Hello everybody; it's good to be back. I haven't quite finished this story but I do have 19 chapters done so I think it's safe to start publishing again. I have mentioned before that this would be my last long dragon story but who knows for sure; it depends on whether or not I can keep my current ideas as shorts, and how I go with my non-dragon stories. Hope you all enjoy this adventure, and I'll try to have the next chapter up by the weekend... and don't forget to review :-D

Act Two: Nautical But Nice
(eight months later)

16 Just a little Hiccup

Very slowly and carefully, the long tube was fitted onto the end of the Yak skin leather bag and then inserted deep inside the crack that ran down the rock wall in the cave under the village. The tube had been developed from a hollow reed by Gobber and Hiccup, along with the valve that was opened a quarter turn before the bag lightly squeezed. A slight hint of green gas seeped out from the rock signalling to Hiccup that enough had been injected and it was time to close the valve once more. Finally he removed the nozzle from the rock and hurried to exit the cave.

"Light it up" he called as he joined his friends around the corner on the rock cliff.

"Okay Flint; let her rip" Gobber ordered the Terrible Terror, who blew a small shot of yellow flame onto the end of the twine; it instantly began to crackle and burn out from behind the rock and into the cave.

What followed after could only be described as dull, yet thunderous and when the last of the pieces of rock had fallen into the bay, and the dust from the explosion had begun to clear, the three person demolition team removed their hands from their ears and arose from their hiding place and stepped forward to admire their handiwork.

"We may need to give it a few minutes but I'd call that one a big success" declared the only member of the team with all her original limbs.

"I heard the explosion" Fishlegs was bouncing with excitement as Hiccup approached "so... did everything go according to plan?"

"You'll be happy to know that your new Nightmare sweat fuse worked a treat" Hiccup informed his friend as he re-entered the village.

"But if you ever get the chance to play around with the mixture, I'd prefer one that burned a little slower; a pace that even Gobber could outrun would be good" Big Freya requested.

"Did it put anyone in danger" Fishlegs asked obviously concerned.

"Oh no lad" Gobber reassured him "we didn't light it until we were all safely outside the cave but it sure was a fast burner."

"Well now that's done, I'd better get back to the workshop" Hiccup declared as he started off.

"Good idea" Freya nodded "you don't want to disappoint my little girl this afternoon."

"And I don't want to upset my fiancé this morning" Hiccup grinned as he hurried off.

"I heard the explosion" Astrid smiled as she looked up from the workbench.

"I think everyone did" Hiccup replied.

"Glad to see you still have one good leg."

"Ha ha, very funny" he said as she poked out her tongue at him "how goes the saddle."

"Almost ready for the party, but I'd like you to look at the pins on the stirrups; I think they need to be a thicker gauge."

"She is a growing girl I suppose" Hiccup nodded "and she won't be getting any smaller. Did you get a chance to have a fitting with Swiftwing?"

"A quick one; I asked Little Freya to take Stormfly down to the beach so she could bathe and feed herself. She almost took Swiftwing with her as well, till I pretended that I'd be lonely here without a dragon around. The spacing across the shoulders is perfect, so I think we'll have it ready by... WAA-HEY!"

Without any warning at all, Astrid was hoisted off the ground and soon found herself sitting precariously on Stoicks left shoulder.

"How's my daughter in law today?" the huge Viking cried out with glee.

"Err... fine Chief" she giggled "at least... I was."

"How many times do I have to tell you, call me Dad."

"But that's what I call my real father... makes it rather confusing don't you think?"

"How about Pop then?" Stoick suggested.

"Considering that we're not married yet" Hiccup pointed out "Chief still seems appropriate to me."

"Oh you can't leave these things till the last minute son, she needs time to get used to it all.

"WE'RE NOT GETTING MARRIED FOR ANOTHER TWO YEARS AT LEAST" Hiccup insisted "how long do you think she's gonna need?"

"Oh your spoilin' me fun Hiccup" Stoick chuckled "do you have any idea how happy this engagement has made me?"

"Look Dad, I'm happy that you're happy, but we've been engaged for months now; almost a year, so you've got to settle down. Now if you've got nothing urgent to say, Astrid and I have to finish off Little Freya's present, and then get ready to leave tomorrow morning."

"Actually son, that's why I came to talk with you" Stoick put Astrid back down as he finally came to the point "it's about our trip to Elydonia."

"What about it Dad?" Hiccup asked.

"I was having a drink with Spitelout last night and he was asking me to raise a mug to Ivar on his behalf at the memorial. Well I got to thinking about it last night, how he and Ivar were such good friends, Godfathers to each other's children, and shipmates back in the days when we still had a fleet."

"The new ships are coming along Dad."

"Aye son, but what I'm saying is that I'm going to tell Spitelout that he can come to Ivar's memorial too; I'm sure that's what he really wants."

"Fair enough; so who's gonna be in charge while your... oh."

"Do you mind son?"

"I was looking forward to seeing everyone in Bolthorn and Staggshund again" Hiccup admitted "but I suppose we can always go there for a week next summer."

"And besides Chief" Astrid added "it will give me and Hiccup a chance to catch up with some of the things we've been putting off".

"Like designing the racing saddles and building the obstacle course" Hiccup nodded.

"Ah... well there's another thing" Stoick looked guilty.

"You still want Astrid to go with you, don't you?" Hiccup stared at his father accusingly.

Stoick did not answer, he only grinned sheepishly at his son. When Stoick left the forge a few minutes later, Astrid ran after him and spoke quietly.

"Hey Chief, I was wondering if you could do me a favour? If I'm leaving with you in the morning..."

"Say no more Astrid; I think I might spend the night in the old fishing shack... and I think I'll take Toothless with me."

"Thanks... Dad." She smiled.

Little Freya did not know it yet, but her seventh birthday party was going to be her most exciting to date; her previous birthday was her first with her own dragon, but this would be her first as a Dragon Rider. She had been waiting very impatiently for Swiftwing to grow strong enough to carry her and had even employed a rather strange method of training and testing her young Nadders abilities. Freya's mother had told her time and time again that she should not try and sit on Swiftwings back when the dragon was too small to carry the young girl because she could do the growing dragon permanent damage, so the enterprising little lady had come up with a different method to test her dragons growing strength.

Little Freya spent many weeks training Swiftwing to hover with a short length of wood in her talons and when they had perfected that trick, Freya started holding on to the wooden bar and encouraging Swiftwing to lift her off the ground. At first it was only a few inches for a few seconds but as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, Swiftwing grew bigger and stronger allowing the two friends to take short trips across open ground. Around the same time, Fishlegs had been given the task of training Little Freya, as well as her friends Orr and Tofa on the finer points of dragon care and control. Even though all three children had pet Nadders (Stormfly's offspring from the first Dragon Snoggletog), all of Hiccup's team of Dragon Riders agreed that Meatlug was the best dragon for training beginners... well... almost all; Snotlout and Gustav of course, were both of the opinion that nothing could beat a Nightmare, even if they did catch fire when spooked.

"I find it hard to believe I use to cradle you in my arms only a year and a half ago" Astrid petted the young dragon's neck.

Even thought Swiftwing was sitting down, the dragon had grown so much that she had to drop her head to get close to Astrids face which was why she was outside Big Freya's house with her siblings Firebeard and Sunshine; three young dragons inside a house at the same time was never a good idea, especially when there was a child's birthday party going on. All three Nadders were now only a few feet shorter than their proud mother who sat down with them soon after Astrid had dismounted, but it would only be another several months before they were all as big as Stormfly.

Inside the house, Little Freya and her friends were busy feeding their faces with all their favourite foods, while wearing special foliage covered celebration helmets on their heads, when the front door flew open and three more people entered the room.

"Chief!" Little Freya jumped up from the table in surprise "I didn't do it... honestly."

In Little Freyas defence, her reaction was quite fitting for a number of reasons; one was that the High Chief of Berk never made a habit of going to children's birthday parties, and another was that he regularly had to scold Little Freya for 'Borrowing' other peoples dragons (usually a Nadder) without telling them.

"You can relax Freya" the Chief grinned at the effect that his presence was having "I'm here to give you some good news, but first..."

Stoick stepped back allowing Hiccup and Astrid to bring forward the saddle they had made for Swiftwing."

"It's not really a birthday present" Hiccup admitted as Freya and her friends hurried over to touch the impressive gift "We're working on a couple more for Tofa and Orr as well but we wanted to give this to you today because of Chief Stoicks news."

"What is it sir?" Freya asked wide eyed.

"As you know, tomorrow morning I am leading half of the village on a trip to Elydonia for..."

"YOU MEAN I CAN GO TOO?" Stoick was very disappointed that he did not get to finish his announcement, but he did understand Little Freya's excitement.

"Hiccup and Astrid tell me that your dragon is definitely strong enough to make the journey and your mother says that you have changed your dragon stealing ways, so..."

"Oh I have sir" Freya bounced excitedly "I promise never to borrow a dragon without permission ever again."

"Don't get to far ahead of yourself" Stoick warned "remember there'll be two days, two long days of riding and the second day will be over open ocean with no lunch stop and no rest breaks so you will have to make sure that you don't push your dragon too hard by playing around with dives and loops; just let her glide straight and level so she doesn't get too tired. It's bound to get very boring, so... are you sure you want to go?"

Early the next morning half of Berk gathered with their dragons in the centre of the village making the final preparations to leave.

"I don't understand it" Stoick wondered "Stormfly is saddled, packed and ready to go but where's Astrid?"

"Probably in a dark little corner somewhere with a certain special someone" Ruffnut grinned.

"Ah... well is anyone else missing?"

"Just the Freya's" Olvor informed the Chief "I'm told the little one wants to take too much gear with her and is overloading even her mother's dragon."

"Considering how strong Cuddles is, she definitely needs to pare it back somewhat" Stoick agreed.

Swiftwing and Cuddles arrived a short time later with Little Freya looking very red faced after a long argument with her mother.

"Good to see you ready at last" Stoick smiled at the taller of the two Freya's.

"I'm glad we didn't tell my daughter about the Sharktooth and the Mighty Pigg sailing out from Lookout Island; if she knew that there would be opportunities for a rest stop on day two, then she would have wanted to take even more of her stuff. She even asked me if we could get a couple of Pack Dragons to carry her bed. Honestly Stoick, you should have heard her yelling at me that Skywolf didn't have a rider so he could help carry it. I ended up telling her that if she couldn't live without her bed, then maybe she wasn't ready for such a trip; that shut her up."

"I know, I know... kids today huh? Which reminds me...ASTRID!" Stoick boomed "ARE YOU PLANNING TO JOIN US SOMETIME THIS WEEK?"

Everyone laughed loudly when Stoicks future daughter in law hurried out of a small laneway next to the Thorston home, still trying to fix her hair and straighten her clothes while a grinning Hiccup wandered along a few paces behind her.

"Don't worry Hiccup" Snotlout called from Hookfang's back "I'll keep her safe from harm."

"And we'll keep her safe from Snotlout" Ruffnut grinned while Fishlegs and Tuffnut nodded in agreement.

"Why don't any of you trust me?" Snotlout huffed.

"Do you really want us to answer that?" Fishlegs smirked.

"It won't be too long Astrid" Stoick put his arm around her shoulder "you can fly home next week after all the ceremonies; you don't have to sail back with the rest of us."

"Thanks Chief, but I won't leave you with a job half done."

Stoick laughed proudly as he lifted Astrid into her saddle and then approached his own dragon; the dragon he had been caring for since Ivar's death.

"Ready to go Viper?" he petted the dragons flank before hoisting himself into the saddle.

Not too far away, it was a different Nightmare that was drawing Fishlegs attention.

"Look at Skywolf" he noted to Astrid "He looks very eager to get back to Sigrid in Elydonia."

"I'll be very interested to see how the new Bolthorn Castle Dragon Stables are coming along" she replied "it will be a shame to lose Skywolf but at least we won't have to take turns dragon-sitting anymore."

Half of Berk waved goodbye to the other half of Berk as Stoick and Viper led the mighty wyre out over the ocean; Hiccup sighed as he watched them go with memories still fresh of the night before. As he stood there, he felt a presence standing nearby even though he could not see anything.

"Good morning Ghost" he greeted the Changewing.

During Ghosts time living on Berk, Hiccup and the younger Dragon Riders had discovered something very strange and interesting about him; like all well trained dragons, he responded well to both spoken commands and visual signals, but he also demonstrated a particularly unique ability to follow orders given by a Viking who could simply concentrate in their mind on what it was that he or she wanted the dragon to do. Unfortunately though, most Vikings found it very hard to concentrate on anything at all, but it only took practice so in time even Snotlout and Little Freya had some successes in controlling the dragon in this strange way. What they did not know of course, was the only difference between Ghost and every other Changewing was Dylan the psychic spider who lived on the dragons head imparting the messages directly into Ghost's mind.

"Don't worry, she'll be back in less than a month, but hey... you can go too if you like."

The dragon made himself visible and purred at Hiccup. The spider on his nose contemplated what his leader had just said and decided that Hiccups friends must be protected at any cost; and so resplendent in his beetle shell armour and dragonfly skull helmet, Dylan the Arachnid Viking ordered Ghost to take to the skies while vowing to honour the traditions of Berk with his sword (a new one made from a small metal pin) and his life. Hiccup probably would have found it both comforting and inspiring... if he only knew.

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Please allow 1000 years for delivery, or specify if you wish to pick up your ZG 1000 kit from Gobbers store on Berk (If you can find it).

Thanks Sarnakh for the idea.