Hiccup and the others were sailing towards the Upper Yard to rescue their friends from being sacrificed.
"I really hope that Arial is all right," said Snotlout and looked at Hiccup. "I mean she's gone have held up a when the White Berets catch up with her and it's your fault."
"Our fault," Ragnar corrected.
"I'm not sure we can trust that Sky Knight, I mean he gives me the creeps," said Snotlout.
"I admit he's a bit odd, but I wouldn't say he's a bad guy," said Hiccup.
"Not as if we had any other choice, I mean it's not like we could have brought her along," said Ragnar.
"Funny thing is she's probably less danger than us," said Hiccup.
"It makes me wish that I was flying off with the old geezer," said Snotlout.
"Can this thing go any slower?" Ruffnut asked.
"Yeah, it would be faster swimming," said Tuffnut.
"Of course it slower, it's got to be several times heavier than a standard waver what did you expect?" said Ragnar.
They then got off the Milky Road and soon found themselves on a new highway and that's when they saw Upper Yard. It was just like Fishlegs described it, an island with huge trees the biggest they had ever seen.
"Whether that huge forest come from?" said Snotlout.
"Is this Upper Yard?" Ragnar stared.
"Fishlegs wasn't exaggerating when he described it," said Hiccup and then he pulled out the map. "They are supposed to be a forest on the island, but it did not indicate how big it is."
"That can't be right," said Snotlout leaning over his shoulder.
"Who knows how old that map is, we know it could be traced back a few hundred years. But who's to say it has been around longer," said Ragnar. "The forest may have been a fraction of the size when that map was made."
"Either way it's safe to assume we've arrived at our destination," said Hiccup.
They soon came into view of the entrance which had several statues similar to the one they saw on Freya Street and burning torches.
"This must be the entrance," said Tuffnut.
"An entrance to a deep dark forest? Burning torches and creepy-looking statues? Yeah, I say that is a safe bet," said Ragnar.
They carefully drive through the entrance, not entirely sure what to expect and then they heard a strange sound.
"What was that?" Snotlout asked looking around wildly.
Hiccup looked at him. "Calm down."
"He's right, take it easy," said Ragnar.
"Engage you to have noticed were sailing through a graveyard," Snotlout pointed.
Sadly he was right, they were sailing past a good number of ships certainly bigger than the one they were riding on and it looked as if they had been sliced in half by something very sharp.
"These things weren't run aground, they were sliced in half," said Snotlout. He then heard a rustling in the bushes. "Did you hear that?"
"The forest is full of noises, relax," said Hiccup.
Then suddenly they saw a giant blade swinging down towards them, fortunately the twins grabbed the paddles and road just out of its path in time. They watched as the blade swung towards one of the sunken ships and sliced clean through it.
"Booby traps," said Hiccup.
"Here comes another one!" Snotlout cried.
"No, not just one," said Ragnar as he heard multiple sounds.
"Paddle like crazy!" Hiccup yelled.
Ragnar and Snotlout then grabbed a paddle and helped the twins with panelling as the giant blade kept on swinging down towards them. Hiccup was doing the best he could with steering, but it wasn't the easiest boat to steer.
"What the hell is this?" Ragnar yelled.
"Go faster!" Ruffnut yelled.
"No slower!" Tuffnut yelled.
"This isn't working," said Hiccup and got up. "Snotlout take the wheel!"
Hiccup then quickly took on his hybrid form and sat in the rear of the boat.
"What you doing it in front of us?" Snotlout yelled gesturing to the blade swinging towards them.
"I know just hang on!" Hiccup yelled and began taking a deep breath. "Plasma Blast!"
Hiccup fired a plasma blast directly at the water and created enough of an updraught to launch them into the air allowing them to fly over the blade.
"Dodged it," said Hiccup.
"That was close," said Snotlout.
They landed back on the water and began skidding, but then they heard the sound of the machinery.
"Great there's more," Ragnar groaned.
However this time it wasn't swinging blades but rather wooden spears firing towards them one of them even struck the deck.
"Spears? Are you kidding me?" Snotlout stared.
Hiccup and Ragnar were doing everything they could to put the spears away from them, though that wasn't easy with Snotlout turning left and right at the moment's notice. There again if he hadn't moved so quickly they probably would have been struck by the spears by now, they just kept coming.
"They won't stop," said Ragnar.
"One of them is bound ahead is eventually!" Snotlout yelled.
"I've got this," said Hiccup as he turned to face the bow. "Plasma Barrage!"
Hiccup fired a barrage of plasma blasts at the spears hitting every single one in rapid succession. This created a safe path for them and they managed to overcome yet another booby-trap.
"That was close," said Ragnar.
"I hope that all over, not sure I can take any more," said Snotlout.
They then heard a groaning sound and saw something shiny heading straight towards them.
"You had to say it," said Hiccup.
Then suddenly shooting towards them was a spinning razor-sharp disc. Snotluot quickly turned that we only just managed to avoid it as it spun right past them.
"It's gone," said Tuffnut.
"Not yet," said Ragnar as he saw the disc spinning back around like a boomerang. "It's coming right back!"
They all began to panic as the disc got close and closer towards them.
At the same time, Astrid and the others had been dropped off in some sort of altar by the lobster. No sooner had it dropped them off the lobster sank back into the water and left them.
"Can't believe that overgrown crustacean just dropped it out in the middle of nowhere," said Toothless.
"Does anyone know where we are?" Chopper asked.
"One thing is for certain, we're definitely somewhere in the middle of Upper Yard," said Fishlegs.
Heather examined the altar. "This appears to be some sort of altar for sacrifices."
"Sacrifices?" Astrid groaned. "Why am I not surprised."
"Astrid what's sacrifice?" Chopper asked.
"It's an offering to the gods," Astrid explained.
"Oh, is that all? I thought it meant being boiled alive in a big stew or something," said Chopper looking somewhat relieved.
"Actually that's about right," said Heather. "But regardless of the method, the thing being offered is generally someone's life."
"Are you trying to tell me were all going to die here?" Chopper panicked.
Chopper then lost his balance and fell off the side of the ship and began bouncing down the stairs towards the ocean.
"Chopper!" Fishlegs cried.
"Dammit," said Toothless as he jumped down after him.
Heather managed to grab him before he touched the ocean by summoning a pair of arms of the base of the stairs. However, he was an out of the woods as immediately erupting from the sea was a giant sharklike creature.
It would have eaten Chopper with one bite if Toothless hadn't swooped in and struck it with his blades.
"Oh no, what's that?" Fishlegs quivered.
"A shark in the sky," said Heather.
"A sky shark?" Astrid shrugged.
Chopper wasted no time and ran back up towards the ship and looked back at Toothless as both he and the shark fell towards the sea.
"Toothless! Toothless!" Chopper cried.
Toothless swam into the water, luckily his people had larger lung capacity than that of humans and with his scales, he would be able to withstand the pressure for a short time. Normally his eyesight would be sharp enough underwater, but this wasn't normal water and it was more like it was swimming through fog/
'I can't see anything down here,' he said as he looked around. 'Where is it?'
He then sensed movement within the water behind and quickly turned and saw the sky shark swimming towards him. He managed to move away just in time to avoid getting swallowed, but he quickly did a U-turn and slammed him with its nose.
Toothless may be able to last longer in water, but his movement was still sluggish. 'I'm out of my element, I can't manoeuvre like I can on land.'
He then braced himself as the sky shark slammed its jaws on top of him, he pushed against its jaw with all his might as they swam upwards.
Hiccup and the others weren't having any better luck as the spinning disc was coming back towards them. Snotlout quickly spun the wheel just in time to avoid getting sliced.
"It missed us," he said relieved. However, when he looked up he saw the disc flying back towards them. "Not again!"
They avoided it once again and then watched as the disc sliced through too thick tree trunks. If that thing hit them they wouldn't stand a chance, even Hiccup coating his dragon scales.
"I'm getting sick of this place," said Snotlout. "There's no way we're going to make it out of here! We should turn back right now!"
"And abandon Astrid and the others, I don't think so," said Hiccup firmly.
"Even if we do turn back, there's no guarantee that we'll survive the trip back," Ragnar pointed out.
The disc then flew back down towards them once again and once again they narrowly missed it, but they can keep dodging forever.
"Doesn't that thing ever quit?" Snotlout yelled.
"This island is awesome," said Tuffnut.
"Yeah, with danger any turn what kind of adventurer would pass up the chance to explore this place?" said Ruffnut.
"How about you two muttonheads marvel about this deathtrap on your own time!" Snotlout yelled.
He then turned the wheel dodging the blade once more and they quickly grabbed paddles to get some extra speed as it came right back towards them.
"That only gives us one choice," said Hiccup. "Tried to outrun it!"
Snotlout turned the wheel once more avoiding the disc which went straight through the middle of a tree and created a new trench in the ground behind it. They braced itself for its boomerang return, but there was no trace of it.
"I think we finally outran it," said Snotlout breathing a sigh of relief. "But now it's too late to turn back, we can't even see the entrance anymore!"
"You could always stay here," Tuffnut suggested.
"I die!" Snotlout snapped.
"Guys, we've got a new problem!" Ragnar yelled.
They quickly looked ahead of them and then saw what appeared to be a giant leach swimming towards them. Ragnar quickly reacted by launching himself into the end dealing it a powerful kick just beneath its jaw as it pounced on them. He managed to strike it with enough force causing it to land in the sea behind them.
"Was that a big snake?" Ruffnut asked.
"Looks like a giant lamprey, sky lamprey I guess," said Ragnar. "And one that they would do more than suck a little blood."
"Neatest just forest ever!" Tuffnut beamed.
"Neatest forest might butt," Snotlout muttered. "If this is our so-called ordeal then I quit!"
"We can't quit now we just got here," said Hiccup.
"We have to keep moving," Ragnar agreed. "We can't spend more time on this Milky Road the necessary otherwise we're asking for certain death."
On the Going Tiger, Astrid and the others were afraid something terrible happened with Toothless as he happened to emerge from the water just yet.
"What happened to him?" Chopper stared.
"I should swim down and investigate," said Astrid.
Fishlegs stopped her. "Astrid, you and Toothless are the only capable fighters we have. We need you do protect the ship."
Astrid was about to argue when suddenly the sky shark shot out of the water with Toothless in its jaw.
"There he is!" Chopper cried.
"Toothless!" Astrid yelled.
"It's all my fault!" Chopper whimpered. "What if we get swallowed?"
They watched as they dived back into the sea once more and then waited in apprehension for him to emerge. 30 seconds passed and there was no sign of him and they began to fear the worst.
"Why hasn't he come back up?" Chopper asked. "Toothless please be okay!"
"You don't think he got eaten do you?" Fishlegs asked.
"Toothless is fish food!" Chopper cried.
"Don't jump to conclusions," said Astrid. "There's no way he would let some overgrown fish eat him."
"And the sea would have turned red if he had been killed," Heather added.
"How can you two be so calm at a time like this?" Fishlegs stared.
Toothless was indeed alive and was having a bit of a wrestling match with the sky shark.
'I'm so done with you!' He yelled and punched it as hard as he could.
He punched it so hard that both he and the sky fish shot out of the sea much to their shock. His blow had been powerful enough to knock the sky shark unconscious and he emerged from the water climbing up the steps of the altar though he looked pretty worn out.
"I can tell you one thing," he groaned as he stepped onto the altar. "We are not going to make it across by swimming."
"I'm so glad that you're okay," said Chopper looking relieved.
They then saw fins cutting through the water indicating there was an entire school of sea sharks beneath the waves.
"There's an entire school of them! What are we going to do?" Chopper cried.
"I'm not sure, but if that first one was any indication we're not going have much luck fighting them off," said Toothless.
"We've got to do something," said Heather. "We can't stay here forever."
"If leaving us here was that lobster's kind of a joke, it's not very funny," said Toothless.
"More than likely this is the Valhalla's Judgement we've been hearing so much about," said Astrid.
"Except you would think this card would try something flashier don't you think?" said Toothless.
"Can't say I have never met the guy."
Toothless examined the ship and saw that the hull was damaged. "Not sure what the solution is, but we definitely can't set sail with the hull looking like this."
Astrid looked at the hull and saw the problem, she then looked up at Chopper. "Chopper, trying figure way out of fix the ship."
"Uh, me?" Chopper blinked.
"Why should he fix it?" Fishlegs asked. "Are you going somewhere?"
"Toothless and I to explore the forest, we should make this place our base of operations," said Astrid. "While we're gone you guys can keep a lookout, I'm positive that Hiccup and the others making their way here as we speak."
Heather began examining the writing on the altar with great intrigue.
"Astrid if you want to go into the forest that's okay with me, but what you plan on doing?" Chopper asked.
"We need to know our surroundings and we certainly can't do that from here," said Astrid. "There's a good chance that this Enel will attack us and I want every advantage we can get our hands on."
"We might even find this god," said Toothless.
"And what are you supposed to do when you find him?" Fishlegs asked.
"Don't know, depends whether he behaves himself," Toothless shrugged.
"What about his Gothar, are you going to beat them up as well? Personally, the last thing we need right now is pissing off a god."
"Regardless, it would be a good idea to know about the surrounding area," said Astrid. "Plus it wouldn't be a bad idea to get some extra supplies, the ones on the ship will last forever."
"Besides I don't believe in gods, why should I be afraid of pissing one-off anyway?" Toothless added.
"We're so dead," Fishlegs moaned.
Hiccup and the others were still making their way through the Milky Road.
"Come on can't this little cruise be over already?" Snotlout grumbled.
"Over we've only just begun," said Hiccup. "More than likely those traps were nothing more than a warmup. Last time I checked was opposed to be fighting against these Gothar that are waiting for us so well the island."
"You mean to tell me, that none of what we've gone through has anything to do with actual ordeal?" Snotlout stared.
"No clue, but I kind of doubt it especially considering the magnitude of that attack back at the docks," said Ragnar. "No idea how it works, but it is serious power. Take even one-hit and you're a goner."
Snotlout was getting even more nervous.
"This Enel shouldn't be taken lightly and I get the extinct impression he's watching as even now," said Hiccup.
"That's weird," said Tuffnut.
"So you think he was in that town?" Ruffnut asked.
"I'm guessing he must have been, to attack as accurately as he did," said Hiccup.
"Not necessarily, this is a guard were talking about Ike that he can see 100 miles away," said Snotlout. "Heck, he's probably even watching us now."
"Actually none of the elves have called him a god, the only name him the All-Father," Ragnar pointed out.
"Whatever the case you need to show respect to people with power, it's just self-preservation," said Snotlout.
"God or no that doesn't mean he's great," said Ragnar. "I mean take Loki for instance, the trickster god."
"How about we continue the debate later, assuming we can survive this whole ordeal," Hiccup suggested. "Or that thing."
They then quickly turned and saw shooting out from the sea was another one of those giant leeches.
"Not another one!" Snotlout cried.
Meanwhile at the altar, both Astrid and Toothless were trying to find a way of the altar and into the forest without getting eaten by the sea sharks.
"That vine looks pretty sturdy," said Toothless.
"Ah, excellent idea," said Heather. "Mind if I tag along with you two?"
Astrid shrugged. "Sure so long as you don't slowest out."
"Hang on, you're going to but why?" Fishlegs asked.
Heather then turned towards the inscriptions on the altar. "Look at this, at least 1000 years have passed since this altar was built."
"1000 years?" Fishlegs and Chopper stared.
"The sense of history here is amazing, it gives me chills you feel it? A place as ancient as this is sure to be filled with all kinds of old relics. Imagine all the valuables we could discover, just think the possibilities are endless."
"I suppose it would be nice to have something for all our troubles," said Fishlegs and then he looked at the forest. "Plus I can't really skip the chance of mapping and surveying this place. In that case, I'll join you."
"I thought you were too scared?" Chopper frowned.
"I am, but how much more trouble could we get ourselves into?" said Fishlegs.
"Good point, things can't get any worse than this," Chopper agreed.
Heather then summoned a pair of arms on the branch of the tree holding the vine. She then loosened the vine and had it swing towards Astrid, who then gave it a good time to see whether it was secure or not.
"Does that work for you?" Heather asked.
"Looks good," said Astrid and she gripped the vine firmly.
She then swung towards the forest and did a perfect three-point landing, she then tossed the vine back to Toothless and just like her he swung towards the forest. Heather was next and she landed next Astrid which only left Fishlegs to leap.
"Looks easy enough," he said as he grabbed the vine.
He was understandably nervous, unlike the others he was much heavier and he wasn't certain whether the vine would hold his weight. There was also the fact that he was swinging over a score of managing sharks that were as big as ships, plus it didn't help that he was scared of heights.
"I'm really scared of heights," he gulped.
"There's nothing dangerous about falling!" Heather cried.
"Really?" Fishlegs beamed.
"Yes, it's the landing you have to watch out for!"
"Not helping!" Fishlegs whimpered. Then to make matters worse he just witnessed several sharks devouring the unconscious shark Toothless had knocked out. "I'm dead if I fall."
"Fishlegs?" Chopper asked looking concerned.
"I'm going, I'm going," said Fishlegs.
He then jumped and began swinging across the sea, screaming the entire way. He managed to pass over the sharks, but then he saw he was going to slam right into the tree.
"Help me, I'm going to crash!" he cried.
Heather quickly raised her arm and several more arms grew out of it catching Fishlegs before he slammed into the tree.
"You all right?" she asked.
Fishlegs let go of the vine and collapsed. "Thanks… for catching me."
"Any time," Heather smiled.
"Just take some deep breaths," said Astrid patting him on the back.
"This forest is even bigger than I thought," said Heather.
"Chopper, you're in charge of the ship!" Astrid yelled.
"We're counting on you!" Heather yelled.
"We'll be back soon!" Toothless assured him.
"Just keep the ship safe!" Fishlegs waved.
"Bye!" Chopper yelled waving back. "Everyone be careful! Don't take too long okay!"
He then watched as they walked off.
"I suppose Fishlegs will be okay so long as he's with Astrid and the others," he said. "My friends are also brave and adventurous, I'm too scared to go for maybe someday if I'm really lucky I can be brave like them too."
He then went and picked up the toolbox. "Oh well, if I can't be brave I might as well make myself useful. Being left alone in the middle of a dangerous forest to fix our ship is true that everyone must trust me so I have to do my very best. It's just little old me all by myself in the big scary forest."
He then immediately realise what he just said, he was completely alone and defenceless.
'Oh no! Who's going to protect me?'
Hiccup and the others were having their problems with the giant leech.
"I've got this," said Hiccup as he transformed it is hybrid form and then clenched his fist. "Dragon Fist!"
He then punched the leech right beneath its jaw with so much force that it slammed into the tree branch above them. It must have been enough force to knock it out cold as it landed in the water.
"Please tell me about it with the giant leeches," said Snotlout.
"Not sure about leeches, but something is up ahead," Hiccup pointed.
They turned and saw that blocking their way was a rock statue of the head.
"Looks like a total dead end," said Snotlout.
"No you're wrong, there's four entrances," said Ragnar.
He was right in front of the statue were four tunnels and there were words written over each entrance.
"Who wants to bet those lead to our ordeals," said Hiccup.
"Ordeal of Swamp… Ordeal of Iron… Ordeal of String… and Ordeal of Spheres," Snotlout read.
"Guess was supposed to pick one," said Ruffnut.
"Yeah, but they don't really sound like much of ordeal to me," said Ragnar.
"We still have to choose one if we want to rescue our friends," said Hiccup.
