Ava smiled slightly at his grandmother, "I know, I know. I guess its just..I'm having to get to know everyone all over again, and I guess I want to spend all the time I can with my parents right now so that maybe...I don't know....I might start remembering? Or at least build that relationship with them again." She stated, which was true. She wanted so badly to remember. Everything, even the sight flying high above the snowy island, was so familiar. Like it was a part of some lost dream and her mind searched to bring those memories forth. Though, she couldn't seem to and it was killing her. And it worried her too. What if she never remembered? What if she remained a stranger to the place she already considered home? That thought burned int he back of her mind like a hot coal, cooling slowly only to be heated again by more thoughts and worries. Still, she tried to not let it get to her during this flight and looked down at everything enjoying the view.

It was then that Aurora's slightly panicked roar could be heard and all three looked in the direction of where it came from, the white dragoness speeding over to them, a limp Castiel hanging over her back. Eyes wide, Ava sat up more, worry in her eyes, "Mom?!"

The dragoness stopped next to Hiccup and Toothless, whining as she gave Hiccup access to the unconscious woman.

Winter’s breath left a deep silence over the island and the landscape was the picture of serene: with it’s snowy hills and frosted houses. Hiccup had seen this sight a thousand times but it had been a long while since he last experienced it with his daughter. There was something so dreamlike about it. One good grace of the gods but then- there was a wail. The flighty call of a panicked Aurora who appeared in the distance and came as quick as she dared. Toothless shot back a bark of alarm and flapped closer to her. Their wings made it difficult to get close and Toothless surrendered his position to drop a bit lower in the sky as Hiccup flipped his tailfin open and stood up. “Castiel!” With the nightfury position below his mate Hiccup took a hold of the woman, worried a slight shift in the wind would send her down into the sea of trees and stone.

He slid her into his arms, stepping back on Toothless’ saddle to steady their combined weight and leaning her against his chest brushed his hand across her forehead. “What is it dear?” Valka called from Cloudjumper’s back. “Is she injured?”

“Not that I can see.” She was very warm though. “We need to get her inside.” Hiccup sat back upon Toothless’ back and clicked his prosthetic into place before deciding downwards through the sky. Blizzard immediately fleeted closer, alarms by the state and reactions of the various humans present- and his own mother’s distress. He hit the ground not even a second after his father. Barking as Hiccup jumped from Toothless’ back and immediately hurried inside despite the thick snow attempting to hinder him.

Valka slid off her own dragon not a moment later. “Oh no.” She mumbled but paused short of the door “Ava. I think your mother may be sick as several of the villagers are. I want you to take Blizzard and hurry to the healer’s hut. Let her know we need her.”

Ava watched in alarm and worry as her father took her mother, limp and very pale, into his arms and feared the worse. Though, after a moment, she noticed the rise and fall of the woman's chest, her worry of death fleeted, but the fear of something dreadful having happened to her still hung in the air. She held on tightly to Blizzard as they flew quickly back down to their home. She was about to rush inside when her grandmother stopped her and asked her to hurry to the healers and let the woman know they needed her. Nodding, she was quick to mount Blizzard once more, for the first time hopping onto his back without trouble. Maybe it was the urgency and peril of the situation that caused her to do so, but ether way, once she was on, she rushed to the healers hut, knocking quickly and rather loudly on the door until the old woman appeared. Ava was very fast in telling the woman the situation and soon they were on their way to the house.

Upon entering, Aurora was no longer a dragon, but a woman with white hair and rainbow eyes, explaining quickly what had happened, "We arrived to the island, but couldn't find the plant we were looking for. We were about to head back, but suddenly she just....fell." It was truly a scary thing for a dragon to have their rider, whom they were very fond of, to suddenly go limp mid flight and fall off their back. She had been barely able to catch her, "I brought her back here as fast as I could without risking dropping her."

The healer walked over to the bed Castiel layed and though she seemed to be warm all over and sweating, her body trembled as if cold. She looked over her, put a cold rag on head and at the same time layed a blanket over the woman. There was nothing more the healer did. She already knew the sickness that had befallen Castiel, and spoke, giving Hiccup instructions, "Keep the rag cold and keep a thin blankt on her to stop the shivering. Its best to not let anyone too close. We don't want this spreading."

Ava listened quietly before stepping up slightly, "Will....she be okay? How long will it take for her get better?"

The healer looked back at Ava and spoke, "Without the herb Castiel was supposed to get, no one with the sickness will get better and no one will be okay."

Ava hearing this, paused, wide eyed with a deep frown on her face. Though,in a moment, the gears in her mind were spinning quickly and she looked at Blizzard before turning tot he woman again, speaking quickly, "Let Blizzard and I go get it. We can do it. We're just a fast as my mom and her dragon. We can bring the plant back."

The old woman thought about this, before speaking, "It is not u to me to decide." And the woman nodded toward Hiccup.

Ava looked to her father, walking up to him, "Blizzard and I can do it. Will you let us go?"

This was not what he had wanted to happen. Perhaps in a perfect world the two would have found the needed herb on that island and returned in good spirits but instead… Castiel was just as sick as the others. He squeezed her hand gently, feeling a lump of dread in his throat but he was the chief and it would not do well to fret. It would only worry the villagers further. He steeled himself against his silent distress and faced his daughter “no” he told her sternly “you are still too inexperienced upon dragon back. I rather send someone else.” It was hardly the main reason for him to refuse and that was something that his mother could see in his expression but only frowned faintly. She would try to work him through it later- Blizzard was the reasonable choice, even if his daughter still had a lot to learn about riding.

Blizzard looked at Hiccup with narrowed eyes and screamed out a bellowing roar of frustration because it was obvious how much Ava wanted to do this and how prime he was for the job. Did he not trust his own daughter to get it done? Valka put a hand against his snout to subdue him but he didn’t fall for her soft touches, jerking his head away though it failed to deter her from her main goal in the slightest. “Son, Blizzard is one of the fastest and the strongest flyers of this visit. We are pressed for time, surely you see the logic in sending them… Blizzard will not allow anyone else to fly him and Toothless-” The black dragon eyes his prosthetic tailfin and rumbled a complaint. “It will have to be Ava.”

Hiccup forced himself to keep his voice level “It’s too perilous of a journey. She’s not ready. Please do not question me any further. I do not want you seeking this flower.” He told Ava again.

Ava was silent as she stood there, being told she could not do what she wished. She wanted to help and she and Blizzard were the obvious choice for this work. Even if she hadn't had much time on the back of a dragon, dragon riding was in her blood. After all, she had made it all the way to Berk safely. Surely she could make it to go get that flower! Still, she kept herself silent and said nothing to her father's refusal, though her displeasure was well written on her face. Instead when her father turned back to sit with her mother, she made her way out o the house to seemingly cool off, and on her way out, without the notice of her father, took the book with the picture of the flower in it. She could do this. She was sure of it. And so, when she was outside and at the edge of the woods, she turned quickly to Blizzard, showing him that she had the book and placing a hand on his snout, "Blizzard. You and I both know we can do this. So, I say let's show them. We're the only ones who can get to the flower fast enough before anything terrible happens."

Or, in other words, before someone died. And so, after saying that, she hopped onto Blizzard's back and held on tightly as the two took off, and she hoped that when she returned her father wouldn't be too angry with her.

Blizzard saw that she had taken a book, perhaps the same one the healer had? He followed her faithful to the woods without knowing why she went all this way but he could take a pretty good guess. She showed him the plain leather cover and then brought his attention to her voice as one of her small soft hands slipped onto his snout and she spoke. She wished to defy her father and seek this flower anyways? It may have been a desire to prove herself as a dragon rider or maybe Berk already meant this much to her. Her mother’s sudden illness probably was the deciding factor though. He didn’t want to see Ava or his own mother so downhearted, knowing he was physically able to make this journey… Ava wasted no time getting onto his back and he took off- catching the icy currents of the wind and sailing away from Berk.

Maybe he had been too hard on her- Hiccup wasn’t sure he was honest enough about the reason he wanted Ava to say. He’d already lost her once- he really wasn’t ready to lose her again. He took it upon himself to apologize and set out to find her, leaving his mother to look after Castiel.

When Blizzard took off, she held on tightly, feeling the icy winds and snow hit her, leaving her cheeks and the tip of her nose a cherry red. She was thankful for the thicker clothes her father had given to her, otherwise this weather would be bothering her a lot more. After Blizzard had leveled out and the flight was a little smoother, she took it upon herself to open the book and look inside of it. It showed a picture of the plant on one page, and on the other was a map that was marked with the two places it grew. On place was relatively close, while the other was a good one or two days journey. She could guess the closer one was the one her mother had went to and so she wasn't going to bother with it. Instead she looked at the ma and figured out the direction they needed to go. Once she had the direction, she looked up to the sky. It had just recently grown dark and now the stars were visible to them. Finding the direction that needed to go using the stars, she pointed in that direction, speaking her her faithful dragon, "Head north Blizzard. We'll find the flower on an island called Farnor."

They traveled for another hour or two and the new continued to fall over head and within that hour the winds continued to get worse and worse to the point that when she finally spoke to Blizzard, she had to yell over the winds because they threatened to drown out her voice, "The winds are too rough Blizzard! We have to land!" She was already struggling to stay on, her arms around Blizzard's neck as they headed for the closest land.

...

When Castiel woke, the sound of hail could be heard from the roof, a all to usual for them winter storm rolling in as she opened her eyes and looked to see Hiccup walk back into the house, looking quite distraught. Her own head was pounding and she felt very weak, her body shifting from being too hot and too cold every other second. Looking up at Hiccup as she blinked tiredly, she slowly and with shaking hands managed to sign what she wanted to say, as the recently returned family member was no where in the room, "Where's Ava?"

Not knowing the human names for many of the islands- the mention of their current destination didn't mean much. He just tilted and drifted in the direction she pointed, flying on as countless stars looked on from the sky above. The spirits, for a time, seemed to smile upon them but the weather began to to take a turn for the worse. The winds picked up- brisk and freezing. Blizzard shifted his body with each powerful gust and he was clearly accustomed to flying in storms though that couldn't keep him from being jostled on occasion or the wind from tearing at Ava. It suddenly wasn't a very smooth flight. Ava's voice alerted him to how hard this was on her and his gaze darted through wild flurries towards the closest speck of an island. He really had to beat him wings to make any headway. Pounding at the air, tail fins strained to straightness. They descended by pure force, touching down on the island. He ran away from the coast where icy waves pounded against the cliff face and into the feeble shelter of a few bare brittle trees.

He circled a small patch of land, heating the stone with his fire and padding at it with his paws until it cooled down enough for Ava. With a small nod he got down on his belly and tipped her off of him- immediately spreading his wings and folding them over her, trapping the heat between them.

--
How could this happen?

He had forbid her but perhaps because of that he should have known she'd disappear like this. After all, bull headed vikings ran in the family and he hadn't listened to his own father when it came to doing what he believed to be right. A small sigh issued from him and he noticed Castiel was awake. "She went with Blizzard to find that flower." He stood up but then immediately stopped himself from pacing by busying his hands by wetting and wringing out the cloth. "I don't know what to do Castiel... I told her I would send someone else but she hadn't listened. She's not anywhere on the island... and the book is gone."

It was a relief to her that Blizzard had been able to find an island for them to rest on until the storm passed and she continued to hold on tightly to him until they had made it further into the bare trees. Soon they found a good place and Blizzard was heating up the stone with his fire like plasma. Once it was cool enough, she gasped softly as he caused her to slide form his back and wrapped his wings around her. The warmth given to her by him and the heated ground was by far a welcome change from chilling old that was in the air and caused her to curl up against him, resting her head against his side silently as the storm raged on around them and as she sat there, she couldn't help but wonder if her parents, or at least her father had found out she was gone yet. Were they out looking for her? Hopefully not in this weather. She wondered how much it worried him. Maybe even hurt him? She hated that when she had just gotten her parents back that was was likely disappointing them, but she just had to go through with this. For her mother.

She snuggled closer to the dragon and looked up at him, "I'm sorry for getting you into this Blizzard. You must really think I'm stupid for going after this flower even when my father told me not to, huh? And now we are, to make things worse, stuck in a storm. Things really can't get much worse."

...

If there was one thing Castiel could say, it was that after spending the last eighteen years married to Hiccup, it was so easy for her now to see past his calm deminor. She knew for the most part when he was worried. Or scared. Or any other emotion he was trying to hide. And here he was, wringing out he cloth and placing it on her forehead, trying to seem perfectly calm about the fact hi daughter that he jut got back had flown off, an more so, was out in the storm that was brewing. In a way, it reminded her so much of stories she had heard about Hiccup's youth, before she had met him. Rebellious and for what he thought was right. Ava truly was her father's daughter.

When Hiccup placed the rag on her head, she gently took hi hand and kissed the palm of it in a comforting manner. She wanted to sign to him what she thought, but her hands were still shaking and that would cause her to keep her signing to very little. She wanted to tell him that everything would be fine. That they would send someone to go find her. Or maybe even Hiccup could go look for her himself when the storm let up. And that was with Blizzard, who she knew would risk his life for that girl any day. Surely Ava would be safe. Surely.

White snow was pelting down on gusts of wind as the brittle trees creaked and groaned. Blizzard cocooned the soft human girl against his scales- clinging to the little bit of body heat she gave off. The weather chilled his exposed back and he curled a little snugger around her as she spoke. He despised the inability to speak her tongue within this form but dare not change given the storm. Instead her purred in assurance. Ava could have never made him come on this journey with her, he was a several ton dragon and she was a lightweight. He choose to be here.

But he snorted because she’d jinx them with a comment like that. Ignore her spirits, she is but a human. He thought vainly as he set his head down against the stone and blew a hot breath over her.

---

“I’m sorry Castiel it’s selfish of me to burden you with this.” Hiccup said with a small smile and could see in her eyes that there was more but she was very weak, unable to convey just what. He knew she wished to reassure him but he could not help but worry about a number of things- this winter was shaping out to be one of the worse. If it was his father faced with this dilemma… he had no doubt he’d go after Ava as he had gone after him when he flew off towards danger, even with a war on their horizon.

The villages here were not hapless sheep. They could take care of themselves and he knew the only dragons with a chance to catch up to Blizzard were the young dragon’s parents but he couldn’t send Aurora alone- without a rider- into this- “I’m going to go after her.”

Ava frowned slightly when she had finished speaking, only to give a soft laugh when Blizzard snorted and blew hot air in her face, "I guess you're right. Talking about such things isn't going to help, so why even say them?" That was one of her problems. It killed her to just keep her thought instead, and when she was thinking about something, often she just aid it out loud. It had gotten hr in trouble many times before in the past when she had lived with Einar and his wife. Of course, back then, she hadn't had Blizzard to say her thoughts to and often it was just her talking to herself and often people would have overheard her doing this and the things she said, which would always get back to Einar.

She sighed and rested back against him again, gently scratching at his scales, smiling slightly at him, "I never did thank you. For bringing me back home. Well, I guess kidnapping me and taking me there. She laughed at herself and nuzzled her head against his,speaking playfully, "Thanks for kidnapping Blizzard."

---

Castiel looked at him and shook her head when he said it was 'wrong of him to burden her with this'. It was her daughter too and he had every right to tell her she was missing. Hiccup in all her years of being married to her, had never once been considered selfish. No, he was the kindness man she had ever known. And right now, he was worrying so much about their daughter and before he spoke what he was going to do, she could see it coming. Hiccup was going to go after her and bring her back. As much as Hiccup liked to say Castiel was just as hard headed as any viking here, so was he. And it was one of the things she loved about him.

She merely nodded and smiled at him, taking his hand gently in her hand for a moment before letting again and managed to sign 'be safe'. Yes, she was worried about both he and her daughter going out in the storm, but she trusted them to come back in one piece. They were strong.

She just hoped her thoughts in all of this were right.

His scales were light- and yet thicker than the skin she pressed against them. He could feel her liberal scratches moments before but this was a mere pressure, soft and insignificant though the gesture made his inner fire feel even warmer. She was so close with her face rubbed against his and if not for their compromising position he would hook his arms around her and squish her to him but the wind was persistent as was the cold. Instead he turned up the corners of his mouth, his smile gummy and smug.

Some time passed- the stones gradually cooling once more and the snow pelting down as slush against Blizzard’ wings and back. He listened to the storm: every creak of the trees and howl of the wind, waves were tearing at the rocky shore, pounding the earth. Wait. There was a rumble from beneath them. He sprung up as a whispering death burst from the ground, teeth rippling in its mouth as it rose up and then buckled down with a long spiky body coiling after it. It continued thrashing and Blizzard backed Ava away, wary and silent.

Ava laughed slightly when Blizzard gave her that gummy and smug smile. It was, in a sense, adorable, "You're not fooling me again. I know you have teeth." She joked slightly, because she figured by now from watch him and his parents, that was their way of smiling. She smiled back at him and leaned back against him, doing her best to keep warm as the rocks below them began to cool and the storm continued on. Maybe it would be gone by morning if they were lucky. They had to keep going as soon as possible. The sooner they would be able to get that flower back to the village, the sooner the people there would get better and get over this sickness.

She had just closed her eyes, preparing to try and get some sleep despite the cold, when the ground began to shake and rumble. She sat up quickly and looked around wildly before she was pushed back and out from the ground came a whispering death. She had never seen one of these dragons in person, but she had certainly read about them and they didn't exactly have the best reputation. She allowed herself to be pushed behind Blizzard and she lightly placed a hand on his back, whispering to him worriedly, "Why is it here?"

Her voice should have alerted the whispering death but perhaps the howl of the wind had swallowed her words. The dragon thrashed about senselessly like an eel out of water, unable to determine the ground from the sky. A crackle and thud of a tree forced over by the wind startled it and it lurched past them in a flurry of spikes, nicking Blizzard’s muzzle. He flinched and exposed his teeth but didn’t attack because whispering deaths were in many ways dangerous and this one seemed disoriented… It flipped up into the air once more and came down, flopping for a moment longer- turning trees to wood shards and then fell still amidst the destruction of its creation.

Blizzard remained still for many beats longer before creeping towards it and then suddenly he seemed to change his mind- jerking backwards with a shake of his head and flipping Ava onto his back to run to the far end in the island. He slid suddenly on an icy slope near the sheer drop of the coastline and bellowed with sheer alarm before flinging his wings wide. A powerful gust of wind embraced his efforts before they could collide with the freezing sea and he was heaved up, thrown back onto solid land- where he rolled her off and then rolled the other direction rubbing his snout on the ice.

Still in a panic over the smell of eel on the whispering death’s body. That forsaken spawn of slime. The thought of it slithering down that vast throat- he shuddered and rolled over again rubbing a new patch of snow.

Ava watched the panic of this very large and very scary dragon, and though she felt pitty for it because she knew something was wrong, she was smart enough to know there was no way she could approach it. It would have blindly attack her if she did. Blizzard on the other hand, began to slowly move forward, as if he were going to attempt to approach this large dragon, only to suddenly shake his head and throw her onto his back, running off toward the other end of the island. h gave a small shriek and held on tightly as Blizzard slid on the ice, sending them falling and thank fully he was able to catch a gust of wind, where she was thrown off of him and he landed hard on the ice.

She quickly scrambled up to her feet and in looking over to see her dragon in such a panic was not something she had expected fro the normally proud dragon. This alarmed her the most and she moved quickly over to where he was sliding against the snow, rolling there an shuddering. At first, she didn't know what she should do but then finally she made it quickly over to him, attempting to calm him and scratch him between his fits, "Blizzard?! Hey! It's okay! Blizzard!" She still continued her attempts and finally was able to get on him, the girl that was so much smaller than him, trying weakly and with no luck to stop his thrashing, "Stop! You're going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that!"

She leaned down closer to his head to attempt and look him in the eyes, "Come on! You know you're safe with me! We keep each other safe! We're a team after all, aren't we!? So you have no reason to be scared as long as we're together!"

No. She didn’t understand. She hadn’t smelt it. That forsaken thing- still violating his senses and threatening to overwhelm him. His snout scraped the stone beneath snow and he grunted against it, twisting his body and rubbing along the earth as she scratched at his scales. She somehow swung her smaller body on top of him and he lurched forward, throwing open his wings before sliding snout first into a snowy bank. Suddenly she was over him and he folded his ear flaps back with a small whine.

His nose was cold and his head hurt. He know what it looked like to a human- he’d gotten spooked over nothing and had she know his true distress she probably would laugh. Her kind did not dread those forsaken creatures, he’d seen them eat them: smoked and dried as though they were merely another kind of fish. He shuddered again and turned his head, rubbing his nose against her stomach.

Whatever had spooked him must have spooked that Whispering Death. And if it was something to have scared two of the most fearsome dragons known to man, then it must have been something bad. Still, she continued to try and scratch at and comfort him. It hurt her, to see him so scared like this. And it hurt more that there was really nothing she could do to stop his fear. His ear flaps went back and she heard him whine before he shuddered and rubbed his nose against her. Gently she began stroking his head and scratching at his scales more, whispering comforting things to him in hopes to calm him and bring him back to his usual prideful and stubborn self.

She began nuzzling her head against his, hoping that might do some good to calm him. It took what seemed like a long while, but finally after sitting there for what felt like forever, he seemed to be topping his thrashing and was growing more calm. She scratched under his chin again and smiled softly at him, "See, Blizzard You're fine. Everything is fine. Nothing is going to harm you. Now while we're together as a team. Soon we'll be flying off, we'll find that flower and be back home before you know it." Scratching behind his ear flap now, she smiled a little more at him, "And when we get there I'll even catch you a huge basket of fish to make up for all this. Does that sound good?"

Eventually her scent became the prominent one to his senses as they sat there together in the cold with her soothing whispers and comforting scrub of her fingers across his cold scales. He knew this couldn’t be comfortable for her- crouched in snow but at least down in this gully the freezing wind was not quite so intense with its bite. They were partially shielded by stone and dead shrubs.

He picked up the pieces of his composure and gathered himself as she promised fish and safety. From what? Eels? He would be the one protecting her from anything else but he took her words for the good will she was expressing. These were assurances full of sincerity. He lifted one end of his mouth with a lopsided smile and then huffed, getting up and curling around her before looking to the sky. He hoped the storm let up soon.

Ava was glad to see him calm down and even give her a lopsided smile. She smiled softly back at him and snuggled up to him when he wrapped himself around her. Seeing his eyes looked up tot he sky as the snow continued to fall around them, she did the same, frowning slightly, "You wishing this storm would let up too?" She surely wished it would. She was curled up against the dragon that was quite bigger than herself, so the cold wasn't too bad for her, but it was still biting at her somewhat. She knew that even though he had his scales and such to somewhat block out the old, this storm couldn't be too good for him either. So, the sooner it let up, the better this all would be for the both of them.

And sure enough, within the next hour, she began to notice the wind slowly but surely die down and the snow go from pelting them to sending down very light flurries. The waves still thrashed at the rocks on the shores a little, but she was sure those would calm as very fairly soon. Sitting up, she smiled slightly and looked to him, "I think the weather is calm enough now. Did you want to get a head start and move on, or did you want to stay here for the night?" It was rather late now and she didn't want to push him. But, if he wanted to move on, she would as well. She was leaving that up to him as he was the one flying them.

Blizzard didn’t want to wait, he was eager to move on from this island. He shook the ice from his scales and stood- as white as the layers of snow that had settled upon the earth but his back was warm and his insides full of fire. A little bit of cold wouldn’t stop him here. He folded his wings, waiting for her to situate herself on his back with her usual inexperience. Perhaps a saddle had been a good idea at least then she would know where to place her rear without debate. Forward from the base of the wings- it was that easy. Blizzard was tempted (not for the first time) to bow his head and let her fall forward. It had some extra appeal with a soft layer of fresh snow but he restrained himself, regal and poised, even when one of her frumpy human feet knocked him behind the ear. After what felt like several minutes he recognized her readiness and dug his feet down against the stone for a smooth take off. He was grown enough to know that launching from shifty snow lead to nosedives.

The air remained chilled as they traveled, all the warm currents flowing south- away from their destination. It was not difficult for him to stay warm pumping his wings against the occasional gust but about an hour in (despite this fact) he shot his plasma into the sky, a wave of fire blowing out from the miniature explosion and he skirted beneath the flames- close enough for them to feel the heat without physically touching the element. They came closer to the sea, the waves churning with unease though the sky had since cleared and a reflection of his white hide buckled across the surface among beams of moonlight. He considered feeding but the weather had unsettled the fish, sending them deeper, out of reach.

He lifted them higher once more, continuing north.