At a groan, Astrid looked around, and saw Hiccup sitting up at last. She hurried over to him.

"You okay?" she asked worriedly, checking him all over for anything else of concern. He waved her away, smiling weakly.

"'M fine," he croaked. Astrid picked up a flagon of water and held it out to him, which he took gratefully, and while he was sipping it little by little she went to tell the others.

Within the next couple of minutes, the room was crowded.

"Hah! If I was you I wouldn't have fainted," Snotlout bragged amidst the chatter. Hiccup looked at him tiredly.

"Oh, yeah. How long was I out?"

"Ten ye-"

"Just a few hours," Astrid hurriedly interrupted Tuffnut.

"So… we got away?"

Fishlegs groaned. "Yeah, we got away, but I never want to do anything like that ever again."

"What are you talking about?" Alphas strode in. "It was fabulous."

He nodded to Hiccup. "Feeling alright?"

As Hiccup gave his affirmation, Omegas came in with a plate of food and handed it to him.

"Thought you might want something to eat," he clarified.

Internally, Astrid wished she had prepared something to eat for him before calling in everyone else.

Hiccup chewed a mouthful slowly, and swallowed. "Uh, how did we escape if the sails were burnt?"

"It's an exciting story," Alphas said, leaning forward. "It's also one that can wait until you're done. Eat up first." He indicated the plate with a nod.

Slowly, the food disappeared, and Hiccup sat back contentedly. "That was pretty good," he said, turning to Omegas. "Did you make that?"

He shook his head. "They're kind of ready made. This is pretty much an emergency ship, after all. If there's an emergency, you don't want to waste time cooking."

Hiccup sighed. "Right, I should have thought of that."

"You're not expected to," Alphas clarified. "New environment, new way of thinking. You can't wrap your head around it immediately, and no one's going to say that you should have."

Astrid didn't agree with that statement, but she didn't say it out loud. A warrior should know how to be ready for any kind of situation, and that includes critical thinking.

But… Hiccup wasn't a warrior, was he? He was a dragon-rider, and a cute one too, with an about average hand at weapons, and he didn't really take that much action on the ground. Having dragons meant you got used to aerial attack over anything. And even before the dragons, he'd mostly stuck to smithing because that was all a Viking with no muscles to speak of could do to make himself useful in a war-driven environment. Everyone needed weapons, and he was so desperate to be a part of something that he'd done whatever was necessary.

Astrid kept her thoughts to herself.

Alphas was saying something, relating to Hiccup their daring escape, with the way they had blasted a hole in the main ship and left it to sink, the way they had dashed across the ship to put the fires out, the way every arrow and harpoon with a rope trailing behind it had been severed midair. He narrated the look of fury on Caird's face, which Astrid hadn't even been able to see with the huge distance between them, but Alphas somehow had. And she could have sworn that as he talked, the scenes he spoke of played back in his eyes, with firelight and steel and entire clouds of black arrows shimmering in those eyes made of shadow.

Hiccup listened with a slight frown, and when Alphas was done, he asked the same question as before.

"But how did we get away if the sails were burnt? Or are we still there but they've moved on?" he added sarcastically.

A smile. "There's spare sails on every one of these ships. We just rowed like hell to get out of their reach then set it up. After that, everything was smooth sailing."

Hiccup gave the pun a little snort of acknowledgement. "You rowed?"

"There's oars. You can see them if you like."

"I'm fine, thanks."

=0=

The sea was dark around them, but calm. Small waves shimmered under an orange sky.

Alphas and Omegas stood together, leaning over the railings.

They stood in silence, gazing into the blueness below, with only the sounds of the wind and the occasional shuffle of feet or rustling of clothes to mark the time with. At last, Omegas spoke.

"Two things."

"Go on."

"First. The magic."

"Caird wouldn't talk. Just taunts. Shut him up quickly enough."

"Hm. What did he say?"

"Something along the lines of 'You'll find out soon enough, and then you'll wish you hadn't.' Standard threats, but it could be genuine. Who knows, with Myre?"

"Got it."

"Second?"

"Do you know where we are?"

"If I had even the faintest kind of idea I'd be steering. As it is…"

"You're just letting the wind take us."

"Lost, in a nutshell."

"Damn."

They looked at each other with tired expressions. Omegas' mouth twitched.

"Well then, oh brother of mine, I'm going to go and lie down," he proclaimed with a sweep of his arm.

Alphas gave him a tiny smile in return.

"Go ahead," he replied, and turned back.

Omegas faltered, but then he swung around and walked away. If Alphas was worried, then he'd give him the space he needed.

=0=

It was when he was deep in thought that it came. The wind… froze.

Alphas barely paid it any attention. But then he tasted it in the air. That crackling, the sparking of the sky.

Alphas looked up, and his face changed. He swore, and yelled for Omegas.

The sky before the ship was violently dark.

Seastorm.

=0=

"Get the damn sails down!" Alphas screamed over the wind. The ship was being tossed around by the waves. Every few seconds another wall of water would slam against the hull and the entire thing would rock the other way. Alphas had to jump every time to keep his balance.

Omegas darted to the mast and began clambering his way up, but was immediately dislodged by the ship quaking as another huge wave thundered against the vessel. He fell to the ground with a thud.

Alphas leapt forward as the ship crashed back down as a Berkian, the one called Fishlegs, staggered out of the entrance to the lower levels.

"What's happening?" he yelled.

"Storm! Get back inside!" Alphas shouted as he dug the dagger into the pole. Fishlegs wasted no time in obeying and was immediately gone. Hanging on tightly, Alphas retrieved the dagger and stabbed the wood, using it to pull himself up just as a violent burst of wind threatened to bring him back down. Omegas slalomed around the pole, slipping on the water that had found its way onto the deck. Before he was thrown off-kilter, his axe found its way into the mast.

Omegas began to climb up as well.

Slowly, both of them found their way to the horizontal board by which the sails were held up. They scrambled up and nearly fell over as a powerful gust of wind whirled around them. Gripping the ropes, they began to cut through.

The sails didn't even have a chance to begin falling before they were blown away, throwing them both off the mast. They landed rather painfully.

"Ow," Alphas hissed as he got up, the ship rather less violent now that the wind wasn't careening them in every direction.

"I'm going to be sore for a week," Omegas grumbled, who hadn't even tried to pick himself up. Alphas took him by his leg and dragged him inside to wait out the tempest.

=0=

Crack!

The entire ship shook. The juddering continued well after the sound had died down.

"What was that?" Hiccup asked nervously.

"Don't know," Alphas said, "but I'm going to check it out." He got up.

"Anyone else coming?"

Omegas raised his hand.

"You coming is a given," Alphas remarked. "Anyone else?"

Hesitantly, Hiccup raised his hand. After him, Snotlout and Astrid did. Then Fishlegs put his hand in the air, and the twins followed suit.

Alphas raised an eyebrow. "Unexpected, but welcome. Let's go."

Once they were on the deck, it was only a matter of looking over the rails that made the matter clear.

A bit too clear for anyone's liking.

"Big rock."

"Very much so."

They all looked over.

"At least there's an island. Look at all those trees."

"Gotta be at least some fruit trees in there. And animals. We can live pretty well while we figure out how to get back home."

Hiccup pointed. "Is that a cave?"

The hole yawned darkly. The rim of the entrance was studded with deep red rocks that reached far inside. The colour faded the farther away from the entrance it was, and the plants around the area too were crimson.

The Arcanums frowned upon seeing it.

"It's a cave, yes. Good eye," Omegas responded. "Probably best not to go in, though."

"Ah…" Hiccup came forward and whispered something in his ear. He nodded, then turned to the twins.

"As for the two of you, you can go in any time you like, because there's probably a lot of delicious sea slugs in there and I'm sure we wouldn't mind having some for a meal every now and then."

Tuffnut wailed at this, and Ruffnut glared at Omegas, opening her mouth to speak.

"Of course, if you go down there, there might well be something to fully educate you on all the different types of leaves that exist in the world, so that's an added bonus, I'm sure," he continued.

Ruffnut cowered on the floor with Tuffnut.

"Now that that's settled," Alphas said, clapping his hands, "we'll need to make a camp here and find food. As I see it, the part of the ship with the rations was hit."

Fishlegs whimpered.

"It's not hopeless," Alphas said pointedly, glancing at him. "Island survival is easy."

"Oh sure, survival extraordinaire can say that," Snotlout muttered. Alphas was immediately looming over him.

"Something to say?"

"Er, no."

"Oh no, go on. This is a team effort, after all."

"D-didn't say anything."

"Sure? Oh well then."

He turned back to everyone else, and gave them a smile that would have been charming were it not so intrinsically dark.

"Let's set up," he said.

=0=

"These damn birds," Alphas said as he laid waste to one of the aforementioned. "You'd think they had it out for us."

For seemingly no reason, the island's inhabitants were supremely aggressive and were out for the group's blood. They didn't get very far, not with the sorcerer twins at hand and dragons to chomp them through.

Omegas slapped one out of the air as it hurtled towards him, screeching.

Hiccup was keeping them at bay by swinging Inferno around threateningly. It seemed to do the trick, and the other Vikings made sure to keep close to him, lashing out wherever they could. The conventional weapons didn't seem to be enough of a deterrent.

Alphas plucked one out of the air, one-handedly delivering death to the eternal stream of unfortunate avians as he inspected the one in his hand.

It was decidedly a beautiful bird, with red, blue, yellow, and green feathers that cascaded over its form. The eyes seemed enraged, with tiny black pupils like pinpoints. It had a small red beak, perfect for nipping out eyeballs, and orange claws tipped with black talons.

Its voice was exceedingly shrill, and so Alphas crushed it underfoot.

They very quickly took the message after that. But wherever they walked, there were hundreds of beady red eyes glaring at them from the trees.

"Annoying, aren't they?" Omegas remarked.

There was no response.

"Come on, don't be stingy!"

Silence.

"Alphas. Say something."

Alphas did not say something.

"Great," Omegas sighed, and slumped. Hiccup exchanged an amused glance with Astrid, and they walked onwards.

Right then was when they reached the clearing.

It sprawled over a huge area, a clear blue lake fed by a stream, surrounded by crowded trees and small grasses vying for space underfoot. The canopies merged into one above them, turning the shadows green. The sky was refreshingly blue compared to the lightning-split darkness of what they had had to pass through, and everyone couldn't help but sigh in relief at finding such a perfect spot.

Everyone except Alphas. That man had seemingly no emotional response.

He clapped his hands and gestured to an area some way off from the water.

"'Megas, get chopping," he ordered. His brother nodded and, slinging his axe from his back, strode off to the indicated area.

"You two, help him clear the area and break off any good firewood you find," he said, pointing to the twins. Astrid was next.

"Set up a perimeter," he told her, then turned his attention to Hiccup and Fishlegs.

"You're in charge of getting anything edible from the trees, bushes and whatnot that's around here. And you, Snotlout, you're coming with me."

He marched away into the undergrowth. Snotlout exchanged a look of hopelessness with everyone else, then trudged off after him.

He caught up, leaving behind the sounds of chatter as everyone else tried to plan how they would go about their respective tasks. They walked in silence, and the faraway voices faded away. Alphas said nothing, which meant Snotlout said nothing, because he would not dare to break the silence. All there was was the rustling of the grass and leaves as they walked past, and the occasional chatter or call of a bird. And maybe Snotlout imagined it, but there was also a nearly imperceptible hissing, just at the corner of his hearing.

"Name," Alphas said, apparently unperturbed by the hissing. If Alphas couldn't hear it, then Snotlout was probably imagining it. Immediately, the hissing went away.

Wait, oh no, Alphas had said something. What had he said?

"Um, could you say that again?" Snotlout said uneasily.

Alphas quirked an eyebrow at him. "Name," he repeated.

"Name?" Snotlout asked, bemused.

"Yes, name. What's your name?"

"Don't… don't you know my name?"

"Full name, full name. I know they call you Snotlout and that's your individual name, but what clan do you belong to?" Alphas clarified.

"Oh. Snotlout Jorgensen," said Snotlout Jorgensen.

"I see. Any other Jorgensens in that group?"

"Hah! You wish!" Snotlout crowed, forgetting himself for a moment. Then he remembered and said "S-sorry."

"Sorry? For what?" Alphas inquired, then his head snapped to a bush, just an ordinary bush. He looked at Snotlout and held a finger to his lips, signalling silence.

He crept up to it, then he kicked it hard.

A screaming thing erupted from the bush, with flailing arms and baring long yellow fangs as big as Snotlout's own hands. It had dirty yellow fur, and its hindlegs looked like another set of arms. The most terrifying thing of all though, was its face.

It looked almost human.

Alphas just punched it so hard that Snotlout heard a crack as a bone broke. It dropped to the ground, writhing. Alphas stamped on its head and all wild motions immediately ceased. There was just the occasional twitch to show it was still alive.

Alphas knelt down to it, and peeled back the eyelid. Even knocked out, the eyes were crazed and bloodshot. He tilted his head, as though puzzled, then straightened.

"What were we talking about, before we were so rudely interrupted?" he asked.

"Uh…"

Alphas snapped his fingers. "Right! Sorry for what?"

Snotlout furrowed his brow, trying to remember. Then he recalled the earlier conversation and looked somewhat sheepish.

"Um, I don't know."

Alphas looked amused. "You're afraid of me."

Snotlout hung his head and didn't say anything. Alphas smiled at him. It was actually a nice smile this time, calm and friendly, not one of the varieties of intimidation or rage he always seemed to have ready.

"All I can say is, really, I'm a bit of an angry person."

This was a severe understatement, in Snotlout's opinion, but he didn't voice that thought. Alphas continued.

"But you must admit, you lot gave me a good enough reason to be angry." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll be fine now though, I promise. And you don't have that much to be afraid of with 'Megas, I know. He's nice, isn't he?"

Snotlout voiced his agreement, although it must be said that he would have agreed with anything Alphas said.

"Right. Let's start off on the right foot this time then, shall we?" He stuck out his hand.

"Hi, I'm Alphas. Pleased to meet you." He smiled radiantly this time. Tentatively, Snotlout shook the proffered hand.

"Snotlout. Pleased to meet you too," he tried.

"Lovely!" Alphas exclaimed, then spun around on his heel and continued deeper into the trees. Could this really be called a forest, or a wood? It was something else entirely.

Snotlout took a deep breath. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes?"

"Why are we out here?"

Alphas looked back at him and yes, there was that dark smile again. "Looking for something to fight, of course."

=0=

Omegas was chopping trees with surprising speed. One quick slash and the entire trunk was cut through. Astrid watched him work, enraptured, forgetting about setting up a perimeter.

"How do you do that?" she asked him.

"It's just a matter of having a sharp enough axe and enough strength behind the swing," he told her. He flipped the weapon around and offered it to her. "Would you like to try?"

She took it from him and aimed a swift chop at one of the trees. The axe cleaved straight through the entire thing, and it fell with a lot of rustling and a few snaps as the branches broke off. She gazed at the dark metal in awe.

"What's it made of?" she asked.

"It's called Indus steel. I haven't a clue how it's made," he replied. He put his hand forward to ask for the axe back.

"Huh," Astrid said, and reluctantly handed it over. "Sounds like a better kind of Gronckle Iron. Feels like it too."

"Gronckle Iron?"

"You don't know?" she asked, astonished. Omegas shook his head.

"Well, you'll have to ask Hiccup how it's made. You have to make a Gronckle eat specific amounts of special stones and then use the lava to make whatever you want. It's strong. I remember the first time Gobber made Gronckle Iron. It was really light but it cut straight through a normal iron sword."

Omegas' eyes gleamed. "Now that sounds useful. I wonder what would happen if you pitted it against Indus steel. Which would win, I wonder?"

Astrid laughed. "Honestly, probably your metal. Gronckle Iron might have cut through regular iron but it still couldn't cut straight through the trees." She swished an imaginary axe as she said this.

"I see. Indus steel can cut through iron too. It would be an interesting competition," he remarked. "Now, weren't you supposed to be setting up a perimeter?"

"Oh, right!" Astrid looked around, then faltered. "I'll have to wait for you to get done with the trees first though. I can't set up a perimeter between all this."

Omegas shrugged. "Just mark out the general area and I'll cut it through."

"Thanks. I'll just put a cross in the trees to cut."

"Good idea. You do that."

Astrid retrieved her own axe and got to work making notches in the bark.

While she was busy, Hiccup and Fishlegs returned with armfuls of bright red berries and dumped them near the dragons, some of which were asleep, others watching the activities with interest. Upon sensing the berries, Toothless came forward to give them a sniff, then slowly crept back, as though thoughtful.

"Ah! Perfect timing!" Omegas exclaimed happily upon seeing them. "Mister fire sword, would you mind doing me a favour?"

"Uh, sure?" Hiccup said tentatively.

Omegas pointed at all the stumps around them.

"We can't exactly lie down on those or anything, so please do burn them. I'd ask a dragon, but they're not up to the task at the moment."

"Burn them? Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," he nodded.

Hiccup hesitated, then pulled out Inferno and, as it flared, he held it to a stump. The flames danced along the length of the metal, and it took a few minutes before the wood caught. Soon, the little area they had made was lit with flames.

Omegas applauded. "Wonderful! Continue just like that!"

Spurred on, Hiccup repeated the process for every stump he came across. As he did so, he noticed the furrows in the dirt around every single one. The fallen leaves had been scraped away and any grasses or ferns uprooted, leaving only the dark soil, which could not catch fire. As he lit the next stump, Hiccup realized with a start that Omegas had done all this beforehand.

He had anticipated Hiccup's usefulness, and prepared accordingly.

Really, you couldn't help but feel impressed.

As he neared a stump on the edge, Omegas called him.

"No no, don't burn those. Not the ones right on the edge. They'll act as a sort of boundary for our site, yeah?"

Hiccup nodded, and turned his attention back.

There was smoke everywhere.

"How do I get back?" he shouted over the crackling of flames.

"You walk, I guess?" Omegas replied.

"I can't get through the fire!"

"Such a shame. Hang on, I'll be right there."

Hiccup waited, and then Omegas came through with his collapsible shield in front of him.

"Thought you'd appreciate the protection," he grinned, and beckoned to follow. Hiccup did so, and Omegas turned the shield every now and then to block off the flames. Soon, they emerged on the side with everyone else on it. Hiccup coughed. Smoke was not entirely kind to the lungs. His eyes watered.

"Can I have some water?" he croaked, desperate to wash away that sort of film that coated his tongue.

"But of course." Omegas rummaged in a satchel for a bit, then produced a water-skin with a flourish. Hiccup took it gratefully, and drank deeply. He sighed contentedly when he was done. It was quite welcome.

"Oh, and by the way, no one eat the berries you've found yet."

Hiccup looked questioningly at Alphas.

"They're safe to eat. We recognized them."

"Still. Do wait until Alphas gets back. In the meantime, perhaps we could catch some fish?"

"How?" Hiccup asked. "We don't have nets or rods. How will we catch anything?"

Omegas smirked. "By sword, of course."

"Eh?"

"See, it's not just nets and rods that are used to catch fish," Omegas informed him. "In some places, tridents are used to spear the fish in the water."

"What's a trident?"

Omegas considered this for a moment. "Like a spear with three points. Anyway, the point is that we can take a leaf out of their book and use that spear that belongs to one of you to get something."

"Or we could use dragons."

Omegas paused. "You know, I really should have considered that we have fish-predators here," he said, and laughed. Hiccup chuckled with him.

"Omegas, are all the trees done?" Astrid came walking up, then looked at the blaze. "What?"

"I asked your boyfriend here to set specific stumps on fire with that impressive sword of his. I asked him to leave the ones at the edge, I thought they could act as a boundary to add to the perimeter. Of course, if you like he can burn those as well."

"N-no, it's fine," Astrid said quietly. Her face went slightly pink. She looked up.

"We're betrothed, actually," she declared, and now it was Hiccup's turn to flush, not that he hadn't been already. Omegas did not seem in the slightest bit affected.

"Really? Congratulations!" he exclaimed.

"Thanks," Astrid said briskly.

"Th-thanks," Hiccup murmured. Then he looked around.

"Where are the twins?"

"They went off the moment Alphas and Snotlout did and left the task of stripping the trees for firewood to the lot of us," Omegas told him. "While you were clearing the area, I set your friend to cutting branches and gathering the dry leaves."

Sure enough, Fishlegs was hard at work, breaking off branches and putting them in a steadily growing pile. Every now and then a dragon would reach out to help him rip away a particularly thick bit of wood.

"Where'd they go?" Hiccup asked frantically.

Omegas waved his concerns away. "Don't worry. I saw them. They went off after those two."

"Which two?"

"Who do you think?"

=0=

Snotlout followed Alphas in a silence that was punctuated only by the sounds of the island that he had grown used to.

A flash of something that hung from the trees and yelled at him.

Snotlout yelled and jumped away, only to see that Ruffnut was laughing hysterically. Alphas was not amused, and plucked Tuffnut out of the trees before him.

"Firstly, you need to be quieter. I heard you all the way. Secondly, I thought I told you to help Omegas."

"He had it handled," Ruffnut scoffed. "What could we do?"

"Simultaneous tasks increase efficiency," Alphas informed them.

"Not like you could get any more efficient than he was already going," Ruffnut grumbled. "Fine, we'll go back."

She turned around and inspected the surroundings. "Yeah, we're lost."

Alphas sighed. "Then you had better come with us, hadn't you?"

He didn't wait for a reply, he just turned and walked off deeper into the trees. Snotlout glanced at the twins, then followed him, and heard the rustling as they came along.

Along the way, Alphas bent down to inspect some small animal on the ground as it passed by. It bared its teeth at him and he nudged it along with his foot. Rather forcefully.

"Did you have to kick it?" Ruffnut asked him. "It was kinda cute."

"I didn't kick it," Alphas said, seeming miffed. "I just shooed it. Did you see me draw back? No? That's because I didn't kick it. I just touched it and then moved it out of the way."

No one said anything after that. A miffed Alphas was, to their minds, rather close to an irritated Alphas, which was uncomfortably near to an angry Alphas, which they didn't want to see.

They continued on until they heard an amalgamation of different kinds of squealing and screeching. Alphas glanced at them, and they immediately knew he was going to get close. Reluctantly, they followed.

The sight that greeted them was an interesting one.

In a small area devoid of any trees or grasses or shrubbery, a miniature war was taking place. The birds from before were dive-bombing the ugly human-faced things that Snotlout had had the misfortune of seeing and Alphas had had the pleasure of beating up. The enraged things were dancing and grabbing birds from midair, biting into them and clawing them down as they attacked the eyeballs. The tiny things Alphas had not-quite-kicked before were darting about, nipping at feet and scuttling up the bodies of the human-faced things. There was another, new party too, which was subject to the same kind of attack as the human-faced things, and was attacking back and attacking things that had not done anything and attacking the enemies of its enemies and just generally attacking anything in sight.

It looked like a huge lizard, or perhaps a small wingless dragon, bigger than a Terrible Terror. It had frills all along its back, decorated with small colourful patterns. The rest of its body was bland and grey. Its mouth was saggy and when it hissed at anything, there was a view of small and sharp, tightly packed teeth.

Its eyes, as with all the others, were furious.

Alphas nodded to himself. "Alright then."

He launched himself into the fray.

By the time he was done, the little clearing was devoid of any living animals, with the rest having run away, and the message was probably clear.

Humans are dangerous. Stay away.

Alphas rubbed his hands together.

"Well, time to get back."

And they followed him back through the trees on a path only he seemed to know.

=0=

"How," Hiccup said slowly, "can you find this many things to kill?"

Alphas was dripping redness. The twins and Snotlout made sure to stand well away from him.

"I'm talented," Alphas said without batting an eyelid.

"You're also covered in blood," Omegas told him. "Go clean up. And don't drip any on the catch."

Alphas looked around at the fish, which had been laid out on a second spare sail that Omegas had recovered from the ship. He nodded.

"I won't," he said, and walked away towards the lake. Then he turned back. "The wildlife is unusually aggressive."

With that parting quip, he sauntered off to the clear blue water. Hiccup looked at Omegas, who was frowning. Had that comment meant anything?

"What did he mean, they're unusually aggressive?"

Omegas cheered up immediately. "Oh, nothing," he said, and went to the pile of firewood that Fishlegs had painstakingly prepared. Fishlegs was currently glaring at the twins for leaving him with their work.

Omegas came back with an armful of sticks, which he threw to the floor, then went off in a different direction.

There was a distant splash as Alphas jumped into the water. From where Hiccup was sitting, it looked like he hadn't even bothered taking his clothes off. His sword and dagger, however, were sitting on the ground by the lake in their respective sheaths.

Omegas came back with some good sized stones, which he began to arrange in a circle. He had to make another trip to complete it, but once that was done he arranged the firewood in the middle and held his hand out to Hiccup. He understood and took out his sword. It clicked and burst into flames and he handed it to Omegas.

The lake rippled as Alphas swam quietly in the distance.

Omegas went to get some more stones and put them on the edges and corners of the sail on which the fish had been laid out. He retrieved the sword Alphas had left, washed it a bit in the lake, then wiped it dry on the sail. He speared a fish on the blade and held it over the fire to cook.

"Won't he mind?" Hiccup asked, not a little fearfully.

Omegas shook his head. "It'll be fine."

The fire was roaring by now, and night was setting in.

=0=

"Alright then," Alphas said, folding up the sail with the fish still in it. He'd come up, dripping wet, but at least it was water this time, as Astrid had remarked. Sitting in front of the fire had dried him out quickly though.

"So you lot can sleep," he said, "and me and 'Megas will take turns staying up to watch out."

"Are you two sure you're fine with it being only you staying up?" Hiccup and Astrid said in unison, then they looked at each other and smiled.

"Absolutely," Omegas confirmed. "Of course, if anyone wants to stay up with us…"

Exaggerated snoring resounded in their little camp, mostly from Snotlout. Alphas snorted, Omegas chortled, and Hiccup and Astrid just sighed, too used to these antics.

"Well," Hiccup said uncertainly as he lay down by Toothless, "goodnight."

"Night," Alphas said.

"Don't let the goblins bite," Omegas teased.

"Goodnight Hiccup," Astrid said warmly.

"Goodnight," came Fishlegs' voice.

Snotlout did not bother responding, committed to pretending to be fast asleep. Meanwhile, the twins had actually gone to sleep immediately upon lying down.

"You or me first?" Alphas asked Omegas quietly.

"Pick."

"I'll go then."

"Sure. Time?"

"Three hours each turn?"

"Sounds fine. Have fun, oh brother of mine."

"Go to sleep, you fool."

Omegas grinned and went to lie down with his back against Spiral.

Alphas sat down and prepared for a long night.

On the edge of the island, a thick and steady stream of red smoke began to rise from the cave.