They had been walking for what felt like hours, but still, they didn't seem to be any closer to their goal. However, Hiccup had noted the shield had been blowing more brightly as they proceeded and it was surprising that no one had attacked them just yet.

"You sure been followed?" Hiccup asked, looking back at Heather.

"Not to my knowledge, but if they found a way to mass their presence and hearing is not a lot I can do," said Heather.

"Is that at all possible?" Astrid asked.

"Johann could have shapeshifted into an animal, and I would know whether it was him or not," said Heather.

"Plus Heather may have excellent eyesight, but she can't look past trees and elves have always been very nimble on their feet," Eret added.

Heather nodded gravely. "Which is why I always like to have a high ground when I'm searching."

"So you're saying they could be following us and we would know it," said Snotlout.

"They would hardly lose us with that shield of Hiccup's," Ragnar added gesturing to the glowing shield. "Though it's fair to that shield that I'm starting to feel energised, I haven't felt this way for months weeks."

"Good because gonna need you at your best," said Hiccup. "Because I'm betting that Johann and the purists are not going to give up this Eye without a fight."

"Can't you use your foresight to give us ample warning or something?" Tuffnut asked.

Hiccup sighed. "As I've already explained seem too far into the future can be dangerous. Historically prophecies have always come true the moment someone tries to change them, the less we know about our future, the better."

"Speak for yourself," Snotlout grumbled. "If we're going to be attacked I would like to know ahead of time at least then we can provide some kind of counter-attack."

"I loathe to say it, but he does have a point," said Astrid.

Hiccup sighed. "I know, I know, I know it sounds ridiculous, you got to keep in mind that when my mother saw the future of my brother's death and tried to prevent it, she only caused it. What if I tell you that you're going to die and by telling you it creates the circumstances that we are trying to prevent? Additionally might also ruin your chances to get to Valhalla, do you really want to risk that?"

"He does have a point," said Eret.

"How about we change the topic," Heather suggested and looked towards Ragnar. "What did you discover when you were spying on the Purists and Johann?"

"As you know Johann is promising to back the Purists if they acquire him the Eye of Odin hence why they have to have massive search parties," said Ragnar. "Fortunately they have no idea where the Eye is any more than we do and finding something so small forest this big isn't easy."

"Anything more about this alliance you can tell us?" Astrid asked.

"Johann has promised that he would use the Eye to provide them knowledge on how to defeat the Light Elves after they usurped the Queen."

"They plan to go to war with Alfheim?" Heather stared horrified.

"And as you guys know, most of my people have forgotten their warrior instinct."

Hiccup remember there were only a few soldiers at Frey's hut plus there was the problem with the goblins. Most of the Light Elves here seem would rather die than fight which didn't bode well there was a war in the horizon.

"This is worse than I thought," said Hiccup.

"I'm afraid it gets much worse," said Ragnar.

"How can it possibly get worse?" Snotlout asked.

"Because after they deal with Alfheim, they're going to attack Midgard."

"Their what?" Astrid stared. "But that's insane humans have done nothing to them."

"You are forgetting that we elves have very long memories and your ancestors pretty much drove the Dark Elves out of Midgard, because of superstition. The Purists want revenge for that humiliation."

"What did they plan to do slaughter every human?" Fishlegs asked.

"What I gather some of them might want to make thralls out of you."

"Thralls? You mean slaves?" Hiccup stared horrified.

"I know, elves have never taken part in slavery like all the other races," said Ragnar shaking his head. "I don't know who gave them such a crazy idea that goes against our traditions, but I can have a guess."

"You mean our Mum," said the twins.

Ragnar shrugged. "Loki can be rather persuasive and cunning, it's how he avoided trouble for so long."

Hiccup had met Loki several times, and he knew that to be true. Loki always spoke lies but always had a smidgen of truth into his words to make it more believable. So made it impossible to determine whether he was telling the truth or not.

"You know your mum, is rather twisted," said Snotlout looking at the twins.

"Tell us about it," said Tuffnut.

"Yeah, we may like pranks as much as the next guy, but they're mostly harmless," said Ruffnut.

Hiccup rolled his eyes, he decided not to point out that they had once created pitfall traps filled with snakes. Everyone in the Academy dreaded April Fool's, because that was the day that the children of Loki play their mischief.

"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you should rein it in some time?" Hiccup asked.

"And ruin the fun?" said Tuffnut looking at him as if he was crazy.

"That would be completely unacceptable," Ruffnut nodded.

"It would cause anarchy."

"It would violate an entire tradition."

"It would also give people a chance to enjoy the day without getting pranks," said Astrid.

"Yeah, you might wonder what should or else we'll our own back," Hiccup warned them.

"Please narrative you can compare to the children of Loki," said Ruffnut dismissively.

Hiccup and the others looked at one another they knew what they were going to do on April's Fools next year.

They kept on wandering through the forest until they suddenly came face-to-face with a ruined castle. The castle appeared to be largely intact though about half of the towers were destroyed along with a portion of the wall, it looked as if a great battle took place here once.

"These look like battle wounds," Astrid noted.

"Must have caused during the war with the dwarfs," said Heather. "My people must've abandoned it rather than rebuilding it, though I imagine they took everything of value inside.

Hiccup saw that his shield was glowing brighter towards the castle. "Something must remain because according to the shield, the Eye is inside."

"Then we best look around," said Ragnar.

"Uh, shouldn't we be worried if this place is home to the Purists?" Fishlegs asked meekly. "I mean, didn't you say that they were housing symbol of the ruined castles in this world?"

"I did, but this is not one of them," said Ragnar. "There so many castles and despite what you might think their numbers are low."

"How low?" Astrid asked.

"Only about a thousand followers."

Snotlout stared at him. "A thousand and your calling that low?"

"Compared to a population of about a million I would say so," said Ragnar.

"That's quite a low population, isn't it?" Hiccup asked.

"True, but remember elves can live for about 1,500 years, so we have to control our urges," Ragnar explained.

"What urges?" Tuffnut asked.

Snotlout rolled his eyes. "He's saying that they can't have—"

"Moving right along," said Hiccup quickly. "We best explore this castle and don't leave a stone unturned we have to find that Eye. It won't be long until Johann knows we're here."

They soon entered the creepy abandoned castle and began looking for any traces of the Eye, but sadly they had no knowledge of what it might look like.

"Heather, you're the one with the vision did you at all see the Eye?" Hiccup asked.

"It was bright blue, and it looked as if it was in some kind of well," said Heather.

"There's a well over there," said Eret.

Hiccup raised his shield and pointing it towards the well, and the light coming from the shield was almost blinding.

"It looks like it's inside," said Hiccup.

When they got closer towards the well, Hiccup looked inside and saw that it was quite deep. He raised his shield in order to eliminate the darkness but still was not enough to see the bottom.

"Can't see anything," said Hiccup.

"Neither can I," said Heather as she looked over the side. "It's too dark to see."

"Then we're going to have to go inside the well itself," said Hiccup.

"It might be too narrow for all of us," said Ragnar and looked up at Hiccup. "You're the one with the shield you should be the one that goes down."

Hiccup nodded in agreement and stepped into the bucket. "Okay, lower me down gently."

Fishlegs and Snotlout operated the winch and began to lower him down towards the well. It was pitch dark the further down he descended, and the only life he had was that of his shield. He took note of the well's wall and noticed that it was bone dry indicating that this well had been dried up for quite a long time.

It felt like 10 minutes until he finally reached the bottom and he stepped out of the bucket. He then immediately looked up towards the surface. "I made it down!"

"See anything?" Astrid's voice yelled.

Hiccup looked around using his shield to eliminate, the entire area was completely bone dry, and he found out the reason. A portion of the wall had crumbled creating a new passageway where the water no doubt had been drained away. When he pointed his shield towards the passageway, he saw that the shield load even more likely.

"There appears to be a passage further down!" Hiccup yelled.

"You sure you don't want one of us to come down to join you?" Ragnar enquired.

"No, it's a pretty cramp in here!"

"Okay, but at the rope twice when you want to come up!" Astrid yelled with a slight bit of concern in her voice. "And do try to be careful!"

"I'll be fine!" Hiccup assured them.

He then began making his through the passageway deeper into the darkness with only his shield illuminating his way. His shield was only able to eliminate a few feet ahead of him as the darkness was so thick and Hiccup was concerned that he might find at the end of the passageway.

He then saw a light at the end of the tunnel, which wasn't comforting under the circumstances. He took a deep breath and carried on and eventually found himself in some kind of cavern. The entire place was illuminated by loads of blue crystals, and there was a small hole in the ceiling that caused the moonlight shining down which no doubt cause the crystals to sparkle.

At the far end of the cavern, he saw a small tree that looked as if it was struggling to reach the top of the cavern trying to get as much moonlight as possible. Hiccup began looking around wondering which one of these crystals was the Eye of Odin.

"Like trying to find a needle in a haystack," he muttered.

He then looked down at his shield hoping that it would point him in the right direction, but it was difficult to tell whether of its glow was increasing with all the light. Hiccup completely stumped, he had no idea which crystal was the right one, and Heather's description wasn't really helping considering all the crystals were blue.

Then he saw at the base of the tree was a skull and when he pointed his shield towards it, it's left eye began to glow. Hiccup began making his way over towards the skull, and when he looked through it, I socket he saw a crystal sitting in the centre of the skull.

The crystal was as big as a ping-pong ball, and it was a beautiful sky blue. Hiccup could sense quite a bit of magic coming from that crystal that he realised that this had to be the Eye. He then immediately summoned his sword and placed it right between its jaws, he then pushed down as far as he could onto the store to open its mouth.

He must have put too much pressure onto the sword as the jaw broke. Regardless he was now able to reach into its mouth unable to take the Eye, though he found the entire situation rather creepy.

Hiccup looked at the crystal in his hand. "Time to head back."

He managed to make his way back towards the bucket and step in it. He then gave two tugs on the rope and waited a few seconds before he was being pulled up towards the surface. He looked down at the crystal that was resting in his hand; it was hard to believe something so small was causing so much trouble.

He was still wondering what kind of sacrifice need to be made in order to unlock its power, he knew the sacrifices that Odin have to make to gain wisdom. After all, this was the very eye that he gave up to drink from the Well of Knowledge and then a course in order to learn secrets of Rune Magic he had to hang himself in the World Tree with his spear embedded in his gut.

He imagined that something similar had to be sacrificed to gain the knowledge, but he wasn't about to gouge out his own eye, and he was absolutely certain that was the requirement. Even if it was, it was entirely sure whether he would do would not, but he would live wasn't tempted to gain knowledge.

He looked up and saw that the moonlight was shining down even more brightly, telling him that he was almost to the surface. He found it strange that he hadn't heard anyone talking, especially the twins as they were pair of chatterboxes.

When he finally reached the top, he found the reason why no one had been talking, because all of them were bound and gagged by Johann, a small squad of orcs led by Zar and the purists led by Atras.

Johann smiled at him. "Thank you for doing all the work for us."