Two Chapters in one week, I'm on a roll!

Farin's hand shoots straight up in the air, hitting Eldacar on the back of the head in the process, "Farin!" he yells, whilst rubbing his head.

"Sorry, 'Car" says Farin, lowering his hand slowly, "But ye know as well as I that the only thing a dwarf likes as much as his meat and ale is the sound of a forge hammer!"

"So" Hiccup interrupts, "You'll help?"

"Aye!" says Farin with enthusiasim, then he asks, "Who will I be helpin?" and looks to Snotlout

"Me" says Hiccup, and Farin's eyes dart back to him, shocked, Hiccup notices the look and says, somewhat crossly "Something wrong?"

"Well…uh-" stutters Farin "Um, I was just expectin a, well bigger physique."

Hiccup concedes that he isn't the brawniest with a shake of his head, then says "Well, I'm our villages second Blacksmith, I made most of the metal stuff around here."

Farin looks around, somewhat marveling that such a, well…scrawny lad could forge so well, at least for a man. Then his gaze falls on Hiccup's Gronkle-Iron shield and his eyes nearly bug out of their sockets as his jaw drops.

"Farin?" asks Eldacar, noticing his slack-jawed appearance "Farin?" he waves his hand in front of Farin's eyes. No response.

"M-m-m-m-mithril" stutters Farin and moves as if in a trance, walking over and caressing the shield with great care, and, frankly, freaking the riders out.

"Um, should he be doing that?" asks Tuffnut, quite creeped out

"I am not sure, he only acts similarly when we find some long-forgotten piece of Dwarven treasure." Replies Amroth, shaking his head.

"Mithril" Frain repeats, louder this time

"Mithril?" asks Eldacar "Farin, are you sure?"

Farin seems to snap out of his trance and turns around with an ear-to-ear smile "Aye it's Mithril! Ye can tell by the weight, the luster, and the shine! Why didn't ye tell me ye had some Mithril?!" looking at Hiccup.

Hiccup for one looks utterly confused "What's Mithril?"

Farin belts out a laugh and nearly doubles over, then wipes a stray tear from his eye before looking back to Hiccup and his expression immediately becoming one of curiosity "Ye mean ye really don't know? How can someone use Mithril without knowin what it is!?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about." Says Hiccup "That's Gronkle-Iron, we feed one of our Dragons rocks and they regurgitate it as Gronkle-Iron."

"Nope." Says Farin, crossing his arms obstinately, "I'm sure this here's Mithril. Light as a feather, and hard as Dragon scales."

"Perhaps" said Amroth's musical voice as it entered the conversation "That is the origin of Mithril, Farin. Created by Dragons long ago and deposited deep beneath the world before the it was remade, and you both simply call it something different, for if I recall the Dwarves only discovered Truesilver when they delved into the Misty mountains, long after the War of Wrath."

Farin looks at Amroth, and seems to sullenly concede the point with a shrug.

Hiccup looks incredibly confused, but at the risk of more confusion decides to let the matter drop. He then says "Alright Farin, you and me go to the forge, Astrid… find something for Eldacar and Amroth to do." And Astrid nods.

As Hiccup moves to leave Farin shouts "Wait!" and the riders nearly jump out of their boots.

"What?!" shouts Hiccup

"Don't ye want to see an example of me smithin, before ye hire me?" asks Farin curiously.

"He makes a fair point" says Astrid and the other riders nod

"Well, do you have anything you've made?" asks Hiccup, acceding to their reasoning.

"Sure!" says Farin "Me axe!" then he reaches down to where he presumably keeps his weapon, and grasps at air.

"Oh" says Hiccup, seeing Farin getting frantic "All of your weapons are in the last stable, we cleaned them and put them there for safe keeping.

Farin darts out of the clubhouse and his heavy feet can be heard rushing to the stable, then a clatter and a yell of "Aha!" before more footsteps and Farin's triumphant return with his axe.

"Here" says Farin, showing off his work proudly

Only now, in the light of day do the riders see the craftsmanship of the axe, beautifully wrought head out of gleaming steel, strong and stout oaken shaft, and a large faceted knob on the end. It, no offense to Hiccup, put's anything he's made to shame.

Astrid picks it up and swings it about, testing a few blows in the air then she says "Wow, that's the best axe I've ever handled."

Farin beams and Hiccup says, somewhat defensively, "Hey! My work's not that bad."

"Aye laddie" says Farin "I'm sure it is, but ye haven't had a hundred-odd-years to practice."

Hiccup really can't argue that point so he hands the axe back to Farin and they leave for the forge.

Farin spends a whole twenty minutes looking over the forge and at the end says, "This blew up once, right?"

Hiccup is startled and says, "How'd you know!"

"No offense laddie, but looks to be a death trap, ye got a ventilation leak, three split furnace stones, and ye built it on a wooden platform to boot! Only thing that's good is the water bucket overhead."

"Hey!" says Hiccup, rather offended.

"Nope, I'll have to rebuild the whole thing. Make it Dwarven quality!"

And without another word Farin trudged off to do just that…