Hiccup opened his eyes and immediately heard fighting, he quickly looked up and saw Astrid and the others battling against a bunch of zombies. Some of them were just skeletons while others have rotten flesh, but every single one of them were armed.

"About time you woke up," Snotlout grunted. "How you get over here and help?"

Hiccup rose to his feet and then realise that he was wielding a shield on his right arm, he instantly recognised the shield that Balder had given him. However, his immediate concern was the zombies currently surrounding his friends quickly twisted his ring on his left hand and flames immediately erupted, taking the form of a sword.

"I'm coming," he said as he rushed towards them.

"I see you got a new shield," Astrid noted as Hiccup exited the lake. "I take it that's a gift that your brother gave you?"

"Yeah, he said that the shield and point us in the direction of the Eye of Odin," said Hiccup.

"I don't suppose you explain how?" Hiccup gave her an apologetic look, and she groaned. "Of course, he didn't."

"Hey, how about we discuss our plans were not overrun by zombies?" Eret asked as he just decapitated a zombie.

"They just keep coming," said Heather as he sliced a zombie in half with her double-bladed axe. "I thought they would stop appearing the moment Hiccup awoke."

"So did we all," said Hiccup as he began cutting his way through. "I don't suppose anyone had any idea how to take down zombies?"

"I believe the vulnerable to fire," said Fishlegs.

Snotlout stared at him. "And you did mention this sooner?"

"Now is not the time," said Hiccup and looked at them all. "Guys summon your dragons!"

Without hesitation, they immediately summoned their dragons and the instant they appear they began unleashing their dragon fire. The zombies were crying out in pain as the flames began to consume them, within seconds, they were nothing more than ash.

Heather just stared at their dragons. "You guys did mention that you're able to summon dragons?"

"Technically they're actually the spirit of our ancestor's dragons," Fishlegs explained. "Apparently all of us had human descendants going back to the same tribe."

"Now that you mention it, I had human ancestry," said Heather.

Hiccup eyes lit up. "You do?"

Heather nodded. "Yes, my grandfather was human on my mother side. It is no reason why I'm able to stand sunlight better than most of my kind."

"I did wonder about that, but I thought it was because your godly blood," said Fishlegs.

"Hey, can someone explain to me why it's so important that Heather has human blood?" Snotlout asked.

"Yeah, what's the big deal?" Tuffnut asked.

"It's a huge deal because we Dark Elves fade if we don't get enough darkness," Heather explained. "Haven't you always wondered how come my people and the Light Elves never wage war on one another even though we despise each other?"

"You know I did always wonder that," said Astrid.

"Well, now you know," said Heather.

"Okay, now that we survive the zombie apocalypse what's our next plan?" Eret asked.

"Hiccup said the shield would guide us," said Snotlout looking towards Hiccup. "So why don't you guide us?"

"It's not that simple, Snotlout," said Hiccup as he looked at his shield. "I've got no clue how the shield will guide us."

"Can't for once things be easy?" Astrid sighed.

"So what are we going to do?" Tuffnut asked.

"Perhaps we should track down Ragnar," Heather suggested. "He might know what to do next."

"But we don't know where he is," Fishlegs pointed out.

"Last I talked to him he was in the Dream Forest, but there was weeks ago, and the forest is quite large," said Hiccup.

"So we're back to square one," said Astrid plainly.

"Look we're exhausted as it is, perhaps we should make camp and then decide what to do next," Hiccup suggested.

"I'll keep an eye out," said Heather. "Who knows maybe find a clue that would help us on our quest."

"And I just go hunting," said Eret as he rose to his feet. "Anyone want to come with?"

"I'll go," said Astrid.

"Excellent, and let's go stalking."

Hiccup and the others then started to make camp, it was decided that they would make camp as far away from the lake as possible, which was currently surrounded by dead bodies. Fishlegs had the foresight of bringing some camping equipment, and Hiccup helped him set up the tents.

As they were doing this, Hiccup told him everything that he experienced during the trip to Helheim.

"So Hel didn't stop you from talking to Balder?" said Fishlegs.

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, according to Balder he is her grandest prize, and if Ragnarok was to happen, she would lose him."

"Talk about twisted," said Fishlegs.

"I know, but that doesn't exactly make her ally."

Fishlegs looked over his shoulder, and Hiccup saw Astrid and Eret had returned with food. It was clear to anyone that Astrid appeared to be giving a wide berth to Eret.

"You may want to talk to her," said Fishlegs. "She seems to be keeping a distance from Eret, and she doesn't exactly trust Heather either."

Hiccup sighed. "Tell me about it, I don't know what else I can do. I've talked to her about it, but she just doesn't seem to want to listen."

"Then you'll just have to keep trying until she does. If we are going to battle against Johann, we need to know whether we can trust one another."

Hiccup knew Fishlegs was right, given the uncertainty the rest really needed was to be at each other's throats.

"I'll talk to her."

Hiccup made his way over towards Astrid was busy getting a fire started while Eret began skinning the rabbits they had managed to hunt.

"What is it?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup sat down next to her. "Astrid I know this is not any of my business, but I need to know whether you have a problem with either Eret or Heather."

Astrid stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "Why does it matter?"

"Because we're about to go into battle and I need to know whether you can work with them," he said bluntly.

Astrid narrowed her eyes, and for brief moment Hiccup thought she was gonna punch him. Instead, however, she merely sighed and looked at him. "Heather lied to us about her true identity. How do we know that she's not hiding anything else?"

"Given the circumstances, can you blame her?" Hiccup asked. "I mean she probably heard about Johann infiltrating the Academy, and we don't know if he had any spies there still. Are you telling me that you would have done the same?"

Astrid sighed. "No, you're right I would have done exactly the same thing. I might be able to work with her, provided she's not hiding anything else."

"Good, but what about Eret?"

"Hiccup you're asking me to trust a frost giant, the mortal enemy to my father."

"Technically, he's a demigod, whose mother used to be a frost time before becoming a goddess. I would also like to point out that his mother has a deep hatred to Loki, so the likelihood that he is working with the enemy is unlikely."

Astrid shook her head. "Hiccup you don't understand."

"Then tell me so that I can understand."

Astrid sighed. "You remember me telling you that my life with my mother was difficult?"

"Yeah, your mother was an actress and attracting the attention of Thor was one of her biggest highlights. Then she had years never saw Thor again, and you are attacked by monsters almost constantly."

"Yes, but the one that came close to killing me was a frost giant. I was playing in the back garden when he appeared right in front of me and tried to kill me. I had never been so scared in my life, I ran back towards the house, but I wasn't fast enough. He would have been able to kill me Ragnar had not appeared right then and saved me."

"Ragnar saved you?" said Hiccup.

"Back then I had no idea that I was a demigod so you can imagine how scared I was with a giant trying to kill me and in this elf appeared out of nowhere doing battle with him. The two of them battled ferociously. Eventually, Ragnar was able to kill him, but not before destroying my house. My mother was absolutely furious, it was the last straw, and she kicked me out."

Hiccup was starting to understand the hatred she had with frost giants. "You blame the frost giant's for ruining your relationship with your mother."

"It was already strained, she never wanted a daughter, and she hit me from the world. She didn't want anyone to know that she had illegitimate child, because if they knew it would ruin her reputation."

"Astrid, I can't imagine what you'd been through, you can't blame everything on Eret. Besides you know as well as I do that the Norse Gods have intermarried with Jotuns, Ragnar's stepmother is a Frost Giant, and even you yourself have giant blood in your veins."

"I know, but it does make it easier."

"Yet you went out hunting with him."

"To keep an eye on him."

Hiccup gave her a sceptical look. "Was that the only reason?"

"Maybe I was trying to see if we can find common ground," Astrid admitted.

"So you talked?"

"I asked him about his father. Apparently, he was a mountaineer, and he met Skadi in the Alps."

"You said 'was'?" Hiccup noted.

"Apparently there was an accident, and he lost his life, no soon after that Ragnar found Eret and took him to the Academy."

"Where I imagine that he was given some scepticism?" Hiccup assumed.

"There were a lot of people that we're unsure about him," Astrid admitted. "I admit that I let my personal feelings get in the way, but sometimes it's just hard to shake off that kind of resentment."

"I know, but you have to try, we all need to work together if we wish to succeed we can't do that if we're mistrust for one another."

"I suppose I can give him the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not trusting him or Heather completely."

Hiccup knew there was as good as he was going to get, it was definitely going to take some time after the trust either one of them.

Soon they began to rabbit stew and sat around the campfire, but then came the big question on what to do next.

"So after we get some rest, are we going to do next?" Snotlout asked.

Hiccup really did wish he had the answer, but his new shield was not responding and to be honest, he had no idea how it was going to help them find the Eye of Odin.

Astrid looked at Snotlout. "Snotlout, you know very well, like the rest of us, that we have no idea how to find the Eye of Odin."

Snotlout narrowed his eyes at Hiccup. "It's my understanding that our fearless leader is supposed to guide us to it with that fancy new shield of his."

"And like I told you Balder shield will guide us, but he neglected to mention how," said Hiccup.

"What we can't just sit around here doing nothing."

"He does have a point," said Eret. "It is dangerous for us to sit in one place too often. I can only imagine that word has finally reached Johann that we're in Svartalfheim. He's probably got hunting parties looking for us."

"Perhaps the answer will come if we don't think about it," Heather offered.

"How did that work?" said Snotlout.

"There are many human scholars and leaders that got brilliant ideas while in the bath," said Ruffnut. "Archimedes… Winston Churchill…"

"She does bring up a good point," said Fishlegs.

Hiccup sighed. "Perhaps it would be best if we discuss this after we get some rest."

"We can't just keep delaying it," said Snotlout.

"Perhaps our next move should be trying to find Ragnar," Heather offered. "He might have more information that could help us."

"We don't even know where to start looking for him," Snotlout pointed out.

"It's our best suggestion so far," said Astrid.

"It the only suggestion so far," Snotlout grunted.

"Do you have a better idea?" Hiccup asked.

Snotlout just remained silent, indicating that he did not.

"Look if we can come up with any ideas after we wake up, they will try and search for Ragnar," said Hiccup.

"I'll stand the first watch," Heather offered.

Hiccup nodded and then looked at his watch. "Okay, it's about 9 PM at the moment, so I suggest that we start moving out about 5 AM. Any objections?"

No one said a word not even Snotlout, and so everyone went to bed, except for Heather, who stood watch.

Naturally, the moment Hiccup's head touched the pillow, he started to have strange dreams once again. He was still in the woods, but there were so many woods in Svartalfheim that there was no way to know where he was exactly.

"Getting worried sick and tired of these dreams," Hiccup sighed.

"I can imagine," said a voice behind him.

Hiccup quickly turned and to his delight; he found Ragnar standing there, but he was looking a little worse for wear. He was clutching his side, and there was a deep cut on his right arm that was dripping blood.

"Ragnar, what happened to you?" said Hiccup.

"Had a little run-in with a certain beast," he said wincing. "Don't worry as you know, I'm a fast healer."

Ragnar wasn't exaggerating has already the wound on his armour was beginning to close. His father was the god of fertility, which meant he had extraordinary healing powers.

"Ragnar, where are you?" Hiccup asked.

"I'm still in the Dream Forest if that's what you're wondering and I understand your there was well."

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, we believe the Eye of Odin is here somewhere."

"Among other things," said Ragnar.

"Meaning?"

"You'll find out soon enough, but tell me you have found a means of locating the eye?"

"I met Balder, and he gave me a shield telling me that it will guide us to the eye, but he didn't exactly explain how it works."

"Fortunately I do."

Hiccup's eyes widened. "You do?"

Ragnar nodded. "But we have to be in person, just tell Heather to take you where the two of us played together."

"I will, but you could have told me that she would your betrothed."

Ragnar sighed. "So, you know. To be perfectly honest, I don't know whether we betrothed or not, considering my circumstances."

"She certainly seems to think so."

Ragnar gave a small smile. "She certainly has a kind heart, I was so so blind back then." He then looked at Hiccup seriously. "Just promise me that you'll look out for her."

"I will, but surely you can do that yourself when we meet."

Ragnar shook his head. "No, I can't be with her. At least not until I prove my innocence to my people."

Then suddenly there was a loud howl not too far away, and Ragnar grimaced. "You have to hurry, I don't know how long I can play cat and mouse."

"What was that?"

"A dangerous beast, you need to prepare yourselves get ready for the fight in your lives."

With that warning, everything around Hiccup began to vanish.