Hey there readers. So in the last chapter, we saw a huge chase between the group and some of their pursuers with the group emerging victorious in the battle and escaping the canyon back out into the desert, and in this chapter, they will come across a place that they are heading for, and a few surprises along the way. Anyway, I hope you like the results of my work, enjoy.

Chapter 20

It had been a short time after the group had escaped the canyon as they continued to ride through the desert, with Merida and Hiccup feeling optimistic that they will reach their destination soon, and that the journey will be over. Merida, feeling like she had been riding for a while, had decided to walk while her horse followed next to her. Hiccup walked as well with Toothless at his side, and observing where they would go next with the map since he was closer to Merida. Hansel, Gretel, Puss, Kitty, and Django stayed on their horses to keep an eye out for anything while everybody else was on the wagon. Some of the teens, mostly Snotlout, were starting to have doubt that they would ever make it to their destination, except for Fishlegs, who was keeping an eye outside of the wagon.

"Ugh, we've been out here forever" Snotlout complained "Let's just give it all up and go home"

"Snotlout we've come too far to turn back now" Merida said to the Viking teen "Besides, according to the map we should walk for a mile longer, until we reach a small stone, then a trail of them will lead into the ruins of the village where the two lovers moved to and died in"

"You don't know what you're talking about" Snotlout said "We have been shot at, trailed for who knows how long, Astrid has stitches in her chest, and besides, you don't even know if those Gemstones are real!"

"That's why we're out here in the first place" Hiccup said "You may not believe that they're real, but Merida and I do"

"I think that they're real" Astrid added.

"I do too" Fishlegs added "This could be the biggest thing that we've ever gone after"

"Besides, they're doing this for family" Puss added "And that is just about the most important thing in someone's life" Snotlout tried to think of something to say, but he couldn't, so he just went back into the wagon and sat back down.

"This better be worth it when we make it" Snoutlout said quietly. Merida knew what they were thinking, as they had come a long way.

"I understand that this has been a long journey for all of us, and most of you are homesick, especially me" Merida said to the group "But don't worry. Since we're heading the way that the map says to go, we'll be there faster than you can say-" before she could finish her sentence, her foot felt something on the ground and she tripped. She let out a yelp as she fell down forward onto the ground, getting sand onto the front of her dress before she put her hand on the ground trying to get up. Hiccup rushed over to her, and everybody else stopped the horses so they could get off and help her up.

"Are you alright" Kitty asked Merida who was getting off the ground slowly.

"Yes I'm fine" Merida said "Just some sand on me but other than that I'm fine" she dusted the sand off her dress as everybody got out of the wagon.

"What did you trip on anyway?" Astrid asked her.

"I don't know" Merida replied "It was hard like a rock and it made me trip"

"Is that what it looks like" Ruffnut said pointing over to a small stone that was sticking out of the ground.

"I think so" Merida replied. She looked at the stone thinking that she should have been more careful, but after examining it a little more closely, something came into her mind "Wait, could it?" She got up and moved closer to the small rock that she had tripped on and saw that there were several markings on it that looked like the stone with the markings on the map.

( watch?v=AVUZiLFPJhc)

"Hiccup, do you think that this stone looks like the one on the map" Merida asked Hiccup. The Viking looked back at the map and saw that there was a stone similar to that one on the map.

"Yeah, it does" Hiccup replied "There should be a trail of them though"

"There is, look" Puss said pointing out another rock that looked the same, but slightly bigger.

"There are two of them" Kitty said.

"Actually there's more than two" Django said. They all looked and saw that there was a small trail of the stones that led through an area of scattered trees.

"Where do you think they go?" Astrid asked.

"Well, only one way to find out" Hiccup said. He began to walk in the direction of the trail while speeding up with Toothless following him from behind, and everybody else following suite. As they moved through the trail, the stones began to become bigger and bigger as if they were originally part of something that led into the village. The teens and the others of the group followed going through the trail as fast as they could, until they made it to an opening that revealed a sight that caught every ones eye. In front of them were the ruins of a massive village that was just down the hill that they were up. Hiccup looked at the map, and saw that they had finally reached their destination, which Merida felt as well. They both smiled and began to rush down the hill in excitement as the rest of the group followed them from behind as they could see the old ruins of the village, Toothless ran up to Hiccup and Merida as the two teens stopped in their tracks in the stone center of the village and looked around the ruins, which had some rubbles of what appeared to be a small castle where the person in charge of the village use to reside, followed by the rest of the group that stopped right behind them.

"It looks like we made it after all" Django said.

"Yeah, but we can't find the graves" Hiccup said.

"What do you mean?" Kitty asked them.

"On the map it says that it was buried with the two lovers who were put in two separate graves with the Gemstones in each grave" Merida explained "The only thing is we don't know where those graves are"

"Everyone spread out and see if you can find two graves" Hiccup said "One has the Berk crest, and the other has the Dunbroch symbol" soon, everyone split up, looking around the ruins to see if they can find the two graves. Toothless went with Hiccup and sniffed around to see where it was. Kitty and Puss looked high and low behind every hut, stone ruin, stable and wrecked house that was around, and everybody else checked everywhere as well through the ruins as they remained optimistic about finding the gemstones. They looked and looked until suddenly, they heard Astrid calling out from the distance.

"I found them!" Astrid called out "Over here" everybody stopped looking and followed the sound of her voice up the hill. Hiccup and Merida's hearts began to pound and minds began to race as they all ran up as fast as they could, with Toothless right beside them, Hansel and Gretel with some of the teens, and Puss and Kitty running on all fours right next to each other so that they could get there faster. They found Astrid, who was on a small hill right across from the stone ruins that had one big tree in the center of it, they all went up the hill, which wasn't that big and found Astrid where she was looking at the site she had just found for all of the group to see. They looked and sure enough, there were two gravestones made of wood right next to each other underneath the tree. One had the Dunbroch symbol on it, and the other had the Berk crest. Merida and Hiccup smiled as they looked at what was before them.

"Well, we finally made it" Merida said, clearly excited and happy "After our long journey and all the trouble we have been through we've finally made it"

"It looks like they buried it deep" Hiccup said noticing how the ground in front of the graves looked as if it had never been dug up before, probably due to the long time that the two people had been buried "We should get some shovels"

"I'll get them" Astrid said. As she quickly headed off down the hill.

"I'll come with you" Gretel called out to Astrid before she decided to come down with her. Everybody else stayed up on the hill to keep an eye on the graves and the cats used their paws to dig up as much as they could, but not as much so that they could save their energy.

Meanwhile, back at the spot where they stopped the wagon and horses, Astrid and Gretel were getting the shovels out of the wagon, while they were having a little conversation as well.

"It looks like you guys are excited now that you've found those gemstones" Gretel said.

"Yeah" Astrid replied "I'm glad for Hiccup and Merida, they'll be able to see each other a lot more, and we'll get to see them a lot more too"

"I'm glad" Gretel said before changing the subject "How's that wound" Astrid looked down at the area where the wound was and then back at Gretel.

"It's a little sore, but I bet it will get better" Astrid replied "I'm glad that arrow you gave to Merida got rid of those witches that were after us"

"Not exactly" Gretel said to Astrid "That arrow did get rid of them, but I asked her to aim for the other witches so that it would throw their leader off course"

"So I guess that she will still be coming here for those gemstones as well then" Astrid said.

"Yeah" Gretel replied. They were both grabbing the shovels and tying the horses to the back of the wagon, where they set off, and headed through the trail and down the hill to the rest of the group. Unknown to them however, Marcos was trudging along in the sand, seeing them head back to the group as he loaded his gun.

Back at the site, Astrid and Gretel got back to the group with the shovels in their hands where they saw that the cats were exhausted from digging some of the dirt, as they were buried deep, and handed some shovels to Hiccup, Merida, and Hansel to finish the job. Django was sitting near a rock that was right next to the tree to keep an eye out for any intruders, the teens were watching as the people were digging, and the cats were resting after doing their part. As the two cousins and Hansel were digging, Merida's shovel soon hit something hard and wooden and they all knew that they were getting close.

"I just hit something" Merida said to the others as she continued to dig and wipe the sand away from the grave. As Hansel was digging, and hit the grave, he noticed that there was a box attached to the top of the grave, and Merida and Hiccup noticed this with the other grave as well.

"Do you see this box?" Hansel asked the two cousins.

"Yeah we do" Hiccup said "Must be where they put the gemstones"

"It's like they knew we were going to find them" Merida said to them. Suddenly, they heard a shot that rang out into the air and hit the tree, everybody soon reacted and grabbed whatever they could get to defend themselves. The people that were digging the graves heard this and got up to see what was going on.

"Everybody find a place for cover" Django ordered the group. They all replied and hid behind the ruins of a stone wall, some rocks, and a pillar as they all looked out to see who was coming. In the distance, they saw Marcos Cortez walking down the hill and heading straight to where they stopped.

"Ugh, not this guy again" Hansel said under his breath, however he knew that Django was looking at him in interest, waiting to come out and reveal himself. Not far from where he was, the group noticed something in the distance flying towards them and saw Vesta had made her way through the desert and made it to the site.

"Could this day get any better" Merida said sarcastically. She aimed her weapon out as well as Hansel and Gretel, as the group were soon out in the open with their weapons out right where Marcos and Vesta could see them, waiting as they stopped a good distance away from them, with everybody's weapons trained on the two pursuers.

I'm going to stop right here as a cliffhanger, but I assure you that it will continue in the next chapter. I hope you guys liked it, and Fun fact, the scene in this chapter will be reminiscent to a scene in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" with the exact same music from the scene that appears in this chapter that I decided to include. Anyway, the next chapter will be filled with big, suspenseful, and revealing moments that just might surprise you, and then after that, I may write a little epilogue to save some time. Please review and I will update soon, see ya.