Hiccup's POV

"Zephyr, I'm home!" I called out as I crossed the threshold of our house, Toothless on my heels as we returned from a long day of Chiefing around the village.

I let my gaze wander around the unusually quiet home as I searched for any sign of my daughter. Embers were cooling down in the hearth from when I had left earlier the same day and the pot of oatmeal on the table looked to be untouched, along with the lone wooden bowl that sat beside it.

I turned to Toothless as he too looked to be searching for Zephyr. "She's not downstairs, that's for sure."

The dragon purred in agreement as I made my way over to the stairs and began my ascent to Zephyr's room. "Zephyr!"

No answer, yet again. Her bed had been made, a few pieces of parchment were scattered around her desk, but besides that, my daughter was seemingly nowhere to be found. I furrowed my brows and turned to my dragon once again. "Seems we'll have to ask around for her then."

Our first stop was at the Ingerman house, where we were greeted by Ruffnut Ingerman, who seemed to currently be without her husband and daughter. "They're out for the day."

I raised a brow at Ruffnut as Toothless and I shared a look of confusion. "Alright? I was just wondering if you had seen Zephyr?"

Ruffnut tapped her chin for a moment, looking like she was in deep thought before replying. "Yeah, I saw her earlier today. She came over asking for Cortie, gave her the same answer I gave you."

"Oh, alright. You didn't happen to see where she went next?" I asked my old friend, who simply shook her head. "Alright then, see you later, Ruff."

Ruffnut shot me a sly smile in farewell before she shut the door in mine and Toothless' faces. She was one of very few people I would never quite get, which made me wonder how Fishlegs dealt with her on a daily basis... I suppose that's something I would have to ask him later.

I stopped by several houses, wondering if any of its inhabitants had seen my daughter, something which not many had. My round of questioning ended at the stables where Toothless and I eventually found ourselves standing in front of Firestorm's empty stall.
"At least we know she's taken Firestorm with her."

A grumble escaped Toothless as he looked around the empty stall. Eventually, the night fury decided that he was no longer interested in either me nor the stall, so he wandered away. "Hey, where do you think you're going?"

I followed the dragon until we made it to the other side of the stables, where a familiar young man was busy filing the talons of an acidic green monstrous nightmare. Of course, how could I have been so dumb! I hadn't even thought to ask any of her friends if they'd seen her and here was one of them right before me, primed and ready to be grilled.

I shot Toothless a thankful smile as I patted the night fury on his head, to which he purred in satisfaction as I stood up straight and marched into Syver Jorgenson's pen. I crossed my arms as I set my eyes on Snotlout's boy. "Syver, funny seeing you here."

The teenager raised a brow as he paused filing his dragon's talons. "How? This is my dragon's pen after all, why would it be 'funny' to see me here?"

I let out a sigh as I had to fight myself not to roll my eyes at the teenager, gods, how I hoped the rest of our conversation wouldn't be like this. "Listen, Syver, I just need to know if you've seen Zephyr today. She was gone when I came home a while ago."

The Jorgenson boy refused to meet my gaze as he picked up his file and continued taking care of his dragon. "I-I saw her earlier today outside the village and I haven't seen her since."

I narrowed my eyes at the boy. I had a feeling he knew more than he was letting on, especially judging by the droplets of sweat that were gathering at his temples. "You know, Syver, there are grave consequences for lying to your Chief."

The boy paled as his voice became high-pitched. "She went after her mother."

"What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing and found myself staring at the young man with my jaw hanging open.

"She ... she figured out that it was all real and then she took off on Firestorm to go rescue her mother. I'm really sorry for not telling you sooner, Chief." Syver stammered as that tough and masculine exterior of his cracked, shamefully displaying the wimpy little boy that hid underneath.

I stepped out of the pen and climbed atop Toothless, who looked very eager to go fetch Zephyr. "Don't worry about it, Syver, you did the right thing. Now you have to excuse me, but I have a daughter to retrieve."

Zephyr's POV

"This looks good, what do you think, Firestorm?" I asked my dragon as we circled above a rather concealed cave in the middle of the dark pine forests that surrounded Berserker island.

The dragon let out a pleased squawk as she landed outside the cave and let me climb off her back. We carefully made our way into the dark cave, which wasn't more than a hole in the mountain and prayed we wouldn't encounter any Berserkers. We didn't. "Light up, girl."

The dragon did as commanded and lit up her mouth with a ball of her magnesium fire, which burned blindingly bright as it cast a warm atmosphere around the two of us. As day turned into night outside the cave, Firestorm and I decided to settle in and get some rest before we attempted our big prison break in the morning.

I rolled out a fur I had brought along on the ground and snuggled close to Firestorm, allowing the heath from her fire to warm my shivering body as I slowly but surely drifted to sleep.

The next morning, I was wrapped in one of Firestorm's wings and felt snug as a bug. To my great surprise, I had actually slept pretty well — if you removed the pain from the arrow wound beneath my collarbone from the equation, of course. Perhaps it wasn't the wisest idea to go breaking people out of captivity with a bad shoulder?

The fresh mountain air that flowed in through the cave filled my lungs and allowed me a calm and peaceful awakening, up until I blinked my eyes open that is.

I got the surprise of a lifetime as I fluttered my eyes open and found myself staring right into an uncomfortably familiar pair of emerald green eyes, which were blazing with ... fury?

A million curses danced around my mind as I cringed and pulled my fur over my head. The fur didn't help very much though, seeing as my father yanked it away almost immediately, revealing a very displeased look that had been deeply etched into his features.

I smiled sheepishly up at my father as I sat up in my makeshift bed, pulling at my braids as I greeted him: "Hey dad, lovely weather we're having, don't you think?"

My father glared daggers at me as he spoke with a strict tone. "Home, now."

"But daaad ..." I whined as he pulled me up by the arm, much gentler than I had expected from a man that looked even half as furious as he did.

"No 'but's' here, Zephyr. You have neglected to follow my orders for the last time. We're going home now and that's the end of the story." My father growled as he dragged me after him over to Toothless, who looked both as relieved to see me and as furious as my father did.

"Technically you didn't say anything about me going after mom ..." I was playing a dangerous game with my father and judging by the heavy tension that filled the air, he wasn't a big fan.

"Zephyr ..."

"Fine! I just have one question: why did you lie to me?" I asked my father as all his rage seemed to melt away and was replaced by sorrow.

My father remained silent for a moment before he spoke, refusing to keep eye contact with me. "I ... I just didn't have the heart to tell you that your mother was alive but we were never allowed to see her again. I also had the feeling that you would try something like this if you knew and well ... seems I was right. I shouldn't have lied to you Zephyr and I know that, but you shouldn't have gone after your mother either. Especially when ... when she's not ours to have."

I watched as my father fought back tears with a furrowed brow. "What do you mean 'she's not ours to have'?"

My father's shoulders sank even further as he turned his gaze out of the cave and onto the rising sun in the distance. "We made a deal with Dagur. He would let the two of us go if he got to keep Astrid. Your mother begged me to go and I ... I gave in. I didn't fight hard enough for her."

"I-I didn't know that." I stuttered as I clenched my fists.

My father sighed. "That's because you were passed out and I decided not to tell anyone the exact details. Listen, sweetie, we have lost this battle, let's just go home."

I took a minute to think, tapping my chin as the gears turned at record speed inside my mind. "But we can still win the war."

My dad raised a brow at my statement as he turned to face me. "And how do you suppose we do that?"

A grin tugged at the corners of my lips as I crossed my arms in determination. "We save mom and kill Dagur the Deranged."