Hiccup looked out over a swatch of forest and saw... nothing. He made another X in his book. He'd drawn a map of the island and made little Xs wherever he'd looked for the dragon. Frustration made him lose it for a minute when he scratched out the entire thing.

"Ugh, the gods hate me. Some people lose their knife, or their mug. Not me! I manage to lose an entire dragon!" He slapped a branch in frustration, but it whipped back and socked him in the face.

"Ow!" He clapped a hand to his eye. The motion caused him to look just a little bit higher.

A huge limb had been snapped and bent towards the ground - the tree had almost been split in half!

A deep rut was cut into the ground, and ended at a small hill. He slid down into the gash and maneuvered around the rocks and tree limbs that riddled it. What the... The dragon! He heaved himself up over the little hill and- Holy- It was right there. A dragon! A... surprisingly small, black dragon. He dropped back down, out of the line of sight of the dragon.

Slowly, he peered over the top. The Night Fury wasn't moving.

Hiccup feverishly tried to find his knife and, for a moment, wondered if he'd dropped it somewhere. Then his hand closed over the leather-wrapped handle and he held the little knife out in front of him.

The gesture was meant to be offensive, but it was more for protection than anything else, if he was honest with himself. He took a couple deep breaths to calm his racing heart, and carefully approached the dragon.

He hid behind boulders the entire way down the slope.

Eventually, he was behind the boulder directly in front of the Night Fury and he tried to calm himself down again.

He carefully crept around the rock and gasped. "Oh, wow." The dragon was wrapped in the thick ropes, it's legs bound to its chest, and it's wings were tangled up as well. "I did it. Oh, yes! I did it! This fixes everything!"

His now-boosted confidence led him to walk right up to it and put a foot on its side. "I have brought down this mighty beast-"

The dragon made a sound and moved just a tad. Hiccup threw himself backwards with a scream.

He panted and held out the knife again.

The dragon let out a several breaths, almost like it was scared.

Hiccup walked forward, letting the knife go first.

The dragon opened its eyes, but Hiccup could only see one from his angle. They made eye contact, and Hiccup nervously had to look away first.

He fixed his gaze on where the dragon's heart should be, but looked back at his face.

That surprised him; he'd thought about the dragon as a "he" for the first time. It fit.

He tried to steel himself. "I'm gonna kill you, dragon. I..." His voice faltered, but when he turned the knife in his hands, so that the point was downward, he fooled himself into thinking he was stronger than the Night Fury. "I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father."

"I am a Viking," he whispered to himself. Then he said it to the dragon. "I am a VIKING!"

He took several deep breaths to calm down - it failed miserably. He lifted the knife above his head, and he looked again at the dragon's face.

The dragon closed his eyes and laid down it head with a noise that Hiccup could've sworn meant "Do it quickly."

He snapped his eyes closed and held the knife up again. Then his arms lost their strength and he sighed.

He looked at his knife and at the ropes binding the majestic creature. "I did this," he muttered. He was horrified with himself. He looked down at the dragon and made his decision.

~~~~

The noble Night Fury, brought down by a Boy... The Dragon couldn't believe itself.

A Boy had brought it out of the sky, and that Boy was here. It could smell him.

It heard the Boy's clumsy approach, but didn't try to move. It listened as the boy moved out from behind a boulder and said, "Oh, wow. I did it. Oh, yes! I did it! This fixes everything!"

Fixes everything? What have you done to say that? it wondered.

Then the Boy came forward and the Dragon felt a light weight in its side. "I have brought down this mighty beast."

"Haven't you humiliated me enough?" The dragon was tired and ready to die. It had nothing left to live for, since it could no longer move without feeling the unbalanced weight of its tail; a forever lasting mar of humiliation.

But... the Boy didn't laugh or step back gracefully. He leapt backwards. And screamed.

A thought occurred to it that was completely foreign. "Boy? Are you afraid, too?"

The Night Fury opened his eyes, and the instant he saw the Boy, he felt something inside him. He didn't know the feeling's name, and he didn't know if it was good or bad, but... it didn't seem all that bad.

The Dragon didn't notice that he had began to think of himself as a "him" and not as an "it"; it felt more natural to call himself a him.

He took in the Boy's appearance. The Boy certainly looked scared. "I'm gonna kill you, dragon. I..."

He watched as the Boy turned the small weapon he held. "I'm gonna cut out your heart, and take it to my father."

The Boy muttered something to himself, something that answered several questions brewing in the Night Fury's head. "I am a Viking." The Boy was trying to be stronger then he actually was, which never ended well, in the Dragon's experience.

Then he said it to the dragon. "I am a VIKING!"

"I am not the one you need to convince of that. Am I? You are a disappointment to your Father, just as I was."

He watched the Boy try to calm himself, and then look back at him. No Man or Boy he knew of had ever had this much trouble killing a Dragon.

The Night Fury closed his eyes and laid his head on the ground, prepared to die.

"Do it quickly."

The Dragon waited for the shooting pain he expected to come with the knife, but it never came.

Instead, he heard a rough sawing noise, and felt the restraints binding him break. His eyes snapped open. The Boy was... freeing him?

He looked back towards the ropes, and saw that the Boy was freeing him.

The instant the last rope broke, the Night Fury leapt up and pinned the Boy to the boulder, his neck held by one thick paw.

He stared at him and saw the fear in his eyes. You... spared me. I will spare you.

He reared up on his hind legs and then slammed his arms down and roared at the Boy. Then he pushed off the boulder and tried to fly away.

In a moment of panic, he realized he couldn't control where he was going. Then it hit him - his tail. It had healed, but he still couldn't fly.

He couldn't fly.

The fact that he'd healed didn't matter anymore; he was still going to die. It was just going to take longer.

How had he not known how important his tail was?! How had he let himself get hit?! He'd been careless. It was all his fault, the Boy was not to blame - wait. Was he making excuses... for a Boy?! A Child of Man?!

He was weak - just as his Father had told him.

And there was nothing else to it.

~~~~

The Night Fury jumped up and pinned him down. Hiccup thought he was going to die.

The dragon stared him down and Hiccup watched as his pupils grew a little larger than the narrow slits they'd been.

He gasped, barely able to breath through the fear.

Then the dragon reared. This is it. I'm going to die.

The Night Fury slammed it's huge black paws down and roared in his face.

There was no fire. None at all.

Before he could even register that fact through the shock, the dragon had pushed off the rock and tried to fly away. But the thing couldn't get more than a few yards off the ground, and he kept running into trees and rocks.

It went down just a little ways away, in a deep, circular gorge - almost like an abandoned quarry.

Hiccup let out a breath that he hardly realized he'd been holding.

He grabbed his knife, which he'd dropped, and began to walk back to the village.

Before he'd taken a third step, his legs turned to jelly and he fell down to the ground, nearly landing on his face.

~~~~

I know... I'm such an indecisive annoyance.

But hey! I've got another chapter for you guys!

I'm sorry about all my problems with decision-making, but now it's... written in stone. Yeah, let's go with that. It is permanent now!

I would like to dedicate this chapter to all those lovely people who were involved with...

The Compliment Wars.

You know who you are.

~Cinder