Chapter 4

Dawn broke over the sea, and the boat that was occupied by Marko, Hiccup, their Dragons and their friends was sailing smoothly across the shimmering blue water. Rubbing his eyes, Marko was trying his hardest to stay awake, but he was fighting a losing battle: his eyes were already threatening to close for a deep sleep. But just before he was completely out, the boat bumped into something and jolted Marko onto the floor of the boat, waking up Rachel and the Dragons. Yawning, Rachel got up and, kneeling down beside Marko, whispered, "Marko, wake up...Marko, we've his something..." But Marko just continued to lie there, muttering, "Mm, five more minutes..." Sighing, Rachel got up and looked over the side of the boat to see what they had hit. Suddenly, she gasped and called, "Marko!" Groaning, the owner of the name slowly got up and walked towards Rachel, yawning, "What is it, Rach?" He too then looked over the side and, even though he was half asleep, his eyes widened and he called, "Alright, everyone! Rise and shine!"

They heard several bangs and groans coming from below them, indication that they had fallen out of their hammocks. After a few minutes of muffled grumbling, Hiccup, Astrid and Fradokos, who all still looked half asleep and flustered, arrived on board deck, and when they saw what Rachel and Marko saw, they instantly felt wide awake.

In front of them, standing fifty or possibly more feet above them stood a gigantic glacier, blocking the view in front of them and a good distance on either side of them. But that wasn't the strangest part of it; the strangest part was that there was an army of a dozen or so visible Vikings, all wielding some kind of weapon and had a fighting face plastered to their faces for entirety. Also, looming above the frozen Vikings, there was a Dragon frozen in the ice as well: it looked a bit bigger than a Night Fury, but it had burnt red scales covering it, with black scales covering its paws. It had four paws, and a pair of wings coming out of its back, a mixture of burnt red and black scales. There was a long neck connecting its body to its head, which was covered in spikes and burnt red scales. A bright orange almost burnt its way through the eyes as the two eyes seemed to follow them as they floated along. "What kind of Dragon do you think that is?" whispered Fradokos to Hiccup.

But before Hiccup could answer, Marko said, "That would be the cousin of the Monstrous Nightmare: The Demented Flame. There are hardly ever seen, but the ones who have seen them...Well, let's just say that they have a very good view of their claws." It didn't take a genius to know what Marko was talking about. They must have a bad reputation, thought Hiccup as they slowly drifted along the glacier and out of the Flame's frozen eyesight. Turning around and walking towards the rudder of the ship, Marko gripped the handle and said, "This must be what the Frozen is, so that means that we go north until we find the Cave of Fury." And with that, Marko pulled the rudder towards him until he knew that he was pointing the boat north. As the boat drifted north and away from the Frozen Dragon and Vikings, Hiccup still couldn't get the image of those orange eyes out of his head: it was also as though they were...watching him. But Hiccup shrugged it off when he noticed that Ice was present of the boat for the first time. "Ice!" Hiccup exclaimed, and patted the snout of the White Fury, who purred in approval. Looking down, Hiccup spotted Claw and Mist looking up at him curiously, as though wondering if he was a threat to him or not.

"Hey there, little guys," Hiccup said softly, and slowly extended his hand to them. But Claw hissed and tried to get away from Hiccup, but Mist, the more curious of the two, sniffed Hiccup's hand before she rubbed her head against his palm, purring as she did so. Claw, now curious at her sister's reaction to the strange two-legged person, trotted forward and sniffed Hiccup's hand, before pushing her sister out of the way and seeing what it felt like. But before Claw could get a good fell of Hiccup's hand, Mist pushed her out of them way and hissed at her, telling her to back off. Soon, the two sister started to hiss at each other back and forth, until Claw started to make the Night Fury's signature screech, indication that she was about to fire her first fireball. But before she could, Ice growled at her, indication her to stop what she was doing. Flattening her ears against the back of her head, Claw crooned softly in apology. Walking up to Ice, Toothless nuzzled her softly, and Ice returned it.

Smiling, Marko clasped his hands together and said, "Right, since it could be a while before we arrived at the Cave of Fury, so we each going to have to find a way of passing the time." Shrugging, Hiccup suggested, "Well, if it's alright with Toothless, I would like to go on a flight." Purring, Toothless lightly leapt on Hiccup, nuzzling his tiny face: they haven't been on a decent flight ever since...he happened. Laughing, Hiccup looked to make sure that Toothless' fake tailfin (the one that allowed him to fly on his own) and before you could say 'Steal your left sock', Hiccup was on top of Toothless and the Night Fury shot up into the sky, becoming nothing more than a small dot in the sky moments later. Looking up at where Toothless appeared to be in the sky, Fradokos said "You know what; I think I'll join him." And with that, he mounted White Light and they too shot up into the sky. Laughing, Rachel went to ride on Cloud, but stopped when Marko made no movement towards Ice, who was lying down with Claw and Mist at her side. "Marko, w-what's wrong?" asked Rachel, slowly walking back to Marko. Looking at Rachel, Marko said, "Someone's got to look after the boat: besides, Ice needs her rest."

Looking over at Ice, Rachel was surprised to find that Ice had dozed off, her two children following her example. Smiling softly, Rachel mounted Cloud, but before they took off, Rachel looked over at Marko and said, "Just make sure that you keep that ship from being attacked by pirates!" Chuckling, Marko said sarcastically, "Oh, great(!) You just went a jinxed it!" Laughing, Rachel silently told Cloud to fly, and instantly, the two females shot up into the sky. Yawning, Astrid said, "Well, I'm going to get back to sleep, seeing as I had a rude awakening this morning!"Chuckling, Marko watched as Astrid disappeared below deck, and he was left as the only one awake on board. Sighing, Marko sat down at his point at the rudder of the boat, and pulled out the Earth Key from his pocket. Running his fingers over the golden side of the triangle, Marko muttered to himself, "What is the Cave of Fury?" as though the Key would understand him.

As I wrote this chapter, I suddenly thought of something: What could Ice and Marko's theme be? So, if you could leave any suggestions in your reviews, I could come up with something.

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