It was days before Rylan or Hiccup was permitted to see their dragons. When they were finally allowed, they were horrified at what had happened. 

"Jolt!" Rylan cried, forcing himself through the door before it was fully open. The once proud dragon lay pitifully on the floor. His sleek black scales were hanging off his thin form, and the golden eyes were half open and glassy. Limp, empty wings hung at his sides. His whole being radiated exhaustion.

He rasied his head and gave a weak growl of welcome as Rylan ran over. Sliding to his knees, Rylan hugged Jolt's long neck. He buried his face in the rough scales, tears threatening to leak out. 

Next door Hiccup was cradling Toothless's huge head in his arms, his head bowed. Both dragons had begun to starve themselves from lonliness.

Alvin had put off the reunion for as long as he could, but finally he had allow it in order to save the dragons' lives.

Grunting with effort, Rylan rolled a barrel of fish over and prised it open. He carefully selected a fish and held it out to Jolt. He sniffed it quietly, then gently took the fish from Rylan's hand. 

Rylan's eyes welled up with tears to see his friend brought so low. Speaking quiet words of comfort, he fed Jolt one fish after another until the barrel was empty. 

Jolt gave a sigh of satisfaction, then turned grateful eyes on Rylan. Behind him, Alvin was forcing the door open again. 

Panic overtook Rylan. He couldn't leave Jolt alone in the dark again. He HAD to stay with him. Before Alvin could speak, Rylan leapt up and yelled,

"Wait!" 

Alvin fell silent with surprise. 

"Let me stay with him. He'll eat if I'm here, and get better. I promise he'll get better." 

Jolt gave a soft growl and rasied his head. Rylan turned desperately back to Alvin and pleaded, "Just let me stay with him. Please." 

Alvin squinted his small eyes. The boy did have a point. The dragons would only go back to their self starvation unless the boys were always with them.

Alvin harrumphed unhappily, but muttered, "Fine. But don't think of trying anything. This prison is guarded by fifty warriors at all times, none of which would hesitate to kill you and your precious Jolt."

With a last look of disgust, he stormed from the dungeon, grinding the door closed behind him. In the next cell over, Rylan heard Hiccup give an enormous sigh of relief. As long as they had their dragons and their brains, they'd be fine... he hoped.

---------------------------------

"See anything?" Fishlegs called, buzzing low over the ocean. 

"Not yet!" Astrid replied, swooping down towards him. "Maybe we should round up the others and head back. I don't like how spread out we are." 

Since Hiccup, the usual leader of the group, was gone, Astrid had assumed command. While she was a natural at issuing orders and analyzing a situation, the heavy burden of keeping track of everyone was making her tense. 

Fishlegs nodded, but kept searching the water all around. Astrid pulled Stormfly up to find the others, but then she heard him cry out, "Woah! I've got something here!"

Meatlug fluttered down and retrived a soggy length of rope floating in the water. Fishlegs examined it critically. 

"Roughly made, but strong, broken cleanly. Something sharp probably severed it."

"Something like a dragon claw?" Astrid asked, gliding closer to see. 

Fishlegs looked up at her grimly. "Something like a Night Fury claw."