Finding you

Chapter 5: The Search For Zephyr

Hiccup's POV

"Could you please repeat that?" I requested of Zephyr's best friend Cortie, who looked like she was about to burst into tears as she stumbled over nearly every word in her sentence. The only thing that seemed to calm the frantic teen was Eret's boy, Keldan, who had his hands on Cortie's shoulders and told her that there was nothing to worry about and that Zephyr would be fine.

"She ... she just took off after that! POOF! Right into the sky! Gods, this is all my fault." Tears streamed from Cortie's eyes as Keldan wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest, gently stroking her hair as he attempted to calm her down.

I raised a brow at the two before shifting my gaze over at the other teens, who looked just as confused as I was. Judging by the looks on their faces, this was the first time any of them had seen Cortie and Keldan be so affectionate. I cleared my throat as I attempted to dig deeper into what had happened. "Syver, you're looking more ... stable than ... certain others. Can you please explain what happened?"

Syver crossed his arms as his brows drew together. "It was really strange, Chief, she seemed so ... glum all day and when Cortie tried to speak to her about it, she got all defensive. Keldan saw that there was some tension between the two of them and tried to break it up, but Zephyr just lashed out at him as well. Then Ragnhild mentioned her mother and Zephyr became furious and began ranting about how we supposedly never consider her feelings whenever we talk about our mothers."

"Gods," I breathed as I placed a hand over my mouth and glanced over at Toothless, who was looking curiously over at me as he awaited either his dinner or our next trip out of the house. "I knew I should've waited with telling her about that night."

Cortie sniffled as she turned back towards me, eyes red and puffy and nose running. "What do you mean, Chief? What did you tell Zeph?"

I ran a hand across my face as I sank back into my chair. "I told her about her mother and the day of her disappearance."

"Oh." The whole group gathered in the room exclaimed as they awkwardly tried to avoid eye contact with me.

"Come on, bud, we're going after Zephyr." I informed Toothless as I stood from my chair and began marching out of my house.

"Wait! Chief!" Syver Jorgenson shouted after me as he and the rest of the teens burst out of my house. "Let us come with!"

I raised a brow at the teenage boy. Though he may not bear many physical similarities to his father other than his hair and that smug grin of his, he still shared some of his father and grandfather's ... less likable traits. "No. You are all staying here and that's the end of the story."

"But—"

"I said no. I'm going to go fetch your parents and if any of you even try to follow us, you'll be on dragon poop-shoveling duty for the rest of the year." My voice was strict as I  instructed the teens of their possible fates.

The teens all paled at the mention of having to shovel poop for the rest of the year and quickly took off, leaving me to go get their parents so that we could all go and find my daughter. 

***

"The gang's back together!" Tuffnut exclaimed as he braided his fingers behind his head and leaned backwards.