A lot has happened in my life recently and I find myself having less time for certain things more and more often. Though this is the way of life, I want to continue and finish this story for those of you who favorite and follow. I will try to post good quality and lengthy chapters as often as I can, because I know what it feels like to be invested in something and have it ended short. I really don't want to let you guys down, so please be patient with me, and as always leave reviews because those motivate me the most! Even if it is just a short phrase, critique or anything else, feedback is always appreciated! Thank you and Enjoy the coming chapters!

Chapter Eleven

The sound of morning birds as well as voices in the distance awoke both Astrid and Hiccup abruptly. They found themselves tied up with each other on the mats in a room in the arena, just as they had left themselves the night before, and struggled to untangle themselves before the voices that they heard approaching arrived.

"Didn't we agree that we weren't going to fall asleep here!" Hiccup panicked as he straightened himself up and scrambled away from Astrid.

"Well you probably fell asleep before I did, hypocrite!" She dusted off her skirt and brushed her bangs behind her ears hurriedly.

They were both hoping whoever came wasn't observant enough to notice that they'd slept here, and tried to make it look as if they were deciphering the papers since last night.

As the voice neared, the two realized that it was Fishlegs. He was always up early in the morning, and first at the academy. He must've been talking to Meatlug, Hiccup inferred, when he heard the phrase, "This morning isn't as nearly beautiful as you,"

He stopped and froze when he noticed Toothless laying on the ground snoozing, at that point Hiccup felt it was a good time to reveal himself.

"Mornin' Legs!" Hiccup greeted the chubby Viking enthusiastically.

"…Morning Hiccup, I'm surprised to see you here so early, you're usually out flying with toothless at this time right?" Fishlegs did sound surprised at first but didn't think much of it when he continued talking.

"Yeah," Hiccup scratched the back of his head, "But I just couldn't today because we found out some crazy stuff about the blueprints and I wanted to tell you as soon as possible."

"You and Toothless?" Fishlegs questioned.

"No, Me and Astrid! She's uh…. Inside, looking at the papers some more." Hiccup choked out nervously then turned and walked through the open doorway of the room.

The two Viking boys met Astrid who was inside "re-examining" the papers.

"Hey Fishlegs!" Astrid greeted him nervously, "Did Hiccup tell you about what we found?!"

Fishlegs' brow furrowed as he looked between them, "…No, He was just about to…"

"Oh! Well look!" Astrid urged him over to the pile of papers on the ground.

Hiccup and Astrid then relayed to Fishlegs the details of their discoveries, and were met by multiple 'gasps' throughout their explanation. Thankfully, to Hiccup and Astrid's knowledge Fishlegs didn't seem suspicious about what else they could have been doing together besides deciphering papers.

"So the enemy is in our very midst's…" Fishlegs asked, mostly to himself with a worried tone.

Astrid and Hiccup both nodded silently a bit surprised at Fishlegs calm composure to all this news.

"W-wha-what are we going to do!" And the floodgates opened, "We need to-to track them down, but we can't let them know that! What if- OH GODS, What if they already know! What if they're hiding in wait, laughing at us! We need to do something now! We need to tell the chief!" Fishlegs panicked.

"Woah, whoa, whoa, calm down Fishlegs!" Astrid tried to sedate him by putting a hand on his arm and using her most soothing voice, "Get yourself together."

"Yeah, legs, were gonna work this out, but telling the chief will only slow us down, not to mention raise the chances of jeopardizing plan incognito." Hiccup reasoned with the large teen.

"W-what?" Legs asked in bewilderment, "Incognito? You mean were NOT telling the chief!? That's madness!"

"It's madness to widen the circle of people who already know that there is a perpetrator amongst us." Hiccup started.

"We don't know who it is and if you know Stoick you know he won't be sneaky about it." Astrid added.

Fishlegs seemed to have calmed down considerably and settled for just gazing down at the ground in thought.

"So we've decided that were going to try and produce some suspects, as well as not let the word get out." Hiccup concluded.

Fishlegs nodded in submission but then an idea popped into his head, "Do we have any suspects already?"

Astrid and Hiccup exchanged a look and then frowned at Fishlegs.

"Well, not really…" Hiccup started.

"It's hard to say when we haven't seen any movement on our outcast patrols." Astrid said with an uneasy look, "But I still think that we can't rule out outsiders completely."

"You're right, it could be an outsider or someone amongst us we just need to-" Hiccup started.

"Take a closer look…" Fishlegs finished as he eyed them both with squinted eyes.

"Legs, it can't be us…" Hiccup said flatly after a few minutes of his suspicious gaze.

He sighed, "Yeah I know…I just don't know where we should look first!" Fishlegs admitted with an exasperated motion of his hands.

"Well we have no choice so let's just take this-" Hiccup tried to reassure Fishlegs.

"One step at a time." Astrid finished while giving Hiccup a gentle smile. She knew he was freaking out about this just as much as Fishlegs, but it was simply internalized.

After swearing complete confidence on the matter, and dividing roles amongst the three of them, Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs went their separate ways.

Astrid was to subtly ask around the village and take note of any "suspicious behavior", Fishlegs was supposed to find out what page had to be missing from the book of dragons and try to figure out what kind of contraption the unknown "perpetrator" was constructing, and Hiccup tasked himself to re-inspect the cave and gather as much evidence as he possibly could. The trio agreed to meet back up in the arena at noon to swap information and hash out prime suspects that they were going to lock-in on secretly and finally; plan "incognito" was put into motion.

After hours of scouring the empty muddied cave in the forest with Toothless, Hiccup decided to call it quits. The only information he could rely on to figure out who the enemy was exactly, was the entrance and exit to the cave. The tunnel led straight to the docks, so that means the stranger was transporting materials that they brought from outside of Berk. But even then, plenty of Berkians themselves use ships to trade and conduct business through the docks. So that leaves Hiccup at square one. He tried to figure out what he was going to tell Fishlegs and Astrid when they met up at noon, and hoped to the Gods that they had gathered more information than he did. At this rate, Hiccup figured, the stranger's plans could already be in motion.

He sighed as he sauntered into the empty arena with Toothless at his side, seemingly pooped, from all that searching in the tunnels. It was almost noon, so Hiccup found it odd that none of the other teen Vikings had been here. Noon was the general "break-time" around the village, so on any other day the gang could be found lounging around the arena around this time; but oddly enough no one was there.

"Hm," Hiccup made a small sound with mild surprise but didn't think much on it afterwards. He was probably just being overly-perceptive and reading into things he probably shouldn't be reading into.

Continuing to make his way further into the arena he had noticed some shuffling sounds in the room where Astrid, Fishlegs, and He had congregated earlier this morning. He peeked over the doorframe, expecting to see either of the two Vikings, but was shocked to find Heidi standing there looking down at the papers.

Hiccup exchanged a confused and slightly suspicious look with toothless before stepping into the room fully and trying to look as intimidating as possible.

"Heidi." Hiccup said with an even voice.

"Ah!" She shrieked as she threw the pieces of paper she was holding into the air in excitement. "H-Hi-Hiccup!, Wh-"

"What am I doing in my own arena? Just the usual. The real question is what are you doing here." He asked as he bent down to gather the scattered pieces of paper.

She went silent and let her eyes fall to the ground, shuffling her feet nervously.

"Well?" He asked again after a few moments of silence.

"What were you trying to find?" Hiccup questioned as a thought popped into his head. He could have his prime suspect right here in front of him, her knees knocking like they never had before. She was scared, and looked guilty; something Hiccup could not overlook when it came to someone as stubborn and outspoken as Heidi. She and her father must be up to something, and he wasn't about to let her go without at least interrogating her first.

"I was looking for you…" She mumbled with a small voice, so unlike her.

Hiccup raised one brow noting the vulnerability in her voice, this was not the Heidi he knew at all. Ever since she came onto this island he's been trying to figure her out, and she's acted weird before, but nothing like this.

"Well you've found me." He asked in an obviously disbelieving tone. "What did you want?" He finished coldly.

"Don't talk to me like that Hiccup." She said defensively but without the usual fire in her voice. She look like she half meant it and half regretted it.

"Or what?" Hiccup took a step closer and Toothless followed unsheathing his teeth to help Hiccup make his statement.

"You're gonna run and tell your father?" Hiccup continued, " Well go ahead; like I said, I don't care about your threats anymore."

She took a step back with a hurt look in her eyes that were as wide as plates, she had never seen sweet, little Hiccup act like this before.

"What were you really up to Heidi?" Hiccup asked pointedly.

"What are you talking about? I was just looking for" She tried.

"For secrets? Did you find what you were looking for?" Hiccup raised his voice as he came closer.

She cowered into herself a fraction at Hiccup's abrasive tone and Toothless' borderline vicious glare.

"I – I just…" She tried to speak, but her face became hot and she found tears pooling in her eyes.

Hiccup seemed to be surprised a bit at this, and a twinge of guilt tugged at his heart, him not being the type of guy to make a girl cry on purpose. He figured she'd be stronger than that, but as it turns out Heidi was all bark no bite. Despite all the unpleasant memories his mind was resurfacing to encourage him to continue intimidating her, he backed off slowly and looked away. This kind of attitude didn't feel like the right thing to do, and as he glanced at her in her frightened state, he guessed that she wouldn't be spilling any information if he approached her like this.

He sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. Toothless noticed Hiccups exasperation and decided to follow suit, backing away from the girl but making sure to keep his hard glare glued to her all the while.

"Listen Heidi, I don't want us to be enemies, but you haven't really made it easier for us to be friends either." Hiccup tried with an annoyed tone, "Last time I checked you didn't want anything to do with me or anyone on Berk, so I'm just wondering what you were doing snooping around the Academy while no one's around"

"I wanted to apologize." Heidi mumbled, bringing her hands to her front and playing with the furs on her gloves.

Hiccup stared at her with a calculating gaze and a long and tension-filled silence settled in the room.

"I wanted…" Heidi broke the silence first, continuing what she had began with, "To apologize for what I've done… and all the trouble I've caused you."

Hiccup was dumbfounded.

"I know I may not be the most pleasant person, despite what my outwardly appearance may suggest…" she slowly neared him, her face downcast and her thin arms still folded over the front of her furs in what seemed like submission.

He just continued to stare.

"And I know what people say about me. I want to change, I really do but… it's just It's not easy for me to fit in..." She shot her gaze up to meet his eyes, "You know what that feels like right Hiccup?"

"Heidi.. I don't think-" Hiccup decided it was time to interject but Heidi continued.

"I know you don't believe me Hiccup," She suddenly took hold of his hand, " and you don't have to… but I just want you to know that I've-"

She was silenced by the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Hiccup and Heidi whipped their attention to the entrance of the room to find Astrid standing there, arms crossed over her chest, and a nervous-looking Fishlegs behind her.

"What's going on …?" Astrid questioned with apparent authority. She uncrossed her arms and marched down to the couple snatching Hiccups hand away from Heidi's and poking a finger in the princess' chest, "And What are you doing here?"