Chapter Text
"Hiccup!" Astrid screamed as she toppled over the side of the ship. Hiccup sprinted towards the gap in the railing, unstrapping his metal leg as he ran.
"Hold him, bud!" he yelled at Toothless just before he plunged into the icy water. Though it took his eyes a moment to focus properly, soon he spotted a wreath of golden hair not too far below him, but it was sinking fast. He propelled himself downward as best he could with his one leg. Hiccup could see Astrid struggling with the ropes that tied her hands, but the chains on her feet were pulling her down faster than he could get to her. He kept swimming toward her, though his lungs burned and his muscles screamed in protest. All he knew was he had to keep going.
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"Is that Smidvarg?" Fishlegs asked. Hiccup looked up from one of the splintered beams he was moving to see the white Night Terror flying in their direction.
"I guess Astrid made use of our carrier dragon after all," he said, dropping the beam and heading over towards where Smidvarg had landed.
"Something may be wrong," Fishlegs cautioned, "Night Terrors are nocturnal, they don't fly in the daytime unless they have to."
After the last attack from a new species of dragon – which Fishlegs had promptly dubbed Brazier-Bombers – their base was half burnt, and the half that wasn't burnt was a waste of wood splinters and slivers of rock. Astrid had gone on a mission to Berk two days ago to get materials, and she had taken Smidvarg with her as a kind of carrier-pigeon. As Hiccup and Fishlegs approached, however, Smidvarg cowered and was about to fly off, but Toothless roared and the Night Terror stood frozen, still ready to take flight at a moment’s notice. Hiccup extended his hand out to Smidvarg and moved slowly towards him. He closed his eyes and let his hand hover right over the terrified Terror's snout. Though the dragon was hesitant about it, Smidvarg pushed his nose into Hiccup's hand after a moment.
With Smidvarg relaxed, Hiccup reached down to the tube that was pinned on his carrier collar to get whatever note was inside. He didn't feel anything, so he took the collar off of the dragon and looked down the tube.
"There's nothing in it," Hiccup said, puzzled.
"Maybe Smidvarg got away," Fishlegs proposed, "... from Astrid." Hiccup raised an eyebrow at him and he shook his head. "No, you’re right, that would never happen."
"What's going on?" Snotlout asked as his Monstrous Nightmare alighted.
"Smidvarg came back, but there wasn’t any message." Hiccup held up the empty tube.
Snotlout snorted. "She's probably just playing a joke, wants to make us worry. Ah, that Astrid," he shook his head, "always up to some prank. Or, wait, is that me?" Snotlout stroked his chin thoughtfully and Fishlegs rolled his eyes.
"Come on guys," Hiccup said, refocusing the conversation, "Try and be serious. Astrid could be in trouble."
"Relax, Dragon-boy,” Snotlout dismissed Hiccup’s concerns. ”Astrid's a big girl, she can take care of herself.” Hiccup shrugged his shoulders in concession.
“And now,” Snotlout continued nonchalantly, “if you lollygaggers are done lollygagging," a wind was raised as Hookfang took off, "we have work to do!"
Despite Snotlout’s rather questionable admonition, Hiccup stood there for a moment longer, scrutinizing the carrier tube as if he were trying to find some secret message Astrid had written on it.
"Come on Hiccup," Fishlegs said, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Snotlout's right; we shouldn't worry about Astrid. For another day at least." Fishlegs started walking toward a pile of rocks and he called over his shoulder, "She's hardly the ‘Damsel in Distress’ type anyway." Hiccup assented reluctantly and started walking toward another pile of rubble waiting to be moved. He just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
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Hiccup couldn't stand it any longer. He had spent the whole of the next morning glancing at the sky, subconsciously waiting for a Deadly Nadder to make its way onto the horizon. He kept telling himself that he shouldn't worry, and he wasn't really worried, just... uneasy. Finally, right after noon, Hiccup headed for the stables to get Toothless ready for a fly.
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This was where he needed to be, out in the wind and air, soaring through the clouds, all his troubles forgotten. Well, almost all. Hiccup couldn't figure out why he was thinking so constantly about why Astrid hadn’t come back. Sure, he would have been concerned if it were any other rider too, but not like this. In a last attempt to clear his mind, Hiccup shot up into the air, did a barrel roll, and dove down towards the waves below. The boy and his dragon raced down at lightning speed, and just before they hit the water Toothless spread his wings to skim across the surface, so close that Hiccup could feel the spray on his face. It felt good. He was just about to head back toward Dragon's Edge when he saw a ship up ahead. Or, he thought it was a ship.
As he approached it, Hiccup saw that it was indeed a ship, but it had been badly damaged; the mast was half gone and the sides of the ship had been splintered until they weren't of much use. He circled above the ship and saw what must have been the crew climbing onto the largest piece of wreckage they could find. One of the men looked up and pointed at him, yelling something and waving his arms in what looked like a distress signal. The other men saw where their crewmate was pointing and followed suit. Hiccup circled one last time before coming to land gingerly on the splintered deck.
"What happened to your ship?" Hiccup directed his question to the most important-looking man, almost sure that he was the captain.
"T'were a storm that blew us off course," the probably-captain said, "and once we were in that blasted fog bank we couldn'a see anythin'! We drifted 'round a bit a'fore the dragon trapper came on us, all sudden like. No sooner had we seen him than he started blowin' our ship t’ bits! He must'a thought we was harboring some dragon an' its rider, for he stopped with the hammerin' soon as a dragon came out'o the mist."
Hiccup's eyes widened. Dragon trappers! This couldn't be good. "Did you get a good look at the trapper?"
"Nay, we was too far out t'-"
"I did!" a younger crewman interrupted, shouldering his way to the front of the group. "I were in the crow's nest when it started, and though I couldn'a see him all that clearly, I could make out some. He weren't a big fellow, short an' stocky like, with flame red hair and a blue mark," he drew three fingers over his left eye, "here."
"Dagur," Hiccup muttered under his breath. "When did this happen?"
The leader spoke again, "T'were yesternoon. Ye'll not catch him, though. Once he took the dragon an' its rider he were gone into the fog. Wouldn't a' had time to say 'schmidt!'"
"Do you remember what species the dragon was, or what direction it came from?"
"If mem'ry serves, the dragon were a blue Deadly Nadder, though I don't rightly remember where it came from, what with t' fog an' all..."
Hiccup’s chest seized up. Astrid. Dagur has Astrid.
"Dedja hear me?" Hiccup was brought back to the ship by the crewman's raspy voice.
"Uh, no, sorry."
"I were saying, if ye don't mind me asking, what's so important 'bout some rogue dragon trapper? Sure 'e wrecked our ship, but if he can do that, I'll not be looking for payback."
"Um, something personal," Hiccup said vaguely. "Hey, look, there's a port not too far from here; if you can rig up some kind of rope, my dragon and I can tow you back."
"We'd be much obliged."