As we rose higher into the air, I nudged Toothless with my left knee.

Toothless and I were a matching pair because both of us were missing something. I had torn off his left tail fin when I was dumber about two years ago. I had wanted to be "strong," which, at the time, meant killing a dragon. I had shot Toothless down but realized I didn't have the courage to kill him.

The look on his face when I was ready to plunge my knife into his heart had burned itself into my mind. He was terrified, and it seemed like he was pleading with me not to kill him. From that moment forth, I made a silent promise to myself never to kill a dragon, even if it threatened me with my life.

"Okay, Toothless," I said with a deep breath, wondering where Mulch and Bucket had found Trader Johann this morning. Most of the time, their fishing routes took them west, past the yak pastures. 

"Let's try west." I rolled out with my peg and leaned left to help Toothless turn.

As soon as Toothless picked up speed, my ears felt like miniature knives were slicing through them due to the rush of cold air. I tucked my chin, trying to protect my ears with my shoulders.

We crossed over the edge of the island. An ice sheet about thirty feet in width was resting on top of the water, extending out of sight. It meandered left and right as it pointed west, tracing out areas with less current. There were islands past the horizon in this direction, but I doubted the ice would have been able to connect them to Berk.

Within a few minutes, Toothless and I reached the fishing area Mulch and Bucket frequented. Several hundred yards in front of us was what looked like a boat.

Mentally, I braced myself for what was about to happen. Johann was going to happily exclaim his usual "Ah, Master Hiccup!" greeting, followed by some grandiose yarn he had probably rehearsed a zillion times just for this exact moment.

The boat grew in size as we approached. I looked at it curiously, wondering how in the world he had gotten stuck here. The ice sheet was at least a foot thick, and yet Johann's boat had a small circle around it that was ice-free. His boat was in the water; it just had no way of crossing to the water nearby. But strange things happened every day, so I pushed wondering about the boat out of my mind for now.

"Toothless, land there," I said, pointing to an area of the ice sheet that looked stable enough to hold him.

As we approached our little area, the air around us chilled. I guessed Johann had been surprised by the ice locking him in and tried to free his boat by himself. Obviously, it wasn't a good idea, especially when the ice only was going to get thicker in the coming hours.

Toothless landed without any effort, the sound from his wingbeats dissipating almost instantly. Besides being frigid, the air felt lonely. Berk was just barely in sight with an ice sheet that extended both ways from Toothless and me. I looked away from home, and the sheet seemed to stretch to the horizon.

I jumped off Toothless' back and walked toward the circle of water surrounding Johann's boat.

"Trader Johann? Johann! Are you in there?"

No reply. Only the waves lapping rhythmically against the boat made any noise.

Johann's boat showed no signs of him leaving. There was no plank connecting the boat to the ice sheet.

I checked as far as I could in either direction on the ice sheet, seeing only whitish ice and blue water.

I grabbed the side rail of the boat, ready to lift myself on board when a slight burning sensation coursed through my palms and fingers. The rail was frozen over. A small weight dropped in my chest as I realized this rescue was probably going to become a salvage.

Using my peg for traction against the ice-covered hull, I climbed up and flopped on board with a groan. I stood and glanced at Toothless. He simply stared up at me, watching and waiting.

I rubbed my palms against my chest, trying to warm them up after the contact with the rail.

Trader Johann's boat had two levels on it. There was the deck on the top, which had items that weren't going to be thrown overboard due to wind or rough water. Then there was the hold, which housed and protected items that could easily be lost if the conditions were bad enough. A quick glance around the deck revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Johann usually had several barrels and crates full of different trinkets and knickknacks, and today was no different, except for a thin sheet of ice covering everything on deck.

I shivered as I made my way to the trap door leading to the hold, grabbed the handle, and pulled upward. Predictably, it was frozen shut, and the handle was just as frozen as the railing. No crackling sound met my ears, so I stopped trying to open the trap door after one attempt.

Why would Johann refuse to leave his boat in conditions like this? I wondered. Or has he left already? 

I doubted Bucket and Mulch had even tried to contact Johann. My guess was that they noticed the state of the trap door and came back to Berk with a flimsy lie.

I walked to the side of the boat and found Toothless still in his spot, looking up at me. He blinked and grunted as we made eye contact.

"Come up here, bud," I told him, motioning with my arms.

Without hesitation, Toothless hunkered down and jumped. Two wing beats later, he landed with a hollow ka-thump on the deck, making the boat rock slightly. The hull bumped into the ice sheet with a faint grinding noise, and the water protested vigorously for a few seconds.

I rubbed the top of Toothless's head, listening to him murmur. I led him to the trap door and pointed to the seam with my left index finger, making eye contact with him.

Toothless groaned, like he was thinking. He sidled up to where my hand was and looked closely at it. A second later, he pulled in a deep breath. I removed my hand just before a concentrated stream of white fire came out of his mouth.

I pointed a little to his right so that he could see where I wanted him to melt the ice. He followed slowly, staying several inches behind as we finished one side of the trap door.

I pointed to a new section of ice for Toothless to melt. He repositioned himself and began just like a few moments ago.

"You did great, bud," I said to him with a quick hug after we finished tracing around the trap door. Toothless whuffed in appreciation.

Grabbing the handle once more, I pulled upward, opening the door with minimal effort. I loved how useful dragons could be when we showed the patience and friendship they deserved.

I swung the trap door open, where it caught using two chains on either side. The chains were sheathed in ice, but the friction broke most of the frozen layer, creating a small rain of ice into the hold.

"Johann?" I asked, looking into the hold.

No answer.

There were ten wooden slats acting as steps leading down into the hold. The top step had a noticeable glisten to it.

Definitely a salvage, I thought.

Pulling in a deep breath, I took the steps one at a time, peg first, followed by my right foot. The ice crackled and spider-webbed each time my peg landed.

The air around me had a fishy odor, almost like Johann had a stock of fish nearby and had ignored it for too long. I glanced around the hold, my nose wrinkling in distaste, but nothing caught my attention.

As I reached the last slat leading into the hold, I looked down to make sure my final step was going to land on solid wood. Almost instantly, my left hand clamped onto the rail, and I gasped in surprise, pulling in a sharp breath of freezing air. My hand seemingly developed claws, keeping me secured to the rail, but my momentum pulled me to my left. My right foot crashed down onto solid wood a couple inches away from a head full of neatly-kept brown hair that had small speckles of frost.

It was Johann. He was curled in a ball at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes open but glassy. Where his skin was showing, it was a light blue. His lips and fingernails were a much darker shade, almost purple. His hands were curled around his knees, and on the back of his left hand, there was a small puncture mark that had stopped bleeding some time ago, like he had been stuck with the tip of a dagger.

"Johann!"

He didn't move.

"Johann!"

Johann didn't respond, but a high-pitched snarl did. It sounded like it came from inside the boat, at most ten feet from me. All the color drained from my face, and I glanced around in panic, unable to discern anything.

"Oh, gods," I whispered.

Just before I turned around to stagger back up the stairs, a pair of red eyes with slits for pupils revealed themselves from the darkness. It looked like a dragon, but I had no idea what kind it was. I had never seen anything like this before.

It was six or seven feet tall, bipedal with green skin. Its arms were short compared to its body, but its legs and tail appeared to be very strong, like it was a keen runner and jumper. On top of its head was a green frill. And just barely visible on its back were a pair of what looked like vestigial wings. It was probably a flightless dragon, which supported my guess about it being a runner.

The dragon gave a high-pitched roar that echoed within the hold and leaped forward, bringing its entire body into the light. It showed off its long, sharp teeth, and I noticed a red tip at the end of its tail, something like a poker we used for fires. It jumped onto Johann's left calf and raked its leg toward his ankle in a threat display. The sound of the dragon ripping through Johann's pants leg was unmistakable, and in the claws' wake were three deep red furrows running down the length of Johann's calf.

I yelped and slipped on the ice-covered stairs, landing in a sitting position. I quickly rolled over onto my front and scrambled back up to the deck on all fours. I slammed the trap door shut and lost my balance, falling clumsily onto my side.

The dragon cackled from below. Toothless responded by growling at the trap door, telling whatever was down there to leave us alone.

My chest was heaving in and out, and my heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest. My breath was making large plumes of steam every second or so, but I didn't notice the cold. Toothless crept up to me and nudged my shoulder gently with his snout. I jumped at his touch, making the trap door bang against the frame with a loud report.

I glanced around myself. There was Toothless above me, the boat was below, and surrounding us was a grey sky. Toothless was staring at me, worry in his eyes.

"O-okay, bud," I stammered. I rolled onto all fours and haltingly stood up.

An idea took form in my mind as I waited for my nerves to stop jangling. I committed to it, thinking I was either insane or stupid for doing this. But if by some minute chance Trader Johann was still alive, he needed shelter that was better than a frozen boat with a monster that could eviscerate him. And he needed that shelter now. Leaving him for my dad would spell his death from that dragon or hypothermia.

I groaned quietly, knowing the only solution was to somehow get rid of the dragon. Toothless couldn't fit into the hold, so I had to draw that dragon out of hiding. But bringing it into the light meant Johann was in the way of a fireball. I whispered a quick prayer to the gods, asking for Toothless not to miss or kill the dragon. I only wanted it incapacitated enough to get Johann out of his prison.

"Battle ready," I said quietly to Toothless, pointing at the trap door.

He hunkered slightly and glared at the door like he could see through it.

I grabbed the handle and lifted, opening the trap door again. A shaft of light filtered into the hold, where the dragon was still standing guard near Johann.

Too risky, I thought. The dragon was too close to Johann.

Once the light illuminated the dragon, it turned toward us and snarled, telling us to go away. Toothless returned its message by intensifying his glare and growling at the dragon.

I watched as the smaller dragon glared back at Toothless, but quieted somewhat. I wasn't sure if it was the cold or just the feeling of tension in the air, but something didn't feel right. Toothless hadn't intimidated that dragon into retreating. The dragon tensed, like it was about to attack.

After a few seconds, nothing happened.

Toothless and the other dragon simply glared at each other, growling.

I scowled as I realized I had to take the initiative. If I didn't, I'd fall asleep at exactly the wrong time or Johann would die with me looking on.

Gods, I really didn't want to do this.

Toothless, just please knock this dragon unconscious, I thought.

Slowly, I moved my left hand toward the satchel at my waist and opened it. I reached my fingertips inside and pulled out the snow plate, trying to keep the element of surprise on my side. Without giving myself a chance to think about it, I pulled in a quick breath and tossed the plate into the hold.

The dragon reacted to the new object flying past its head, darting toward the snow plate as it clattered to the wooden floor. The dragon whipped its tail around and stabbed through the plate with a resounding thunk, showing off how brutally efficient it was at killing things.

"PLASMA BLAST!"

Toothless gave a loud grunt as the hold lit up in bright blue. The fireball illuminated every glistening texture that had been covered by ice on the boat and then disappeared with a loud, hollow explosion as it collided with the dragon.

The dragon flew backwards, slammed into the wall with a shriek, and slumped motionlessly on the floor, its right side a gaping hole of blood and bone. Its eyes were open and glassy, that hollow look telling the world the dragon was dead.

Just like when the dragon killed my snow plate, Toothless showed the same clean, brutal, and uncaring efficiency.

Was it in cold blood? Probably.

Was there a reason? Definitely.

Johann would have died if I hadn't taken action like that. I stood there in shock, finally realizing I had broken my promise to never kill a dragon. A weight dropped in my gut, as I felt like I had let all of Berk down with this one action.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't care that I was having a crisis of conscience. The sky opened slightly, letting snow fall to the earth. As several snowflakes broke my reverie, I knew we had to get Johann to Berk soon. The flurry that started only seconds ago was probably going to become a blizzard within an hour. And Johann was still lying in front of us.