I closed the door behind Toothless and myself as we walked out. Dawn had just broken, the sun barely peeking over the horizon. There was just enough light to see shadows, which only accentuated the three-toed footprints in the snow surrounding my house. It was easy to see the direction the Speed Stingers came and went. But around the house, it was a chaotic mess. In many places, it was difficult to tell where one print ended and another began.

Looking around the village, several houses had wooden shards spread haphazardly around them. I counted three of them with doors caved in, open to the cold. There were no fires dancing in the hearths. There was no sign of movement inside those houses. I could only hope those Vikings had found shelter somewhere else. Maybe someone was kind enough to share a living space with them.

The entire village felt like it had been abandoned overnight. The silence hung almost palpably in the air, adding to the bleak feeling surrounding me.

I had done a terrible job as Chief. It took me way too long to realize feeling sorry for myself would never fix any problems. If I could somehow get these dragons out of the village, maybe I could atone for these last few days.

I took a deep breath, the air stinging my nose, throat, and lungs, and fixed my gaze on the armory across the plaza from us. That was my first stop.

But there were more pressing issues at the moment. I climbed onto Toothless' back and hooked in with my peg. Without waiting, he jumped, getting air underneath us.

Toothless started to pump his wings harder, trying to gain altitude. I let him. He could do what he wanted for the majority of the flight, but after a while, I planned on taking control and heading to the armory.

We flew around Berk for a while. Toothless seemed to be enjoying the exercise, but my mind wasn't thinking about what an exhilarating flight this was. I had a hundred different thoughts running around in my head, and only one of them was about flying. Needless to say, it quickly got lost in the jumble of other thoughts floating around.

I was mainly thinking about how I was going to lure the lead dragon into some kind of trap. I figured the Speed Stingers' main goal was to secure food, which I hoped hadn't really happened yet. They couldn't access our food stores because we kept them tightly locked. The families who were raided probably had a much smaller supply of food in their houses, so the dragons would run out soon anyway.

If that was the case, then I wondered what might happen if I put out some bait. If I got a fish or chicken and put it in the middle of town, how would the Speed Stingers respond to it?

A low whoosh on my left surprised me slightly. It was a rock spire, which told me we were over the ocean. Looking down, I saw a few chunks of white ice floating on a dark blue glassy surface.

I quickly retreated back into my thoughtscape, wondering where I had left off. Something about food stores... Oh, yes. Bait.

There were probably two outcomes to putting out bait. Either the first Speed Stinger that wandered by would simply gobble it up, or the underlings would let the lead dragon know so it could have the first bite.

I wondered how I could play this little ruse to get the lead dragon into the open. The Speed Stingers were already elusive enough, and aiming for one of them in particular seemed to be impossible. But if I could ensnare that lead dragon, I could use Toothless to transport it away from Berk.

Maybe I could throw out free scraps for the Speed Stingers to find. That way, they'd figure out they had a source of food around. The lead dragon would definitely show up quickly if that happened. From there, I could wrap a large chunk of meat or fish in rope and lure the lead dragon toward a trap.

A faint hitch jumped through my legs, bringing my attention to Toothless. He was beginning to tire, his breaths getting deeper and more labored. I nudged him with my right knee, and he began soaring. We were over the outskirts of the forest, where Toothless didn't have to pump his wings to reach the armory.

A quick glance around the island showed no sign of any Speed Stingers.

I rolled toe-down to let Toothless dive slightly. He angled downward, and at the last minute, I flipped to toe-up, where he hovered for a beat and then set down gently. I hopped off his back and nearly fell face-first into the snow. I yanked my peg upward and hopped toward the door leading into the armory. Toothless bounded inside as I pulled the door open. As I closed the door behind us, I heard Toothless panting sharply, sounding like the bellows that wasn't far from me.

It was nearly dark inside the armory. The front vista was shuttered, and the only light that filtered into this area was from the smokestack. Below the opening to the smokestack was a large collection of black and brown slush. This seemed to happen every winter, but we always made it a point to clean the armory and forge at the end every day.

Through the darkness, my eyes settled on a loose piece of wood about a foot in length, nearly covered by the slush. I pulled it out and held the tip of the wood in front of Toothless' snout. I could barely see him, but a low groan come from him, like he was thinking.

About a second later, a bright white flame shot out of his mouth. The wood vibrated in my hand as Toothless' flame hit the tip. Toothless stopped after about two seconds, and the torch continued burning with a slight crackle, illuminating everything in the armory with a jumping yellow light. I lit both candles on either side of the junction between the armory and forge and then extinguished the torch using the slush that conveniently hadn't been swept out of here yet.

"Thanks, Toothless," I whispered to him, stroking his cheek. He murmured and leaned into my hand. I took my hand away from his cheek and placed my palm on his snout.

"Wait here, okay?" I said, looking into his eyes.

I began looking around the armory for the supplies I needed. My eyes settled on the many casting nets we had hanging on a far wall. I remembered I had made a casting net about twenty feet in diameter this past summer to help Mulch and Bucket with their fishing duties. They might not have been smart, but they were diligent enough to bring it back every day.

Twenty feet seemed like a good size to catch the lead Speed Stinger. The one time I saw it, I thought the lead dragon was at most two feet taller than me. I grabbed the largest net we had on the wall and put it on the ground near Toothless. The net was reinforced with thick strands of rope every few inches to keep a large fish from ripping through it. Toothless sniffed at it for a few seconds, probably interested by its smell.

On the back wall were several lengths of sturdy rope. I grabbed a basket and sifted through the rope, looking for the longest sections. Four of them, each about twenty feet long, went into the basket, along with the casting net. I also holstered a knife in my belt, grabbed a fresh snow plate, and then began looking for my shield. After a few glances around the armory, I realized it was still on my back. In all of my preoccupation, I had forgotten about it.

I thought through my plan one last time. I'd lure the Speed Stingers to a spot with pieces of meat or fish, then keep a large chunk of food just out of their reach to entice the lead dragon. The dragon would stop on top of the casting net to finally eat the bait, and I'd close it by yanking on three long ropes. Toothless and I could transport the lead dragon with its followers close behind to an island not named Berk, and we could probably handle any stragglers that would get left in the village.

Foolproof, right?

Yeah, whatever.

So much could go wrong with this plan. But what choice did I have? I had to do something. People were counting on me, even though I still felt like I had let all of Berk down in this little foray as Chief.

I hooked the basket with all of its rope onto Toothless' saddle. I had a plan, but I didn't feel committed to it.

Toothless grunted in curiosity as the basket settled on his saddle. He looked at me, his expression saying he was ready for a meal. But I just couldn't bring myself to say anything to him or show him any affection.

I took a deep breath and exhaled, a long-lived plume of steam exiting my mouth. I blew out both candles in the forge and led Toothless out the back way, just in case the Speed Stingers were running around.

Toothless lumbered his way out of the forge. He seemed calm, considering what I was feeling inside. I tried to follow his example and relax.

"C'mon, bud. Let's get something to eat."

Toothless jumped and began hovering, waiting for me to take the lead. I nudged him with my right knee and began directing him toward the great hall. As Toothless gained altitude, I saw a brief flash of green dart across the snow. I knew we had to be both quick and careful to avoid becoming statues.

The front entrance to the great hall seemed to be void of Speed Stingers, but there had to be at least a couple of them floating around, just out of sight. The back entrance was where I was looking, because it was a little more inaccessible than the front.

I rolled toe-down slightly and said, "Let's go, Toothless."

I tried to make it sound urgent, but my preoccupation with what I wanted to do later wasn't letting me think about anything else at the moment. Toothless started into a dive, the cold air stinging my ears, eyes, and nose. We reached about twenty feet short of the back entrance when I quickly rolled toe-up to let Toothless hover. His momentum carried him the rest of the way toward the entrance.

I dismounted and heard two short, high-pitched grunts come from behind us, but I didn't look back. I wrenched the door open, and Toothless bounded inside. I followed just behind him and shut the door, the clanking sound echoing for a few seconds in the great hall.

Toothless grunted in anticipation as he saw a small pile of fish. I directed him toward a table before he got too excited. I filled a basket with fish and brought it back to him.

Toothless was wriggling, ready to eat, so I flipped the lid open. He stuck his face into the basket and grunted. He pulled a fish out and swallowed it whole, looking at me the entire time. We held eye contact for a few seconds, and then Toothless returned to his meal.

I sighed, not feeling any better about making sure Toothless was taken care of. Most of the time, I really took pride in looking after Toothless, like it gave me a sense of accomplishment.

I left Toothless, put a raw fish on a skewer, ambled over to the fire pit, and held the fish in the low flames for what seemed like forever. Everything I did seemed like it was moving so slow it was almost going backwards.

Eventually, though, I confirmed that time moved forward because the fish started to show a blackened color. I pulled it out of the fire, examined it, and began eating in silence.

When I was about halfway done with my fish, a quiet, low croon came from behind me. It was Toothless. I glanced back and found his eyes staring at me. I turned back toward the fire pit in silence and continued eating. Toothless grunted more urgently and nudged me in my right arm, telling me to hurry. Either that, or he was trying to help me feel better.

"Mm. Hey, bud," I mumbled in disinterest. I stroked the top of his head a few times to let him know I was still somewhat coherent.

After a few minutes, I finished what was edible on my fish and tossed it into the fire, where it sizzled and popped before turning a crisp black. I stood, feeling like I had aged several years in the last few minutes.

I took the basket containing the ropes and net off Toothless' saddle, put eleven fish in it and hooked it back onto his saddle. Predictably, he craned his neck, trying to figure out how he was going to eat those fish too.

I rolled my eyes slightly, hoping Toothless would understand what I had in mind.

I tugged on Toothless' saddle and began walking toward the rear entrance of the great hall. Slowly, I cracked the door open just enough to check for any Speed Stingers nearby. I didn't see any dragons, so I pushed the door open, making it creak.

"C'mon, bud," I whispered to Toothless.

He trotted out, and I closed the door behind his tail. I hopped onto his back and stowed my snow plate in the satchel I had at my waist. I hooked into the stirrup with my peg, and Toothless jumped.

I nudged Toothless with my right knee and directed him toward the roof of the great hall. He landed near the center of the roof.

After dismounting, I slowly walked toward the village. At the edge of the roof, almost all of Berk was in view. I was looking east, toward the plaza. Beyond the village was the forest, which looked beautiful from here. The fir trees were showing hints of dark green and brown through the dusting of snow covering them. A little toward the north was my house, which was probably still shelter for my dad, Astrid, and their dragons.

The serenity of this view was soon broken by a couple sharp clicks coming from below. Two Speed Stingers had stopped near the front entrance of the great hall and were staring up at me.

I looked back at Toothless, who was about ten feet behind me. He was craning his neck again, still trying to get into the fish basket. I walked over to him and unhooked it. Toothless grunted, slightly upset there were fish nearby he couldn't eat.

"Sorry, Toothless," I told him unemotionally. "Not for you."

I set the basket down near the edge of the roof and took a deep breath in a final attempt to commit to my plan. As I opened the lid, I noticed the casting net and ropes were neatly folded under the bait.