A/N: Many thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, fave'd, and alerted the first chapter. I appreciate it~ Hope you like this chapter as well. To the reviewer who doesn't have an account/didn't feel like signing in, thank you.

From Dragons to Magic

Chapter Two

When Hiccup woke up, he felt like he had been hit with a war hammer. Multiple times. He pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around. He had no idea where he was. It was pitch black: he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. Where on earth was he?

"Am I dead?" he asked.

He hadn't really directed the question at anyone in particular; it had just seemed like an appropriate guess. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the surrounding darkness decided to reply.

"Yeah, you will be, if you ever do something that stupid again!"

"What the? Where—who—Astrid? Is that you?"

"Who else would it be?"

"Oh, thank goodness. For a second there, I thought you were a spirit of death coming to whisk me off to the Underworld or something."

There was an awkward pause.

"… I was going to ask you if you were okay, but I think I've gotten my answer."

Hiccup decided it would be better if he did not ask what that answer was. He figured changing the subject would be a more suitable idea. "So… where are we?"

"You know that small island just off of Berk?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, the one with the cave no one's allowed to go into?"

"Yeah."

There was another pause.

"Astrid, please tell me we're not in that cave."

"Okay, we're not in that cave."

"…We're in that cave, aren't we?"

Her silence told Hiccup that he was right.

"Astrid, we need to get out of here! We shouldn't be here, we're going to get into so much trouble, and who knows what lives in here!"

"Oh please, Hiccup." he could practically hear Astrid rolling her eyes, "Do you actually believe the stories that people like Tuffnut tell? They're just to keep kids from wandering off, there's nothing wrong with this stupid cave, or the island."

Hiccup opened his mouth to argue, but Astrid continued before he could get a word in edgewise.

"Besides, we can't leave right now, even if we wanted to. We're stuck in here until the storm is over."

Hiccup frowned. "Storm…? What storm?"

He tried to remember the last place he had been before he had lost consciousness. His clothes and hair were waterlogged, so…

"That's right! I fell! Off that cliff!"

"Hiccup, did you hit your head or something, because—"

"Astrid, you—you came after me?"

"Yeah, I did. Thanks for remembering, I—"

"Are you crazy? You could have drowned!"

"Hiccup, you were the one who was drowning. If I hadn't gone after you, you would have died."

There was another uncomfortable silence before Hiccup spoke again.

"Th-thanks for saving me, Astrid."

"I didn't."

Hiccup frowned. "Huh? But you just said—"

"I went after you, but I couldn't bring you back to shore. The current was too strong, and your leg was making you so heavy…" she trailed off, sounding ashamed of herself, "I just couldn't do it. It was Toothless who saved us."

"Toothless? He's here? With us? Is he okay? Is he hurt? Astrid, where is he?"

"Hiccup, calm down," she waited until his panicked breathing went back to normal before going on, "He's fine. Come here, he's right behind me. I think he's sleeping. It must have taken everything he had to save us."

Shaking, Hiccup wobbled to his feet and took a few steps forward, heading towards the direction that Astrid's voice was coming from.

"Ouch! Hiccup, that was my foot!"

"Sorry, Astrid."

Hiccup put his hands out in front of him, fumbling around in the dark for the dragon. He finally found him, and quickly checked him for any injuries.

"Oh no, the tail fin Gobber made for him is broken. Looks like we're not flying back to Berk."

"He's okay though, right?" asked Astrid, somewhere to his right.

"Yeah, he's okay. Just tired, I guess." With a sigh of relief, Hiccup sat down, his back against Toothless. "Thanks, buddy."

For the next couple of hours, there was nothing but the sound of the rain crashing against the roof of the cave, and the occasional boom of thunder overhead. The storm didn't sound like it was going to end anytime soon. Just as Hiccup was starting to doze off, he heard something move on the floor.

"Astrid? Is that you?"

"Yeah." He was sure she was standing up now, and he could hear her walking away from him.

"I'm pretty sure the storm's still going strong, don't bother checking."

"I know," she replied, "The entrance in the other direction."

"Uhhh, okay, then where are you going?"

"Nowhere. I'm just looking around."

"Looking around? Astrid, what is there to see? It's pitch-black in here. And I really think that going further into this cave is a bad idea."

"And I really think that there's absolutely nothing wrong with this cave," her voice sounded like it was further and further away, "See? There's nothing dangerous lurking in here. Like I said, those stories are just a made up bunch of b—"

She screamed.

"Astrid?"

Hiccup was on his feet, taking shaky steps in her direction. Toothless woke up and looked around wildly.

"Astrid, are you okay? Answer me!" Hiccup turned to Toothless, "Oh gods, something got her… we have to do something. Toothless, do you feel strong enough to come? Okay, let's go."

Slowly, Hiccup inched towards the place where she disappeared.

"Astrid?" he called again, "Astrid, where are you?"

"I'm right here!"

She sounded like she was… below him?

"The floor gets steep! I'm fine, I just… I just fell."

Hiccup sighed and looked over to Toothless. "Great. I fall off a cliff and nearly drown, end up in a forbidden cave, and now Astrid has gone and fallen down a hole. This day just keeps getting better, doesn't it?"

"Shut up! I can hear you, you know! Get me out of here!"

"And I thought I was the clumsy one." Hiccup smiled, then knelt down and ran his hand along the floor. He found the spot where the floor steepened and held out his hand. "Okay, I'm right here!"

"Where?"

He leaned closer over the hole. "Right here!"

"I think you're out of my reach."

Hiccup shuffled forward a little, teetering on the edge.

"Okay, how about now?"

Before Astrid could reply, Hiccup's metal leg slipped down the steep slope, knocking him off-balance and sending him tumbling down as well. He did not land on the hard ground below. Unfortunately, what he landed on was a lot softer.

"Hiccup. Get off me. Right. Now."

"U-u-uhhh, s-sorry Astrid," he scrambled out of her way, "H-hahah, a-a bit of déjà vu there, huh? S-sorta?"

She replied by punching him in the arm. Hard.

"Okay, I deserved that," he muttered under his breath.

He tried looking up from where they had fallen, but since as it was pitch black, there was really not much to see.

"Toothless?" said Hiccup, "Where are you, buddy?"

He felt the Night Fury's snout nudge him in the ribs.

"Didn't want to be the only one not to fall in the hole, huh?" he turned to where he thought Astrid was standing, somewhere to the left, "Okay, let's go back up to where we were before."

"This is definitely a tunnel," she said, ignoring him completely, "Which means that if we start walking, there should be another way out, but it'll take us a while to get there."

"Great, now we know not to keep going. Come on Astrid, let's go."

"I want to see where it ends up," said Astrid, "Maybe it's somewhere no Viking's been before, and we'll be the first."

"I am not a fan of your curiosity."

She punched him again and continued walking. Hiccup sighed and turned to Toothless.

"Well, let's go. There's no changing her mind, might as well go with her."

xxx

Hours. That's how long they had been walking. Hours. Not seconds, not minutes. Hours.

And Hiccup decided that Astrid should be told of this.

"Astrid, can we go back now?"

"Why?"

"We've been walking for ages, Astrid! The storm's probably over now. I can't hear it anymore. Let's go back."

"Oh, for Thor's sake, Hiccup. We're probably getting really close. This will be all for nothing if we go back now."

"Close to where? Where could we possibly be?"

"Well, that's what we're going to find out, isn't it?"

"I guess…" muttered Hiccup. "Wait, Astrid. How big do you think the island is?"

"Huh? Oh, I don't know… It's not big. Why?"

"Okay, how long do you think it would take to walk from one end to the other?"

"Not long, probably a couple of minutes, actually," she paused, "How is this relevant?"

Hiccup stopped, causing Toothless and Astrid to do the same.

"If it takes so little time to walk across the island, and we've been walking in this cave, which is beneath the island, for hours, then wouldn't that place this tunnel underwater? And you do realize that if the roof caves in, we're going to drown."

Astrid was silent for moment. Hiccup could hear her swallow uneasily.

"I think we should keep going," she said, "We're probably closer to the other side now. It would take longer to go back the way we came."

"Okay, but we have to hurry. The ceiling could give away at any moment," Hiccup turned to Toothless, "Buddy, are you strong enough to give us a lift? We have to move fast."

Toothless nudged Hiccup's hand and crouched down so it was easier for them to get onto his back.

"Thanks, pal. Let's go."

Hiccup and Astrid both held on tight. Flying was one thing, but running on a dragon's back was another. Gliding was a lot smoother than the gallop-like strides Toothless used at a run. It wasn't long before Hiccup and Astrid could see a faint light in the distance. The two Viking teens squinted as the light got closer and closer.

"Where are we?" asked Hiccup as Toothless slowed down and came to a stop.

They still looked like they were in a cave: the walls and floors were rocky, but now there was a dim light that seemed to be shining down from above. Hiccup looked up. It was like the tunnel had expanded, then curved and gone upwards. The light was coming directly from the sky. Astrid had been right; there was exit here. Only…

"It must be hundreds of feet above us," she said, her shoulders sagging a little, "There's no way we can climb up there, and Toothless can't fly with his tail like this."

They had to be in a huge mountain somewhere, not exactly close to Berk, but not too far either. Hiccup was pretty sure that the nearest mountains were northwest from Berk, somewhere within the dragons' territory…

Oh gods.

Hiccup turned to face Astrid, his eyes wide, "I think we're inside the Green Death's old nest."

"What? Are you serious?" Astrid paced back and forth in front of Hiccup and Toothless, looking halfway between furious and fascinated, "What creature in their right minds, human or otherwise, would create a tunnel that leads to here? I know the Green Death is gone and all, but that tunnel is supposed to be centuries old! Who would want to go see that monster?"

"Who knows, maybe it wasn't there when the tunnel was created," said Hiccup, sounding distracted. He let his gaze wander around his surroundings. Yeah, they had been inside the mountain before, but they had been near the top. He had never seen the bottom of the deep pit that the Green Death used to reside in.

The light from above cast a dull glow on the rocky walls around them, which were damp and slippery due to the recent storm. The dark tunnel they had emerged from was right behind him. In front of him was another tunnel. Hiccup frowned. Did this tunnel go even further than the old dragons' nest?

Astrid had noticed it as well. "Where do you think it goes?"

"I have no idea."

"I know you're going to be against it, but we should see where it leads," said Astrid, "Maybe there's another exit."

Hiccup hesitated, looking up again. It had been established that they weren't going to be getting out that way, so what was the harm in continuing? They were on dry land now, so they didn't have to worry about underwater cave-ins. "Okay. Lead the way."

The three of them made their way into the new tunnel. The faint light that the previous area had given them started to fade away, and they were plunged into darkness once again. Hiccup hoped that this time, they wouldn't have to walk for hours before discovering where this tunnel ended.

To Hiccup's surprise, it had only been a few minutes before the walls of the new tunnel became much wider, once again expanding into a larger space. Hiccup looked around, trying to take in everything at once. The tunnel had opened up into what seemed like a huge, circular room with a very high ceiling. Seven intricate carvings decorated the walls, each having a deep handprint right underneath it. In the center of the room stood a pedestal with a stone basin sitting atop it. But what intrigued Hiccup the most were the lights that illuminated the room.

"Look at them, Astrid," he said, "There aren't any torches. This isn't fire. It's just… It's just a ball of light. But how is that possible? You can't have light without a candle or torch, can you? How do you think these things work? It's just not natural."

But Astrid wasn't paying attention to the lights. She was much more interested in the carvings on the wall. She had approached the one on the far end of the room, opposite of the mouth of the tunnel. It depicted a huge stone building with tall, thin trees right beside it. Hiccup started to cross the room to join her.

"Astrid, come on, let's get out of here," he said, "It's not an exit. We've got to get back home, my dad's probably got the entire village out looking for us. We should get back before we worry them too much. And Toothless has to rest. He can deny it all he wants, but he looks like he can't take another step. He's exhausted and needs to get some sleep."

As if to challenge his statement, Toothless lifted his chin and spread his wings, knocking the pedestal over. The stone basin crashed to the ground and cracked in two. Hiccup tripped on the fallen pedestal and slammed into Astrid, causing her to stumble forward, her hand falling squarely into the middle of the handprint in the wall. Suddenly, bright light stung the corner of Hiccup's eyes and his vision blurred. He started to feel lightheaded and nauseous, as if the room had started spinning. He tried to call out to Astrid and Toothless, but before he could open his mouth, everything went black.

A/N: I know, still nothing to do with Harry Potter. Next chapter, I promise! Hopefully the next chapter will seem less rushed, too D: Oh, and I need some opinions. Two chapters from now, Astrid and Hiccup are going to need "Muggle" clothes. Any suggestions as to what I can give them are hugely appreciated, as I suck at coming up with what people should wear.