WELP, I'M BACK. WITH ANOTHER CHAPTER, OF COURSE.

ONWARDS:


"You know, I don't think I say this quite often, and I'll make sure to appreciate it from now on, but Berk does look very ... aesthetically pleasing."

"That's terror, Tuff. Terror. What we just went through, I wouldn't want anyone else to experience it. It was horrible. That, and it doesn't help that Outcast Island, as a whole, is a truly horrend- frightening place to be in."

Astrid almost finished the word 'horrendous', but stopped herself. That word brought back bad memories. Thankfully, the others did not notice, or chose to ignore it.

"Well, that island does look like it's construction was started by Odin as he lay out the basic outlook and filled it with stone and jagged rocks, but then forgot about it and now it's completely treeless, soil-less and soul-less."

Just like many other instances, all the others turned to look at Fishlegs, who was looking glum and was still a bit green.

Astrid turned back to see Berk approaching yet again. The sight of Berk was what had started the entire conversation. She sighed.

"Well, like I said, that experience was horrid in every respect. But, we have to put it behind us - cannot get stuck up on it. We have work to do."

Silence settled heavily in their midst as they headed to the town square. After landing was complete, Astrid jumped off her Nadder and looked up. It was almost evening.

"So, that's that. What now?"

It was Ruff who spoke up, and manged to surprise everyone. Concern from her was something no one expected even in the most dire of situations.

"What now? I mean, Hiccup's still missing, and all we managed to do today was experience THAT. I'm still hoping that I will wake up soon and realise that all this was just a really bad dream.

"We get it, Ruff-"

Well, let it not be said that Fishlegs didn't try. The fact that his pacification methods failed, well, that's different. Ruff cut him off viciously and went on an almost-teary tirade.

"No, Fish you DON'T! In fact, nobody here does! Nobody here as any siblings, except me. That ... that ... demon-spawn killed his own..."

Ruff broke down completely- no other way to put it. Tuff quickly put his arms around her shoulders, which she shrug off violently and ran off to god knows where. It was true that the twins loved each other, albeit in a very peculiar manner.

Astrid's left eye twitched yet again. This was getting old...

"Right. You two- go after them. God forbid they do anything now. The chief has put enough on our plates as it is, go see that they don't add anything to them in their ... grievious states of mind."

Snotlout mock saluted her, and quickly left with Fishlega. She gave out a long-suffering sigh and looked around, trying to find the chief and fill him in. She saw him approaching the steps leading up to the Mead Hall.

She quickly broke into a run, trying to catch up with Stoick. However, with the chief being over seven feet, and the fact that he was able to climb four steps all at once (mind you, four steps at that time was easily around a hundred-twenty to a hundred-fifty centimetres, so it was a HUGE deal), it wouldn't be until Stoick reached the landing before the Great Doors that she managed to catch up. Even she, with all her athletic accolades and merits, was huffing and puffing like Fishlegs after a underwater breath holding competition.

"Chief!!!"

Stoick looked back, and his utter shock was completely understandable. Astrid was standing right there, wheezing - complete with her doubling down with hands on her knees.

"Astrid - lass, are you are right?"

"Just .." breath ".. one .." another breath ".. second..."

She took in a huge gulp of air and stood up, trying to down the urge to throw up.

"Lass, jus- just breathe. What happened?"

Stoick looked really worried now."

Stairs."

"Oh."

All the worry drained from his face and was replaced by a small smile. Astrid saw that as a boon.

"You are really fast, sir."

"No, lass, I'm just a bit on the tall side of things. Okay, maybe a bit on the fast side too."

Stoick's eyes twinkled with merriment, and this time, Astrid became confused. Wasn't his son missing? Why was the chief so happy and calm?

"We didn't find him. Hiccup."

Astrid had to add the last part after seeing the questioning look on Stoick's face. His confusion cleared away, and was replaced with an enigmatic look.

"Ah, yes, of course. You all left for that."

Astrid just frowned - what was her Chief talking about?

"I know you couldn't find him."

Maybe the Chief wanted to say wouldn't, or he just wanted to make the situation more tense and uncomfortable to test Astrid's tenacity. Whatever the reason, he managed to put Astrid in a frenzy, as she misread the situation.

"N-no, Chief. We didn't, yes, but I pr-promise you that we will! We will find him, and bring him home! You can rest assured, sir, we WILL find him! We just need mor-"

Astrid abruptly stopped in her frenzied talks when Stoick's laugh boomed out all around her. He was so loud, that his laughter seemed to be getting reflected by air itself. She winced.

"S-sir, why are you laughing? A-are we in trouble?"

Stoick controlled himself a bit before talking.

"No! No no no. It's, well, I know where Hiccup is."

Oh. OH!

Well, that explained the Chief being all jolly and not tearing her a new one for not locating his son.

"He came home today, around afternoon."

Astrid narrowed her eyes.

"Ah, I see. So, where is he, sir? I want to have a word with him."

In hindsight, she should have known that her well known predatory look and that falsely sweet voice could not fool the towering man before her - he was the Chief of Berk! He couldn't be fooled THAT easily!

Stoick chuckled and turned around, heading towards the Great Doors.

"He is not here right now. Flew away right after a little talk. Your act of reprimandation will have to wait."

It was Astrid's turn to be confused. So confused, that she didn't even comprehend that last jibe.

"Flew awa- where?"

"I'm afraid I can't say. He didn't give me the freedom to."

"Did he say anything, sir? Is he doing this deliberately? Is he ignoring us???"

Stoick paused, his right hand on the wood of one of the sixty foot high doors. She still marvelled at them and whoever designed and built them, but that was a discussion for later. Right now, she wanted answers.

Stoick turned around to look at her with a completely deadpan look on his face. Astrid took a step back, but Stoick just sighed.

"Look, Astrid ... maybe. Hiccup is not ignoring you - avoiding is a bit more like it. That being said, he didn't know you and the other riders had gone to search for him. So, it was just a wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time type of situation really."

Astrid raised a single eyebrow at that. He didn't make any sense as far as she was concerned.

Stoick turned around and pushed open the right door, spilling merry sounds of vikings eating and drinking out in the darkening sky. Astrid quickly followed when Stoick slipped inside, managing to just fit herself in the gap as the huge door began to close.

"Sir?"

Stoick looked back, and sighed yet again.

"Yes, hi is avoiding you. You and the other four."

"Why?"

Stoick began to sound evasive.

"Many reasons. But one is major, the even that happened three years ago. That took centre stage in his reasoning."

Astrid looked even more confused. At that, Stoick remembered how she wasn't there beside Fishlegs when he had dished out the punishments to the three thirteen year old convicts. He would have remembered seeing the then best warrior within the teens. He was proved right when her mother had joined him one evening, when Hiccup was still healing, to give her condolences, and to say how her daughter didn't have a hand in any of this, be it the present times or the past. She had said how Astrid remained far from all that, and had been away from all the drama even that day, as she spent the majority of her time in the woods training and wearing her body out. She told about some verbal spat between father and daughter, which had left Astrid really mad, resulting in day long axe traing sessions. Her daughter didn't even know that all that had happened with Hiccup and that she would like it if Stoick never mentioned it to her.

"Best she doesn't know..." - she had said.

Stoick was way more numbed than usual, all with having a then still comatose Hiccup and all. He had nodded then. Astrid's mother had then thanked him, assured him that all will be fine, brushed Hiccup's auburn bangs off his tiny forehead, and had left.

Returning to the now, he saw Astrid looking really confused, lost and a bit hurtful.

"CHIEF!!!"

Stoick spun around to see Horthog, a viking on the more leaner side of, well, vikings, calling out to him. Oh, that's right- he was late for a village construction meeting, the reason why he was here.

He turned around to see Astrid looking at him with pleading eyes and a troubled expression. Stoick just gave a long-suffering sigh.

Astrid's mother had asked him to stay mum on the three year old matter, but that didn't mean anyone else would have to.

"That thing which happened three years ago involved Snotlout and the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Best go to them and ask, and if they hesitate, well, use your skills to make them talk. I have to go."

With that, Stoick hurried off,raving Astrid with a sudden determined face. She was putting two and two together, and she was seething in rage at the implications of the chief's words.

They didn't ... did THEY???

Well, if the did, they are in trouble for it NOW.


Hiccup navigated Toothless over the dense tree outgrowth, looking for the small opening where he and Cami used to escape to and play in. That would be a perfect spot to park Toothless and go to the village and search for his friend, and hope that she won't bash open his skull for forgetting her.

He smiled wistfully at that. Many memories were linked to this island he was flying above, none of which were bitter. Cami was energetic and overzealous, but she was kindda the only friend he had in his youth. He was really excited to meet her.

He found the spot soon. It was the ideal spot, really- it wasn't far from the Bog village, and it was fairly secluded too.

He landed quickly and stretched his limbs. Bog Island was a bit more far off from Berk that Outcast Island, and they had flown a lot slower this time to conserve Toothless' energy. The dragon was running on fumes as it was- the morning flight with extreme speeds having drained the Night Fury's energy reserves considerably.

Hiccup looked up to see an almost dark sky. It was near evening.

He was turned around and saw Toothless heating a spot of ground nearby, really intent on having a nap now. The boy just chuckled.

"Rest, Toothless. We won't be leaving this place anytime soon, so I won't be disturbing you. I really should have thought through it all. Coming here now at this time was not my best plan..."

Toothless just snorted at that, curled up his body, and prepared to sleep. Hiccup gave his dragon a deadpan look.

"Yeah, thanks for the support, bud."

He supposed that he should at least go visit the village and try finding Cami. It was still some time before bedtime, and he was dying to see his friend.

He quickly grabbed his custom shield and strapped it to his back and looked around to search for the exit that lead to the village. He found it, and was about to start walking, when a knife whizzed past his ear and embedded itself deep in the tree bark a little way behind him. He whipped to gaze at the knife, which was still vibrating due to the impact, and looked around frantically for its source.

A small figure jumped off a tree nearby and landed on the forest floor with a crouch. As the figure straightened up, Hiccup could clearly see that it was a female (What else was he expecting on an island full of female warrior pirates?), and that she was really short with long messy blond hair. He squinted at her in the dark to see narrowed ble eyes and an evil smirk aimed at him, and he knew that he had found his friend.

That, and he was in trouble. Deep trouble.

It didn't help that he got a chilly sense of happy apprehension as they both had a small staring match. Finally :

"C-Cami?"


AAH. LIKE THE DUAL CLIFFHANGERS?

AND, YES, YET AGAIN, THE 'ART OF HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON' IS WHERE I LEARNT THE HEIGHT OF THE GREAT DOORS. I HAVE ALL THIS INFORMATION ON GOOD AUTHORITY.

ANYWAY, PLEASE REVIEW. I NEED TO KNOW HOW I AM DOING AND IF YOU GUYS ARE LIKING THIS STORY.

UNTIL LATER, THEN.

ABHASCLASH.