I was first to stir. Just like the middle of last night, the fire at the hearth was glowing orange embers. I glanced around in the chill, noticing Stormfly and Astrid huddling together for warmth. Thornado was near my dad's bed underneath a couple large sheets of leather. My dad was snoring away next to Thornado.

Toothless yawned with a groan and stood as I left his side. He stretched and looked at me, ready for today.

"G'morning, bud," I whispered.

Apart from the occupants of the house breathing, a quiet white noise filtered its way in through the walls. I remembered now, just as I did every year, that winter had a different "sound" to it. For some reason, that background noise was a little more prevalent, and distinct noises were easier to discern.

After a few seconds of listening to the winter, I grabbed my trousers and coat and donned them. I shuffled past Toothless, toward our front door.

I stopped moving with my left hand about six inches from the door. Something didn't feel right. It felt like there was an invisible wall blocking my hand.

I closed my eyes and listened, leaning forward. I heard the dragons and Vikings in the house breathing, but there had been another sound I couldn't place.

After about ten seconds, that sound reached my ears again – a high-pitched, short grunt coming from somewhere outside the house. It was followed by another. Three. Four. Five. All of them came within seconds of each other.

Toothless rumbled, waking Stormfly. Astrid groaned and yawned as her source of warmth left her.

I stared at the wall in front of me in shock. Those were Speed Stingers.

From behind me, Astrid mumbled, "Hiccup, why is Toothless–"

I held a hand up to stop her. She fell silent. I listened a second time, hoping what I had heard wasn't real.

Those grunts filtered through the walls again, this time from much closer.

I turned and faced Astrid, who had just lost every bit of color from her face. Her expression told me exactly what she was thinking.

Toothless turned to the front door and began growling. This time, it was loud enough for Thornado and my dad to wake up. Thornado lumbered over to the front door and fixed his gaze on it, rumbling.

"What in Thor's name is going on!?" my dad groaned as he stood from his bed.

We got rid of the ice. We made a rift so this couldn't happen.

We stopped the dragons yesterday.

Somehow, the Speed Stingers still managed to find their way into Berk.

The grunts from outside became more frequent. I even heard them over the three dragons we had in this house. There was also an occasional click, which presumably came from the Speed Stingers as well.

I definitely didn't feel good about having a bunch of dragons wandering around Berk, or more accurately, a bunch of strange and aggressive dragons. What made it even worse was that we had no food or water in this house after consuming what we had left yesterday. None of us had thought about it after Toothless roared at the herd of Speed Stingers. At some point today, someone would have to wander outside and get something to eat and drink.

Before we could launch into an argument about it, I volunteered.

"Uh, Dad? Astrid? I'm gonna take Toothless to get some food and water."

Both Astrid and my dad turned to me, their eyes wide.

"No, you're not," my dad said. "You're staying here. There's no telling what can happen to you and Toothless out there."

I shrugged. "The Speed Stingers can't fly. I can make trips from here to the great hall in the air."

Astrid groaned in frustration. The stubbornness I had as a Viking was showing itself.

"All right, Hiccup. You make the first trip," she told me. "I'll do the next one."

"Astrid, it's not making me feel any better to know both of you are risking your lives out there," my dad replied.

"What are we supposed to do?" I asked him. "Just sit here and hope those dragons will magically go away?"

"They will eventually," he replied.

"Yeah," I said, trying to cover a short laugh. "When we're out of food. Speaking of which, why not just let those dragons eat the hákarl we have strung up? I'm sure it'll make that area smell much better. Or maybe they'll die from food poisoning, and we won't have to worry anymore."

Hákarl was easily my least favorite food. It was shark meat, pressed and essentially rotted that we strung up in its own structure because of its pungent and nauseating smell. Once it acquired a smell that made people gag, it was ready to eat. Naturally. I couldn't believe how many people liked that stuff.

"Our stores should be locked," my dad said, avoiding my disdain about the hákarl. "The only way a dragon could get into them is if it could breathe fire."

"Um," Astrid started, eyeing me. "Can they?"

"I... I don't know," I stuttered.

After a few seconds, I faced the front door again, signaling I was going outside whether Astrid and my dad liked it or not.

"Be careful, Hiccup."

I nodded and looked at Toothless.

"Ready, bud?" I asked him.

I listened for a beat, making sure there weren't any Speed Stingers nearby and pulled the door open a notch. I peeked through the sliver, but only a foot of snow on the ground greeted my eyes. I slowly opened the door wider to let Toothless out.

Toothless bounded out, took about four hops, then turned around to look at me.

Astrid giggled from behind me. "He must really like snow."

"Yeah, he does."

I turned back to Astrid and said, "I'll come back. Promise."

I stepped through the door and closed it behind me just as my peg sank all the way to the ice layer at the bottom of the snow drift. A frustrated groan escaped my throat as Toothless jumped around.

Before he could get too far into his little game, I called out to him, "C'mon, Toothless. Let's go flying."

An excited grunt came from my left as Toothless crashed through a snow drift, sending a shower of white in every direction. He stopped a few feet short of me with an eager look on his face. I dragged myself over to him and climbed onto his back with some trouble. I hooked into the stirrup with my peg, and as usual, Toothless took off without warning.

I simply followed along for this flight. We had different reasons for being up here today, which was a rarity. Toothless was up in the air for the fun of it, like normal. I, on the other hand, was up here because I wanted to scope out the island. Maybe I could get an idea of what the Speed Stingers were doing and what they were after if I could see most of the island at once.

It was difficult to determine what was happening throughout the island because of the cold and wind. After a few minutes of flying, the water collecting in my eyes blurred the lower half of my sight field.

Toothless banked left as I blinked several times, heading toward the western yak pasture and ice bridge. We were flying over the rugged coastline, around the armory and forge. Just before our view of the plaza was obscured by the armory, a green flash darted across the plaza. I sighed in irritation, knowing what I had heard from inside the house this morning was real.

I rubbed my eyes with my coat sleeve, trying to keep my tears away long enough to see any other Speed Stingers in Berk.

Toothless passed the armory and began heading for the great hall. Just before he started his descent, I nudged him with my right knee.

Immediately, Toothless relaxed his wings and let me lead him. We rose back into the air just as we passed the great hall. Both the front and rear doors were closed. Nearby was the silo we used to store our cache of food for the winters. Those doors were also shut. And not quite far enough away from the great hall and silo was our storage structure for hákarl. Had our situation not been so dire, I would have laughed had the Speed Stingers actively avoided that area.

The silo led to an underground storage area full of everything we ate, including chicken, fish, vegetables, berries, breads... basically anything except hákarl. We made sure to refresh the food every few days, which necessitated us to take turns on cooking and cleaning duty at the great hall.

I glanced around town and noticed there was nobody wandering around the village. The sun was mostly in view, which told me people should have been going about their daily business by now.

I guided Toothless in a tight circle and had him land at the front doors of the great hall. I was eager for this flight to end so I could spend enough time to clear my vision.

As soon as he touched down, a shrill roar echoed from my left through the village, followed by several loud clicks. I glanced in that direction and saw two green dragons barreling toward us.

"Toothless, UP!" I shouted, yanking upward on his saddle.

He grunted as he jumped into the air and hovered about fifteen feet above the ground. The Speed Stingers stopped where Toothless was just a couple of seconds ago and looked up at us. One of them gave four short grunts in quick succession. It wasn't long before three more Speed Stingers joined them. All of them were glaring at us, like they were ready to attack if we got within their range. They simply stood there, guarding the front door of the great hall without doing anything else except for an occasional grunt or cackle. After a few seconds, I realized these dragons weren't going to disperse until Toothless and I were out of their sight.

I directed Toothless to his right, so that we were flying between our storage silo and the great hall. Unsurprisingly, the Speed Stingers followed us. I led Toothless beyond the great hall and out toward the yak pasture. But the dragons stopped just short of entering the pasture.

They know where our food stores are, I thought.

I turned Toothless around and approached the silo. A high-pitched roar met my ears. Toothless growled as we headed toward the silo just as three Speed Stingers showed themselves again. We flew past the silo and toward the armory, the dragons following us on foot. They stopped about ten feet short of the armory.

I had Toothless hover for a few seconds over the rocky coastline behind the forge, which was a second structure attached to the armory. I glanced around and saw no Speed Stingers, so I directed Toothless to land at the back entrance. Once on the ground, I dismounted and pushed the door open.

"C'mon, Toothless," I said. He grunted as he trotted into the forge. I closed the door behind us and noticed two candles were lit.

"Gobber?" I asked the air in front of me, a diffuse cloud of steam escaping my mouth.

After a few seconds, there was no response, so Gobber had probably been here recently and was coming back soon. I shrugged and entered my study. It was completely normal with all the plans and designs I had come up with over the years strewn about like a whirlwind had blown through here. Near my desk was a small stack of snow plates I had made earlier this winter. I grabbed one and nearly dropped it, my hand burning from the cold iron. I quickly attached it to my peg.

I left my study in disarray like it was supposed to be. It was a deterrent for anyone who wanted to snoop around in there. One of my sarcastically recurring "nightmares" was for someone to sneak into my study and organize it.

Next to the entrance of my study, I grabbed two hooks I had made in my spare time a few months ago. At the Academy, we were trying to figure out how to get food to an injured dragon or rider, and this seemed to be the best solution. The hooks were designed to latch onto the handles of Toothless' saddle, so he could carry two baskets on either side.

Predictably, Toothless had seemed more interested in eating what was in those baskets rather than moving them around. I smiled a little because I knew if I could get into the great hall, I'd run into that exact problem.

"Let's go, bud," I said quietly to Toothless.

After blowing out the candles, I led him out of the forge through the back exit and climbed on his back with less effort than the first time this morning. I stowed the plate in my satchel, hooked in with my peg, and we took off. I nudged Toothless with my right knee, directing him on a beeline toward the great hall. The plan was to get to the entrance before the Speed Stingers would have time to respond.

As the great hall grew in size, I saw several Speed Stingers standing guard near the double doors leading to the front entrance. The entrance in the rear was void of any dragons, so that became our target.

"Right there, Toothless," I said to him, pointing out the back entrance.

We pulled into a shallow dive. At the last instant, I rolled toe-up and Toothless came to a soft landing about five feet away from the door.

Two of the Speed Stingers shrieked as we landed. At least four of them rounded the corner as I pulled the door open.

"TOOTHLESS! INSIDE!"

He leapt inside before I could give him a chance to react to the dragons plowing toward us. I dove in after him, slamming the door shut behind myself. The great hall echoed with a loud thud from the door. From outside, I heard several screeches, clicks, and grunts, which caused Toothless to growl at the door behind us.

Inside the great hall, there were lit candles dotting the open area here and there. To my right was a moderately large pile of fish. Just like the armory and forge, the great hall was empty. Every time I took a step or Toothless exhaled, it echoed around the great hall for a few seconds. To me, it felt like most of Berk had suddenly disappeared overnight.

"No, Toothless," I said quietly, my voice reverberating.

He was edging toward the pile of fish, looking for something to eat. I strode between him and his meal. He dutifully sat on his haunches, looking at me expectantly. I grabbed two baskets, filled them with fish and hooked them onto Toothless' saddle.

Nearby was a basin of water we used for drinking. I dipped two small wooden buckets into the water, placed fitted lids on top, and hooked the buckets onto Toothless' saddle as well.

Toothless intensified his gaze at me, trying to guilt-trip me about not feeding him when there was a large pile of fish at most ten feet from him.

"When we get home," I told him.

I led him using his saddle toward the front entrance of the great hall, hoping we could dupe the Speed Stingers for at least a few seconds. I knew we had to be quick about this for two reasons. First, Toothless would never let me hear the end of this if I didn't give him something to eat soon. Second, the Speed Stingers would be able to smell the fish from a mile away. No doubt they'd give chase.

I pulled one of the doors open slowly and peeked through the slit of light filtering into the great hall. I listened for a beat, then threw the door open and guided Toothless out. I shut the door behind me with a loud click and climbed onto Toothless' saddle.

Several alarmed grunts came from behind us, and I looked back to find those same Speed Stingers sprinting in our direction again.

I leaned forward in the saddle as I hooked my peg in and nudged Toothless with my right knee.

"Home, bud," I told him. He grunted and powered forward with his wings.

Just like when we entered the great hall, I had Toothless pull into a shallow dive. He stopped about five feet short of the front door to our house. I jumped off his back and wrenched the door open. Toothless bounded inside. I dove in after him and slammed the door shut. Several grunts and clicks came from outside, followed by heavy scratching noises.

Stormfly cackled at the wall, but the sounds outside didn't stop. Thornado glowered at the same wall as if he and Stormfly could see the Speed Stingers through it.

"They followed you here?" my dad asked.

I looked at him and nodded as I pulled the baskets and water buckets off Toothless' saddle.

"They're guarding the silo and great hall," I stated.

"Why?" he asked.

"They know where our food is kept. It's like a beacon to them."

"And now they know some of it is in this house," Astrid added with a hint of irritation.

"What was I supposed to do?" I shouted.

"You could have come back without any fish and told us we needed to go to the great hall," my dad said.

"Toothless and I were just barely fast enough to avoid those dragons. I don't even know if any other dragon could do this."

"Sure we could," Astrid said. "You, me, and your dad. Together."

"That leaves one of us stranded," I told her. "One of us gets locked outside and becomes the target of their attention playing 'bait.' Or the dragons will just get smart and guard both entrances to the great hall."

Toothless interrupted our argument with a low moan. He was staring at one of the baskets in front of him, wondering when he was going to eat.

I groaned in frustration because I felt like I had doomed myself, my dad, and Astrid to our fates by advertising the fact that we had a food source just barely out of the Speed Stingers' reach.

I opened the basket and tipped it over, spilling about half of it on the floor for Toothless. I grabbed a fish off the top of his pile and gave the basket to Astrid, barely looking at her.

Astrid went through the same production with Stormfly and joined me at the hearth, where I had already skewered my fish and was cooking it in the fire. My dad fed Thornado and joined both of us soon after.

After our meals were cooked, we ate in silence.