~ About three months after Emma left ~

"Good morning, Chieftess," A villager greeted with a smile.

"Good morning. I'm going to go for a flight for a bit, can you tell Parker he's in charge until I get back?" I asked, forcing a small smile.

"Of course."

I nodded and turned to the other direction, walking into the woods. I put two fingers in my mouth and whistled loudly. "Nova," I called. My dragon landed in front of me, carrying her hatchling by the scruff of her neck before setting her down.

The little night fury yawned, showing her velvety pink tongue. "Hey, Echo," I said, picking up my baby dragon. I carefully set her down in the saddle bag and mounted Nova. "Want to go for a flight, girl?" Nova flashed a toothless smile in response.

Toothless...

I missed the others...but I also didn't want to face them. I was too angry. Not angry at them exactly...just...infuriated in general. Nova looked up at me, sensing the change in my mood. I stroked her head. "I'm fine. Let's go."

Nova leapt into the air, stretching her leathery wings. My anger began to slip away when I felt the wind on my face. A small smile reached my lips, and I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. The air smelled like rain after the air had been dry for a while, though the sky was clear of any dark clouds.

But then, I started thinking, my thoughts swimming in circles and slipping out of my grasp. The frustration began building up again.

Daniel is dead and it's my fault. Ezra's too. And he needs to pay for it, I thought.

I hadn't slept well in weeks--every time I drifted off, torturing nightmares of Daniel's death jerked me awake.

We landed on an island, relatively far away from Dark Valley. I walked through the woods, using a knife to sharpen a stick I had in my hand. I sighed, wrestling with my thoughts. I began to sharpen the stick more violently, before accidentally cutting my hand with the blade instead of the stick. I winced, dropping the weapons.

A stick snapped and I whipped around, scanning the tree line. I waited a bit before turning back around. The crack of a stick came again right behind me and I whirled around, instinctively holding my hand up, my powers lifting and choking the person in front of me.

I dropped him when I saw who he was. "Parker! Don't sneak up on me!" I snapped. Parker fell to the ground, coughing.

"Yeah. Learned that the hard way when I tried to steal your dragon egg," he replied with a cough.

"Exactly. And that egg is now my hatchling, thank you very much."

At her mention, Echo's head popped out of the saddle bag. "What are you doing here? I left you in charge," I said, wrapping a cloth around the deep cut in my hand.

Parker stood up. "I followed you--you always do something stupid when you're angry."

"Who says I'm angry?" I snapped harshly. Parker lifted an eyebrow and smirked. "Shut up," I said, turning to pick up my knife.

"Do you even know how to use that thing?" Parker asked, gesturing to the knife. He ran a hand through his brown hair.

"Well enough," I replied with a shrug. "I don't really need to."

"Want to learn? To fight, that is, without using your powers?" Parker asked, leaning against a tree.

"I don't need to, my powers compensate."

"But what about situations where you can't use your powers? You can't always rely on them."

I thought for a moment. He had a point...

"Fine." I replied. "Teach me then."

***

Hiccup:
Blaze and I flew on Toothless, scanning the world below for any sign of Emma. Whenever we checked Dark Valley, the villagers always said they hadn't seen her in months. But was that true?

"We've been looking for weeks, Blaze. When she wants to be found, she'll let us find her... In the meantime, we just have to wait," I said with a sigh.

"Aren't you worried?" Emma's brother asked.

"Of course I am. But if she doesn't want to see us, then we can't force her to. She's probably still struggling with the whole... Daniel...thing."

Blaze sighed, "I guess you're right. I just hope she's okay..."

*i know, that was so short, I'm sorry lol. The next one will be longer, promise! Please comment what you thought of this chapter :)*