The air stung my face and brought tears to my eyes as Toothless soared over the island. We were flying over the outskirts of the village, where I knew on the lower part of the coastline was a network of naturally-formed caves.

"I can't see anything!" Astrid shouted over the rushing wind.

I didn't reply for a few seconds, thinking about where a logical place might be to start looking. Most likely, the Speed Stingers would have been taking shelter somewhere that was hidden, but easy for them to access. It was probably the first place they happened upon from the ice bridge, so I figured the coastline was a logical choice. They needed a route to get to a food source, so a way to get from the coast to the village was a requirement, such as the ramps leading from the village to the docks.

"C'mon, Hiccup! Can't you hear me?" she shouted.

I turned toward her, just barely able to see her blurry form out of the corner of my eye.

"Any suggestions on where to start?" I asked. I was going to go with Astrid's opinion, just in case she had an idea that was different than mine.

"I have no idea," she replied.

I turned forward again, hiding a scowl, and nudged Toothless gently with my right knee. He straightened out his flight. I gently rolled toe-down and pushed down on Toothless' saddle, starting him into a shallow dive. I leaned to my right to let Toothless spiral down toward the coastline. I kept the spiral loose, letting Astrid and Toothless adjust to where I wanted to go instead of surprising them.

We crossed over the rocky wall guarding the island of Berk. Below us, just barely coming into view, was the coastline. Underneath the snow cover, it was rocky and difficult to walk on. Moving toward the ocean, the snow line abruptly stopped, indicating where the tide peaked each day.

I blinked several times, feeling tears freeze on my cheeks. On a whim, I tried squinting, which helped prevent any more tears, but the world around me looked a little darker.

I rolled slightly toe-up to help Toothless slow down once I was able to notice small details in the coastline. Most telling were the gentle bumps in the snowscape, indicating small stones that were sticking out from the rest of the land.

I was looking mainly toward the rocky wall to our left when Astrid shoved me in the shoulder. Before I could say anything, her hand shot into my view and pointed forward.

Maybe a hundred feet away was a small area of snow that didn't look fresh. In the low light, I couldn't tell what gave it a different texture than the rest of the coastline. But it was obvious something had given it that texture after it fell. I nodded without turning back to Astrid, telling her I had seen what she pointed out.

I rolled toe-up to let Toothless slow for a landing. He contorted his back slightly and landed with his front feet, followed by his back feet.

As the snow settled back to the ground, I noticed the different texture was only limited to a swath about twenty feet wide. On either side, the snow was a pristine white. But in the middle, it was much darker. There were several stones from the coastline that had been disturbed, lying on top of the snow without any white cover.

I latched the plate onto the bottom of my peg and dismounted from Toothless' back. As I crept closer to that area in front of us, I noticed several three-toed footprints on the edges made by something that was running. And it looked like whatever made those footprints had vicious claws on its feet.

I turned back to Astrid and said, "I think this is it."

She nodded in agreement. Everything was silent for a while except for the crashing of the surf.

Astrid sidled up to me and asked in a whisper, "Are those docks the only way to get to the village from here?"

"I think so," I replied and turned to examine the rock wall where the tracks were leading.

As I peered into the darkness, Astrid nudged me in the shoulder and whispered, "Wh-what are you doing!?"

It didn't take long for me to give up. I couldn't see what the tracks led to, although I had a pretty good guess about what it might have been.

"This has gotta be where the Speed Stingers are," I whispered.

"That's great," Astrid replied immediately. "Let's blow a hole in the docks and go home."

I was a split second away from agreeing with Astrid when a quiet, nagging doubt snagged a piece of my attention.

"Oh. I, uh... I don't know if we can simply tear out some of the docks."

"Hiccup, why are you second-guessing yourself? We don't have any time to waste!"

"I know. But do we know these caves really don't connect to anywhere else on the island? And are there any areas on the coast where the cliffs are smaller?"

Astrid thought for a few seconds. In the almost-nonexistent light, I saw a look of realization creep across her face.

"There's at least one cave," she whispered with resonance.

"Nobody's really explored all these caves yet," I pointed out.

We had tried several times, but mapping the labyrinth beneath our island was nearly hopeless. It didn't help that several passages had unpredictable water currents that weren't connected to the tides.

"All right. I'm out of ideas," Astrid said after a long silence. "I hope you have one."

This was one of those times when I wished reality wouldn't ruin everything. But the Speed Stingers would have found another way into Berk, even if Astrid and I did blow out a section of the docks.

I sighed, knowing we had one alternative left if our current idea failed. I mulled it over in my mind for a few seconds, hoping I could come up with something else. Anything else. But I couldn't.

"If blowing a hole in the docks doesn't work, we've gotta get the lead dragon away from here," I whispered.

"What do you mean 'away from here?'" Astrid asked.

"Wherever the ice sheet goes," I replied, glancing in that general direction. "Not only that, we've also gotta give those dragons a reason to stay away from Berk."

"Using Toothless?"

"Toothless will just kill the dragon," I replied. A deaf person would have noticed the tone in my voice didn't support Astrid's suggestion.

After a short moment, Astrid whispered, "You're still Chief here, you know."

"That's all you've got!?" I whispered. It was exceedingly difficult to keep my voice down. If our little discussion continued, every single one of those Speed Stingers would wake up and attack without warning. "What are you getting at?"

"Hiccup, you have people and dragons to protect," Astrid said. "Don't you think 'being nice' is putting everyone in Berk at risk?"

"What am I supposed to do!? Go ahead, tell me! Since you know so much more about 'how to be a chief!'"

A snarl came from the rock wall next to us. I blanched, feeling my lips turn white. I was pretty sure Astrid had the same reaction because both of us turned simultaneously toward the sound. We weren't just staring at a rock wall anymore. I knew it was a cave based on how that snarl echoed. And it sounded a lot like a Speed Stinger.

Astrid and I waited for what seemed like an eternity. Neither of us moved or breathed, but it didn't matter anyway. My heart was slamming so hard in my chest I could hear it. I was certain that dragons could hear things like that from a distance.

A low, soft grunt from behind me shattered the silence. Astrid jumped and clapped a hand over her mouth, stifling a scream. I whirled around, yanking the shield away from my back to face whatever it was. A few seconds later, a dragon exhaled, sounding like the bellows I used in the forge, and a plume of steam met my shield. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing it was Toothless.

I lowered my shield, my heart still racing, and reached a hand out to where I thought Toothless was. I heard another grunt, and soon after, there was a gentle pressure on the inside of my left hand. Toothless was rubbing against my hand, telling me where he was. I stroked toward his back, feeling an ear flap. Toothless leaned a little more weight into my hand, but it didn't feel like he was asking for more attention.

A second later, I could just barely make out his yellow-green eyes. They disappeared, and I felt Toothless nudge into my left shoulder with a quiet rumble. I stood there for a moment, letting Toothless work his magic. Maybe he could give me a better idea of what to do with the Speed Stingers too.

It didn't take long for Toothless to come up with an idea. He sidled past me on my right side, which was also facing the rock wall guarding Berk from the ocean. Toothless nudged me gently with his head away from the rock wall.

This doesn't fix anything, I thought. He's just telling me to leave.

It was just procrastination. It was another day of being locked into our houses with barely anything to eat or drink. It was another day of wondering how many people were petrified. It was another day of worrying whether everyone else was still alive.

"Toothless, what are you doing?" I whispered to him as he continued gently pushing me toward the ocean.

Astrid shuffled toward us and asked, "Wh-what's going on?"

I was about to tell her I had no idea, but stopped myself. Toothless had pushed himself between me and the cave housing the Speed Stingers. He was trying to tell me something.

Maybe he's aware of something I'm not, I thought.

Maybe he had a reason for getting between me and the Speed Stingers.

Against my better judgment, I decided to test whether Toothless was onto something. I took a long step to my right, trying to get around Toothless. Once I left his side, he grunted and put himself between me and the cave again and began nudging me away once more.

"Hiccup?" Astrid whispered. Her tone of voice told me she wanted an answer to her question.

"I... uh... I think Toothless wants me away from here," I said.

Astrid huffed in frustration. "Why are you letting your dragon make this decision?"

Before I could answer, Toothless grunted again, this time more urgently.

I brought my head close to his and whispered, "I hope you're right about this, buddy."

Toothless blinked in response, signaling he knew I was talking to him.

"Toothless probably knows something we don't."

"What if he doesn't care about the Speed Stingers? Don't you think Toothless might not care about getting rid of them?"

"I don't know. But I think Toothless is trying to tell us we shouldn't be here for some reason."

Astrid grunted in surprise. "Hiccup, why is Toothless biting me?"

I glanced in her direction, just barely able to see her.

"He's... he's not," I stuttered, wondering for a moment what she was thinking. "I'm looking directly at Toothless right n–"

I stopped. A sickening wave crashed into my gut when I realized what had probably happened.

Toothless' eyes disappeared just before he roared in alarm. Without warning, he shot a blue fireball that missed Astrid's right arm by about a foot. It exploded with a hollow bang just behind her. Astrid grimaced and staggered forward, her hands clumsily reaching for her ears.

The brief light of the fireball illuminated one Speed Stinger being thrown backwards. There were two others some ten feet further away, glaring in our direction. As darkness crashed over us again, a high-pitched shriek and a sickening thud came from the dragon colliding with the rock wall. It was probably dead, but I wasn't planning on finding out any time soon. From inside the cave, several shrill roars echoed in a cacophony of noise.

"Astrid, come on!" I shouted.

I ripped the plate off my peg, and it quickly slipped from my hands. I didn't crouch to search for it. Our cover had probably been blown for a few minutes at the very least. Those Speed Stingers were inches away from gutting us. Astrid was about to be paralyzed, and there was a good chance Toothless was as well. Once again, I realized too late what Toothless was trying to tell me.

I saw Astrid's faint outline as she lunged in my direction. A pair of hands connected with my left shoulder and chest. I quickly grabbed onto Astrid's wrists and pulled her behind me. She kept one of her hands on my shoulders as we jumped onto Toothless' back.

I felt around for the stirrup with my peg and shouted, "TOOTHLESS! GO!"

My hands let go of Astrid and grabbed onto the handles at the front of Toothless' saddle as he took off running. As I felt the stirrup with my peg, I jammed into it, unsure of whether there was ice buildup. But with Speed Stingers this close, I wasn't going to take any chances. I rolled my peg around experimentally, feeling the stirrup respond through my knee. Toothless must have noticed too and took off, veering away from the village. The air chilled further as we picked up speed.

No, toward home, I thought. Not over the ocean.

But then I realized Toothless was circling over the ocean because he knew the Speed Stingers couldn't do anything about it. Toothless pulled into a wide bank, bringing the lanterns dotting the village back into view.

The Speed Stingers screeched in frustration as we flew over the rock wall guarding the village from the coast. We soon crossed over town, and about ten seconds later, I spotted Johann and Gobber trudging through the snow toward my house, where Stormfly, Thornado, and my dad were still petrified. Soon, Astrid was going to be the next entry on that list.

Gobber was the first to turn back toward us. "There you are!" he shouted. "What were you two doing all this time!?"

Toothless landed five feet away from him, panting. I dismounted, but Astrid stayed on his back. Her eyes had taken on a glassy, unfocused look.

"No time to explain! Just get inside!" I shouted back.

Without giving Gobber or Johann any time to respond, I began half-sprinting, half-hopping through the snow. Toothless followed in a slow gallop, Astrid somehow barely staying on his back. Her head looked like it was loosely connected to her neck, and her shoulders were bouncing with each of Toothless' steps.

"What happened to Astrid!?" he shouted.

"Just get inside!" I repeated. I lunged toward the door and slammed it open. A shrill roar came from the direction of the plaza. Within a few seconds, faint silhouettes of the Speed Stingers appeared as they sprinted in our direction.

Toothless jumped his way into the house, Astrid still on his back. Gobber yelped in panic and dove inside, followed by Johann, who still had a noticeable limp. I slammed the door shut and latched it.

"Check the back door, make sure it's locked!" I shouted to no one in particular.

A cacophony of grunts, shrieks, and clicks filled the house. I couldn't tell where they were coming from, and I hoped either Gobber or Johann was fast enough to reach the back entrance before the Speed Stingers did.

I glanced around as I took gasping breaths, noticing my dad, Stormfly, and Thornado were still motionless, exactly as I had last seen them.

About three seconds later, Johann announced, "It's latched, Baster Hiccub."

I turned to Astrid and put a hand on her side. She barely moved in a feeble effort to look at me. Her skin was slowly turning blue, and her lips and fingernails were almost purple.

I caught Astrid under her arms as she slid off Toothless' back and lifted her just enough to help her to a standing position. I began walking her toward our table, but after a couple steps, the toe of her right boot caught the floor. My grip tightened under her arms as she slumped. Her feet kicked ineffectually as her legs continued moving in a feeble walking pattern.

I felt her spasming motions through her arms and chest, the Speed Stinger venom taking a stranglehold over her muscles. Her chest and throat were audibly hitching as she lost control of her breathing.

Astrid's hips, legs and feet wouldn't bend into a sitting position, so I laid her on her front, her head turned to the right. She twitched a few times, her eyes unblinking and staring through the wall. After a few seconds, she stopped moving.