Sorry for the long wait but I was on holiday but now I'm back. For those of you who what to know I will be doing Riders of Berk but I suggest that you read my first Dragon Chronicles story first.

Dragon Chronicles: Gift of the Night Fury

By Ragnar the All Knowing

Berk is the kind of balmy, fun-in-the-sun climate that will give you frostbite on your spleen. The one upside is our annual holiday. We call it Snoggletog. Why we chose that name remains a mystery. But with the war long over and dragons living amongst us this year's Snoggletog promises to be one to remember.

Hiccup was sleeping in his room but suddenly a huge crash from up on the roof. The ceiling shuddered and Hiccup tiredly sat up on the edge of the bed and stretched.

"Okay, okay I'm up." Hiccup said tiredly. Still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he grabbed his helmet.

He walked outside into the crispy cold morning air. Hiccup looked up at the roof and saw Toothless was jumping eagerly on top of it causing tiles to fall off.

"Good morning Mister Bossy." Hiccup said sarcastically. Toothless gave him a series of gurgles and growls. Hiccup then did the same to him. "Do you always have to wake me up so early to go flyIIIINNG!" Hiccup's question turned into a startled yell as he abruptly slipped on a patch of ice.

Toothless jumped down from the roof in time to catch him. "Stupid leg." Hiccup muttered, shacking his prosthetic leg around he then looked at Toothless smiling. "Uh, thanks buddy I'm okay. Yeah we can go flying now."

Just as Hiccup came close to his face the dragon's mouth opened and he rumbled happily and burped. Hiccup quickly pulled back and frantically began to fan dragon breath away from his face.

"Ew! What? Ew! Toothless!" Hiccup said smiling.

A few moments later they were airborne flying around Berk. For the past few days they had been practicing some aerial tricks and today Hiccup was hoping to perfect one of them.

"Come on, let's see what you got today!" Hiccup called to Toothless

They angled downward in a steep dive through the clouds. Hiccup let out a whoop as they sped toward the sea,

"Yeah!" Hiccup yelled as Toothless sharply angled up and sped across the water about ten feet from the surface. Ahead of him Hiccup saw a arch and he reached out to pat Toothless' neck.

"Okay, you ready?" Hiccup asked. Hiccup carefully unhooked his leg from the stirrup and slowly lifted himself into an uneasy surfing position on Toothless's back. "Easy…" Hiccup murmured grinning as the arch loomed closer and closer.

Hiccup took a deep breath and leaped into the air soared over the arch and landed safely on Toothless who had flown underneath. Hiccup then quickly hooked his prosthetic leg into the stirrup.

"Yes!" He cried happily as Toothless flew out over the open sea. "Finally!"

Meanwhile back on Berk, everybody had woken up and was busy happily decorating the village for Snoggletog. Dragons with Vikings atop them flew left and right carrying everything from shields to pine wreathes. Gobber was standing in front of a house that was being decorated with wreathes directing a Ragnar and Skull.

"Here?" Ragnar asked.

"Yes, yes…no, no, no, that one, a wee bit higher!" Gobber yelled up to his son as he hovered over the face of the building with a wreath.

"Here?" Ragnar yelled back waving his arm at a spot at the top of the house.

"There! Aye that's the spot!" Gobber said pleased.

Stoick walked up to Gobber and placed his hand on his shoulder and smiled. A young child dressed in a makeshift Gronkle costume run up to Meatlug and roar at him. Meatlug responded with a louder roar that blew the child back a few inches but the child merely giggled and ran away with Meatlug following behind. From atop a ladder Fishlegs proudly looked down at the dragon and smiled.

"At boy Meatlug!" Fishlegs said.

Astrid and Stormfly were standing next to a pile of shields at the base of the huge wooden tree in the centre of the village. Astrid picked up a shield in each hand and grinned at Stormfly.

"Are you ready girl?" She asked. Stormfly growled and shook herself raising her spiky tail.

Astrid then threw the shields into the air. Stormfly flicked her tail and sent several spikes flying. One by one they hit the shields in mid-air and skewered them to the tree. Stoick and Gobber strolled through the village watching the everyone helping out.

"Odin's beard Gobber Vikings spending the Winter holiday with dragons! What would our fathers say?" Stoick said shaking his head in amusement.

"They'd think we'd lost our minds." Gobber responded cheerfully.

Stoick let out a hearty laugh at his words and stopped in front of the large crowd of decorating Vikings.

"Well done!" He yelled. "Well done all of you!" The crowd turned to their chief and smiled awaiting his next words. "I never thought I'd live to see this day," Stoick began. The Vikings with their dragons close by reached out to give them an appreciative pat. "Peace on the island of Berk. This shall surely be the greatest holiday we've ever seen!" At his words the entire crowd let out a cheer and a round of applause. Suddenly there was a low rumble from the sky. Stoick stopped smiling and looked up. "What the?"

One by one all the dragons looks skyward sniffing the air curiously their heads twitching from side to side. Stormfly lifted her head from Astrid's arms and hissed at the sky. The entire sky was filled with the shapes of dragons all flying in a giant cloud toward Odin-knows-where.

"What in Thor's name…?" Gobber said in confusion.

Hookfang climbed to the top of one of the bigger houses and let out a loud roar before alighting and taking off into the sky.

"Come back!" Snotlout yelled who was left dangling from the roof. "What are you doing?"

As the rest of the grounded dragons laid eyes on their flying relatives, they took to the sky and quickly flew off to join them, ignoring their human friends' cries.

"Meatlug!" Fishlegs shrieked running towards him.

While half of the Vikings scrambled around trying to restrain their dragons, the other half simply stood and watched gasping to one another.

"What's going on?" A Viking said.

"What's happening?" Another Viking asked.

"Where's Hiccup?" Astrid whispered scanning the crowd.

Meanwhile Hiccup and Toothless were still flying completely unaware of what was happening.

"What do you say bud you wanna go again?" Hiccup asked.

Hiccup looked up and saw thousands of dragons flying at them. They had appeared out of nowhere Hiccup hadn't seen them in the thick fog. Hiccup let out a startled yell and he and Toothless swerved to the right narrowly avoiding a collision with the dragons. But a stray Deadly Nadder who had gotten too close nicked one of the horns on Hiccup's helmet and sent it flying.

"Oh no, my helmet!" Hiccup gasped. He watched the gift from his father plummet out of sight.

Toothless heard Hiccup cry out glanced down at the helmet, and with a grunt immediately plunged downwards after it. "Toothless No, no, no, no!" The dragon didn't seem to hear him and kept diving. "Whoa, whoa, whoa wait Toothless! Stop!" Hiccup cried. Toothless extended his wings and slowed to a halt.

"We'll get it later bud." Hiccup assured his dragon, who was frantically watching the helmet fall faster towards the sea. "We need to get back and find out what's going on." Toothless reluctantly turned around in the air and with a roar and flew toward the island.

"What's the matter?" Viking asked running after a Monstrous Nightmare who had just taken flight. "Where are you going?"

Astrid, in panic, spotted Stormfly and extended her hands towards her. "No, no, no, no don't leave, Stormfly don't go—!" But it was too late; Stormfly had taken off already without even a backwards glance. "Please?" Astrid finished in a small voice.

"Skull come back where are you going?" Ragnar asked as Skull flew off.

Hiccup and Toothless reached the island at that moment and Hiccup leaped off the Toothless' back the instant his feet touched land.

"Astrid!" He yelled

"Hiccup!" Astrid cried as she and Ragnar running towards him. "What's going on? Where are they going?"

"This is not how I wanted the holiday's to start." Ragnar dsid.

Hiccup turned and gazed out at the sky where the dragons were flying off into the distance. Behind him the crowd of Vikings had caught up to them and they were yelling out questions to him faster than he could speak.

"Why did they leave?" One Viking asked.

"What's happening?" A Viking woman asked.

"What if they never come back?" Another Viking asked.

Hiccup awkwardly cowered in the middle of it all raising his arms to shield himself from their questions. "Stop! Wait!" He begged.

"Calm down!" Stoick ordered pushing several other Vikings away from his son. "Give him a chance to speak!" He stopped in front of Hiccup and held out his hands pleadingly. "Hiccup, where are all the dragons going?"

"Dad…I don't know." Hiccup said shaking his head in confusion.

Stoick let out a sad sigh and the crowd of Vikings did the same. A roar from behind made Hiccup turn around. Stormfly was hovering over Toothless who was rearing up on his hind legs and roaring to her. Hiccup knew why Toothless was resisting. He couldn't fly off if he wanted too. Stormfly eventually backed off and flew away and Toothless settled back on four legs looking at the clouds of dragons flying away from Berk.

Later that evening, the whole village was gathered at Great Hall for a meeting. Confused Vikings talked to one another while they waited.

"Where'd they go?" One Viking was still asking.

"Snoggletog is ruined!" Moaned another.

"It's not ruined!" Stoick boomed standing up on the stone basin that surrounded the bonfire at the centre of Mead Hall. "We're Vikings! We've been perfectly happy celebrating without dragons for generations! And there's no reason we can't do it again."

There were a few reluctant agreements from the crowd. At the back of the hall where Hiccup and the rest of the teens were though nobody looked very pleased.

"Now, we don't know where they've gone off to. But in the morning Ragnar is going to work out where they have gone to. We just have to have faith that they'll be back again soon." Stoick said. He looked around and said almost pleadingly. "Am I right?"

More agreements came from the crowd but the loudest one came from Gobber. "You're right!" yelled Gobber loudly waving a couple of lanterns in the air. "We are Vikings! We are tough!" The other Vikings nearby him took in the jingle bells wrapped around his prosthetic arm and the holly twined around the horns on his helmet and looked at him strangely. "Most of the time." Gobber said lowering his arm.

With Gobber's festive appearance the mood in the hall began to improve for the adults, but the teens were still slouching gloomily against the wall.

"Let's sing some Snoggletog songs!" Gobber suggested.

Snotlout then pushed himself off the wall nudged Tuffnut to tell him he was leaving and stalked out followed by the rest of the teens.

"That was depressing." Ruffnut grumbled as they trudged through the silent village.

"I know!" Astrid replied unhappily. "I was looking forward to spending the holiday with Stormfly."

"Same with Skull." Ragnar said looking sad.

The depressing silence was broken suddenly as Fishlegs began whistling in a very carefree manner.

"What are you so happy about? Don't you miss Meatlug?" Tuffnut asked frowning.

Fishlegs stopped whistling. "Me?" He said, his eyes growing wide. "Uh… yeah!" He cleared his throat and awkwardly covered his face with his hands letting out a sob. "I miss him so much!" He choked out in a slightly high-pitched voice. He peeked out from his arms to see that Tuffnut and the others were looking at him suspiciously. "Well, good night!" Fishlegs chirped hurriedly shuffling off.

For a few seconds the teens just stood there looking after Fishlegs's retreating form. Then Astrid suddenly gasped and jumped in front of the group.

"I've got an idea! Let's come up with a bunch of new holiday traditions! You know to bury the sadness!" Astrid said grinning eagerly waiting for their reactions.

Snotlout and the twins sighed and slouched a few inches lower. "Actually Astrid might be on to something." Hiccup said.

"Easy for you to say." Tuffnut frowned gesturing to something behind him. "Your dragon can't go anywhere without you."

Hiccup and the others turned and saw Toothless perched on a cliff in the distance looking longingly up at the sky. The dragon awkwardly shuffled around at the edge of the cliff like he wanted to fly off to join the others.

"Must be nice." Ruffnut grumbled turning around and stalking off followed closely behind by the others.

Hiccup was left alone staring at the distant figure of his dragon.