I pushed open the door to the Great Hall, revealing a congregation of sick Berkians, coughing and hugging their knees in an attempt to keep warm. I didn't dare to actually step in myself, out of fear of catching the sickness myself, but I could stare from a distance.

"Hiccup!" I turned my head to see Fishlegs hovering on Meatlug. "Reign went to pick up Gothi. She'll meet us at the Academy."

"Oh, good." I jumped up onto Toothless, ready to finally get something done around here. "Okay, bud. Let's go."

Everyone had already packed themselves up by the time Toothless and I got there, waiting for Reign to get back with Gothi. She was the last person we needed before we could set off.

"Ready, gang?"

"Ready to leave Berk during an outbreak of eel pox? Mm... let me think, let me think, let me think." I rolled my eyes at Snotlout. "That's a big, fat... yes!"

"The sooner the better. I do not want to get sick." Tuff crossed his arms over his chest, staring me down with a defiant glare.

"If he gets sick, I get sick."

"You do?"

"Yeah. We're twins." Tuff's jittery eagerness melted into curious contemplation.

"Wait. So if I hit myself..." He gasped as he came to another bone-headed realization. "Would you feel it, too?"

"Definitely. Give it a try." Tuffnut slapped himself across the face, believing the lies his sister was feeding him, as usual. "Ow!" she cried, pretending to feel the same pain Tuff did. "Do it again." He obeyed, but this time, she decided to toy with him. "Aah! Do it again. Harder!"

"Gladly!"

"Ah, I didn't feel that one." This time, he hit himself so hard, he fell to the ground. "Ow! Do it again."

"Guys, please," I sighed. "We need to leave for Healer's Island as soon as Reign gets back."

"Hiccup!" The cry of my name was followed by a weak coughing fit. My dad managed to stumble his way into the Academy, somehow gathering just enough strength to move.

"Dad, you should be resting up at the Great Hall."

"Nonsense." He stopped just in front of Snotlout, before violently sneezing on him. "I won't be grounded by the sniffles." I tried to approach him, but I moment I saw him readying another sneeze, I ducked to avoid the line of fire.

"Whoa! Oh... kay." Thankfully, I watched Shriek round the corner outside, and she landed with Reign and Gothi on her back.

"We've got the list of ingredients," she announced. "And... it's a big one." Gothi removed a list from her satchel and unrolled it, revealing a large parchment with at least two dozen ingredients on it.

"Well, then we better get moving. That medicine isn't going to make itself."

"We should be going with you," my dad insisted as I made final preparations. I heard him inhale deeply, and stuck my shield up in front of me to block another one of his sneezes.

"Dad, Berk needs a healthy chief, not a sick Dragon Rider. We can handle this," I assured him.

"All right," he sighed. "I'll stay here with the rest of the ­­­______." The others took off already, not wanting to wait to get what we needed. "Be safe, Hiccup." I turned around and scoffed at him.

"When am I not safe?" He shot me a knowing glance. "Don't answer that." I took off and caught up with the rest of the group, keeping one wary eye on Reign. Eel pox was already an incredibly contagious disease, but Reign's body didn't exactly have the strength to fight it off. Physically, she was probably one of the strongest people on Berk. But clearly, that didn't translate into one's ability to fight off sickness, because when she got sick, it lasted for weeks, even with medicine. So not only was I trying to make sure we got the medicine to Berk in a timely manner, but I had to keep a close eye on Reign to make sure she wasn't exhibiting symptoms.

Once we landed, I took the list from Gothi and began to read off the ingredients, assigning everyone a small group of items so that this would get done faster.

"Okay, gang. We've got a lot of ground to cover. Let's get to work."

Everyone headed off in their assigned directions to pick up the ingredients we needed. It didn't take long to track down the items, and once they were all brought back, I double checked with the list to make sure we really had everything we needed.

"...Buckthorn Root, lightly roasted. A dozen rock blossoms. One handful of Goatweed. One wild Daga plant... I think that's everything, right?" I turned to Gothi for approval, but she shook her head before writing something in the sand. Tuff and Fishlegs leaned over the symbols in an attempt to translate.

"She says the last item isn't on Healer's Island," Fishlegs informed us. "The key ingredient for curing eel pox is... a Bloodbane Eel. Where do we find one of those?" Gothi used her walking stick to point out toward the ocean, at some point clearly beyond the horizon.

"Well, great. Because we're not gonna be able to search the whole ocean this afternoon. We need at least a long weekend for that, you know? Maybe even into Monday night." Gothi smacked Tuffnut in the back with her stick, pinning him to the ground.

"She says 'don't interrupt'. We have to head north to..." He gasped, a horrified look crossing his face. "Eel Island."

"Our dragons would never go near Eel Island," Astrid pointed out. "They're terrified of eels."

"Not Shriek," Reign interjected. "I mean, she certainly doesn't like them, but she's not afraid of them. I might be able to get in there without much of a problem." I shook my head. No way was I going to let Reign go in there on her own. I believed she could handle it, but if something went wrong, she'd need back up.

"Toothless and I will come with you." Toothless grumbled in protest. "I know, bud. Eels aren't your favorite. But you don't want Shriek to go alone, do you? Not to mention, you're the fastest dragon." He shook his head and snorted, but allowed me to climb up. "We'll find this eel and be back to Berk in no time. No problem." Reign shook her head at me.

"You can't just say that and expect it to be true," she sighed before the two of us took off. I pulled out a map and stared down at it, trying to get a general idea of where we should find Eel Island. We needed to get back quickly, before the eel pox got more severe. "Why'd you want to come out here, anyways?" Just as I opened my mouth, she stuck up a finger. "And don't give me that crap about Toothless being the fastest dragon. We both know that was just to get him to come." I shook my head at her. Somehow, she always got the truth out of me.

"I wanted to make sure you had back up, just in case something went wrong." She looked offended for a moment, but it quickly melted away into a smile. "Even if you hadn't let us come, I'd feel better knowing you were out here instead of back on Berk where you could be sick."

"That was sort of my reasoning, too. I couldn't go back and just wait until the medicine was done, so I thought it better to make sure we had all the ingredients." She glanced down at her dragon before meeting my eyes again. "I'm glad you're here."

I felt my cheeks heat up slightly, but I couldn't lose my focus. I reached around and pulled the map back out, matching the coordinates of Eel Island with the large rock formation in front of us.

"There it is: Eel Island."

"Let's get a closer look." I nodded and followed behind Reign as she and Shriek dove down, scanning over the island to try and find some bit of freshwater where the Bloodbane Eel might be hiding. She stopped just above a little pond, and a few eels suddenly jumped out of the water, snapping at us before diving back down.

"Whoa! Eels!" Reign shot me a look. "Sorry, just... surprised. That was quick." Toothless growled and turned his head away from the sight of the creatures swimming. "This place sure lives up to its name."

"Well, I'm sure they named it that for a reason," she teased. Toothless growled and shook at the mere sight of them.

"Whoa! Toothless, I know you don't like these guys, but we need to do this." Reign smiled at me.

"Would you do the honors?" I pulled out my shield and shot the rope down, waiting for one of them to bite so I could reel it in.

"I really don't know how you planned on doing this without some sort of rope to catch the eel." She shrugged.

"I was just going to reach in there and grab one." I blinked at her, astonished.

"You're crazy."

"Yep." We exchanged glances before I turned to focus back on catching the eel.

"Now, if I can just... hook one..."

Suddenly. an eel bit down and yanked violently on the rope, nearly causing me to go flying off of Toothless. I pulled back on the rope, causing an eel to fly up. Startled, Toothless threw me from his back. I crashed into the water and watched as eels surrounded me, trying my best to fight them off before one got the chance to sink its teeth into my skin. Thankfully, Toothless shot out a plasma blast to scare away the ones surrounding my body, then dove down, bit off the head of the one in my arms, and pulled me back up. I coughed and gagged as Reign rushed to my side, kneeling down and placing a hand on my arm.

"Toothless dove down before I could do anything, I'm so sorry." I waved a hand at her. "Are either of you hurt?" As though responding to Reign's question, Toothless began to roar and sputter in an odd way.

"Are you okay?" I asked him. "Most dragons never even touch eels. You just ate one." I managed to get up and move a little closer to him.

"I'm sorry, he did what?" He hissed and drew back violently.

"Whoa! T-Toothless." He shook his head as his pupils began to shrink and dilate rapidly. "It's all right, it's all right. Just let me get a look at you." His mouth opened, revealing his typically purple flame had turned a glaring, terrifying red. "Let me look at you. I just need to check you out."

"I'd be careful, Hiccup. That flame—" Before Reign could finish, Toothless roared and scampered off.

"Wha-Toothless? Bud, come back! Toothless

I picked up my shield and started to sprint after him, leaving Reign completely behind. I heard her shout something in protest before following after me while I chased him into the woods. He paused for a moment when spotting a bird, as though suddenly hyper-aware of everything around him. He thrashed his head back and forth before shooting out one of those red blasts, causing a bright flash to beam out over the trees.

"Toothless!" I climbed over a downed tree and carefully attempted to approach him. "Hey, bud." He whipped his head around and stared me down with narrowed pupils. "I-It's okay, bud. I can help you." He continued to back up, as though he didn't know me. "Hey, easy there." He readied another shot, causing Reign to jump out and stand by me, ready in case something happened. However, his mouth suddenly snapped shut, and he began to walk in circles, completely unsure of what was going on. Reign pulled me down, and I covered the two of us with my shield. Thankfully, Toothless' blast just hit the trees, completely missing the two of us. "All right. That was big, and... incredibly dangerous. No wonder you guys go easy on the eels." Reign helped me back up again as he began to fire haphazardly into the air. I pulled her closer to me as I put the shield back up, making sure we wouldn't get hit if I shot went too low.

"Okay. Six shot limit..." she muttered. "That was four." He hit a tree right in front of him, causing rocks, branches, and other debris to fly in every direction. "Oh, five!" His mouth glowed red again, and after a split second hesitation, Toothless fired into the sky. I lowered my shield as I let out a sigh of relief.

"And that makes six." Reign eyeballed Toothless carefully, trying to figure out a way to get close enough without startling Toothless. It was clear he was on pins and needles at the moment, and neither of us wanted to make things worse.

"Whew. Let's not do that again, okay?" His pupils seemed to return to normal, and we took that as the signal to approach. "But maybe now, we can figure out how to fix—" Toothless' eyes suddenly widened again, and his mouth opened with yet another red flame before he managed to snap it shut again. I felt Reign's fist push on my chest, backing both of us up.

"Seven shots? Are you kidding me?" I wrapped an arm around her, sticking my shield out to protect her from another blast, which shouldn't have even happened in the first place. Quickly, he fired off eight... then nine... then ten! He kept going in rapid fire, now unable to control the strength and direction. "Hiccup, we need to do something—Aah!"

I grabbed onto her and pulled her down as Toothless started to crawl closer, another shot powering up in his mouth. He tried his best to stop it, but at this point, there was nothing he could do to control himself.

"Uh, okay. That one was a little close to the one good leg."

Reign suddenly reached around and pushed me out of the way, leaving herself vulnerable. Toothless fired off another shot right in front of her, launching her body backwards and slamming into a tree. My heart began to palpitate wildly as she slid down, lip as a rag doll and didn't move. I quickly raced over to her, reaching out to see if she was still alive.

"Reign? Reign, stay with me!" Toothless bounded over, purring quietly as he nuzzled her forehead. She still didn't move, and for a second, I feared the worst. That was, until she shook her head and slowly raised it, leaning back again the trunk that had just knocked her unconscious.

"Toothless?" She looked up at him, her red eyebrows scrunched in confusion. My Night Fury growled, then backed away and ran deeper into the forest. Reign groaned in pain as she attempted to sit up, but quickly collapsed back down and closed her eyes again. I looked to where Toothless had run off, then back down to the unconscious girl, not wanting to leave either of them.

Sighing, I called for Shriek. She flew down and eyed me curiously, then leaned down and examined her rider.

"Keep an eye on her," I ordered. "I have to go after Toothless."

Shriek seemed to understand, turning around to stand her guard in front of Reign. I glanced down at them one last time, then followed after where Toothless had run off. I didn't get very far, however, before something rustled in the bushes in front of me. Cautiously, I raised my shield and began to back up.

"Uh..."

"Hiccup!" My heart jumped as Fishlegs and Meatlug emerged from behind the foliage, heading straight for me.

"Oh, Fishlegs." I took a deep breath, allowing relief to replace fear. "Boy, am I glad to see you."

"Are you okay?" he asked, hopping off his dragon.

"I'm fine." He glanced around at the scene in front of him.

"Uh, where's Toothless? And... what did all that? And—oh my gods! Is Reign okay?"

"That would all be Toothless," I sighed.

"And he was fighting... Reign? But why?"

"Um, yes. But, mostly me." Fishlegs turned and stared me down with a look of shock. "Also himself, a little bit." He still didn't say anything. "Welcome to Eel Island," I deadpanned.

"Well, did you find any eels?"

"We did..." I played with my hair, trying to avoid eye contact as I muttered the next sentence. "Including the one that ended up in Toothless' stomach." Fishlegs suddenly launched himself forward, getting right up in my face and staring at me with what I could only describe as crazy eyes.

"He ate... an eel?" I nodded and pushed away from him.

"And it's not agreeing with him either." I made my way over to Meatlug and pulled a spare net from the bag on her saddle, setting it up on the ground.

"What are you doing?" I opened the compartment on the front of my shield and started to pull out the grapple.

"I'm building a netter trap." Fishlegs picked up the small, metal piece at the end of the rope.

"You really think this net's gonna hold Toothless?" he asked warily.

"If it doesn't, Meatlug can always sit on him," I joked.

"She can hear you, you know." Fishlegs gestured his head over toward his dragon, only to find her fast asleep, without a care in the world.

"Fun day," I deadpanned. "I don't know how much worse things can get." I tossed the grapple over a tree branch nearby, wrapping it around to secure it.

"Pretty worse, actually. The ingredients for Gothi's eel pox cure are still in Toothless' saddle bag, and I do not even want to tell you what's going on back in the village." Shaking my head, I pulled on the rope one more time to make sure the trap had been fully secured. Unfortunately, this longshot was all we could bank on. But we needed that cure, and not just to reduce the risk of Reign getting sick. "Well, here's hoping that works." I stepped over the trigger and approached Fishlegs and Meatlug. "We'd better get in the air and see if we can track Toothless down."

We flew around the island a few times, when I spotted something odd in the forest. The trees had been cleared away, with even the stumps gone, with a strange pattern burned into the dirt. Strange, but not foreign...

"Hey, Fishlegs? Does that clearing look familiar at all?" He glanced down at where I'd been looking, then I felt his breath hitch.

"That's... a Typhoomerang mark!" I suddenly started to put the pieces together.

"The only dragon that eats eels." Fishlegs' eyes went wide, but instead of realizing the danger we could be put in, he smiled.

"Oh, that makes perfect sense! It-It's the perfect habitat for them, really. I'm sure there are tons of wild Typhoomerangs here." I waited a moment, then watched his face change as the reality of the situation began to dawn on him. "Oh..."

"Yeah. We'll have to keep an eye out for them." We searched for a little longer, but Toothless had either gone too far, or had somehow figured out how to disappear. Either way, we hadn't spotted him yet.

"Hiccup, you said Toothless' skin felt warm, right?"

"Yeah. Plus, he's got what you might call an... explosive cough." Somehow, that still felt like an understatement.

"Okay... put all of that together, and it sounds a lot like—"

"Eel pox! I wonder—if eels cure the pox in people, maybe they cause it in dragons."

"Could be."

"So if we give Toothless the medicine, maybe that'll counteract the eel."

"That's... kind of stretching it."

"If you have a better idea, I'm open." Fishlegs whipped his head back around.

"Nope. Stretch away, my friend." Suddenly, a burst of red exploded in the sky, from a little deeper into the woods.

"There! On the cliffs."

Fishlegs turned Meatlug around and headed in that direction. When we got closer, we had to quickly move out of the way as another red blast shot up. We landed on the cliffs and looked down, seeing Toothless haphazardly jerking around and shooting red blasts into the air.

"All right. Get me in close, but be careful. He can't control where he fires." We moved down behind a set of rocks. I watched my dragon jump around and fire off his powerful shots, trying to figure out some sort of pattern or wait out an opening.

"Uh, Hiccup... you got a sec?"

"Busy," I snapped, not moving my eyes from Toothless. "Can it wait?"

"It could. But I don't think it will."

Fishlegs pointed upward, and with a huff, I followed where he was looking. My heart jumped as I stared straight into the orange eyes of an adult Typhoomerang. It roared, leering at us and snapping its jaws shut in an attempt to catch one of us. Toothless looked up at the dragon, trying to fire at it, but missed instead. He did manage to hit the rocks just beneath its feet, however, causing the Typhoomerang to take to the air. It shot down a line of fire uncomfortably close to Toothless, but he luckily tumbled out of the way.

"Toothless!" He scurried in the other direction, but the Typhoomerang caught up and cornered him against the cliffs. "Fly us over to Toothless!" Meatlug tried to get in as close as possible and fired a lava blast at the Typhoomerang's wing, which made the two dragons scatter. Carefully, I stood up on Meatlug's saddle and looked around. "Meet me in the clearing."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm getting my dragon back. Just keep that big guy busy."

"Fishlegs and Meatlug... against a Typhoomerang? Does that really seem fair to you?" I didn't have time to come up with some alternate plan.

"Nope. The Typhoomerang doesn't stand a chance."

With that, I jumped down and landed directly on Toothless' back. He thrashed his head back and forth and fired into the air, attempting to buck me off. The harder he thrashed, the more I had to fight to get my feet into the stirrups.

"I'm not letting go, bud! Like it or not, you're stuck with me!" The Typhoomerang tried to dive for us, but Fishlegs and Meatlug jumped in the way and fired at it. Unfortunately, that single shot didn't deter the large dragon, and as it roared, scaring the two of them off. I managed to secure myself on Toothless just as he started charging for the edge of a cliff, which dropped straight into the ocean. "Okay, that's going to be an issue!"

I felt my metal leg click into place just as Toothless tumbled off the cliff. It slipped for a moment, and just before we splashed into the water, I got myself back in place and opened Toothless' tail fin. He looped up and around over and over again, now appearing to just gain control of himself.

"This would be a lot easier if you just—" Suddenly, Toothless dipped down and plunged me into the water. I managed to still hold on by the saddle. "Slow down."

I watched the Typhoomerang chase after Fishlegs and Meatlug, suddenly dipping into the water and eating a bunch of eels before somehow re-gaining its shots. They were at a loss, when all of a sudden, a purple blur shot toward them, letting out a roar that stunned the Typhoomerang and knocked it back. Reign and Shriek had come to the rescue, just in time, letting me focus back on Toothless.

"You know, I actually remember when this was easy." I pulled back on Toothless slightly, trying to get him to heed and steer into the clearing. I managed to divert him in the right direction, but he started to shoot down too fast. "Toothless, if you're in there, we're about to—whoa!"

I flew from the saddle as we crash-landed on the ground. Toothless took uncaring steps forward, triggering the netter trap and pinning him to the ground. He tossed his head back and forth, trying to wiggle out as he let out cried of distress.

"I know. I'm sorry about that! Just relax, bud, you're going to be okay." He fired a red shot just past me, barely missing my side. Unfortunately, the fire burned up the rope, allowing Toothless to step through. "Toothless, no!" He reared his head and lunged forward, but before he could get closer to me, Fishlegs and Meatlug dropped from the sky, landing right on him. Reign and Shriek landed a moment later. "All right, Fishlegs! I can't believe that actually worked."

"Careful, Hiccup," Reign whispered. "He might shoot."

"No, he won't." Without fear, I approached Toothless and crouched down. "You're okay. You're just a little sick, bud. But we may have a way to fix that."

I looked back at Reign and nodded, prompting her to crouch down and reach through the dragon pile. She managed to detach Toothless' saddle bag from everything else and start mixing the ingredients. A few minutes later, she handed me a bowl with a green mixture in it.

"Here goes nothing." I placed the bowl in front of his mouth. He weakly leaned up and sniffed it, causing his mouth to suddenly shoot open, glowing red. Thinking fast, I poured the liquid into his open mouth. He snapped it shut and swallowed, shaking his head and sticking his tongue out. But the red fire went away, and his pupils stopped shrinking and dilating at random.

"Did it work?"

"I'm... not entirely sure."

Toothless suddenly had a burst of strength, throwing the net off of him and tackling me. He leered right above my face, roaring and sputtering. Finally, he coughed a few times, then regurgitated the eel he'd swallowed hours ago. It landed on my lap, slimy and sticky.

"Oh... great." He finally looked at me normally, purring like he always did. "There's the Toothless I know." I reached up and hugged him. "Welcome back, bud." The roar of a Typhoomerang sounded from the distance, interrupting the moment.

"Um... while I love the reunion, perhaps we should finish it back on Berk," Reign suggested.

"I couldn't possibly agree with you more." I climbed up on Toothless, and the three of us headed for Berk. We arrived around sunset, and Reign spotted Astrid and Stormfly not far away. As we got closer, I noticed her shudder, and Reign lowered her and Shriek down slightly.

"Uh, you should be indoors, young lady," she teased. "You'll catch your death of cold in this weather."

"Reign, Hiccup!" she cried, relieved. "You're okay!"

"Yeah." I looked down at Toothless and smiled. "We both are." The three of us flew to Gothi's hut and passed her the ingredients for the cure, which she put together and had us take to the Great Hall. While Gobber and my dad passed out the bowls, Reign and I wrote down the effects of dragons eating eels to put in the Book of Dragons.

"I'm noting the skittish behavior, fever, and the out-of-control firepower." She finished writing and looked up at me.

"Now we know why most dragons won't eat eels: it makes them really sick."

"Except Typhoomerangs," she corrected. "That's why they live on Eel Island."

"And that's why we're never going back to Eel Island." I reached over and squeezed her arm before standing.

"Oh, thank Thor." I started to walk out, then turned back and smiled at her.

"Hey, Reign?" She glanced up from her dragon.

"Yeah, Hiccup?"

"Thank you. I don't know what we would've done without you. And Fishlegs, of course." Reign chuckled, then made her way over to me and wrapped her arms around me, sighing. I smiled and leaned my head against hers, thankful to finally be away from the danger.