Okay, the italicising is now back to normal, italics for Dragonese, normal for humans.

"Hiccup?" Astrid asked, holding the arrow up. Hiccup roared loudly once more, before turning his head to look. Clearly not recognising the arrow, he gave her a questioning look.

"Oh, of course! You weren't there, were you. This is a Dragon Hunter arrow. They first appeared about a week after you disappeared, kidnapping dragons. The arrows have dragon root smeared on the heads, it makes dragons go crazy." Astrid explained.

But that can't have affected the King! He's too large. Hiccup scratched.

"I know... How? How?" Astrid began to pace.

Never mind that, we need to get goi

Hiccup never finished writing his sentence. His pupils became small and tight, and his head tendrils began to quiver. (Think Toothless having just been put under the Alpha's control and looking over at Hiccup from HTTYD 2.)

"Hiccup? Oh no..." Astrid backed away, as did the other riders.. Hiccup looked around him, eventually fixing on to Fishlegs.

"No! No!" Fishlegs squeaked, backing until he could go no further.

"Hiccup, stop!" Astrid screamed.

The other riders reacted similarly, but once a Night Fury is fixed on prey, nothing can stop him.

Hiccup advanced on Fishlegs... Closer... Closer... A plasma blast began to be charged in his mouth...

He spat the plasma blast, and a huge cloud of smoke erupted around them.

"Fishlegs! FISHLEGS! NO!" Brigitta stumbled into the smoke, coughing and frantically searching.. She always, let's say had a thing, for Fishlegs. The other riders soon joined her in a frantic search for the stocky Gronckle-rider.

"I'm okay!" A relievingly familiar voice issued through the smoke. Meatlug leapt on him and landed on his head. "Ouch! Less okay!" He yelled.

As the smoke cleared, it became obvious that Hiccup had recovered just at the last minute. A scorch mark on the wall terrifyingly close to Fishlegs told them all they needed to know about how close a shave this had been.

"Are you okay, Hiccup?" Astrid asked. Hiccup began to back away, shaking his head a little.

"It's okay!" Astrid reassured him, but Hiccup turned and began to fully fledged run away. "You recovered in time! Come back!" But Hiccup didn't stop. He spread his wings in a desperate attempt to fly, flapped a few metres up in the air, and then nosedived with spectacular finality.

"Are you alright?" Astrid ran over to where he was cleaning mud off his nose in a last-ditch attempt retain at least a small portion of his shattered pride and dignity. He still looked thoroughly scared.

"It's okay..." Astrid stroked his wing and muttered those little nonsenses that are traditionally used in situations such as these to calm the receiver.

Nearly Hiccup scratched into the dirt with one shaking claw.

"Nearly is NOT did, though." Astrid stated, in a THERE WILL BE NO ARGUMENT sort of way. Hiccup gave a dragon-y huff, but did his best to smile. It came out kind of like Toothless's one.

"Wait. Where's Toothless?" Astrid remembered. All the riders, and Hiccup, looked around. Suddenly noticing that the sleek black dragon was nowhere to be found. In the general excitement, he had been completely forgotten.

"Oh no. Toothless!" Astrid called. No answer.

"Good riddance, I say. He never did anything, he was just a waste of space and fish-" Snotlout was cut off by Hiccup leaping on top of him. They rolled into a ball and began to fight violently in a blur of black, white, brown and silver. Hookfang looked on in amusement.

"Stop! Stop!" Brigitta stepped forward, arms outstretched, and broke the fight up. "If we are to find the King, we must start now! Or he will be lost."

"But, Toothless-" Astrid interjected.

"Myself, Fishlegs, Valka and Heather shall search for Toothless. You, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout and Hiccup look for the King. Go, we will find you when we have Toothless."

"If you're sure..."

"Yes, I am sure. Now go, for every moment wasted takes the King further from us!"

"Come on!" Astrid shouted, leaping on to Stormfly. "Hookfang, get Hiccup!" But Hiccup shook his head. It expressed, without words or writing, that he had to, simply HAD TO, do this himself.

He spread his wings tentatively, flapping the, lightly as if feeling the air. Harder he flapped, harder and harder, until he lifted into the air. He took himself higher and began to fly around the cave, roaring in joy. Astrid smiled.

"Come on!" She called. Hiccup flew joyfully around in circles over head, and she smiled. He was so happy.

"Track it, Girl!" Astrid gave Stormfly the Hunter arrow, and Stormfly sniffed it. She stayed still for a moment as if thinking, then hopped up and down to indicate that she was ready.

"That's my girl." Astrid smiled. "Come on, let's go!"

~<>~<>~(Why? Why does iOS 9 have no eagles? It's painful.)~<>~<>~

Severely long hours of tracking later, they were still no closer to their goal.

"Why don't we just leave this dragon to the hunters and go home?" Snotlout whined.

"Because-" Astrid paused to take a deep breath. "Because, Hiccup will turn into a wild dragon. We don't know if it's permanent."

"He abandoned us for years, then came back, got loads of us killed, vanishes again and lets us think he's dead, turns up again and runs off on this accursed wild goose chase! What reason do we have to help him?" Snotlout glared pointedly at Hiccup, who was, happily, out of earshot, flying at the back.

"Snotlout, if you don't shut up I will personally ensure that you die in the most horrible way possible." Astrid gave him a death glare and he promptly shut up.

"Besides, he'd probably roast you." Tuff spoke up.

"Yeah, gourmet roasted Snotlout!" Ruff laughed. "Meal of the day!" She and Tuff banged heads. Snotlout blanched visibly, and flew a little further away from Hiccup.

"Ooh, I saw 8 this time..." Tuffnut swayed dizzily on Belck's neck. "Do it again!"

"Sure thing, Bro!" Their heads collided again, this time leaving them both swaying dizzily.

"Ugh." Astrid looked away from the very annoying sight behind her and began to scan the sea again for any sign of the King. A few moments passed, during which she spotted nothing. But then-

"There!" She pointed to a large ship in the very distance. It flew the flag of the Hunters. It moved at an unnaturally fast pace, and a small bright red dragon appeared to be chained to the front of it.

"I say we charge in and get them! SNOTLOUT, SNOTLOUT, OI OI OI!" Snotlout dived down, Hookfang alight with flame, shouting his battle cry at the top of his voice.

"No! Snotlout, COME BACK HERE!" Astrid yelled. But Snotlout either couldn't hear or wasn't listening, because he swooped down regardless, Hookfang spewing flame in all directions. The Twins dived down after him, eager to join in with the carnage and destruction, Hiccup followed because he thought they were attacking, so Astrid had no choice but to follow as well. Astrid took the time to notice that one of the small red dragons was chained to the back of boat, too.

As soon as all the dragons and riders were within earshot, a Hunter appeared behind the little red dragon at the back and prodded it with what appeared to be a wooden pole with a metal point at the end.

Immediately the most terrible shrill screaming noise imaginable rang out. All the dragons stopped and tried their best to cover their ears, attempting to block the sound out. But it was to no avail.

Suddenly the screaming changed from incredibly high to unbelievably low, the type of low that made your chest vibrate inside and your ears want to go on strike.

A few moments passed during which all the dragons and riders wanted to do was go, to run away-

And the noise suddenly ceased. The silence was almost as deafening as the sounds had been. The little dragon closed it's eyes.

All the dragons except for Hiccup suddenly lifted their heads and stared right at the little dragon, as if they had been hypnotised.

"Stormfly? What is it?"

"Hookfang! Stop this at once!"

"Hey! Barf! We need to blow stuff up, remember!"

"What she said, Belch! Come on!"

All of a sudden, the dragons with riders began to buck and rear violently, trying to throw their riders. The riders hung on for as long as they could, but no human can hold on to an angry dragon for long. They were all thrown into off, and into the cold sea below. The Hunter on the boat's deep, harsh laughter could have been heard a mile away as the boat sailed away, taking all the dragons but Hiccup with it.

"Why wasn't Hiccup affected..." Astrid muttered. "Probably something to do with dragon psychology." But there was no time for that now.

Hiccup flew down, and offered Astrid his claw so that she could climb on to his back.

"Hey, why don't I get a lift?" Snotlout asked sulkily, treading water. Hiccup blew a small plasma blast into the water next to him with a satisfied smile. Snotlout recoiled and looked scared, much to Hiccup's satisfaction.

Astrid heaved herself on to his back and seated herself on the back of his neck. Just as he was about to fly up higher again, Ruffnut clamped herself firmly on to his front left leg.

"You cannot leave us all alone here on the vast, empty ocean!" She exclaimed, doing her best theatrical voice.

"Exactly!" Tuff clamped on to his other front leg.

"If you're all going, I'm not staying here!" Snotlout grabbed his tail. Astrid and Hiccup both eyerolled, and Astrid sighed.

"Is that okay, Hiccup? Can you manage it?" Astrid asked. "One ear fin flap for yes, two for no." Hiccup flapped his ear fin one and a half times. "Does that mean you're not sure?" One ear fin flap. "Try, and see."

Hiccup flapped hard, harder, harder... And he managed a low flight a few metres above the water.

"Come on, let's try and find dry land." So off they flew, back the way they came.

Oof, what a chapter! This took HOURS to write... Literally! I thought I'd make up for the shortness of the previous chapters, and practice getting up to 1,667 words for the NaNoWriMo this year. That was hard, but with a bit of perseverance I'm sure I can get it done!

(No eagles! Monstrous!)—Aquila!