The Edge of Black Wing

2 Through Thick and Thin She's Gone Away I

Tuffnutt Thorston

"Now, how do you know we're not the only ones hunting down these Element Stones? Elementsss Stones. El-e-men-tal. . . ."

You're the mental one, Tuffnut," Snotlout cut through his thinking out loud.

"Hey! Don't disrupt my brother's mentality!"

"That has nothing whatsoever to do with his mental state, Ruff," Fishlegs corrected.

"I didn't say I know we're not the only ones hunting them down," Hiccup objected. "I said that I feel like we aren't."

" 'We aren't' what?" Tuffnut was confused.

"We aren't the only ones hunting them down," his twin leaned over to fill him in.

"Oh, right. I already knew that."

"Now, how could you possibly have known that Tuffnut," Hiccup was doubtful.

"Well, Nadig is how we found the last one, right? Because of the map he had?"

"Yeah, so?" Snotlout wasn't buying any of it.

"Well, exactly how he got that map, was still pretty unclear."

"And there had to be other people who had seen it, too," Ska'i added.

"Yeah, but so what?" Snotlout remained argumentative. "It wasn't like it came with a note: Oh, by the way, the map leads to a long-lost ancient Element Stone. Good luck finding it though, because of all the riddles, but here it is anyway!"

"That's not far off," Ruffnut agreed.

"Okay, regardless!" Hiccup snapped. "It's just a gut feeling that we aren't the only ones looking for these things!"

After observing their somewhat argumentative dialogue, Ska'i noted, "Wait, who else would be hunting after the stones?"

The Riders exchanged a glance before Fishlegs shared, "Well, we've had our share of enemies. Not to mention Dragon Hunters."

"Yeah," Tuffnut chimed in. "These Dragon Hunters are not nice guys."

"They go to great lengths to torture - and even kill dragons - at times," Ruff added.

Skai's' eyes grew big in alarm.

"Not to bring this lovely conversation to a grinding halt," Hiccup cut in. "But did anyone happen to see Astrid this morning?"

"Hmm," Ska'i thought about it. "I haven't seen her."

"She's usually back from patrol at this point," Fishlegs forehead creased in concern.

"You're right," Hiccup muttered, eyes narrowing to show his worry.

"She might have gotten caught up by something on the shore."

"I was just about to suggest that, sister," Tuffnut proclaimed.

"Even Stormfly's not back yet though," Ska'i pointed out. At that, Hiccup's eyes grew in slight alarm. "Alright, gang, we're going to put a pin in the Element Stones for now -."

"We're putting pins in the Stones?"

"How do we even do that?"

" - And split up to see if we can find what Astrid may be up to," Hiccup plowed on, ignoring the twins' interruption completely. "Ska'i, go with the twins and check the shoreline; I'm sure you know that area the best. Fishlegs, Snotlout, check the middle of the island. Toothless and I will scout the air."

He was wasting no time, which Tuffnut could appreciate and understand; no doubt he'd feel the same way if Ska'i didn't show up for breakfast.

Ruff seemed to have activated her twin power, and read his mind. "Hiccup needs to calm down, it's not like Astrid's missing, or anything."

He turned to her with a disbelieving gasp, "I was just thinking that, sis! Maybe she discovered an ancient treasure, and is hoarding it all for herself!"

"Don't be ridiculous. If there were a treasure on this island, we would've found it by now!"

"You're right. And hoarded it for ourselves!"

By this time they'd wandered away from the Rider's general housing area. Right away, Ska'i noticed a dragon spazzing on the sand, almost like it was throwing a fit. After a couple more steps, she recognized and asked no one in particular, "Is that Stormfly?"

They paused their Astrid's-not-missing theories to stare at the dragon fluttering wildly.

"Yup, that's Stormfly, alright," Ruff confirmed.

"Why exactly is she doing that?" Tuffnut murmured, but Ska'i had already taken off toward her. As the twins caught up, Toothless landed with Hiccup, Snotlout, and Fishlegs.

"We saw Stormfly from the air, and went to get these two," he explained.

"What happened to her?" Fishlegs demanded, nearly falling off Toothless in his urgency.