I seem to have accidentally posted chapter eight twice. Oops. I'm pretty sure that one of them isn't edited. But you know, what evs. The deepest circle of hell is for traitors, folks, not creepy fan fiction writers with awful spelling and grammar.

This is the final chapter, but I'll write a sequel if anyone's interested. PM me if you have any suggestions, or post them in your review. I also like to write collaboratively so if you're interested in collaborating let me know. I love making new Internet friends.

All reviews for chapter nine will be responded to.

Chapter 9

Fishlegs looked down at his large hands, and found that they where shaking. He attempted to steady them but discovered that this was an impossible task. It was about midnight, and he was standing at the center of the village square, waiting for Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Snotlout to arrive.

A part of him was really wishing that they wouldn't bother to show up. Maybe they didn't care that much about bullying Hiccup. Maybe they had better things to do, like studying for the upcoming combat exam, or getting waisted at one of the many convenient nearby pubs, or sleeping.

"Fishlegs!" called Tuffnut, a few hundred yards aways. "I brought the clubs!"

...and maybe Oden would put on a hula skit and dance the funky chicken.

"Don't shout, moron!" shouted Ruffnut, smacking her brother upside the head. "This is supposed to be a covert operation!"

"And no one's better at operating covertly than you, Ruffnut," retorted Tuffnut sarcastically. "Am I right?"

"Shut up!" snarled Ruffnut. This seemed to be the wittiest reply she could come up with.

"You shut up!" snapped Tuffnut.

"Would you both shut up," interjected Snotlout dryly. "Even an idiot like Useless will hear you morons coming a mile a way."

"He's got a point, doesn't he?" said Ruffnut folding her arms.

The previous day, they had debated the method by which they would "give that wimp Hiccup exactly what he deserved." It had been a long tedious debate, and its purpose had been to tempt the sadistic whiles of its participants, rather than to construct any kind of coherent scheme. Tuffnut seemed to have his heart set on breaking a few of the loser's ribs with a club. The idea sounded dangerous...and possibly fatal. Fishlegs had pointed this out meekly, voicing his concern that Tuffnut may strike Hiccup on the head, and kill him, but for the most part this comment had been ignored. The young vikings where more concerned with devising their own methods of "giving that wimp Hiccup exactly what he deserved." Snotlout was more of traditionalist. His method of choice was his fist. Ruffnut tended to favor physiological torment. However, she could also be quite violent.

Tuffnut, Ruffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs moved very quietly, taking care to hide in the shadows of the wooden huts that lined the village streets. They listened intently for the sound of Hiccup's familiar shuffling gait.

"I see him..." whispered Ruffnut excitedly. She pointed off into the distance where the skinny boy was making his way into the wilderness. He seemed to be carrying a large, wicker, basket.

"Let's move." whispered Tuffnut.

The four vikings moved slowly, navigating quietly through the village. They where careful to keep a distance of at least two hundred feet between themselves and Hiccup, taking care to avoid any small twigs that might break under their feet and alert the boy the their presence. It was like tracking animals for the feast at Winter Solstice, except different. After all, they weren't hunting animals this time. They where hunting Hiccup.

It was a difficult, tedious, process, and quite frankly, a lot of things might have gone wrong. They could have stumbled on some mysterious object hidden in the shadow of the dense foliage, or bumped into something, or perhaps even tripped over their own feet (it was quite dark, after all). It would have been very easy for Fishlegs to alert Hiccup to their presence without making it obvious that he had done it on purpose...and yet he couldn't seem to muster up the courage. The other Vikings where beginning to suspect Fishlegs of being traitorous, and if he became responsible for Hiccup's escape...well that may confirm their suspicions.

"I think its time," whispered Snotlout when they where about ten miles away from the village.

Tuffnut and Ruffnut nodded to indicate that the agreement was unanimous. Gradually they began to close the distance between themselves and their victim.

"Gotcha!" shouted Tuffnut ceasing Hiccup by the hair and pulling him backward.

Hiccup let out a yelp of surprise and elbowed Tuffnut in the jaw, forcing him to release his grip.

"Your gonna pay for that!" shouted Ruffnut.

She sprinted forward, drawing her club. Snotlout did the same.

The girl swung her club low and struck Hiccup's knee caps. Her intention had been to crush his testicles like grapes, but this move seemed to have worked just as well. The boy fell, letting out a sharp cry of pain, before he hit the ground. He landed on his wounded backside, and yelped. The other vikings began to laugh at him.

"Ah ha ha! I don't believe what a loser, you are!" cackled Tuffnut.

"Yea, really," said Snotlout. "I mean, you trusted a guy who shot you in the ass with an arrow! How fucking stupid can you be?"

"What are you ta-" Hiccup began, but then he noticed Fishlegs standing a few feet away under the shadow of a low hanging branch, and understood completely. Fishlegs had pretended to be his friend, in order to trick him into revealing personal information that could be exploited. Hiccup had made the foolish mistake of telling him that he sunk off into the wood every night, and the bastards had used the opportunity to catch him vulnerable and alone.

Hiccup's kneecaps felt like they where on fire, and he hoped to the gods that they weren't broken. He attempted to lift himself up, but Snotlout put a hand on his chest and pushed him back down. Hiccup fell backwards on his ass and let out another yelp of pain. He attempted to blink back the tears that were welling in the corners of his eyes, but found that they had already leaked out over his cheeks and stained the collar of his jacket. He was so ashamed. It was dark, and he was scared and in pain, and lying there in the fetal position crying while some bullies beat him up. He didn't even really blame them...not really. Someone like him deserved to get beat up. He was stupid, useless, worthless and didn't have any friends...and on top of that he was a cry baby. Of course, thinking of that just made him cry harder. And the other kids continued to laugh at him as they kicked him and punched him, and smacked him with their clubs.

"Aw! Poor Hiccup!" cackled Ruffnut sarcastically as she kicked him in the ribs, and the force of the blow rolled him onto his stomach. "Poor Hiccup is hurt and crying! And his mommy can't save him...cause she's dead!"

Tuffnut swung his foot backward and kicked Hiccup hard in the butt. Hiccup screamed and tried to craw away. Snotloutstomped on his hands as a way of thwarting his pitiful attempt at escape, soliciting fresh sobs.

"Do you think that maybe you killed her," Ruffnut asked, acquiring a falsely empathetic expression. "I mean maybe she found out what a piece of crap you are and then sort of just...died."

Tuffnut kicked him in the butt a second time, and the old wound bled fresh.

"S-stop it!" Hiccup wept. "Leave me alone!"

"Stop it! Leave me alone!" mocked Tuffnut. His impression of Hiccup's nasally weeping was rather accurate, which didn't help at all.

...

Fishlegs couldn't stand himself. He really couldn't. He didn't want to see Hiccup hurt, but he didn't want to see himself hurt ether, and that was a bit more important. Of course that didn't negate the fact that he had betrayed Hiccup. That poor kid had been through so much shit already, and subjecting him to this torment was just plain terrible. But it was more than terrible wasn't it? It was...evil.

Fishlegs could hear Hiccup's tear choked screams somewhere off in the distance, as he began to trudge back to the village, turning a blind eye the the humiliating torment that was surely being inflicted upon his friend (ex-friend, definitely.) The screams continued to follow him, as he made his way into the pitch blackness that was the surrounding wilderness, and he knew at once that he had committed a wicked act that would leave his soul wretched and blackened beyond repair.

He saw someone's blond head poking out from beneath the twisted foliage, and stopped. The head slid down into the safety of those dew frosted leaves, and vanished almost as suddenly as it had appeared. Fishlegs approached it cautiously.

"Astrid?" he asked confusedly.

Astrid, who had been hiding in a bush, apparently, rose from her hiding place and glared at Fishlegs. It was a glare that said "God damn it, my hiding skills are beyond reproach!"

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"I was just...you know...watching," she replied.

"Do you ever get tired of creeping me out?"

"No, not really," replied Astrid after brief contemplation.

Fishlegs thought to him self for a moment and then said to her: "Astrid, please, you have to go tell someone that this is happening!"

"Your right...I should get Stoic." she replied. There was a hint of self loathing in her voice.

She thought about this for a moment and then began to glare at Fishlegs again.

"Hold on a minute? Why do you need me to run for help? You've got two legs that aren't broken!"

"Astrid!" pleaded Fishlegs desperately. "I want to keep them that way! If they find out I told on them then I'll be in Hiccup's position, and they won't do anything to you, 'cause you're a girl."

"Ok, so maybe you have a point," said Astrid, and the two of them stomped off in the direction of the village.

...

Toothless could hear screaming. Hiccup's screaming. The boy was hurt, there was no mistake about that, and a blind, animal, rage came over the dragon. His thoughts were wild and as red as blood, and he began to charge in the direction of the noise.

As he drew closer he began to hear the words that where spoken. He couldn't understand most of them, because he was a dragon and drangons don't speak English, but the intonation made it rather obvious that the boy was in agony.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," he wept pitifully.

"Shut up, you worthless shit!" shouted one of the bullies, and there was a loud thwacking sound that indicated the administration of a blow.

The dragon could see them now, they were standing in a circle around the weeping boy, hitting him and kicking, and laughing as though this where some kind of a hilarious joke.

The dragon roared and stretched his wings to their full capacity, letting out a bolt of fire.

It hit the hunch backed girl with the stupid grin, and she began to scream.

"My hair's on fire!" she shrieked. "My fucking hair's ON FIRE!"

There where two boys with her, a skinny blond one, and a muscular brunette, and they both started screaming as well.

"Fucking DRAGON!" shouted the skinny blond boy, charging at Toothless with his club.

The dragon swung his tails and hit the blond in the chest. The boy went flying and hit the trunk of a tree face first. Blood was dripping down his forehead, and into his horrified eyes, leaving him temporarily blind.

The bigger boy with short auburn hair came at him next, and the dragon batted him in the face with one of of his giant claws. He was too strong to knock down, but the rough scales left deep gashes in his face and neck. The boy swung his club a second time, but the dragon caught it in his teeth and tossed it into the underbrush a few hundred yards to the left.

"Fuck!" shrieked Ruffnut. Her hair was still on fire, and she beat a her head furiously trying to put it out.

Tuffnut was leaning against a tree, trying very hard not to slip into unconsciousness. The dragon spit fire in his direction and missed. The fire hit a large oak tree several miles away. And it burned eerily in the distance, a pillar of brilliant blue flames.

"I'll kill you, dragon!" shouted the brunette stupidly, and the Toothless spat a flame in his direction as well. The boy dodged it quickly, and turned to flee.

"SHHHIIIIIIT!" he screeched and he sprinted off into the distance. The other too where right behind him, cursing and screaming their heads off. Toothless grinned to himself as he watched them flee.

The rising sun was on the horizon. It's warm, glow illuminated the bloody, beaten boy that lay crumpled on the forest floor, weeping softly.

"Poor, poor, Hiccup," thought Toothless. He nundeged the boy with his head, and the boy petted the dragon's nose.

"Thanks toothless," said Hiccup quiety. "Thanks for(he sniffled)...for saving me..."

Hiccup's face was bleeding, and badly bruised. He had two black eyes, and some of his teeth where missing. Toothless didn't like that at all and he licked the boy's face several times, hoping to relieve the pain of his injuries.

"Oh Toothless!" cried Hiccup, letting out a torrent of fresh sobs. "Why was I so stupid? Why did I trust him?"

The dragon curled himself around the boy so that he was protected on all sides by luminous blue-black scales. Hiccup put his arms around the Dragon's neck and hugged him.

"Why won't I stop crying!" he shouted angrily. "I wanna stop crying but I...but I c-ca-can't! It hurts so bad! And I don't think I'll ever be...I'll ever be happy again!"

He buried his face in his hands.

"I guess I really am just a worthless piece of crap..." he sniffled.

Toothless nuzzled him.

"Yea, I love you too, buddy," sniffed Hiccup, patting the dragon's nose. "But I've gotta go back to the village, because if I don't then they'll come out here looking for me, and if they do that then they'll find you."

Hiccup took a deep breath, and attempted to hoist himself into a standing position, leaning against the dragon's scaly stomach for support. His kneecaps throbbed painfully, and he resisted the urge to let his legs crumple and fold underneath of him. Carefully, he leaned away from the dragon, and attempted to put some weight on his right ankle. It felt like it was broken, but maybe it was just sprained.

"Oh ouch...," he moaned, when he was finally standing on his own. The pain in his ankle was excruciating, and his knees shook violently struggling to collapse under the weight of his body.

He stumbled forward clumsily, grabbing onto one of the branches of a nearby pine tree, but the weight of Hiccup's body coupled with the impact of the sudden collision caused the branch to snap, and he fell.

"Oh gods this hurts..." Hiccup whimpered, wrapping his arms arround himself, and closing his eyes tightly.

Toothless walked over to him, and licked his face again.

"I just need a branch or...or something to lean on." muttered Hiccup desperately.

He spotted the branch that had broken off of the pine tree, lying just a few inches to his right, and reached for it. It would make a decent walking stick, he decided.

Slowly, and very carefully, he lifted him self up, using the tree branch for support. He leaned on it sightly, to test its strength, and was quite relieved that it didn't snap. Emboldened by this small success, he began to limp forward, leaning on the branch to relieve the pressure on his bruised legs.

"I'm going back to the village," said Hiccup to the dragon even though he knew that Toothless wouldn't understand him. "So you stay here...because if any humans find you...they'll kill you."

...

Hiccup had been walking for about twenty minuets, and he was exhausted.

"I should probably rest for a little while," he thought to himself desperately. "But just a little while."

He lowered himself carefully onto the ground, and hugged his knees to his chest, closing his eyes tightly. A part of him was hoping that his father really had sent someone out to look for him, sure it would be dangerous for Toothless, but it would also mean that maybe he didn't have to walk all the way back to the village himself. Not only that but maybe...maybe it would mean that his dad really did love him after all.

He was half asleep now, and he could hear voices. He wasn't exactly sure if he was dreaming them or if they were real. He decided that maybe it was just a really real sounding dream, and didn't bother to open his eyes.

"I should have known that you would have gotten us lost," said a shrill female voice, it sounded like Astrid.

"Gods, Astrid, you were here last night too. Why didn't you remember where it was?"

"Would you shut up, Fishlegs!" snapped Astrid. "I'm tired."

"Yea, I guess I'm pretty tired too," replied Fishlegs timidly.

"I still can't believe what a jerk, jerk, JERK, Stoic is!" babbled Astrid furiously. "How could he just leave his only son lost in the woods? 'Maybe it'll toughen him up.' he said! 'Maybe it'll toughen him up!' Maybe it'll toughen your dick up, while your boning those wenches you were with last night! Cause that the only thing on your mind! Isn't it you bastard?"

"Easy, Astrid," muttered Fishlegs tiredly. "Well find him eventually."

"Yea...yea...I guess your right...but still...I'd like to give that good for nothing, dead beat, dad a freaking piece of my mind..."

"Hey, it's ok, Astrid, just calm down,ok?"

"He could be dead, Fishlegs! Or he could be trapped in a pit somewhere starving, and on his way to being dead! It's all because you had to try to act like you were cool! Why'd you do that to him? Huh? HUH? It's your falt this happened!"

"Hey, you where the one over there pleasuring yourself to it!" shouted Fishlegs. "So don't lecture me on my gods damn morals! If I'm going to hell then you'll be right there with me!"

There arguing was getting pretty loud, and Hiccup was finding kind of difficult to sleep through it. He opened his eyes slowly, and blinked a few times to clear up the worst of the blurriness. Through the leaves of the underbrush he could see Astrid and Fishlegs, standing at opposite end of a nearby clearing. They seemed to have been glaring at each other, but they where too far away for Hiccup to know for sure.

"Well, I won't enjoy the company!" shouted Astrid. "And you can't blame me for what happened to him, anyway! Because I didn't do anything!"

"Exactly, you didn't do anything! You could have tried to stop them if you wanted to, couldn't you? But you didn't 'cause you where stroking your pussy!"

"Shut up!" shrieked Astrid furiously. "You make it sound like I'm some kind of sex fiend! But for your information-I didn't follow them because of some sick fantasy that I had-I followed them because I-I LOVE HICCUP-AND I CARE ABOUT HIM!"

They both fell silent at that. Hiccup, who was still eavsdropping on their conversation from beneath the twisted underbrush, couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"...Is that true, Astrid?" muttered Fishlegs after awhile. He didn't sound angry anymore, just very surprised.

"...Yea," said Astrid defeatedly. "It's true."

Fishlegs smiled.

"You should tell him," he said.

"It's just a crush," said Astrid. "Hiccup can't know about this-he can't ever know about this."

"Alright, so I won't tell him," said Fishlegs.

"Yea, like I can trust you."

Hiccup felt as though he where in a dream, and decided for a moment that maybe he was. Astrid couldn't love him, she didn't even like him, and besides...she was so pretty and strong and everyone liked her. Someone like her couldn't have a crush on someone like him. Could she?

"Astrid!" moaned Hiccup from where he was lying.

"W...what?" muttered Astrid in a horrified whisper. "...Is that?"

"...help," whimpered Hiccup, he was tired and in a lot of pain, and that was a bit more important than his dignity at the moment. He didn't forgive either of them, and probably never would, but he needed to get back to the village, and his dignity was long gone. "...help me...I-I'm over here..."

Astrid and Fishlegs followed the sound of his voice, and found him, crumpled on the ground, stairing up at them from two swallen, bloodshot, eyes.

"Oh...oh gods no..." whimpered Fishlegs when he saw Hiccup and he burried his face in his large hands.

"He's fine, Fishlegs, don't cry. He's just a little banged up that's all," said Astrid motioning toward Hiccup.

Hiccup closed his eyes again. He didn't want to look at them.

"Can you stand?" Astrid asked him.

"Yea, I can stand," replied Hiccup. "...but it really hurts."

Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Fishlegs, help him up," she instructed.

Fishlegs took hold of one Hiccup's scrawny forearms, and pulled him to his feet.

"Ow!" yelped Hiccup when he was forced to lean on his sprained ankle. He felt like he was going to fall again, but Astrid caught him.

"Come on, loser," she said putting her arm around his shoulders and letting him lean into her as they walked. "It's time to go home."

THE END.