The Return

Hiccup was sat quietly with Toothless on a grassy bank overlooking the sea, enjoying the rays of sunlight that rarely showed themselves in Berk. He reached over and scratched Toothless behind the ears, who growled happily and nudged Hiccup.

"Wanna go for a fly, bud?," Toothless answered his question by jumping around him eagerly. Hiccup grinned and mounted Toothless, taking off and enjoying the cool breeze and clear skies, he laughed and went higher into the air.

At that moment, Toothless stopped dead, causing Hiccup to lurch forwards and almost fall off.

"Toothless? What's wrong?," Toothless' growled warningly and stared, transfixed on something in front of them. Unnerved by his dragon's behaviour, Hiccup squinted to see what Toothless saw. His eyes widened when he saw it. A huge, dark silhouette was flying towards them, closing in. Hiccup closed his eyes, trying to block it out, but when he opened them....it was directly in front of him.

Hiccup bolted upright screaming, and collided with his father who was watching him in concern.

"Son, is everything alright?" Stoick questioned, massaging his head where Hiccup had hit him. Hiccup didn't answer him, he was trying to calm himself down by taking deep breaths " S-sorry Dad...just a....bad dream."

Stoick sat next to Hiccup and put his arm around him, in an attempt to calm him down, " Want to tell me what the dream was about?"

Hiccup sighed shakily and looked down "I'm not even sure I know what it was about, but  the thing is, I feel like I've....seen it before." Hiccup finally looked up at his father, his eyes questioning and afraid. Stoick was worried, but he kept a calm appearance around his son, so he didn't make him panic. "Well, what did..it look like?" 

At his father's question Hiccup tightened his grip on the bedsheets and curled into himself, shaking violently at the thought of the creature in his dream. Stoick caught him by the shoulders and forced him to look directly at him.

"Hiccup. I need to know." Hiccup's lip trembled and tears welled up in his eyes as he took a deep breath. "Dad...I know it's stupid but...it looked exactly like.." he faltered as a whimper escaped him.

"It looked exactly like the Red Death."