(The next day)
Hiccup's POV

"And you're sure you don't want Stormfly and I to come with you?" Astrid asks, handing me a full water flask which I carefully tuck into Toothless' saddle compartment.
"I'm sure Astrid, we won't be gone too long. A day at most," I reassure her with a smile. Toothless rubs against me and purrs, I scratch his head fondly. "Besides, someone has to keep Snotlout and the twins in check!"

We're about to head to the Hidden World, to visit the Light Fury and any dragons that are there right now. While I'm there I want to try and take a census of the Hobgobblers because they keep turning up (Gobber's getting nervous). Astrid wants to come, but there aren't many other people I trust to keep an eye on our fellow Berkians and their crazy, destructive nature. Besides, I sent my mother and Fishlegs on the scouting mission early this morning to the island we might strike a trade deal with, so there really aren't many options.

Astrid shakes her head, "No one can keep those three in check." A smirk appears on her face, "The only time Snotlout behaves is when your mother is nearby."

I let out a fake gasp, "This again?!"
She laughs and waves her hand sassily. "It had to be said!"
I shake my head at her in amusement, pulling my notebook out to check if my pencil has enough lead, tucking it away once I've confirmed it does. I look back at Astrid, "Well, as horrifying as this revelation has been," I add a smirk to show I'm joking, "Toothless and I better get going."

Astrid sighs, but then changes her attitude. "Do you have everything?" She asks as I swing into the saddle. I nod but she continues. "Water Flask? Emergency tail fin? Regular clothes? Food? Water flask?"
I laugh at her, clicking my prosthetic leg into the stirrup. "You said water flask twice, which by the way, you handed me thirty seconds ago."

Astrid rolls her eyes. "I just want you to be careful," she exclaims, punching my shoulder 'lightly'. I let out a groan to show my displeasure at the painful, yet familiar motion. I then lean over from the saddle and kiss her.
"C'mon you know me!" I laugh after leaning back and flicking my helmet visor down. I also flick open Toothless' tail fin, "I'm always careful!" We take off.

"Since when?!" I hear her shout after Toothless and I.
I laugh in amusement, letting out a whoop at the serotonin from the flip Toothless and I do in the air. Toothless lets out a happy croon before we fly up into the clouds, on our way to the Hidden World.

***some time later***

"—and that's why she said I can't have a Fury themed feast at our Greater Hall every week. I think she's being too harsh. What do you think bud?" I finish, chuckling from my laid back position in the saddle, hands behind my head as I stare blankly at the clouds above. He chortles underneath me, obviously amused. We've been flying for a while and have decided to slow our pace, to enjoy the flight and the fresh air. Chances are he might get swept away from me in the Hidden World, to deal with Alpha duties I guess, so I might be on my own. At least I can walk around without getting attacked now.

After a short while, Toothless stills underneath me and lets out a small croon. "What is it, bud?" I ask curiously, sitting up. His ear plates are pricked as he stares into the distance, and I follow his gaze to see the clouds in that direction are getting quite dark.

"Ah, looks like we've got a storm rolling in." I note, raising my arm to shield my eyes as I try to get judgement on how far off we are. It looks like we can't avoid it because that's the way we need to go, and it's expanding out to the sides.

We could maybe try to fly around it, but by the looks of it it's pretty big so we might miss The Hidden World's entrance entirely. I voice this to Toothless and he seems to agree that we can't avoid it, as much as we'd like to.

After a few minutes, I glance back at the prosthetic tail. "I'm starting to think we should have brought the automatic tail, bud! It's a bit more resistant to the weather," I admit, already nervous. By now I can feel that the air is getting colder. Toothless let's out a low growl of agreement and I pat his head. "Don't worry about it, bud. We've flown through storms before!"

Lightning flashes ahead and thunder rattles the sky. "Wow, Thor's angry about something!" I chuckle, trying to ease the mood. "Maybe it's me. The gods are always angry at me."

As we fly closer to the storm, the rain starts to pour and so I pull my visor back down, shielding my face from the elements the best I can. The visibility is becoming really bad, but I trust Toothless to lead us through the storm. "We've got this, bud!" I shout over the wind and rain as it tosses us around. I glance back at the tail, eyeing the connection rod nervously because I know the lightning always goes for the metal, and if it hits it, it would mean bad news for us.

Within seconds we've properly entered the storm. Lightning flashes through the sky again and Toothless, startled, roars as it strikes close by. "It's ok bud—" another lightning strike, this time close to our side, "whoa! I-It's alright!" I shout over the wind, thunder and rain, clutching the saddle bars tightly as we're tossed harshly to and fro. This is one mean storm!

I see lightning flicker down in the distance, but Toothless roars and summons it to him. It zaps all over our bodies—attracted to the scales—and even though I've experienced it a few times now (we started doing it for fun), it still makes me nervous—mainly because of the tail. "Bud n-no, no the tail..." I shout nervously as the lightning cloaks us. He looks up at me in realisation then looks under his belly as the lightning runs over our bodies again and uncloaks us. To tell the truth, I don't know what he was hoping to achieve by cloaking us. I guess he was panicking.

I look back at the tail, seeing it beginning to smoke and I wince. "As soon as we get back, I'm working on all the prosthetic tails to ensure this won't happen!" I voice shakily, seeing the tail catch alight. Toothless lets out a worried, apologetic whine and I pat his head. "I-It's ok, we only need to find somewhere to land and—"

The last thing I remember is seeing a huge explosion of light in front of us, before lightning comes crashing down and my world goes dark.

The fun stuff is about to go down 😁