Sorry it took so long! I went on vacation and still have a lot of homework. :(

Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD.

Enjoy chapter eight!

-Mitti

- - § - -

An unlikely pair was walking through a silver tunnel, their footsteps echoing throughout. Two were dainty yet clumsy, with a caution ringing within them, while another pair was more tired, and even more klutz-like, but that was because of the wooden block being a poor substitute for a foot.

Blizzard had been leading Hiccup through the tunnels for a while now, without speaking, while Hiccup had realized he was getting increasingly hungry and thirsty. His throat was dry, his lips cracked. He tried to ignore them, and kept his forest-green eyes on the figure ahead.

Blizzard had been completely silent directly after she had taken this tunnel. Her mouth seemed clamped shut, and her eyes were burning with a fiery intensity of wariness. Either she did not trust him, or she did not trust what the tunnel had in store. The dragon? His dragon?

The blood redhead was one of the most protective people Hiccup had ever met. She was cautious, wary, yet also a perfectly nice person (in her own way, but nonetheless nice) and a bit of a wildcard.

It was that side of her that reminded Hiccup about Astrid.

He felt guilty tear through him once more, not helping his hunger pains. He had left without saying anything. Astrid might have figured it out, and he guessed she had, after him telling her about the UnderIce dragons and how he wanted to find one. The blonde certainly would be angry at him, but when he returned, Hiccup prayed, she would completely beat him senseless.

He had enough on his mind as it is.

"Blizzard?" Hiccup ventured, hoping to get a response.

Blizzard's shoulders stiffened, but then relaxed. "Yeah?" she slowed her pace just a bit so she was no longer a step in front of Hiccup, but rather right next to him.

Now that she answered, Hiccup had no clue what to say. "Er-"

Abruptly, Blizzard's demeanor changed to one of wariness once again. "Shut up!" she said rather harshly, whipping her arm up and slapping her hand over Hiccup's mouth. His cheeks stung, but he focused on Blizzard's face as it showed confusion, anger, and then fear.

Hiccup had never seen fear light her crystalline eyes. They shocked down to his core; she, for a moment, looked truly terrified. Blizzard did not strike Hiccup as a person of fear.

"Something's coming," she whispered hoarsely to Hiccup, gripping her mirror shard tighter in her left hand. The redhead turned to him, making him wonder why she had said something. "If you have a weapon, better use it now," she said grimly.

"What's in these tunnels besides you and the dragon?" Hiccup asked, confused, but he was soon to find out. However, this was not an unpleasant surprise for him or this thing.

Quite the opposite, to be accurate.

"Toothless!" Hiccup cried, rushing up to his friend. Toothless's pupils were wide with pleasure at finding him, and he smiled his signature toothless smile. "You're here!" the rider said, throwing his arms around the dragon's neck.

Blizzard was standing a few feet away, stunned into silence. Then, slowly, she approached the Night Fury. At sight, Toothless's eyes slowly became menacing, his teeth growing back into his gums.

The redhead took a step back.

"It's okay," Hiccup said to Toothless, extending his hand toward Blizzard. "She's a friend." Blinking, the brown-haired boy realized that's exactly what he had said when Astrid was in this same situation. Well, it was sort of different.

"This is your dragon?" Blizzard's voice was full of curiosity, not fear. Her eyes were gazing at Toothless's red tail-fin. "What happened to him?"

"Long story," Hiccup said, smiling with nostalgia at his long-term friend. "Now we can find the UnderIce dragon easier?"

Toothless grunted in confusion. The teen Viking remembered that his dragon had not been with him in the discovery that there was a white-scaled dragon on this island. "Bud," Hiccup began. "This is Blizzard." Turning to aforementioned girl, he said, "Blizzard, this is Toothless." The girl's pale hand gave a tiny wave.

"There's an UnderIce dragon here," Hiccup said excitedly to his dragon. "Blizzard's known it for a while. Do you mind staying here to look for it?"

Toothless shook his head no, but then opened his mouth and growled pitifully. Hiccup understood the message; his dragon was simply hungry. He was as well, yet he could not be sure Blizzard had food available to them. She seemed thin enough to rarely get any food.

"Hungry?" The blood redhead stepped in politely, and when Hiccup nodded, she smiled without surprise. "We can go up ahead to another cave," she suggested, pointing where Toothless had run in in a timely fashion. "I keep food up there, and I think there's enough for you two." she had said nothing about eating herself.

Hiccup smiled. "Thanks." His newfound friend merely shrugged, quickly taking the lead while the brown-haired boy and Toothless lagged behind. Toothless seemed ecstatic to be with Hiccup again, and it was vice versa for the boy, except for a little bit of apprehension. Or, maybe a better word, concern.

When Toothless had rushed in, he had seemed as if to be running from something. Did he know the UnderIce dragon down here? Yet, then he would have not been so surprised when Hiccup had announced his discovery of said dragon.

Was there something else down here?

- - § - -

"Did you name this cave, too?"

Hiccup had spoken after swallowing a magenta clover flower. Blizzard's diet, he realized, was the main thing that kept her looking so unhealthily skinny; she mainly ate leaves, berries, nuts, and clovers, and very rarely fish. While Toothless ate the scrawny fish she had stored in this new cave they had come upon, Blizzard simply nibbled on a few blackberries.

"Yeah," Blizzard said after thinking. "Even though I don't really ever use them. This one's called Cavern."

"Just 'cavern'?" Hiccup queried.

"Just Cavern," the girl confirmed. "There are a few others I've named too; one's Dimlight, one's Dew, one's Sun. Oh yeah, and one's called Stone."

Not exactly creative, but then again, what was an island girl supposed to call them, living all alone like this for . . .

How long?

"How long have you been here?" Hiccup asked, echoing his own thoughts. "It's seems like you've been here for a while-"

"Yep," Blizzard interrupted hastily. "I've been here for a while. I don't need months or years, no one does when they're all alone." Suddenly more hungry, Blizzard took the remaining three berries from the stony floor and swiped them into her mouth.

The brown-haired boy blinked. Toothless throated a noise that could be somewhat as if saying, Foolin' anyone over there, redhead?

"There's nothing to do really but think when I'm down here," Blizzard said, as if talking to herself as much as Hiccup and Toothless. "I don't really ever need a name, or names for where I stay. I just kinda find a place, sleep there, eat somethin', move on. But I mostly stay in these tunnels."

"How do you get food?" Hiccup asked, still curious about this peculiar girl's way of life.

"There are always a few plants growing in the cracks of the walls," Blizzard responded, pointing to the far edge of the eerily-lit cave. "Maybe there's soil back there, and maybe this silver light keeps 'em going. And don't ask me how there's silver light down here, because I don't know anyways."

Hiccup had considered asking that question, but the way Blizzard guarded herself and basically everything within the tunnels it was pointless trying, so he had kept his mouth shut over that query. Even though she had already guessed he was going to ask it. "But what about the clover?" he asked, pointing to the sad-looking purple flower in front of him.

"There's a bit up top," she replied airily. "It's a rare treat. Same with nuts and berries. Mostly there're just plants, like just clover leaves. I eat whatever I find, and I've been good like that." Blizzard thought for a moment. "And sometimes mushrooms."

She seemed like a vegetarian, but then again, there wasn't much meat on this island anyway. "Don't you ever get hungry?" Hiccup asked, deciding it would be his final question for this "round".

The blood redhead laughed wryly. "I'm always hungry," she answered with a dryness in her voice. "I just ignore it mostly."

- - § - -

"Tell them I am Shadow," the figure hissed in an inhuman voice, making Toothless's wits snap. "And tell the girl to come."

Without a second thought, Toothless bolted from the cave. His mind was whirling . . .

. . . As the dragon turned and fled, Shadow cackled a dark laugh.

"The girl will come! The girl will die!"

- - § - -

Shadow was not a new threat.

In fact, exactly fourteen years ago was when he gave his first exposure to others about his survival.

And, on that night exactly fourteen years ago, five figures met at a small, sparkling oasis that reflected the starry-filled night sky. The moon was no where to be seen, but as the figures crowded around this stone-edged pool, the shimmers within the depths of the water slowly disappeared, leaving the water to be dark, endless.

"What are we to do?" a voice, one that flowed as gently as the wind, asked the others. "True danger is coming upon."

"True danger," a spirit with a thickly voice echoed. "Yes. What shall we do? We must avoid this tragic danger."

"It is unknown, is it not?" asked the figure, whose voice was friendly yet deep. "Can we truly do anything?"

"We must!" Cried the most fragile and delicate figure of them all. "For, what shalt we call ourselves if we cannot help even this!"

The figure with a thick voice turned to the one that had not spoken. "Well?" he prompted the unknown silhouette. "What do you say?"

The silent one stood tall; obviously this one was the leader of the five. "Hm," the voice rang out in a deep pitch, shattering the silence of the oasis by creating cutting ripples. "There is only one thing we can do," the one finally said, looking at each of the other figures with a measured look with black eyes. "To protect everything, we must create Anew."

"Anew?" the fragile one asked; for this one was the newest, and had not yet heard the phrase that eluded yet.

"Anew?!" cried the thick-voiced one. "Are you so very sure?"

"Never surer," the leader one replied evenly. "Now, it is hard, and yes, there will be sacrifices. Yet how else are we to destroy Shadow?"

"Perhaps face him ourselves?" the soft-spoken one replied, but was quickly rebuked by the leader one.

"We cannot! For, what if we lose? Then who is to help the situation? Do not underestimate the power of this Shadowed One."

"How else are we to help?" asked the deep-voiced one.

"We need a mortal."

"Now we're dragging mortals into this?" the fragile one scoffed, only to be glowered at by all. The leader replied in a snapped voice, "You are new. You do not understand the sacrifices that must be made." this made the delicate one shrink back.

The leader one sighed. "Alright. There must be a mortal. But who, and what shall they look like?"

Now, three of those four that were asked did not have an answer. But one, one with a friendly spirit yet a powerful and fierce determination, spoke up. "One with blue eyes," the deep-voiced one said, with sorrow lining the words. "To remember . . ."

"Why this is happening?" the soft-spoken one suggested. "Remember, Friend, we are all in this together. There is much to be faced, yet we must make it through, with these events or not."

The leader looked approvingly at the aforementioned. "Your speech is good," he said to the quiet-speaking one. "Yet beware of what you say for your sides. There is always a wrong choice." to which the quiet one's eyes widened in fear, and that silhouette quickly stayed silent through the rest of the meeting.

"Blue eyes, eh?" the leader said, turning to the deep-voiced one. "Very well."

A hand coming from the outline of the leader one gently touched the surface of the stone oasis. The water was illuminated by a glowing that could not be described as simply "beautiful". No, it was more than that.

It was perfect.

Slowly, quietly, gingerly, a face came upon the water's surface, piece by piece. Occasionally the figures murmured something about how "they should be kind" or "they should be brave", adding to the "to do" list of finding this mortal.

After a short time, for there was time continuing during this point, a true face appeared onto the screen. Eyes that looked like the deepest depths of the ocean; they were a piercing blue, with a fierceness inside yet a kind heart, compassion, and braveness inside. This person had blood red hair, a symbol of what may come to many, and the palest skin to represent a specific creature that was, albeit whiter than this person, going to intertwine destinies forever with the person.

"It is decided," the leader one announced, tapping the oasis water one more time. The water that was not holding the picture of the person glowed brightly, until there was a sudden flash in the heavens above and a new child was conceived to a woman.

And, if Hiccup or Toothless would have been there, they would have been shocked at the picture. It was no mystery to them who it was, yet her having this unruly destiny that was to be forever remembered by her? And possibly them as well?

Yet they were not there; and the duo did not know. Yet they would, and when they did, they would truly see the kind heart, compassion, and braveness of the girl.

This "specific creature" was going to be in her life for quite a while, yes. All the while, it did not mean something good would come out of it. Take the girl, the fiery girl with a stormy spirit, and add the dragon that had glowing silver eyes . . .

Why, you got a blizzard.

Funny how names work out that way.

- - § - -

Oooh!

Strangeness and confusedness!

Tell me what you think; it is appreciated greatly!

-Mitti