As dragon and rider descended to the land of their island, their attention was caught by the distant rumble of thunder, rolling over the previously silent sky with echoed power, Hiccup cast a wary glance around the surroundings, feeling the atmosphere grow dark with ill intent growing inside the storm. Emerald eyes tainted by the faintest curse of fear scanning the world beyond as they came closer to the saftey of land. "It's ok bud." He patted the stressed dragons neck reassuringly, sensing the growing distress of his companion.

Not the second had his paws connected to the stone and dirt was the dragon noticeably beginning to relax, if only slightly, and being in the presence of his family helped to ease his nerves. The last time he had heard thunder like this, with this much raw power, and creating such an ill, dark atmosphere was decades before even the War that tore apart his flock, before the queen; this was one of the darkest atmosphere's for many, many decades, and the last time the world had been this cursed with ill intent and raw power was one of the worst times in Midgard's. It didn't take alot for Hiccup to realise that it wasn't just Toothless who was on edge about the storm. Mystery as well seemed really stressed.

"Toothless, you ok bud?" He knelt infront of his dragon, looking him in the eyes. The shadowy creature shook his head in a no. "What's wrong?"

"You... You won't understand. You weren't even born then. Just because we're the same age doesn't mean we age the same. A year to us is like centuries to you." Toothless sighed at that thought. To him, that basically meant that he didn't have much time with Hiccup. Humans didn't live even a fraction of a dragons lifespan. "You won't get it. You won't understand it."

"Understand what?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." He looked away from Hiccup, preparing to walk off, before he sighed. "I'm not ready to talk about it... I need to be left alone for a bit." After saying that, he walked away without turning back. Hiccup made an attempt to pursue the dragon, but Mystery quickly intervened.

"Trust me Hiccup... It's better if you leave him alone." Her voice had dipped slightly, sounding duller and less lively than it used to, not to mention she, and, for that matter, even Flint and Tinder were sulking due to the storm.

"It's the bad booms." Tinder commented aloud. The two ash twins slowly stalked their way down beside Mystery, Hiccup and Heather, whom had just dismounted Mystery to stand beside Hiccup. Both humans looked at Tinder with eyebrows raised in curiousity.

"The bad booms?" She repeated with confusion.

Flint nodded. "The doom booms."

"Still don't get it."

"You wouldn't... It's, not something I really like thinking about. There's.. Alot of things you don't understand about dragons Hiccup.. This is one of them.." There was something she was holding back, her downcast expression gave it away.

"Mystery, what is it?" Heather fretted, kneeling infront of her draconic sister. The dragon shook her head to rid her thoughts and clear her mind.

"It's nothing... Just, got caught uo thinking about something..."

"What?"

"It's.. Nothing, I'm going to go check up on Toothless. I'm worried about him. Trust me, I'll be fine. Toothless won't hurt me." She sounded so confident, giving a reassuring smile, she took off in the direction Toothless had retreated, stopping only to glare playfully at Flint and Tinder. "Please try not to blow everything up boys."

"No -"

"- Promises." Flint finished off for his brother. Mystery simply shook her head, muttering to herself something about the twins. The second she was out of sight, Flint and Tinder shared a crafty look at each other. "You guys want -"

"- To help us on a -"

"- Project we're working on, there'll be alot of booms." They looked at the two humans with toothy grins. The couple just looked at each other with glances that combined confusion, curiousity and absolute fear, before both looking at the twins with the same expression.

"What?!"

~..~

"Draco, how hard can it be to find a Nightfury?" She slashed at another exposed tree-root in frustration. "The one time I actually need to fucking find him he's nowhere to be found. Just my bloody luck. How'd you lose a whole goddamn dragon?" She headbutted the tree with an annoyed groan, proceeding only to sharply pull away and rub it with her foreleg. "That's one strong ass tree."

"Probably because it was my back." 'Oh, there he is' Honestly, how she didn't notice him earlier made her feel quite dumb, he didn't exactly blend in with the surroundings. He dropped from the branch he was hanging from by his tail, landing on his feet to walk away without looking at Mystery.

"Hey, where are you going? I was just looking for you." She began walking after him, trailing behind. The male looked over his shoulder at the female with a playful smirk on his face.

"Knew you couldn't resist me." He joked. The NightHowler only rolled her eyes, allowing a small giggle to escape her.

"Ha, sorry to burst your bubble T, but you aint all that good." She rebuttled his joke.

Toothless scoffed playfully, "Oh please, you just can't handle me." He turned back to her with a wink. While this wasn't what she went after him to do, if it was keeping occupied and keeping him from thinking about the Storm, it was worth it, and she knew it was working, one quick look into his fire-soul told that much.

"Yeah, sorry big boy, but I think it's YOU who can't handle me." She topped it off with a very playful pose. If he wanted to flirt, she might as well join in, not like they had much else to do.

"Ohoh is that so girl." He turned on his feet and was now facing her, a smirk on his face. "I'm pretty sure you're a little confused."

"Don't get your hopes up mate."

"Same can be said for you." He shifted into a more cocky and proud pose. Mystery looked him up and down, unimpressed. "Haha, see, you can't resist me." He purred playfully at her.

"Don't get excited T." She winked at him, flustering the male; Toothless quickly shifted his posture, now feeling embarrassed by her comment. This girl was just as bad as him sometimes. "Awwwh, you shy?" He snarled at her, still smiling slightly.

"Shut up."

"Awww, the big brave Nightfury is all shy around a girl."

"Shuuut up." He whined, not looking at her.

"Awwww, you're sooo cute. You little cutie."

"Pleaase stoooo it." He hadn't noticed that she had walked a little closer to him to tease him more. When he finally did look at her, he seemed to just freeze, so did she. They just stood there, looking at each other, trying to read eachother's fire-souls, but being unable to. As if acting on instinct, the pair of them slowly closed the distance between them, only for a echoing roar of thunder to snap them both back into the present, startling Toothless with a yelp.

"Come on, let's find a cave or something."

"Why not just head back to the others." The male shook his head, sighing sadly.

"N-no.. I-I.. I n-need to talk to you.. in private anyway..." His voice had adopted a sense of fear she had heard very few times before. "Come on." He gestured with his head in a direction, and the pair of dragons walked side by side in silence, looking for a cave.

~...~

"Flint! Stop it! Oh for Thor's sake! Dragons, help me out here will you please!" Hiccup shouted over the explosions. All the other dragons were just laying on the ledge above where he and Heather were pathetically trying to stop the pyromanic twins.

"What? You're doing just fine Hiccup, I don't see a problem at all." Stormfly, of ALL the dragons was the one who decided not to help him out. Out of all of them, he expected that from Hookfang, Barf and Belch.

"Fine?" He ducked under the debris from another explosion. "Does this!" He gestured at the mess to the right of them "look fine!" The dragons just nodded at him."

"Yeah, it looks ok to me." Hookfang snickered.

"If you help me stop these pair you get an extra basket of fish every feed for a whole year." It didn't take much convincing after that, every single dragon perked up, glaring at the twins like they were the most evil dragons ever, roaring at them. A few seconds later, and there were no more explosions, only a massive crater in the side of a mountain. "Thank you." He dusted himself off, walking over to them with Heather and leaning against the stone, Heather sitting beside him and resting her head against his shoulder.

She sighed, interlocking her hand with his to ease her mind. She was worried about Toothless and Mystery, they both seemed rather uneasy and stressed before they left, and she didn't know why, or how to calm them down. This is ignoring the fact she was still having thoughts about the truth. She looked at Hiccup out the corner of her eye, then diverted her attention to the ground ashamed.

The truth would hurt him so much. The truth of who she was, of what she was, even if she threw that life away, ran from that version of her, it was still part of who she was. Hiccup would find out sooner or later, and she feared the damage. What she felt for him was genuine and real, the idea that she could so easily lose him scared her so much.

She'd keep it a secret for as long she could, but when she had the courage, and her explanations ready, she'd talk to him about it. Lover's don't keep secrets like these from each other, better the truth be told by her voice and not found out by someone of her past. "I love you Hiccup." She snuggled into the crook of his neck.

"I love you too Heather." He wrapped his arm around her and snuggled her closer against him with a smile. This girl was something special, someone he couldn't ever think about getting rid of. She was everything he loved: honest, truthful, and loyal, everything he thought he saw in Astrid. The blonde still held some place in his memory, despite her joining in with the bullying on occassion, he knew she wasn't a bad girl deep down, none of them were truly. He always wondered about whether he could've made friends with them, he was kinda doing that during Training after meeting Toothless. They weren't half as bad as they seemed, and, truth be told he did kinda miss them.