Chapter 1

The warm air held still. Even motes of dust did not get disturbed. Nothing seemed amiss. The room, large by any standard to hold so many occupants, lay silent. Shelves lined the upper halve of the walls, and cleverly contrived dressers and bureaus on the lower portions. The enormous bed sat as solid as a mountain in a third of the room. It did not squeak, even when anything on it moved. Only the sounds made by the two sleeping men indicated the room as occupied, except the occasional grunts or the breaking of wind by the two dragons lying in their respective beds. One beast seemed invisible while the other's scaled underbelly appeared to glow. No one on Berk found the arrangement unusual in any manner. For ten years the small longhouse held the current occupants.

Then one person arrived unseen by human eyes. The sleeping dragons did make note of the young man who entered the dwelling in such a manner as no other being could achieve. The figure came straight through the wall. It moved to a specific location and hovered over a specific part of the large bed.

"Jack?" A voice whispered over the head of one of the sleeping men.

A brown-haired man snorted and turned over.

"Jack, come on. Are you awake?" The voice implored. "Jack!"

"Dammit, Isemaler," the other man with russet hair and freckles said in a booming but groggy voice as he sat upright. "How many times have we told you not to sneak in here at night?"

"A few," the invisible Spirit of Winter Joy squeaked.

"A few? A few! How about thousands! I am sick to death of it, Isemaler," Hiccup growled. "That's it. Get out. Stay out. I banish you from the house!"

Two dragons rumbled in displeasure at the yelling.

"No, Hiccup, you don't…"

"This is not your house. You don't live here. Now get out!"

Hiccup glowered at the invisible presence of Isemaler, the Hallan Spirit of Winter Joy. He formed a good approximation of where the immortal young man floated. The v-neck opening of his sleeping shift slipped over his shoulder, exposing fairly pale skin dotted by even more freckles. He jerked it roughly into place.

"It's different this time, Hiccup," Isemaler's voice, seemingly disembodied, begged. "It keeps getting into my head!"

"Then stop trying to sleep," Jack huffed and gave up the pretense of sleeping through the commotion. "You don't need to anyway."

"Oh, gods, not this stupid nightmare again?" Hiccup ground the rhetorical question through his teeth. "I'm serious, Isemaler, you're banished. Starting now!"

"Hiccup!" The spirit pleaded.

"So you're going to get up and fly to the mountain right now to appeal to Noro the Skydancer?
Jack inquired and sounded more than a little skeptical.

Hiccup shot a heated and mean look at his mate. For at least the last seven years they carried on the same argument, and Jack did not seem disposed or willing to set limitations on Isemaler. The first three years of the new Isemaler's existence Hiccup held his tongue, but too many times the playful immortal would make unannounced visits at all hours of the day or night and carry on as if no one planned anything else. Once before he started to appeal to the greatest power that watched over Halla, but Jack intervened at the last moment with plaintive appeals on behalf the former Grimtooth Skovaks. For another three years he waited for Jack Frost, the first Isemaler of Halla and the only Jack Frost, the Spirit of Fun from Earth, to exert some authority. Time and again, however, Isemaler managed to distract Jack with some bit of nonsense. After ten years of waiting, Hiccup could endure no more.

"Why not? The idiot won't let us get any sleep anyway," he grumbled at his mate and threw the thin sheet off his legs.

Toothless sat up on his dais and watched his rider. Jack sat up as well and also watched. His brown hair approximated a similar style to that of his Spirit of Fun appearance. Near the side of the bed on which Jack slept, Isemaler slowly came into view. His wild hair of blonde-white stood out at all angles. His azure eyes, the color of winter sky on a clear day, did not blink and watched his fellow native Hallan. Isemaler gripped his crooked staff so tightly in his hands the skin on his knuckles turned an even whiter shade than the rest of his pale skin. Hiccup ignored the immortal young man and continued to hunt for his flying armor.

"You really mean to do this?" Jack asked and his tone switched to one of caution.

Hiccup spun around and glared at Jack before saying: "You always defend him, and I'm sick of that, too. It's like he means more to you than me… to our life together. So if you're not going to do anything, I am!"

"Isemaler does not mean more to me than you," the Guardian in hiding said in a quiet voice.

"Then prove it! Banish him for our house!"

Toothless grumbled after his rider yelled. Jack, Isemaler, and Ice Spike all stared at Hiccup. He waited for Jack to do or say something. The silent moments ticked by.

"Well, that tells me a lot," Hiccup said and a surge of disappointment flooded through him.

"It's not what you think," Jack stated.

"It's exactly what I think, Jack, because you don't prove it otherwise. I done with this. I'm going to go beseech Noro."

"Hiccup, you don't understand… please, listen to me. Even if I just close my eyes, I can see it. I don't even have to be asleep," Isemaler stated in what sounded like a fit of desperation.

The living Viking continued to shrug into his flying gear and gave no indication he heard the Hallan spirit. He went past the point of anger and verged on sorrow. Hiccup did not hate Isemaler, and he knew the transformed young man performed an important service to the people of his world, but he refusal to respect either him or Jack when it came to their privacy exceeded the Hallan dragon rider's limits. In a fit of roiling emotions, Hiccup jammed his feet into his boots.

"I… I close my eyes, and… and all I can see is darkness…"

Hiccup bit the side of his cheek to stop from letting loose with a sharply sarcastic response.

"With stars… I can see stars, but there's something else," Isemaler said in a faint voice. "I can feel it… it… whatever it is. It's out there. It's looking for us… Jack and me…"

"Of course," Hiccup nastily snapped. "It's always about the two spirits and forget about the rest of the people who live on this world… in this house. I am so damn tired of it always being about you, Isemaler! But no more. Not any more!"

Hiccup grabbed his flying helmet, and turned to his dragon. Ice Spike narrowed her eyes and watched the proceedings. The ebony dragon seemed on high alert.

"Toothless, meet me out porch!"

The Viking left no room for argument. He stomped down the stairs and headed for the door. Above him the clank of a latch and the whir of spring-driven cogs echoed after him. Seconds later he heard the plod of naked feet on the steps and on the floor behind him. Just as he reached for the door, a hand grabbed his arm in the crease of his elbow.

"Hiccup?" Jack asked and filled the lone word with worry.

"I don't know when you stopped listening to me… stopped caring, but I can't put up with it anymore," he said without turning around. "I've tried so hard to understand everything you've gone through, but… but Isemaler wasn't part of the deal. I don't remember the last time you worried as much about me as you do about him."

With that he jerked his arm out of Jack's grasp and pulled open the door. His boots thudded on the floorboards as Hiccup crossed the threshold. Then he pulled the door shut behind him. Hiccup knew he would start shouting again if he heard another of Jack's excuses. Only a few moments passed before the rush of wind blew across his face as Toothless landed on the grass in front of the house. Hiccup went to the exterior storage closet and retrieved his dragon's flying gear.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, bud," Hiccup said as he situated the saddle on the midnight back of the winged creature. "It's not like they're in love, but… I know he cares more about him than me. I can feel it. I don't know how I stopped being important to him."

Toothless warbled at the words. His rider patted the thick neck. The two stood in silence for a moment in the dark pre-dawn as if contemplating what Hiccup just said. Then Hiccup returned to lacing straps through buckles, set the tailpiece in place, connected the linkages to the foot pedal, and finally made a last inspection of all the equipment. He ran on instinct born of years of practice. Nothing seemed out of ordinary. Hiccup climbed aboard the strong back of his best winged friend, inserted his peg leg into the foot pedal, and strapped himself into the seat.

"Okay, Toothless: up!" He gave the command.

The night fury expertly launched himself into the sky. In a small fashion, being airborne and alone with Toothless brought a sense of calm to Hiccup. He thought about how he would make the plea to Noro the Skydancer, and he decided to simply lay out the facts. He hoped the powerful entity would hear him. Hiccup knew both he and Jack needed to change they way they lived, and Noro seemed about the last recourse to force the change. With four hours of steady flying before him, Hiccup slipped into deeper thought as Toothless sailed onto very early morning air currents.

Jack stared at the door. He heard Hiccup walking around the porch, and he could easily guess precisely what his mate did. The jingle of hardware told him much. In less than three minutes the sound of Hiccup giving the order to fly seeped under the door. His mate, the Earthling thought, truly knew his way around a dragon. Jack made a silent count as he waited for the hiss of the down stroke. A small, powerful blast of wind rattled the door. After which Jack walked to it and pressed his back against the thick wooden slabs. He sighed.

"You're just going to let him go and do that?" Isemaler hurled the words at Jack.

"Yes, and it's your fault," Jack muttered in response. "Why can't you ever think before you do something. You know Hiccup hates it when you sneak into the house."

Isemaler materialized five feet in front of Jack. He seemed more agitated than when he first arrive. He floated from side to side and shook his head a little. The spirit mumble something.

"What?" Jack inquired.

"Isn't he worried about you?" Isemaler grunted.

Jack did not answer.

"No, no, no, no, no! Oh, gods, no! You didn't tell him?"

"I can't tell him," Jack half-hollered. "Hiccup would lose his mind if he found out I started having the same dream each time I come back from Earth. Not only that, it's the same one you're having. I can't do that to him, Isemaler."

"What if it's real, Jack? Huh? Wh-Wh-What if this isn't a just a dream, but… but… but… some… kind of warning."

"Warning of what? And get a grip on yourself."

"It wants the Sickle of Elada… and I don't even know what that is. What is it? Why does… whatever is in my nightmares want it? Why does it keep telling me?" Isemaler babbled the questions and his fear seemed to grow by the moment. Bits of snow floated around him as he got wound up.

"Just calm down, Isemaler," Jack said in as soothing a manner as he could muster. He pulled his sleeping shirt closer around him as the temperature started to drop. "Think for a second. Does any of that make sense to you?"

The immortal young man shook his head back and forth.

"Did you ever think maybe Blikse'fey is toying with you? Don't forget you haven't done much to get on her good side."

"You know I've avoided the Thunder Queen for over a month. I won't go near any rain clouds," Isemaler firmly defended himself.

"You froze part of her solid and it landed in the ocean, and that's not an easy thing to get over. Trust me: Bunny and I still can't talk about a certain blizzard I whipped up fifty years ago," Jack reminded his elemental friend of his own elemental problems on a different world.

"It's not her that worries me," Isemaler deftly parried. "And you've got to tell Hiccup about this, Jack. You have to. I don't care if he does get me banished from the house, you need to tell him about these… nightmares. They're getting worse."

"They're not getting worse, Isemaler," Jack flagrantly lied. "Did it look like I was having a hard time sleeping?"

"You got back over a week ago, and you said the dreams fade in a few days as you turn more mortal."

Despite his penchant to make mischief at the worst of times, to get overly excited by events, and to spin wildly out of control when he could not sort through a problem, Isemaler retained a keen and sharp mind. He never forgot anything, and he learned as fast as Jack. Jack thought the former Grimtooth Skovaks learned at an even faster rate. He mastered the ice staff, as Hiccup called it despite it having a different name, in a tenth of the time it took Jack. Of course, Isemaler got granted a mentor and a teacher; hence, a benefit Jack never received.

"Listen, just go and do your duty someplace. I've got to think this through," he said after a few moments.

"You'd better tell Hiccup, Jack, and I'm serious. I will if you won't," Isemaler threatened, and his hands squeaked on the surface of the crook.

"And I'd never speak to you again," Jack instantly retorted. He and the Spirit of Winter Joy made similar threats to one another on other occasions. "And don't tell me I'd get bored. You forget I go back to Earth once a month, and it's a whole month I spend there."

He gazed directly at Isemaler to underscore his point. Jack's brown eyes drilled into the sky-blue ones of Isemaler. He counted to eleven and the spirit finally looked away.

"I'm not kidding. You say one word to Hiccup about this…"

"Fine. I won't, but I'm telling you right now this is serious," Isemaler cut into Jack's statement. His eyes narrowed, and Jack could all but hear the wheels grinding noisily in the immaterial head. "You're not going to stop him, are you? What if Hiccup really gets me banished from the house?"

"Well, we'll both probably sleep better," Jack said first, and Isemaler snorted at the statement. "And you've got no one to blame but yourself. He told you he was going to do it if you didn't stop barging in on us, and I'll lose him for sure if I interfere on your behalf again. You – not him – made me pick a side. You should've known which one I'd take."

Isemaler stared at him in a hard, unflinching way for several heartbeats. Heat instead of cold radiated from the expression. Then the Spirit of Winter Joy vanished. Jack did not need to guess he departed the house. The house felt empty, and far emptier than he liked. The sole of his bare left foot slapped against the door in frustration.

"Dammit, Isemaler," he quietly growled the words. "I can't even tell you what I know."

A tailwind aided Hiccup and Toothless on the flight to the barren island with the single rocky spire pointing straight at the sky, a place they named The Finger of the Gods. No dragons lived on the island. No Viking tribe attempted to make it a home. No ships ever docked along the rocky coast. In fact, from the two times Hiccup and Jack visited the island, they found it devoid entirely of life. The morning sun, for they flew for two hours in the dark, glinted off the oddly finger-like spike. The tip got sheered through naturally or by other means, and it left a flat surface wide enough on which all but an alpha dragon could alight. Hiccup aimed Toothless toward it, although the dragon appeared to know their destination. It seemed logical given the watery vista surrounding them.

The night fury landed with style and grace even in the face of a twenty mile an hour wind. Hiccup found it interesting Toothless crouched and moved his head around as though searching for something. Once he dismounted the dragon and stepped onto the stone, the human understood why. A vaguely uncomfortable feeling welled up through the bottom of his feet. It felt as though the rock warned him to be cautious and courteous. It did not go unheeded. Hiccup took off his helmet and hooked it to the saddle. Then he moved to the center of the natural platform and cast his eyes upward. A brilliant sky suffused with the light of a new day nearly stung his eyes. He inhaled.

"Noro the Skydancer I need to speak with you," Hiccup said clearly into the air. "Please, hear me at least this once."

Only the fact he knew he stood alone on an island nobody either seemed to know about or wanted to visit saved him from feeling foolish. He could not, unfortunately, guess what to expect. On the first trip to the island, Jack needed to speak to Noro the Skydancer regarding some small but apparently vital aspect regarding Isemaler's power. He knew the great entity that guided and watched over Halla answered Jack because his mate appeared to slip into a waking coma. It looked nothing like Jack's monthly transition to Earth. However, Hiccup never heard their conversation. The second time Jack accompanied him when he came to make his first appeal about banishing Isemaler for their home. Jack, however, persisted in pleading the case for the Spirit of Winter Joy. One item his mate said caused him to change his mind.

"Remember when no one knew about your sexuality and how alone you felt without anyone or anywhere to turn? If you do this, you are condemning Isemaler to a similar fate."

Jack's words rang in his mind, and he wondered why he thought of it all of sudden. Despite his recollection of that day over three years prior, it did not sway Hiccup's decision. He looked up into the clear summer sky and waited. He knew Jack waited for over three hundred years before his maker, The Man in the Moon, spoke to him. Hiccup knew he could not wait that long. He pondered how beings as old and powerful as Noro and Jack's Father Moon measured time or if it even entered into their thinking.

"Please, Lady Noro. I can't take it anymore. Isemaler doesn't respect our privacy or even the fact it's not his house. He treats Jack like… like… like some sort of trough he can go to and drink from whenever he damn well feels like it. It's not fair to either Jack or me," Hiccup presented a very short version of his case.

The wind swept his words away and into the distance. Hiccup thought about all of the hundreds, if not thousands, of times Isemaler's impromptu arrival complicated their lives. The spirit of the young man appeared to know the exact wrong time to make a showing. Despite everything both he and Jack said, Isemaler refused to consider the gross discourteousness of his actions. Hiccup did not deny for one moment Isemaler faced a mind-boggling task in his role as the Spirit of Winter Joy and never once complained about demands placed on him. In fact, the former Grimtooth Skovaks seemed to delight in the duty. Like Jack, Isemaler took his responsibility with all due serious even if he did not always act in the most appropriate manner. Yet it did not give Isemaler the right to impose on either him or Jack whenever the whim took the spirit. The complexity of the situation started to give Hiccup a headache as he contemplated all the various angles and positions of each person.

"Do not fret, Hiccup of the Hairy Hooligans," a voice that came from everywhere and nowhere said quietly in his ear. "From this point forward Isemaler will no longer intrude upon your home… unless you and Jack give him permission at one and the same time, and then only for as long as both of you wish to endure it."

"Oh, gods, thank you, Lady Noro! Thank you. Thank you!" Hiccup gushed.

"But I must caution you to refrain from dismissing Isemaler in totality," the voice, like a woman's and yet unlike any he ever heard, continued. "You and your kin are rare in that you will ever be the only ones who will know Isemaler so intimately. Once you have passed on and Jack departs from this world, my child will no longer have anyone who connects him to the mortal world. Think well on what this will mean to him over the eons. He will come to rely on the memories of you and Jack and those few others, just as Jack will come to rely on the memories he holds of you when his days on this world end."

Hiccup felt like someone knocked the wind out of him as the words sank into his head. He often wondered what Jack would do when he, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III of the Hairy Hooligans, ceased to exist. At times it woke him in the dark of the night in a cold sweat as his mind tried to imagine the span of years Jack would continued to live, longer perhaps than the millions of years the foul creature called Pulhu survived. To be alone during all that time would ultimately be torture. Hiccup remembered the immortal beings who populated Halla, but he did not know if they could imagine being human. The thoughts battered him and made him shudder.

"It is because you are not cruel or vindictive, Hiccup Haddock, that I grant your request," Noro the Skydancer said, and it sounded as peaceful as a breeze through the grass. "Do not forever forsake Isemaler. A day may come when you have need of him yet."

"Yes, Lady Noro. I will… yes, I'll keep that in mind," Hiccup said and realized the moment called for a bit more than that. "I swear it."

"Thank you, and, although you may not care to know this, Isemaler is equally as fond of you as he is of Jack. He takes your counsel with greater earnestness than he displays."

"That doesn't do much to explain why he won't respect our privacy."

"No, perhaps it does not, yet mayhap you should consider what his actions truly mean."

"I do have a long flight ahead of me," Hiccup murmured in response to her statements.

"Fare thee well, Hiccup. May the winds be under wing throughout your days."

"Ah, thanks… and… safe travels to you, too… I guess."

Hiccup heard a sound like laughter as he suddenly felt alone except for Toothless' presence. It stunned him to think Noro the Skydancer actually took the time to speak more than just a few words to him. What she said began to replay itself in his mind. Instead of immediately taking flight, Hiccup pulled two of the large dried fish cakes from one of the storage pouches. He fed these to an eagerly awaiting Toothless. As his dragon chomped and masticated the hardened food with the gusto only a dragon could muster for the fare, Hiccup sat and thought. One did well to heed the words of a god, he told himself.

"Great Odin! He did it," Jack whispered to himself as he stared blankly at piece of wood he shaped. The drawing knife dangled loosely in his hand.

"Jack!" A voice loudly intruded into his private moment. "Where in himmel did you drift off to?"

Jack swung his head and stared at the stout figure of Fishlegs, one of only three remaining people who knew his exact nature. Fishlegs long since learned to trust Jack, and mainly because the Earthling could not willingly assume his elemental form. Over time they even managed to form a relatively close friendship and spent many a night discussing the most appropriate means to utilize Jack's advanced technical knowledge. As such, it did not appear odd that Fishlegs wore a vest with many pockets and loops sewn onto it to carry his various small tools and writing implements. The round man literally jingled like bells when he walked, and it often reminded Jack of Nicholas St. North. At the moment, however, his friend frowned.

"What?" Jack petulantly rejoined.

"What kind of trance were you in? Haven't seen you like like that since the last time I saw you during a full moon," Fishlegs quietly said as he walked into the woodworking shop. "Have you finished the bevel cogs yet? I want to test them on the waterwheel."

"Cogs? Oh, yeah, those. I finished 'em yesterday night. There over here," he answered and walked toward the storage area of the sizable workshop.

Since Gobber died peacefully sitting in his chair before the forge just over two years prior, Hiccup and Jack decided to enlarge the forge once Hiccup became the master smith. Fartbritches and Mouldy turned out to be respectable smiths in their own right, but Hiccup received extensive and greater training for a longer period of time. Hence, with the passing of the peg-armed and peg-legged smith, the choice of his successor became obvious. Jack, in his role as a wood smith, continued to work in the forge. Hiccup, however, thought he needed a larger shop. They spent an entire summer expanding and modify the forge so a greater number of people and projects could fit in the building.

"Did you go some place, Jack?" Fishlegs quietly persisted as he joined Jack deeper in the shop.

"I, ah…" Jack started to say and tapered off.

"Oh, come on. I know you and Hiccup have been fighting again. You used to talk to me about it before."

Jack eyed his friend. He did, indeed, take Fishlegs into his confidence on numerous occasions. Unlike some others, Fishlegs never revealed anything Jack said, even under pressure from Hiccup or Valka. Thus, his instincts told him he could trust the man.

"It's an Isemaler issue."

Fishlegs' face turned even rounder when his mouth puckered into an oh shape. The thin goatee on his his chin and lip accentuated the look and made it comical. However, the sincere serious expression did not warrant laughter.

"He arrived unannounced early, early this morning and woke us up," he continued.

"Bet Hiccup didn't like that," Fishlegs commented.

Jack gave him a stating-the-obvious glance and replied: "Not one bit. He went to go talk to Isemaler's maker to banish him from the house."

"Can he do that?"

Jack frowned at the question.

"Of course he can. He's done it before, but… should he?"

"Whether or not he should is a closed argument. I don't know why she let me listen in, but I just heard Noro say she would keep him out… with conditions."

"You heard?" Fishlegs inquired and appeared mystified.

The two men eyed one another for a moment. With Gobber's absence, no one took the time to remind Jack he once kept company with extremely powerful beings. Granted, at the time he associated mostly with Thursar H'rim, Lord of Winter, but the other strange entities appeared to know about him. While Isemaler got to know the others who invisibly occupied and shaped Halla, Jack remained mostly in the dark about them. In some ways, he preferred that arrangement.

"I haven't heard a single voice from any of them unless I go to that island, so I was just as surprised as you look! The weird thing is I only heard the part about her giving her assent, but… I think they were talking about something else as well."

"No idea what?"

Jack shook his head.

"Does it… scare you he was talking to her?" His friend continued to press.

"Not scare… or frighten, either. It's just… weird… like in highly unusual."

"Why is that?"

"'Cause aside from Isemaler, only Thursar H'rim will make an occasional rumble if I say something directly to him he either finds insulting or funny. Otherwise, not a word," Jack explained.

Fishlegs nodded and appeared to ponder the statements for a minute. Although he would never tell Hiccup as much, Jack believed Fishlegs to be more intelligent by a good margin. The stout Viking did not possess the same creative instincts or inventive knack as Hiccup, but the sheer amount of knowledge crammed under the blonde hair and little winged steel helmet often proved staggering. His keen memory coupled with sharp observational skills made Fishlegs a formidable force on Berk. He also became the historian for the people, and that served a vital function as well. He routinely got elected to the governing council of the island. Thus, Jack waited to hear what the man would say.

"But this is different, right? This isn't just a casual conversation. She's got to know Hiccup is serious if he's willing to fly all the way out there. Besides, this isn't an area where you have any direct control, so Hiccup couldn't ask you to do anything… right?" Fishlegs postulated, but his last trailing question seemed more knowing.

Jack felt his cheeks heat up.

"By Loki, Jack, what did you do… or didn't do?"

"Nothing," he replied and felt the single word more or less told the truth.

"Nothing as in there was nothing you could do or nothing meaning you didn't do something you should've done?" Fishlegs immediately dissected the response with amazing insight.

"He thinks I have some sort of mystical control over Isemaler, and I don't, Fishlegs," Jack hissed and anger infused his words. "I've told Hiccup time after time after time Isemaler won't listen to me about certain things. He forgets I got told I needed to train him in his duties… and Hiccup knows who told me to do it. I couldn't ban Isemaler from our house even I could call up any power!"

"Alright, alright! Calm down," the hulking Viking said and his hands pantomimed a patting motion. "I know Hiccup gets a little… high strung about Isemaler, but he's got reasons to."

Jack nodded. He could not refute Hiccup put up with more annoyance from Isemaler than he deserved. However, Jack also believed the Spirit of Winter Joy harbored a profound respect for Hiccup, and it showed in the untold number of questions the immortal young man aimed at the Viking. Despite that, the lack of concern for their privacy on the part of Isemaler did pose a significant problem.

"I've tried, Fishlegs. Thor knows I've tried to get Isemaler to calm down and Hiccup to cut him some slack…"

"Hiccup doesn't cut anyone any slack anymore," Fishlegs interjected. "Not since Gobber died and he took over the forge. It's not like he had much patience left after the civil war."

Only Fishlegs and Valka, aside from Hiccup and Jack, referred to the deadly infighting that took place on Berk as a civil war. Even though it rested a decade in the past, few liked to talk about the incident. The fact Hiccup refused to remove or repair the burned chieftains chair with the rusted axe buried in the seat back served as a constant reminder of those grim days. It stood as a monument in the Great Hall as testament to fears run wild and that it cost the lives of children, women, men, and dragons. Hiccup wanted the people of Berk to be reminded so it would never happen again.

"I still miss him a lot," Jack said in regard to the dear friend and mentor Gobber became as Jack transitioned into mortal life.

"We all do… every day," Fishlegs added.

They stood in silent tribute to the man they lost.

"It's worse for Hiccup. Gobber stepped in after Stoick…" and Jack could not finish the sentence.

"Stoick and Hiccup might've been chief, but Gobber turned out to be our soul," Fishlegs intoned, and his voice cracked a bit. "It's hard to lose someone like that."

"That's why I've tried to be accommodating toward Hiccup."

"Oh, mistake. You know he doesn't want anyone feeling sorry for him or pitying him, Jack. That'll get under his skin real fast. If you've been doing that since Gobber died, I'm surprised he hasn't turned Toothless loose on you."

The Guardian in disguise blinked at his friend.

"I did warn you about that," Fishlegs said with a strong note of reproval in his voice.

Long after Fishlegs left the workshop, Jack thought about what his friend said in regard to Hiccup. No matter what anyone told him or warned him about, Jack's nature as a Guardian tended to poke through. Instinct drove him to protect Hiccup, both his feeling as well as his life, almost regardless of the cost. However, Jack could not avoid the counsel of Fishlegs who knew his mate since infancy. The iciness in his relationship with Hiccup seemed to stem from the time of Gobber's passing. Ye it seemed more than that. Berk changed over the years, and that also appeared to play a role.

The once tight circle of friends who became the aerial defenders of Berk drifted apart. The tumultuous rift between Hiccup and Astrid remained gaping. Even though she adopted a new dragon, she never seemed to forgive Hiccup regarding Stormfly's death. Furthermore, Snotlout descended into a drunken mess following the death of Hookfang and typically kept to himself regardless of any attempt to reach out to him. Both Ruffnut and Tuffnut got married to different people, and they lived as a foursome with Barf and Belch and a growing brood of children who acted just as nutty as their respective parents. Astrid also became a wife and mother, but that did not ease her temperament. They rarely heard from Dagur or Heather since Dagur became a prince through marriage and Heather acted as counselor to Queen Malla. As a result, Hiccup became rather isolated since he long ago stopped acting as chief. It did not help matters that Jack wound up becoming quite popular among the Berkians for both his outgoing personality, quick wit, and skill with wood.

When Hiccup arrived at the smith later in the afternoon, no one questioned his absence during the morning. He went about his business with the same ruthless efficiency as ever. Only Jack noticed the strange smile that would play along his lips on and off throughout the work day. While the two discussed the status of various projects, they did not discuss the one topic each thought most important. When Hiccup learned Fishlegs retrieved the bevel cogs for the waterwheel apparatus, he raced out of the forge to check on the progress. Only Hiccup and Fishlegs knew what they planned, and both showed signs of their younger personalities when discussing it. As he returned to fashioning newels for the new fencing along the docks, Jack could not decide exactly how he felt about the incidents of the day.

"So, what was it like?" Fishlegs pestered Hiccup as they made a third attempt to affix the larger of the cogs too the main barrel of the waterwheel.

"What was what like?" Hiccup said and frowned at more than the difficult contraption. "Are you sure he made this to the right specifications?"

"You got ask him that!"

"No thanks! Jack's mad enough at me as it is."

"And why is that?" The wide-bodied Viking asked the thinner one.

Hiccup stared in the pudgy face of his close friend, narrowed his own, and said: "He told you, didn't he?"

Fishlegs shrugged and replied: "He didn't have to, Hiccup. I walked in on him while he had that far away look on his face. You know? The one when he's listening to them."

Hiccup looked confused for a second while Fishlegs pointed up into the air. His eyes slowly widened as the realization Jack knew all day and said nothing stole over his brain. Hiccup could not decide if he should be angry or proud.

"He heard?" The lean Viking rhetorically queried.

"First time in years since he heard any of them. I think it sort of caught him by surprise," Fishlegs told him.

"What did he say about it?"

"Well, he doesn't disagree with you about why you did it…"

Hiccup snorted in disbelief.

"He doesn't," Fishlegs reasserted, "but I think you forget they told him needed to train and look after Isemaler… and that's no easy task. And you know how Jack gets when someone says he's got a job to do."

Before Hiccup answered, he applied another layer of yak grease to the end of the barrel. He used a felt covered hammer to tap on the cog to get it to slide into place. It moved, but it also seemed stuck. The once Viking chief grunted in frustration.

"Something's off with this," he finally said after glaring at the two parts. "I think we should trim the barrel some more."

"Fine," Fishlegs agreed since they already argued about the prospect. "But I still think you need to ease up on Jack about this."

"No, Fishlegs, I don't," Hiccup hotly replied. "He always takes Isemaler's side over mine. He never really corrects that yak-butt even when he makes the worst mistakes, and I'm tired of feeling like I come in second or third place with Jack. I'm sorry if I don't have a magical past behind me, but that's not my fault!"

"I meant the cog, Hiccup," his friend spoke in a disapproving manner. "He worked a long time on making sure the splines mesh just like we asked. But about the other stuff… Jack trusts you won't start a war with some other clan because you tried to pull a stupid joke. He doesn't have to worry over you and feel like every little mistake you make is his fault. You put him in an unwinnable situation, Hiccup, and you don't even realize it! Gods, no wonder he's so afraid to talk to you!"

The vehemence in Fishlegs' voice caught Hiccup by surprise. However, as the words began to penetrate through his ire, he took notice. It stung him to think Jack feared talking with him about anything. Once upon a time they could discuss every topic under the sun. Nowadays they talked mostly about the forge and woodshop and what needed to get completed or the problems with production. On happier days they would discuss their dragons. He could not pinpoint the moment when it began to change between them, and yet Hiccup felt as though Isemaler played a large role in creating the gulf. What Fishlegs said, however, flew right into the face of his opinions. It disquieted Hiccup and stilled his anger. More importantly, it set his mind to real thinking.

"Sorry, Fishlegs," he quietly said. "I didn't mean to yell at you or drag you into the middle of our problems."

"Great Odin, Hiccup, but you're dense sometimes," his friend rounded on him without accepting the apology. "This island is too small to avoid getting involved in other people's problems. If something affects you or Jack, it winds up affecting us all… just like if Valka is in a mood or Spitlout or Rancid or Astrid or just about every damn person who lives here! Sometimes I think you really need to get over yourself and see what's right in front of you!"