Next chapter! Whoo-hoo! I hope you like it. A lot of stuff is going on.

Enjoy! XD

She looked through the window into the room. She stood on the small ledge that lead to the balcony doors. Why didn't she use the balcony? She didn't want to alarm the Night Fury. She knew how to handle him if need be but she wasn't here for that. It was the first time that the other boy with the white hair wasn't there and she really needed to get into the room.

She closed her eyes and used all of her attention to focused down the hall outside the room. Quickly, the Night Fury's earflaps bolted up and it stalked carefully out of the room into the hall to investigate the noise. Once the dragon was gone, she quietly opened the balcony doors and walked inside, once again sing everything she could muster to unlock the doors.

She slowly and carefully, exhausted from her manipulation, walked up to the occupied bed and looked at the sleeping boy. His back was toward her and she couldn't see his face, only his tossed auburn hair. She reached out her hand to turn him over but he moved on his own.

He began to toss and turn, as if suffering from a nightmare. His arms thrashed and his legs kicked in a running motion. His eyes darted from under his eyelids and he cried out softly. She could see tears starting to run down his face and her face softened.

Her face then contorted into fear when she saw a cluster of dark sand beginning to form over his head, increasing the thrashing of the boy's body. His breathing quickened even more, his legs kicked violently, and his crying became vocal.

She reached out and ran her fingers through his auburn hair gently while she talked to him in a soothing voice. "Hush little one. You're safe here. No one will harm you."

Seeing as nothing was changing, she went to a different tactic: she began to hum a lullaby. Within seconds, he began to calm down. His limbs relaxed, his breathing slowed, his eyes stopped darting, and his entire body relaxed.

She moved her hand from his hair and cupped his cheek, running her thumb over his cheek to remove the tears. She then gasped slightly, her heart racing as he pushed his face into her hand. She smiled as she continued to hum but her heart ached. How she wanted to stay and continue to care for him. How she so wanted to be with him all the time. She wanted to feel his hugs, see his smile, hear him laugh. But she couldn't. Not with him out there. It was too dangerous.

"Toothless?" a voice outside the door asked. "What are you doing out here?"

She looked up from the sleeping form. She took one last quick look at him and grabbed her staff and quickly exited the room without a noise.

"I will always be near you little one," she whispered in the direction of the school.

"Oh! Mum!" Merida cried out in desperation. "I don't want to be a teacher or a politian like da! I want to compete in the Olympics!"

"Merida," Elinor replied calmly. "Sports isn't a lady like thing to do. You are of royal blood and upbringing."

"I know but that's the past mum," Merida rolled her eyes. "And how is being a teacher an 'acceptable' job for someone of royal blood?"

"As a teacher, you lead and mold your future generation down a path that will lead to their success. Granted, it's not running a kingdom but you are still giving an example and leading your students. And Politian, well. That explains itself I hope."

"But I don't want to be either of those!" Merida sighed.

"As I said, sports isn't a proper career for-"

"I know. I know. A lady," Merida exasperated. "But this is the 21st century mum. A woman can do whatever she wants."

"That may be so but you are my daughter and a part of the Dunbroch line. You will do it proud by doing something befitting the royal line."

"But mum-"

"No buts Merida!" Elinor raised her voice enough to silence her daughter. "The conversation is over."

Merida huffed, unaccepting of the conversation. She marched out of the room and stomped her way up to her room. She threw open the door, about to slam it when she remembered she wasn't the only one in there and quickly caught the door as to not wake Astrid up.

She changed into her night clothes and crawled into bed, all the while grumbling to herself how her mum was being unfair.

Elinor held the bridge of her nose, not understanding why Merida was so against the idea of teacher or politician. Both were quite rewarding careers in their own way. She shook her head and walked toward North's office.

North was sitting in the chair looking at the globe. He was deep in thought but his stomach was growling and was distracting him, trying to tell what time it was.

"Where are cookies? I'm waiting for cookies!" he hollered in a slightly annoyed but light hearted manner.

In a manner of seconds, a plate was placed in front of him by one of the pointed eared people. He took one and took a bite, immediately being able to concentrate once again.

Jack said that they were going to take him to an island. But where? Which one? There be hundreds!

North looked at the globe and the series of papers that were laying across the table for the millionth time. On the papers were snap shots of the globe during the time when Jack and Emma were being attacked.

I can see Alvin, Pitch, Gothel, and Mord'u surrounding Jack but as they escape, they go north but then disappear.

"There's not island there!" North shouted in frustration. "How can be island if not land mass? Make no sense!"

"North," Lady Elinor walked in quietly, breaking North out of his thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Any news on Jack's sister?"

"Not yet," North sighed. "Why?"

Elinor sighed as she composed herself. "He's worried about her, constantly. I was hoping if we could give him any information, he'd relax a bit. Anything at all."

"I'd love to but sadly," North shrugged and motioned to the globe and the papers. "I no closer than when started."

"Oh dear. Well, keep trying," Elinor turned to leave but stopped and asked, "How are Hiccup's sessions going?"

"They go but nothing to show. He still the same as when he first came here," North lowered his eyes in worry and pity, followed by Elinor.

"The poor boys," Elinor shook her head. "Still clueless about themselves. I hope they find answers soon. Nice boys."

"Welcome to Auto Shop," Gobber gleamed.

"Really?" Jack asked.

"It's more of a 'use your powers to create stuff'," Hiccup whispered. "But he does teach us how to fix cars as well."

"Oh. So what's his special ability?"

"He can manipulate metal," Astrid said as she walked up to them. "He can hold a piece in his hand and in seconds it's a part or an art work."

"Cool!"

"Alright! Let's get started!" the man said as he walked towards a workbench. Jack heard a strange sound and looked down to see that the man had a peg leg.

"He has a fake hand and foot? How?"

"It's one of the reasons why the Phantom Reapers do what they do," Astrid informed.

"Gobber was found out and the government took him away to experiment on him," Hiccup explained. "They amputated his hand and foot thinking that they would hold the answer to his abilities."

"How did he escape? North?"

"Nope," Astrid shook her head. "The mayor of Berk saved him."

"Is Gobber from Berk as well?"

"Yep," Hiccup nodded. "Apparently he and Stoick had been friends since they were little."

"I heard Stoick's name?" Gobber hobbled over with a grin, not entirely genuine. "What about him?"

"Just telling Jack here that the two of you are friends," Hiccup explained.

"That we are," Gobber nodded. "But no matter how much I love talking about him you three need to get going on your projects. Hiccup, your project is over there."

"Thanks Gobber." Hiccup got up and turned to Jack. "I'll see you at the room."

"Later," Jack waved. He watched Gobber lead him over to a small cutout in the wall, all the while feeling as those Gobber was depressed by something. "So," He turned to Astrid. "What do we do?"

"Create something," she shrugged.

"Like what?"

"I don't know."

"And with what?"

"Your powers. Make an ice sculpture," she suggested.

Jack thought for a second then smiled. He blasted his work area with his staff, casing Astrid to exclaim in surprise. He had gone to overboard and engulfed her hand in ice.

"Ooooh," Jack cringed. "Sorry."

"You're lucky I already have a hammer," Astrid glared. She picked it up and pounded on the ice until it broke apart.

Jack concentrated a bit harder and began to weave the snow and ice in and out, back and forth, up and down quite gracefully. Next to him, he heard Astrid pound, grind, and burn metal with her assortment of hand weapons. Jack quickly got a hang of controlling the amount of force needed for his sculpture, relaxing a bit. Only then did he notice that the pounding of Astrid's had gone quiet.

Jack shrugged it off as her thinking. He finished his project and nodded in approval, only to realize that Astrid had been quiet a bit too long. His smile then faded into an expression of confusion. He looked over to see why Astrid had stopped and noticed she was looking across the room. On her face, was a neutral expression with a small smile threatening to break through. Her eyes gleamed in awe as she continued to gaze.

Jack looked around his sculpture at where she was looking and his eyes went wide. He was watching Hiccup as he worked swiftly and diligently on his piece. Jack couldn't make out what it was but whatever it was, Toothless was very excited.

Jack saw from the corner of his eye that Gobber was coming in their direction and he coughed to get Astrid's attention. She looked at him and he motioned with his head that Gobber was coming. She quickly went back to her project, acting as if she had been working on it the entire time.

"Well Jack," Gobber asked as he hobbled up to him. "What have we got here?"

"It's a sculpture of my sister. All in ice."

"Impressive. And you Astrid. What are you working on?"

"I was trying to make a metal arm band."

"Hmm. It's going to need more work. You seem to have a good start when I saw it at the beginning of class. What happened? Got distracted?"

"You could say that," Astrid said as she turned to her project, trying to hide the blush that formed on her cheeks.

"Well, try not to daydream so much next time. Good work you two," Gobber patted them on their backs and walked to check on the other kids.

Daydreaming my staff. Jack thought.

Later, Jack was hovering around the school. He was observing the other students as he flew around. He was still impressed by some of their powers and watched in awe. As he made his way to the arena for his next lesson, he continued to think about what his sister could be going through.

He was so invested in his thoughts that he almost ran into the wall. His concentration was broken by a loud blast and the splinter of wood. Jack looked into the arena and saw that Hiccup and Toothless were running agility exercises. Arrows and large boulders were thrown at them from different directions and the two either blasted the objects or dodged them.

Jack was quite impressed at how well they communicated with one another. There were no words spoken or even growls from Toothless and yet they moved as one. It was as if they knew exactly what the other was thinking. A telepathy of sorts.

He watched in awe as they maneuvered by the large objects as they came faster and faster. Jack tilted his head in confusion when one of the flying rocks coming up behind Hiccup and Toothless stopped and just fell, as if it hit a wall. However, another boulder came to close and Jack heard a soft gasp come from his left.

Jack looked down at the smaller girl with a surprised look. Her hand was on her chest as her breathing was a little fast for someone who was just observing.

"So," Jack said breaking her concentration. "What are you doing here? Watching Hiccup practice?"

"No," Astrid scoffed. "I'm here waiting for the next lesson session."

"But I'm the next one."

Hiccup and Toothless landed and walked to the side of the arena as North got up and looked toward the two in the entrance way.

"You're up Jack," North said.

"See," Jack smiled. "My lesson is next. So what are you doing here?"

"I'm your opponent," Astrid smirked. "It's hand to hand training." Astrid walked into the arena confidently.

"Wait," Jack said as he flew after her. "Hand to hand?"

"Yep," North said. He held his hand out toward his staff. "Your staff Jack. No cheating."

"But she could turn her hand into a weapon."

"I may be tough and distant but I'm not a cheater."

"The staff," North beckoned again. Jack reluctantly gave it up. "You might need to defend yourself if you're separated from it."

"Ok," Jack shrugged. "But I don't know if I can hit a girl. I-" Jack was interrupted with a punch to the jaw.

"I may be a girl but I can kick your butt."

"Very well. But I won't go easy on you."

"I don't think you could even if you wanted to."

"Is that a challenge?"

"For you maybe," Astrid smiled wickedly. "Merida is the champion with the arrow exercise but I'm the champion in hand-to-hand."

Astrid didn't give Jack a chance to respond for she swung at him. They battled for over fifteen minutes with Jack not landing a single blow. All the while, Hiccup watched in awe at Astrid's skillful form.