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Chapter One

It was early morning, the sunrise spread across the open sea like a red wave opening up and taking the sky in a warm embrace. Dragons could be heard from far away, flying off to the sea to make their morning breakfast. All the while, Hiccup paused at the edge of the barracks nearing a great cliff to soak in this mornings' glory.

"Well Bud, looks like we might catch some rain in the next few days." Hiccup says with a sigh in his breath, looking toward his friend. Toothless was sitting next to him, he had also paused to soak in the light as he looked out earnestly across the vast oceans water. He grumbled, trying to tell his friend to hurry up so that he could stretch his muscles after a bad nights rest.

"Okay, fine. We'll have it your way then." Hiccup said with a grin, "But afterwards we'll have to go for some searching, it's been to long since something new has happened." He insisted as he tried and failed yet again to tackle the giant reptile to the ground.

Toothless stood there, seeming unimpressed with his masters lack of strength and turned his big green eyes to the west, as if there was something more interesting and challenging in that direction. Hiccup followed his view, he had to admit to himself that he hadn't tried flying to the west in a long time, due to the long distance between islands. He decided he'd approve Toothless's idea and see where his friend would take him. He scratched his head, started stretching when all the air was taken out of his lungs by an annoying tackle back from his dragon.

"Dam-it-tooh-thes-ss-!" He exclaimed as he tried to catch his breath, but his friend wasn't paying attention anymore. His black scales glistened off the sunlight and his look was intense, there was something out that way, he realised. Whatever it was though would have to wait until after breakfast, he was thirsty and famished after the cold night last night. With that, he left his friend to look out in the Great Beyond and left for the kitchen to prepare, they may be gone for a long time.

It had been about an hour and Hiccup called Toothless many times already for him to have his breakfast, he looks out the window and the dragon was still in the middle of a soul-searching trance to hear him. He started to worry and realised this must mean a lot to his friend and decided to leave earlier than expected, he trusted that there must been something great out there that took Toothless's attention more than food.

"What am I going to do with this guy?" He sighed to himself, "I hope he's not like this for too much longer, I need him at his best for such a long trip." He started to worry, so much so that he didn't even realise how quickly he had finished packing, it was time to go now.

The air was thick up above the clouds, the sun had risen quite a bit since they'd left and yet it was still so quiet.

"What's wrong Buddy?" Hiccup asked, concerned, "We've been up here most of the day and you still haven't made a noise? We haven't done and hardcore flying yet either...?" Hiccup trailed off, "Maybe as soon as we get to where we need to get to be, he'll get better." He thought. "Was worth a shot anyway."

Hiccup put his stump leg down, a series of connections flicked over almost instantly, changing Toothless's replacement tail onto a new angle shooting him and the dragon even faster through the air. He changed the setting yet again to send the dragon onto a spiral downwards through the clouds and out the bottom to reveal the ocean and the tiny island way up in the distance. He smiled and remembered the days where his friends would come along as well, onto his search parties to find new and amazing creatures. But that was a long time ago and his friends had new lives now as well as new friends and partners. He shook away the thoughts and tears before they overtook him, Toothless noticed. For the first time in many hours his friend looked him and made a soft grumble at him, "Are you okay?" it said, he may be in an odd place at the moment but it was always clear that Toothless did love Hiccup, no matter what happened. They had beaten so many obstacles in their lives, even the ones that was seen as impossible, their friendship had begun the start of something wonderful and beautiful, peace between man and dragons. That was something that was once something beyond comprehension, but now, everyone on their home island of Berk have their own dragon friends, although they all agreed that these two had something even more special. Hiccup realised this at his friends concerned growl and smiled a bit.

"It's okay Bud, no reason to think of that now. Look we're reaching our last checkpoint in this direction. Shall we keep going?" He added with a smirk, the response from his friend was determined as his lizard body shook with anticipation just before they sped off into the distance, preparing to land on The Toes.

Their quick rest stop involved nothing too important, something to eat, drink and a stretch. Hiccup added a few changes to The Toes on his map for future reference and it was almost time to go before something odd happened. Toothless, who had just gotten back to normal, jumped up from his resting place and glared straight into the distance again. Hiccup sighed and remembered that there was a reason they were going this way, they had gone even closer to what was driving the Night Fury. Hiccup even begun to fear what it was and tried to get his friends attention but it was without success. He climbed back on to his dragon and they flew off yet again in search for Toothless's new obsession.

This time they flew closer to the sea rather then the clouds, it was starting to get quite hot and the ability to spray some water on themselves helped them keep at a good pace. As nighttime begun to fall upon them they thankfully came across a small island with a little freshwater spring and fruit trees. There were some he hadn't seen before and was not quite keen to try them just of yet but luckily there was some familiar ones for him to have a small feast just after he and Toothless refilled their water and caught some fish for dinner. He will have to think of naming them later he thought.

They ate until they could no longer and the quiet duo sat in comfortable silence as they thought about their missions they had set for themselves. One of them was filled with boredom and worry and with intense difficulty slowly drifted off to sleep, for what was going to be a restless night. The other looked to the sky, the stars twinkled in the distance. Toothless wondered why he could fly so high but yet never get any closer to such a mystery. He looked to Hiccup, his best-friend, they had been together for so long and yet they had never tried to find these lights. He himself was worried as well, for a different reason. He smelt and heard something in the distance that morning, something that had not touched his senses in many years, that something, he knew, was the answer to his most pressed question, "Where am I from? Where is my home? Where is my family?".

Meanwhile, miles away, a young woman and her dragon lie down for the night with the same feelings. Out on an adventure, but these two didn't have a choice to leave where they came from, they were alone, they were scared, but they were confident. They would find their calling, they would save their home and they would save her dragons' race. The Deft Darkness and the Black Rider would show her people that she is worthy of their companionship, though she wished they'd given her a chance first.