Author's Note:

Hello everyone and welcome to another happening in Berk. Those who have read 'Differently Similar' might remember that I mentioned that Hiccup and Snotlout had snuck out on several night time excursion when they were younger. This chapter details the first of these excursions and is set before the first movie. I hope you enjoy it and please let me know what you thought.

I own nothing.

Night Time Discovery

A ten year old Snotlout was rudely awoken by his cousin effectively bouncing on him. He groaned and rolled over to look up at the newly turned eleven Hiccup who was grinning in excitement.

"C'mon Snotlout, wake up."

Snotlout managed to produce a sleepy response, "Go' way Hiccup. I'm sleeping."

His cousin began shaking him, "But Snotlout, it's a perfect night to hunt trolls."

"There's no such thing as trolls Hiccup. Gobber was just making his story up."

Gobber had been round at the house that evening and had told a tale of when he'd chased a troll across what sounded like most of Berk to reclaim his stolen socks. Snotlout was certain most of the epic tale was made up but Hiccup seemed to believe it and had decided to go troll hunting in the middle of the night.

Snotlout rolled back over and stubbornly closed his eyes, "Can't we hunt trolls in the morning?"

"You can't find trolls during the day," his cousin said like it was obvious, "you can only catch them at night."

"If you're so eager then why don't you go hunt trolls by yourself?"

He didn't see Hiccup roll his eyes as he answered, "Because it'll take at least two of us to find and catch one." His cousin then smiled slyly, "Of course if you're too scared to go then that's fine…"

At that Snotlout knew Hiccup had him, there was no way he was going to back down from such an obvious challenge and he sat up and faced his grinning cousin, "Fine but only because you'll need someone brave to hold your hand when you get scared of the dark."

Hiccup grinned at his cousin, "Aren't you the one who's scared of the dark?"

"Am not!"

Snotlout was but there was no way he was going admit it out loud to his cousin, even if Hiccup had already worked it out.

His cousin shushed him and whispered back, "Right we need to make sure we don't wake Dad."

Snotlout nodded in agreement and they both snuck to the top of the stairs.

They managed to sneak out of the house without disturbing Stoick and were soon hurrying into the forest beyond the village.

The full moon shone through the dark trees supplying a slightly ethereal aura to the forest and Snotlout found himself trying to keep to the moonlit areas as much as possible. He felt his fear building as he looked at the pitch black areas the moon couldn't reach, "Are you sure we'll find anything out here?"

He was hoping Hiccup would decide that there wasn't and they could head home but he'd forgotten how stubborn the older boy could be.

"Of course we will. Look, this is a track trolls use when they sneak into the village to steal Gobber's socks."

Snotlout noticed that they were indeed on some sort of little used track that wound its way between the trees and he felt slightly better that if they stuck to the path it would be easy to get home again. They continued on in silence though Snotlout kept close to his older cousin who stoically continued onwards along the path, he was just about to suggest they head back when Hiccup suddenly stopped dead and he nearly walked into him.

"Hiccup, what have you stopped for?"

The other boy just grinned and pointed down in front of him and he soon knew exactly what he'd stopped for.

It looked like someone had simply scooped a chunk of land out of the earth leaving behind a steep sided bowl shaped depression. It contained a large pool in the centre which was surrounded by mossy grass and stones. The moonlight shone down into it turning the grass silver and caused the water to look like a dazzling mirror as not a single ripple disturbed its surface. Snotlout turned back to his cousin excitedly, "Do you think there's a way down there?"

Trolls were apparently forgotten as Hiccup answered just as excitedly, "There must be. C'mon, let's find it!"

They began making their way around the rim of the depression and they soon found a suitable way down, it was a bit narrow but the two boys easily slipped through and stood inside their newly discovered place. They then proceeded to thoroughly explore the entire place shouting excitedly whenever they found some new hidey hole among the rocks or saw the fish swimming in the pool. The night wore on and all too soon Hiccup had to end the adventure, "C'mon Snotlout, if we don't get back soon then Dad will notice we've gone."

Snotlout grumbled but came over from where he'd been about to scramble over some of the huge boulders around the edge and joined him by the exit, "We'll come back right?"

Hiccup smiled, "Of course we will, this place is too good to ignore."

Snotlout returned the smile then looked thoughtful, "Do you think anyone else in the village knows this place is here?"

Hiccup thought about it for a minute then answered, "I don't think so. No one has ever mentioned it before."

"So does that mean we've discovered it then?"

"I guess so."

"So we can name it?"

Hiccup grinned at the idea of naming a place, "I don't see why not. What do you think we should call it?"

"How about just calling it the Cove?"

"But it's not even a cove?"

"No but if we talk about it everyone else will think we're talking about one of the coves we're allowed to go to."

Hiccup grinned at his cousin's unexpected logic, especially as the name seemed to somehow suit the place they'd found, and decided that it was the perfect name.

"The Cove it is then. Now let's hurry back before Dad wakes up."

They hurried away from the newly named Cove and followed the small path back to the village. They managed to sneak into the house and up the stairs without Stoick even stirring and crept into their beds with thoughts of their Cove very much in their minds.

When dawn came Stoick couldn't work out why the two boys were so tired.

PS-So I hope you liked that and any chapter ideas are welcome. I will probably do chapters on some of their other night time adventures and I hope to update soon.