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"Bind the boy tight," Ryker ordered. "Take his leg. And get a proper muzzle on that dragon!"

Toothless snarled and jerked against the ropes entangling his limbs as several sets of hands grabbed Hiccup and hauled him out of the saddle. A dangerous growl formed deep in his throat, but a bolas wrapped around his muzzle prevented him from snapping.

"Let me go!" Hiccup snarled, bucking against his captors. He counted three Hunters, each of them at least ten times bigger than himself. Complete overkill, but it spoke to something darker that made Hiccup's stomach twist in foreboding. Ryker wasn't going to take any chances on Hiccup escaping. He'd been lucky enough to spot and shoot them down during one of their routine scouting missions — he wasn't about to risk losing his prize.

The Hunters wrestled Hiccup to his knees and twisted his arms roughly behind his back; pain shot through his shoulders and he gritted his teeth against it. He struggled, but could do nothing to stop the men from looping thin cords of rope around his wrists, lashing them together. They wrapped his torso in more rope, binding his upper arms to his sides so tightly he couldn't even take a full breath. Then they shoved him backwards, hard, and pain jolted through his arms and shoulders, now pinned beneath him. Distantly, he heard Toothless struggling against the Hunters muzzling him, heard the muffled snarls of protective rage.

Nausea curdled Hiccup's gut; he knew exactly what was about to happen. They were going to take his prosthetic, literally cripple him, take his ability to walk away from him. Like it was nothing. Like it wasn't a terrible, debasing, dehumanizing act that would hurt him far more than any fists or weapons could.

Well, Hiccup wouldn't let them have it without a fight. Right now, he had a pair of hands on his shoulders, pressing him into the rough wood of the deck and preventing him from rising, but his legs were free. From this angle, Hiccup sensed more than saw a Hunter crouch at his feet; Hiccup coiled his legs back and slammed them into the man's face. Something crunched as metal met cartliage, and the man reeled back, blood spurting from a broken nose. A roar of fury filled the air, and raw terror sparked through Hiccup as he realized his mistake.

That hadn't been just any Dragon Hunter Hiccup had attacked. It was Ryker.

Toothless growled as loudly and fiercely as he could manage beneath the muzzle, alerting Hiccup to the danger seconds before a boot slammed into his ribs. Something snapped and Hiccup screamed.

"Pull him up," Ryker snarled, his voice thick like he had a bad head cold. "Back on his knees, where he belongs."

Hiccup couldn't fight, could do nothing but gasp for air that wouldn't come, each frantic heave sending splinters of agony through his chest. His world spun in a dizzying kaleidoscope of sound and color as his captors jerked him upright and slammed him back down on his knees with bruising force. Only the hands wrapped around his biceps kept him from slumping back to the floor.

What little air Hiccup had managed to painfully coax into his lungs vacated in a sharp gasp as Ryker stepped into view, his outward appearance finally matching the depraved monster within.

His nose was swollen and off-center, bruises blooming from the bridge beneath his eyes. Blood flowed freely from both nostrils, and he did nothing to stem it. It dripped over his greasy mustache and over his lips and into his mouth with each muttered obscenity. It trickled into his ridiculous stripe of a beard and off the end of his enormous chin, pat-pat-patting on the deck like water from a leaky roof. He bared red-streaked teeth at Hiccup. He looked utterly depraved and completely mad, and for the first time, Hiccup was afraid of Ryker Grimborn.

"So, you want to keep your leg that badly, eh?" he mocked.

Hiccup squared his shoulders as best he could and glared up at Ryker. "It's my leg," he gritted through clenched teeth. "Of course I want to keep it."

Ryker studied Hiccup for a long, charged moment, and the look in his eyes made Hiccup's heart skip a beat. Cruel brown eyes cut from Hiccup to Toothless, who thrashed furiously in his bonds, forced to watch Hiccup's plight but unable to do anything to protect him. Hiccup's heart cracked at the desperation in his dragon's expression: He knew exactly what it felt like, to be helpless to protect those he loved. He'd felt this way that day in the kill ring, the day of his final exam. Watching his father, his own people, attack, bind, and muzzle Toothless, who had only broken into the arena to save Hiccup… Gods, that had been one of the worst moment of Hiccup's life, and he knew that was exactly how Toothless felt now.

Ryker knelt in front of Hiccup, grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head back. Hiccup and Toothless hissed in tandem, Hiccup in pain and Toothless in anger. Ryker leaned in close, and a drop of blood landed on Hiccup's cheek, warm like a tear. "You know what?" Ryker whispered. "I'm feeling generous. You want that piece of junk leg of yours so badly? Fine. You can keep it." Hiccup narrowed his eyes, waiting for the catch.

Ryker shifted to the left, allowing Hiccup to get a full look at Toothless who lay muzzled and hopelessly tangled in bolas. A sick, sick dread pooled in Hiccup's gut. Ryker released Hiccup's hair and sat back on his heels. "Take the Night Fury's fin."

Cold panic and blazing rage exploded into a wailing maelstrom inside of him. No. No.

Hiccup threw himself forward, heedless of his broken ribs, but the Hunters held him fast. "Ryker, no, please, don't — take my leg, I'm the one who attacked you, not Toothless—"

Ryker held up a hand, stopping the men slowly advancing on Toothless. "Hmm," he said, "begging. I like it." Hope burgeoned in Hiccup's aching chest, then promptly died at Ryker's next words. "But not enough to change my mind."

Hiccup thrashed and squirmed and added a whole new bouquet of bruises to his upper arms as he fought fruitlessly against the men restraining him. He could do nothing but shout his wordless fury and watch as two men threw themselves on top of Toothless's thrashing tail and another ripped the prosthetic fin away. Toothless shrieked beneath the muzzle and tears ran down Hiccup's face. That bastard hadn't even unbuckled the straps first; Hiccup could scarcely imagine how much that had hurt.

"It's okay, Toothless, it's all right, bud," Hiccup babbled. Being unable to help Toothless when he was hurting sowed sickness deep within his soul. He felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest, and now he was being forced to watch, helpless, as Ryker stomped it to dust.

Toothless calmed somewhat at Hiccup's voice, trilling in his throat. And Hiccup realized with a jolt that Toothless meant to comfort him.

"Oh, how sweet," Ryker said dryly. He leered at Hiccup and ordered, "Toss the fin into the sea."

"NO!" Hiccup screamed, nearly managing to throw off one of his captors in his adrenaline-fueled panic. But too late. It wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Toothless's prosthetic arced over the side of the boat in a flash of red, and disappeared. Hiccup couldn't see it hit, but he heard the splash — a muted, final sound, like a stuttered last breath.

He slumped in the Hunters' hold, all the fight draining from him, replaced with unrelenting, stabbing pain in his ribs and a deeper, more pervasive, aching hollow in his chest that had nothing to do with broken bones. Gods. Ryker had really done it.

Ryker crouched in front of Hiccup again, triumph gleaming in his dark, soulless eyes. "Even if your little friends come to save you, your dragon won't be able to fly away. You're ours now. The boss is eager to meet you, and I'll get the pleasure of throwing your worthless hide at his feet."

Hiccup's pulse spiked and he exchanged a panicked glance with Toothless. He'd figured Ryker had to work for someone, but he'd never actually heard the mysterious Dragon Hunter leader mentioned until now.

A rough hand grabbed his jaw, tearing Hiccup from his troubled thoughts. Over the swell of Toothless's warning rumble, Hiccup heard Ryker's whispered words like an omen of doom: "You know," Ryker said, leaning in so close his broken nose almost touched Hiccup's, "there's a little saying I've always enjoyed." He bared his teeth in a violent grin. "A downed dragon," he murmured, wrenching Hiccup's face forward painfully, his breath tickling Hiccup's ear, "is a dead dragon."

He leaned back and chuckled at Hiccup's horrified expression. "Don't you touch him!" Hiccup shouted, but Ryker just laughed harder and squeezed Hiccup's cheeks hard enough to bruise. Hiccup wheezed in pain. Then, without warning, Ryker released his face, reared back his right hand, and brutally backhanded Hiccup across the face. His vision went white with agony; he could just hear Toothless's muted wails of outrage over the ringing in his ears.

And as his vision returned, Ryker's voice rose above the din: "Take them below. Cage the dragon; bind the boy's legs, and throw him in a cell. In a few hours, they'll be out of our hair."

If Hiccup hadn't been drowning in pain and terror and desperation, he would have probably looked Ryker up and down and quipped, "What hair?"

But he didn't say anything. Not until the Hunters had followed through with their orders and he and Toothless had been locked in separate cages and left alone. Hiccup squirmed to a semi-sitting position from where they'd dumped him bodily on the floor and gazed anxiously at Toothless, his eyes drawn to the missing tail fin. His gut churned.

"You okay, bud?" Toothless snorted and Hiccup chuckled humorlessly. "Stupid question, I know." Toothless trilled deep in his chest. Hiccup gave him a grim half-smile. "Yeah, not doing so hot myself. But… they'll find us. I know they will."

Toothless hummed and looked pointedly at his tail.

"Yeah, I know, bud, but — but we'll figure something out. We — we always do, right?"

Toothless cocked his head at Hiccup, then glanced up with such purpose Hiccup could almost believe he could see the sky beyond the dark wood. Hiccup's heart sank. He knew exactly what Toothless wanted, and it would never, ever happen.

"I'm not going anywhere without you, Toothless," he said firmly. "Where you go, I go. Always." Toothless grumbled. "So don't waste your breath. I'm staying right here." He took as deep a breath as he could manage between the too-tight ropes and the agony singing in his ribs. "Anyway," he continued, trying for a lighter tone, "now I'm curious. We finally get to meet the big, bad boss."

Toothless warbled uncertainly through the muzzle. Hiccup longed to reach through the bars and stroke his scales. "Ah, don't worry, bud," he said, voice thick with emotion. "Compared to Ryker? How bad can he be?"

The moment the question passed his lips, he realized that he really didn't want to know the answer. Unfortunately, he was about to find out, and if his previous luck had anything to say about it, it would probably be the hard way.