A new dragon roared, but it sounded friendlier and familiar. Toothless.
Toothless found Hiccup and roared in his face to pull him out of his nightmare.
“Stop! Stop!” the young man screamed. Even outside the dream world, he had his hands on his ears and shook uncomfortably on his rock.
Toothless’s eyes widened, and he roared again. He pushed his forehead against his friend’s head and begged him to escape his living Niflheim. He hated to see him so scared.
Eventually, Toothless’s gentle touch woke Hiccup, and he gasped.
Toothless jumped and backed away from him.
“Toothless!” Hiccup yelled. “Toothless! What are you doing here?” He sweated like a fountain, and warm tears dripped down his cheeks. “What was that?” The young man’s legs shook like crazy, and he buried his face in his hands.
Toothless whined and approached him again. His ears stood, and he plopped down beside his friend. The dragon stretched his neck and head over his body, and Hiccup grabbed him.
“What’s happening to me, Toothless?” he sobbed, hugging his dragon close. “I thought the Light Dragon was friendly, but now I don't know.”
Toothless let Hiccup cuddle him until he calmed down. When his breathing finally steadied, he pulled his head away from him.
“Thanks, Toothless,” Hiccup told him, scratching the dragon’s head. “I’m okay now.”
Toothless hoped so. Hiccup still shivered. His big, green eyes rolled down to his missing peg leg, and he sniffed the stump.
Hiccup read Toothless’s mind and went ahead and answered his mental question. “It’s a long story, but at least I have a spare.” Now that Toothless was there, he could finally pull it out.
Hiccup undid the satchel on Toothless's saddle and pulled out one of his spare legs. However, he paused when he saw it. His eyes moved from it, down to the stump, and back up to the spare. Sighing, the young man followed through with his act. He pulled out the spare and tied it to the stump. Finally, he could walk again.
Hiccup batted the metal part on the rocks a few times to test it and nodded. “Come on, Toothless. Let’s find a way out of here.” However, when he turned around, no longer was Toothless standing there. Instead, his eyes caught the cluster of crystals Hiccup had left beside the rock, and he curiously made his way to them.
Once again, the many different shimmering dots danced on the walls.
Tail wagging, Toothless jumped on his hind legs and batted at the moving lights.
Hiccup chuckled and approached him. “I see you found the crystals I discovered, boy.” Leaning down, he picked up the cluster and held it out to his dragon so he could sniff it.
Toothless and Hiccup looked up at the view.
“Hm,” Hiccup told himself, “I wonder.”
Toothless glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.
Before Hiccup could reach too far in his thoughts, he heard, “Hiccup!” behind him. Astrid. She, Stoick, Gobber, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the dragons found their way into the underground chamber.
They hurried to the boy and dragon.
Toothless leaped before Hiccup to protect him, but he calmed down when he recognized the visitors. A smile stretched across his face, and he trotted over to Barf and Belch, Meatlug, Stormfly, and Hookfang.
In the meantime, the Vikings stopped before Hiccup and pounded him with questions.
“Are you okay?” Astrid asked.
“Do you need another leg?” Gobber wanted to know.
“How did you and Toothless find each other?” Stoick asked in his typical, stern chief voice.
“I have to say,” Ruffnut chuckled, “if it wasn’t for Tuff and I’s six senses, you would be trapped here forever.”
Snotlout slapped his hands on his cheeks. “So, we’re all just going to gush over Hiccup and not even worry about little Snotlout, who had to pull himself out of quicksand while everyone else took the fun way into this cave?”
“Hey,” Fishlegs said, grabbing Hiccup’s shoulder, “we have to protect our one-legged Vikings. Right, Hiccup?”
“Sure,” was all Hiccup said.
Astrid crossed her arms and glared at him. “Why did you try to pull your leg out of that hole yourself? You never would have fallen in the first place!”
“Um, well, technically,” Gobber nervously spoke, scratching his chin.
“I don’t want to hear your opinion!” Astrid snapped. “We just need to plan better next time. No!” She held her hand up to Ruffnut and Tuffnut. “I’m not looking at you, Ruff and Tuff!”
The twins groaned. “Aw.”
Ruffnut nudged Tuffnut. “And I just came up with a brilliant one. Death and destruction. It calls my name.”
While the Vikings gained up on poor Hiccup, Toothless, and his dragon friends growled friendlily and played with each other. He and Stormfly rushed around the room, and Hookfang, Meatlug, Barf and Belch called to them.
Hiccup’s eyes moved from them to his friends, father, Gobber, and back to them.
Astrid continued to chew him out, and the twins started to argue about who came up with the best destructive plans while Snotlout and Fishlegs hammered Hiccup with even more questions.
Stoick started to give him a dumb lecture about what a chief does when he is in danger, while Gobber continuously asked him if he needed a new leg.
Eventually, the annoying noises faded away, and in their place came the familiar, metal-screeching roar of the Light Dragon.
Hiccup slapped his hands against his ears and begged, “Stop! Leave me alone!”
The Light Dragon refused. How much it enjoyed torturing the young man psychologically.
At the sight of his son keeled over in pain, Stoick held his hand up to the Vikings and dragons. “Everybody, stop!”
Immediately, everybody did, and Toothless seemed to gasp. He started toward Hiccup, but Stoick stopped him.
He wanted to look at his son without the dragon getting in his way. “Hiccup!” he cried out, sinking to his knees beside him.“ Are you okay, son?”
Was he okay? What a dumb question. Hiccup was not.
He pressed his fingers against his temples and shook his head. “Am I okay? Do I look okay? Make it stop, Dad! Make it stop!” He grabbed Stoick’s shoulders and shook them.
A question mark appeared over his father’s head. “Make what stop?”
Hiccup seemed to have a nervous breakdown. The stress. The Light Dragon. It was too much for him to handle. He was only eighteen years old!
The young man leaped to his feet and left the comfort of his friends, father, and dragons.
Toothless again tried to approach him, but Stoick pushed him back. “No, Toothless!” He did not want the dragon to get involved with whatever was going on with his son. It was too dangerous.
Hiccup picked up rocks and threw them against the wall. He banged his metal foot on the ground and repeatedly yelled, “Stop! Stop! Stop!”
No way. The Light Dragon was having too much fun.
Hiccup’s friends, father, Gobber, and the dragons watched him, terrified. What in the name of Thor was happening? Hiccup had never acted that way.
He continued to chuck rocks and bang his leg on the ground.
One rock almost hit Fishlegs, and he yelled. Holding his hands up to the ceiling, he sprinted away from the crazy boy.
“Hiccup, stop!” Astrid yelled. A few tears ran down her cheeks.
Snotlout crossed his arms and asked, “Do you think we should knock him out?”
As soon as he suggested that, Ruffnut and Tuffnut chuckled.
“Oh yeah, baby!” Ruffnut spoke, flexing her biceps. “I’ve always wanted to knock out that one-legged Viking!”
Hearing them, Stoick focused his attention on them instead of his son and nodded. “It’s for his own good.”
“Yeah!” the twins spoke at the same time. “It’s time to play Bat the Nut with Hiccup!”
Astrid hid behind her hands. She couldn’t watch this, but Stoick was right. He was chief. They had to knock Hiccup out. That would bring him back to his senses.
Ruff and Tuff approached the rampaging boy and waited for the perfect opportunity.
Ruffnut delivered the first punch.
Hiccup stumbled, but Ruffnut’s blow did not knock him out.
“You call that a punch?” Tuffnut asked his sister. “I’ll show you how it’s done!” He delivered the second punch, and his was the one that knocked Hiccup unconscious.
The young man fell onto his front and lay motionless on the cavern floor.
“Ha! Ha!” Tuffnut cheered, performing a victory dance. “Victory is mine!”
“Showoff,” Ruffnut groaned. “I can do better.”
Toothless roared and pushed past Stoick. He hurried to his friend and licked his face.
Astrid joined him and gasped when she saw how motionless Hiccup was. “Is he okay?”
“Oh, he’ll be fine,” Gobber spoke, waving his hand. “The twins aren’t that strong, so he shouldn’t be out for long.”
“Hey!” Tuffnut snapped, placing hands on his hips. “We’re standing right here!”
“Yes, I know,” Gobber said with a smirk.
Stoick fell to his knees and placed his hands on Hiccup's back. “We need to hurry. The secret chamber isn’t far from here, and you teens must learn about the Light Dragon.” With that, he stood and tossed Hiccup over his shoulder.
Astrid pointed at him. “But what about Hiccup? Why did he suddenly turn berserk? I’ve never seen him act like that.”
“None of us have,” Stoick corrected. “That’s why you must learn about the Light Dragon. Only then will we learn what is wrong with my son.”
Astrid wondered what he meant by that. What did the Light Dragon have to do with Hiccup’s unusual behavior?
Beside her, Fishlegs turned all smart as he usually did in stressful situations. “This is weird. Hiccup was acting fine yesterday. Even at breakfast earlier, he showed no signs of this berserk behavior. Something must have happened to him and Toothless when they fell here.”
Toothless softly growled and crouched toward the ground as images of Hiccup struggling to wake from his nightmare reentered his brain. Oh, he felt so guilty. He didn’t pull his friend out of Niflheim in time. Something was tormenting him.
Stoick ignored the dragon’s behavior, and his eyes landed on a bruise forming on Hiccup’s temple, where he hit his head when he landed in the cave. “Well, there is a bruise on his temple.”
“So, something did happen,” Astrid concluded. “All our annoying noises must have triggered a massive headache.”
“Hey!” Ruffnut snapped. “Who are you calling annoying?”
“All of us,” Astrid answered. “It’s our fault.” She gloomily dropped her arms. “We pushed him while he was still recovering from that fall.”
Stoick glanced at her and said, “It’s not just us. Something else is going on, and I think I know what.”
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