Truth and Lies

*Hiccup's Point of View*

"It has been a week. A whole week, Hiccup! Where are our kids?" Fishlegs asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure. We are still working on that, okay? I am worried too," I replied, sitting down heavily in my chair at New Berk's council table. My hand moved to rub my neck out of habit. Everyone was in the Great Hall, the council's table set up at the front.

"I still think Zephyr has to know where they are," Heather commented.

My wife reached over and grasped my hand in hers. We hadn't been able to get Zephyr to talk.

"Ozzy is out there too! I just don't know why he'd leave with them. He just got here!" Dagur said, his voice sounded hurt.

"Hey, guys, we are the Dragon Riders! Those kids aren't helpless out there. They are our kids after all. Plus they have their dragons. We can send another search party tomorrow," I reminded them.

"Hiccup, no offense, but we have sent search parties every day since they left and we haven't seen any sign of them. And sure, they have dragons, but they are not as trained as we were when we went out on our own," Snotlout said. He didn't have any children of his own out there, but they were still his best friends' kids. He was worried too.

"I wouldn't worry too much. They are older than we were when we left. Well, all but Eira and Buffnut. But the others are a good three or more years older than we were. They are mature and know how to handle themselves. I know they are fine," Astrid said reassuringly. I glanced over at her appreciatively. She smiled and squeezed my hand.

There was a knock on the large wooden doors that had been locked for our meeting. The sound echoed through the vast room.

Eret jumped up and went to see who it was.

"Ah! Brandt! What brings you here?" he asked, letting the young man walk into the room.

"I have a few things to say," he said calmly.

We all sat down and let him stand before the table.

"You may speak when you are ready," I said.

"I just wanted to ask how the search was coming along. That and I want to say that I feel that Nuffink might need this time away. He seems to not be thinking clearly, what with accusing me of having the intent to betray Berk and all. I feel that Berk might do well to have a slight break from him. He is awfully young to be chief as well. He still has a lot of maturing to do, don't you agree?" Brandt asked.

I looked down at my lap. "I thought he was ready, but from recent circumstances, it appears you might be correct," I sighed. Nuffink didn't seem to be able to handle much pressure, and being a chief meant having a lot of pressure on you at all times.

"Okay, I agree with Brandt. We can let them all take some time. We will let them come back on their own time," I decided.

"Hiccup, I don't know, brother," Dagur started.

I held my hand up. "It's my decision," I responded.

Dagur frowned and stood up. "Last I checked we were both chiefs of this tribe," he said, anger hinting in his voice.

"We are, but this is a decision about the next chief of Berk. And that is going to be my son," I replied.

"What if Ozzy took over for me and Nuffink took over for you? This is still just as much my decision as it is yours!" Dagur said a little louder, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Dagur, brother, we don't even know your son. How do we know we can trust him?" I asked.

I immediately regretted what I said when I saw the hurt look on Dagur's face.

"Okay," he said, "So you get to trust your long lost son, who you have only known for a couple of weeks and only knew for less than an hour before you had to send him away, but we don't get to trust my son, who you have also only known for a few weeks, but I knew until he was four. I see how this works," he said angrily before grabbing his cloak and storming out of the building.

"Dagur, I didn't mean it like that!" I shouted behind him, but the door was already closing behind him.

"Damn it," I muttered. I felt Astrid's hand on my back and I turned to look at her.

"Everyone is dismissed. Go home," I said, waving my hand in the air in defeat.

Everyone was silent as they left.

"Mom, dad."

I looked up at my son. "Yes, son?" I asked.

"You are both exhausted. Why don't you take a break? I can handle things around here tomorrow if you want," he started.

"Brandt, son, I love you. I do. You're my son. But I can't let you take over as chief, even if it is only for a day," I said before he could get any further.

"I am just trying to help you," Brandt retorted defensively.

"I know, but it is just not something that can happen," Astrid said as gently as she could.

"I don't understand why you can't just trust me with this! It isn't that hard to just let me take over. You need a break!" Brandt pushed.

"No! Brandt, it isn't going to happen. I'm sorry. Nuffink is still my heir whether he needs some time or not. You cannot step up to the throne of Berk, no matter how much you want to," I responded firmly, standing to look him in the eye.

That's when I saw something in him that I hadn't seen before.

His eyes had a glint in them that I couldn't place. A smirk came across his face.

"Well, can't say I didn't try," he hissed before turning and walking out of the building.

When he was gone I turned around and looked at Astrid. She shrugged and shook her head.

Neither of us had seen him act like that before.

*Eira's Point of View

Okay, I know I am a viking, but I have never seen anyone actually die before. That was freaky.

I mean, one second the nice old man was there and the next he was on the ground DEAD! What in Thor's name…

And then Nuffink told us that the dart belonged to DRAGON HUNTERS! Frickin dragon hunters! I didn't know they were still around. Or maybe they were former dragon hunters and were just coming back to work for whoever Brandt was talking about. I don't know. Just thoughts.

After flying for a good half hour we finally saw the island the merchant had told us about. It was small. Not much was on it except for some trees and what looked like a little hut. It wasn't long before we were ready to land.

I pulled myself out of Buffnut's arms. He had been comforting me after that freak show back at the markets. I stepped back onto Dusk and we landed. Dusk stayed close by me as we walked toward the hut. It was actually a little bigger than it had seemed when we were flying in. There was a full forge on the back and there were weapon racks everywhere.

"Oh cool! Babe, check this out!" Buffnut said.

I turned and saw him holding a mace, but it was at least three times the normal size and had five times as many spikes. I laughed and started digging through the weapons. I found a spear that had spikes going all the way down the shaft all the way to the handle.

"Ha! Look at this one!" I said, turning to show my boyfriend. But when I turned around he was gone.

Then all of a sudden… "I challenge you to a duel!"

I turned around and saw my boyfriend. He was wearing armor that was much too big for him. The helmet covered his face and the chest plate was almost to his knees. The shinguards kept him from being able to walk easily. In his hands were the mace and an insanely long and heavy-looking sword. It had to be at least five feet long.

I couldn't help but laugh at the sight.

"Who fights with this stuff… giants?" Buff laughed.

I continued to laugh so hard at my boyfriend's antics I had to sit down.

"I don't know, but definitely not somebody your size, Buff," I said between laughs and gasps for air.

He grinned at me and started taking the armor off.

"Nuff we will have to remember where this is. Look at all this Gronckle iron!" I said to my brother, holding up a couple of Gronckle iron shields.

He turned and smiled. "For sure. This stash could be a great resource for us. We will have to find a way to make sure nobody finds it before we can come back with a ship," he commented.

I smiled, happy he actually agreed with me for once, and ran over to the rest of the team. Buffnut tried to follow, but still had the shinguards on and fell on his face.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked, brushing the stay strands of blonde hair out of my face.

"Well, I can hear the waterfall. It's this way," Ozzy said, pointing towards the treeline.

He had pulled his red hair back into a bun. Not many people can pull that look off but he can.

Nuffink nodded. "Lead the way, brother," he said.

Weird. That's what Dad calls Uncle Dagur. I didn't realize Ozzy and Nuffink were becoming friends. I liked it though. It was cute.

Ozzy smiled at my brother and we all started following him towards the waterfall. The forest was thick. Everyone had mounted their dragons so we could let them push the shrubs out of the way. Mila had gone up ahead with her Changewing, Phantom, and was spraying acid at anything that was too big to push out of the way. Ozzy was having a hard time getting his dragon to keep its heads together. He had a Zippleback, Dagdrom and Mareritt, and they kept getting stuck with trees between their heads. Zipplebacks were good dragons when it came to combat, but they weren't the brightest. Ozzy rode on Dagdrom, which meant Nightmare. It was fitting for that head. He said that his sister was Mareritt's, which meant Daydream, rider.

Nosey was getting distracted by every new smell that crossed his path. It was quite humorous watching Buff try to redirect him.

The sound of the waterfall grew louder and louder until we finally saw it. It was large. I'm not sure how we hadn't seen it flying in. Maybe because of the heavy tree cover? I don't know. The water was clear and shimmered in the sunlight. The lake at the bottom looked like glass and had beautiful plants growing around it.

"Where do you think the map is?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. Split up, team! The merchant said it was behind some rocks," Nuffink instructed.

"Leave no stone unturned!" Buff shouted, immediately laughing at his joke. I rolled my eyes but chuckled just the same.

We all split up and looked around, behind every rock, under every stone, pushed aside every boulder.

"All I have found so far is a bunch of bugs," I grumbled.

"Same here, babe," Buffnut said. I grinned and stepped closer to him.

"There are other things we could do…" I said, kissing his cheek.

Buff smiled and turned his head to kiss me.

His lips were chapped, but I couldn't care less. My hands slid up to the back of his neck, trailing my fingers in circles at the nape.

"For Thor's sake, guys! Knock it off!" Mila shouted, throwing a stick at us.

"Throw something else at me! I dare you!" I shouted, breaking away from Buffnut.

"Eira, Buff, just keep looking for the map," Nuffink sighed, running his hand down his face.

"I've got it!" Ragnhild shouted.

Yes! We all ran over to her. She had found it hidden in a rock that had been hollowed out behind the waterfall. She had opened the map and had spread it over the rock.

"Look at this thing. It must be extremely old. The paper is yellow and quite brittle," Ozzy observed.

"There," Mila said, pointing to a circled island.

"That's where we need to go," Nuffink said.

"But where is there?" I asked.

"Nuff, do you think your dad might have some old maps back at the Edge?" Ragnhild asked.

"Only one way to find out," Nuffink said, rolling the map up. He tucked it safely in Dawn's saddlebag and we all started making our way back to the hut.

"Hey, Nuffink, so there could be a bunch of hunters on this island, right?" I asked.

"Yes, why?" my brother asked, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

"So we should be able to defend ourselves, yes?" I continued.

Nuffink sighed. "FIne! We can take some of the weapons. One each!" he said, quickly adding the limit.

Buff and I hurriedly ran to the racks and looked through the weapons. They were expertly crafted; very impressive work. I dug around until I found a belt with several daggers hooked into it.

"Perfect!" I muttered, hooking it around my waist. My aim was impeccable, just like my mom's.

"Eira, I said one!" Nuffink said.

"The belt is my weapon! These were just attached to it!" I said quickly.

Nuffink shook his head at me, but I guess he decided to let it slide.

"I've got mine!" Buffnut shouted, holding up a large mace. He is so adorable.

Nuffink slung a bow and a quiver of Gronckle iron-tipped arrows across his back. Mila added another ax to her ever-growing collection. Ozzy picked a crooked sword. It could definitely tear some people up if the need came up. And finally, Ragnhild picked up a long leather whip.

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked.

Ragnhild smiled and turned to Nuffink, who wasn't paying attention. He was looking at a sword. She raised the whip and with a simple flick of her wrist she had wrapped the end around the sword and had pulled it from my brother's grasp and onto the ground. All this happened in a matter of seconds.

My jaw dropped. So did Nuffink's. How come I didn't know my future sister-in-law was such a badass? That was crazy!

I looked around at my team. We were ready for whatever came at us next.