Comet Nights (HTTYD Fanfic)

Chapter Seven: Where in the World

The wind tore against Toothless, whistling and roaring and threatening to throw the Night Fury and his rider all the way back to Berk. Hiccup noticed that as soon as they had set off, his dragon had flown with single-minded, rock-hard determination to find his missing companion. That determination had come in handy for the first hour and a half, as the wind carried them and the miles flew by like pages in a book. Now, however, fatigue was creeping up on Toothless. You could see it in his lolling tongue and slowly beating wings that struggled and made little headway against the rushing gale.

"Toothless!" cried Hiccup. "There's a little island over there. Land! You need to rest!"

The Night Fury did nothing for a moment, then he let out a long, low sigh and started to spiral down.

Hiccup barely had any time to jump out of the saddle before Toothless crumpled to the ground, exhaustion forcing his limbs to the earth. Hiccup followed suit and flopped next to him, both breathing heavily as they tried to regain a little strength. After a moment, the rider sat up, reached up to one of his gauntleted arms and unlatched a small leather canteen, popped the top off, and took a long, refreshing drink of cool water. He then went over to Toothless and poured the rest down the Night Fury's throat.

Toothless looked at him gratefully and flopped over to spread one of his batlike wings over Hiccup. He pushed the membrane away and flopped back on the ground, not caring if he was getting dirt in his hair.

"What do we do, bud? We have no idea where she's gone. She could be anywhere in the world by now." said Hiccup after a moment. Toothless grunted and looked up at the sky wistfully. His rider followed his example and saw the same roiling cloudscape as before.

An electric-blue dragon was wheeling about, getting pushed by the turbulent winds. Looked like a Deadly Nadder to him. He watched it spin and dive, its rider furiously trying to keep control... Wait.

Rider?

Hiccup jumped to his feet and squinted at the errant dragon. Yes! It was Astrid and Stormfly, looking for him!

"ASTRID! OVER HERE!!" he screamed, but his words were torn out of his throat by the wind. Finally, he took his sword and waved it about, the flames trailing in the air like a magnificent foxtail.

The Deadly Nadder turned and started speeding towards him. Good. Hiccup turned off the fiery blade and clipped it back onto his leg, then turned to watch Stormfly.

The dragon made a rough touchdown, landing on her belly and skidding in the dirt for a moment, but to Hiccup's relief Astrid was fine. She leaped gracefully off Stormfly and was immediately smothered in Hiccup's embrace.

"Hiccup!" she exclaimed. "Stop it! You're squeezing the life out of me!"

He gave her a sheepish smile and loosened the hug. She leaned up and kissed him, then pulled away and went to check on her dragon.

"Were you looking for me?" asked Hiccup.

"Yes. For two reasons." said Astrid as she brushed dirt off Stormfly's scales. "One, I'm coming with you. There's no reason for me to stay on Berk and twiddle my thumbs, waiting for you to return. And I was worried. I love you, you know that, and I couldn't bear it if you returned as a corpse because no one was there to watch your back. No arguments."

Hiccup realized that he couldn't convince Astrid otherwise, and so contented himself with having a companion. Also, he was rather touched that she was so worried about him.

"What's the second reason?" he asked.

"Well, that's the thing that'll knock your wooden leg off." Astrid turned looked at him with sparkling eyes.

"Hey," he protested. "It's metal, not wood, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I found out which direction Comet was going when she left!"

"What! How?" Hiccup went to sit next to her, the exhausted Toothless and a napping Stormfly behind them.

"Well, since you decided to fly off like an idiot without any information whatsoever, I went and asked that girl some questions. She wasn't too helpful, but her older brother- who had a nasty lump on his head from a Night Fury tail, may I add- was able to tell me that the dragon had flown north. There you go! One female Night Fury."

"Hmmmmm." mused Hiccup, rubbing his chin. "North, north... Ah! Astrid, if you were a dragon, where would you go if you were scared of humans?"

"Um." she said, confused. "The Sanctuary...?"

"Yes!" cried Hiccup. "Come on, Toothless. We're heading back to the Sanctuary!"

"Don't you think you should let him sleep?" Astrid pointed at the Night Fury, fast asleep on the grass.

"Oh. Oh yeah." Hiccup sat back down. "Soon. We're going back to the Sanctuary... soon."