"So I slept in! No reason to flip out!"

Thresher growled and slapped his tail on the ground. Hiccup decided to see what the commotion was about. Toothless napped on a rock, enjoying the sun. He turned an amused eye to where Razorre was trying to calm Thresher down.

"Whats the big deal?"

Razorre looked over his shoulder.

"Apparently if I don't keep up with a regular feeding schedule, he goes psycho."

Hiccup laughed.

"Noted."

Razorre turned his exhasperated face back to where Thresher was eyeing him angrily.

"Just calm down! I'll get you breakfast right now if you cool it!"

This got Thresher more mellow. He snorted and lumbered over to a patch of sunny ground, then proceded to go to sleep. Razorre breathed a sigh of relief, then went to his stores of meat. After he got out Thresher's preferred amount of mutton, he placed it next to his best friend.

"Well, that's taken care of. Having a Skrill as your best friend can sometimes be a STORMY friendship."

Hiccup and Razorre shared a laugh at Razorre's joke. even Toothless and Thresher made a laughing sound in their throats. After their fits had subsided, Hiccup walked to the smithy where he worked. Razorre had set up a notice board near his house. If anyone needed a job done, they would put up their job along with the reward on the board. Razorre was being kept busy this time of year. With winter on the way, they needed to get food stored, collect wood, and do other chores in preparation for the cold. Razorre was typically being hired to collect wood, catch fish, or do other such chores. On the bright side, he was making a small fortune with the amount of jobs he was recieving and the efficiency he brought to each task. Thresher was most helpful in keeping on top of the jobs.

"Okay, ten people want twenty fire logs each, twenty fish each for three people, and someone needs help getting the animals bunkered down for the winter. Sounds easy enough. the over all pay from all this comes to... one thousand coin total!"

Hiccup walked over and saw the stack of jobs.

"Your going to run yourself ragged at this rate. You need to worry about your own preparations too you know."

Razorre nodded.

"I'm taking that into account. I've been taking care of that when I'm done that. Thresher makes the work way smoother, though having a Timberjack would be helpful for cutting wood, no offence Thresher."

Thresher simply snorted and snapped up the last of his breakfast. Then Razorre pulled on his riding armor and hopped onto Thresher's back. Soon they were off. Hiccup still couldn't fathom why Razorre was pushing himself so hard. He had been breaking his back for two and a half weeks now, and showed no sign of letting up. It didn't seem to bother him, but there had to be more to it than just making money. Hiccup shrugged and decided to finish opening shop.

Work went smoothly that day. Razorre finished his jobs in record time, then set about his own preparations. Hiccup then heard the sound of beating wings. They didn't belong to Thresher or Toothless. Hiccup jogged out of the smithy to see several familiar faces.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up!" Hiccup called with a wild grin.

Astrid slid off her dragon's back.

"Well, we had to get one visit in before winter hit. Looks like you're doing just fine. Where's Razorre?"

Hiccup shrugged.

"He was taking care of some jobs, but now he's just doing his own prepping for winter. He's been doing jobs for people around the village, and he's making a small fortune out of it. Still don't know why he's doing it, but I guess time will tell."

The other riders looked extremely sore.

"Long ride?"

Snotlout simply groaned.

"You have a saddle. We don't."

Hiccup smiled.

"I think I can take care of that."

After several hours of measuring, cutting, stitching, and scrapping, Hiccup had crafted saddles for the dragons, allowing for extended periods of flying with minor discomfort.

"That should help for the long trip back to Berk. So, anything changed since I left?"

Fishlegs looked nervous.

"Dagur's become the new Beserker chief. They came by for that peace treaty signing, and Dagur seemed very suspicious of your 'absence'. We said you were out on a voyage, and were running late, but he didn't seem to buy it. Anyway, Dagur's been staying true to the peace treaty, but he's been attacking other villages as well. He's expanding the Beserker tribe beyond their island, and slaughtering hundreds on a whim. We witnessed an attack before. It was horrendous."

Hiccup looked darkly out to sea.

"Is there any potential motive besides expansion?"

Astrid stepped forward.

"We did overhear the Beserkers talking about searching for the 'Wielder of Heaven's Fire', but thats about it."

At that moment, Razorre and Thresher came swooping in for a landing.

"Am I the only one who's never aware of the reunions?"

The twin's eyes immediately lit up once they gazed upon Thresher.

"Zap Snotlout! Zap Snotlout!" The twins chanted. Snotlout backed away a bit, while everyone else besides the twins groaned. Typical twins.

Then Fishlegs grew fearful.

"Wielder of Heaven's Fire... that must be lightning! But the only creature that can wield lightning is... Oh gods."

Everyone tensed. The Beserkers were searching for a Skrill. It was the symbol of their clan, but that couldn't be the only reason.

"The Beserkers won't be able to sail through winter, so that's an advantage. Hopefully we can make sure that the Beserkers don't find one. Something tells me they don't want it as a decoration. If they do find one... I don't even want to think about that."

The group decided to forget about these unpleasent times, and went to the tavern. After a few rounds of mead, they decided to discuss possible means of communication between people. A fight broke out between the other patrons, so they decided to just leave.

The next day, They went for a flight around the island, and stopped at a secluded spring in the mountains for a break. Life was good. Razorre decided to have some R&R by quickly and silently scaling a tree, finding a thick branch, and taking a nap. The Hiccup decided to skip some rocks, and was joined by Tuffnut, who had a surprisingly good arm for skipping stones. This got Astrid in a competetive mood, and soon, the group was having a stone skipping contest.

Snotlout decided to take this chance to pull one on Razorre. He picked up a good sized stone, and hurled it at Razorre. However, he was watching this. in one smooth motion, he unsheathed his sword, knocked the stone straight down, causing it to bounce of a boulder and into Snotlout's stomach. Snotlout gasped for breath as the other riders laughed.

"Its *gasp* not *gasp* that *gasp* funny."

Razorre shrugged and nimbly backflipped off the branch to the ground.

"I'm going to head back. I have more preparations to get done."

Razorre had put up a notice on his job board saying that any jobs posted today would be ignored, and that he would only do his typical amount of jobs tomorrow. When he got back, he finished getting the meat stored, and establishing a water supply.

Thresher yawned and padded over to his favorite sunbathing spot. within seconds, he was snoring. The rest of the gang arrived back at the village near sundown. They looked pretty tired. They went back to their quarters for shut eye while Hiccup and Razorre decided to stay up talk.

"Why are you working yourself so hard? You've always had a stable income, even with Thresher's appetite."

Razorre shook his head.

"Thats something for next year, come the thaw. Besides, if the world didn't have secrets, what would be left for us to find?"

Hiccup chuckled.

"True enough. True enough."

Razorre got up.

"Well, I'm off. Got a long day ahead of me."

With that, Razorre got up and left.

Meanwhile, on the island home of the Beserker tribe, Dagur the Deranged smiled widely at his prize. Lightning bolts struck the arena as Dagur laughed maniacly. Soon, he would rule all of the tribes, and he would crush Berk to the ground. But first, al little test.