"Well, it looks like the storm cleared up," Hiccup said, looking out over the smooth, sparkling water.

"Yeah."

"Hanna still isn't back yet?" Valka walked over to her son, who sighed.

"No."

"Well, I'm going to start decorating for Snoggletog, so I won't be able to go look for her. I'd like to, but I know she's safe, and I have to do this."

"Alright. I'm still a little worried, though."

"We'll gather the gang and hit the skies," Toothless said.

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"Arggghh," Stormfly exclaimed as they flew over the icey water, "it's hard to catch her sent; she's been gone a while and the storm went through."

"She's gotta be out here," Hiccup said, scanning the water.

"Look over th-" Toothless didn't finish his sentence, but Hiccup got what he ment. On the horizon, an island loomed.

"Got it, bud. Let's gooooooooooooooo!" Hiccup's speaking turned into a roar as the dragons took off in the direction of the island.

"Whoa, Toothless, slow down! Stormfly, do you have a sent?"

But none of the dragons answered. Not even Barf and Belch, who was normally up for a random conversation.

Then, a sing-songy sound reached Hiccup's ears. He looked back at the dragons, and realized their pupils were slitted.

"Aw, great!" Hiccup exclaimed, turning back around and looking at their destination.

They soared over the island. It was nice. Bare trees and fields scattered it, and a few small snow-capped mountains littered the center.

The dragons spiraled down into the valley. Hiccup looked at the ground and gasped.

At first he only saw the orange, and then he saw the dragons. Dragons of all shapes and sizes lay in the valley, all encased in some sort of orange goop.

"Toothless. Toothless! Snap out of it! We can't stay here!" he tugged on his dragon's saddle to try and pull him up, but the Night Fury only screeched in protest.

"Toothless! Toothless, come on!" Hiccup struggled to pull him out of the dive.

The rest of the dragons landed around them as he tried to pull his Dragon up.

"Toothless, bud, please!"

The Night Fury roared in surprise as a jet of orange goo shot past them. Hiccup pulled up and Toothless finally obeyed. They swerved around another jet of goo and landed behind a pile of rocks.

Hiccup dismounted. "You okay, bud?"

Toothless shook his head. "I think so. Sorry, Hiccup."

"It's fine," the Viking replied, looking around the rocks into the valley. "Oh no."

Toothless waddled over and gazed out over the rocks. "What is that stuff?"

Hiccup stared at the gang. All of them lay like the dragons around them, encased in goo and completely helpless.

"Is that a person?!" Toothless warbled.

"What?" Hiccup followed his dragon's gaze and spotted a boy. The boy was probably about his age, and he had pale skin. He wore clothes of darker color, with a white jacket and a purple scarf around his face. His longer, black hair was tied back in two braids and he wore black boots. Attached to his belt was a katana.

The boy walked between the helpless dragons, bending down and observing the ones that were new.

"I do not want to cross this guy," Toothless said.

"Neither to I, but it looks like we'll have too," Hiccup stood up from his crouch and moved to make himself known.

"Hiccup, wait," Toothless growled.

"What is it, bud?" Hiccup said, looking up. "Oh."

Circling above them was a massive, colorful Dragon, mainly orange and yellow. It let out an enticing call before spitting orange goop at the ground.

Hiccup grimaced, but at the sound of the call, Toothless' ear flaps opened and he raised his head.

"No, bud!" Hiccup called as Toothless raised his wings. But he was too late. The Night Fury took flight, heading towards the orange and yellow Dragon.

Toothless gave a wail of surprise as his tail gave out. The black Dragon plumetted to the ground, calling the attention of the boy on the ground and the dragon above.

Hiccup watched as the boy grasped his katana, and as the bright-colored dragon's eyes narrowed.

Toothless hit the ground, and as soon as he did, the dragon let a stream of goo loose.

"Toothless, roll!" Hiccup called, running down to the valley.

Without a pause to question why, the Night Fury rolled, just before the goo splatted against the ground.

The boy drew his katana and charged at Hiccup.

"Oh, great," he mumbled.

The boy reached him and swung, but Hiccup dodged it.

"Oh, no you don't!" Toothless roared before building the gas in his throat. He was about to ignite it, when a long, yellow tail swung down and swiped him aside.

Toothless rolled to the side, regaining his posture. He aimed and fired at the colorful Dragon.

The Dragon roared in surprise and aggitation.

As the dragons fought, Hiccup was doing his best not to get sliced to pieces. He kept trying to hold his hands up in surrender, but every time he did, his attacker would move to slice them off.

The next strike came at him, and in one fluid movement, he slid it off his back and held it up. The blade of the katana clanged against the metal. His attacker looked on in surprise.

Hiccup deployed the cross bow and insterted a straight stick. He aimed and fired. His attacker easily dodged it and continued.

Hiccup met the next blow with his shield, barely countering the force at which the boy had swung.

"Toothles!? A little help. Please," Hiccup cried.

Toothless roared before leaping to his rider's rescue. He tackled the boy and pinned him to the ground. Staring the boy straight in the eye, Toothless began to build the gas in his throat.

"No. Please, he - he wasn't thinking straight," the colorful Dragon landed beside them.

"He wasn't thinking straight?" Toothless turned to the dragon. "You've trapped all of our friends in goop!"

"I know, I know... But I have to eat, don't I?"

Hiccup found that he was liking this Dragon less and less. "Listen. We'll leave you alone and pretend this never happened if you just free our friends," Hiccup told the boy.

The boy stared back.

"Um, can be understand me?" Hiccup asked, more to Toothless, but the other dragon answered.

"He can, but he can't speak. His tongue was sliced off when he was eight," the dragon said. "His name's Shiru, mine's Earsplitter. We live together on this island."

"That still doesn't solve our problems. You have our friends, and you're planning on eating them. If you free them, we can forget this ever happened," Hiccup said.

"I can't," Earsplitter told them, "winter's coming, so less dragons are in the air. I need them for food."

Hiccup looked to Toothless. This was a straight up lie. More dragons were in the air during the winter to go to their hatching grounds.

"Besides," Earsplitter spoke again, "I don't know how to free them. Once my Amber cools, it's as hard as marble. Only my teeth can cut through it, and that's when I'm eating them."

Hiccup only heard the first part. His brain was focused on something Earsplitter had said. 'Once my Amber cools, it's as hard as marble.'

That may be true, Hiccup thought, But if you warm metal back up again, it becomes bendable again. It's just like fixing a tail-piece.

He knew what to do. He just somehow had to get his plan to Hookfang without the two hostiles learning the plan.

Without warning, Hiccup jumped into his Dragon. They took flight, and began to feint trying to free the dragons.

Toothless shot Plasma Blasts at different casings. Each time, the case would become shinny with melt, before it hardened again.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Earsplitter let Shiru into his back before chasing in pursuit.

"Toothless, if we can somehow let the gang know to use their fire, we can get them free."

"Cool. I'll distract them, you tell them," Toothless said, before doing a barrel roll. Hiccup dropped off his back, before running to Hookfang.

Toothless landed on the nearest casing and began to claw at it with his talons.

"It'll never work!" Earsplitter roared in laughter at the Night Fury. Toothless jumped off the Amber as another stream of it flew past him. Earsplitter was trying to catch him.

Toothless leapt from cocoon to cocoon, just barely missing each shot.

The sound of shattering alerted Earsplitter, who turned. The colored Dragon roared in surprise as Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang, and Barf and Belch rose into the sky, free of the cocoon.

"Set me down next to him, Stormfly," Hiccup said from his place atop the Nadder.

"You got it."

Stormfly flew low over the ground. When Hiccup was right above his dragon, he slid off her back. She soared higher up and waited with the rest of the gang for him and Toothless.

Hiccup landed next to his dragon, facing their opponents. Toothless growled from his fighting stance, ready for anything.

"How dare you!" Earsplitter hissed. "How am I supposed to survive without food?"

"Oh, I'm sure you have access to plenty more where these came from," Hiccup gestured to all the passed out dragons, encased in Amber. He hated not saving them, but he needed to get out of there fast if he wanted to get out of there at all.

"What do you say we leave, bud?"

"Best idea you've had all day."

Hiccup made to mount his dragon, but Earsplitter shot another stream of Amber in their direction. Toothless leapt back in surprise.

Hiccup was too busy trying to reach his dragon again, he never saw Shiru coming. The blade glinted out of the corner of his eye, and he turned just in time.

The blade caught his forearm, slicing it open, but not cutting it off as it would have if Hiccup hasn't noticed him.

Toothless let out a great roar of fury. A Plasma Blast exploded at Shiru's feet, knocking the boy out cold. Earsplitter shrieked with worry at his companion's limp body.

The colorful Dragon grasped the boy in its talons and took flight, heading over the far mountain. Its cries faded as it disappeared.

"Hiccup? Are you okay?" Toothless walked over, noticing the blood dripping from his rider's arm.

"I'm fine. I've been through worse," he chuckled, gesturing to his leg. "What do you say we get out of here?"

"Can we please?" Toothless asked.

"Yeah, let's go."

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"Hanna? Wake up."

"Huh? Wha-?" Hanna blinked open her eyes. Light shined through the window next to her.

"Mom's made porridge. Would you like some?"

Darius was leaning over her. It was morning.

Hanna sniffed the air. It smelled of warm breakfast grains. Her stomach growled at the prospect of food.

Darius laughed. "I'll take that as a 'yes'. Come on," he beckoned for her to follow him.

Hanna climbed out of the makeshift bed; a couple of blankets on the floor, and followed the teen out of the room. He led her down a set of stairs and into the kitchen, where Darius's mother stood, cooking.

"Morning, dears," she said as she filled wooden bowls with porridge.

"Darius, you're father's gone out to stock up on grain for the horses."

"Alright, Mom."

Hanna accepted the food graciously. She had already spent a day with Darius's family.

After the ice storm hit, she had stayed in the little cave she found for a few hours, until the ice lightened up. They then flew back to the Bloody Barbarian's isle, as it was closer than the Sanctuary. Stonescale had stayed in the woods while Hanna had sought shelter in Darius's home.

She had stayed with them yesterday, and she and Darius spent an amazing day walking around the village. She had met his friends, the same ones she had seen when spying on him. It was wonderful.

She had also spent the last night with him, in case the storm was still lingering. She wanted to be sure it was safe before she headed back home.

"Speaking of the horses," Darius spoke, "Hanna, would you like to ride them today?"

She had not understood most of that sentence, but any sentence with the word 'ride' in it must be good.

She nodded.

"Great! As soon as we finish breakfast we'll head out!"

Excited, Hanna engulfed the rest in a good hurry, and once Darius had finished, they walked out the back door.

Hanna followed Darius to the padlock, where the largish, four-legged creatures we're held.

Darius opened the gate, and Hanna followed him in. One of the creatures, the white one with brown blotches, trotted towards her.

Startled, Hanna backed up against the fence.

"It's okay," Darius said, "he's just curious."

The creature sniffed her, and she ducked away quickly.

Darius chuckled at her fright, and she immediately regained her posture.

Darius put a hand on the darker creature's snout. Hanna, determined to let him know she wasn't afraid, put her hand up to the blotchy one's face as well. She pet its soft nose, and giggled when a puff of warm air graced her palm.

She looked up, and gasped when she saw Darius was atop the darker creature.

"Go on," he told her, "Do you want to ride him or not?"

Now Hanna knew what he wanted her to ride. In truth, she was scared. This creature was new, and she had no idea what it was capable of.

"Uhhh," she looked around, and couldn't figure out how to mount it.

"Here," Darius slid off his creature, and walked over to her. Grasping her waist, he lifted her up.

Figuring it out, she swung her leg over and Darius set her down on the creature's back. He then mounted his once again, and the creature he was on walked to her.

"Here, grasp his mane like this," Darius showed her how to hold the creature's hair. "Don't worry, it won't hurt him. Come on," Darius walked his creature over to the gate that they had left open.

"Uh, alright. So, um, I don't know your name, but do you think you could, uh, follow him?"

The creature huffed.

Well, these guys are WAY dumber than dragons. Why don't Vikings just use dragons as transportation instead? It would make way more sense, Hanna thought.

Darius, seeing her trouble, showed her how to command the creature. When she finally got it to take a step forward, she squealed in surprise.

The whole creature rocked as it followed Darius's creature out of the field.

"Uuuuhh, okay... Whoa!" Hanna did not like this form of transportation. It felt unsturdy and dumb. She couldn't comunicate with it, and had no idea what it would do. "Ugh, I miss Stonescale," she mumbled as Darius led them into the forest.

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Hey, guys! I appreciate all the support you've given me, and I'm glad that a few of you are still reading. Hopefully, updates will pick up soon now that summer's coming!

Thanks to ThePuntato for Shiru and Earsplitter. I enjoyed writing their characters in.

Until next time,

¤Cloverpool¤