"I think they know we're here," said Tuffnut.

Hiccup couldn't agree with him more, though he had wished that he was wrong.

"What do you mean Hiccup Haddock is here?" Surt demanded.

"I'm saying he is currently spying on us at this very moment," said Ryker with a smug look on his face. "There's no use hiding. You might as well show yourself."

Hiccup looked at the twins. "Stay hidden."

"Why?" Ruffnut whispered.

"Because they may not know you're here, and we should keep it that way," Hiccup hissed. "I'll keep them talking, and you guys create a distraction."

"What kind of distraction?" Tuffnut asked.

"Something big."

The twins looked at one another eagerly.

"Is he actually asking us to blow something up on purpose?" Tuffnut asked excitedly.

"I believe that he is the brother," said Ruffnut.

"Oh, the possibilities are endless."

At this moment, Hiccup was having second thoughts about letting the twins go wild, but creating a portal took a bit of time, and there was no way he could do that without them noticing.

Hiccup then stood up. "It's been a while, Ryker. How have you been?"

"Oh, I've been all right, and I'll be much happier once you're dead," Ryker smirked.

Surt narrowed his eyes. "You're that little thief who snuck into my palace and chiselled a piece out of it months ago!"

"It was a personal," said Hiccup.

"Oh, I'm going to look forward to roasting you are alive," said Surt viciously.

"As nice as that sounds, I think I'm going to have to pass," said Hiccup.

"I'm surprised that you came to spy on us alone," Surt growled.

"It only takes one person to spy on someone," Hiccup shrugged.

"And you failed completely," Ryker smiled. "Loki still has many contacts within your Academy. Before I got here, I got a report that you were leaving."

"That doesn't necessarily mean I was coming here," Hiccup pointed out.

"Except our spy was listening into you and Mimir."

"Bug on the wall, I take it?"

Loki had a few children within Midgard Academy; a few were shapeshifted as the twins. There have been discussions on whether to keep a close eye on these children, but keeping track of a shapeshift wasn't easy.

"Like I'm going to tell you," Ryker smiled.

"By all accounts, you want me dead, so what's the harm of telling me?"

"Because just like your ancestor, you have a knack for not dying when you're supposed to."

"I'm surprised you're giving me off to Surt; I thought you would want a crack at me?"

"Oh, I do, but I'm more than happy to have you suffer the hands of Surt. It's just a shame that I can't do the same to your ancestor for what he did to me."

"From what I heard, you brought it upon yourself when you betrayed your brother," Hiccup counted.

"I was getting sick and tired of being treated like an accessory by my little brother," Ryker growled. "And he gets rewarded with Valhalla, what I was trapped inside the net of Ran."

"He died in battle; you died at sea," Hiccup pointed out.

"In a sea battle!" Ryker growled.

"Can we hurry up and kill him?" Surt asked. "That's if you want this alliance you so desperately want."

"Agreed," said Ryker.

Hiccup hoped that the twins were ready to set off their distraction; he noted the two of them were no longer beside him. Since he could see them move, he theorised that they had turned into a fly or something and were hiding somewhere, ready to pounce.

"Giants attack!" Surt roared.

"Coming in hot and blowing out snot!" Tuffnut's voice yelled.

"Here we go!" Ruffnut's voice rang.

They looked up and saw the twins on the back of their two-headed dragon, Barf and Belch, flying straight towards them. Barf immediately began raining gas from the entire clearing, and then Belch ignited it, causing an explosion.

Now something, you would probably be wondering where the dragon came from, but in fact, it was actually the spirit of a dragon. Hiccup and his friends were, in fact, a sentence of a group called the Dragon Riders, and all of them had rings that allowed them to summon their ancestors' dragons to their aid.

Hiccup figured this was the distraction and immediately summoned his spirit dragon, Toothless. He then quickly mounted Toothless and flew up towards the twins.

"Nice distraction," said Hiccup.

"Why thank you, we're pretty pleased with ourselves," said Ruffnut.

"Time to go home," said Hiccup, quickly extending his hands.

"Don't let them get away!" Ryker roared.

Toothless then fired a plasma blast straight down at him, knocking him back down to the ground.

Surt then suddenly became even more giant and glared down.

"Uh, Hiccup anytime now," said Ruffnut.

Surt then reached out to grab them, and it was just at that point Hiccup was finally able to create a portal for them.

"Move!" Hiccup yelled.

They quickly flew into the portal before Surt could grab them. The last thing they heard before the portal closed behind them was a frustrating yell from the Fire Giant King.

Seconds later, they suddenly found themselves back home at the Academy and landed in the middle of the canteen where everyone was having lunch.

Hiccup himself landed on the table, and unfortunately, his head landed in a bowl of salad right in front of Astrid.

Astrid was a beautiful blonde-haired girl with steel blue eyes and a button-like nose, but she was also a powerful warrior. She was one of the first friends Hiccup had made at the Academy, though they did start off on a rocky patch, and he wouldn't deny that he had a little crush on her.

"Uh, hi," Hiccup smiled.

"Hello yourself," she said hotly.

Hiccup began to wonder what he did wrong apart from falling in her salad. Considering that her father was the God of Thunder, Thor himself, the last thing he wanted was to be on her bad side so that her father wouldn't send a lightning bolt his way.

"Sorry to drop in like this," he said as he got up.

Astrid folded her arms. "You could at least have the decency to fall on someone else's lunch."

Hiccup was now deftly getting the vibe that he did something wrong, but he didn't want to press on that matter because he would need a whole new problem.

"Now, lass, don't be hard on the lad," said a voice. "I don't think he did it on purpose."

Hiccup turned around and was relieved to see his favourite teacher hobbling his way over. Gobber was a beefy man and was lacking in the limbs department. He had a peg leg with his left leg and a prosthetic right arm.

Believe it or not, he was actually a Viking from about 1,000 years ago sent here from Valhalla to teach all the new demigods arriving at the school.

"I take it that your secret mission when south," he assumed.

"We barely got away," Hiccup nodded.

"Then you better give the full briefing with Mimir," said Gobber, looking at Astrid. "You better come to lass."

"What about us?" the twins asked in unison.

Gobber blinked at them. "Since when did the two of you ask permission to do anything?"

The twins instantly looked at one another.

"You know he's got a point," said Ruffnut.

"Since when have we asked permission to do something?" Tuffnut asked.

"There must be something wrong with us."

"Let's go and see the nurse."

"That's going to make Gothi's day," Hiccup sighed as the twins immediately approached the nurse's office.

"At least it'll keep them out of our hair," said Gobber.

Hiccup from same and rather ironic considering that Gobber was bald, but he said nothing.

They soon made their way to the headmaster's office, and Hiccup explained everything that had happened on their mission to Mimir.

Normally, someone would find talking to a severed head strange, but Mimir's head was completely alive. He once tried to mediate peace between the Aesir and the Vanir, but he failed, and the Vanir cut his head off. Luckily for him, Odin was able to reanimate his head to keep them on as an adviser, and now he was the headmaster of Midgard Academy.

"This is indeed troubling," said Mimir.

"Which the fact that Loki and Surt are joining forces all that we have a spy in the Academy?" Hiccup asked.

"Take either. I'm feeling generous."

"If we do have a spy, they're not particularly good," said Astrid. "I mean, they know Hiccup was spying on them, but they had no idea about the twins."

"That thought had crossed my mind," Mimir admitted and turned his eyes to Hiccup. "Did you tell anyone you are going to bring the twins?"

Hiccup shook his head. "No."

Gobber looked at Mimir. "What you make of this?"

"Can't say, but we can assure that whoever it was was no shapeshift," Mimir admitted.

"How do you figure that?" Hiccup asked.

"If they were indeed a shapeshifter, they would have followed you all over the place to gather as much information as possible. They would have known about the twins accompanying you and would have informed Loki."

"But they would still have to know that Hiccup was on a very important mission," Astrid pointed out.

"And they would have known exactly where I was going," Hiccup added.

"Did anyone know that you are going to Muspelheim?" Mimit asked him.

Hiccup began thinking back; he was sure he didn't tell anyone besides Astrid. "Apart from Astrid, I told no one."

"I did inform our House that Hiccup was on assignment, but I didn't tell them where he was going," said Astrid.

"Loki probably figured it out by himself," Gobber assumed. "This meeting with Surt coincided with Hiccup's assignment, and he is very clever."

"So are we to assume that it is someone from House Thor?" Hiccup asked incredulously.

"Not a pleasant thought, is it?" Mimir frowned.

"So it could be any number of suspects," Astrid sighed.

"It may not be from House Thor at all," said Gobber. "The housemates could have told their friends from other houses that Hiccup was on an assignment."

"So was saying that it could be anywhere?" Astrid groaned.

"There would seem to be the case, lass," Mimir sighed. "And this alliance with Surt has me troubled as well."

"Surt was suspicious of Loki, and he didn't make a concrete commitment," said Hiccup.

"Oh, I fear he may end up joining an alliance with Loki. The only question is it during Ragnarok or their planned assault on the Academy," said Mimir.

"We're still certain that we're going to attack sometime in the next few weeks?" Astrid asked.

"Ragnar reports that Loki's forces are gathering for some kind of assault," said Mimir.

Ragnar was, in fact, Hiccup's best friend and a light elf. He was on an assignment of his own, scouting out Loki's army and confirming Johann's location.

"When has it been since you last heard from?" Hiccup asked concerned.

"Not for a while," Mimir admitted with some slight concern.

"So what do we do?" Astrid asked.

"Until we get another lead, there was nothing we can do," said Mimir regretfully.

"So we do nothing?" Hiccup asked.

"I didn't say that. We may not know when the attack is coming, but we know it is coming, so we have to prepare our defences and try to locate this spy."

"But that's like trying to find a needle in a haystack; we have no idea who they are," Astrid pointed out.

"I'll call an emergency meeting with the other heads of house, but right now, I think young Hiccup here deserves some rest," said Mimir.

Hiccup was about to argue, but he had to admit that he did feel a bit tired, so he left the office with no argument. Then, as ordered, he made his way to his dorm and almost fell asleep instantly the moment his head touched the pillow.