?" Astrid said anxiously.

"Of course we are, I was there the whole time," Snotlout bragged. Astrid was so happy to see them she didn't even roll her eyes.

"Is that a female Night Fury?" Fishlegs asked excitedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a young child. "Fascinating! They're smaller, and slimmer. Ooh, she has blue eyes – is that the same for just the females or –"

Astrid cut him off. "We have bigger problems to deal with; Hiccup was captured by the Outcasts last night. I have no idea where the twins are either."

"What?" Fishlegs frowned, his brow furrowing. "How did he get captured? Ambush?"

Astrid nodded grimly. "There were too many. We were heading into the village at night to try to figure out where everyone was, and they got him and left, saying they would come back for Toothless later."

"So, is there a plan?" Fishlegs said after a moment of silence.

"So far, no," Astrid said dully, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear only for it to fall back into place. She ignored it this time.

Then there were some sounds of two people fighting. "You don't think that's Ruff and Tuff do you?" Snotlout said.

"It could be, there is a large source of water over here – that's why we headed over here," Fishlegs said. He moved towards the noise, yelping and coming back as quickly as possible. "Not Ruff and Tuff! Outcasts!" He was already almost across the large clearing. "RUN!"

Four beefy men broke through the trees, armed to the teeth. Astrid lunged for her dagger and picked it up just in time. Then, the two teens and dragons heeded the large boy's advice and sprinted away, the Outcasts hot in pursuit.

Sorry for the delay everyone. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.