Hello again everyone! sorry for the long wait for this chapter! There may only be a few more chapters left after this one :( But I thank you for the reviews! they have been very helpful and appreciated :) Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Time waits for no man... or Viking

Astrid awoke and yawned whilst stretching her arms out high above her head and looked over to StormFly who was already up and eating something or other.

"Hang on your never up early... oh no... It's the middle of the day! StormFly! Why didn't you wake me up?" The dragon just simply looked at her with half a rabbit's body hanging out of its mouth and then threw it at her feet indicating for her to eat it. "You went to get food? Oh well that's just great isn't it. Common lets go we have already wasted half the day let's not waste the rest."

StormFly got to her feet and stretched out her legs whilst Astrid attached on all the supplies to the dragons back. The two took off in the direction where the light had shown them.

After about an hour of riding the pair soon reached their long awaited destination. The light had touched the top of a hill where a small crystal resided upon a tall wooden tree trunk like staff. It was rooted into the ground and looked very old.

"It seems the light stopped here..." Astrid said as she indicated for the dragon to land on the hill side.

The light stayed in the crystal that was mounted on the wooden stand. Astrid walked around the glowing object and pulled out the piece of parchment from her pocket. "Hmmm... What next...we have done the first step, so the next must be to go up, up, up over the hill and reach the river where the water will spill."

Astrid folded up the paper and returned it back to her pocket and began looking for the river... but there was none? There was no water there was no river bed to follow. "There is not River!" Astrid announced as she became frustrated and angry. She walked round the hill up and down it countless times and yet there was still nothing close to a river or even a stream.

"UGH! NOTHING! There is no river!" She cried as she slumped to the ground leaning against the sceptre. "Oh Hiccup I have failed you..." StormFly walked over to her rider and tried to comfort her with a small nuzzle under her neck allowing her to latch on and begin to cry. Tears streamed down her face hitting the ground.

But what she had not noticed was that with every tear that hit the ground the crystal grew brighter until StormFly noticed this and tried to make Astrid aware of it. "What's w-wrong StormFly?" she snivelled taking in sharp breaths to try and compensate for the lack of air she had been getting due to the tears. She nudged her and began making small gowns in the direction of the crystal making her turn round.

"What's going on?" As if on cue a small dripping noise could be heard... as is underneath the mountain. "Can you hear that? StormFly be quiet and listen." They both ceased making any noises and listened, when a small rumbling began beneath their feet. Astrid shot to her feet and backed away from the crystal as it grew brighter and brighter. Suddenly the parts of the hill began to sink turning into a long stair case that descended into the Hill.

"Look... but we didn't find the stream?..." Then it hit her she realised that her tears were the river, the water did spill just not from the hill, but from her eyes. It was a test to see whether she truly worthy to get to the flower.

"Quick! Before it closes" The two rushed down the stairs reaching an open cave where the dripping noise resumed. The stairs began to close up and sealed them into the underground cave.

The cave it's self was large and had rare flowers blooming on the moist cave walls that grew up like vines across the dripping ceiling. A rushing water sound grew louder the further the pair walked deeper into the cave.

"StormFly! Don't eat that! You don't know what it might do, for all you know it could be poisonous!" StormFly shot a look of worry at Astrid with some of the plant hanging out of her mouth and quickly spat it out and hurried along to her to catch up. By now the sound of running water had become even louder and the potent smell of mossy fresh water filled their noses. They soon came across the small underground river at the edge of the cave. A small path could be found next to it allowing them to walk beside the river as it trickled through the cave.

Astrid retrieved the parchment once again from her pocket and read out the next instruction. "Track the water to the hall where you will find the greatest gift of them all...Hmm well I suppose we just follow this river until we reach the hall." She looked at StormFly with a worried look. It felt as though they had been travelling for hours, the cave was very long, at one point Astrid thought that the river wouldn't end.

They reached the end of the cave where a stone door was centred in the middle of the wall. It seemed as though the river vent under the stone floor of the cave. She opened the door with great difficulty as it was very heavy and had to request the help of her dragon.

What they saw was Magnificent, Gold coated every crack and crevice of the hall, gold coins lay on the stone floor, with trinkets and goblets made of the precious metal were piled high to the ceiling. The hall was long and was being held up but large pillars that lead to the ultimate gift. The Flower.

"Ok StormFly... DONT TOUCH ANYTHING because If we touch anything the flower will die. The last bit of the instructions says to 'Remember to only take as much as you need, because greed is wrong and will destroy the seed.' So we only need the flower and that is all we need not gold. Ok?"

The dragon nodded and gave out a little noise to say she understood. "Ok you wait here and I'll go get the flower, because no offense StormFly but you has massive feet." StormFly shot Astrid an angry, shocked look and seemed insulted but she soon forgot about it and waited patiently.

Astrid carefully walked past the mountains of gold and kept her eyes on the target. As she grew closer she began to think about hiccup at home. Poor boy, she wished it had never happened. But she would deliver the petal as soon as she was out of here.

She approached the Flower and gently picked a petal of the black and white coloured petals. She placed it into her small bag for safe keeping. "Maybe I should take one more just to be on the safe side..." She repeated the process and placed the petal in her bag. Then the room began to shake. She had taken too much and was greedy causing the hall to break and collapse.

"StormFly! Quick come here!" She shouted there was no way out. But then she saw light come through the ceiling. She had an idea. Climbing onto her dragons back she tried to doge the falling pieces of rock that nearly crushed them. "Common StormFly! You can do this" StormFly dodged each falling chunk of stone and saw the light of the sun stretch down and hit them both in the eyes. Rocks and shrapnel pounded Astrid all over her body which she knew would become horrible bruises later on.

They finally made it out alive. Astrid looked back at the destruction and the hill that had collapsed behind them. They were both glad to be alive and not they had to make sure that Hiccup would stay alive. If they didn't not get to him soon than he would surly die. They had a day left and that was cutting it short. It had taken them a day to get to the stone map table and a few hours to get here. They had to act fast, otherwise all this would have been in vain.

"Gobber, how's Hiccup doing?" asked Stoick as he walked into Hiccups room who was surrounded by Gobber and the healer.

"He's not doing well. He's stone cold and very pale. He doesn't seem to be responding anymore" Replied Gobber who checked hiccups pulse just to make sure he was still alive.

"He does not seem to be doing well. Astrid should be back with the flower petal any moment now..." Said the healer who had a hopeful look across her face.

"Oh Hiccup, I nearly lost you once, I don't want to lose you again son." Stoick held Hiccups hand and placed his forehead on the bed. There was nothing he could do for his son and it made him feel terrible. It was all down to weather Astrid could get here in time, and the chances of that were slimming...

Thanks for reading and I hope to read your reviews for this chapter! thanks again and I will be writing the next chapter very soon :)