"Hey, there's Itchy Armpit! That would be a good stop for the night."
Toothless crooned in agreement, wings sore from all of the flying they had done over the first two days of their week long holiday. Hiccup, while not doing any of the actual flying, still had sore muscles, mainly in his legs and lower back.

The previous day they had dropped by Dragon Island, before heading over to Outcast Island to say hello to Alvin the Not-So-Treacherous-Any-More. After staying there for the night (and returning a changewing egg to Changewing Island after an Outcast confused it for a Stone of Good Fortune), the pair had flown south-east, hoping to extend their map a little (read: a lot).

According to Valka, there were some interesting islands in this direction. And this led the pair back to the place they first heard of Drago Bludvist, and hopefully, this time, they wouldn't encounter earth-shattering news of a threat that would endanger Berk.

After settling down, and removing Toothless' saddle, Hiccup went off to gather some firewood while his dragon got settled. By the time Hiccup got back, it was late afternoon, and Toothless was lazing around in the sun. After setting up the firewood, Hiccup woke Toothless for dinner. Earlier that day, they had found a large school of fish just below the surface of the water. One blast from Toothless was enough to kill or stun enough fish for their meal.

Normally, it was very dangerous to wake a sleeping dragon. However, the sound of still wet fish being emptied from a basket was a very quick, easy, and safe method of waking a hungry dragon. Case in point: Toothless immediately woke up and attacked the fish, leaving a chuckling Hiccup to quickly grab a fish for himself, and only earning an annoyed growl in repatriation. The two friends then sat in companionable silence, Hiccup roasting his fish, while Toothless gulped down his, until he lifted his head and growled threateningly, and pulled his fish in closer

"What is it, bud?" Hiccup asked, before looking up and seeing a lone terror flying in. "Oh, you're just being greedy again." This earnt Hiccup a tail to the head and a glare from his dragon. "Oh, come on. You know it's true!" Hiccup learnt after the second tail whack.

However, Toothles needn't have worried, as when the terror landed, it ran straight towards Hiccup.

"Hey, he's got a message from Astrid." Opening the roll of paper, Hiccup found a report detailing the events of the last two days.

"Toothless, listen to this: Snotlout tried another of his get rich quick schemes, but this time it literally blew up in his face. Apparently, the twins discovered his new 'drink' was as explosive as Zippleback gas, and blew it all up during his demonstration!"

Toothless just rolled his eyes. The twins were still looking for destruction, and some of their new stunts were so destructive, that they now rivalled Hiccup in his destructive phase. Fortunately, Barf and Belch usually kept them under control. When they weren't a part of it, of course.

"Oh, and Bucket's bucket is getting a little tighter, so we probably have a storm coming in the next day or two." He paused for a moment. "Better write back and say this will slow us down a little. I'm sure Astrid will love that."

By the time he had written the note, given the terror a fish (Toothless was not happy about that) and sending it off with the reply, Hiccup's fish was ready, and so the pair returned to their silence, but now with the sounds of both human and dragon having their fill

The next day, they flew further south-east, eventually getting to the white bewilderbeast's old nest. The former Alpha's corpse still lay on the shore, where he had fallen in battle. Both Hiccup and Toothless bowed their heads in respect as they flew past, before continuing on. It was only midday, and they wanted to reach the next island before the sun went down.

As the afternoon wore on, the wind started to pick up, upsetting Toothless flight a little.

"You okay, bud?" asked Hiccup. Toothless replied with a grumble and a shake of his head, prompting Hiccup to look back. On the horizon, massive storm clouds were brewing, and they still had at least another half hour to go at their current pace before they reached the next island.

"We better hurry up, Toothless. That storm isn't going to wait." Toothless crooned in agreement and put on a burst of speed, aided by the increasing wind speeds.

15 minutes later, the storm was upon them. Fortunately, they had just reached the island and were now in the process of finding a cave to hole up in while the storm blew over. Spotting one hidden under a rocky outcrop on a cliff on the leeward side of the island, Toothless flew up to it, and almost got blown into the cliff by a sudden gust of wind. Fortunately, he recovered, and managed to land inside the cave. Happy with the near miss, Toothless looked up to his rider with a happy croon. Hiccup, on the other hand, was less than impressed.

"That was too close, with both the storm and the cave," he said, as he climbed off Toothless, and started to remove the saddle. Toothless merely grumbled, waiting patiently for the saddle to come off. "What?" Hiccup asked after he had removed it. "You mean to tell me that you had it all under control?"

Toothless merely heated up a spot underneath him, raised his head in a very arrogant manner, before flopping down on the heated floor of the cave.

Hiccup just checkled as he took off his own flight gear and sat down beside him to sleep out the storm. But what the pair didn't know was that they were being watched.

"Hey! Chris!"
"WHAAT!? I was trying to sleep!"
"Sorry, but there's movement on one of the cameras."
"Probably just an animal, now let me sleep."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Never hurts to check thou-"

"Um, Brad? You okay there, mate?"
"Uh, Chris? I think you really need to see this."
"What is i-"
"You're seeing what I'm seeing... right?"
"If what you're seeing is a soaking wet man sitting next to a Draco Nox, then yes. Yes, I am."
"I think we just found a way to get Nathan out of there."
"I think you might be right. Let's see how much control we have over the doors."
"You mean you only checked whether you could control the cryotubes?"
"You do realise that he probably has a sub-routine installed in the server that detects any and all access to the servers, right?"
"I never thought of that..."
"Of course you wouldn't, you're only a scientist. I'm the IT guy, and Nathan's the pilot."
"Yeah, well, you gonna do something Mr 'I'm the IT guy'?"
"Yeah, just give me a while."

15 hours later

"I've got control!"
"You do!?"
"Yeah, but we've got to work quick, we don't want him finding out too soon."
"Then hurry up and get it done!"
"Fine, I'm working on it. Door opening in 3... 2..."

It was a little bit steamy in the cave, seeing as though it was very damp, and Toothless had warmed up the floor of the cave quite a bit. But at least it was warm enough to be comfortable for the night, and both dragon and rider were taking advantage of that to get some sleep while the storm blew over. However, that sleep would be rudely interrupted by a metallic grating.

Toothless was the first to be awoken by the noise, and immediately took a defensive position over hiccup, only to have his jaw drop and eyes widen at the sight before him. Hiccup, having been woken by Toothless' sudden movement and still half asleep, took a bit longer to process everything.

"What is it, bud?" Hiccup managed to groan out, before he woke up fully and looked to where Toothless was staring.

"Huh?"

Thanks to the early morning light of the sun shining straight into the cave, Hiccup could see the wall of the cave splitting in two and opening, revealing a short corridor hewn into the rock with a metal walkway. Hiccup was left speechless as he moved out from underneath Toothless and stood up, still staring at the hallway that had just appeared.
They stood like that for a few minutes, before, predictably, Hiccup said, "Come one, bud. Let's check it out," and started walking toward the opening. Toothless kept staring for a few seconds before realising that his rider was about to walk into this strange cave without his gear on, and quickly ran in front of Hiccup to force him back to where the flight suit had dried.

"Alright, fine, I'll put my gear on," Hiccup complained, although with a smile, for once glad that his dragon wasn't as forgetful as he was. Having suited up, He and Toothless entered the extended cave, lighting Inferno as he rounded the first corner, and stopping dead in his tracks.

"Oh, no..."

AN: Hello again!

I haven't gotten any reviews... Oh well, just means I don't know how well I'm doing. To my 2 followers, thank you for following, and hopefully you enjoy the story. Set up for the plot is nearly done, so that should start moving by the next chapter, and with that, it will get MUCH DARKER! And probably a little bit sci-fi-y if you haven't already figured out from all of the talk of computers and I.T. so... yeah.

Please Review, and this time I mean it. I am normally very bad when it comes to OC's, so could you please let me know over the next few chapters when I introduce an extremely plot relevant OC whether or not s/he is straying into Mary Sue or Marty Stu territory?

And thank you to those who took the time to read this, it means a lot.

Mikowmer