A/N: Hey, so I've never read the HTTYD books, so I apologize if Cami is a little OOC. Other than that, I like to think that I've done a pretty good job with everything. Well no matter the case, please R&R.

Hiccup awoke to a headache and voices deciding his fate. He tried to force his eyes open, but they seemed unwilling to comply.

"Great, and now he's waking up." A man's gruff voice sounded from somewhere to his right. "I still think we should leave him. If he hadn't gotten involved-"

"Oh, hush," A female voice said from his left. She sounded strangely familiar. "He's a rider, we can't just leave him. Besides, he was just confused. We appeared to be the attackers, so he helped the people he thought were in trouble. He could be useful, another guide if you will."

"And what's wrong with me?" Another female voice said from his right, very close to him. "Am I not good enough for you? I think I did quite well without any powers."

The man's voice rang out again. "Fine, we'll let him go. But we're keeping Cami. She's been a big help and proven herself capable. This guy got beaten by you, so he can't be that good of a fighter. We'll get out and let him go, but he's not coming with us."

Hiccup finally managed to open his eyes. He tried to rub them, but his hands got caught on- oh, geez.

Hiccup was chained to a wall, and next to him was a blonde-haired girl who shared a small resemblance to Astrid, but not enough of a resemblance to be mistaken to her. She rolled her eyes at a man who was sitting further along the wall, fiddling with his chains.

"Please, Arkalen. It was closer to a tie than a win. He almost had Jasmine at least once." She turned to Hiccup and grinned. "Hey there, the names Camicazi, heir to the Bog Burglars. You can call me Cami."

Hiccup decided that she was a little too chipper for being locked up in a cell. He turned to his right and saw the girl whom he had fought also chained to the wall. She had her eyes closed and appeared to be concentrating. He quickly remembered his manners and moved to offer his hand to Cami.

"My names Hiccup, heir to the Vikings of Berk." Cami nodded, as though she knew this already, which she probably did.

"Yep, we know. Anyway, that over there's Arkalen, he rides Clefspeare, a dragon from the Isles of Briton. That there is Jasmine, she rides Jade, a dragon from China."

Hiccup recalled something about China from a book on Trader Johann's ship. It was incredibly far east. Were dragons everywhere? Before he could ask any questions, Jasmine's eyes shot open.

"Arkalen, the dragons are ready. Time for us to leave."

Arkalen grinned, and his cuffs fell to the ground, looking as though they had just fallen apart. Hiccup looked at his own, but they were still fairly new, not old enough to just fall apart like that. What was going on?

Arkalen stood up, revealing himself to be shorter than Hiccup had first guessed, even shorter than Hiccup. And that wasn't all.

"How old are you?" Hiccup blurted out, only clamping his mouth shut once it was too late.

Arkalen whirled around from where he was fiddling with Jasmine's chains. Some kind of black energy swirling around his clenched fist.

"What did you-" He started to growl before getting cut off by Jasmine's arms thrown around his neck.

"That's enough, Arkalen. He didn't mean anything by it." She placated, before turning to glare at Hiccup. "He's rather sensitive about his, uh…" She appeared to search for a word before grasping an apparently acceptable one. "Apparent age."

Hiccup looked at Arkalen, then back at Jasmine, then back at Arkalen. Then he shrugged. "Whatever, I suppose there're worse things than an egotistic nine-year-old."

"That's it!" Arkalen shouted, attempting to lunge at Hiccup before being dragged back by Jasmine.

"Stop it!" Jasmine shouted. Arkalen continued to glare at Hiccup before wrenching out of Jasmine's grasp and turning his attention on Camicazi. Jasmine turned her gaze back on Hiccup, and if looks could kill… "You're going to understand how very wrong you are as soon as we get our supplies. And I will not be able to hold him back when we do. So try not to anger him again, got it?"

"Okay, okay, sorry." Hiccup sighed, looking over at Camicazi in time to see her chains fall to the ground, old and rusted just like Arkalen's and Jasmine's had. "Hey, how are you doing that? That doesn't make any sense. I saw those chains just a few seconds ago and they were barely a year old. Now they're old and rusted. There's no way that's possible."

Arkalen looked at Jasmine. "Do we have to bring him? I really think we'd be better off without him."

Jasmine shook her head. "We already decided that we're taking him. Besides, it's not like we're taking him with us. Once we're out of here, he's heading back home and we're heading the rest of the way to this Drago Bludfist."

"Fine, but don't expect me to be happy about it." As he said that, Arkalen held his hand out, palm up, and mimed grabbing something. That something materialized in a ball of black… destruction was probably the best word for it. It seemed to promise pain and death. "Don't worry, this won't hurt." He said, then considered the ball in his hand, then corrected himself. "Much."

"Arkalen…" Hiccup, who had been trying to squirm out of the reach of Arkalen's outstretched hand, looked over to see Jasmine glaring pointedly at him.

"What? It's true! It would have removed the chains and not hurt nearly as much as if I used a sword." At Jasmine's continued glare, he sighed and relented. "Fine, but for the record, he would have been much more cooperative without his hands." He tossed the ball over his shoulder, where it hit (on purpose or accident, Hiccup couldn't tell) the door handle spot-on. It flared briefly, then disappeared, revealing a hole the size of the ball where the handle had been. Hiccup gulped.

"You can move your arms now." Arkalen said, apparently done already with whatever he was doing with Hiccup's chains. Hiccup looked up to see that the cuffs which had been so strong just a minute ago were now basically dust, and offered little resistance to his arms' tugging. Damn, he had been so distracted by the little ball of destruction that he hadn't paid any attention to what Arkalen did. Oh well, he'd find out once they got off the ship.

"Alright, what's the plan?"

"You shut up and stay quiet." Hiccup tried to keep a straight face at Arkalen's voice. It was actually pretty creepy to hear a man's voice coming out of a nine-year-old's body. Said nine-year-old apparently noticed his trouble. "I can't wait to get my stuff back." He muttered to Jasmine. "Nobody ever takes me seriously like this."

Jasmine nodded, having trouble keeping a straight face herself. "I know what you mean, oh great Lord of Destruction."

Arkalen groaned. "Oh, come one! Are you still bringing that up?! That was ages ago!"

Hiccup, very confused, looked to Camicazi for an explanation. She shrugged, obviously as confused as he was.

Arkalen whirled around. "Whatever! I'll go up front, Jasmine behind me, then Cami and that lump of uselessness."

Hiccup growled, angry at being called useless, but decided against it for two reasons. One, they didn't know about his history of being called Hiccup the Useless. Two, he decided that he would stop annoying the nine-year-old with the creepy powers.

Jasmine saw him stiffen at being called useless and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, he isn't normally like this. He's just a bit… upset with his current form." Before Hiccup could ask what she meant by that, footsteps sounded just outside the door. Acting quickly, the three riders dove to either side of the doorframe, leaving Hiccup alone in the center of the room. He stood up, trying to follow them, only for his legs to trip him up.

Thump.

Hiccup hit the ground hard. Looking down, he saw that his legs were chained together as well. "Oh, come on!" He muttered. He reached for the chains just as two of Eret's crew walked into the room.

"See? I told you the door was- Hey!" One of them stopped midsentence when he saw the lack of chained prisoners. "Where'd they go?" Then his gaze fell on Hiccup alone on the floor. "Hey, you there! Where'd the other ones go?" He strode forward to grab Hiccup by the throat and pin him to the wall. Unfortunately, he was so distracted with intimidating Hiccup, he failed to notice his friend getting jumped by an angry nine-year-old. If Hiccup wasn't so focused on the lack of oxygen, he might have been impressed that Arkalen was even capable of being quiet. As it was, he was probably going to black out again.

As his vision tunneled, Hiccup saw a flash of blue behind the crewman. Whatever it was apparently knocked out the guy choking Hiccup, because they both crumpled to the floor, Hiccup drawing in deep breaths while the crewman lay with his eyes rolled back into his head.

"-alright?" Hiccup shook his head, trying to clear the ringing from his ears. Then he looked up to see Jasmine's eyes peering down at him. The oxygen deprivation must have been getting to him, because her eyes appeared to be… glowing a light blue, like frost.

"Are you alright?" She asked again. Hiccup just nodded, still disturbed by her eyes. She grinned in relief, then offered him a hand up, which he gratefully accepted.

"Are your eyes-"

"Blue? Yeah, I'm a telepath. The glowing blue eyes are just an annoying side effect. They should go back to normal in a bit."

Hiccup just nodded in dumb shock. When he could finally force words out of his mouth, he managed "Tele-what?"

Jasmine sighed and opened her mouth to explain, but was cut off by Arkalen.

"It doesn't matter, does it?" He growled finally finished looting the unconscious bodies of the two guards. "We're getting rid of him as soon as we get our dragons, so don't bother telling him. Now let's go."

Jasmine gave an apologetic shrug, then turned and followed Arkalen out the door. Camicazi moved to follow them, but turned around when Hiccup didn't follow.

"Look, I know they seem a little… edgy, but they're really nice people." She said, shuffling her feet a bit. "You just need to get to know them a bit."

"Uh, Camicazi?"

"I mean, Arkalen is almost never like this. He's just a bit worn out from using so much energy during the battle."

"Camicazi."

"Well, that and his form. He isn't normally like that, either. He's just a bit annoyed. I mean, the first time I saw him like that, I was beyond confused."

"Camicazi."

"Now, I mean, I haven't known them for very long myself, only two to three months, but still, could you give them a shot?"

"Camicazi."

"I just think you'd all get along really well if you knew more, even with Arkalen. You guys could probably even be-"

"CAMICAZI!"

Cami was startled by Hiccup's outburst, and gave him a confused look. He gestured to his feet in reply.

"Kinda still tied up, here."

Camicazi decided to stop her blabbering before she embarrassed herself even more. Quickly, she reached into her hair and pulled out a few small pieces of metal. Hiccup was confused.

"Why didn't you use that earlier?"

Cami shrugged. "Arkalen needed to blow off some steam. Besides, I was a little tied up."

"Oh, right." Hiccup was starting to feel like an idiot around these people, which he had hoped had stopped happening for good after the fight with the Red Death all those years back. "Hey, Camicazi?"

The girl sighed. "Hiccup, just call me Cami. I don't like my full name anymore."

Hiccup nodded. "Okay. Cami. Could you possibly explain everything that's going on? I really don't understand any of this."

Cami closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them. "Yeah, sure, Jasmine will take care of everything, and Arkalen is going to be busy until he runs out of heads to bash. So, what do you want to know?"

"Everything. I mean, who are you people? I know that you're a bog burglar, that kid is from Briton, and the other girl is from China, but why are you all here? Jasmine? I think her name was? Mentioned that you were here for a war? Why? And what's with the crazy black stuff Arkalen keeps throwing everywhere?"

Cami sighed and closed her eyes. For almost a whole minute, Hiccup sat while she apparently collected her thoughts. Then she opened her eyes and spoke.

"First things first: I'm not all too familiar with the situation myself. I only just met them a few months ago, but from my understanding, they're free-lancers."

"Free-what?" Hiccup didn't recall any of them carrying lances.

"Free-lancers. Kinda like mercs, but it's just them. They don't have a boss or comrades, it's just the two of them."

"Alright, I guess. But that doesn't explain-"

Cami cut him off. "Don't worry, I'm getting there. I don't understand the whole mission myself, but from my understanding, they're here to stop some crazy warlord who's raising an army of dragons."

Hiccup nodded. "Do you know who hired them? If they're mercenaries then they must have someone who paid them to fight this, er, warlord. Do we even have warlords here?"

Cami just shrugged. "It's a guy who's raising an army of dragons to enslave the entire Archipelago. I think that "warlord" is the best description. As for who hired them, well… I don't think that you'd believe me."

If nothing else piqued Hiccup's interest, that did. "Try me."

"Dragons."

…

"You're right, I don't believe you."

"Hiccup!"

"What? It's true! How would you even communicate with the dragons? The most I can get out of Toothless is emotions, not an entire sentence!"

"Yeah, this is where things get even weirder…"

Hiccup's mouth cracked the floorboards. "Weirder than talking dragons!?"

Cami shuffled a little uncertainly. "Er, well… Jasmine's a telepath."

…

"A what?"

"A telepath."

Hiccup thought about that for a little, then nodded sagely. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Cami face-palmed. "A telepath is someone who can communicate with others through their thoughts. Like, without talking."

Hiccup thought about this. "So, is that how she knew that the dragons were ready?"

"Yep."

"And you were talking to her just now?"

"Yep."

Hiccup was starting to get excited now. "And how you were all able to fly so well together?"

"Nope."

If Hiccup wasn't already sitting down, he would have fallen over from shock. "But you were all flying so well together. You shouldn't have been able to do that without talking to each other!"

"Yeah, well… those people don't exist."

It took Hiccup a few minutes to process this. It would have taken longer, but his mind had shut down to conserve power. When it finally started working again, he managed one word. "What?"

Cami let out a timid laugh. "Heheh. Yeah, well, we needed more people to help attack, so Arkalen created some people and dragons to help out with the attack. But sustaining that many objects for so long really took its toll. It's part of why he's so tired."

Hiccup looked at the hole in the door and the broken handcuffs. Tired? What kind of a kid was this?

Apparently he was making a funny face, because Cami laughed at it. "Yeah, he's a regular monster when he's at full power."

Hiccup's brain was threatening to shut down again.

"Alright, Hiccup, ready to go?" She reached down to offer him a hand. "We've got some dragons to grab and a warlord to hunt."

A/N: So, uh, sorry for the wait. I've been trying to update faster but I'm apparently watching too much anime for that to happen, so… yeah. In other news, please give feedback on OC's, we'll meet the dragons and Arkalen's specific power will be unveiled next chapter, so in the meantime please R&R. Next chapter will be back to Frozen. And don't worry, only about 4-6 chapters before I'm getting Hiccup to meet with Elsa.