Thanks again for the reviews! Way to rock my socks off!

And we've got more art! Or at least this story does!

Epic-FailWin drew a beautiful pic of an older Hiccup holding Bluebells! His expression is so sweet and she captured the awkwardness Hiccup so perfectly!

Hollyboo2001 drew three awesome pictures from the story. One is Hiccup and Fishlegs meeting Alvin, the second s one the kiss by the elk with Hiccup and Astrid and the third is a colored version of the second. she did a really cool thing where they all look like they're from a storybook.

So remember to get to the art you can either go to their deviantart pages or you can go to my profile and click the fanart link! The fanart is so beautiful and the other pieces that were drawn for the story just are all fabulous! Remember if you draw something let me know!


The tell tale stick of salt made it hard for Hiccup to open his eyes.

It wasn't the first time he had cried himself to sleep, nor did he think it would be the last. Blearily Hiccup forced his eyes open. It took his pain, despair and sleep fogged mind a moment to figure out where he was. The alien dark wood and wrought iron cage he found himself in were completely foreign. He was laying on his side, one arm cushioning his head, the other tangled in the iron of the bars of the cage. His left leg was a dull throb of pain from the rough handling of the previous day but it was a manageable ache. It was dampened somewhat by the warm fingers that tangled with his own through the iron bars of the cage. Even as his eyes followed the line of the arm, he knew that it was Astrid's face he would see.

She was beautiful when she was asleep.

All the anger, the sadness, the determination--all of it was gone from her face. Her blonde hair had come free from its tight braid, or perhaps she had taken it down when he wasn't looking. The thick, gold curls fell across her face, half hiding her serene features. He had seen Astrid with her hair down a handful of times before. It never ceased to amaze him just how delicate it made her look. Without the tight coil of her hair the armor she always seemed to put up disappeared. She looked more real and more human in those moments than Hiccup could have dreamed possible. It was strange, really, how such a simple act could transform a person so completely. She was still dressed in her furs, the hand that gripped his was still rough with callouses, she was still Astrid. And yet at the same time he knew he was seeing a side of Astrid that few ever got to. For some reason the knowledge made him feel both privileged that he got to see it and sad that the girl took such pains to make sure no-one else did.

Reaching up, Hiccup swiped a hand over his face, trying to wipe away the stick of salt. He did not know how long he had cried for last night or at what point he had fallen asleep. Raising his head, he looked around the small room. The others were in cages, each curled around themselves in a failed attempt at comfort. Hiccup doubted Fishlegs or Snotlout could even sit up fully without bumping their heads against the iron. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were back to back against the cages, though he knew neither would admit they sought comfort in the other. Hiccup studied them. Ruffnut looked the same but Tuffnut looked like he had put on extra furs. Hiccup frowned, they hadn't been allowed to go for their packs and they had all started out on the island wearing the same things. Before his stunned gaze, something moved. It was slight, hidden by the fur but Hiccup was sure he saw his stomach move.

A moment later, a head poked out from Tuffnut's vest.

Hiccup's eyes widened as T.T.'s face peeked out of the top of the blonde viking's vest, still half hidden by his hair. Even in his sleep, Tuffnut's brow knit together, the viking's hand tightening against the dragon. T.T. sniffed at him before inching further up, his big eyes fixing on Hiccup. Hiccup realized that the little dragon had hidden with Tuffnut during the commotion of the capture. The dragon turned his eyes from the viking to Hiccup. Immediately his horns came forward in excitement, his nostrils flaring as he looked at 's eyes opened as the dragon moved again, his eyes looking own at the Terror before looking at Hiccup. The dragon began to make a sound but Tuffnut stuffed him back under the furs of his outer layer.

"How did you--"

"He was hiding behind my hair and when we got on the boat he jumped in my shirt," the young viking told him, "then he just stayed there."

"And you didn't say anything?"

"What was I supposed to do?" Tuffnut hissed back, "Tell that crazy dude I had a dragon hiding in my shirt? They'd probably have tied him up and tried to burn him with those people," he finished, his fingers tightening around the dragon as T.T. huffed angrily at the prospect. Tuffnut and T.T. gave each other identical glares before fixing Hiccup with the same evil eye, "what are we gonna do?"

Hiccup opened and closed his mouth, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do--or at the very least what he was suppose to tell the pair of them. They were looking at him as if they weren't sure he was the one to watch, but that there wasn't anyone else to look to, no-one else to ask. In spite of Astrid's comfort, Hiccup knew that it was at least partially his fault that they were in there. And even if by some stroke she was right, the fact remained that they were in this position and they had to get out of it. Both the young viking and the little dragon looked at him expectantly. They thought that he actually had a way to do it. The problem was that he really had no idea what he was supposed to do. Facing a dragon, saving the world, he could do that. But figuring out how to get them out of the situation they found themselves in--without getting anyone else killed--he had no idea how he was supposed to do that.

"I don't know," Hiccup said.

"You don't know?" Tuffnut repeated, "you don't know?" he hissed, "you figured out that dragons weren't evil. You can't figure out how to get us off this damn boat? Aren't you supposed to be good at coming up with crazy inventions and shit like that?"

"Yes--yes!" Hiccup said, frustration surging through him, "and if it was just me, maybe I could. But its not just me," he said, "you guys are here too and Alvin just burned six people alive to make it look like we were dead. I can't risk you guys--"

"Forget that," Tuffnut snapped, "we're so screwed right now you shouldn't even be thinking about risk. You remember what that chick said? He wants you, Snotlouts the spare. That means the rest of us are expendable and therefore completely screwed."

Hiccup looked at the young man, surprised at what he had said. In the commotion he'd forgotten what had been said about the two of them. It was an unspoken but well known fact that Snotlout and he were cousins--even though they would both deny it to the death. But they were related and if Alvin had referred, at some point, to Snotlout as the spare, that could only mean that there was something to do with Stoick. Something that made Hiccup their primary target, rather than Snotlout. Probably the same thing that made him the heir to becoming the Head of the Clan rather than Snotlout, as his father had been rather than his brother.

Before he could think about it more two men came down into the narrow room.

Hiccup yanked his hand away from Astrid's before the two men could see it. So far Alvin had exploited every weakness he knew of, the last thing that Hiccup wanted to do was give him another. In his own cage, Tuffnut closed his eyes and made sure that T.T. was safety hidden in the fur of his outer layers. The two men traded looks before both of their beady, reddened eyes landed on Hiccup.

"Get him up, Captain wants to see him now," one man said nodding towards him.

The cell door was unlocked and Hiccup found himself being roughly extracted from the cage. The two men held him up as they dragged him out of the cage, holding him between them. Hiccup had no time to look back at his friends or the dragon that hid among them as the two men all but dragged him out of the room of cages. He caught glimpses of another hallway full of rooms hidden behind darkened doors before the bright light of the sun hit his eyes. Hiccup closed them against the sting before forcing them open. it was early in the day if the sun was any indication. And from the full sails, they were making good time. Alvin had said there was nothing to concern himself with for a day or so. Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, time was slipping away far more quickly than Hiccup would have liked. The men hauled him across the deck, compensating for his lack of a leg before they shoved him into another room as alien to him as the rest of the boat.

Hiccup stared.

The room he found himself in was unlike any he would have thought on a boat. High ceilings were lit with light that streamed in from the windows set into the hull. The floor was not laid with wood like the rest of the boat but with mats made from something Hiccup could not recognize. Along one wall was a polished desk made of the same dark wood, only it was so low Hiccup knew no-one could actually sit at it. But from the looks of the low red cushion placed in front of it, no-one did. At least, they did not in a chair. Lacquered cabinets of the same dark, polished wood were set against the wall, containing things unknown to Hiccup. Even after all that had happened in the past few days, the strangeness of the room he found himself in was enough to make his head spin and his body to feel off balance in a way that had nothing to do with his missing leg.

The side door opened and suddenly the surprise of the room paled in comparison to the man who stood in it.

Hiccup told himself that it was Alvin, that it had to be, and yet the man who stood there was as different from the not poor and not honest farmer as could be. The basic clothing was the same, as well as the green scarf that hid one perfectly good eye the young man did not want to loose in a battle. But on top of the clothing he donned a long black coat that reached his knees. Silver buttons decorated the garment, both on the front and the sleeves which were rolled back to reveal the silk lining. His good hand was adored with rings. The skin of his prosthetic was gone, replaced by a silver cap on the missing limb. Instead of an attachment to act as a weapon, the prosthetic had a small hole in it. But it was not until Hiccup looked at Alvin's waist that he realized what the hole was for.

At the young man's hip, suspended on a well worked, very cared for leather scabbard was a sword. The wickedly curved blade held an ornate handle unlike any Hiccup had seen before. While the handle was clearly capable of being held by Alvin's remaining hand, he could see the end of it had a narrow attachment, one that would fit perfectly into the prosthetic that the young man bore. Hanging next to the sword on the scabbard was a small dagger, one that was also fashioned with the same capabilities. Hiccup's stomach gave an unpleasant swoop was he realized that in addition to being absolutely vicious, Alvin was also ambidextrous. The murderous, cutthroat crew that followed him was probably not only willing to fight in the name of their Captain because he was their Captain, they were also willing to do it because Alvin was apparently more than capable of making them do was he pleased.

"Leave us," Alvin said to the men, his blue grey eyes expressing nothing but contempt towards them.

"Yes sir," they both said, releasing Hiccup and making a quick exit.

Without their support, Hiccup found it almost impossible to remain upright. He had stood on one leg before, but somehow there was a different between playing at balancing and actually having it be impossible to set your foot down when you lost the ability to do so. The mats he stood on seemed soft enough but they made it even more difficult to stand upright. The boat rocked from side to side and though it pained him to do so, Hiccup lowered himself down before he could topple to the ground. Alvin looked down at him, standing impossibly high above the young viking. Slowly the young man reached up and untied the green fabric that hid his eye, pulling it off his face to reveal the two good eyes, both of which locked on Hiccup's features.

"I know what you're thinking right now," Alvin said, "right now, you are wondering why a person like me would do what you've seen me do."

"Do you mean the part where you kidnapped us or where you burned six people alive?"

"Oh I imagine both are troubling to you," Alvin said, "but lets be realistic, shall we? Six of you, one of me, it was hardly a kidnapping--

"You knew they wouldn't attack you if you took me hostage," Hiccup said before he could stop himself, "just like you knew I was a blacksmith and my father's the leader of the Hooligans."

"Yes yes I know all of that," Alvin said dismissively, "but you are going about this all wrong. You are thinking that I know all of that because I have a particular interest in you as yourself."

Hiccup frowned. No interest in him as himself? But that made no sense. What interest did Alvin have in him then? As he was staring, Alvin walked over to one of the cabinets. Placing his hand against the side, he slid his palm to the side. The front of the cabinet slid back. Alvin reached inside and withdrew a folded piece of aged paper and handful of small black boxes. Sliding the cabinet back closed, he walked over to where Hiccup sat and lowered himself down so that he sat across from him on the mats, crossing his legs. Reaching forward he placed the objects onto the ground between the two of them before drawing back and placing his hands on his knees. Hiccup looked from the young man to the series of black boxes and the piece of paper sitting between them.

"Go on then," Alvin said making no move towards the objects.

Slowly Hiccup reached out and picked up the paper. It was heavier than he would have thought, aged and weathered as well. Even so he was careful as he slowly opened the paper, running his hands across the surface. The ink was as aged and weathered as the paper it was carefully drawn on. It was a map, each place carefully detailed in a way that made hiccup feel as though he was actually standing on the land. The map itself was carefully lined with a border before a finger's worth of blank paper finished the map. The middle of the map was missing. A perfect section, gone from the center. As Hiccup looked at the jagged edge, he realized that the map had fine lines running throughout it. It was not a whole map, nor had it been in some time. It was, however, a familiar map. The borders, the lines, even the wind rose detailed at the bottom right half were all surprisingly familiar.

They were also on the map in the Viking's war room.

That map had been drawn by his great great grandfather, finished by his great grandfather before being added to by his father. Hiccup had always had something of an eye for detail and he could see that the map he held had been drawn by the same hand as the others. As he turned the map to its side, Hiccup began to see some of the land masses. He recognized Berk, drawn to perfection including the portion of rocks that Hiccup recognized as where they had just made their way through the main part of the house. Slowly Hiccup looked up from the paper in his hand to the boxes between himself and the young man. The black boxes were set with bright gold tiles set in patterns. Hiccup's eyes moved from the black lacquered boxes to the young man who sat across from him, watching him carefully as he studied the objects between the two of them.

"This is Grimmbeard's map," Hiccup said, setting it down between them, "you said it was--" he trailed off as the conversation came back to him, "you said you found the map--" Hiccup continued, trailing off as Alvin reached forward, removing the first of the boxes.

"I wasn't lying to you when I said that I found a coffin that held a map," the young man said, placing the small lacquered boxes in between them in a perfect square, "I was a farmer--a poor one. And one day when I was going to trade at the market, I found a coffin that held these and for the first, I traded this," he added, holding up his missing hand, "needless to say, farming is considerably harder when you are missing one hand."

Hiccup half listened as Alvin arranged the boxes between them. As he stared he realized that what he had assumed was a nonsensical pattern was actually a perfect image of the map. Each of the black boxes held the part of the map they contained, the gold on the tiles forming an identical image. But around the edges of the image, in what was the blank space on the map, were runes. Even though there were not many boxes, the gold was bright and set with a fine and skilled hand. All the boxes were solved save for the last one which was still a mess of gold and black, right in the middle of the perfect mirror image.

"Your great great grandfather was a very smart man--or a very untrusting one--though the two are not mutually exclusive. As you can see he took certain precautions with his valuables."

"You went into the coffin to get these?" Hiccup questioned.

"Yes," Alvin said, "and as I solved them more and more of the map came to be," he continued, gesturing to the boxes spread out between the two of them, "except for the runes."

"Huh?" Hiccup looked at them.

"The words make no sense. Its written in a code," Alvin said, "a code that can only be solved with this," he said nodding towards the middle box.

"So you need the last box," Hiccup said as both their eyes landed on the box.

"Yes."

"And you expect me to solve it?" Hiccup said, though there was no question in the words.

Alvin was silent as Hiccup's head rose, his eyes locking with his. Anger coursed through Hiccup. He should have been home now--they all should have been home. And yet they were stuck on the ship because of the man sitting across from him. It wasn't fault that they were there--it was Alvin's. And now Alvin expected him to solve the box, get him his map. Hiccup drew his hands back, gripping his knees as he stared at the boxes in front of them, at the map, at the young man. When his eyes raised up to meet Alvin's once more, there was only anger in them.

"I'm not doing anything for you," Hiccup said, "I should be home right now, my father should be asking me why I didn't kill more. Instead he's going to see that driftwood and those bones and he's going to think that we're dead! I'd rather die than help you solve anything!" he said, his hand going out to knock the box away.

Alvin's hand closed around his wrist and tugged, yanking Hiccup off balance. His palm connected squarely with the unsolved center one, the last of the boxes, the unsolved one. Hiccup's eyes went from his splayed fingers to Alvin's face. The young man's eyes did not leave his as he reached into the collar of his off white shirt and pulled up the leather lanyard until the key that had freed him from his coffin was in his hand. The leather was looped around the edge of his prosthetic. Alvin easily slipped the leather off his neck so the key dangled in front of them. He moved perfectly, carefully, smoothly--he had a lot of practice with having only one hand. He must have found the coffin a long time ago if he was as at ease with one hand as he was.

"As I said," Alvin told him, "I am not after you because of your talent with puzzles or the fact that you are trained as a blacksmith or even the fact that you train dragons," Hiccup's eyes widened, "I am after you because your great great grandfather was a distrusting man who took precautions with his goods."

"Precautions?" Hiccup questioned, tugging his hand but finding it impossible to remove from his iron grip.

"Yes. See the boxes have a precise order, The outer first, working inwards. All that is missing is the key," he said, holding the key between them.

"So you want me because I'm his descendant?" Hiccup questioned, moving his wrist, "that's why Snotlout's the spare? Because he's my cousin? He's a descendant too!"

"Now you're catching on," Alvin said.

Alvin moved forward, switching so that his prosthetic pinned Hiccup's hand down and his other hand grabbed the key. He inserted the edge of the key into one of the black tiles and moving jerking it up. The small black piece came free. Alvin pressed Hiccup's hand down. He felt a sting as the pad of his thumb was pricked by something hidden and sharp. Too stunned to move, Hiccup watched as his blood began to fill the crevices of the box. Only when some invisible point had been reached did Alvin release his hand. Hiccup pulled it back, looking at his thumb. The cut wasn't big, nor was it deep, and yet enough blood had been taken for the box to begin to work in a way that Hiccup did not understand. His eyes left his thumb.

Hiccup looked down at the box. Certain portions of the tiles were stained, but not all of them. It was some kind of indication of where everything was meant to go. Alvin watched it carefully, as did Hiccup but neither made a motion to solve the box and get the prize. Hiccup looked up. Alvin's gaze was fixed squarely on the box, not on anything else. He wanted the map, he wanted the prize.

But laying just outside of his view was the tile and the key.

Slowly Hiccup inched his hand forward. He had manipulated small mechanisms before, things that required a delicate and fine touch. The tile was small and light but Hiccup was willing to bet a lot that it was required for opening the box. All the others had tiles in all their positions. But the key was not. Hiccup didn't know if it was used for anything. It was a harder steal because of its size and the length of the lanyard, but Grimmbeard had been a Haddock and if there was one thing a Haddock knew how to do it was overcomplicate something. Hiccup looked at Alvin and the box as his fingers connected with the key. Carefully he pulled it forward, closing his hand around the lanyard and moving it so that it remained concealed in his hand.

"I see you," Alvin said. Hiccup froze as Alvin's head rose, "Camicazi do you really expect to go unseen in that?"

Hiccup turned his head to see Camicazi leaning against the wall. She was dressed just as ostentatiously as before. Unlike Alvin she looked just like she had when had first seen her, beautiful, dangerous and very very sparkly. Her red hair was still twisted up and held with the pair of hair sticks she had held to Snotlout's throat and Hiccup felt a shiver run through him. Alvin to his front. Camicazi to his back. But unlike Alvin, Camicazi had no reason to keep him alive--though if push came to shove Hiccup had a feeling both of them would kill him in a heartbeat. Useless, helpless, those were not the worst feelings in the world. Being expendable just might have been and sitting there Hiccup realized that he felt all three.

"You're wanted on the deck," Camicazi said with a dismissive shrug of her shoulders.

"Very well," Alvin said, "take Master Haddock back to the cell."

Camicazi's lip curled as Alvin got to his feet. By the time he looked at her, her face was perfectly composed, the disgust reduced to disdain. Camicazi walked over to Alvin and Hiccup. She slid her hand underneath Hiccup's arm and pulled him easily to his feet, looping his arm around her shoulders to keep him on his feet. Her hand wrapped around his wrist, the wrist with the hand that concealed the key. Her features showed nothing but her hand wrapped around his fist and he got the sickening feeling that she knew he was hiding something in his hand.

"Do they not know how to feed people in your Tribe?" Camicazi asked, with a disdainful arch of her eyebrow.

"I went for the whole 'toothpick' look, figured the dragons would go for the meatier fellows."

Clearly the red haired woman did not pick up on the joke as she gave him a look that was filled with more disgust than the one she had offered to Alvin when he ordered her around. The arm that held him up was well muscled and strong, the kind of lean muscle that Hiccup had developed when he was riding Toothless. Holding him up with absolutely no trouble, Camicazi got Hiccup out of the room. Alvin left after them, locking the door behind him. Camicazi walked Hiccup out of the room and down one of the hallways as Alvin made his way onto the deck of the boat. Camicazi moved slowly down the hallway, much slower than she actually needed to do. Hiccup counted three agonizingly slow steps past when Alvin walked out onto the deck before Camicazi moved.

There was a jerk and suddenly Hiccup found himself slammed up against the wall, one of Camicazi's hands pressed against his mouth, her other pinning his wrist to the wall.

Camicazi glared at him, as her hand left his wrist to force his fingers apart, grabbing the key he was holding onto. She looked at the key on its lanyard before looking at him. Grabbing the collar of his shirt, Camicazi yanked him into the nearest room. There were two men standing there talking, both of whom fell silent as Camicazi dragged Hiccup into the room and held him upright by the collar of his shirt. For a moment no-one move.

"Get out!" Camicazi barked.

The men got out.

Camicazi dropped Hiccup to the ground before kneeling in front of him. Her fingers went to the laces of her vest. Hiccup watched as they sped down the length, pulling the dark fabric free. When it was open, she reached down and pulled up the bottom of the loose shirt she wore. The right side of her ribcage was a mess of scars, the kind of scars one got from being burned. The scar was faded and old and certainly not as large as it had once been,

"I got this when I was five, Stormfly had a cold," she said, dropping her shirt before shoving up the sleeves to show him three long claws that dragged along the length of her forearm, "I was seven when this happened the first time, thirteen when it happened again. Poison Darter, the first time it fired at me, the second it fired at a trainee. Twice I almost died," she pushed back her hair to show him a long, fine scar that decorated the line of her scalp, "this was from a Nadder when I was sixteen. What do these all tell you?"

"Maybe you should be more careful around dragons?" Hiccup began weakly before Camicazi yanked him up by the front of his shirt.

"I have been riding dragons my entire life! And suddenly just because you stumbled on a secret the rest of the world was already aware of you're suddenly some big damn hero. Look at you! You can't even stand properly!"

Hiccup gaped at her. Clearly she knew about the dragons and how they were no longer at war. But judging from the fire he saw in her eyes she was somewhat less than thrilled about the situation she found herself in. His surprise was replaced with anger as he realized that she had been aware of it but had let him think otherwise. Six people had died while she was figuring out whether or not she was going to tell him. Taking his weight onto his forearms, Hiccup pushed himself up and returned her glare.

"You know we're not at war with the dragons anymore?" he demanded, "why didn't you say anything?!"

"Because you're disgusting and pathetic," she snapped, "you've spent centuries hunting and killing dragons. Suddenly you figure to put one between your legs instead of running it through with an axe and you think you're smart? You don't even deserve to be called a dragon rider."

"I am a dragon rider," Hiccup snapped, glaring at her, "and when I get on my dragon its to do thing other than kill defenseless people!"

Camicazi looked down for a moment, her gaze and emotions hidden from him. But when she looked up she looked just as angry as the moment he had opened his mouth.

"I did what was necessary. And I made certain your foolish little dragon was not on the boat with them! But I suppose your love of dragons only extends to the ones capable of being ridden."

"That's not true," Hiccup said, "we made a mistake but we're trying to fix it--"

"And you think when those bones wash up on shore your brute of a father isn't going to kill every dragon on Berk?"

Hiccup looked up at her. He had felt the same fear but somehow hearing it on her mouth only served to make him angry. He knew Stoick would get angry, he might break some things too. But Hiccup had to believe that he wouldn't be stupid enough to go to war with the dragons of Berk--or not the dragons who had decided to come live with them. His father had to know that none of them had been the culprit for this. He just had to. He raised his chin defiantly and glared back up at her, feeling angrier at her and Alvin than he'd been in his entire life.

"My father is not a brute," he said, his voice trembling with anger.

"So you're waiting for your daddy to come and save you?" Camicazi questioned, disdain dripping from her tone, "some Clan Chief you're going to be."

"I'm not waiting for anyone to come and save me," Hiccup said, "but my father is going to come. Because on Berk we help each other. We're not perfect but we don't abandon each other," Camicazi opened her mouth angrily but Hiccup barreled over her, "and you see this?" he demanded, grabbing his pant leg and motioning to his missing leg, "I got that from Toothless, my dragon, while we were saving the world from another dragon."

Camicazi looked down at his missing leg, silent for a moment. Hiccup kept his hand tight on the leg of his pants. He had been sized up before, he knew what Camicazi was doing. The dragon rider was silent as she looked down at his missing leg. The hand that gripped his shirt slackened before being released completely. Slowly Camcazi redid the laces of her shirt, tucking it back into her pants and making sure that everything was secure. Reaching down she pulled him up to his feet but her movements were somewhat less rough than before. She walked him back to the cells. The others were all awake by the time she got there and pushed him into the cell. She locked it closed behind him before walking out of the room without so much as a second glance.

"Hiccup!" Hiccup turned as Astrid looked at him, "what happened?"

He quickly told her about the boxes and the blood and the fact that all this had to do with treasure. Astrid was quiet as he spoke, absorbing his words but he could tell that when she had woken up to find him missing she had been worried. When he got to the part about Camicazi she listened quietly to that too but the anger he saw in her eyes sparked at the mention of the girl hitting him and Hiccup got the strong impression that Astrid thought she was the only girl allowed to show him any kind of physical abuse.

"Did she give you back the key?" Astrid asked him.

"No," Hiccup said, "she's probably going to give it right back to Alvin."

Astrid nodded but she didn't look that convinced at what he had said.

"You don't think she's going to?" Hiccup asked looking at her curiously.

"I don't know," Astrid said, "you said she looked disgusted with him. People who look disgusted with others don't usually help them."

"I don't know what she's going to do with the key," Hiccup told the blonde girl, "it doesn't matter. We lost the key."

"Yeah," Astrid said, "but now we know why he wants us and what he's really after. And that means we're not totally in the dark anymore. That's a good thing."

Hiccup nodded. They had found something out. That was a good thing. He looked over at the others, Snotlout looked somewhat less than thrilled to have found out that he was the spare for Hiccup. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were lying side by side in their cages, Tuffnut was holding T.T. against his stomach while Ruffnut was watching them carefully. Fishlegs just looked miserable at the size of his cage. But they all looked moderately happier at the fact they had learned something from Hiccup's excursion looked at Astrid. She was sitting so that her back was to his against the iron work of the cage. Slowly Hiccup moved so that he was sitting with his back to hers, both pressing against the cage.

"How's your leg?" she asked finally.

"Its not bad," he said, "those buckles weren't too deep."

"That's good," Astrid said, "we'll be risking our necks as it is, I don't want to have to worry about you dying from an infection."

"Thanks," Hiccup said, "I appreciate it--"

"Who says its for you?" Astrid asked, "I just don't want Toothless to be mad at me. Bluebell looks up to him you know. If he gets angry with me she'll go right with him."

Hiccup smiled at the way she spoke. They both knew she had been worried about him and that he had broken down in front of her last night, but neither felt the need to make it obvious how they felt.

"I don't know," Hiccup said, "she got pretty defensive of you that day on the rocks."

Even though he couldn't see it, Astrid felt herself smile at his words. She had woken up to find him missing and immediately thought the worst. Even Tuffnuts words that the Captain had only wanted to speak to him had done nothing to make her feel better. Not after last night when he had fallen asleep holding her hand like it was the only real thing left in the world. The worst thing was that she had felt it before when he had gone off to face the huge dragon. She had thought he was going to die then but he had come back. And he had come back now as well. But the feeling of waiting, that was what Astrid found to be the worst. But he was there now, his back warm against hers even even through the iron of the cages they found themselves trapped in. His fingers slowly moved forward, his calloused hand settling as much on hers as the bars would allow.

"So what now?" Astrid asked, "you know what he wants, so what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to figure out a way to get us out of here," Hiccup said, "before my father and Toothless decide to start another war out of boredom."


Oh Alvin and Camicazi, you'd better get ready!

Hiccup's still not got a plan but he's moving towards being hopeful. Lets see where that takes him! In the next chapter or two we're gonna get off the boat! So Hiccup's gotten a bit angry, but he's not really sure what to do. I bet his friends can figure it out!

You guys kicked ass in the review department and look! You got an update! So lets do it again. You review and I'll update. So click the little button and review! Yes even you guys who added to fave and alert! You're being awesome so far, keep it up!

So please review!