As she jogged over to the arena, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt. Gobber had little enough left, and she'd been responsible for taking away the recruits. He was still the blacksmith, even if he couldn't fix her axe. Maybe trader Johann would know someone who could fix it? Bah, she wouldn't be able to justify the expense if it was too bad for Gobber to fix. Shaking her head, she paused to watch the lesson in progress in the arena. Snotlout was supposed to be teaching, it should be amusing to watch. Scanning the arena, she could see the trainees gathered against a wall, most of who seemed to be laughing, the old, slow gronkle they used to introduce the trainees to fighting dozing in the sunlight, but where was Snotlout? Surely he wasn't so irresponsible to have just left them to it? Oh. Now she saw. She sighed heavily to herself, and went down to drag him out from underneath the sleeping dragon. He'll have done it on purpose, because of course he did. He was the mighty Snotlout who never made mistakes! Grinning at the hapless and incorrigible boy, she reached the gate and stepped into the ring.

With a final scream and a last, desperate dodge, they were through. Hiccup whooped in exhilaration, and Toothless let out a celebratory plasma blast. 'Oh come on!' Hiccup groaned as they flew through it.

Above the clouds, it was as though they'd flown into another world. It was almost peaceful, only the roiling blue-black clouds beneath them hinted at the turmoil below. Glancing back Hiccup gave a gasp. The tailfin was on fire! But why wasn't it burning? As he watched, the unearthly violet flames moved along the connecting rods and wires, and slowly climbed his prosthetic. He felt weirdly calm; there was no heat, only a vague buzzing sound. He reached down, but as he did so, the flames leapt onto his arm, and soon both he and Toothless were engulfed. He shook his head, engulfed was the wrong word, it was more like they were outlined….
'Hey bud, you ever seen anything like this before?' he asked, more than a little trepidation creeping into his voice.
'Do you, do you think we died?' Toothless gave a snort and slapped him with his ears.
'Yeah, I guess that was a stupid question'
Toothless turned to give him what can only be described as a Look, but his expression changed and he gave a soft warble of delight to see that Hiccup was as wreathed in the whatever-it-was as he was.
'I guess that means this is something special then, huh?' With an affirmative warble, Toothless turned back to his gliding. Hiccup was entranced, lifting his hand and turning it this way and that, admiring the violet-blue flames that burned without heat, and were cool to the touch.

They flew on, Dragon and Rider, floating in the sky. Above them danced the auroras, and below them the clouds churned as though they were a second sea. No words were spoken; none were needed, not in this place. It was a rare moment of bliss, and the duo savoured every second.

As the trade ship came in to dock, there was an appreciable crown gathered to greet it. Gobber danced impatiently from foot to foot stump, and the gangplank was barely settled before he was aboard.
'Looking for anything in particular Master Gobber?' the trader asked with a twinkle in his eye. Gobber groaned as he turned to him.

'Don't toy with me Johann, did you get any?'

'Any what?' Johann responded, barely keeping a straight face. This elicited a growl and a string of unintelligible and unprintable words as Gobber starting stumping over.

'Calm down, calm down!' Johann said, raising his hands and finally breaking into laughter.
'I wouldn't leave you hanging like that now would I? I also have something else you might be interested in…'

Gobber perked up a bit at this, the things Johann brought him were always interesting. After arranging with Mulch to cart the desperately needed scrap metal back to his forge, Gobber managed to again wrest Johann's attention away from the few remaining shoppers.

'Well, wha' was it ye wanted ta show me?'

'This' Johann replied, drawing a short-sword from his side, and handing it over. 'I thought you'd be interested in the craftsmanship.'
Hefting it, and turning it this way and that, Gobber stared at it in perplexity.

'It's well balanced, ah'll give ye that, but it's too thin and light, it'd never hold in battle!'

'Would it not?' the trader asked, the beginning of a sly grin appearing on his features. 'If you're sure, how about a little wager? If you can damage it, you can have it, and the other metal. If you can't, you pay full price for the scrap, and pay my tab at the hall tonight'.

'Ye know, I had ye pegged as an intelligent man Johann, and ye've just given me all that metal'. Gobber looked up from the sword and grinned. 'Why don't we go and sort this now, eh?'

'But that's impossible!' scowled Gobber, as he set down his hammer and looked about in dismay at the scattered, and mostly broken tools.

'What is it made of Johann, ye've got to tell me!' he implored. 'Ah can't melt it in my forge, and it's broken two swards and a mace, and it hasn't even chipped!' 'Johann, ye've got tah tell me how tah make this'.

Johann just looked at him and shrugged apologetically. 'I don't know' he said.

'But ye ken find out, right?' Gobber asked, hope beginning to rise, only to be dashed moments later as Johann replied

'I can't, believe me I've tried. I've offered him everything I own, and he still refused me. He guards that secret nearly as well as he guards his name.'

'Ye mean ye don't even know who made this?!' Gobber exclaimed. Again, Johann just shrugged.

'No-one seems to know much about him, other than he's a smith of unrivalled talent'.

Gobber just snorted at this.

'No-one knows what clan he's from, or even if he is from a clan. No-one that I know of has ever seen his face, he wears dark armour all the time, I've never seen the like! It cost me half a hold of metal and sulphur to get this sword, and even then it was only because he seems fond of me.'

Another snort followed that.

'They just call him The Smith because he won't tell anyone his name. I'm surprised you've not heard of him yet, he seems to have visited all the other tribes. Young Thuggory of the Meatheads seemed to get on well with him, and there were stories of him hiding in the rafters of the young Bog heir's house to avoid some of those women. But stories take a toll on the throat, and I believe you owe me a drink. Or twelve.'
Putting his arm around the still troubled smith, Johann steered him over towards the hall.