Yes, I'm doing an episode jump here but only because this one is finished and the next episode won't be completed for a while! I'll sort out the episode order as I go. Anyway, I loved writing this episode so I hope you guys enjoy it.


Chapter Eight: Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Young Man

Believing his father is disappointed in his appearance, Hiccup sets off on a dangerous treasure hunt to prove his worth as the son of the chief. Astrid, although reluctant, understands her fiancée's situation and agrees to go with him.

Measuring up to a Viking father has never been easy for me and Hiccup, especially when that Viking father (or, in my case, foster-father) is also the chief of your village. So, when you get a chance to prove yourself, you jump on it. Especially if you're a certain someone who I just so happen to be engaged to...

Astrid was watching in earnest as Stoick and Hiccup stood near the Chief's Chair in the Great Hall whilst Bucket worked feverishly putting paint on an old shield Astrid had dug out for him. The chief and his son were having their portrait done – it was tradition for this to happen when the son of the chief turned fifteen and given that Hiccup's birthday had been a few months ago now, Bucket had been commissioned to create the painting that would hang alongside the other chiefs and heirs in the Great Hall. It was about time, really but with everything that had been happening in the village, it had been difficult to find a time for the painting to be done.

"Shoulder's back, chin up, son!" Stoick smiled, giving Hiccup a gentle nudge. Hiccup was also beaming from ear to ear as he straightened his back and tried to make himself look as tall as possible. Grinning, he snatched a glance at Astrid who smiled back, giving a thumbs-up to show that everything was going well. "This portrait's gonna hang in this hall forever," Stoick added. Astrid winced when Bucket started having a break-down.

"No good, no good, no good...I can't do this!" he exclaimed in dismay. Hiccup grimaced and made a motion with his head to Astrid who nodded in understanding before she signalled at her Night Fury, Toothless, to whack Bucket around the head with his tail. Normally the force of Toothless' tail would make any Viking dizzy but in the case of Bucket, it actually calmed him down. "Okay, I'm good," the man blinked, getting back to his work.

"I've never seen Bucket like this," Hiccup remarked to his father.

"Well, when he lost half his brain he suddenly became...an artist," Stoick explained with a shrug, making reference to when Bucket had sustained a severe head injury during a dragon attack years ago. Astrid and Hiccup were both dubious as to whether or not Bucket had actually lost half of his brain but they couldn't come up with any better explanation. Astrid took a seat close enough so that she could be part of the conversation but not distract Bucket from painting the pair.

"So Bucket can actually paint?" she blinked in surprise.

"Oh, he's the best!" Stoick chuckled, patting Hiccup on the shoulder. "He's going to do us proud, son." Hiccup laughed weakly but Astrid could see how happy he was – his forest-green eyes were glittering, not with their usual determined shine but with a proud glow. His happiness was contagious as Astrid felt her grin widen before she turned around to face the paintings of the other chiefs and their sons, hanging up on the wall behind her.

"This portrait is gonna take its place along all the other chiefs and their sons, right?" she asked, her gaze falling on the last portrait in the line. Stoick nodded.

"That is the only picture of my father and me," he explained. Hiccup also turned his head to look at the painting of his grandfather. He hadn't known the man given that he'd died before he was born but he knew that he was still part of the Haddock heritage. Hiccup had always felt the need to make his family proud, especially his father. Now it was as if he finally felt that he had. "It was a great day," Stoick added with a smile.

"And so is this!" Astrid pointed out with a grin before the pair turned their attention back to Bucket.

"Chest out, son!" Stoick muttered, giving Hiccup another nudge. Hiccup straightened up even further but Astrid couldn't hide a giggle at his attempts.

"Yeah, this is as 'out' as it goes, Dad," he whispered back. Astrid let out a snort of laughter and having heard her, Hiccup made a face that said 'Oh, shut up, you' in a playful way – it only served to make Astrid laugh even more, although she mouthed a quick 'sorry'.

"Ah, very well then," Stoick chuckled.

Later that morning, whilst the painting was being finalised, the Riders of Berk hung back in the Great Hall looking at the portraits of Berk's previous chiefs and heirs.

"Look at all these great leaders," Astrid remarked breathlessly as they walked past each painting in turn. Hiccup, as usual, had reverted to his silent self but unlike other times when he wouldn't speak because he was angry or annoyed with something, he was quiet with a happy pride. "And tomorrow, your picture's going to be hanging right next to them!" Astrid added, giving her fiancé a small nudge on the shoulder.

"There goes the neighbourhood," Snotlout snickered snidely. Astrid glared at him and punched his face – Hiccup had been giving her lessons – and felt a surge of satisfaction when her fist connected with Snotlout's nose and she heard a satisfying crunch. The downside was that her technique was still slightly off and she came away with a bruised knuckle.

"You are part of an elite group now, my friend," Fishlegs grinned, patting Hiccup on the shoulder as Astrid nursed her fist. "And one of the few who wasn't killed by their successor," he added with a nervous smirk. Hiccup saw the joke behind it and laughed until Tuffnut cut in.

"So far," the male Thorston twin scoffed. This time it was Hiccup's fist that became best friends with the guy's nose. Hiccup calmed down quickly enough though.

"I guess it is a pretty big deal," he smiled, looking at the portraits as they came across one in which the chief and his son were standing on Thor's Beach on the other side of the village. "I mean, it's like...being a part of history, right?" he added, casting a smile at Astrid who grinned in agreement.

"History of goof-balls," Snotlout sniggered. Astrid gave him another glare – just because he didn't get a portrait.

"Do you want another bloody nose?" she hissed.

"I'd leave that to me until you perfect your technique," Hiccup muttered smugly. Astrid gave him a weak shove – she might be confident enough to throw a punch or two at Snotlout but she still needed to watch her step around Hiccup. Luckily he was in too much of a good mood to retaliate.

"Heh-heh, what a clown," Snotlout continued, scoffing at the portrait in front of them and ignoring Astrid's threat.

"That is Hamish the First," Fishlegs cut across defensively. "He was our richest and most revered leader," he explained before pointing at the boy next to the chief in the painting. "And his son; Hamish the Second." Snotlout was still feeling put out and did a rather stupid impression which only made everyone roll their eyes.

"I'm Hamish the First," he sneered. "Bow down before me and kiss my pointy shoes."

Hiccup couldn't help but hide a snort of laughter behind a cough as the twins used this to their advantage to trip Snotlout up. While Ruffnut and Tuffnut did get on everyone's nerves at times, their antics were a laugh sometimes and whenever the teens weren't out training the dragons or having one of their many competitions, they entertained themselves watching the twins wrestle or having a 'Hit-Your-Head-As-Hard-As-You-Can' contest. To Fishlegs' horror, Snotlout knocked the painting of the two Hamishes off the wall.

"Look what you did to the Hamishes!" he exclaimed, picking up the shield and placing it back on the wall. "Forgive us, please!" he begged. As he placed the painting back, something fell from the back of it – it looked like a piece of parchment.

"What's that?" Tuffnut asked. "It's probably mine!" Sure, like Tuffnut ever carried a piece of parchment in his pockets. Snotlout picked it up and began examining it.

"Looks like some sort of map," he noticed. Astrid jogged over and peered over Snotlout's shoulder to get a closer look but considering that Snotlout was about twice her size she couldn't make out much. "With poetry," he added when the parchment was snatched from his hands.

"I'll take that." It was Gobber.

"Hey!" Snotlout exclaimed. "That's my poetry map!" he protested. Again, Astrid rolled her eyes – come on, they'd just found the dratted thing! Gobber ignored the boy, though and gave the map a glance.

"All of these were supposed to be destroyed..." he muttered, just loud enough for Hiccup to hear.

"Why?" the dark-auburn haired teen quizzed. "What's so special about it?" Gobber only half-answered the question.

"Men lost their limbs, their lives, and their minds trying to find that treasure," he explained darkly, Looks of confusion went around the group until it came to Fishlegs.

"I've heard about this!" he exclaimed excitedly. "The treasure of Hamish the First." Astrid's curiosity was caught – this was the first times she'd ever heard of such a treasure. She wondered if Hiccup knew anything about it although, judging by his curious expression, it was the first he'd heard of it as well. "His son buried him with it and left this map. They say that the clues are so complicated that only a brilliant mind can decipher them," Fishlegs explained.

"Stoick and I even went after this treasure," Gobber said gravely, staring at the map in his hands with a dark look. "It lured us high into the mountains in a blinding snow storm. We fought like badgers over the meaning of the clues." Astrid gulped – okay, maybe it was a good thing that Gobber had come in and taken the map when he did. This sounded dangerous. "We were lucky to make it back with our lives...and our friendship...intact."

The teens were all gazing at Gobber intently – Astrid, Hiccup and Fishlegs with a look of awe and 'okay-let's-not-do-that' on their faces and Snotlout and the twins with a look of mischievous glee on theirs.

"For your own good kids, forget you ever saw this," Gobber urged, tucking the map into his pocket and leaving the hall. Astrid and Hiccup shared a look – they had no plans of going after that treasure and so intended to forget about the map.

/\

The next morning, the entire village had gathered in the Great Hall to witness the unveiling of Stoick and Hiccup's portrait. The Riders of Berk had managed to bag themselves front row seats and Astrid, being the chief's foster daughter, was standing up front with Stoick and Hiccup anyway. Bucket had been working overnight to finish the painting and now it was finally about to be revealed.

"Here it comes, son," Stoick smiled, placing one hand on Hiccup's shoulder and gesturing towards the shield with the other. Hiccup was visibly bursting with excitement and Astrid could tell that he was struggling to stop himself from fidgeting. "This is our legacy!" Stoick announced as Bucket grabbed hold of the cloth covering the shield and tore it away to reveal...

...a painting of Stoick and what looked like a cross between Hiccup and Snotlout.

Astrid's eyes widened with shock and Hiccup's face froze into an expression of horror as all excitement vanished from his eyes. The boy standing next to Stoick in the painting looked nothing like him!

"Whoa," Tuffnut remarked, his eyebrows rising in confusion. "What happened to Hiccup?"

"Who cares?" Ruffnut smirked. Astrid could see why Ruffnut didn't really care about it – Hiccup looked more like a Viking in the painting than he did in real life – but personally it horrified her as much as it did her boyfriend. Speaking of whom, Hiccup had broken away from his father angrily and had stormed over to Bucket.

"Hey, Bucket?" he snapped. "Why am I so...like that?" he asked, infuriated with the painting. Bucket didn't seem to notice the boy's angry tone.

"Why is the sky blue?" he asked back philosophically. "Why do I have a bucket on my head? We'll never know the answers," he shrugged. Hiccup's face darkened to a frustrated confusion as Stoick walked over with a look of satisfaction on his face as he patted Hiccup on the shoulder.

"Oh, you did a brilliant job, Bucket!" he congratulated Bucket in thanks. "Don't you think so, son?" he asked, glancing down at Hiccup and seemingly ignoring the look of pure hate and anger on his face.

"But it's not me!" Hiccup protested, throwing his father's hand off his shoulder. Stoick turned to face the painting.

"Sure it is!" he argued. Astrid didn't think so and clearly Hiccup didn't either. "It's you but...you know...bigger." At that, Hiccup let out a soft huff of anger and began storming out of the hall. Stoick took no notice. "Stronger," he added.

"Now that's the son of a chief," Mulch nodded in agreement. Astrid inhaled in offence – now that was pushing it one step too far. She glanced around and noticed that Hiccup was nowhere in the near vicinity.

"You see what I mean?" Stoick asked, turning around to look at his son only to see no one standing beside him. "Hiccup?" he called. Suddenly, Astrid let out a shriek and ducked as, in reply to the chief's call, a knife came flying through the air, spinning blade over hilt before it embedded itself in the shield that the portrait had been painted on. A gasp of shock went around the hall and all eyes fell on the fifteen-year-old, skinny son of the chief standing in the doorway, his face black as thunder.

"No! I don't!" Hiccup roared. "That's what I think of your stupid painting!" Without another word, he stormed away into the village whilst Bucket and Mulch tried to remove the knife from the shield. Astrid threw a nervous look towards Stoick before following Hiccup – she had to talk to him about this.

It didn't take too long for Astrid to find Hiccup – he was out in the Plaza with his sword practising his fighting skills. Astrid frowned – it had been a long time since Hiccup had done this to let off steam. Nowadays if the boy was in a bad mood it was common to see him flying with Stormfly to cool off – Hiccup hadn't spent time killing inanimate object in weeks.

"Hey..." Astrid mumbled nervously, rubbing her arm and keeping her distance as Hiccup slashed another scarecrow in two. The boy was so good with a sword it scared her sometimes – she could barely handle an axe. "Uh..."

"I take it you're here to say that 'it's not that bad'," Hiccup scoffed, putting on his scornful impression of Astrid. She winced – it had been a long time since he'd used that and he usually reserved it for when he was really ticked off. She took a cautious step backwards as Hiccup smashed an empty barrel to smithereens.

"Actually, I was here to say I don't blame you for throwing a knife at the portrait," she corrected with a gulp. Hiccup stopped in his tracks and blinked a couple of times, making sure he'd heard Astrid correctly. Astrid took his silence as a sign to say that she was in the clear to continue. "I probably would have reacted the same way...if I could throw a knife," she grimaced. Hiccup sighed and threw his sword onto a nearby cart before walking through the village, heading back to the house.

"Unbelievable," he growled. "My father likes that painting better than the real me!" he cried in frustration. "I mean, think about it," he huffed. Astrid knew where this was going. "Even my name! You know it's a Viking tradition to call the runt of the litter a 'Hiccup'." Astrid knew all too well – it was something she'd never told Hiccup before. Maybe she should tell him now? It had to wait for a moment as a local shepherd walked through with his flock. Trailing behind most of the sheep was a smaller than average lamb that came bounding into the shepherd's arms.

"Come on, little Hiccup!" the shepherd called before looking up and spotting the real Hiccup. "Oh! Hey, Hiccup!" he greeted cheerily, ignoring the boy's angry expression.

"See?" Hiccup grumbled. Astrid bit her lip, not knowing how to reply to that. "What do I have to do to get my father to accept me?" Hiccup wondered, more to himself than anything else. Astrid summoned the courage to place a gentle hand on Hiccup's shoulder – this was the thing he had struggled with his entire life: to be accepted for who he was. All Hiccup had ever wanted since his mother vanished was to make his father proud of him.

"He does accept you..." Astrid protested. Hiccup scowled and shrugged her hand away.

"Sure he does," he remarked cynically. "He just accepts the painting more." Astrid sighed.

"Hiccup, you're not the only one, okay?" she said carefully. Hiccup looked at her questioningly. "I mean, with the whole 'Hiccup' thing."

"How so?" Hiccup asked dubiously. "It's not like you've got some stupid name that automatically makes people think you're a loser just because you're small."

"Actually, I would have done," Astrid snapped. Hiccup blinked a couple of times in surprise. "It might come as a shock to you, but my parents were going to call me Hiccup," she explained, crossing her arms and a small scowl crossing her face. Hiccup made a disbelieving look.

"You're kidding, right?" he smirked. Astrid shook her head.

"You know how people aren't supposed to call their kid the same name as the chief's heir?" she reminded Hiccup, who nodded his head. "Well, it just so happened that you were born before me and your parents settled on a name the day I was born."

"So 'Astrid' was a last-minute change?" Hiccup realised.

"Exactly," Astrid nodded with an embarrassed sigh. She lowered her head briefly before breaking out her full secret. She might have been young when her parents were killed, but she had been old enough at the time to remember this. "My full name's Astrid Hiccup Hofferson the Sixth," she admitted. "You might as well know."

"Whoa..." Hiccup exhaled slowly. So Astrid was a 'Hiccup' as well? "Sorry, I...I didn't know," he apologised awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You wouldn't have done," Astrid sighed, her shoulders slumping as she shifted her weight to her right leg to give her left one a break. "It's not like my parents told anyone, especially after..." she trailed off, the reason for her family's loss of honour filling her thoughts for the first time in ages. "...you know," she grimaced. Luckily, Hiccup's attention was caught by Fishlegs who was standing awkwardly by the forge.

"What are you doing out here...?" Hiccup began to ask, walking over with Astrid following close behind him but Fishlegs cut across him suspiciously.

"Nothing!" he protested before making a noise that was clearly a signal of some kind. "Coocoo! Coocoo!" he called towards the back of the forge. Astrid sagged.

"Oh, gods..." she groaned. "Okay, where are they?" she asked, placing a hand on her hip.

"Who?" Fishlegs asked nervously before continuing the noises, although with a very slight variation. "Who-hoo! Who-hoo!" he hooted. Astrid rolled her eyes and stormed around to the back of the forge where Snotlout was emerging from the window, aided by the twins. He had a piece of parchment in his hands.

"What are you doing?!" she snapped angrily. Snotlout smirked at her.

"I've got the map," he snickered. "We're finding that treasure!" he exclaimed gleefully before glaring at Fishlegs who shrank ashamedly. "And you are a horrible look out," Snotlout huffed. Astrid made a snatch for the map but Snotlout whipped it out of reach.

"You heard what Gobber said," Hiccup groaned. "The bravest warriors in history have died trying to find that treasure," he reminded his cousin who didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

"Yeah. And I'm next," he smirked in reply. Astrid crossed her arms next to Hiccup.

"Well, I, personally, would like to live to see my next birthday," she muttered. "I've had way too many close calls."

"Got that right," Hiccup muttered back cynically. Astrid elbowed him sharply in the ribs – it earned her nothing except another bruised shoulder.

"We'll be legends!" Fishlegs pointed out excitedly. Okay, since when was he such a thrill seeker? "They'll sing songs about us."

"You'll be dead" Astrid argued sharply, rubbing her shoulder to ease the bruising. "Come on, guys, not even Stoick could find it," she pointed out, remembering what Gobber had told them the day before. Hiccup's eyes suddenly widened slightly.

"You're right," he whispered. "He couldn't..." For a moment, Hiccup trailed off as if in though before he strode over to Snotlout and snatched the map from his hands. "Give me that map!" he exclaimed. Astrid sighed with relief.

"Finally!" she exclaimed. "Someone is making sense," she smirked at the teens. What she heard next, though, threw her off kilter.

"Alright, where do we start?" Hiccup wondered, examining the map. If Astrid had been having a drink, she would have done a spit-take and the others would be covered in liquid.

"Are you serious?" she cried before wincing as she put too much weight on her left leg. "Ouch..." she mumbled. Hiccup wasn't done – his face was now lit up with his usual determined shine and his eyes were glittering again.

"Think about it, Astrid," he urged. "My father couldn't find that treasure." Yeah, what did that have to do with anything? "What would he say if I did something that even 'Stoick the Vast' couldn't do?" Hiccup pointed out, putting on his own impression of his father. Astrid glared at him, partly because she thought he was being an idiot and partly because she was slightly jealous that his impression of Stoick was better than her own. "How great would that be?"

"You're gonna go after this no matter what I say, right?" Astrid groaned, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"Yep, pretty much," Hiccup shrugged smugly.

"So, yeah," Astrid admitted with a small smirk. "Pretty great."

"So you're not gonna give me a hard time about this?" Hiccup asked in the same smug tone. Astrid rolled her eyes and cross her arms.

"First off, I don't usually give you a hard time with anything," she pointed out. "You're the one who gives me a hard time about my decisions." Hiccup made a face at her. Astrid's smirk grew. "This time, however, I am so gonna give you a hard time. Every step of the way," she snickered slyly, poking Hiccup on the shoulder. She was gradually building confidence around the boy but a small poke was still pretty much the most she could get away with.

"So, you're game?" Hiccup chuckled slightly, his smirk turning into a genuine smile.

"You're not the only one with something to prove," Astrid reminded him. "Besides, I can't let you go with just them," she added, indicating her head to the twins who were having a 'Hit-My-Head-As-Hard-As-You-Can' contest.

"Harder!" Tuffnut encouraged as Ruffnut thwacked his head for the umpteenth time. "I said I want to see stars!" Ruffnut clobbered his jaw and Tuffnut spun around a few times before collapsing to the floor. Ignoring them, the others turned their attention back to the map.

"It looks like the map leads you to these spots," Hiccup noticed, pointing at a few points on the parchment.

"And the riddles are clues to what we're supposed to find!" Fishlegs added before Snotlout snatched the map back from his cousin.

"Blah, blah, blah!" he huffed. "Where's the treasure?" He began skimming over the map and the riddles written on it. "Hmm, clue number one: 'Where the land meets the sea, in the crook of the master's knee, that's where your search will be...gin'," he recited, frowning as he read. Astrid also smirked in confusion – well, that clue could have been written a bit better.

"That doesn't sound so brilliant," Ruffnut scoffed as Tuffnut regained consciousness.

"Okay. Think, think, think, think, think..." Tuffnut muttered, pounding his fists against his helmet. Hiccup made a sarcastic face – yeah, Tuffnut and thinking never really went well together. "Think, think...I forgot what I was thinking about," the male Thorston twin groaned. Case closed on the thinking thing. Astrid took another look at the map and spotted the drawing next to the first riddle.

"The 'master's knee'?" she repeated before suddenly recognised the drawing. "I've seen this before!" she exclaimed.

Grabbing the map from Snotlout she raced back to the Great Hall with the rest of the Riders hot on her heels. She instantly ran over to the paintings and straight over to the one of Hamish the First and Second. Glancing at the map again to make sure she had it right, she pointed out the outcrop painting by Hamish the First's knee.

"Look, right there," she pointed. "Where his knee bends." The spot was by Thor's beach so the team quickly called their dragons and set off. Astrid tucked the map into her belt pouch for safe keeping until they arrived. Once they were there, she couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction – they had already completed the first step of the hunt. After scanning the beach for any obvious signs of treasure and seeing none, she dug the map out again.

"Listen up, you guys," she called before reciting the next clue. "'From here you will see the seed that's been sown. Look to where water turns to bone'," she read. Hiccup began thinking about what it could mean – apart from Astrid his mind was the sharpest of any Viking.

"'Water turns to bone'?" Snotlout repeated in confusion. "Hamish isn't even trying to make sense!" he groaned from Hookfang's back. Hiccup's face was scrunched up in thought. It couldn't be the literal meaning...

"No, it..." he trailed off in thought. "'Water turns to bone'...'water turns to bone'..." Hiccup suddenly had a 'eureka' moment. "He must mean ice!" he realised, remembering how water turned hard and white when it froze, giving it similar characteristics to bone. Astrid caught on immediately as she turned her head around to the cliff.

"The glacier!" she exclaimed. The team had their next location.

Meanwhile, back in the village, the Riders' disappearance hadn't gone unnoticed. Stoick and Gobber were pacing up and down in the Great Hall, knowing what the teens had done.

"You had the map and you didn't destroy it?!" Stoick bellowed. "What were you thinking?"

"I know, I'm an idiot," Gobber huffed. "I thought you and I could take another crack at finding that treasure," he shrugged. Yeah, like that would justify anything.

"Gobber!" Stoick snapped.

"We turned back too early!" Gobber protested. "So we lost a couple of toes..."

"Argh!" Stoick huffed in exasperation. They had to find the teens. "Come on, Gobber," he growled, leading his friend out of the Great Hall and towards Thor's Beach. "We've got to find Hiccup and the others before they get themselves killed. Why would he do something like this?" he wondered aloud.

Behind him, unseen, Gobber glanced back at the painting of Stoick and the stockier Hiccup – the painting that still had a dagger dent right between the two people in the picture. Gobber sighed with annoyance – how could Stoick miss this?

/\

"There's something in there," Hiccup noticed once the team had arrived at the glacier. Astrid knelt down on the ice, making sure not to slip as she leant on Toothless' flank for support and examined the dark shape slightly embedded in the ice.

"I bet that guy saw it too," Fishlegs winced. Astrid glanced sideways and grimaced when she saw the frozen Viking in the ice beside her. That looked ugly...they had to make sure they got this one right.

"'Call on Magni, you'll go astray...'," she recited, fishing the map out again. "'Loki, though, will show the way'," she finished, standing up so that she could get a bit more light. Snotlout patted her on the shoulder in a way that was supposed to be affectionate but to Astrid it just came off as creepy – she really wished that Snotlout would make up his mind as to whether he was hitting on her or hating on her and, if she honest, she'd rather it'd be the latter.

"I get it," he smirked, kneeling down in the ice and starting to ram his head into it, gradually chipping the ice above the object away. Astrid's attention was caught by a creaking noise above their heads – Hiccup had heard it too and spotted a spring-loaded crushing arm that was preparing to dislodge from its spot in the wall above them.

"No!" he yelled, diving at Snotlout and shoving him out of the way just at the spring-loaded club smashed into the ice – if Hiccup hadn't acted quickly enough, Snotlout would have been crushed and as much as Astrid didn't like him that much, she didn't want to see that happen. She glanced at the map again and had her own eureka moment.

"We can't break the ice," she realised. Hiccup's green eyes flashed in realisation as well.

"Of course! That's what Magni means," he remembered. "He's the God of strength." Astrid's face broke into a smile of epiphany.

"That's right! And Loki..." she began before Hiccup chimed in.

"Is the God of Fire!" they chorused.

"Whoa, mental sync?" Tuffnut smirked.

"You guys really are meant for each other," Ruffnut teased. Astrid flushed bright red and Hiccup shot a glare at the twins.

"Oh...shut up!" he glowered although Astrid felt slightly happy when she saw his freckled cheeks turn pink.

"Anyway, fire's exactly what we're going to use," she cut in to save her boyfriend from any further embarrassment, whistling Toothless over. "Toothless, you know what to do," she smiled, tucking the map away into her belt pouch again. "Light 'em up, pal," she ordered.

Toothless obliged with a sustained stream of blue flame over the object concealed within the ice. It was slow going so Hiccup called Stormfly over – with her magnesium based flame being the hottest of all dragons, the ice was soon thawed. Hiccup knelt down and examined the object, gently picking it up but burning his finger slightly on the hot metal.

"Ow!" he winced. Astrid smirked next to him.

"Well, what did you think was going to happen?" she pointed out before wincing in pain herself as Hiccup's fist came into contact with her arm – she wished that it would one day accidentally meet her shoulder pads by accident but given Hiccup's nigh-on immaculate aim, it really was wishful thinking.

"That's it?" Ruffnut frowned dryly. "This the treasure?" Astrid took the item from Hiccup as he nursed his fingers and examined it closely. It looked like a piece of a puzzle or something – the way it was formed made it look like there should be something else to it.

"No," she shook her head. "Can't be. But I bet this will lead us to it," she explained before Tuffnut snatched it from her.

"Take us to the treasure!" he ordered. Astrid sagged with irritation.

"Let me know if it answers," Hiccup requested sarcastically as Astrid snatched the item back.

"This is just the first piece..." she began when a resounding CRACK sounded throughout the glacier's cavern. "Whoa...WHOA!" Astrid yelped. Hiccup let out a cry as he spotted the ice cracking beneath their feet and yelled for his dragon – the other teens followed suite, racing out of the glacier before they became trapped in a tomb of ice.

/\

Meanwhile, Gobber and Stoick had just arrived on Thor's Beach. They had been searching for the teens for most of the afternoon but still to no avail. However, Gobber had spotted faint marks in the wet sand.

"Night Fury prints," he realised, picking up a pinch of sand – apparently Gobber had been a decent tracker in his younger days and could tell how long ago someone or something had been in a certain place judging by the scent of their tracks. "They were here..." He took a small sniff. "...about an hour ago," he decided.

"I'll never understand how you do that," Stoick remarked, impressed. "What does an hour ago smell like, Gobber?"

"Not as strong as a half hour ago," Gobber replied dryly when a loud crashing noise from above them caught their attention. Stoick's pale green eyes widened with fear as he saw the glacier crashing down – he failed to notice a group of dragons flying out of the chaos.

"Look!" he exclaimed. "The kids must have found something up there."

"It was in the glacier!" Gobber huffed, his memory of the time he spent looking for the treasure with Stoick coming back to him. "I knew it!" he exclaimed in frustration.

"Oh, you knew it, did you?" Stoick snapped cynically. Honestly – when he spoke like that it was no surprise as to where Hiccup got his dry comebacks from. "Then how come we spent a week digging in the sand?"

"That was your idea!" Gobber protested. Stoick frowned in realisation.

"Hiccup got further in one afternoon than we got in a month," he noted. Gobber's indignant protesting look switched to a sarcastic glare.

"Yeah. Looks like the little Hiccup's got the best of us," he pointed out dryly. "And we think we're the big, strong Vikings," he added sarcastically.

"What are you saying, Gobber?" Stoick frowned. Gobber stopped dropping hints and spelt it out for the chief in plain runes.

"Stoick, it's the painting," he growled. Stoick suddenly realised what his son was doing

"Of course! He's trying to prove himself," he sighed before realising one more thing. "Astrid too..."

"Astrid?" Gobber repeated. "I thought she was the lad's voice of reason! Not that he listens to her..." Stoick remembered that Gobber didn't know about Astrid's other name.

"She's always wanted to prove herself as well," he explained sadly. "She's a 'Hiccup' herself."

/\

"'At the edge of the world, amidst the raging sea, in the serpent's mouth, lies another key'," Astrid recited as the team rested on an outcrop. The winds were picking up and a lot of the dragons were struggling to stay stable in the air if they weren't moving at high speeds.

"Serpents? I hate serpents," Tuffnut shuddered. "Those are reptiles, right?"

"You do realise you're sitting on one?" Ruffnut pointed out. Tuffnut squirmed on top of his dragon's head (Astrid could never tell them apart...she guessed it was Belch).

"Hey!" Snotlout exclaimed from Hookfang's back, pointing at the sky. "That cloud looks like a snake!" he pointed out.

"Yeah, and in five minutes, it'll look like a bunny," Astrid snapped, folding her arms. She was sick of Snotlout's stupid inputs.

"Wait, wait, wait a minute!" Hiccup exclaimed, jumping off Stormfly's back and taking the map from Astrid for a moment. "He might be onto something," he pointed out. Astrid stared at him incredulously.

"Uh, this is your cousin we're talking about," she hissed, just out of Snotlout's hearing range.

"No, I'm serious," Hiccup insisted, reading the clue left on the map. "'In the mouth... Lies the key'!" he repeated with a tone of realisation, glancing at another outcrop in the distance that looked like one drawn on the map – it looked like a sea serpent. "Look! Right there!" he pointed.

"Alright!" Astrid congratulated, shifting forward in her saddle slightly for Hiccup to climb up. "Hop up!" Hiccup obliged. "Toothless, let's go!" she instructed, about to nudge the Night Fury into the air.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you crazy?" Fishlegs exclaimed. "You can't take a Night Fury with a wingspan of forty-eight feet and expect him to hover in winds like that!" he pointed out. Astrid winced – true, but how were they supposed to get to that key piece? "You'll be killed!" Hiccup's face lit up first.

"And...what's the wingspan of Meatlug?" he asked.

Later Fishlegs had flown Astrid and Hiccup over to the outcrop. The two skinny teens were dangling from a rope – they'd only brought a short one so Astrid had tied it around her waist and was dangling upside down, holding Hiccup's left arm in a vice-grip.

"Keep her steady!" she called up to Fishlegs and Meatlug as they got closer to the key piece which Hiccup could see glinting in the sun.

"Oh, Thor! Oh, Thor!" Fishlegs muttered fearfully. "Do we really need that treasure? Isn't our friendship treasure enough?" he asked, his voice squeaking with fear. Hiccup reached out with his free arm but the key piece was just out of his reach.

"I can't reach it!" he shouted above the winds.

"Okay, we tried," Fishlegs replied hastily. "'A' for effort!"

"Hold on!" Astrid yelled, reaching as far as she could for her metal left leg. With some difficultly, she removed it and handed it to Hiccup – although slightly grossed out, he knew what she meant for him to do with it and began using it as a hook.

"Okay..." he whispered, his face scrunched up in concentration and his trademark determined glint never leaving his eyes.

"Come on..." Astrid muttered as Hiccup finally managed to hook the metal foot of her prosthetic under the key piece.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. Hiccup realised that he had no free hands left – however, Astrid did. "Astrid! Catch!" he yelled, flipping the key piece up into the air. Astrid let her instincts take over and grabbed the piece of metal quickly before it fell into the ocean.

"Yes! Got it!" she exclaimed joyfully as she caught it. Fishlegs took that as the signal to head back to land, which he gratefully did. Once back on dry land, Hiccup handed Astrid her leg back and she handed him the key piece.

"How was that for a couple of Hiccups?" Astrid grinned silently to her fiancé, who smiled back and they shared a small high five – not big enough to be noticed by the others, but enough for them to feel proud of themselves. Once Astrid's leg was back in place, Hiccup took out the key pieces and put them side by side.

"Look! They fit together!" he confirmed.

"We must be on the right track," Astrid grinned. Satisfied that they were headed in the right direction, the team mounted the dragons and set off to the next location on the map which was located on the other side of Berk. On the way, the teens began talking about what they were going to do once they'd found the treasure – this was mostly coming from Snotlout and the twins, though. Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs had varying degrees of disinterest in the treasure itself.

"Hiccup, what are you going to do with your part of the treasure?" Ruffnut asked coyly. It was no secret that Ruffnut, like Astrid, had a mega-crush on the young son of the chief but she was less forward about it than Snotlout's occasional attempts at woe-ing Astrid.

"I'm not really here for the treasure," Hiccup replied from Stormfly's back. Astrid was at the front of the formation again, scanning for the spot scribbled in the map – she concurred with Hiccup. As much as she wanted to help him show everyone that he wasn't just a 'Hiccup', she didn't care about the treasure at all.

"Great!" Snotlout grinned. "I get his share!"

"You can have mine too, if it means that much to you," Astrid offered dryly, not even looking at Snotlout as her attention was focused on the ground below.

"Alright!" Snotlout cheered. "Just let me know if there's something you really like," he added in an attempt to sound suave. It failed and Astrid's grimaced in disgust. "Be sure to ask and I'll make sure it's yours."

"Engaged here, you moron!" Astrid snapped. Hiccup never mentioned it but he felt his heart flutter slightly at that – it was nice to see that despite their otherwise rocky relationship Astrid was still faithful to him. He'd get Snotlout later, he decided.

"You know..." Fishlegs stammered. "Y...you don't have to do this? Right?" he whimpered

"Yeah," Hiccup huffed, shooting at cynical glare at his friend. "Try telling that to my dad," he suggested when Astrid suddenly sat upright in her saddle on Toothless' back.

"There!" she called, leading them downwards. The team landed in a clearing where a large stone wall had been built. "This must be the spot," Astrid noted, shielding her eyes against the late afternoon sun. "Why else would anybody build a wall in the middle of the woods?"

"Uh, duh," Tuffnut snickered. "To keep out the other trees." Astrid rolled her eyes and pulled out the map again, smoothing it out so that she could read the next riddle.

"Uh, I got another one for you," she chuckled slightly. This one, the twins weren't likely to get...at all. "'The world is right, when stars align; when not in sync, the danger you'll find'," she recited before looking at the wall again, trying to search for clues.

"Stars!?" Snotlout exclaimed in distaste. "I'm not waiting around here for night!" he protested.

"I don't think he means actual stars," Astrid shrugged, gesturing at the map in her usual way. "I mean, the water didn't really turn to bone," she pointed out, reminding the boy of the first clue they'd solved earlier.

"Well, what do you think it means, Astrid?" Fishlegs asked curiously.

"Why are you asking her?" Snotlout cut in with a snicker. "Maybe I know," he added, crossing his arms. Astrid smirked slyly and rolled the map up, tucking it under her arm.

"Very well," she remarked. "Snotlout, what do you think it means?" she asked in a dry sweet tone that was dripping with sarcasm. Snotlout's smirk vanished.

"I said 'Maybe'," he pointed out. "Turns out, I don't."

"Well, then shut up unless you do know something next time," Astrid huffed, taking the map out again. "It'd be a big help to everyone."

"Huh..." Hiccup frowned, examining the wall up close. His hand traced some scratches on the stones that made up the wall. "There are shapes carved into each one of these bricks," he noticed. Astrid figured it out instantly.

"Keep a lookout for anything that looks like a star!" she ordered, scanning the wall. Snotlout, however, got there first.

"Got one!" he called, beginning to pull out a brick. However, as he did so, the wall began shaking and bricks started falling loose.

"Put it back! Put it back! Put it back!" Fishlegs yelled in terror.

"Hookfang! Hookfang!" Snotlout yelped, backing at least twenty yards away from the wall as his dragon pushed the stone back into place. The shaking and rumbling stopped and everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Astrid glanced at the riddle again.

"Okay..." she panted. "It says, 'In sync'," she repeated. "That means there must be another star!" she realised. Hiccup was quick off the mark to find it.

"Over here!" he called, pointing at the brick in question.

"I think we're supposed to pull them out at the same time," Astrid noted. Hiccup nodded and turned to the twins – their Zippleback would be perfect for this one.

"Ruff? Tuff?" he quizzed. The twins nodded and began using hand signals to guided their dragon to the stars. Barf and Belch then proceeded to carefully pull the bricks out, perfectly in time with each other. Once the stones were removed, an opening appeared in the wall leading into a dark cavern. Astrid broke some branches off a nearby pine tree and had Toothless light them so that they could roughly see where they were going. Once the team were inside, the door shut behind them.

"This is amazing," Ruffnut remarked in awe as they walked through the tunnel. Astrid suddenly felt a bead of sweat drip down her cheek – her leather headband suddenly felt uncomfortable and her shoulder pads were starting to warm up.

"Ugh...it's so hot..." Snotlout panted. "Is anybody else hot?" he asked, wiping his brow. "Cos I'm really hot," he noted. Astrid was starting to get worried as her torch burnt out. Her fur boot, usually comfortably warm especially in late autumn and early winter, suddenly felt unbearable to wear but the heat radiating off nearby rocks told her that she didn't want to take it off.

"I know," Tuffnut concurred with Snotlout, adjusting his helmet. "I'm sweating like a dragon in an eel party."

"Yeah...we can tell..." Ruffnut gasped for breath. Hiccup twitched worriedly next to Astrid.

"Uh, guys?" he frowned. "Is it just me or is the floor moving?" he asked nervously. Astrid glanced at the floor and saw a faint glow flitting about beneath her feet.

"Uh, Toothless can you give us some light?" she requested. Toothless obliged and shot a fireball at the ceiling rocks, causing them to glow with heat. That wasn't the only thing that started glowing – whatever was moving on the floor began glimmering orange.

"That's why it's so hot in here," Fishlegs realised. "Fireworm dragons." Astrid gulped – just perfect. Fireworm dragons were tiny reptiles even smaller than Terrible Terrors. They were rarely seen in daylight and could sometimes be found in inland caves – they hated the sea – and whilst their firepower was nothing spectacular, they made up for it with their typical-Stoke-Class-characteristic of burning hot skin, hotter even than a Monstrous Nightmare.

"Whoa," Tuffnut grinned, picking one up.

"Stop!" Astrid yelped, throwing her torch away as the Fireworms began glowing brighter. "Their skin burns hotter than the sun," she warned. Tuffnut ignored her and held the tiny dragon in the palm of his hand.

"Yeah, but how hot can the sun really be?" he shrugged when the Fireworm began shining bright orange, burning at full heat and searing Tuffnut's palm pink and causing him to yelp in pain and drop the darn thing. It was at that point that things really started heating up in the cavern – Astrid darted her gaze around for some kind of clue. The Fireworms began advancing on the team – the bigger dragons kept them at bay with streams of fire, taking over from one another whenever one ran out of gas but it wasn't helping on the heat front.

"Come on, there's gotta be something...Ahh!" Astrid yelped as a group of four pedestals rose from the ground in the centre of the room. On each one was what looked like pieces of the key but Astrid knew that they only needed one.

"Grab 'em and let's go!" Snotlout shouted, sweltering from the heat. Astrid and Hiccup walked into the middle of the pedestals.

"No, it's a choice," Astrid explained, pulling out the map again. "Listen to this, guys." She began to read the final clue written on the parchment. "'Something pure and something strong; look first to yourself and you won't go wrong'," she recited.

"Strong? That must be the one made of iron," Fishlegs suggested.

"But iron's not pure," Hiccup pointed out, beginning to walk over to another pedestal. "What about the gold?" he suggested.

"Not strong," Astrid pointed out. "Pure gold in malleable, remember?" she reminded her boyfriend – having spent most of her life in the forge as Gobber's apprentice, Astrid knew the properties of metal well and gold, whilst the purest metal she worked with, had to be strengthened using copper or some other metal which caused it to lose its purity. There had to be something else...

"It's getting really hard to breathe!" Ruffnut panted.

"That's what happens when you're getting roasted alive!" Fishlegs yelled fearfully. "You might wanna make a decision soon, guys!" he shouted to Astrid and Hiccup who were stilling thinking the clue over. "We don't have much time." Astrid's attention was caught by the firelight in the cavern reflecting off something – something shiny. Glancing over her shoulder, her eyes rested on the final piece of the key – the one made of reflective metal.

"'Look to yourself...'," she repeated, walking over to the piece and examining it. On the shiny surface of the metal object, her storm-blue eye stared straight back at her. Her hand drifted over it but she drew back as her skin came into contact with the hot metal. Hiccup spotted her and caught onto what she was thinking but was still cautious.

"Careful, it could be a trap," he warned. Astrid took a deep breath before snatching the object off the pedestal. Everything fell silent and the Fireworms began retreating – Astrid heaved a sigh of relief.

"We did it...WHOA!" she shrieked as the floor beneath her suddenly gave way, revealing a dark pit beneath her.

"Astrid!" Hiccup yelled, running forward to catch her but losing his footing as he did so. The other teens were still at the side and managed to escape the falling floor but now the entire cavern was starting to cave in. Before anyone could blink, Astrid and Hiccup had vanished into the pit and Toothless had jumped straight in after them.

"We've got to get out of here!" Tuffnut yelped, running for Barf-Belch. His sister followed suit. Snotlout shot his eyes around for an escape route – he found one.

"Through there!" he called. Fishlegs was reluctant to leave.

"We can't just leave them!" he protested. Snotlout shot him an insistent glare and said possibly the smartest thing he'd ever come up with in his entire life.

"If we don't go now we'll all be trapped," he pointed out. "There won't be anybody to help Hiccup or Astrid!"

Reluctantly, Fishlegs hopped onto Meatlug's back and Stormfly roared mournfully before they followed the other three teens and dragons through the hole up top and bursting out into the sunlight just as the cavern caved in completely.

/\

"Oww..." a small moan came.

"Ouch...something's in my face..." another voice came, this one lower and more nasal.

"Hiccup? That you?" the first voice muttered.

"Astrid?"

"You okay?"

"Well, I'd be a lot better if I could actually see anything!"

Growl

"Toothless? Pal, can you give us some light?"

A blue fireball was shot into a nearby stalactite, revealing the pile that the Night Fury and two remaining teens had landed themselves in. Astrid flushed bright red when she saw she had landed right on top of Hiccup and that the both of them were being squashed by Toothless' tail. Well, this was possibly just as awkward as the avalanche incident, if not more so.

"Heh..." Astrid giggled nervously as Hiccup also blushed crimson and he swatted Astrid's plait out of his face. "At least I had a soft landing...OW!" she yelped as Hiccup whacked her chest and knocked her off onto the floor.

"Mention this to no one!" he hissed. Astrid nursed her stomach and nodded in agreement before looking around as she got to her feet. Helping Hiccup up and leaning on Toothless for support, she looked around the new set of tunnels they'd found themselves in.

"I wonder..." she muttered. Hiccup placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned his trademark lopsided smile.

"Well, we've come this far," he shrugged. Astrid grinned back.

/\

On the surface, the teens had started to dig frantically to find Astrid, Hiccup and Toothless. Stormfly was desperately tearing rocks away from the earth in her beak and tossing them away in an attempt to find and free her rider, Snotlout was throwing rocks over his shoulder, as were the twins and Fishlegs was tossing rocks into Meatlug's mouth behind him. The sun was setting quickly and they wanted to find the three before it got dark.

"Keep digging!" Snotlout ordered.

"We've gotta find them!" Fishlegs panted when he heard someone behind him

"Find who?" Stoick the Vast growled as he strode over to the three remaining teens. His glare turned into a face of pure terror when their faces told him everything he needed to know. "Son!" he yelled in anguish, rushing over to help move the rocks. But it wasn't just Hiccup who was missing. "Astrid!"

/\

Back in the caves, Astrid, Hiccup and Toothless were exploring using only the light given off by the rocks Toothless blasted with his fireballs.

"Do you think we'll ever find a way out of this place?" Hiccup wondered aloud. Astrid rubbed her arm nervously.

"There's gotta be some way to get out," she hoped. "I mean, how else would Hamish II have been able to leave all of his father's treasure down here and get out without having to set off that floor-caving-in-thing?" she pointed out.

"Well, you've got a point," Hiccup shrugged before slumping down on a nearby rock with a sigh. Astrid frowned – it wasn't like Hiccup to give out like this.

"You okay?" she asked gently, kneeling down beside him.

"Just wondering if this really was worth anything," Hiccup admitted. "I mean, we've followed all of those clues," he pointed out. "And still nothing! Now we're trapped underground with no idea of how to get ourselves outta here..." he trailed off when Astrid placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You got a good few things right there, as usual," she smiled. "True – we are stuck underground. Yes – we don't know how to get out of here..."

"You're not exactly filling me with confidence, mi' lady," Hiccup smirked sarcastically.

"Well, let me finish then," Astrid smirked back, feeling her heart flutter when Hiccup called her 'mi' lady'. She secretly loved it when he did that, regardless of the situation. "You're also right that we've followed all the clues." Hiccup frowned. "We figured them out," Astrid pointed out, knowing that her point wasn't getting across. A smile – a true, genuine smile – spread across Hiccup's freckled face as he hugged Astrid in thanks, taking her by surprise for a second.

"You're right...again," Hiccup muttered gently as Astrid hugged him back. As always, he was the one to instigate the embrace and was the one to break it. "We're gonna to find a way out of here..." Astrid hushed him when her attention was caught by something on the ground. It was a circular indent with some parts of the rock protruding upwards like spokes – spokes which would hold the three key pieces.

"This has gotta be it," she noted, fishing the piece of key she'd collected earlier from her belt pouch. Hiccup fetched the others from his pockets and the pair knelt down, placing them into the indent on the floor. Turning them a couple of times, a pedestal rose from the floor and a rock moved above them, sending light flooding into the cavern. Astrid was momentarily blinded when the light started to be reflected off something shiny – once her vision had adjusted, her jaw dropped when she spotted a pile of gold and silver.

Piled in a mound that went from the floor of the cave to the ceiling was more treasure than Astrid had ever seen or even could have imagined seeing. Everywhere she looked there was something – goblets, crowns, coins, statuettes, plates...you name it, it was there. Next to her, Hiccup's jaw had also hit the floor.

"I can't believe it..." he muttered. "We actually found it!" Astrid walked forward to the pedestal in front of her, atop of which lay a scroll. Squinting with curiosity, she picked it up and began to read it – what the runes read made her heart swell with pride.

"Hey, Hiccup," she nudged. "Look at this." She held the parchment in a small patch of dim light so that she could read it out loud. "'This treasure was passed from father to son. I leave it to you the next worthy one'," she recited.

"Wow – he left congratulations?" Hiccup smirked. Astrid gave him a weak shove before continuing.

"No, Hatchet-Head," she laughed slightly. "There's more. Look." She gave the scroll to Hiccup and he began to read the last part of the inscription.

"'For only a Hiccup could get this far'!" he read, his eyes widening in amazement. The way that 'Hiccup' had been written made Astrid imagine it being said with a capital 'H', the same way Hiccup's name was said. "'From one to another, be proud of who you are!'," the young teen finished, an astonished expression crossing his face as he flipped the parchment over – Astrid was stunned to see a sketch of Hamish I, who was standing in the same setting as the portrait back in the Great Hall. The main difference in the picture was Hamish II who was standing at his father's side, except it wasn't the buff teenaged son of the chief that the painting had shown.

"Whoa...Hamish II was a 'Hiccup'!" Astrid realised, glancing at her boyfriend with a joyous smile spreading across her face. "Just like you!" she added. Hiccup shook his head with a contented smile and looked at his girlfriend.

"No," he corrected. "Just like us," he pointed out. Astrid flushed red and was glad that the light was low enough for Hiccup not to notice. "He knew only another one of us could find this place," he realised, his gaze going back at the treasure. "Look at all this stuff!"

"I guess being a 'Hiccup' isn't such a bad thing after all," Astrid shrugged with a grin. Hiccup looked back at her with his trademark lopsided grin greeting her gaze when she turned to face him.

"Whoever said it was?" Hiccup asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "'Hiccup'?" he jokingly added. Astrid smirked and, for the first time in her life, punched Hiccup on the shoulder hard enough to send him recoiling slightly and bringing up a hand to nurse the bruise that would be forming under his sleeve. "Hey!" he chuckled. Astrid laughed as well, grateful that Hiccup didn't retaliate. The moment was cut short when another set of pedestals rose from the floor in front of them. The nearest one had another scroll resting on it, the back left one had a quill balanced on top of it and the back right one had a hammer atop of it.

"Wow, so Hamish II really loved pedestals," Astrid remarked sarcastically, picking up the parchment and unrolling it as she did so – she made a face when she saw what was written on it. "And apparently riddles," she added dryly. Hiccup and Toothless snorted behind her as Hiccup peered over her shoulder.

"What've we got this time?" he asked.

"'Between body and mind, a choice must be made on what you find'," Astrid read. "That's gotta mean the feather or the hammer."

"What's the next part say?" Hiccup quizzed.

"'At this moment you must look to yourself, as only one path will give you true wealth'," Astrid finished. She let out a sharp gasp as she heard a rumbling noise and it wasn't coming from Toothless' stomach (look, they hadn't eaten since lunch, okay? Give the reptile a break). "That...didn't sound good," she winced.

"You're telling me!" Hiccup exclaimed, pointing at the ceiling and shielding his head from a falling boulder – the rocks were caving in around the two teens, Toothless and the treasure of Hamish I. Astrid sagged.

"Oh, come on Hamish," she moaned. "You're killing us."

It was meant to be a joke but no one laughed – Astrid and Hiccup knew that they had one decision standing between them and getting out of the cave alive. Glancing at the last two remaining pedestals again, they looked at each other as they made the decision together before running towards their choice.

/\

Back on the surface, the rest of the team were still digging, now with Gobber and Stoick, desperately trying to find Astrid, Hiccup and Toothless. The sun was setting fast and they had still made little headway.

"Keep digging!" Stoick ordered, his voice cracking in desperation. "That's my son and foster daughter in there!" A rumbling noise behind the group caught their attention – Stoick was horrified to see the ground caving into a sink hole, pulling trees under the ground and falling into itself. "Hiccup...Astrid..." Stoick muttered in shock. Nearby, Gobber removed his helmet and held it to his chest, as did Fishlegs. Snotlout was too in shock to move, as were the twins. There was no way anyone could have survived that...

Except the two gangly teenagers and black reptile standing in the very centre of the sink hole, the boy clasping a pure white goose feather quill in his hand and the girl clutching a scroll of parchment to her chest as they held each other close for security under the dragon's protective wings. When they saw Stoick, Gobber and the rest of the gang, an identical grin showing a mixture of relief and pride spread across both of their faces.

"Son! Astrid!" Stoick exclaimed in joyous relief, running over as Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless climbed out of the sink hole

"Hey, Dad," Hiccup greeted, panting as he helped Astrid up the slope. The two teens ran over to Stoick who lifted them into a bear hug as though they weighed nothing at all (not surprising, they only weighed about 90 pounds each).

"Uh, Stoick...can't breathe..." Astrid gasped as Stoick nearly choked her. The chief flushed as red as his beard and set the teens down – Astrid stumbled a little bit as she regained her balance when she landed on her left leg slightly wrong but luckily Toothless was right behind her.

"Oh, by the gods!" Gobber exclaimed, maybe more joyfully than he'd wanted to sound. "You're okay!" he sighed in relief.

"Hiccup! Astrid! Thank Thor, you're alive!" Fishlegs spluttered happily, running over but giving the pair some space. "What happened?"

"We were actually starting to worry there," Snotlout smirked, trying to come across as his usual shrug-everything-that-happens-to-Astrid-and-Hiccup-off self but Hiccup smiled slightly when he heard the trace of care in his cousin's voice. The twins, however...

"Blah, blah, blah. Who cares?" Tuffnut groaned. "Where's the treasure?" Astrid didn't answer directly but instead unrolled the sketch of the two Hamishes – the reveal of the real Hamish II as a boy with a similar physique to Hiccup stunned the group into an amazed silence.

"This is Hamish's real son," she explained quietly. Ruffnut wasn't impressed.

"That's not treasure," the girl Thorston twin huffed from Barf's head.

"To a father it is," Stoick smiled, kneeling down so that he was at eye level with his son and foster-daughter. His light green eyes, while full of relief at the two teens coming out alive, were also swimming with apology. Astrid knew that he had realised what had upset his son so much. "I never meant to make you feel like you had to do something like this," he apologised.

"I know, Dad," Hiccup shrugged apologetically. "But I had to do it...for myself," he added sheepishly. Stoick's gaze shifted to Astrid.

"And Astrid...I've never wanted to make you feel like you've had to go this far either," he sighed. Astrid broke eye contact in embarrassment.

"I know," she replied. "But I couldn't let Hiccup go alone with just those guys," she joked, indicating the twins who let out a simultaneous 'Hey!' at her comment. Stoick and Hiccup laughed all the same.

The following morning, Hiccup and Stoick were back in the Great Hall in front of Bucket once again. Astrid had fished out another old shield from the forge for the man to use and this time was directing him on the painting, making sure he got every single detail right. Once the painting was complete and covered for the afternoon reveal, Hiccup pulled Astrid forward and gave Bucket yet another shield. Astrid was stunned – what was going on?

"Well, two 'Hiccups' besting the strongest Vikings in the greatest treasure hunt in the history of Berk?" he pointed out when she voiced the question out loud. "Dad figured we should get some recognition...for being us."

Astrid smiled as if she'd never smiled before. This was truly one of the best things that had ever happened to her within the Haddock family, second only to Hiccup finally returning her feelings for him.

That afternoon, after lunch, the two new paintings were revealed: the first being an accurate representation of Stoick the Vast and his son and heir, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III; and the second being the two village 'Hiccups' side by side, smiling proudly and standing triumphantly, having proven once again to everyone that just because you were born small and short on muscle, it didn't mean that they couldn't be a Viking in their own right.

Only took Berk three centuries to realise that.

Hiccup spent most of his life trying to prove to his dad that he could be his kind of Viking. As it turns out, he already was.


AN: Yep, turns out that Astrid was a 'Hiccup' herself. Like I said, I loved writing this episode – it gave me a chance to develop Hiccup and Astrid's relationship further...I really wish they'd done more of that in the series. *Sigh* Anyway, side note: I did some research and, technically, there was no God or Goddess of Fire in Norse mythology and Freya had nothing to do with fire so I decided to change it. The closest thing to a God of Fire was Loki (interestingly enough), Logi (whose name meant 'wildfire') or Surtr, the Leader of the Fire-Giants. I stuck with Loki seeing as he's probably the most well known out of the three.