Dart and Pouncer exchanged a worried look as the light fury trotted towards the exit. Laura then realized that Ruffrunner hadn't followed right behind like a devoted puppy, and looked back, somewhat annoyed. "Come on, it will be fun!"

Ruffrunner, who had been woken up against his will for two mornings in a row, wasn't looking forward to… whatever this was. In fact he wasn't looking forward to anything other than going back to sleep. But no, this Laura, who he by the way had never met before, just had to threaten telling Toothless what he had done. She just had to have witnessed him scaring that fledgling yesterday, and had to use that to control him. "Becoming a better person doesn't sound like fun. It sounds like lecturing.", complained the nightlight.

Laura thought about it. The black nightlight would probably enjoy what she had planned, but he was right. The way she had put it forwards didn't sound like a blast. "Let me put this another way: do you have a choice?"

This day just kept getting better and better, thought Ruffrunner sarcastically. He started following her, and soon leapt out of their home cavern, heading down.

Dart and Pouncer observed as the two dove away with mixed feelings. The mixture was composed of curiosity and wariness (by Dart) and admiration (by Pouncer).

Maybe the white nightlight should have been worried. After all, he knew that this newcomer was the same female he had been so interested in the day before. She had with all likelihood been looking for him, and only gone after Ruffrunner by chance. This probably meant that the black nightlight had a secret, something he didn't want their father to know. Maybe he should have been worrying about what would happen after the misunderstanding got figured out.

But Pouncer's head was far too busy thinking about the light fury's various curves to worry about that. He sighed happily. "Laura, such a perfect name. Is there anything about her that isn't perfect?"

"She just storms in without announcement and takes Ruffrunner. I don't get it.", replied Dart. "There's something fishy about her."

He looked at her annoyingly. "That was a rhetorical question, my dear Dart. Thank you so much for ruining the mood."

To be honest, Dart wasn't in a particularly good mood even before Laura's appearance. Having just been grounded for at least one week might have been the reason. But removing her brother's newfound joy did the trick. "You're welcome.", she replied with a warm smile.

Pouncer rolled his eyes. "I wonder how Ruffrunner is doing."

Ruffrunner had never been this far down. And it just kept getting lower.

He fell rapidly, his wings slashing through the air. He had been diving behind Laura for the better part of two minutes, and he was starting to seriously worry about falling out of the earth.

The hidden world's entrance was straight above them, but it was so far away that he could barely see the sky. The main hole had split into several smaller ones, and kept branching up more and more.

Finally, the light fury flared and made a graceful landing on a rocky ledge, in the beginning on one of the many tunnels they had passed. Ruffrunner did the same and took in the new place.

The first thing he noticed, now that he wasn't blasting through the air and could actually feel it, was the heat. Down here, It was warm and humid. Now, the rest of the cavern was neither cold nor dry, but this felt like a rainforest. Every breath felt heavy. He then noticed the light.

On the surface, the light was dominated by numerous bright crystals, who bathed the cavern in light pink and orange light. And the skylight was always present, it's strong white rays, reaching several kilometres around the place and promptly shutting down when night came.

There were much fewer crystals here, and their light was different. Green, blue and violet rays dominated the place, making the both the shadows and Ruffrunners headache stick out more.

"Where are we?", asked the nightilight as he closed his eyes to get some peace. He would probably get used to the light soon, but for now it was annoying.

"Not exactly what you're used to, is it?", answered the light fury smugly.

Great. Another one who didn't give complete answers. "Why are we here?"

And of course, she had to give him a question. "Let me ask you a question, my dear Ruffrunner. Who are you?", she said with a calm smile.

"I don't know who I am! I don't know why I'm here! All I know is that I must follow you.", exclaimed and exasperated Ruffrunner. "And that I'd very much like you to explain what's going on."

"Alright.", conceded Laura, who had managed to understand that his patience was finite. "You are a young, promising male that has just discovered that he wants to mate…"

Finding a mate was just about the last thing on his mind. He didn't see the point in just another annoyance making its way into his life. "Wrong."

Promptly ignoring his denial, Laura continued. "And who is completely incapable of communicating with any potential mating candidates."

"Also wrong.", said Ruffrunner as he thought of all the females he spent his time with on a regular basis. There were…

"Mostly.", he added quietly after a few moments.

"Let me tell you, you're not the first of you guys I meet. And I know how this will end.", stated Laura confidently. Ruffrunner gave a quick and effective sarcastic response. "Absolutely. Because you know me sooo well."

That response would have been effective if Laura hadn't completely ignored his words. "You'll either become violent, a brute who can't control what's between his legs and poisons the lives of everyone around him…", explained Laura.

Truth to be told, the nightlight had started getting interested in the story. If nothing else, because it was the worst guess at what his life would be that he had ever heard. "Or…", he pressed her to continue.

"Or you'll die alone and miserable with no one having ever loved you.", conclude the light fury confidently.

Ruffrunner felt attacked by this statement. How exactly was it okay to tell someone about such a miserable future? Especially when you had known that someone for a grand total of ten minutes.

"Great. I'm doomed to either die alone or become a douchebag. Have you got anything more or can I go?", he grunted as he looked up at the way back home.

For the first time since their first meeting, Laura's didn't completely ignore Ruffrunner's thoughts. "Listen, I know this didn't start off in the best way…", she started.

"But if you stay with me, I will teach you how to make females like you.", she explained. "And with my advice you will be happy, the females will be happy and everybody will be a winner."

"You brought me all the way down here to give me… dating advice?", asked Ruffrunner incredulously.

"You wouldn't want the alpha's offspring to lack such a crucial skill.", clarified Laura with a grin.

After a full sixty seconds of failing to understand this statement, he just spoke his mind. "That is the absolute worst character motivation in history."

"Well, maybe that's because I'm more than just another character in just another story!", retorted Laura, louder and angrier than he had ever heard her. And so, even though Ruffrunner had doubts about that statement, he didn't mention it again. He tried to change the argument.

"But… Why here? I don't see… ", Ruffrunner pointed at their surroundings. "Anything."

Laura had seemed pretty excited up until now. But that was nothing in comparison to her face after those words. The light fury's dark blue eyes glimmered in anticipation up as she darted into the tunnel. Ruffrunner ran after her, struggling to keep up. He started hearing some noise in front of him, and tried to reconnect what it was. Roars, coming from several different dragons…

In that moment, the light fury pressed her claws into the ground and came to a swift and efficient stop. In the next moment, Ruffrunned pressed his snout into the light fury and came to a swift and painful stop. "Sorry!", pledged the nightlight as he pawed his now considerably flatter nose.

Laura hadn't exactly appreciated the event either, but at least it wasn't her snout which had taken the brunt of the force. She managed to say "Dating advice number one: don't run straight into females." with only minimal whining due to the pain.

"I had no idea about that, thank you very much!", whined the nightlight as his senses and nose slowly grew back sharper. After calming down, he observed their destination. An underground ravine ran in front of them, and it was here that the sound was coming from. "So, what is this place?", he asked.

The sight in front of her had made Laura completely forget the pain on her back. "Welcome to my home cavern. May it's smells, sounds and many, many inhabitants welcome you into the world of being charming!", she declared.

What had he managed to get himself into?

Smells: fish, dragons, smoke, rotten fish, some things he didn't know and some things he didn't want to know.

Sounds: the river flowed slowly, making nothing but small splatters. Occasionally a small fish would jump out of the water and make a small splash once landing back into the liquid.

But with the sounds of hundreds of dragons of all shapes and sizes going about the cavern's chaotic life, the former were hard to notice.

"I haven't seen you in these parts, are you new here?"

"I just thought the alpha's son would be… bigger."

"You're the alpha's son, can you tell him to order Cendy to fall in love with me? I know we're meant for each other, but she doesn't want to admit it!"

"Hello there, friend. Welcome to my reign. Make yourself at home, but remember that if you ever see a saumon, it is mine!"

Ruffrunner had now been approached by four dragons in a grand total of thirty seconds, and wasn't feeling comfortable at all. He kept himself close not Laura who was, despite only having known her for fifteen minutes, the most familiar thing he had here.

After a few minutes of wandering by the stream, Laura stopped them. Her paw pointed to a

white dragon trying to fish from the stream, and she gave the nightlight a wink. "I'll give you dating advice number two: first impressions. And that will be your test subject."

"Yeeeah." was Ruffrunner's response.

"I'm doing this for you, you know? Maybe you could show some more enthusiasm?", asked a slightly irritated Laura.

"I don't need your advice. If anyone does, it's my brother Pouncer. Why don't you help him out instead?", suggested Ruffrunner. He had threatened a fledgling yesterday, and didn't manage to understand how dating advice was supposed to help.

The light fury snickered at that. "Really? You don't need my advice? So would you call yesterday's courting attempt successful?"

"What courting attempt?", asked Ruffrunner confusedly. He hadn't done anything of that genre… ever, and certainly not yesterday.

Laura's exaggerated seeming surprised. "Oh, I must be mistaken. Of course. Sure, a dozen female light furies saw you and your siblings in that tunnel yesterday, but they must be mistaken too, right?"

Alright. He had been in that tunnel. But he hadn't tried to court anyone there. The only one who had done it was…

Finally, the pieces clicked. "I'm not the one who tried to court you. That dragon was camouflaged, so you can't be sure who it was. But I can. It was Pouncer.", concluded the nightlight, a proud smile slowly creeping onto his face.

The light fury didn't seem impressed. "Okay. I guess you are right, Pouncer."

"It really was him!", exclaimed the nightlight. The light fury just ignored his opinion.

"Now, Pouncer made a great first impression, and I'm going to teach you to do the same.", explained the light fury. She had planned a little exercise that even Ruffrunner should be able to pass. "It's pretty simple. Go to that stream. Catch a nice fish in front of that female. And then you will give her the fish out of pure courtesy."

"And she will magically fall in love with me?", asked Ruffrunner dubiously. "That doesn't really seem worth it.", he added.

"She won't fall in love with you.", said Laura. "But she will think of you as 'not a douchebag', which is certainly progress."

Resigned, Ruffrunner made his way to the stream, ending right in front of the light fury, on the opposite bank of the water. He scanned the surface for tasty fish. And… "There is nothing here! How exactly am I supposed to find something worth giving?", he said after not finding anything better than small herrings.

"By being a good mating candidate?", tried the light fury, secretly saddened by Ruffrunner's struggle.

The nightlight looked around him, trying to find a better fishing spot. He observed the river's flow. Unlike yesterday's tunnel, the water didn't come from a single waterfall. Only a small portion of the water came directly from the surface, with most coming from countless small streams exiting crevasses in the rock. "Where do they come from?", he asked while indicating one of these streams. Maybe one of them could bring a better catch.

"They come from all around the hidden world. But they're from other tunnels, where other dragons have already taken most of the good fish.", explained Laura, her mood suddenly and visibly down. It took the light fury a whole three seconds before her enthusiastic way of talking returned. "And that's why that female will be extra grateful.", she said, while pointing at the light fury on the other side of the stream.

Suddenly, the light fury raised her head, her eyes deliberately meeting his and Laura's. "That female is fully aware of your discussion.", said that female. "And she already has a mate."

Laura displayed an awkward smile as the black nightlight turned two very angry toxic green eyes in her direction. "Hehe… I didn't know that…", she harkled.

Ruffrunner then had an epiphany. Laura didn't know that he had threatened that fledgling. He hadn't told her. And he didn't want to continue being with her. This meant that… "There is no reason for me to stay here.", said the black dragon as he spread his wings. "Bye."

He took off.

Not even ten seconds later, Laura caught up to him, anger visible on her face. He had to admit that this female had a temper. "I will tell your dad everything you did!", threatened the light fury.

"You don't know what I did. You only know what Pouncer did. And if you make him embarrassed, I will be grateful.", he explained, a grin on his face.

He pumped his wings harder, soon finding himself back in the hidden world's main hole. The updraft of the rising water vapour immediately pushed from underneath his wings, giving him a large boost for the long flight back up.

And… guess what, the light fury was still besides him. "Then why did you get all scared when I said 'I know what you did'?!", she asked.

"I did something. That you don't know about.", concluded Ruffrunner. She had nothing to threaten him with.

The white dragon shook her head. "You're bluffing. You can't blame what you did on your brother."

Ruffrunner realized that if this dragon had gone all the way up to his home cavern, she could and would do it again for as long as it was necessary. He wouldn't get rid of her without proving his innocence. "Come with me. I will let you meet Pouncer. Let's see what you think of him afterwards."

The white nightlight raised his head as his brother entered the cavern. "I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes.", said Ruffrurer.

Pouncer didn't seem convinced. "It's totally not that I don't trust you, but I think I will keep them open.", said the dragon with a smug smile. Ruffrunner was in trouble. He wanted to fool his brother, but Pouncer wasn't an idiot.

Mostly. "It's for a female", he tried.

"Okay.", said the target as he obediently closed his eyes.

Surprised by how smoothly this had gone, the black nightlight made his way to a nearby ledge, where Laura was waiting for him. "Now you go there and cuddle with him.", he said. "Once you see how he acts around females, your doubts will be gone."

The light fury didn't seem too excited about this plan. "I'm not going to cuddle with him!", she declared.

"Yes…"

"No…"

"Come on. You said it yourself! Pouncer is such a gentleman!"

"Na-ah."

"Have fun living with the doubt of who tried to court with all your life."

Laura sighed. She would have much appreciated being able to go through this, but the idea was just too repugnant. "I'm not going to nuzzle with a dragon who can't see me. It's not something I want anyone else to go through, you see.", she explained. There was also the fact she wasn't that comfortable about going so close to males, but that came second.

"Then how exactly do you want to discover who it is?", asked Ruffrunner.

Laura found herself chuckling at her own idea.

Dart looked curiously at the events in front of her.

Ruffrunner landed in the cavern's entrance. "Here she is. And you keep your eyes closed, okay?"

"My eyes are sealed!", declared Pouncer confidently, as he rose up to face the expected female.

Dart looked on as Laura landed besides Ruffrunner. The dragon then walked next to the white nightlight, while trying to keep its steps as light and feminine as possible. The dragon reached Pouncer's side, and let its wing gently brush over the white nighlight's back. The dragon's tail went to Pouncer's underside, gliding its way from one side to the other.

The dragon was Ruffrunner.

"Ooh…", whispered Pouncer at the treatment he was receiving. Dart suspected that her brother would have closed his eyes even without being asked to. Or maybe not. Not if he had known it was Ruffrunner who was giving him the care.

Dart watched ever more intriguely as Laura placed herself right in front of the white nightlight and carefully observed his every reaction. "Hello there beautiful. What are you doing?", said Pouncer in a very husky and very masculine voice. "Because I'm completely onboard whatever you want to do.", he added.

Dart watched on as Laura's eyes widened in recognition and warped from anger to fear to shame in roughly two and a half seconds. "You were right… I'm so sorry Ruffrunner…", she said embarrassedly.

The white nightlight seemed surprised at these words."Laura? But you are in front of me? So who is this…" Pouncer halted himself. "Lovely lady?", he finished after a few seconds.

Dart had had enough. At this point it was just sad. "Open your eyes, Pouncer. They're playing you.", she said, breaking the tension.

Slowly and carefully, Pouncer lifted an eyelid to discover who had been cuddling with him.

"Aah!", yelled Pouncer as his eyes sprang wide open. He bolted away from his brother, nearly crashing into the cavern's roof in the process. He panted hard, his eyes focusing on Ruffrunner as if he was some sort of demonic creature.

"I'm sorry to bother you all. I am now going to go back to my cavern, disappear among the crowd and live in shame for the rest of eternity. Goodbye.", said Laura as she made her way outside.

As Pouncer saw Laura, who had been the dragon of his dreams since almost an hour, leaving, he understood that this was a time for action. "Wait!", he called out as he started running, catching up to her in a few seconds. He had to say something. Something deep, anything, just to make her not leave.

The light fury shook her head. "Please don't make a long confession about the true meaning of love.", she said, not daring to meet the nighlights gaze.

Pouncer had nothing left to say.

Laura gave a sad, unimpressed look at the nightlight and dove away, quickly disappearing out of sight.

Pouncer didn't remove his eyes from the cavern for a long time. When he did, his eyes turned towards his brother. "Ruffrunner, I need to know how I can find her again."

A week later, Eret, son of Eret, and his family were back home in their hut at berserker island. In a few hours, he would open the tavern and start selling lunch to the hungry vikings. But today, he had done something else first.

"The same reason that we're married, honey.", answered Helga cheerfully, just as a ray of sunlight made its way onto her face and illuminated those radiant, beautiful, fiery blue eyes.

A week after these events, very different people were dealing with a very different problem. These strange creatures lacked both wings and tails, but somehow managed to sustain a functioning society despite this.

Eret, son of Eret, used to call himself "the finest dragon trapper alive". But with him becoming a dragon rider, the rise of Berk, who lived in harmony with dragons, and the subsequent disappearance of all of dragonkind, that title didn't really bring the same amount of prestige. As such, after running his tavern on berserker island for a few years, he had adopted a new title: the finest bartender alive. As nobody who got a taste of his drinks was ever in a state to deal out critique, that title had remained. Furthermore, Eret, son of Eret was a proud father, and would protect his child to the end of the world and back. Which he had pretty much done.

His wife, Helga, considered herself as the archipelago's finest scientist. Her grand total of zero competition in the field had meant that no one had snatched the title, but also that it didn't bring as much prestige. Furthermore, after countless hours by the fires of the kitchen, she had managed to become the tavern's best (and only) cook. Her speciality was yak tongue deep fried in yak grease with whipped cream (made from yak milk).

Drinks still made up the majority of the tavern's income.

Lastly, Helga was a proud mother, and would protect her child to the end of the world and back. Which she had pretty much done.

In short, the two had a variety of skills, which allowed them to together be able to get through a wide range of situations. And this would likely be needed for the adventure they were about to face.

"I have found a way to visit the hidden world without the risk of harming the dragons who live there!", declared Helga one lucky morning

"You enjoyed going there, right?"

"Of course."

"And you would like to go there again?"

"Yes?"

"Let us suppose that someone on this island offers a trip there. The trip of a lifetime. Would you pay to get there?"

"Okay first, I can't afford it, second, the people offering the trip would have to know where to go, but we agreed not to tell anyone. How does that solve any problem?"

"We would offer the trip muttonhead!"

"Oh."

"Exactly. The passengers give us the gold to afford the trip, and we take them there, give them a good time, everything short of telling them where they are going. Now, Eret, son of Eret, will you follow me to the end of the world?"

Eret took a moment to think. The wind was blowing, the village was buzzing with activity, this plan felt littered with doubts and ways to go wrong… but somehow he felt eager towards it. "How do you always manage to convince me?", he asked, not managing to understand how he now thought that this was a good idea.

"The same reason that we're married, honey.", answered Helga cheerfully just as a ray of sunlight made its way onto her face and illuminated those radiant, beautiful, fiery blue eyes.

A few days had passed, and despite their best efforts, they were not one step closer to being able to afford a ship. Despite being incredible, fire breathing creatures, it seemed as if no Berserker wanted to have anything to do with dragons. How? When it came to hunting dragons, sure, the island had almost been overflowing with those people. But now that they had suggested a peaceful encounter, there was no interest.

"It's just not fair.", said Helga while sipping yak milk by the fire during the afternoon break. "As soon as something isn't inherently violent, vikings aren't interested.", she complained.

"I know. It's like they haven't learned anything from Drago.", added Eret, son of Eret, while thinking about the bloodthirsty viking. He looked back at his wife, expecting to see that resigned, tired expression Helga displayed in the rare moments she was out of ideas. Instead, those sparkling blue eyes were once more on fire. Eret found himself smiling while looking at the small, bulky woman. "But…", he pressed her to say.

Helga met her husband's gaze. "…But I will talk with them tonight, during the night shift. And I'm going to tell them, all of it. The true beauty of that place. The incredible scientific advances an expedition will make. The real nature of dragons. They will throw bags of gold at our feets by the time I'm done.", she explained with a confident smile.

Personally, Eret had his doubts. "Yeah, because that really sounds like something that berserkers will listen to.", he said, somewhat sarcastically. But these weren't the words that his wife needed before she started talking to vikings. "Good luck honey.", he added, his voice soft and encouraging.

"Really? Nothing?", asked Helga after her words had left the tavern silent and unenthusiastic. The woman would have given an eye for the opportunity to embrace on such a journey, but none of these vikings were ready to pay even a small (not so small actually) amount of gold. Why?

One of the vikings summarized the reason. "Dragons are gone, I'm grateful for that, and I don't want to ever see one again.", said the bulky man.

Eret was seated behind the counter, and had carefully observed his beloved's speech. And in reality, he had expected the failure.

It all came back to one simple reason. The captain, who had given them a passage on his fishing boat, was a prime example. His reaction after seeing dragons was setting sail straight back home, and doing his best to forget anything had ever happened. Eret, son of Eret had "voluntarily" sent him an helpful barrel of mead as an apology gift.

The people of berserker island hated dragons. From the raids to the disappearance of all of dragonkind twenty years ago, they had nothing but negative memories of the beasts. Another unsolvable problem.

In a snap, he found the solution. The bartender jumped over the counter and ran as fast as he could towards his wife. Panting, he jumped onto the elevated platform that Helga was standing on, which was used for singers and musicians on other days. "It looks like none of you want to visit the hidden world, and that's okay.", he said panting, with a smile on his face.

He had now gathered the curiosity of all of the tavern's guests, and the anger of his beloved. But as his wife didn't want to make a scene in front of all of everyone, she limited herself to gesturing every profanity known to vikingkind, rather than saying them.

"I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet.", he told the crowd. "But your kids are gonna love that." No one younger than twenty had ever experienced anything bad involving dragons. These people were their hope.

This proved to be a great decision. Merely minutes after they changed the sign to specify the trip was for children, a mother entered the building to ask the two to take her child. Two days later, they had enough money to afford renting one of the island's newest and fastest longship for a full scale expedition to the hidden world. The vessel, named God Enrager, could comfortably carry up to twenty vikings, provisions and other equipment, while being able to reach the hidden world in only three days of travel, provided favorable wind. The money had come from tired parents who desperately wanted a break for their children, and were ready to pay for this to be possible.

And so, Eret, Helga, their son, and ten other children, who had a reputation for being troublemakers, set sail towards the home of all dragons in the God Enrager.

What could possibly go wrong?

I would be thankful if you left a review. Not mandatory.