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Everyone in the group was silent as they walked through the trees. The only sounds were the soft footfalls of the teenagers and the heavy clomp stomp, clomp stomp of Gobber limping along on his wooden leg.
Although they were all thinking about separate things, their thoughts all had one common subject. What would happen next? They were all imagining different scenarios as they wandered through the forest after the older man.
It wasn't too long until they came to the mountain side. The rough stone wall stretching high above them. They walked along the wall, silence stretching out between them as their thoughts coincided in the same question. Where were they going? Were they staying on the island? Was there some hidden boat in the other side waiting to take them away? It would take hours to walk all the way to the other side of the island. Couldn't the just fly? Only Gobber, Hiccup and Toothless knew. Though, like the others, they remained silent as they walked along the mountain side.
Then all of a sudden, Gobber had stopped. The teens who didn't know where they were headed looked around wondering where they were. Hiccup and Toothless moved to stand by Gobber's side as he turned to address the group. That was when they noticed that he had stopped in front on a large crack in the mountain side. It was just large enough for a person to push themselves through. But it's not like that's what they were doing. Right?
"Alright," Gobber said with a smile looking around at all the young ones gathered around him. "Who's first?" Or maybe they were?
"First to do what?" Snotlout asked asked confused. Gobber's grin only grew wider.
"First to slide through the gap."
They all glanced at each other, completely at a loss as to what was happening. Then they heard a groan and turned to see Hiccup rolling his eyes and pulling his pack off of his shoulder. He passed it to Toothless asking him to pass it through and stepped towards the crack. He pushed himself through most of the way before Toothless handed him the pack, then he pushed himself through a little further and he was gone. The black inside the gab had swallowed him up completely so that they couldn't see him.
"Who's next?" Gobber asked his grin not having faded. When no one uttered a word, still too confused to comprehend anything, Toothless stepped forwards muttering about everyone being chicken and handed Gobber his pack, the same as Hiccup had done. He pushed himself through part of the way before Gobber passed him the pack and, just like his brother, he too was gone.
Gobber looked back at the teens with an expectant look on his face. Stormfly, not liking being called 'chicken' by anyone, especially Toothless, stepped forwards holding out her own pack. She did the same as the two boys before her and, much to her brother's shock, she too was gone.
One by one, the rest slowly took it in turns to crawl their way through the crack down the wall in the mountain. First Snotlout, then Ruffnut, then Tuffnut and then Fishlegs who was followed by Gobber. Fishlegs found it the hardest out of the teens trying to squeeze through the gab. He wasn't exactly small, not like his sister. He eventually managed to push himself through and turned, half expecting to see the inside of the mountain. He was not expecting to be in the middle of a forest, not unlike the one they had just left, apart from the river running beside them.
He quickly moved out of the way as he heard Gobber grunting as he tried to pull himself through behind him. Gobber grinned as he saw the awed looks of the young ones around him.
"It's a pretty sight, ain't it?" he said as he looked around at the trees and the flowing water. "Well, I suppose we'd best be getting to the hideout."
"The hideout?" Stormfly asked. She was already confused as to where they were, let alone where they were going.
"The old abandoned mill we found. We did it up to make it inhabitable," Hiccup added. He walked towards the river then began walking along the bank. Toothless followed along with Gobber behind him grinning. The teens all shared a glance for the umpteenth time since they had left the village before following along with their friends.
It wasn't long, walking along side the river, until they came to a large building that sat on the edge of the water. It looked old and run down from the outside. Snotlout scoffed at the sight. They had said that they had done it up. But it looked like it was falling apart. And the windows were all boarded up. Were they supposed to live here?
Hiccup walked up to the door and pushed it open. It creaked as it swung wide to show an eerie looking hallway. Gobber pushed his way to the front and walked ahead down the hall and turned right through a door. As the others followed, they found that the inside was completely different to the outside. There were comfy looking chairs and enough of the boards had been taken off of the windows to let in just enough light. All in all it was a comfortable space.
"This is the sitting room, as you can see," Gobber said pointing around the room. "There's four rooms upstairs for you to use as bedrooms so some of you will have to share." Toothless took a subconscious step towards his brother. He did not want to share anyone else. Hiccup smiled noticing his actions and put a hand on his shoulder.
In the end they decided that it would be best if the two girls roomed together, much to Stormfly's annoyance, and since neither Snotlout nor Fishlegs wanted to spend nights with Tuffnut, they ended up roomed together as well, leaving Tuffnut to have his own room. Though he did have to share it with Gobber for the duration of his stay.
They each found their rooms and, after eventually deciding on who would get which room, they set their things out. They all met back down in the sitting room, once they were ready, to discuss what was going to happen.
"So what is this place?" was the first question that came out of Fishlegs mouth. He, his sister, the twins and Snotlout were all seated while Hiccup, Gobber and Toothless all stood in front of them.
"We're not entirely sure," Hiccup started slowly.
"Stoick and I stumbled upon this place when we were your age," Gobber continued. "We explored it and did what we could to learn of the people here. It's a different world from what your used to and it's going to take some getting used to."
"So how come you've been here before?" Snotlout asked Hiccup.
"Gobber used to bring us here when we were younger," he answered.
"This was his way of babysitting," Toothless added with a sly smile. Gobber shook his head at the boy.
"The point is that this place is different and because of that you're all going to have to change to fit in." Gobber looked around at the confused faces and grinned.
"What do you mean we have to change?" Stormfly asked.
"Are people here really deformed or something?" Ruffnut asked with an evil grin on her face.
"If you want us to deform our bodies we can do scars but just not burns. We don't burn," Tuffnut added with a dead straight face. Hiccup narrowed his eyes in confusion before shaking the nonsense memory from his mind.
"None of us can burn, you idiot," he replied wondering how his friend could be so stupid. "And no one is being deformed. All we mean is that people dress and talk differently here. They have different names and a different culture. If we want to fit in, we can't do so looking like this."
"So what do we need to do then?" Stormfly asked. Hiccup glanced at Toothless who turned around to grab a bundle of cloth that sat behind him and threw it at her. She then noticed that it was actually clothes that he had thrown. Strange clothes. The top was like a tunic, only shorter and it was plain blue. The bottoms were different to the cloth leggings that she was used to. The material was tough and dark blue. It was slightly frayed at the bottom and threads were showing. She glanced up at Toothless to see him chucking a similar bundle towards everyone else.
"These clothes may seem weird to us but they are normal here and you need to blend in," Gobber said holding up some clothes of his own.
"We're also going to need new names," Toothless added from the side where he stood analysing his own clothes. "We need to find a place where we can see a list of names to choose from." Suddenly, Fishlegs raised his hand, his expression overly excited.
"Just spit it out Fishlegs. We're not teach in a class!" Gobber exclaimed.
"What about a library?" he asked excited at the prospect of new books. "We could find new names and it would be an excellent opportunity to learn about the local culture and society."
"Ugh! Why do all your ideas involve reading!?" Snotlout yelled, dramatically slouching down in his chair. Hiccup rolled his eyes.
"A library would actually be a good idea," he said stepping forwards. "It would be full of genealogical records and historical documentation which would be perfect for names and Fish is right about learning more about this world."
"It's settled then!" Gobber said clasping his hands together in front of him. "You'll all change and we'll set off to buy you all new clothes and to head to the library."
"But reading!" Tuffnut exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air.
"Reading words!" his sister added imitating his actions. Everyone else ignored the, and all set of to shave into their new, temporary clothes.
Soon enough, the seven teens and one adult were standing in the forest outside the door to the mill in their new attire. Stormfly stared down at her bland, blue outfit in disgust. It needed colour. She would be sure of that. Gobber looked his temporary wards up and down. They all wore what the humans in this world called jeans, though they were in different washes of blue, and they each wore a t-shirt. They all wore different colours and he hoped that they fit in enough.
"There's only one more thing that you need to remember," he said as he addressed the group once more before they left for the town. He had already passed around enough money for each of them to buy their clothes. Gold was really uncommon in this world, but gratefully common on Berk. They all glanced at each other wondering what else could they possible need to know.
"Dragons don't exist here."
Sort of a cliffy there. What do you think of it so far? Please let me know. Reviews are greatly appreciated!
ToxicGirlfriend: Thanks so much! Please let me know what you think of this chapter!
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DoctorAllonzy: I did think about putting Barf, Belch, Meatlug and Hookfang in as well, but then you start to loose track of the characters and I already have eight teens to keep track of. But I might add them in later in the story, maybe as mentors or something. Thanks for following!
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