Hey. Sorry this is so late. I actually had this edited and ready to post last Sunday, but I've been busy for the past few weeks. So, yeah. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you to kaitlynn19 for editing!

Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD.

Chapter 3

Hiccup

My prayers were not answered. As we were about to break through the trees at the edge of our campsite, we ran into Fishlegs. Almost literally. He was out of breath and looked like he was about to pass out. "Looking everywhere for you..." he panted, "trouble... ship..."

"Okay, Fishlegs, I need you to calm down and tell me what the problem is."

It took a minute for Fishlegs to catch his breath, but finally he was able to tell us what was going on. "When we woke up, we noticed a ship sailing towards us. We didn't recognize the crest on the sail, but they didn't look friendly."

"Show me."

Fishlegs led us over to where Snotlout and the twins were fighting over the telescope. I grabbed it out of their hands, peered through it, and saw the ship that had appeared on the horizon.

It was close enough that, with the aid of the spyglass, I was able to make out the picture displayed on the sail. It looked like a broken sword and a spear. The ship was made of a dark brown wood. Oars poked out of the side of the boat like the legs of a giant spider, moving in sync and giving it the appearance of a monster creeping towards its prey. But the "head" was the most disturbing part. Attached to the prow of the ship was a dragon skull. It was a type of dragon that I didn't recognize, but the species was unmistakable. The lower jaw was missing, making it look like the mouth was open, ready to swallow a person whole.

I handed the telescope to Astrid, feeling slightly sick. Astrid's face slowly morphed from curious to horrified as she took in the details of the vessel. She handed Catherine Mary the telescope with a dazed look in her eyes as if she was trying to forget what she just saw.

Catherine Mary peered into the spyglass for a moment before her body stiffened and the telescope dropped to the ground...

Catherine Mary

I grabbed the spyglass from Astrid, completely on edge from everyone's spooked looks. My eyes were immediately drawn to the symbol on the sail. I stared at it for a moment and then... fear. Cold, pure fear. Laughter everywhere. "Go away, go away!" Green. Safe. "No! Too close!" Run. Run away. Laughter. Should be...

"Catherine Mary!"

Hiccup

The sound of glass shattering echoed through the forest. Catherine Mary was practically drowning in fear. She started mumbling what sounded like gibberish. Suddenly she grabbed a nearby tree branch. This seemed to calm her down for a moment before panic once again flooded her eyes. She started muttering again. Astrid and I glanced at each other, concern in our eyes. I tried to get her attention by yelling her name.

Catherine Mary

"Catherine Mary!"

Bad? No. Friends. Safe. Not safe. Ship bad. Laughter. Mocking. Trapped. No! "No!"

"Catherine Mary, what's wrong?"

"Danger. Run. Leave now."

Why aren't they moving? "Danger!" Oh. They can't understand.

Hiccup

"Catherine Mary!" I called, trying to snap her out of whatever stupor she was in. For a second, it seemed to work her eyes cleared and she relaxed slightly, but it wasn't long before she stiffened again and continued muttering.

I tried again. "Catherine Mary, what's wrong?"

This time, she looked directly at me as she spoke, but I still couldn't understand what she was saying. She was confused for a moment before a look of realization crossed her face. She finally spoke, but she paused before each word as if she was choosing what she said next very carefully. "We... need... to... leave... now." Then she grabbed Astrid's hand and took off, dragging the poor girl behind her.

This... is a lot shorter than it seemed on paper. Oh well.

I know Catherine Mary's POV might be a little hard to understand in this chapter, but she isn't exactly acting rationally. I promise this isn't going to become a normal thing. At this point I think it might show up one or two more times, if at all.

Now, I would like address a question posed by MMM (Guest) in a review. It is about the pairings in this story. If you are desperate to have a pairing, I suppose you can go with the Hiccup/Astrid pairing. I do not plan on messing with cannon any more than I already have. However, if you are expecting this to have any major romance, prepare to be disappointed. I am neither comfortable with nor interested in writing romance. No offense to people who do include romance in their books, that is just my personal preference. I do try to write the characters as in character as possible, so for characters like Snotlout there might be some shameless flirting, but that won't ever lead anywhere. Sorry for that long rant, but I just wanted to get that out of the way. Hope that answers your question MMM.

Also, nice guess, MMM, but no. Feel free to try again. :-) For those of you interested in the "guess Catherine Mary's powers" game, I will post a list with what other people have guessed on my profile, so you don't guess the same thing. MMM has been the only one too guess so far. Let's see if anyone else is up to the challenge. I will admit that one of them is pretty hard to guess, so if you get the easier one right, I will give you the other one, if it isn't solved within five guesses. One review or two powers (one for each power she has) counts as a guess. Feel free to guess as many times as you want. I'll give you another hint: one of her powers is demonstrated (or rather, not demonstrated) in this chapter. Compare Hiccup's and Catherine Mary's POVs.

Also thank you to everyone who reviewed. I love to hear from you amazing people!