A/N-I've had a couple guesses as to where the gang ended up, which is nice, and one person did in fact guess correctly, so congratulations! For the rest of you, the answer lies below.

Chapter 4

Welcome to…. Where?!

As the castle loomed larger and larger ahead of us, and we began to descend toward the ground, a realization suddenly hit me.

"Hey, Hiccup?" "Yeah?" "Would it be a problem if another passenger joins you?" Hiccup glanced up at me with confusion, before my conclusion registered to him as well, and shook his head. "No, I don't mind, but you really should ask the one who would be carrying you," he replied, patting Toothless on the neck. The dragon just snorted. ::And why would I have a problem? Just don't poke me with the swords,:: he drawled. I glided down carefully just above Toothless and shrunk down to my normal self, keeping the wings until I had actually set down on Toothless' back behind Hiccup. Once I was sure I wouldn't slip off, the wings folded away as well, and I grabbed the saddle.

"I don't want to scare them any more than the dragons probably already will," I chuckled. Hiccup snorted. "Well, let's hope we don't scare them too bad. I don't want to be trying to fight off a castle full of people."

The castle wasn't actually on the mainland, but set on the cliff-side of a small island just offshore, jutting into the bay. A large bridge arced over the narrow channel of water and connected it to a large, open field on the edge of the mainland. As we neared within easy viewing of the castle, I watched as guards along the tops of the walls began hustling about, taking positions around entrances and some running inside, presumably to alert whoever lived there. "Well, at least they're normal sized this time," Thuggory commented nearby. "Doesn't mean they're friendly though," Hiccup noted back.

Nevertheless, we all slowly glided down and landed in the open field, some distance away from the end of the drawbridge. As everyone dismounted from the dragons, Hiccup, Toothless and I walked to the front of the group, and waited. Soon enough, the gate to the castle opened up, and a group of armored men on horseback came riding out and across the bridge toward us. They stopped and observed us about 20 feet away from where we stood. However, they weren't acting too overly friendly, so I discreetly placed a hand on the hilt of a sword, just in case.

"Foreigners! May I ask who you are, and what your business is here?" the man in the middle of the group called out. He was the most ornately dressed, with decorative lacing on his sleeves and weapons, but not overly so. Hiccup stepped forward. "My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, son of Chief Stoick the Vast of the Hairy Hooligan Viking tribe," he introduced himself, before gesturing toward the east. "We are an explorative group, coming from past the ocean on the other side of the mountains bordering the west side of this place."

The man nodded slowly. "I see. We have never had visitors from beyond the mountains anywhere. Are all of these people with you on this exploration?" Hiccup nodded, and pointed casually toward me and the rest of the gang. "They are my friends, Hawken, Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Camicazi, Thuggory, and Ruffnut and Tuffnut. We are not all of the same tribe, but we were chosen to take this mission together." The man nodded again and chuckled.

"Interesting names you have, I must say," he said, smiling. "If you are here on none other than an exploratory mission, then welcome." He gestured to himself. "I am Caspian, king of this land, from the northern Mountains to the edge of the southern desert." He dismounted his horse and approached us, hand outstretched. Hiccup took his hand first and shook it, then me. "You are the first people I have encountered who ride what I assume are dragons, too," he said. Hiccup chuckled. "Yes, well, it's not something common in the rest of the world," he replied.

As the two of them spoke, I watched Caspian, and something struck a chord. "You…look familiar," I said, gesturing to him, "like I've seen you from somewhere before." Caspian turned to me and raised an eyebrow. "I don't see how that can be," he said. "We've only just met, and I certainly don't remember you. Like I said before, you are the first people that we have even seen from beyond the western mountains." I shook my head and smiled sheepishly. "I know. You probably just look like someone I know. I just can't shake the feeling, that's all."

"Newcomers, eh?" a new, very familiar voice then spoke. I looked around, but saw no one new, and none of the guards had spoken. "Where did they say they were from again, Caspian?" it said again. I glanced at the king, who nodded toward the ground beside him. I glanced down, following his gesture, and nearly choked on the breath I sucked in, as did the rest of the teens behind me.

Standing there on two legs, with a thin belt around his waist attached to a sword, and a gold ring decorated with a red feather around one ear, was…well, a large mouse. He glanced up at me as I took a step backward in shock.

"Are you alright, sir?" the mouse asked, a touch of worry painting his features. I swallowed and tried to speak, but the words I had died on my tongue. I tried again, and managed to get out a shaky, "Is… is your name…uh, Reep…Reepicheep, by any chance?" The mouse cocked his head curiously. "Yes, yes it is, but how would you know that?" he asked. "We've never met."

I took another step back and raised my hand to rub the side of my head, which was starting to feel a little light. "Uh, Caspian," I said quietly, "I did not ask this before, but, uh… does this land have a particular name, by any chance?" The pieces suddenly were falling together, why I felt like I already knew this place, everything fitting way too easily: the matching landscape, the large talking mouse at our feet, and a young king named Caspian. I had already seen one book-turned-movie come to life, but two? In the same world? It was starting to hurt.

"We call this place Narnia," Caspian replied confusedly. "But I don't see what is such a big deal about…." He trailed off at about the same time my vision began to swim. That was the last piece of the puzzle, confirming the ridiculous thought I had formed in my head. I felt myself sway back and forth a little, and managed to get out a very odd, giddy sounding, "So I have seen you before!" before everything blacked out and I collapsed backward.

Caspian watched, a little put off and worried, as the boy fell backward, only to be caught by the black dragon standing behind him and the other skinny teen, before turning toward Hiccup, who also watched with reserved concern. "Um, does he do that often?" Caspian asked. Hiccup blinked and looked away from his friend. "Uh, not-not usually. It usually means there's something he knows that we don't, and we're all in for a big surprise later, though." He looked around. "Maybe there's more to this place than my friends and I bargained for."

Caspian crossed his arms in thought, but couldn't make out much sense of what the boy had just said. He shrugged it off and smiled. "Well, we can figure it out later. Please, come with me," he invited, turning toward his horse. "We'll see if we can help wake your friend back up and get all of this straightened out."

The gang followed Caspian and his men toward the castle, all of them cautiously watching the talking mouse they had just met. Reepicheep noticed and chuckled, turning to look at the motley crew. "I don't see how I'm the interesting one when you all are the-uh, what did you say, 'Vikings?'-who came riding in from past the mountains on what appear to be dragons," he mused. The teens blinked and blushed at being caught, and Astrid shook her head. "Sorry, uh, sorry. We're just not used to, uh, animals being able to talk back," she explained sheepishly. She gestured to Thorn, who was hovering protectively over her shoulder. "We've been around dragons our whole lives."

Reepicheep cocked his head up curiously as he stared up at the reptiles. "The dragons around here are rarely so tame," he commented, "usually keeping to themselves." He shrugged and smiled again. "Ah, well, no worries as long as they don't try to eat any of us," he half-joked. What he wasn't expecting was the dragons all starting to belt out their own version of laughing as Stormfly looked down at the mouse over Cami's shoulder. "Mice aren't on the menu, mostly just fish. You have no need to worry about us," she said teasingly. Reep did a double take as he was addressed by the dragon, as Caspian glanced over his shoulder and smirked. "I see we're all full of surprises today, aren't we?" he mused.

As Caspian's men took Hawken to one of the nurses in the castle (after much convincing of Toothless, who was being protective of his friend), Caspian himself and Reepicheep (of course) engaged in conversation with the teens in a large roomy hall in the building.

"Now, from what I gathered you all are from three separate villages, or tribes, you said," Caspian spoke as he gestured to the teens, "but what about that other boy, Hawken?" he looked at Hiccup directly. "If it weren't for the clothes that I know are not like yours at all, I would have said he almost looks like your brother." There were a few "uh"s and some averted eyes, no one quite sure how to broach that subject, before Cami responded slowly.

"He probably wouldn't like us telling anyone where he comes from, he usually prefers doing that himself," she explained. "It can be a bit, er, hard to swallow, so it would probably be best to wait for him to wake up before asking that."

Caspian sighed in response. "Well, from what the nurse told me, that may be anywhere from a few minutes, to a couple hours before he rouses again," he said. "Can I at least inquire as to what it may have been that made him pass out? He seemed rather shaken by both me and Reepicheep." Everyone just shrugged. "Hawken seems to know a bit more about a lot of things than the rest of us do," Astrid replied. "It has to do partly with where he comes from, and the things he can do." Caspian raised an eyebrow, but decided not to try and pursue the subject further just yet. Reepicheep, however…

"He's not a wizard or something, is he?" the mouse asked, climbing up on the armrest of a chair. There was silence for a moment, before the teens started laughing. "Don't let him hear you say that," Cami giggled. "He'd have a fit!" "He's not a wizard, far from it," Hiccup explained. "He's really not too much different from us, there's just some… special qualities about him." "Yeah, you should see him fight!" Tuffnut butted in, before getting elbowed by his sister.

Stormfly, who was laying nearby on the carpets that covered the floor, looked up. "He often acts as a liaison between the other dragons and people, when I'm not there," she said. Cami glared at her dragon, thinking she had said too much, as Caspian looked curiously over at the mood dragon. "Are you the only dragon that can speak?" Stormfly nodded. "Other than a few other rare species, yes." "Luckily for us," Camicazi retorted. Chuckles escaped the Vikings as Stormfly turned beet red. "You're not funny," she griped. Cami just gave her a deadpan look. "I disagree."

"So, he can speak to dragons?" Reepicheep queried. "In a way," Hiccup replied. "That's all he'd really want us to say." "Hmm," hummed the mouse. "Quite the mysterious one then, your friend is, isn't he?" "When he wants to be," Astrid replied. "But he's a good person to have around, a very good friend." There was a moment of awkward silence as no one had anything more to really say on the subject, before Hiccup cleared his throat and spoke up.

"So, uh, Caspian, I was wanting to ask about some of the other, uh, 'inhabitants' of this place," he started. Caspian leaned forward a bit. "Like whom?" he asked. "Well, for starters, we ran into the giants up further north earlier," Hiccup continued. "Do they only live up there? And do you know where they came from?" Caspian smiled slightly and nodded. "Yes, the giants stay up in the plateau up north," he said. "Occasionally they will come further south trying to settle here, but very few are all that kind, so we've been at war with them over the years rather often. I don't know their history, as they have been around longer than there have been any real records, certainly even longer than the animals that talk."

"And that's another question I had," Hiccup said. "Animals don't talk anywhere else on this planet, why can they here?" Here, everyone including Caspian looked to Reepicheep, who shrugged. "Even I don't know the answer to that one," the mouse admitted. "We just have been able to ever since the first guardians of this place we call home arrived." "So there are some mysteries here that could still be answered, huh?" Fishlegs mused, pulling out a small notebook and writing something down. Reep nodded.

At that moment suddenly, one of the castle guards came running into the room. "Your majesty, he said, slowing down and bowing in front of Caspian. "Nurse Elise sent me to tell you that the boy is beginning to come to again." Caspian smiled. "Thank you. You may resume your previous post now." The guard bowed again and left as Caspian turned to the teens. "Well, let's go and see how your friend is doing now, shall we?"

A/N-So, now we know the setting for our adventure :). Things will begin to get moving in future chapters here soon, so make sure to tag along! And as always, leave a review to let me know your opinions!

Also another reminder, the Two Worlds Collide: Book of Dragons is also still being updated, so don't forget to check that out too!