As a tender bud of a flower opened to the frosty chill of the morning, it wisely shut back up again, in fear of its delicate petals being damaged. The occupants of a rocky cave, four beings, began to wake. Astrid was the first up, busying herself and her frozen limbs by unpacking the saddlebags and preparing a meagre breakfast from the extremely limited supplies, for her and Hiccup a few tasteless lumps of bread and a few dried kippers, and for the dragons, a salmon each. It was not much to go upon, but nevertheless, Hiccup and Astrid felt their limbs become warmer, and their hunger quench. After packing the saddle bags back up, they lined up the dragons to have another go at the thick, wide ice wall. On their command, Toothless and Stormfly fired at the wall, directing the fire and the weakest point, the middle. Outside the now no-longer gaping hole of the cave mouth, a robe swathed rider swiftly dismounted, telling his dragon silently to cease its fire, of more precisely, its ice. He then crouched in a hidden nook just outside the entrance of the cave. The dragon, pure white as it was, did not need to hide, as it blended in seamlessly with the surrounding snow. Back inside the cave, the dragon were gradually making progress. Slow progress, but still progress.