Welcome to Chapter 2... This will be much longer, as in at least two thousand words.

ASTRID

Night was closing in. A cold night, but it wasn't so cold as to ruin our plans. Another ride on Toothless. I'm not saying it isn't fun, it is. But there is little else we can do on this island without the other teens seeing us together. I guess we're still both rather shy, but it'll come naturally some day. As I walked through the village, I caught sight of Gobber in the Blacksmith's/Dragon Dentists. He was fixing up a Zippleback that had got its two sets of teeth caught up with the other. A pair of screech caused me to jump as Gobber forced the heads apart.

"Ther' we are!" he shouted triumphantly, "Now next time Ah see yer, I don't want yer to be in that stat' again!" The Zippleback's heads nodded glumly, then the beast turned and plodded away. Shaking his head, Gobber turned my way.

"Ahh! Astrid how luvly to see yer." I smiled, but kept walking.

"Evening Gobber. BarfBelch being like Ruff and Tuff again?" I laughed and stopped.

"Heh-heh, just like their owners, they're like those Thorsten twins and will fight over th' silliest thing..." he paused, "You won't find him that way."

"Find who?" I mused, somewhat playfully.

"Hiccup!" he roared, "He's over at Raven Point with that Night Fury of his. Waiting fer you I should think." He grinned, his false tooth glinting in the moonlight.

"Its hard to believe that this time last year, you wouldn't even have considered him being th' man made for ya!" That made me think. Oh how I would've been berated for going out with the village failure. Never any good at anything, but I have to admit it, he was pretty good-looking. He was and still is, a bit scrawny, but I'm quite thin aswell. Plus, how could anyone have known he was capable of far more?

"Well Astrid, I won't keep yer any longer. Can't keep Hiccup waitin'! Have a good night Lass!"

"Good Night!" I called back and, with a grin, turned away.

Toothless noticed me first. He must've caught my scent. He kinked his head and faced me. His pupils went from slits to big pools of black as he realised who I was. He turned and bounded over to me. He jumped and landed on me, both of us crashing to the floor. Toothless was overcome with joy, as if he had last seen me years ago and licked me contentedly.

"Hey Buddy! You only saw me a couple of hours ago!" I laughed, his rough tongue tickling my nose, "Stoooooop! You're gonna make me sneeze! You don't want snot in your mouth do you!" That's when he stopped. Not even a Typhoomerang would want that in its mouth. Fazed by the prospect of a snotty face, Toothless got off me and finally I could get up. I giggled, patted his head and turned to Hiccup.

My heart skipped a beat as we met eye-to-eye. I felt myself blushing, but then again, so was he. Neither of us expected to be together. He took my hand and kissed me tentatively on the cheek.

"Evening M'Lady." he whispered lightly in my ear. He knows I like that! It gives me goosebumps everytime! He looked into my eyes once again and smiled, "Shall we get going?" He already knew the answer and was already guiding me towards Toothless by the time I said a faint lovestruck 'Yes'.

TOOTHLESS

"Hey Buddy! You only saw me a couple of hours ago!" Well yes of course, but you haven't ridden me for weeks friend Astrid.

"Stoooooop! You're gonna make me sneeze! You don't want snot in your mouth do you!" Oops. I forgot humans have hairy noses... well at least hairy on the inside. Okaaaayyyy, I won't you anymore. I'll let you get up and snog Hiccup. Whatever snog means. Is it part of that holiday? I felt a weight on my back. I turned my head slightly and looked back. Astrid was there, holding onto my harness. I watched Hiccup get up and heard his false leg click into place. He near hugged Astrid to place his hands on the harness.

"Ok bud, let's go." I nodded, looked ahead, spread out my wings and took off. A slight tug on my tail told me my prosthetic was open and I could fly without falling out of the sky because the of imbalance that plagued me. Something kept nagging me though. Something was going to go wrong...

HICCUP

We dove through the clouds, skimmed the seas and went where Vikings rarely went. At night, Berk looked incredible. The village lit up like a beacon. It would guide us home. Toothless through the mist that covered the rocks, but not through the formations themselves, which is good. I don't think Astrid and I really want to come home covered in lunch. I manoeuvred my foot in the stirrup and it clacked to another position. We darted up through the cloud layer, the last vestiges of sunlight draining away. Astrid turned around to face me, hiking her leg's over tothe opposite sides of the dragon beneath.

"It's just as beautiful as the first time we came up here. I don't think I'll ever grow tired of it. Thank you Hiccup," She hugged me tightly, "That's for the date..." She pulled away and gazed into my eyes, the warm blue iris's surrounding the pools of her pupils. She pulled me closer and I had to let go of the harness to take the back of her neck. When our lips met, I felt complete. I felt so completely giddy as well I didn't want it to end and I felt lonely again when she broke off,

"And that's for everything else." She closed her eyes and nestled her head against mine, resting her chin on my shoulder, her sensuas blonde hair flicking into my face. It was then I noticed Toothless bucking and belting, a screech of dismay emanating from his mouth. I thought he was losing control, so I clicked my foot into another position and went to take hold of the harness again, but Astrid's grip got uncomfortably tighter.

"Hey Assstrid, too... tight!" I moaned. Her reply chilled my spine... well I say chilled, it deep froze.

"Look behind you." A whisper, strangled through fear and right next to my ear. I pulled away enough to see Toothless's head looking behind and Astrid's blue eyes wide with shock and fright, an orange glow lighting up her face. When I looked behind, I saw why and could only, but copy her expression.

TOOTHLESS

After a smooth flight over scenic areas, I sensed Hiccup was going to call it. I slowly started banking towards Berk. A slow, but incessant buzzing filled my ears. I shook my head and carried on. It didn't solve it, it just became higher pitched. I shook my head violently, but it just got higher and louder. It seemed to be coming from behind us, so I looked that way. It was coming from behind us. A small point of orange light followed us and it seemed to be getting bigger. On closer inspection, it turned out to be fire. A Monstrous Nightmare? Was Hookfang mucking about? No whatever it was, it was closer than I thought. Far too close. It was right behind us! It was still getting bigger, when it then branched out into three distinct fiery spokes. They suddenly started spinning around and then another three spokes appeared behind the first and began spinning the opposite way. Whatever by the Red Death this thing was, it seemed to want to kill us. I tried to dive away, but I needed to make Hiccup allow me to turn as my tail was in the wrong position! I bucked and screeched. He noticed and felt that familiar tug. But I couldn't but watch the spinning flames of death behind us grow ever longer... longer? More branches, two going straight out. But I was snapped out of the stupor by a loud, continuous roar. A thrum, thrum, thrum of terror. Finally Hiccup took my harness again.

"Let's get outta here Buddy NOW!" I didn't need to be told twice.

ANDERS

The flames died down almost as soon as they had engulfed me. I was strangely, unhurt. Although the flames had caused my eyes to become unused to the darkness that once again fell upon my eyes, I swear I saw a dark shape flit across the stars. It was then I realised that it was night. The dogfight had been during the daytime. Had I blacked out and been flying aimlessly for hours? Impossible, there was no black. The aircraft shuddered. The flames that hadn't hurt me, had obviously hurt the big Griffon engine. Licks of flame sputtered from the exhausts and the propellers would momentarily stop even now and then. Whatever the hell had happened, Maja had had it for now at least. I looked around and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw lights on the ocean nearby. I was slightly stumped as to where I was, it being dark and all, but I swear I could make out the tall peak of Berk. It doesn't matter. Lights mean somewhere to land. I made my way to the lights, but Maja was struggling now. I opened the canopy and patted the big V-12's cowling.

"Easy girl. Not far now." I said soothingly to Maja's failing heart. As if in shame at having failed me, the Griffon engine lost even more power and I instinctively knew we wouldn't make the lights. Apparently my brain subconsciously knew it was Berk, as I scanned the landscape for a small inshore lake. An odd patch of moon light reflected up at me. There! I lowered the flaps and lowered the throttle and gently nursed Maja to the surface. Sweat beaded on my face. The minutes seemed like hours. Without warning, the engine seized gave up the ghost, died. The props slowed and halted. The agonizingly slow descent was suddenly nerve-racking. The lake looked close enough to touch! I heard a noise. Water breaking! I grabbed the dashboard as my head was thrown forward in the impact. There was a dull THUD! and then nothing.

ASTRID

We watched the strange thing crash into Toothless's cove. Water flew up into the air and rained back down. There was only one thing on my mind. I turned to Hiccup and spoke my mind, "We have to heck that thing out."

ERICH

Herr Kapitan was adamant. With Berk in our grasp and Iceland in reach, we would devise a way to follow that Spitfire... the one that flown in flames.