Greetings and whatnot to all who come here.

Here you go friends, another chapter awaits you :)

I offer a congratulations to Sword of the Auzure Rain for being the first to answer my Chapter question correctly! Congrats, you get bragging rights until next chapter!

Yes, the song Zip-a-dee-do-dah originated in the Disney film Song of the South.

Now, down to business, put your serious faces on. Some of my OCs enter in this chapter, and since this is the first time I've created and used Original Characters in fanfiction, I'd really appreciate all and any creative criticism from viewers. Keep your criticism mature and if you have a problem, give me pointers on how to fix it. :) Judge away!

Disclaimer: Knock knock. Who's there? I don't own How to Train Your Dragon. I don't own HTTYD who-? STOP REMINDING ME THAT I DON'T OWN IT!

"Ahh-Oomph!"

"Ouch! Watch where you're falling next time!"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to. It's not like I was freefalling or anything, you know."

"Don't backsass me, man!"

"Dude, who's butt is in my face? Get off of me now!"

"I'm kinda stuck right now. And it's not like I want your face in my butt!"

"Shut up! If you fart I will castrate you!"

"Would you guys just calm down? Is everyone alright?"

"If you call a dragon landing on my spine 'alright', then yes. I feel fan-freaking-tastic."

"Enough with the sarcasm, Hiccup, you're not helping."

"Ugh, Toothless get off of me!"

Roar.

"That's it, you're going on a diet when we get home."

Hiccup heard an affronted growl before he felt a large weight lift off him and he took a deep breath in, finally able to breath properly.

The freefall and slide ride down the dark hole of doom, as Hiccup decided to refer to it as, was probably much shorter than seemed. The worst thing was the fact that he couldn't see anything within an inch of his face, which made him hyperaware to all the twists and turns the tunnel made, as well as the rocks and people that bumped into him on the way down. Digging his foot and prosthetic into the slickened rock hadn't helped him decrease his momentum much as he hoped it would. He had entertained the idea of throwing his arms out to the sides to hopefully catch a hold on the surrounding walls, but didn't have time to act on it once the rock disappeared out from under him.

Of course, there was quite a pile underneath him when he landed, and he considered himself lucky that he was the last off their ride. Then he felt the pain his friends experienced when his Night Fury landed on him, thus ending the dog pile.

"Well, it could've been worse. Toothless could've crushed me to death," he thought morbidly to himself after his dragon leap off and away from the group of humans.

He heard Toothless' claws clacking against the rocky floor as he slid off whoever was under him.

The darkness that invaded his vision during their fall hadn't let up now that they'd landed, and Hiccup put his arms out in front of him to make sure he didn't walk into a wall and break his nose.

Despite the darkness, the chieftain's son looked around, hoping to see some form of light, or at least a way out. Naturally, he couldn't see the ending hole that they'd fallen out of, but figured it wasn't too high up considering nobody was complaining of any broken bones. Yet.

He heard Astrid sigh somewhere off in the darkness, "Okay, role call, is anybody hurt?"

"I think I'm good." Hiccup checked each voice he heard.

Fishlegs was fine.

"My brother fell on my face, so yeah, it's probably flattened now."

"Would you shut it? It's not like you were the most comfortable thing to land on!"

The twins were bickering, which means they were both alright.

"Oh man! I can't see, I'm blind!"

"Snotlout, you're fine. It's just dark. None of us can see."

And Snotlout's intelligence didn't seem any different, so everyone was okay.

Hiccup smiled in relief. Their landing could've turned out a lot worse than it did. The last thing their little group needed was a series of broken bones and internal injuries.

"Hiccup, how about you?"

He turned his head towards the direction of Astrid's voice, "Yeah I'm alright. None of you happen to know where we fell from do you?"

"Well…I thought it was from over there."

Silence encased the cavern.

"Fishlegs, we can't see where you're pointing."

"Oh! Right." Hiccup suddenly felt a hand tap his shoulder as Fishlegs reached out for someone nearest to him. He grabbed Hiccup's arm and directed it to where he had been pointing to a moment ago.

"Alright, show everyone else, and let's see if we can find the tunnel we fell out of."

A distant, yet familiar, squawk echoed around them before they could act on Hiccup's command.

He heard a gasp from Astrid, "That's Cress, she must have heard us when we fell down."

Hiccup heard shuffling of feet as the blonde called up to her dragon. He soon tuned out what she was saying so he could think through their new situation and tried to turn around only to stub his good foot on a rock. Resisting the urge to hop up and down in pain, he grunted and cursed the darkness around him. At this rate, it was going to take a miracle for them to find their way out. Oh, why did he leave his matches in Toothless' saddlebag? He just had to unsaddle the Night Fury back…

Where was that dragon anyway?

"Toothless? Come here, Bud." he called out into the darkness, the call echoing before he heard a warble come from the distance. He figured Toothless had walked off a ways out of curiosity, despite the lack of noise the dragon gave off.

"He's a Night Fury. Seeing in the dark is probably a necessity," he smiled to himself. At least someone could see where they were.

Astrid's voice was lost in the echoes of Toothless' talons scraping against the floor.

Toothless nudged his side when he came within touching distance of his rider and Hiccup gave his scales a good scratch in praise. With his dragon near for support, the teen started to stretch his mind out for a plan to get back to the surface.

Hiccup thought about asking the dragon to send a stream of fire along the walls or ceiling of the underground hole they were in to gain some light, but that ran the risk of a cave-in if the rocks were too unstable.

He flinched with surprise as something suddenly touched his face.

"Oops, sorry," Astrid's hand went down onto his arm, "I called up to Cress and told her to go home. There's no way any of the others could fit through the tunnel to get to us, and who knows how big the hole in the floor is. Hopefully the others' dragons follow her lead and take the fish with them."

Hiccup groaned and ran a hand over his face at a thought that brought up, "Oh man, Dad's going to freak when they show up without us."

"You mean, you didn't tell you father where we were going?" Snotlout asked tensely.

"I thought we were going to be back within a day, so it didn't really cross my mind at the time."

"Alright, well, let's not dwell on that stuff and focus on trying to get out," Astrid's voice was soft but held no room for argument.

Hiccup nodded before remembering nobody could see it, "She's right. Let's try to come up with a plan. Toothless is the only-"

"Hello?"

All movement amongst the Berkians stopped as the light greeting echoed around them. Toothless moved his head away from Hiccup's hand and sniffed at the air suddenly as a bright white glow came into the cavern.

Hiccup snapped his eyes shut at the sudden intrusion of light before blinking to let his vision adjust to the shift. Resisting the urge to squint, he focused on the light and almost yelped in shock at what he saw.

Hovering in the air in front of him was a tiny white dragon, about the same length as a Terrible Terror, but thinner than them. It's body was like that of a snake's, with the exception of tiny fore and hind limbs that clung to it's sides as it flew. It's wings beat incredibly fast, so fast that Hiccup had to look closely to see flashes of it against the dark rock. What shocked Hiccup, though was the bright glow that came off it's scales, and plain patches of skin where the creature's eyes should've been. The teen quickly ran though all the articles from Berk's Dragon Manual in his head. He quickly came to the conclusion that he'd never seen or heard of this particular dragon before. He felt a familiar flicker of curiosity come to life in his head, as he examined the new discovery.

Tuffnutt backpedaled at the sight of it, "Whoa! What is that thing?"

Fishlegs' reaction was the total opposite as his eyes grew in wonder, "It's a glowing dragon. I've never seen one that glowed before."

Hiccup looked at the group, the light from the tiny dragon was so strong that he could make out each and every one of his friends. He could even see the rock walls and floor that laid beyond them. He quickly looked back at his previous subject as he saw it move closer out of the corner of his vision.

The small dragon tilted his head, which was pointed right at Hiccup despite it's lack of eyes.

It flitted close to the russet haired boy and sniffed at his face fervently before giving a satisfied chirp. It proceeded to zip upwards to the ceiling of the cave before it hung upside down on the stone.

The group stared at the dragon in mild shock.

Ruffnutt scratched the back of her head in a confused manner, "Well…that was-"

"Glimmer!" Hiccup turned towards the sound of the voice, with the help of the dragon illuminating the area, he could see in full clarity as a girl came into their line of sight from a crevasse in the wall to his right.

"Glimmer, I swear if you're bringing me on another stupid little hunt for cave bugs I'm gonna…AH!" she gave a startled scream as she took in the sight of the teenagers and backpedaled in surprise before tripping over herself and falling on her backside.

"Ow…" she winced and muttered to herself. She looked up and Hiccup caught her eye, still shell-shocked into silence. How did she get down here? The island was supposed to be uninhabited. Did she live in this cave? There was no way a person could be living here.

The girl's eyes widened again in fear, and she started babbling quickly, "Ohmygodsghosts!"

Hiccup glanced at Astrid, who shrugged.

"I did'unt mean to disturb you! Just…just go back to the underworld or wherever it is you float about, but don't eat me!" she held up her hands to shield her face from a power she expected them to throw at her.

Hiccup seemed to gain his voice back from listening to her panicked tone, "No! No, we…um, we're not ghosts."

The girl's babbling ceased at his words, and she peaked out from behind her hands, "Not ghosts?"

"Um, no. We're human, I promise."

She was a lithe girl, Hiccup noted, who seemed a few years younger than himself. Her clothes were dark, so dark that they seemed to match the rock wall behind her. Her hair was dark as well, although Hiccup was unable to distinguish whether it was black or brown in the amount of light present. It was short, just long enough to reach her chin, and her curly locks stuck up and out to the sides in random places in an unkempt manner. Strapped to her side was a small dagger and a pouch that bulged with it's unknown contents. The only other thing that seemed abnormal was the burnt out torch she held in her hands.

Hiccup came to the conclusion that her emergence was extremely random, and one question out of the many he had kept repeating in his mind. Why was this girl in a cave underneath an island in the middle of nowhere?

She must have felt nervous as he and his friends scrutinized her because she let out a nervous chuckle to try to release the unsure tension in the air, "Oh, well then…um, wow, I have never seen someone so far away from the village before. How did you guys get here?"

Astrid pointed to the hole they had fallen through, now completely visible near the top of the cave wall, "We fell through the floor. You see, we-"

The girl suddenly swept her arms in front of her, "Whoa, wait a second. You are all from up above? F-From the surface?"

"Yeah," said Snotlout, scrunching his nose at her strange words, "isn't that where you're from?"

She stared in amazement for another second before shaking her head, "I'm sorry, I am being rude."

She hopped to her feet, completely unfazed by her previous scare and walked up to Hiccup, who happened to be the closest to her.

She held out her hand and smiled, "My name is Liva Halvander."

Hiccup took her hand and shook it, "I'm Hiccup. And this is Astrid, Snotlout, Ruffnutt, Tuffnutt, Fishlegs, and Toothless."

Toothless must have blended into the background because Liva gave another scream of surprise as her eyes landed on the dragon.

Toothless merely cocked his head at the girl, probably wondering what she was screaming at. He apparently didn't think she was a threat, because his sights went straight to the other dragon, who Hiccup realized was Glimmer.

Liva's eyes went as wide as dinner plates as she stared at the Night Fury, "Whoa…"

"Yeah, look sorry, but do you think you could help us out? We kind of don't know where we are and…"

"Oh, right of course, it's just…I have never seen anybody from the surface before. Especially not ones that just appear out of nowhere," She reached out, as if she were touching something fragile, and touched Hiccup's fur vest in wonder. Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her actions and cast a glance at Astrid, who shrugged again. Apparently this was making as much sense to her as it was to him.

Tuffnutt interrupted Liva's exploration of Hiccup's clothing, "Wait, you mean you live down here?"

Liva smiled at him while bouncing on the balls of her feet, "Yeah, lots of us live down here."

The others stared at her in confusion, which gave the small girl reason to roll her eyes and walk back to the crevasse she entered from, "Come on, I'll take you to the village and see if we can help you."

She glanced at the ceiling and held out her arm, "Come on, Glimmer, you little rat. We gotta lead the surface-dwellers home."

The tiny dragon chirped, and the light it gave off flickered before it flew onto Liva's outstretched arm. The glow of the dragon lessened as she retreated into the darkness.

Hiccup looked to his friends, who, in turn, were looking at him for direction

He shrugged, "Well, we don't have any other ideas. We might as well see where she takes us."

And, with their leader's consent, the lost group of Berkians followed the strange girl out of their entrance cave and into an even bigger one.

H~~~T~~~T~~~Y~~~D

"Say, that dragon of yours is really cool!"

Hiccup glanced down at the younger girl as she walked beside him. Their group had been following her for a while now, and the rocks surrounding them on all four sides weren't exactly the most exciting thing to make conversations about.

However, her abruptness on this new subject made Hiccup laugh.

"What?" she asked him, "what's so funny?"

"Nothing, it's just that with most people, their first instinct when the see a dragon is to, you know," he deepened his voice in an attempt to sound like so many of the adults in his village, "rip it's head off and mount it on their wall."

He swept a hand in front of him, as if to dismiss the past sentence, "And yet, you see Toothless and you're calm about it."

"Um, hello?" she pointed to Glimmer. The dragon had made it's home on her person a few minutes ago, resting in a circle around her head like some sort of glowing crown; it's light was bright enough for the whole group to be able to see where they were going without falling flat on their face with every step.

"Only ever other step," Hiccup thought sarcastically as he took a glance back to make sure the others were keeping up with him and Liva before turning back to the girl.

"In case you hav'unt noticed, I already have a pet dragon."

"Yeah, I've been wondering about him."

"Her," she corrected him immediately upon his mistake, "Glimmer is female. She is of a breed we call Cave Winkers."

"Are there many of these dragons here?" Astrid was suddenly on the other side of him, leaning forward to get a clear view of the younger girl as she talked.

Hiccup jumped at her sudden appearance and sent a mock glare at her, which Astrid kindly replied to with a smug smile.

Liva smiled at Astrid, and Hiccup noted that she seemed to be a very friendly girl. Ever since she had gotten over her first scare at seeing them, she'd been all smiles and friendly words to his group. He didn't know if he found her personality refreshing or simply bizarre.

"Oh there are hundreds of Cave Winkers! Most stay on the cave ceiling above Drómundr, and are so pretty to look at…"

Hiccup stopped dead in his tracks at the mention of one word. "Drómundr? The word written on the wall." with everything that had happened, Hiccup had forgotten why Snotlout led them to that part of the upper cave in the first place. It was real?

"Drómundr," Liva scrunched her eyebrows at him, wondering why he stopped so suddenly, "what is it exactly?"

Liva gave him a mysterious smile, and turned forwards, skipping along the way they were headed, "Wait a few minutes and you will see."

Astrid tugged at his sleeve once Liva seemed far enough away to not overhear her, "Well, what do you make of her?"

Hiccup hummed, and lifted a hand to twirl a loose strand of Astrid's hair around his finger, "After hours and hours of deductive reasoning I'd say that…she's odd."

Astrid rolled her eyes at him, "I'm serious Hiccup. I'm mean, look at her. We found her in the middle of a cave, a cave where nobody is supposed to live. You heard what Fishleg's told us, about how nothing grows here. How is she surviving? Do we even know if we can trust her?"

Hiccup looked again at the girl, who make her way across the rocky path with a certain ease and grace that only came to a person through lifelong experience. Liva had given them no reason to be distrusted thus far, but, then again, they met merely an few hours ago. She could be leading them to their deaths as they speak. They could simply decide to not follow her. It wasn't like she couldn't be overpowered. If anyone in Hiccup's group distrusted her enough to want to leave her sight, it would be all too easy.

But what choice did they have?

"I get where you're coming from, Astrid," he crossed his arms over his chest, "but what else can we do besides stumble around in the dark hoping to find a way out? What do we have to lose by following her?"

Astrid scrutinized him, seeing if he was dead-set on his answer before placing her hands on her hips and turning forward to eye Liva warily, "Alright, you're the boss. Whatever you say goes."

For some reason, that answer didn't satisfy Hiccup as much as he hoped it would.

The weary voice of Fighlegs made it's way to the front of the group, "How much further?"

"Yeah, I think I've waked through the bottom of my shoes," Snotlout leaned against the wall for a second to massage his feet.

"It's right around this corner," she shouted back to the group.

The words seemed to inspire the group to pick up their pace, and Hiccup was suddenly aware of how much his foot and stub of a leg hurt from hiking along the rocky trail and from their earlier fall. With the sun out of sight there was no way for any of them to tell how much time had passed, but Hiccup guessed from his sore bones and weary body that it was around two and a half hours since they started their trek. He didn't know what he'd find once they turned the corner, but he was hoping there would be a bed, some food, and water waiting for him.

When he finally came to the lip of the tunnel they were walking in, he found himself having to do a double take at the scene to make sure what he was seeing was real.

Liva threw an arm out towards her home and bowed to the group of Berkians, "Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to Drómundr"

Glimmer gave a light-hearted chirp and flew in circles around her owner's head before flying off towards the direction of the village.

Well, village wasn't something Hiccup would call it. The whole place just looked like someone took tiny mountains and decorated it with stars.

Giant stalagmites rose from the ground, and most seemed to have holes carved in and through them. Up above, long stalactites rained down like muddy rain frozen in time, the water cascaded down from them in endless drip drip drip synchronies. Behind the hollowed put stalagmites were large, carved indentures that ran far up the cavern wall. Hiccup dared to think that they were windows for actual houses made by Liva's people. Paths up and down were laid with stone ramps, and lit torches glowed along them to light the way.

High above where the torches stopped, the walls curved inward and upward, making the whole space a sort of rock-like bubble, and at the very top was a giant hole, large enough to let sunlight shine down upon the whole area. Hiccup could see a faint veil of misty fog gather around the natural skylight.

As a matter of fact, the whole area seemed incredibly warm and humid, the temperature much warmer than the summers of Berk. He looked at the outskirts of the 'village' and saw a wide river running out of one tunnel, around the makeshift houses, and into another, creating a moat to protect the residents. A simple bridge was built to allow passage across the moderately paced current.

All the walls seemed smooth and seamless except for a single patch of rock near the tunnel entrance they were standing at, which just looked like a lot of huge bolders piled up against the wall. The floor seemed level too, and Hiccup could see something that looked like grass basking underneath the sunlight the hole up top let through.

Hiccup scratched his head, trying to figure out the village before Liva explained it to him.

Astrid, standing next to him, tried to comprehend what she was seeing and turned to Liva for an explanation, "This is Drómundr?"

"Yes, it is where me and my family live."

"What? Just how long have you been living in here?" Tuffnutt exclaimed.

"My ancestors were Vikings, and this island used to be a large, open grotto. The fleet my ancestors sailed on stopped in the grotto to rest from a storm, and there was a cave in."

She told the story nonchalantly, as if she were just reciting what she ate for breakfast that morning rather than telling the unfortunate history of her people, "My people have been trapped here ever since. Unable to find a way to leave, not that we need to. We have everything we need to survive down here."

"But why can't you get out? There's a giant exit right above your head."

"We have no giant dragons that can fly us up and out."

"You've never tried rock climbing before?"

"Oh, people have tried. It just usually never ends well for them, though." Liva's eyes subtly shifted towards a clearing a distance to her left, where what Astrid recognized as a sacred area meant for cremation ceremonies lay amongst the watery rocks.

They started walking towards the bridge that would lead then across the river, but Astrid saw that her other friends wouldn't stop at the brief explanation Liva had given them.

"What do you mean you have everything to survive? 'Legs here said that this island had no one living on it, and that no food could grow!" the blonde male continued his questionnaire.

"I don't know about the rock above, but below there is an endless rain that drips from the spiky rocks coming from the ceiling. So the ground is always wet and squishy."

She jumped in a nearby puddle to accentuate her point. Astrid quickly sidestepped to avoid the resulting splash of water, but seeing as her shirt was already starting to get damp from the 'rain', she supposed she would end up drenched no matter what she did.

Liva continued, ignoring the water on her clothes, "Not much grows with the small amount of sun and the excessive water. But what does grow grows in large amounts. More than enough for us."

Tuffnutt raised a hand to rub at his temples, "Ugh, too much information at once. I'm getting a headache"

Liva shrugged, "You were the one who was asking."

Ruffnutt gave her brother a pat on the back, "Don't worry, it's not you. He's just not used to thinking so much."

"Hey don't tell me you're not curious, it's a whole village living underground! Like a colony of moles or something!"

Liva tilted her head innocently, "Moles?"

Astrid tuned out their conversation, as she glanced over Drómundr once more. A city with such a background story seemed so improbable, but the evidence was right in front of her.

The group reached the bridge, the others still chatting with the underground girl as they walked over it.

Astrid glanced over at Hiccup, who seemed uncharacteristically quiet. Usually it was him asking all the questions, yet all he was doing was watching the girl interact with the boys and Ruffnutt. She wondered what he made of all of this, if he believed Liva's story.

She reached out to tap him on the shoulder to ask him, but stopped when he spoke up, "What about the river?"

Liva stopped in her discussion of underground and overground animal life, "Huh?"

"Have you ever sailed down the river? The tunnel is big enough for a ship, isn't it?"

Liva's eyes went wide at the question, and she wrung her hands together uncertainly, "Well, I suppose it is, but our Chief has sent people down there, and, well, he has'unt allowed anyone through there without permission from him first."

Now that Astrid considered suspicious. It was obviously a way out, so why wouldn't their leader take it? Her head gave a sharp throb and, like Tuffnutt, she felt this was too much for her to take in one sitting. Perhaps there was a legitimately practical reason he wouldn't let others go down the channel.

"Liva!"

Astrid was snapped out of her thoughts by the shout, and she tensed as she saw someone with a spear calling to them from the, now very close by, village. She was sure she was hiding her nervousness well, after all Hiccup hadn't noticed and if he didn't the others obviously wouldn't. The whole place unsettled her, she wasn't sure why, but Astrid knew from years of battle training to trust her instincts.

She figured it was the enclosed feeling. There was no escape. And she would've felt safer if she knew she and the others could get out.

A snort from her right made her turn to see Toothless shaking himself dry from the dripping water that accumulated on his wings. Wait….

"Hiccup…" she tried to tell her boyfriend about her idea, but he shook his head at her.

"In a second, Astrid."

Astrid froze and then narrowed her eyes. "He did not just shush me," she thought angrily, but once she got a good look at his tried expression and body posture, she decided to let it go. Just this once. "It's not like we're going anywhere anyway."

She turned her attention back to the person running to greet them. His tall figure dwarfed Liva, who ran to him with a smile.

She figured they were related, since the guy had the same curly black hair, although his was shorter. His spear was entirely made of rock, and he wore a sheathed sword at his side.

"Where have you been? Lady Grena has had me looking everywhere for you! She told me she sent you to the market to get more herbs for you to make medicine. You're a pretty poor apprentice for disappearing during every lesson."

Liva pouted, "I was just hunting for a good rock to grind the herbs, Brother."

"No, you were'unt. You were on one of your little excursions, doing Odin knows what, in the dark, with only your dragon to help you if you get hurt. As usual."

Glimmer gave a soft growl at the boy, but flew to him and laid across his shoulders, happy to have found a new rest spot.

Liva smiled cheekily at the boy, reached behind her to grab Hiccup, and shoved him in front of her, "But look at what I found on my 'little excursion'."

She turned towards Astrid and the other, "Guys, this is my elder brother, Axel."

The boy looked at Hiccup and then back at Liva, unamused, "Oh joy, you've found…."

He took another glance at Hiccup, "Who are you?"

"Hiccup Haddock, we-"

"We come from the surface world, and a place called Berk," Snotlout said loudly, loud enough for people passing by to send strange glances over.

"Wait," Axel trained his eyes on Hiccup, looking him up and down. Astrid could see Hiccup fidget under his gaze, "What did you say your name was?"

"Um…Hiccup Haddock?"

Axel turned back to his sister so quickly just watching the action gave Astrid whiplash, "Did you know of this? Is that why you brought him?"

"I…I did'unt know, I swear! All he said was his first name!"

Axel turned again to Hiccup and bowed, "My apologies, sir."

Snotlout and the twins snorted with laughter at the formality, but were shut up quickly with by glares from Hiccup, Astrid, and Toothelss.

Astrid heard the newly found siblings mutter to each other. She caught words like 'important' and 'gotta tell Chief' and couldn't help wondering why Hiccup had suddenly become so much more important in their eyes.

Their conversation broke off quickly. Liva crossed her arms and kicked at a stray rock in agitation.

Axel turned back to the group, "Would you guys mind coming with me? Our Chief Eirik will want to meet any newcomers to Drómundr. No matter how odd their circumstances of arriving are."

Hiccup smiled, "Sure, why not?"

Axel nodded his head, "Yes, you're guests, just follow me and I shall lead you to him. He should be in his home, making plans for next season's harvest."

Hiccup, now noticing Liva walking away from them and into the village, asked, "Where's Liva going? She's not coming with us?"

Axel blew a black curl out of his eyes and slung his spear over his shoulder before turning to lead them down the streets of his village, "A healer's apprentice should go to her lessons. And Lady Grena will have a thing or two to say to my little sister once she gets back. Now come."

H~~~T~~~T~~~Y~~~D

The walk through the underground village was a sight, Astrid concluded. Indeed, there had been doors and windows carved into the stone surrounding them, the torches surrounding them flickered with the water droplets that fell from the ceiling. The stone surrounding them seemed to have switched from sharp and black to smooth and a cream and red color.

The villagers stared at them when the passed, seeming to know that they were new in town. It was easy to see the differences between them, Astrid thought. All those who lived down here were pale and didn't notice the heavy atmosphere, while Astrid's skin was tanned and she felt her lungs strain under the large amount of water in the air. It felt like she was drowning.

She wondered how long these people must have lived here, to be able to make homes from the rock and go unaffected by their surroundings. It must have been at least a few generations.

During their walk, Toothless had brushed past her to get to his rider, who gave his dragon some much needed attention. Said Night Fury took everything around him in stride. He was about as sociable to those of Drómundr as he was to the people of Berk. The dragon never really did warm up to the others of Berk, just to Hiccup, Astrid, Stoick, Gobber, and the other teens. He would growl at any others who went near him or his rider if Hiccup didn't reassure him first.

Astrid figured the reason the dragon was walking by Hiccup's side now was to keep him safe from the new strangers.

Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins were strangely quiet, and Astrid didn't know if she should be glad for that or not. She figured they were just in the process of taking it all in like she was.

They finally reached the home that was their destination, and they walked through the archway that represented a door. The inside of the manmade outcroppings reminded Astrid of an anthill. It looked solid on the outside, but hundreds of rooms and tunnels ran through the inside, making it very confusing, but also very interesting.

The rock on the inside looked the same as it was outside, but she was surprised to find that the furniture was made from wood and metal. The inside was also lit by torches that aligned the walls, the orange light gave the area a sort of eerie feel.

Axel took them through a few halls until they stopped in a large, high-roofed room.

"Wait here, I will go get Eirik."

Once he was out of sight Snotlout let out a long whistle, "What is everyone back home going to think of this?"

"They probably won't believe us," Hiccup said, "Besides, to tell them we have to first find a way home. You hear what Liva said, they can't get out."

He brought a hand to his chin, already going through the possible situations that could help them get back home.

Astrid, having been reminded of what she wanted to tell Hiccup earlier, spoke up before Hiccup could get too deep into this planning, "I know a way to get out."

Hiccup looked up in surprise, Astrid's statement almost having been lost amongst his many racing ideas, "What do you mean?"

"Toothless, my oh-so fearless leader," she said, giving his genius little head a flick, "He can fly, in case you haven't noticed."

She expected Hiccup's face to light up, to say that he completely forgot, and that he'd have them back home in a hop, skip, and a flight. What she got was something totally different.

Hiccup stiffened, sucked a breath in through his teeth, and refused to meet her gaze; his eyes darted to the floor, over her shoulder, and back. All signs of someone who had been caught doing something they shouldn't have.

"Hiccup…."

"Well, heh, funny thing about that. You know when we flew in from the blizzard, and we unsaddled out dragons to let them get the ice and snow off."

Astrid had a feeling she knew where this was going, and she didn't like it, "Yes…."

She could see Hiccup gulp at her gaze, which she knew that he knew was going to get fiery soon.

"I may…not have put it back on afterwards," he gave a nervous laugh, "I didn't think we'd need it during the storm."

"Well, what about the designs, don't you always carry a copy of them with you? Just in case?"

That, she knew, was a true statement. She found it in his pocket during one of their more serious make out sessions. Of course she asked about it later, and that was the answer she got. You never know where you may get stranded, he had said.

"I….left it in his saddle bag?"

He winced at the expression Astrid was giving him.

"B-but it's ok!" he exclaimed, holding out his hands defensively in front of him, I'm going to go to the blacksmith's after we meet this Eirik guy and draw out the design for them so they can help me make a new one. It'll be easy!"

"How long will it take to make?"

Silence.

"Hiccup. How long will it take?"

"…."

"…."

"….A week and a half."

Astrid couldn't hold back the exasperated sigh, "Hiccup, for how smart you are, you can be really stupid sometimes."

"Hey! It's not like I expected us into this mess! You were the one who caused us to fall down here in the first place!"

"Oh, no, you are not blaming this on me! Who's the one who got his foot stuck in the crack!"

"Ha, yeah, remember how I wanted that to happen? I guess I forgot how I purposefully got myself stuck-ow! What was that for?" he rubbed the spot on his arm where she had ruthlessly punched him.

"That was for being stupid."

"Well, gee, thanks."

She hit him again.

"Would you stop that?"

"Um…pardon my interruption," a new voice interjected.

"What?" both Hiccup and Astrid shouted in unison at the stranger, who stood in front of them, smiling slightly at their display. Axel stood behind him, with a similar expression on his face.

White-blonde locks fell over amused eyes and the scar that ran it's way across his nose. He was young, but his face held tell-tale signs of a leader. He was pale, like most of the people they've seen down in Drómundr.

"I hate to break up a lover's quarrel, but I figured I should introduce myself," he stepped forward, with a very noticeable limp to his gait, and held out a hand in greeting, "I am Eirik, ruler of Drómundr."

Hiccup stood up straight and shook Eirik's hand, apologizing for his and Astrid's rudeness.

Eirik only laughed loudly at the apology, "Oh it's no trouble, it at least gave me a few moments of entertainment. So, you are Hiccup Haddock?"

Hiccup stood straight, his head held high in front of this new person, trying to hold the air of leadership like his father, "Yes, we seemed to have stumbled upon your village."

"These things happen. And when they do, all you can do is go with the flow."

Eirik brought his other hand down upon Hiccup's shoulder, giving it a firm shake.

"Right, Cousin?"

Oooo, cliffhanger...but not a very exciting one. But, Huzzah! The plot is now underway, and it's only going to get better from here on out!

So, now Liva, Axel, and Eirik have entered the story. Do you like them? Do they need work? Review and tell me please, so I can better myself and thus give you guys better quality Original characters :)

Random Question Time, Numero 2:

As before, the first reviewer to answer correctly gets a shout out in the next chapter and bragging rights.

Question: What is the name of the children's (although I'd put that up for debate) book series that is also about an underground city nobody knows of?
Hint: The author of it has written another, more successful series that is in the process of being made into movies as we speak.

You're faves, alerts, and reviews are all graciously appreciated!

Happy Reading

~Oliver