The light rain in the morning was only the start of what was to come as things were now starting to intensify.

A storm gathered over the ocean horizon in the distance. Hiccup and Astrid could see it from the cliffs near the dragon hangar, and already they felt their stomachs grinding as if they ate something bad for breakfast that morning.

"That storm is fast approaching," Hiccup said with his voice lower than usual. "Thor must be in a great battle right now, swinging Mjolnir with all his might."

"I'm concerned more for Berk than what Thor is doing," replied Astrid, growing more worrisome as she could hear the thunder rolling from afar. "Are you sure the huts will hold?"

"Positive," he nodded. "We upgraded the supports on every hut in the village a while ago. That storm shouldn't be able much to them, so there's no need to worry. Plus, we've been adding more stone to them, so it should be difficult for the lightning to burn them."

"Let's hope you're right," she replied, twisting her head towards the dragon hangar nearby. "I'd rather not sleep in the great hall tonight on a stone cold floor... Also, we need to get as many dragons as we can into the hangar."

Hiccup gave a nod. "More than half should be able to fit. The rest of them can hang around in their huts with their riders until the storm is over."

"Gothi said that the storm is going to last all night," Astrid sighed, lightly swinging her arms forward. "As if the rain today wasn't enough. Then again, it is that time of year."

"Yeah," responded Hiccup in agreement. "Either way, I'll see to it that the dragons are gathered up. My mother and father have already made preparations for the town so everyone else should be set."

"Though the same probably can't be said for Snotlout."

"Good," Astrid said with an almost mocking tone towards the thought of Snotlout. "I hope he gets the brunt of the storm since I doubt much of his village will hold long against it."

"Well, we'll see. For now we should prepare ourselves. Did you get Stormfly settled in?"

Astrid gave a firm nod, looking back in the general direction of her hut. "She was in a deep sleep last I checked on her, so right now we're fine. How about you and Toothless?"

"Toothless isn't really one for sleep right now," said Hiccup. "He's more concerned about the storm rather than rest. For some reason he wouldn't stop looking out the window in my room. I wonder what's with him…"

"He's probably nervous, or restless," Astrid replied with a shrug, unsure of what to make of it. "But I think I should be getting myself some shut-eye, otherwise that storm will keep me up all night."

Hiccup lightly chuckled. "Yeah, same here…"

…

The night was rough.

The storm hit like a hurricane when it reached Berk, and though surprisingly much of the town still stood as it raged on, many knew that it was just getting riled up. The people would soon see what desecration would be brought to Berk.

The roofs of many homes rocked and creaked to the powerful winds that blew against them as if they were breezing over meadows of grass, yet still it raged on, and the damage done would be unimaginable to many despite having worse in recent years.

In lighter news however, it would be Clan Jorgenson's village that would take the smack-down of the storm as Astrid had hoped. Many of their huts were struck by lightning - either set aflame or damaged. Even a few of their food stores were badly wrecked.

It was clear Snotlout would not be in the best mood upon waking up, especially since the morning came so swiftly.

The first crack of light arose, and the storm had by then already passed over the island of Berk and went off into another direction towards wherever it was led. After all, only Thor knew where to bring the storm.

Once it was fully morning, everyone in the Berkian village came out of their huts to see the devastation that was brought to their town.

Hiccup's eyes widened as he too took a step out of his hut with Toothless, with remnants of rain lightly falling down like sparks from a doused fire.

From atop the hill he could see what the storm had brought to them. Though it was not what he thought it would be, the damage was still in a way extensive. The entirety of the aqueduct system was ruined, a few large windmills were tossed over, and some of the huts here and there were damaged with holes blown in them as a result of the lightning.

He lightly sighed, scanning his eyes over the town. "Thor's beard…" he said with a surprised tone, talking almost like Stoick. "I never expected that the damage would go as far as to destroy this much. But our water supply, it's-"

"We'll get it fixed," said the voice of Stoick as the chieftain came up from behind, laying a hand on his son's shoulder. "We've had worse than this, Hiccup. I assure you that we can repair this all in no time… hopefully before Dogsbreath and his men return."

"Yeah," Hiccup replied in agreement, though narrowing his eyes down in slight disappointment. "Well, I'd better go check on Astrid and the others and see how they're doing- if they're awake of course."

"You go on ahead," said Stoick, giving Hiccup a pat on the back. "Your mother and I need to help see to the repairs."

Without another word both Hiccup and Toothless made their way down the hill, rushing off hastily to the town center while hoping to see Astrid and the others by Gobber's workshop. To both their surprises, there they were, along with their dragons.

However, it was not in the way that they expected.

The riders were totally exhausted - especially Astrid, who had tiring light bags under her eyes, perhaps from staying up most of the night. From the way she looked, Hiccup could tell she did not have a good night sleep.

"I have a bad feeling for Astrid," said Hiccup to Toothless, leaning his head for a moment closer to the black dragon. "She looks terrible…"

Upon approaching the group, Hiccup gave a friendly wave as he said "hey," to them cheerfully, only to receive mumbled greetings back from them in response.

He rose one of his brows, staring at them with concerned eyes. Now he was definitely curious. What in Midgard had happened?

He sighed. "Are you guys alright?"

"No," Astrid began, somewhat dangling her head as she stretched out her arms and let out a yawn. "Last night was the worst ever. I had to sleep downstairs because the lightning blew a hole in the roof above my room, and I had only a bedroll to sleep on."

"Not to mention Stormfly would not stop squawking…"

"Easy for you to say, Astrid," Fishlegs replied, yawning out his words more than her. "Meatlug wanted to play rather than sleep. She's been nagging me all night and running around the hut like it was a play pen, and I had to fix up my room afterwards. I'm not saying that I don't like Meatlug, but just look at her right now…"

Fishlegs motioned with his hand towards Meatlug who laid next to him, fast asleep and snoring loudly. This simply went to further show that although Gronckles were useful, at times they were merely lazy.

"Heh, you guys must've been unlucky," chuckled Tuffnut, sitting against Barf and Belch who were sleeping. "Barf and Belch wanted to play stack the yak again. Game was getting old though so we decided to make a new game called yak the stack."

"Yak the stack?" questioned Astrid, now irritated in her tone. "And what exactly is the difference? All your ridiculous games sound the same to me."

Astrid was not wrong about it either. The Twins always tended to make the most impossible and ridiculous sounding games compared to actual viking games that were not impossible to play, but stacking a yak with one's bare hands was beyond being out of the question. If anything, only a dragon could lift a yak.

But then again, it was impossible to even stack them.

Still. Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs were not interested, so the Twins lowered their voices down.

Tuffnut rolled his lips. "Wow, Astrid has some nerve…" he dared to say.

"I can still hear you, Tuff!"

Hiccup groaned, as this was not what he expected from them. "I guess Thor really did it this time, eh Toothless?"

The Night Fury gave a nod in agreement, huffing warm air out of his nostrils as he warbled.

"Anyways guys," spoke Hiccup with a high self-esteemed tone, still trying to cheer the others up. "Though our nights may have been bad, why don't we look on the bright side? Remember we've had worse times than this, right? This storm was nothing compared to…"

There was a pause. His attempt at cheering them up had simply backfired. They all looked at him with faces that told him "really Hiccup?" which just came to show that their night could not have gotten worse.

"Alright then…" he sighed. "Well, I guess for now we should-"

"Hiccup!"

The young lad was nearly startled by the trembling and bellowing voice of his father as Stoick came up from behind. He was clearly in a haste, but in a strange manner.

"Dad?" he asked. "What are you doing here? I thought you said you were helping with the repairs."

"I was, but Eret came by to me with a report from the Long Beach and he said that you may need to check it out. It is very important."

Hiccup was a little bit hesitant. Had something happened? He asked his father, "What is it?"

"...He found a longship wrecked on the shore."

…

Hiccup was surprised when his eyes laid upon it. "I can't believe it. So it was here all along!"

It. That was what the voice in his vision was referring to. A wrecked longship. The wreckage. And it was exactly as how Hiccup last saw it.

The sun softly dimmed onto the wrecked longship from behind the clouds, as if it was telling them that they were supposed to be there, but now Hiccup was able to get a closer look at the viking bodies surrounding the wreckage; the same vikings he saw from his vision.

And they were definitely not of Berk.

Fishlegs gulped, glancing at the twelve bodies that laid around them. "Who are they, Eret?"

"I don't know. I've never seen them before. I can only say that they're among no viking tribe I recognize. Their style is… strange."

It indeed was strange to them. The style of clothing and armor the vikings wore was nothing like what Hiccup or even any other tribe in the Archipelago wore.

Their helmets were made of plate, and were almost the color of Gronckle iron, with some bearing horns and others having none. Their armor was scalemail, which cladded around their chests and legs. And their clothing consisted of leather gloves, belts, and boots, along with azure wool tunics which were exposed around their arms.

In addition, they also bore grey furred mantles around their shoulders, most likely to protect them from the cold, but it was their cloaks that caught everyone's eyes the most. They were the same color as their tunics; an azure-like blue which to Hiccup was more unique than any blue he had ever seen before.

It was in a way... elegant. Better than a royal purple or red that many vikings tended to wear.

Tuffnut however gave a disgusted a look. "Bleh, what is it with these guys and their blue? Blue tunics, blue cloaks…"

"Yeah, not to mention blue warpaint," Ruffnut giggled snottily, and nor was she wrong, for a few of them bore warpaint on their faces.

"Guys, now's not the time for jokes right now," spoke Hiccup, speaking with a more serious tone. "We need to see if there are any still alive. Spread out, and look for survivors."

The riders and their dragons quickly separated out, rushing towards the bodies of each viking, and checking them one by one to see if they had a pulse.

Astrid was the first to raise up her voice after inspecting one of them. "...This one's dead. There's no pulse."

"S- So is this one! His skin is pale and there's no breath," Fishlegs called out. "Oh Thor…"

"Dead!" said Tuffnut.

"Dead!" also said Ruffnut.

Eret sighed desperately, seeing as there was no luck thus far. He hovered his ear over the mouth of a nearby viking, hoping to catch a breath from him. Yet again, there was nothing.

"...Also dead."

Hiccup started to feel like the whole situation was hopeless.

He even looked back at Toothless who was sniffing the body of another viking, but not even he could sense a sign of life, and the Night Fury merely shook his head at him. Dead.

Were they really all dead? The vision he had, the voice he heard... How could this wreckage with dead vikings scattered across the beach give him with any form of answers? There appeared to be nothing.

...Or so he thought.

"Ugh…"

The breathy groan of what sounded like a young man suddenly took the attention of everyone as their eyes fell upon the figure of a viking who laid flat on their stomach near Hiccup. Could it be?

Hiccup hastily approached the lad with Toothless at his side, flipping him over onto his back to reveal his face.

Among the group of dead vikings, the young man that Hiccup held was the youngest out of them. He could easily tell. He was a blonde-headed and scrawny-like viking who looked to be as old as him, at least in his early twenties.

And of course, his armor was similar to that of his companions who sailed with him... But it appeared to be designed in a different manner.

"Please tell me he's still alive…" begged Hiccup, gently lowering his ear over the lad's mouth and hoping that there was still a sign of life within him.

What then followed was a pause - a long and tensing pause that ceased almost every noise and sound around Hiccup as if the world of Midgard itself went silent… but soon he finally heard it like a light breeze in the wind.

It was a soft breath.

"He's still alive…"