Author's Note:

Hello and welcome to chapter eight. Here we see more of the Titans as well as a bit more of Gustav. Thank you everyone for your reviews and I'm glad that most of you seem happy with the way I've used your OCs and I hope you all enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.


Twins, Rivals and Discussions

A tall, slender seventeen year old girl stood watching several men carefully move a metal dragon trap onto a ship. She had long, black hair with brown streaks that was artfully braided down the back and her odd dark purple eyes missed nothing as she observed the men under her command. Behind her another girl physically identical in every way except for having gold instead of brown streaks in her hair sat on a ruined wall toying with a hand axe.

This was Kadlin and Arina, identical twins and two more of the Twelve Titans. The two were very close and one would never do a mission without the other, their teamwork with each other was flawless and they knew each other's abilities and strengths inside out.

One of the men ran up to the standing twin and gave a short bow, "Lady Kadlin, the last of the traps have been loaded and we are ready to leave on command."

Kadlin nodded and then turned to her twin, "What do you think Rin? Shall we head off?"

Arina shrugged, "I suppose so, this mission's been pretty boring with nothing to fight. I could use a dragon to fight or at least some prisoner to torture but we're not likely to find much else here, this island was pretty much trashed when the Meatheads were conquered."

Kadlin turned back to her subordinate, "Then we shall leave immediately captain."

He gave another bow, "As you wish Milady."

He bowed to Arina before hurrying off to give the word to his men as Arina got off the wall she'd been sitting on and hooked her axe onto a clip attached to the belt of her black skirt. As she strode over to her twin a whirling sound was heard and both girls instantly dived and rolled as one. They were back on their feet and ready to fight in moments, Kadlin had been carrying a bow and she already had an arrow ready to fire while Arina had both a her hand axe and her short sword unsheathed. A set of bolas landed where Kadlin had been moments before and several ragged Vikings hurtled towards them screaming war cries, Kadlin raised an eyebrow, "Apparently there's Meathead survivors, they must have been hiding out here for years."

She began rapidly firing arrows taking out three before they reached them as Arina took the foremost foes head on skilfully wielding her weapons. Within seconds four more were down and the remainder began to group together to try and overwhelm the duel-wielding girl, green gas poured in around their feet and some of them looked back to see Kadlin had moved behind them and was breathing the gas out. Before they could deal with her Arina hopped back and grinned, "Goodbye."

She snapped her fingers and sparks leapt from them, the gas ignited and the explosion took out all the remaining men at once. Their screams rent the air and Arina laughed happily, "Well it looks like there was something interesting here after all."

Kadlin sheathed her weapon and turned away from the remains of their assailants to see the captain of their men hurrying up with several of his fighters behind him. Seeing the bodies he slowed down, sheathed his drawn sword and gave a quick bow, "Miladys, while you were dealing with these Vikings another group attempted an assault on our ship. Most of them were killed but we have two prisoners."

"Excellent work Captain," Kadlin congratulated, "Those two prisoners will know if there are any more survivors on this island so we'll keep them for interrogation. Keep them restrained and guarded at all times and we'll head straight for the Fortress."

Bowing once more the captain answered, "Yes Milady."


Snotlout, Hookfang, Toothless and Hiccup were currently doing a high speed, aerial assault course around the interior of the Sanctuary.

It was an activity that all four enjoyed immensely and engaged in often, to the point that most of the Sanctuary dragons knew to get out of the way when they saw them coming. As expected Toothless and Hiccup usually won because of the Night Fury's superior speed and agility but Hookfang and Snotlout had developed a few techniques that helped them make up for their lacking skills in that regard which occasionally helped them snatch victory. Today was not one such day and Toothless was in fine form taking the win every time so the two dragons swapped riders for a bit. This was something else that happened quite often since the two cousins were very close and the dragons had decided that that made them cousins too, in fact most of the kids and their closest dragon sibling would swap around with the others since their friendships were so close and they all understood each other really well.

Snotlout loved the rush he got when he and Toothless zipped through the Sanctuary's many passages and the two of them could sync really well. As they skilfully dodged around obstacles Snotlout called back to his brother behind them, "C'mon Hookfang! I know you and Hiccup can do better than that!"

Hookfang gave a challenging rumble and Hiccup spoke to the Nightmare beneath him, "Let's show him Hookfang!"

Hookfang roared in agreement and the two shot off as synced as Snotlout and Toothless, using slight shortcuts and well-timed bursts of speed they began closing in on the other two. Down at the finish line by Grandfather's pool Astrid stood with her sister Stormfly waiting to see who finished first. Her two younger brothers were also there and the hatchling Nadders played about at her feet, she looked down at them excitedly, "Look guys! Here they come!"

The two baby Nadders looked up and saw the racing cousins approaching and began chirping in excitement. Hiccup and Hookfang were rapidly catching up to Toothless and Snotlout and it was looking like a close finish but then Toothless put on an explosive burst of speed and shot on ahead. As the Night Fury sped over the finish line Astrid's brothers were nearly blown away by the draft caused by the speeding dragon, as Hookfang crossed the line and landed Toothless did a quick victory lap of the Sanctuary's central chamber before also landing beside the Nightmare. Snotlout got off Toothless' back cheering, "WOO-HOO! Toothless. That was awesome!"

The Night Fury grinned and gave a happy roar before crouching down to play with the two baby Nadders bouncing around his paws. Hiccup dismounted Hookfang and spoke to his cousin, "That was really impressive guys."

Snotlout grinned, "It was pretty close Hiccup, you and Hookfang were right behind us the whole way and you might have even won if Toothless didn't use that speed burst."

"That's because ye can't fly a Night Fury properly."

Everyone looked round at the new voice and saw Alister standing nearby with Icebolt. He strode towards them, "There's no way a Monstrous Nightmare could keep up with a Night Fury unless the Night Fury wasn't being ridden properly."

Snotlout bristled at the other boy, "What do you mean 'ridden properly'? Toothless isn't a horse!"

"Doesn't matter." Alister answered, "If yer not a decent rider then ye'd be better off without a dragon at all."

With that Alister turned and left with Icebolt close behind and Toothless and Hookfang snorted angrily as Snotlout fumed. Astrid shook her head, "What's with that guy? He speaks about dragons like they're pets."

Hiccup sighed, "I think he doesn't actually see them as anything other than animals." He spoke to his fuming cousin, "Don't let him get to you Snotlout, he's wrong and he doesn't understand our family the way we do. You and Toothless fly brilliantly together, right Toothless?"

Toothless rumbled in agreement and Hookfang did as well causing Snotlout to give a small smile, "You're right but I still don't like Alister very much."

Astrid grinned, "Fair enough." Her eyes lit up as she had a sudden idea, "Hey, do you think our parents would let us head out to the thermal vents? Most of us haven't been away from the Sanctuary since Healers Island and they're not that far from here. I'm sure dad will happily go with us."

Hiccup grinned as well, "That's a great idea Astrid! What do you think Snotlout?"

Snotlout thought about it for a moment then grinned, "Yeah, let's do it! I'll go ask mom now."

"I'll go with you." Hiccup said, "My mom is probably with her at the moment anyway. Me and Hookfang race you and Toothless there?"

"Challenge accepted, let's go Toothless!"

Quickly letting the kids on their backs, Toothless and Hookfang shot up and headed towards the caves.


Out upon open water, Gustav perched on the prow of Savage's ship glaring at the waves.

His first proper mission had been going fine until it had been ruined by a couple of unknown dragon riders who'd now simply vanished. It really annoyed him and he moodily flung the small beaker he'd been holding into the sea.

"Like that's gonna help."

He sighed at the familiar voice, "What are you doing here Erika?"

He looked round to see a slender, fifteen year old girl standing behind him. Her black hair was currently tied into a ponytail and her blue eyes seemed to bore into him, "You know that one of the Titans will keep an eye on another on their Fledging Gustav."

Gustav looked back out across the sea, "Guess I forgot that."

Erika gave a soft smile, normally she was very cold to people but to the ones she liked she was very kind and gentle and Gustav was one of those people, "You can't expect to get it perfect first time, besides the plan was good and would've worked if those riders hadn't got involved."

Gustav narrowed his eyes, "I hope to find them soon. It'll be good to face them even if I'm to try and capture them as unharmed as possible."

Erika sat down behind him, "Is there a particular one of them you want to face?"

Gustav thought for a moment before answering, "The one with the Monstrous Nightmare." He looked round at the older girl, "I haven't actually seen him yet but Savage said there was one so that's who I really want to face." He clenched his fist and small flames flickered from it, "I was given the powers of a Monstrous Nightmare so what better way to test them then by facing a real one."

Erika grinned, "I hope I get to see that." She stood, "Just don't let your anger get the better of you, you may only be eight but throwing a tantrum in the middle of a fight won't help you much." She began walking away then looked back, "Where are you searching next?"

"We've decided to look at some of the unexplored islands." Gustav answered, "There's one which has many thermal vents so we're starting there."

Erika nodded, "Well good luck Gustav."

As she slipped away Gustav continued to stare out across the waves.


PS-So there we go and I hope you liked that and just Anthea to introduce properly so I'll try and do that next chapter. Please let me know what you thought and I'll try and update soon.