Ahoy there! Back and alive with another chapter! I really liked working on this chapter. But alas, writing fan fictions is only something I'm allowed to do in my free time, otherwise I'd constantly be writing my heart out. Stupid school and grown-up responsibilities! And I don't have to act mature if I don't wanna! Wah!

Also, today is a double-whammy just cause I managed to have a stroke of pure writing genius over the weekend!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own How To Train Your Dragon! It belongs to its rightful owners!

Anyways, enjoy!

~o0O0o~

"I dunno Hiccup! It seems a pretty far way down!" Alani called over the wind. Hiccup had taken her and the group to a cliff edge where the wind was strong and there was a straight drop down to the sharp, lethal-looking rocks at the bottom. He had explained that it was here Toothless and he practiced all their tricks in the air such as free falling and the like. Even though Alani and the rest of the gang had absolutely no problems with heights and riding their dragons, being told to go jump off a ledge leading to certain death was, without a doubt, un-nerving.

"No problem! Trust me, its better with a long way down. More time for your dragon to catch you!" he called over the wind that roared in his ears. He watched Alani take a tentative step forward to look over the edge. She squeaked and rushed back to her dragon for comfort. Snotlout decided to go first to impress Alani. Really, the levels of desperation rolling off of this guy almost made you want to pity him. Almost. If you weren't busy laughing at him; which the twins were currently doing.

"Watch this, sweetness," he nudged Alani with his elbow and walked up to the cliff edge, Hookfang in tow.

"Woohoo!" he bellowed, throwing himself off the edge closely followed by Hookfang. Ruffnut growled and handed Tuffnut a small sack of coins. She had bet he wouldn't do it. Even though Tuffnut had bet on Snotlout actually doing it, it still baffled him to see the teen Viking jump from the edge, seemingly without a doubt. Hiccup grinned and urged the other to do the same. Ruffnut and Tuffnut went next, followed by Fishlegs and Astrid. Hiccup grinned boyishly at Alani before running off the edge with Toothless with a happy shout.

Alani watched as the two plummeted towards the rocks speed increasing as they went. After a while, Hiccup made his way through the air, smooth as glass, and re-attached himself to Toothless' saddle. The black dragon's wings shot opened and flew up in the air, hovering in the air above the cliff watching Alani debate doing the dangerous stunt. Spitfire looked like she really wanted to go, wriggling with excitement beside her rider. Ruff and Tuff flew next to Hiccup calling to the frightened red-head.

"C'mon Alani! You can do it!" they encouraged. Alani laughed nervously stepping back, laying a hand on Spitfire's head. The black dragon nodded and the two disappeared into the forest near the cliff. Snotlout flew up to where the others had gathered, scowling when he couldn't find Alani anywhere in sight.

"Hey where's-" he was cut short as Alani, on Spitfire's back, shot out from the trees heading straight for the cliff's side. Her feet were tucked into the strange stirrups; bent over Spitfire's back riding the dragon smoothly, almost flowing like water. The dragons in the air scattered as Spitfire hurdled right off the edge into the open air. Alani pulled her feet from the stirrups and stood on the leaping dragon's back. At the peak of the jump and going along with the momentum, Alani leaped farther into the air. Hiccup and the group gasped as the girl and her dragon began their descent towards Earth.

The wind tore through Alani's hair, pulling the bands that held her hair together, whipping her crimson hair behind her wildly. Spitfire seemed happy to be in the air again, falling through the heavens head-first with her rider. Hiccup laughed and signaled the others to join the falling girl and soon six pairs of teens and dragons were diving through the air. As they got closer to the raging ocean and pointy rocks below, Fishlegs and the twin's pulled out. Next went Snotlout and Astrid. But Hiccup and Alani, the more 'seasoned' riders, kept falling. Alani was laughing joyfully and Hiccup couldn't help but smile at her.

Toothless growled over the wind tearing past his ears. That's right. It took time for him and Toothless to stabilize due to Toothless' and Hiccup's prosthetics. Time they might not have if they didn't pull back. Like now.

"Alright Toothless," Hiccup angled himself and hooked himself back into the saddle. But Alani kept falling.

"Alani!" the boy screamed over the wind, successfully getting the girl's attention. She nodded and flipped over to the dragons back with such ease and grace that Hiccup could only dream of. Alani settled herself in a strange riders' stance; not quite sitting but not quite standing either, and maneuvered Spitfire to the rock pillars below. Hiccup and Toothless followed weaving and dodging between the pillars at breakneck speeds. Alani had been right. The female Night Fury was more agile in the air than Toothless. Alani leaned and turned with her dragon with rapid last minute dodges and daring twirls, reading each other's movements, acting as one entity instead of two. The two emerged from the field of rock pillars and the two Night Furies roared happily. Hiccup laughed and looked over to Alani who was staring into the sunset cheering at the top of her lungs.

Hiccup blinked. It was so sudden he almost missed it. Her eyes! For a split second he could have sworn her sky-blue eyes flashed a vibrant gold. She turned her head, blood-red hair flapping madly in the wind like a flag, and smiled at Hiccup. Her smile radiated so much happiness that Hiccup all but forgot the golden-eyed flash and smiled back.

Hiccup signaled to the rest of the group that had flown over the rock pillars and approached them on their dragons. A few of them roared happily and followed Hiccup and Toothless to a large flat area. Toothless recognized it from his and Hiccup's first successful test flight. All the dragons landed; Alani and Spitfire a little farther from the rest to make room for Spitfire's slightly larger wingspan. As everyone descended from their dragons carefully and as graceful as you could get from a Viking, Snotlout jumped off Hookfang before he even touched the ground, landing with a smack on his face. Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs cringed but Ruff and Tuff snickered behind their hands. Snotlout didn't seem fazed by his *ahem* less than graceful landing and ran over to where Alani was congratulating Spitfire on an awesome performance.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" he screamed, causing Alani to jump and Spitfire to bark in surprise. He didn't notice Alani's grimace of pain as he threw his arms around her and spun her in a circle. Only when Spitfire snarled at him did he let her down grasping the red-head by her shoulders. Her sky-blue eyes were wide with pain and fear and her face had paled to the point where her freckles stood out and her red hair was more vibrant than ever.

"How did you do that?! That thing with the bending, and the turning and the riding and the-"

Astrid's fist made its acquaintance with Snotlout's face, sending him flying back into his dragon, who grumbled out something like a deep, dragon laugh. Ruffnut walked up and slung a protective arm around Alani and made cooing noises.

"Aw poor wittle Awani!" she babbled in baby-talk she'd seen her mother do with a neighbor's brat before turning her steely glare to Snotlout who was picking himself up, "Oi Snoutlout! Don't you know poor young maidens like us have a thing called personal space?" The rough blonde patted Alani's head for emphasis. Tuffnut scoffed.

"You? Maidens? Now we all now Fishlegs' here is more maidenly than any of you. Hell even Bark and Belch here are more maidenly than you are." At this, Barf (or was it Belch?), huffed angrily, snatching Tuffnut up by his collar and shook him a bit before throwing him in front of his sister who glared at him. He sat on the ground swaying slightly before smirking up at Ruffnut.

"See? Way more maidenly than-"

This time Ruffnut's fist made it acquaintance with Tuffnut's face. Astrid beamed evilly at the boy and turned to Alani, who was staring at the ground, face almost as deep as her hair. Hiccup glanced at Astrid and gently tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey what's wrong?"

Alani looked from the ground, to Spitfire, and then finally at him.

"He's warm."

Hiccup blinked.

"What?"

"He's warm. Like really warm. I think he might be sick," she stared at Hiccup. He shot a confused look at Astrid who shrugged. She was just as confused as he was.

"Who, Snotlout? No, he's not sick, I don't think. Hey Snotlout, you sick?" Astrid called to the teen Viking who was laughing at Tuffnut even though he was sporting a rather nice black eye thanks to Astrid.

"Nope! Never been better actually," he walked up to Astrid and wiggled his eyebrows, "Why? You worried 'bout me baby?" he shrunk back at the glare she sent him.

"But you're so warm!" Alani muttered and placed a hand on his forehead.

"See it's really warm! Here, feel that!" she stepped aside as Astrid placed her hand on Snotlout's temple. Before he could enjoy the feel of Astrid's hand; that wasn't punching him, maiming him or hurting him in general, she pulled back frowning.

"He seems normal to me."

Hiccup and Fishlegs both tested Snotlout's forehead with the same results. Nothing was wrong with him. Well, except for the fact that he thought he was god's gift to women and there was absolutely no cure for that.

Alani frowned, concentrating hard. She actually looked kind of cute, her bottom lip stuck out slightly, eyes narrow in concentration and her eyebrows creased slightly in the middle.

"Hold on a sec," she murmured quietly, almost to herself. She reached up and put a hand on Hiccup's brow. She gasped.

"You're warm too!"

She darted over to Astrid and felt her forehead too.

"So are you!"

After a few hectic minutes of Alani feeling everyone's foreheads and declaring them sick, Hiccup caught on.

"Hey Alani? When was the last time you touched a human?"

The girl stopped fussing over a 'sick' Tuffnut and blinked; and blushed.

"I'm not really sure, it's been a long while," she muttered embarrassed. So far, Hiccup's theory was spot on.

"And you've only touched Spitfire and the other dragons since you came here," he observed out loud, "I think I know what's going on. Alani, we're not sick. This is a normal temperature for humans whereas dragons," he glanced at Spitfire briefly, "have a lower core body temperature."

Understanding bloomed on Alani's face and she nodded as if that made sense. Which it did; in its own not-touching-humans-and-only-dragons kind of way. This was strange in itself but after everything Alani had gone through, Sky Serpents chasing her, the Thunder Drum making her pass out, the extensive wounds she'd had and Snotlout's constant flirting (if that's what you'd call it), it was the least of her worries. She must have gotten so used to touching her cold-blooded dragon friend that it became the norm for her. So when she touched a human (or in this case, was touched by Snotlout) they must have felt warm to her. The group made an 'Aha!' noise even though some of the slower ones, namely Tuffnut and Snotlout, didn't quite understand.

Tuffnut laughed and threw an arm over Alani.

"You, just keep getting weirder and weirder. I like it," he whispered the last part before Spitfire nudged him forward and away from her precious rider. Ruffnut giggled.

"Looks like you'll have to impress her mother!" and with that Ruffnut collapsed laughing at her own little joke.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her behavior before shaking his head.

Spitfire huffed quietly, grumbling about being called a mother. How rude! She hadn't even had her first set of eggs yet. And that little sun-haired female with the braids that looked like worms called her a mother? True, Spitfire cared for her little red one more than anything but she wasn't the girl's mother! The female Night Fury hadn't laid Alani's egg and the girl never suckled from her. She continued to grumble as her rider continued conversing with the smart toothpick of a boy and his warrior mate.

"So that's normal for humans?" Alani repeated. Hiccup nodded. She stared at Spitfire who was eyeing Ruffnut evilly, still fuming about the 'mother' comment.

Alani's stomach growled loudly. Hiccup and Astrid laughed and motioned a red-faced Alani to follow them back to Berk for dinner. The sun dipped over the horizon as they landed in the square and they all pushed open the doors to the Great Hall where the festivities where already in full swing.