Author's Note: Despite illness and fatigue, my foresight grants you all a chapter right on schedule. I spent the last two days in an altered state of mind (though I can't blame medication as I wasn't using any), and the results of that time have been published as a new one-shot. I've already been told I should get sick more often. I'm not entirely sure how to take that...

Hiccup followed Stoick through the forest. Gobber had caught up to them to tell Stoick where he and Hiccup would be starting. It was eerily near the cliff Hiccup and Toothless had used for flight testing, right in the deepest part of the forest.

Stoick was the first to break the silence. "I don't like that you defied me. Even if I can see you specifically avoided agreeing to train in the arena instead of the woods." His voice was neutral in tone. There was a hint of wry annoyance in that last part though.

Hiccup didn't know what to say. He felt that there was a 'but' following that statement.

"But you have proved you can wield that weapon effectively. I won't make you learn another now. I will still have you learn another, more Viking-like weapon, but that can wait until after you kill that Nightmare."

Hiccup resented that. Not 'will you learn another weapon later?', but 'you will learn another weapon later'. Stoick gave Hiccup no choice whatsoever. Hiccup mentally compared that to Toothless and his teachings. He was sure that if he had not wanted to learn what Toothless offered to help him with, Toothless would have accepted that decision. He might have tried really hard to change Hiccup's mind, but he didn't try to make his decisions for him.

"Sure." Either he'd have won the village's acceptance, or left for good by then. He felt comfortable agreeing to anything set to happen after the Nightmare. Because that would mean things had come to a head, and everything had played out. One way or another.

Stoick was silent. They laboriously, at least for Stoick, worked through the underbrush. Eventually, they reached the assigned spot. Stoick stopped, hs boots crushing a small bush. "This is it." He looked up through the dense forest. "It must be sundown. Fifteen minutes. I hope we run into each other sometime tonight. I'll show you what a warrior with a real Viking's weapon can do." He hefted his hammer.

Hiccup fumed at that. He knew he probably couldn't take Stoick. Heck, he couldn't take Astrid, and she probably stood no chance against Stoick. He smiled fakely. "Yeah, right. Good luck catching me." He spun and ran off the way they had come, going into top speed. Of course, he didn't see Stoick's face as he cleared an area it had taken them five minutes to cross in under thirty seconds. There would be nothing to see, knowing Stoick. Certainly not pride.

Stoick stared in annoyance, which swiftly turned to something almost, but not quite embarrassment. He considered how slowly he had been making his way here, and realized Hiccup had been accurate with his derision. Stoick could never catch him in here if that uncanny turn of speed was any indication. Maybe he had learned something from his time in here besides how to goof off. Still. Stoick was going to catch him. If he could sneak up on him without Hiccup noticing. He might be big, but he could be fairly sneaky.

Hiccup ran for a while. He had no destination, so once he was far enough from Stoick he stopped for a moment and pulled out his notebook. He noted with happiness that the moon was casting just enough light to see what he had drawn. The map of the forest received an 'X' where he and Stoick had been assigned to start. Gobber would have spread them apart fairly evenly, and at an equal starting distance from the village. A line was carefully drawn through the forest to mark that area. He would sneak along that line, and see what he found.

There were a few points of interest. That line drew pretty close to the cove. He would have to check there, discretely, and see if anyone was stupid enough to set up something in there. Hiding in an area with only one exit was a bad idea. Maybe he'd find Fishlegs in there though. The less brave teen might like the idea of relative safety enough to risk it. He decided to head in that direction first.

He also noted the locations where the line crossed the river. They would be out here all night, and the other teens hadn't brought supplies, which seemed like an oversight on Astrid's part. He knew there would be a few fish in the cave, where he had left them earlier that day. Toothless wouldn't eat old fish, but Hiccup could. He had supplies sorted. But the others didn't, and so the river was another good place to check. Hiccup was going to actively hunt the others out because he was confident he could get close enough undetected to identify them and determine if he could take them out safely.

He moved silently through the woods. After about thirty minutes he heard something unusual. It sounded like someone muttering. But as far as he knew, only he muttered randomly to himself. The source was revealed as Hiccup crept closer.

Ack was the mutterer. And from the looks of it, he missed the meet-up because he was roaring drunk. That was poor planning. He seemed to think he could still participate if the fact that he was out here was any indication. Hiccup decided that Ack would be his first mark. Time to sneak for real.

Ack had sat down on a fallen log and set his ax down. He was aware that he was drunk. He wondered where everyone was. After a minute, his fogged mind decided to go back to the village. He got up and reached for his ax. Only to find that it was gone. He exploded into a flurry of drunken curses as he realized that he'd already been eliminated.

Hiccup's biggest problem at the moment was not exploding from holding in his laughter. Ack was in a towering fury, aided by his state of extreme inebriation. He didn't see Hiccup mere inches away, and that was funny. Hiccup decided to let Ack know who had beaten him. "Sorry Ack, you need to go home. You're too drunk to play." He ran off as fast as he could.

'That was cruel. Go do it to someone else. It's fun to watch.'

Indeed, it was cruel. Ack blamed everything he saw on his state of extreme drunkenness and wondered what was wrong with him. Why was it that every time he had hallucinations, he hallucinated Hiccup running at unnatural speeds? Maybe the gods were trying to tell him something. He should probably take up running... Ack stumbled back to the village, trying to jog in the dense woods and failing miserably. He wouldn't remember anything come morning.

Hiccup headed towards the village, at as high a speed as he could manage with only moonlight to see by.

'What are you doing?' Toothless sounded confused. 'The village isn't part of the game.'

"I'm not going all the way there. I'm going to hide the weapons I take near the forest edge, so I can come and get them at the end of the game."

'Smart. Why not hide them here?' Toothless was referring to the cave he was physically in at the moment.

"I don't want to draw attention to the cave. I need to stay away from there as much as possible. I might not even come back for the fish later." Hiccup finished burying the ax at the base of a very distinctive tree he had known about for years. He would put the weapons here.

'If you say so.' Toothless would prefer Hiccup to eat something if he was going to be at this all night, but he understood Hiccup's logic.

It had been an hour, and Hiccup had taken one weapon. Everyone else was still out there. That included Astrid, Snotlout, Stoick, and apparently Gobber. Those were the people Hiccup didn't want to run into, anyway. Everyone else was fair game.

Now was as good a time as any to check the cove. He moved stealthily the entire way, not taking any chances. He decided against entering the cove via the crack in the rock, instead moving to the edge. That was when he saw the fire.

"So much for stealth." There was no way Fishlegs was stupid enough to light a campfire in the middle of the cove. This had to be someone else. And there wasn't anyone by the fire. Hiccup had a sneaking suspicion as to what was really going on.

He looked at the entrance to the cove. Sure enough, there was someone hidden by it, ready to ambush anyone who entered. He couldn't tell who, but the size made him think it was one of the teens. But not Fishlegs, it wasn't big enough for that.

The moonlight glinted off of two twin crescents, and Hiccup identified the lurker as Astrid. One of the four he wasn't going to fight directly. He was about to move away from the edge of the cove when he heard something else.

Sticks were breaking, one after another. Slowly. Like someone was trying to sneak, and doing a terrible job. It was moving towards the cove entrance. This was going to be interesting.

"Who are you betting on bud? Astrid, or the mystery challenger?" Hiccup whispered this, confident he wouldn't be heard from this distance.

'Astrid. Though I can see who the challenger is, so I have an advantage.'

The mysterious figure was about to pass by where Astrid hid. She attacked silently as the figure passed, aiming to disarm them. The figure whirled, and their weapons clashed.

"Ha! Wait, Astrid? What are you doing here?" Snotlout was obviously not expecting to find Astrid in the cove.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Wait, let me guess. Looking for Hiccup?" Astrid lowered her ax and disengaged, circling Snotlout.

Hiccup and Toothless could hear all of this, and Hiccup decided to see how it would play out.

"Yup. I, uh, figured he'd be here. You know, because this is his place." Snotlout seemed vaguely uncomfortable. "Uh, can we talk for a second Astrid? It's important."

Astrid didn't lower her guard. "About what?"

Snotlout's voice hardened. "Hiccup. I have a proposition for you."

Hiccup did not like the sound of that. Toothless growled wordlessly.

Astrid moved over to the fire and sat down. "Sure. We can sit in the open, no one would attack two of us at once."

Snotlout moved over and sat on the other side of the fire. Neither of them relaxed their weapons.

Astrid broke the silence. "So, what about Hiccup? You should know, he hasn't been here since the day we all came here. I check every once in a while. Never any new tracks."

Snotlout seemed to gain confidence at this admission. "I knew you did. You've been trailing him into the woods, right?"

'What?' Toothless whispered.

Astrid grimaced. "Yeah, but he always runs everywhere. I don't know how he does it. I can't even track him when he runs."

Hiccup breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Snotlout looked unhappy. "How can he not leave tracks? He's still running, he should be leaving a path of some kind."

Astrid shrugged. Throughout this entire conversation, she had been more candid than Hiccup had ever seen. "I think it's because when he runs, he leaps over obstacles, but lands on solid surfaces every time. He doesn't break or brush against anything, and his direction changes randomly. I can never follow his trail more than a few dozen yards before it disappears."

Hiccup shivered. She was talking about him like he was prey, and she the predator.

Snotlout slammed his hand on the ground. "I hoped you would know where he goes. But it doesn't matter."

Astrid smiled. "Of course it doesn't. Let me guess. You've been trying to catch Hiccup alone, but you can't anymore. Ironic, given now you actually need to. Spitelout is getting impatient. Am I correct so far?"

Hiccup blanched. He recalled a time early on in his association with Toothless when the dragon had been sure he was being followed. That must have been Snotlout. Hiccup had a terrible feeling he knew what was going on now. Mention of Spitelout, Snotlout's father, really gave it away.

Snotlout smiled at Astrid, a cruel smile. "So you know. You've known and never said anything. Does that mean you support my little cause?"

Astrid laughed. "Hardly, but not for the reason you think. I won't help you. I plan on offing him myself if the Nightmare doesn't. It doesn't help me to kill him before then. Why can't Spitelout just wait? He's waited for years already, for Thor knows what reason. Besides. You want my help because you can't do it yourself. I won't kill to help you save face in front of your father. Man up and do it yourself, if you can. Or just wait. The next raid could be any day, and I'm going to make sure Hiccup doesn't survive the forty-eight hours after it. I will, or the Nightmare will."

Snotlout seemed taken aback by that. Then he smiled again, his confidence returning as the meaning of her words sunk in. "All I needed to know. I'll tell dad you're going to handle it. He'll be happy to hear I don't have to get my hands dirty. But why? Why do you want to let the Nightmare kill him? You could do it yourself tonight like I was going to after I messed up in training yesterday." He sounded genuinely confused.

"All you need to know is that I'm going to be the best dragon-killer of our generation. Hiccup is in the way of that. You can be happy with just being the next chief, right?"

Snotlout could definitely be satisfied with that. "Of course. I can settle for only being chief. You have fun. I've got a bet running that I can steal the twins' helmets without them noticing." He exited the cove, smiling widely.

Astrid remained at the fire for a moment, before going back to the cove entrance, resuming her hidden position.

'I'm going to kill him.' Toothless sounded entirely serious. 'Right now.'

Hiccup was still shocked at what he had learned, but he knew that was a bad idea. "NO! Stay there. I'm coming back to the cave. We'll discuss what to do then. Promise me you'll stay there until we talk." He was desperate to keep Toothless in the cave. Who knew how many Vikings in the forest between them.

'Fine. But run fast.' Toothless was managing to send the mental equivalent of a threatening growl. 'I won't wait long.'

Hiccup ran. He ran with no regard for personal safety or stealth. He just wanted to get to safety as fast as possible, so he could process what had just happened. That was the plan until he almost ran into a charcoal covered figure.

"Hey! Wait, Hiccup? This must be my lucky day! I wanna try out that scythe." Tuffnut was standing in Hiccup's way, as he had been running along a dried riverbed, and the banks were too high to easily climb. Tuffnut advanced with his mace, leering at Hiccup's scythe.

"Sorry Tuff. You're in the way."

Tuffnut had no time to decipher Hiccup's seemingly unconcerned response. Hiccup grabbed his scythe and swept it in an arc as he moved it from his back to his hands. Tuffnut stumbled back. Hiccup advanced, quickly knocking Tuffnut's mace aside and actually stabbing through the wooden base with the spike of his scythe. He wasn't really concentrating on the fight, his mind was still reeling from what he had heard. He yanked back, and Tuff's wooden mace came with the spike.

Tuffnut was wide-eyed, looking at the hand Hiccup had stolen his mace out of. "How..." He raised his hands as he realized he was disarmed. "Um, I'll just be going now..." He jumped up one of the banks, scrabbling for purchase. "Return that in good condition!" And then he was gone, off to find his sister and steal her spear.

Hiccup was already gone. And unbeknownst to both of them, they hadn't been alone. Ruffnut stepped out of the brush, from which she had been shadowing her brother, waiting to steal his mace.

"Well, that stinks." She considered what she had just seen. "Probably shouldn't mess with Hiccup. Wonder where Snotlout is?" She moved off, headed away from where Snotlout currently was, not that she knew it.

Hiccup finally made it to the small entrance to the cave. He dove in and then realized he still couldn't see in the pitch-black cave. "Toothless. I can't see."

'I'm right here. Get on my back, I'll take you to the sea exit. There's light there.' Toothless was literally three feet from Hiccup's head. And growling, deep in his chest. He snapped, his teeth clacking together quite distinctly, giving Hiccup a very good idea of exactly where the very agitated dragon was.

Hiccup was pretty sure that scraping sound he could hear under the growl was claws carving new furrows in the rock.

"Okay. We can talk there." Hiccup got on, and they took off down the black corridors.

'We're here. Now, do you mind explaining why I can't disembowel Snotlout?'

That might have been funny if Toothless hadn't been so serious. Hiccup sat at the mouth of the cave and looked back at the seething black dragon, who was still scratching lines into the smooth tunnel floor with his claws. "Calm down. Nothing has changed. Now we know Snotlout has been trying to kill me. That's all. And Astrid, in her own twisted way, has convinced him he doesn't need to bother. So I only have one currently homicidal classmate now, not two." Hiccup was more affected than he let on about the news that his cousin had been trying to kill him, but he didn't need to fuel Toothless's protective rage.

'What is wrong with human families? Your father doesn't listen, your cousin is trying to kill you, and if I remember what you said correctly, the person named Spitelout who's pressuring Snotlout to end you now is your Uncle. Seriously. Are all human families this bad, or do you just have really bad luck?' Toothless wasn't mad at Hiccup, he was mad at life in general now.

"I think it's just my family. Other people have problems, but this seriously takes the cake." Hiccup really didn't like being associated with those he was related to by blood anymore. The only good one might have been his mother, and she was dead. Toothless was just summing it up. But he felt he had to point something out. "Not my whole family. I count you, and you aren't like that." He smiled. "Although, you do want to kill my cousin and probably uncle as well."

Toothless huffed. 'Because they're trying to kill you.'

Hiccup sighed. "Revenge. The Viking way. You're better than that."

'Not revenge, protection. You have no guarantee that Snotlout or Spitelout won't get impatient and try again at any time.'

Hiccup could tell he wasn't going to straight up convince Toothless not to kill Snotlout. He needed to offer something to assuage the dragon's protective instincts. "How about this. You don't kill Snotlout, and I'll sleep here in the cave instead of going back to the village at night. That way, I can avoid Snotlout almost entirely. Stoick won't notice. I went a week without seeing him when we did sleep in the same house."

Hiccup considered this proposition a win-win. He really didn't feel safe in the village anymore, and sleeping there was out of the question because Hiccup knew Spitelout. He might agree to wait, but he was just as likely to demand Snotlout try again anyway.

Toothless mulled it over. Finally, he opened his eyes to signal he had come to a decision. 'Fine. But if he tries again, I get to disembowel him. If you want, you can help when I do.'

That was an offer Hiccup hoped Toothless would never make again. "Agreed. But no, I won't help you disembowel Snotlout. Gross."

Toothless didn't comment on that. 'So, what will you do now? The night is only a few hours old. Oh, and you're here, so you can take the fish.'

Hiccup considered it. He didn't really feel like playing anymore, but he still wanted to win. Or, barring that, he would settle for stealing Stoick's hammer. Of the two, just winning straight up might be easier. He knew he definitely didn't want anyone turning in his scythe to be counted in the morning, so he would have to be careful. Which reminded him. He pulled the mace off of the spike of his scythe. Toothless stared at it.

'When did you get that?'

"Tuffnut was in my way on the run here."

Toothless nosed it, then reared back in disgust. 'I don't even want to know where that's been. It smells like he left it in one of your outhouses overnight.'

Hiccup laughed. That had been a fun thing to teach the Fury, what an outhouse was and why the dragon should really not use Hiccup's senses when he was in there. Toothless had almost thrown up, and all Hiccup had done to prove his point was open the door. A sensitive sense of smell wasn't always a good thing.

"I guess I won't leave it here, then."

'You better not.'

"Or maybe I should now that I-"

'I'll throw it and you out if you do.' Toothless loomed threateningly.

Hiccup laughed, taking the offending weapon. "Got it, remove the mace."

Hiccup eventually ended up spending the rest of his night rather tamely. He would find someone in the woods, shadow them for a while, and steal their weapon if the opportunity presented itself, which it usually did. He would then take it and bury it with the rest, under the tree. Gobber had apparently gotten quite a few Vikings involved, so Hiccup had plenty of targets over the course of the night.

He didn't run into any of the other teens, and he also never encountered Stoick. He did, however, find Gobber, who was asleep. Hiccup decided that stealing his arm would be cruel. He took Gobber's parchment with the assignments instead, just to prove he was there. Toothless thought it was a nice touch.

When the sun rose, Hiccup returned to his tree and unburied the weapons. In addition to Gobber's parchment, Ack's weapon, and Tuffnut's mace, he had managed to get four other Vikings' various armaments. All in all, Hiccup had to figure out how to carry six weapons and a parchment in addition to his own scythe. He managed it without cutting himself more than once.

He entered the arena, trying to see over the pile of weapons in his arms. No one else was there yet, so he sat down, and set the pile of weapons by his side. Fishlegs was the next to arrive, and he had managed to acquire Ruffnut's spear, of all things. That was all he had. He looked at Hiccup's pile and sighed.

"Wow. The only person I found all night was Ruffnut, and she was wrestling her brother for this. I just picked it up and walked away." Fishlegs gestured with the spear.

Hiccup laughed. "I took Tuff's mace. They were probably fighting because Tuff wanted another weapon."

At that moment, the twins walked in, dirtier than they had been with just the charcoal, and weaponless to boot.

"YOU!" Ruffnut pointed at Fishlegs.

"AND YOU!" Tuffnut pointed at Hiccup. Hiccup raised an eyebrow, and Tuffnut reconsidered. "Well, no, you took it from me fair and square. Never mind." Tuffnut turned to Fishlegs. "YOU!"

That was when Gobber showed up. "Knock it off you two. It's too early for this."

Hiccup smiled. "Have a nice nap, Gobber?"

Gobber answered absentmindedly. "Yeah, found a great spot no one would find and decided... wait a second. How did ye know abou' tha'?"

In answer, Hiccup waved Gobber's parchment. "I figured it would be cruel to take your hook arm. So I took this instead."

Gobber grumbled something about inconsiderate teenagers and grabbed the parchment from Hiccup. "I ain't countin' that."

Snotlout walked in, brandishing three swords and a mace, besides his own weapon. He deflated significantly when he saw Hiccup's pile.

Before he could say anything, Astrid entered the ring, followed by Stoick. Astrid didn't even have her ax, oddly enough. Stoick was carrying a massive pile of weapons. There were easily ten in his arms. He dumped them on the ground. Astrid's ax was among them.

Gobber raised an eyebrow. "I said that only the teens' points counted. So none o' that matters."

Stoick nodded. "I know, but Astrid had them all on her when she decided to attack me. I took them all to teach her a lesson." He smiled. "The lesson was, don't try to fight when weighed down by the trophies of past battles."

Gobber cleared his throat. "Oh, did any of ye happen to see Ack out there?"

Hiccup nodded. "He was really drunk, so I stole his weapon and told him to go home." He held up Ack's weapon as proof.

Gobber laughed. "Well done Hiccup. That'll teach him to show up drunk to a competition." He looked at the respective weapon piles. "Alrighty. It looks like Hiccup wins with six points. Snotlout came in second with four points. Fishlegs came in third with one point. Astrid, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut tied for last place." He looked up. "Honestly not wha' I expected."

They all redistributed weapons, and Gobber took charge of the ones that had been taken off of the adults, who weren't there at the moment. Then they left to get some sleep. Hiccup discretely left the arena and made the run to Toothless's cave for what had to be the tenth time in the last twenty-four hours. He met Toothless in the forest, and the dragon let him ride the rest of the way back. He was wiped out from a full twenty-four hours of activity.

Toothless had pushed over the boulder, which was how he met Hiccup halfway. He carried the boy back through the cave and prepared his wing-tent for him. Hiccup needed his rest, after the craziness he had gone through.

Hiccup slept for a full twenty-four hours. Toothless slept for most of that time too, as he had stayed up the same amount of time, albeit that he spent a large part of it sitting in a cave. They both woke up fresh and rested on the morning of the next day. It was a bit humid outside. Hiccup looked out to sea, and he could see a nasty storm front slowly rolling in. It looked like it would reach Berk by nightfall.

A storm was almost upon them.

Author's Note: Wow, last chapter had quite a few guest reviews.

Razor95: "A great chapter to what is a great story.

Looking forward to more awkward angsty stoick hiccup stuff in the woods. I hope hiccup finally explains why he picked a weapon that makes him fight alone or stoick witnesses him fighting others thst kngorm him.
Basically i think he will learn hiccup doesnt or has no reason to trust anyone (in the village) to fight beside him and stoick learns just how much his son has been isolated by his fellow vikings and how precarious a position that would put hiccup in as chief. Just an idea.
Looking forward to more and fun disarmament."

Thanks for the praise. However, I will admit I can't quite puzzle out what thst kngorm means. We see now that there was far less father-son interactions than you guessed. What you guessed may very well have sent the story in another direction if it occured. Another time, perhaps.

Four Assorted guests: Thanks for the support. And of course, a thank you to all of the commenters with accounts. Things get serious starting next chapter (if that wasn't made clear enough by the blatant foreshadowing). Cast your bets now!