Hiccup's POV

"Could you please repeat that?" I requested of Zephyr's best friend Cortie, who looked like she was about to burst into tears as she stumbled over nearly every word in her sentence. The only thing that seemed to calm the frantic teen was Eret's boy, Keldan, who had his hands on Cortie's shoulders and told her that there was nothing to worry about and that Zephyr would be fine.

"She ... she just took off after that! POOF! Right into the sky! Gods, this is all my fault." Tears streamed from Cortie's eyes as Keldan wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest, gently stroking her hair as he attempted to calm her down.

I raised a brow at the two before shifting my gaze over at the other teens, who looked just as confused as I was. Judging by the looks on their faces, this was the first time any of them had seen Cortie and Keldan be so affectionate. I cleared my throat as I attempted to dig deeper into what had happened. "Syver, you're looking more ... stable than ... certain others. Can you please explain what happened?"

Syver crossed his arms as his brows drew together. "It was really strange, Chief, she seemed so ... glum all day and when Cortie tried to speak to her about it, she got all defensive. Keldan saw that there was some tension between the two of them and tried to break it up, but Zephyr just lashed out at him as well. Then Ragnhild mentioned her mother and Zephyr became furious and began ranting about how we supposedly never consider her feelings whenever we talk about our mothers."

"Gods," I breathed as I placed a hand over my mouth and glanced over at Toothless, who was looking curiously over at me as he awaited either his dinner or our next trip out of the house. "I knew I should've waited with telling her about that night."

Cortie sniffled as she turned back towards me, eyes red and puffy and nose running. "What do you mean, Chief? What did you tell Zeph?"

I ran a hand across my face as I sank back into my chair. "I told her about her mother and the day of her disappearance."

"Oh." The whole group gathered in the room exclaimed as they awkwardly tried to avoid eye contact with me.

"Come on, bud, we're going after Zephyr." I informed Toothless as I stood from my chair and began marching out of my house.

"Wait! Chief!" Syver Jorgenson shouted after me as he and the rest of the teens burst out of my house. "Let us come with!"

I raised a brow at the teenage boy. Though he may not bear many physical similarities to his father other than his hair and that smug grin of his, he still shared some of his father and grandfather's ... less likable traits. "No. You are all staying here and that's the end of the story."

"But—"

"I said no. I'm going to go fetch your parents and if any of you even try to follow us, you'll be on dragon poop-shoveling duty for the rest of the year." My voice was strict as I  instructed the teens of their possible fates.

The teens all paled at the mention of having to shovel poop for the rest of the year and quickly took off, leaving me to go get their parents so that we could all go and find my daughter. 

***

"The gang's back together!" Tuffnut exclaimed as he braided his fingers behind his head and leaned backwards.

"What are you talking about Tuff, we literally fly together at least once a week." Snotlout pointed out from where he sat on Hookfang, who was for once NOT on fire.

"He means on an adventure, Snotface. It's a twin thing, you wouldn't get it." Ruffnut backed her brother as they head butted each other from their separate dragon heads.

I rolled my eyes at the three of them. "How come you guys haven't changed in 15 years? It's frightening to think that you are all someone's parents."

"I'm an amazing father, thank you very much!" Tuffnut noted as he crossed his arms across his chest.

Fishlegs let out a snort. "You quite literally made a carbon copy of both yourself and your sister."

Tuffnut let out an exaggerated gasp as he placed one hand on his chest and exchanged looks between his brother-in-law and his sister, who looked so bored I thought she would fall off their shared dragon in the next couple of minutes. "You dare insult me in such a way? Sister, punish him!"

Ruffnut cast a lazy glance over at her husband before letting out a sigh. "You're sleeping on the couch tonight, sugarplum."

"But, honeycakes!" Fishlegs pouted as he flew up beside his wife and the two of them had an excruciatingly long argument about their sleeping arrangements. I caught both Snotlout and Tuffnut gagging out of the corner of my eye.

We had been flying around for quite a while, searching every island and every seastack this side of the archipelago in search of my daughter. We had just gotten back up in the air for what felt like the millionth time that day and I could feel that we all just really wanted to go home, humans and dragons alike.

Then, I spotted two thick, familiar, light-auburn twin braids floating through the air before they disappeared beneath the clouds, followed by a red, black-spiked nadder tail.

"There!" I exclaimed and it was like all of our previous energy had poured back into us, making us all ready for some action. In an expert and surprisingly synchronized maneuver, we all dropped down beneath the clouds and quickly spotted my daughter and her dragon, who seemed to be making their way down to the island below us.

We followed and as soon as they landed, so did we. Zephyr barely had the time to slide off her saddle before Toothless and I were right in front of her, staring her down.

"Dad? Toothless? What are you doing here? And why did you bring your friends?" Zephyr asked, her tone sharp as she crossed her arms, looking between both me and my friends.

"Zeph, you just took off out of nowhere, your friends were really worried! I was really worried." I explained to her as I attempted to reach out for her shoulder, but she quickly brushed me away.

"I need some time to think, away from my friends, away from you, away from everyone." Zephyr stated as she dug her feet into the sand, probably filling her boots with it.

I took a deep breath as I met my daughter's gaze. "I'm sorry you don't feel like you can think in peace whenever we're around, if you just tell me about it next time instead of running away, I can go on a long flight or something so that you can get some time alone. I only want what's best for you, Zeph."

Zephyr knitted her brows together but remained silent. I glanced down at Toothless, who tilted his head as his eyes shone with curiosity and a little exhaustion. I shot the night fury a smile as I turned my gaze back to my daughter. "Listen, Zeph, I don't want you to feel like I'm a bad father or anything, but it's time we go home and deal with this there. Which is why I suggest that you get back on Firestorm so that we can all leave, alright?"

Zephyr continued to remain silent as she climbed atop her dragon. I turned to my friends and began walking back up to them, Toothless on my heels. I was about to catch them up on what was happening when Snotlout interrupted me. "Uh, Hiccup?"

"What is it, Snotlout?" I asked him rather impatiently, seeing as I was too eager to go back home.

He furrowed his brows as he was busy staring at something in the sky. "Isn't Berk the other way?"

"What?" I breathed as I turned around to see what he was going on about, but instead found myself gaping at what I was seeing. Zephyr had gotten up on Firestorm alright, then she had gone the exact opposite direction of Berk, having completely disobeyed my orders. I could feel my blood boil in my veins as I clenched my fists.

I climbed atop Toothless, who looked just as displeased with the situation as I was before I turned back to my friends, speaking firmly and quickly: "Go back to Berk and make sure to keep your kids out of trouble while I go after Zephyr, okay? Tell Gobber he's in charge until I come back."

Without so much as a goodbye, Toothless and I took off into the skies after my daughter and her Deadly Nadder, ready to give her a real lecture on why you shouldn't disrespect your parents whenever we would catch up to her.