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Hiccup wouldn't say he was a heavy sleeper. It didn't usually take much to wake him, at least. A fully-grown dragon rampaging around his hut and scratching at every entrance he could find was definitely enough to get the young chief awake and alert.
"Toothless!" He cried, his hands out to try and placate the whirling form of his best friend. "Calm down, bud!"
Toothless did not calm down, instead redoubling his efforts to burrow out through the window. The dragon let out a short huff of air, his wide green eyes reflecting the moonlight. He threw his head in the direction of the door and paced back and forth in front of it.
"What's gotten into you, bud?" Hiccup wondered aloud. He quickly slipped his prosthetic leg on, grabbing a thick woolen coat on his way out the door.
The moment the reinforced wood was removed from Toothless' intended path of travel, he leaped through the doorway and began bounding in the direction of the woods.
"Toothless!" Hiccup hissed, "slow down!"
Impatiently, the Night Fury halted and waited for the human to catch up to him. He was dancing from paw to paw, eager to continue on his path.
Reaching his side at last, Hiccup swung his arms around his scaly neck and hoisted himself onto Toothless' back. He patted the scales that ran down his flank, signaling that he was ready to go on.
Without a moment's hesitation, Toothless spread his large wings and leaped from the ground. He soared into the night sky, the air growing colder as the pair ascended. Hiccup was glad he'd thought to bring along a thick coat.
"Where are we going, Toothles?" Hiccup called, his voice whipped away by the whistling wind. Still, the dragon's ear flicked back, indicating that he'd heard the human's question.
He gave no answer, but he was clearly flying with a destination in mind. Hiccup squinted into the distance.
"We wouldn't, by any chance, be flying directly toward that blizzard, would we, bud?"
Toothless grunted.
"Oh, gods," Hiccup whispered. Resigned, he pulled his coat tighter, lifting the hood even higher to cover his face.
As they neared the whirling storm, Hiccup tightened his hold on the dragon. The winds blew strongly, flinging small shards of ice into Hiccup's face. He ducked his head, letting Toothless fly unguided.
The night fury grunted, letting Hiccup know he was about to dive. The human responded, adjusting his grip as they began their steep descent. Toothless spiraled, dodging branches and jutting ledges.
The wind was still howling, stray snowflakes making their way under Hiccup’s hood. As he slid off Toothless' back, he peeked out, his eyes scanning the terrain.
It was rough, sharp rocks poking out of the snow-covered ground. Small shrubs were clinging to the sides of cliff faces, whipping around in the storm.
"What are we doin' here, bud," Hiccup chattered. His coat was thick and woolen, but the cold had a way of getting into places it wasn't meant to be. His toes, for instance, felt like they were about to fall off.
Toothless had his snout to the ground, looking up every few steps and peering around. Suddenly, his ears swiveled sharply to the left, and he took off, bounding through the ever-growing mounds of snow.
Hiccup yelped and sprinted after him. Hopping over fallen logs and stones when you feel like your limbs are about to freeze off your body wasn't exactly ideal, but Hiccup managed to (mostly) keep up with Toothless. When the dragon pulled too far ahead, Hiccup followed the messy trail he left behind in the powdered snow banks.
The blustering wind and twirling snowflakes made seeing two feet in front of him difficult. He blundered along, following Toothless' winding trail. He kept moving, calling out every so often and listening for an answering churr from the dragon.
Hiccup cried out as his feet were suddenly not touching the ground. His arms flew out to steady his balance, but before he could fall even a foot, his hood was snatched by sharp teeth, and he was dangling by his coat over a 40-foot sheer ledge.
It was a ravine. A steep ravine, with jagged stones and dry brush lining the almost 90° drop to the ground.
Toothless pulled him back, setting his feet gently back on solid ground. Hiccup placed a hand on his chest, feeling the pounding of his heart begin to slow. At least the adrenaline rush would keep him warm for a few minutes.
"Thanks, bud," Hiccup said, patting the side of Toothless' sleek neck. Toothless didn't move, staring with wide green eyes down into the ravine.
"Whatcha lookin' at?" Hiccup wondered aloud. He followed the dragon's gaze to the ground below them. It was hard to see through the whirling snow and ice. Hiccup squinted, trying to see what Toothless was trying to show him.
And then he heard it. From deep within the ravine, in what seemed to be the center of the roaring blizzard, a tiny voice.
"Is anyone there?" It called. "Please, help me!"
Toothless' ears pricked forward, honing in on the cries for help. He nudged Hiccup’s arm with his nose, eyes never straying from the spot he'd fixated on.
"Oh, gods," Hiccup whispered hoarsely. There was no way someone could survive for long in weather like this, alone, out in the wilderness! It must have been through some kind of divine intervention that they'd survived for this long!
He quickly swung onto Toothless' waiting spine, digging his knees in as the dragon leaped off the side of the ravine and flew through the growing wind. The closer they got to the voice, the more the wind buffeted them. It was clearly taking all of Toothless' strength to keep them from being driven into the cliff side.
Likewise, it was taking all of Hiccup’s considerable riding strength to stay atop the violently swaying dragon.
The duo landed in a clear patch of the ravine. There were no rocks and only a few scraggly bushes. But that wasn't what made this clearing so different-
The massive net in the center of the clearing was what caught Hiccup’s attention. Beyond that, it was the boy caught in the rigid folds of the trap that made his heart stop.
Hiccup swung himself off Toothless' back once again. He fumbled with the knife hidden at his waist and stumbled forward, the wind blowing him this way and that.
"Hey!" He cried, "Are you alright?"
The trapped kid tried to turn and face the new voice, but he yelped as the net cut into his pale skin. "Who are you?" He demanded, inhumanly blue eyes wide as he stared up at Hiccup’s bundled form.
"I'm not gonna hurt ya," he promised, approaching him like he would a trapped dragon. His hands were raised, showing his knife, but making no aggressive or sudden moves.
Toothless walked with him, one wing partially extended to cover Hiccup’s shivering body. The boy under the net tracked their movements with wary eyes but didn't try to move back as they drew closer.
Hiccup took that as a good sign... Until he realized the real reason the boy wasn't making much of an effort to move.
His upper body was mostly covered with a blue coat. Brown pants protected his legs. But the skin of his neck and face, as well as his hands and feet, were covered in small, superficial cuts. Upon further inspection of the net itself, Hiccup was disgusted to find that small pieces of glass, nails, and fish hooks had been knitted into the fabric.
This wasn't just a trap; it was meant to weaken and injure whatever poor soul fell into its clutches.
Hiccup swore under his breath. He'd deal with the presence of hunters later. Right now, he had to get this kid out of here!
He knelt on the snowy ground next to the trap. "I'm Hiccup," he said. "And this massive lump," he threw his head in the direction of Toothless, "is Toothless." Sensing the boy’s immediate (and warranted) mistrust, he continued, "We're not going to hurt you, okay? I'm going to get you out of here."
Hiccup gingerly grabbed ahold of the net, trying to move it as little as possible so he wouldn't aggravate the boy’s wounds. Carefully, he began slicing through the thick cords that bound the trap together.
As he worked, intent on freeing the boy, he failed to notice how the howling wind began to die down and the whirling icicles buffeting his skin started falling to the ground.
Finally, with a grunt, Hiccup heaved the top of the trap off the kid's body. He took a few steps back, again treating him like a cornered dragon.
Slowly, the boy sat up. Once realizing he was truly free, he was quick to jump out of the reaches of the net. He rubbed at the multitude of cuts across his face, his pale skin and hair now marred with streaks of red.
"What's your name?" Hiccup asked slowly. He didn't want to spook him.
The kid looked at him, tilting his head as he stared at the dragon now batting at a stray snowflake.
"Jack," he said. As if an afterthought, he added, "Jack Frost."
Hiccup was about to point out the irony of Jack's last name being Frost, given the situation he'd found himself in, when he came to a realization himself. The blizzard that had so vehemently tried to stop them from reaching this clearing was gone.
It was then that another arguably more important realization hit. This boy, Jack, had blue eyes. Not just _blue_, like Astrid's- Blue like... There weren't even words to describe it! So blue, they took Hiccup’s breath away.
His hair was silver, gleaming, and feathery in the moonlight. The streaks of blood now smeared onto his almost-white skin made him even more pale.
His ears were the final straw. They were pointed, long and... fey-like.
"You're not human," Hiccup whispered.
"Astute," the creature responded, the hint of a laugh evident in his voice and the upturn of his lips. "But given your present company, I don't think you're going to kill me."
His blue eyes turned back to Toothless, who was chasing his own tail around in circles. "What kind of viking rides a dragon, anyways?"
Without thinking, still taken fully aback by this turn of events, Hiccup answered, "A crazy one."
Jack laughed. It was a sound like the crinkling of frost forming rapidly over a pane of glass. It was so utterly... inhuman.
But Toothless perked up, his tail wagging like a sheep dog's as he play-pounced at the fairy. Jack's eyes lit up with a playful kind of spark and he began playing with the giant night fury.
He was faster and stronger than a human. Toothless seemed to relish in the play fight that ensued. For once, he and his fighting partner were on almost even grounds!
As Hiccup watched the fairy and the dragon leap around the snowy clearing, he sighed to himself. First dragons, now the fey... Maybe all of Gobber's children's stories were more than stories!
What could come next? Will-O-Wisps?