I'm back! Are you glad? Of course are! Here's the second instalment of TSTOYL. No need to thank me, I enjoyed writing it!

Guest: He certainly is! Thank you!

Jesusfreak: Thank you! Don't worry about not reviewing, I don't really mind. Feel free to review when you want, but I always love to hear from you!

Guest: It is indeed! As for surviving college, I just have to do my work in my free time at college.

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Hiccup managed to reach across his dragon's saddle and release his Terrible Terror messenger before he felt a sharp prod in the back. Scrambling to his feet, the chief reached for his fire-sword, catching a glimpse of Sharpshot fluttering away over the roofs and off into the heavy snowstorm beyond.

The long weapon slid cleanly from it's holster, the two long, thin blades doused in Monstrous Nightmare saliva. With a spark, the whole thing lit up with bright flame and Hiccup brought the weapon up to meet the sword that Carron was pointing at him threateningly. Taken aback, the leader stumbled, eyes wide, reflecting the flickering light. Hiccup took a careful step back.

"I don't want to fight you, Carron. Put the sword down and we can sort all of this out."

"You're patient, I'll give you that!" The man grinned meanly, swinging his sword in again. Hiccup managed to block, stopping a second and third blow. He glanced back to his dragon, still unconscious behind him.

"Please, stop his fighting. It won't get us anywhere. Why won't you just accept my aid?"

"Because we don't need it! We've never needed it!" There was a strange edge to Carron's voice that made Hiccup's brow crease.

"Carron, please, just listen! Every chief needs help every once in a while, even me. In fact, I rely on others to help me run my village."

"Lies!" The young leader spat into the dirt, bringing his sword up to Hiccup's throat before the man had a chance to react. "People'll say anything to keep their lives, ain't that right?" A few of the crowd behind him snickered quietly.

"Carron!" A voice shouted through the humming hush. A young lady rushed to the front of the crowd, pushing others out of the way. An old man wondered along in her wake, smiling to himself as though he was out for an evening stroll, his thin beard clasped in both hands. The young girl stopped in front of her leader, grabbing his wrist tightly. "Carron, stop! This is wrong! This man saved our village; we can't take his dragon, it's wrong!"

"Shut up, Nags!" Carron threw her off, scowling darkly. However, she persisted.

"This isn't like you. You're not horrid like this, I know you're not! I don't know what's gotten into you, but it's time it got out."

"Go home." He replied without a flicker of emotion. Nags scowled angrily, her eyes blazing, and she turned to those gathered around them.

"Do you honestly support him? Are you gonna let him do this?" Some looked away, others shaking their heads and ignoring her. Only the old man laughed a cheery laugh and patted her shoulder. With a furious growl, she folded her arms.

"My granddaughter is a lovely little girl, isn't she?" The old man's hoarse, broken-voiced comment was not directed at anyone in particular, and, still chuckling at a joke only he understood, he tottered away again. Carron snorted.

"Crazy old man. Someone ought to put him out of his misery."

"He didn't look that unhappy to me," Hiccup shrugged lightly. The leader's gaze snapped back onto him, and instantly, he swung his sword. Hiccup dodged back, taken by surprise, then blocked another that came close to his breast. The fighting resumed, egged on by the few huge, hideous men who seemed to be Carron's personal bodyguards. After a few powerful swings, the chief managed to disarm his opponent. Carron staggered back out of harm's way before he signalled to his heavy-looking companions.

They all tensed at once, one kicking out at Hiccup's knee and knocking him down, another standing on his sword, and the third and fourth snatched him up again. Incapacitated, he quickly gave up trying to kick his captors or wriggle away. They were far too strong. Carron gloated, victorious, from a few paces away.

"Not so clever now, are you, dragon rider?" He snickered unkindly. Hiccup snorted indignantly, his eyebrows shooting up.

"You didn't even defeat me yourself! You got your men to do the dirty work! How is that a fair fight?"

"Nothing's fair, my friend. I would have thought you'd have learnt that by now."

Again, the girl stepped forward, sweeping a curtain of long, nut-brown hair our of her eyes. "Carron, don't be so ridiculous. If the world isn't fair, shouldn't we at least try to make it more so?"

Carron turned and thrust a hand into her shoulder, knocking her to the floor and forcing startled gasps from the crowd. Amazingly, it only took her a few moments before she had sat up again.

Hiccup was appalled by what he saw. Even the twins weren't normally this rough with each other, and he knew that they were only playing. "You wait, Carron. When I don't return to my village, they'll come looking. They'll find me and they'll burn this place to the ground with their dragons. If I can't convince you to release me before then, you can kiss this lovely little village goodbye."

"Are you threatening me?" the man smirked in disbelief.

"I'm not the one threatening you. I'm just telling you what they're going to do."

"Big words from a small man. Let me know how long it takes the rats to eat your toes," he growled, his voice gravelly and sharp. "Take him away"

Hiccup tried to shout a few more warnings in his wake, but the leader wasn't listening. He watched as his dragon was dragged unceremoniously across the ground towards a steep cliff in the hillside that loomed out of the snow like an iceberg on the sea. There was a walkway, barely visible, running up the side, rising high over the ramshackle shacks huddled on the valley floor. They crossed a shallow, rushing river that was racing along towards the sea that stretched out along one side of the small village. Hiccup had to pick his feet up over sharps of sharp ice that flowed through it. His one foot was soaked and frozen in an instant. As the houses passed behind him, he saw his beloved dragon dragged into a cave under the walkway, a different cave system to the one he was being led towards, it's entrance looming from halfway up the causeway. Hiccup gulped. He hoped that Sharpshot would be fast and that his threats would be proven right. If they weren't, he'd be trapped in here for the rest of his days, without the company of any human or dragon, with only the rats nibbling his feet to break the monotony.

He tried not to think about it. Of course they would come. He wouldn't be stuck here forever. Would he?

Ooh! Carron is not a nice man!