Again another update?! Okay okay, I tried to upload this last weekend, but had no time to finish the last part. I'm trying to make somewhat shorter chapters as well as training myself into more regular writing for the NaNoWriMo. Again no promises of another one next week, but I will try.

That being said I should also say the places mentions are not actual places or at least they aren't meant to be.

TheWatchingEye: No wait, I didn't say he burned down Rome D8! Just a stadium and building around that stadium. Not the colosseum either... pretty sure they had more stadiums than just that one... if not then now they do XP. And yes I like to give glimpses up until the actual reveal to keep you questioning.

ivanganev1992: You weren't entirely wrong with that description

OechsnerC: your question will be answered in this chapter.

Now a question for you all; Do you know what Hiccup's new invention idea is in this chapter? Hint: I may have mentioned it indirectly in commenting on comments in previous chapters.

Enjoy!

Chapter 25: The power of gronckle iron

Astrid was at a loss what Hiccup wanted with stones, but she helped gathering all sorts of stones. All were put in the saddleback on Toothless back. Although she had no idea about what Hiccup was planning except that it something to do with her axe, it was nice to see him upbeat. She hadn't seen him like this before. He seemed to be absolutely enjoying himself. He had gathered a few more rocks and dropped them in the saddleback as well. Toothless grumbled something to him, to which Hiccup chuckled as response and then seemed to tease him.

"You two head back to the forge, I'll be there in a bit."

With those words Hiccup dashed of, though Astrid spotted he at points nearly fell due to his left leg. Not that the guy let it bother him, neither did he even seem to care about the people around, who he swiftly managed to avoid running in to. Astrid sighed and looked over to Toothless.

"Let's go then," she mumbled as she wondered what in the world that dragon boy was up to.

Hiccup was panting by the time he arrived at his destination. He really was out of shape… or perhaps trying to run with an injured leg and trying to move the weight on the other leg as much as possible does that do you. Dang it hurt like hell. He leaned against the stone wall of the dragon kill ring with a huge grin, despite the pain that was shooting through his left leg. Giving himself a few minutes of rest so he could catch his breath he stared at the village below. They sure were not going to like what he was about to do. He shrugged. Why should he care. With a grunt he got back to his feet and entered the ring. Actually, he wanted to free all of the dragons, but that would be annoying to deal with. One at the time was probably the best road he could take and right now he would deal with the gronckle. After opening the door, the brown creature flew out as if its life depended on it. It probably did if this had been another teaching lesson of Gobber.

It zoomed around for a while, expecting kids to suddenly pop up from somewhere. When that didn't happen, it landed and looked around confused.

Hiccup stared at the creature. It was the very same gronckle that had been there for his first dragon training lesson. Meaning it was also the same one that was in that very last lesson he had. The one where other dragons had entered. The one that was ultimately responsible for him leaving Berk. He wasn't sure if he should thank the gronckle for opening his eyes or blame him for it all. Sighing he shook his head, no he could not blame it. The poor thing had no idea what his father was like. It was his father's fault. All of it. From the fact that he couldn't fight properly for his age to the point that he drove him away. The man had made clear he didn't want a fishbone as a son.

The gronckle noticed him and stared at him. Probably waiting if he was friend or foe.

"Calm down, I'm not here to fight you… again. Heck I never even wanted to fight you in the first place. Knew I was going to screw that one up from the beginning," he laughed a little at his own stupidity leaning more on his right leg.

"You… you speak our language," it responded.

Hiccup nodded and moved forward till he stood in the middle of the arena. Partly because he didn't want to spook it and partly because his legs gave out. He probably… most definitely should not have run all the way here. Sitting on the floor in the middle of the arena he softly rubbed his left leg in the hopes the throbbing feeling would go away.

"Are… you alright?" the gronckle asked and dared to come closer.

"I'll be fine," he grinned at the concern of the dragon.

Looking up he found the gronckle right in front of him, looking at him with curiosity. It sniffed him and Hiccup let it, soon discovering that this one was in fact female.

"How about I get you out of here?" Hiccup suggested as he stretched out his hand as a gesture of trust, "I need your help with something in return."

The gronckle looked thoughtful.

"What do you need me for then?"

"There is this material I need, I call it gronckle iron, as the name implies it needs a gronckle. Not sure if you know, but that is what we humans call your species of dragons."

"Yes, I know," it muttered as it thought it over.

As it looked over to Hiccup every now and then whilst ponder, Hiccup remained seated to give its time to think it over. He really needed the rest for his leg anyway, so it was fine by him. Eventually the gronckle nodded and Hiccup got back to his feet, only to stumble. Great, just great, he thought but was glad the gronckle caught him.

"I could carry you, just tell me where to go."

Grateful Hiccup nodded and climbed on the dragon's back. Carefully holding on to his new scaled friend he guided her towards the village. Of course she wasn't too keen on that and neither were the villagers when they saw him fly through the streets. He had told to gronckle to stay low, so people saw he was on her back and therefor wouldn't attack… hopefully. Aside from glares and shouts they got to the forge unharmed. Hiccup slid of her back and guided her to a back room, dragging the stones along. Both Astrid and Gobber followed him curiously, but he stopped them at the entrance.

"Sorry, but just me and this gronckle in here."

"Whaa - laddie I want to know what you're up to with rocks and a dragon," Gobber protested.

"Sorry, but this recipe is not something that I can easily tell you, Gobber. Elek and I both agreed we wouldn't share it… at least not very easily."

"This is mah forge for Thor's sake!"

Hiccup folded his arms and shook his head, keeping his word. After Gobber had wasted about half an hour of his time attempting to show him, he finally could get to work. At least Astrid hadn't complained, he sighed as he began to rummage through the piles of rocks. He had let Astrid gather rocks he didn't even need… well not for what he was about to do at least. After picking out the correct rocks for the gronkle iron, he placed the before the dragon who looked at him with wide eyes.

"Go ahead, you can eat all that. Afterwards I'll give you more because I kinda need this batch back," Hiccup snickered.

"You want it back… why?" the dragon asked confused.

"You'll see."

He let the gronckle eat whilst he searched for something else to do. He went through the resources around and found a pile of old planks, probably once used as shelves. The seemed the right size for his tool rotator device, however, rather rough. One could easily get a splinter. Looking around some more, why was this place still a mess like this, he actually found a smoothing plane. It surprised him, since Gobber was far from a carpenter, but he soon found out why it was there. The blade inside wasn't properly attached to the wood anymore also the blade looked rather dull. Studying it more as he wondered if he should fix it so he could use it to smoothen the wooden planks for his new invention he was suddenly stricken by an idea. He rushed over to the small unsteady table where he found some old papers. Going through them he found one which was empty on the backside and started sketching out his idea. Five minutes later he was done and grinned as he looked at the design. So simple and the technique was already used… just in a different field. Why no-one had ever thought of this before was beyond him. He looked at the back… front of the paper and saw the terrible handwriting of Gobber who had written down at what seemed an order. No date, not who it was from. It clearly showed Gobber's lack of system. Then again he had always been the system, he now thought.

Whilst putting the sketch in his pocket for later use he returned his attention back to the gronckle. After the brown scaled one threw up the gronkle iron, Hiccup gave it more stones to eat on. He stared at the batch on the floor, it was a lot more than he actually needed. He was not planning on having Gobber have this to play around with. Perhaps he could use the rest for something else? He pondered for a while, but soon an idea hit him. He could make a sword out of it. With a shovel he gathered what he needed and went over to the other room where he dumped the contents in a mold. Gobber watched it with interest as did Astrid. They both let him go around doing what he wanted to do. He let the molten iron cool inside the mold, leaving it for later. Now to what he actually got the gronckle iron for.

"Astrid your axe please?" Hiccup asked looking over to her as he held out his hand.

"What are you going to do with it?" she asked, her attention still at the mold.

Hiccup rolled his eyes and remained silent. Reluctantly she eventually give it to him. With axe in hand he returned to the other room where the gronckle looked shocked at him.

"Calm, I won't hurt you with it," he tried to calm the creature.

The gronkle backed away nonetheless, but seemed more relaxed when Hiccup kneeled in front of the barfed up gronckle iron. It had cooled down quite a bit already. Carefully he dipped the axe in the iron, coating it with a thick layer.

"You can eat this up again," he told the gronkle, which it gladly did.

Still dripping, Hiccup returned to the other room where he let Toothless heat it up evenly as he rotated the axe. The excess gronkle iron dripped on the floor. After Inspecting if the layer of coating was indeed evenly he let Toothless do it again until he was satisfied. After sharpening it he dipped the axe in a barrel of water. Steam rose up from the barrel.

"So… what did you just do?" Astrid asked as she looked at her weapon which he lay down on the anvil.

"Coated it. It will be more durable. I'll demonstrate later."

Hiccup walked back to the mold and opened it, though Gobber seemed skeptical when he did so. Probably thinking that he was taking it out way too soon. Of course Hiccup knew exactly what he was doing and simply grinned. Then came the process of shaping. Never cooling the object fully, he asked Toothless to heat it up once more before hammering down on it. The sword started to form nicely, however the next step was the hardest. To get it as sharp as possible he had to grind the edges on the sharpening stone whilst it not being fully cooled. Normal iron would break, gronkle iron not… well not so easily. For a rough start he carefully held it against the sharpening stone that quickly circled around. Gobber making a shocked and confused face made it hard to focus, but he managed. Of course he understood the man's reaction, this was against everything the man had taught him. After Toothless once more heated up the sword, he did the final sharpening by hand with a small stone. Inspecting it one last time he hung it to his belt and walked back to the axe.

"Now for a demonstration, shall we?" he grinned at Astrid.

She seemed both curious and skeptical about what he had done, yet followed him outside nonetheless. Hiccup walked down the plaza to the other side of the village until he found a nice big rock to aim at. There weren't too many people around and those who were glared at him, although some seemed surprised when he actually lifted the axe. Undoubtedly they expected him to still be unable to do so. With swift movement he threw the weapon at the rock where it stuck and cracked the rock.

Astrid stared at the rock with wide eyes and then looked over to Hiccup.

"H-how… you can actually throw an axe, I thought you still sucked at that?"

Hiccup frowned, not expecting her to give that comment.

"The rock is literally three steps away and big, I can do that much," he said with an undertone of annoyance, "how is the fact that the rock is cracked not more interesting?"

Astrid quickly walked over to her axe, whilst complaining, "you accused me of throwing it at rocks and now you do so yourself, what the heck is wrong with you."

Hiccup rolled his eyes and waited for her to inspect her precious weapon, only to look surprised at how sharp it still was. He grinned as he walked closer.

"And that is just coating," he smiled as he noticed people were watching them.

Ignoring the whispers and stares he pulled out his newly created sword and walked over to nearby rock, around the same size as the one he had thrown Astrid's axe at.

"This is what a weapon made completely out of gronkle iron can do," he said under Astrid's watchful eyes.

With one swing down on the rock, the sharp iron split it in two until the ground. Gasps were heard all around them, but Hiccup only looked at Astrid, who for some reason looked somewhat scared. Seeing her like that was new to him even when she had told he was afraid of him. He hadn't intended to scare he, even though he was clueless as to how he did that.

"That's an interesting weapon you got there, Hiccup."

Hiccup rapidly turned around and found his grandfather walking up to him.

"May I see it?"

Without a word he handed his grandfather the sword, who then inspected it with curious eyes. After swing it around in the air for a moment, the old man gave the sword back.

"As I suspected, I have seen this material before. Very rare. The design is also similar to a sword I have seen before. Wanted to buy it, but it was very expensive."

Hiccup nearly dropped the sword when he heard that. Impossible, no-one but him and Elek knew about this material. Then again they had sold a few of these swords. One of which to Johann, making him wonder where it had ended up. Unless the trader still had it.

"Oh, who did it belong to? It's not very well known material I used," he said, trying to keep himself calm and not get his hopes up.

He held on to the sword as he watched his grandfather with curious eyes. The man looked thoughtful for a while as he pondered over the question.

"Hm, a lad a little older than you. He spoke very broken Norse, I believe his name was Elek."

His heart nearly stopped with shock. His grandfather had met Elek?!

"When?! Where?" Hiccup immediately wanted to know.

He had traveled the vast size of the world, never running into anyone he knew or hearing about someone he knew, yet his grandfather of all people had met Elek. Somehow the world felt a whole lot smaller. Though should he really be so surprised about this? After all didn't Camicazi show up in Bourneby, granted he had fled the moment he recognized the ship so she didn't even know he had been there.

Startled the old man answered, "Skjolev, about three months ago."

"Skjolev? What in Thor's name are they doing there? That's way out of the usual route," Hiccup muttered frustrated to himself.

If they weren't follow the route, then how was he supposed to find them… easily? But really, Skjolev? As far as he could remember Elek refused going there. Something about a terrible trade he once had before they had started traveling together.

Apparently the group of people around them had grown bigger, big enough at least to draw the attention of the chief, who walked over to the masses asking what was going on. He fell silent the moment he saw Hiccup, who was at first startled by his father's sudden appearance, before glaring at him. Stoick wasn't face by the glare, though wasn't sure what to do now and found himself relieved his father was there. His eyes soon fell upon the sword his son was holding, recognizing it immediately.

"Did you trade that with Johann?" he asked in a lame attempt to make a conversation.

Hiccup let out a snort.

"I'm a blacksmith, why would I need to trade with anyone to obtain a weapon when I can make one myself," he said with a mocking tone.

"You made that?" asked Stoick perplexed as he pointed at the sword.

"Clearly being put as Gobber's apprentice and having made half the weapons on this forsaken rock still makes you think I can't make a sword, thanks for the confidence."

With that remark Hiccup turned around and wanted to walk away, however was stopped by his grandfather.

"That is not what I meant," he heard his father sigh frustrated, "I'm more on the material. You made that sword that Johann has shown us, didn't you?"

Hiccup looked over his shoulder and shrugged, "Either me or my friend Elek. As for the material, it's a secret."

"Well I want one," was suddenly shouted.

Hiccup looked at the source with a scowl.

"Didn't you declare I wasn't allowed to touch your weapons?" he spat back at Hoark.

Hoark glared at him, probably trying to think of a comeback, but Hiccup give him enough time to even come to the conclusion of using brute force.

"You're not worthy of a sword like this. Fat chance I'll give this one to you. If you really want one, try buying the one Johann has."

"That damn thing is overpriced!" someone shouted.

"Not even the chief could afford it," come from another direction.

Hiccup simply grinned, "Of course the price is high, but with it comes a quality sword made out of a rare material."

Hoark finally seemed to have gotten enough of waiting around and decided to indeed use brute force to obtain the sword. Hiccup dodged and put the sword to the man's throat.

"Now I could start giving a demonstration on how easy it is to cut ones head of with a single swipe, but do you really want to die to obtain it, Hoark."

Hiccup's threatening voice silenced everyone in surprise as they now saw the danger he posed reflected in the lad's eyes. Hoark however didn't want to show he was faced by the threat.

"As if you have the balls to do that," he grinned halfhearted.

Hiccup let the tip of the sword touch the side of man's face, causing blood to trickle down and drip to the ground, turning the snow pink as it spread across it.

"I have killed an entire army of at least fifty by myself before, don't tempt me."

Just when Hoark was about to open his mouth again and probably challenge Hiccup to do it, he was interrupted.

"Hoark, stand down," Stoick said, "the sword is Hiccup's belonging. You have no claim to it and Hiccup can refuse trade or selling it to you as well as making you one."

Hiccup was surprised to say the least. He hadn't expected his father to… side with him to put it that way. Hoark didn't look pleased but stood down and Hiccup pulled the sword back. He dipped in the snow for a moment to clean it before putting it on his belt and marching of.