To Guest- Thank you for the ideas. I talked with my friend about them and we elaborated, so thank you for getting rid of my writer's block! :D

I've finished Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods today! Love it!


Nearly a fortnight after waking up, Hiccup was ready to fly again. His parents and girlfriend weren't so sure and tried to keep him from flying until he was fully steady.

But of course, Hiccup could play the chief card, something they found highly annoying.

"Will you stop that?" Astrid exclaimed. "Yes, you're the chief, but you're ill!"

"I didn't know you cared." She fumed silently at him, flexing her fingers. She had that look that Hiccup had come to relate with pain. "Besides, I'm fine. I just want to go flying and-" Toothless curled his way under Hiccup's arm, cooing and expecting to be petted, "Toothless does too." Hiccup finished, scratching his dragon behind the ears. "You can't argue with a Night Fury." He grinned slyly.

"Yes, but I can argue with you."

"Your chief?"

"My headache." She corrected. His smile broadened and she mentally sighed.

"I could stop being a headache for a couple of hours if you come with me."

"I think you'd be a migraine then."

"Oh, a promotion. Yay me." She whacked his arm.

"Do you always have to be sarcastic?"

"Do you always have to be violent?" He massaged his on-coming bruise. "Anyway, I feel like going on a picnic. Care to come too?"

"A picnic." He nodded. "With you."

"That… was the general idea, yeah." Astrid sighed. "I've already talked Dad into supervising for a couple of hours, so I can go with or without you." Toothless growled. "But I'll definitely take you, bud." Hiccup laughed, patting his beloved Night Fury.

"OK, fine, but if anything goes wrong here, it's on your head!" He felt his hair, looking and clearly acting perplexed.

Carefully, Astrid helped Hiccup strap up his flight suit properly. His wound still twinged with pain from time to time and his hands weren't the steadiest right now, shaking with fumbling fingers. "Are you sure you're OK to fly?"

"That's why I'm putting this on." He gestured at himself. "If I fall, I'll fly." She just nodded, pursing her lips and deciding not to react to his strange mood. He got those quite a bit lately, possibly after-effects of the poison.

He checked Toothless's tail and the connections to the pedal to control it and then they were off. Astrid held on, careful of his slowly healing injury.

"Food?"

"Who needs food?"

"We're going on a picnic. They usually have food."

"Oh. Oh yeah." He looked back at her, his eyes twinkling with a smile behind his mask. "Don't worry about that."

"If you poison me, I'll break your legs off." He had the nerve to laugh, but only for a moment as her hand covered his hurt side warningly.

They didn't fly for long, but were well away from Berk. It was a secluded jutting edge of a cliff, about thirty feet wide and covered in soft, green grass. Trees were in full bloom, ivy and flowers twining up the trunks and along the lower branches. A small, glittering creek wound around the rocks and foliage; the soft splashing sounds pleasantly soothing.

Astrid sighed.

"What's the matter?"

"What did you call this place?" He glanced around for a moment and then looked at his dragon. Toothless didn't notice, happily licking paw clean and rubbing at his ear. He was a giant cat with wings.

"I think this was… um…" Hiccup puzzled over it for a moment and then started unfolding his ever-growing map. "Oh! Snotty Nose." She rolled her eyes, groaning in defeat. "I had a cold, shut up." Toothless chortled. "And he liked the name too."

"No arguing with a Night Fury." She muttered under her breath. Hiccup beamed at her. "I'm hungry." She reminded him.

"Right this way then, milady." He held his arm out to her and she, rather curious now, linked her arm through his. He kissed her cheek and then started walking, whistling to Toothless to follow behind them.

A short twist around the corner and she found the food. He had already put it out on a thick, large blanket. "I know it's not fancy, but it's food." He waited until she was sat before sitting himself, ever the gentleman.

"Food is food, I don't care." Toothless sneezed and mewled. Hiccup threw a raw Atlantic Cod his way and it was gone in seconds. "Pig." Astrid laughed, reaching for an apple. "Hiccup?" She asked, twisting the stem on her fruit.

"Yes?"

"Can you tell me what that thing is yet?"

"Not yet, no." The stem snapped off and she flicked it at his head. "I will soon though, have patience."

"I'm not particularly patient."

"I've noticed." She didn't reply to that, biting into her apple instead.

With her free hand, Astrid started rummaging through the rest of the food. Hiccup watched her expression carefully, occasionally throwing Toothless a fish. A slight curl of the lips, a flicker of the eyes, a flex of the fingers, could either mean she was going to kiss him or kill him.

She would probably end up killing him, but Hiccup liked to bide his time. And, according to his father, he didn't have to go from one life-threatening situation to another.

Hiccup chucked his umpteenth fish towards his dragon- it was gone in a flash of white teeth- carefully watching her from the corner of his eye. Staring wasn't ideal either because she had threatened to rip his other leg off.

"What's that?" Astrid frowned, pointing up and squinting in the sunlight. "It's very shiny."

"Well done." She bounced the apple core off his head.

A dark blob soared towards them, breaking away from the 'shiny', steadily growing bigger and… smoking.

Toothless mewled and then growled threateningly, diving forward and knocking the pair to safety. He roared at the on-coming mysterious object, but didn't seem to want to shoot it down.

The dragon doubled back and curled protectively around them. The mysterious item landed feet from them, bouncing a few times and shoot sparks and smoke alike.

It exploded.

Hiccup didn't remember much after that, but when he woke up, he noticed the Snotty Nose cliff was no longer green and beautiful, but charred black and rough. Toothless's tail was in smoky tatters, the dragon crumpled to the side. He huffed and complained, blinking blearily.

There was one other thing Hiccup noticed.

Astrid was gone.


This is mostly a filler chapter, but it is leading somewhere.

Apologies for not updating the last two nights- I did try on the Saturday, but I wasn't happy with the chapter so far. Last night I was playing Zombies and annoying my friend (again). And I watched Amazing Spiderman 2 tonight! IT'S SO COOL! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, GO AND WATCH IT! :D