(Present day)

"Beeeeeeeeep, beeeeeeep, beeeep." Went the alarm. A hand struck out at the offending object, expertly hitting the snooze button. A head, with a mass of auburn hair sticking up each direction, sleepily poked out from under the warm blanket glaring at the display of the clock. With a sigh the man faceplanted right back into the pillow. He was nearly asleep again when the alarm blared once more. With a sigh he finally got out of bed and shut off the offending object.

He got ready for the day and came downstairs dressed in dark brown khakis and a green sweater. The house, or mansion, belonging to his parents was devoid of life. It was already two months since they had departed on an expedition. The young man sighed once again as he made some sandwiches for work while munching on a piece of toast.

His phone rang as he was mounting his bike.

"Hello?"

"Hiccup darling, it's mom." Came from the other end of the line.

"Hi mom. Haven't heard from you in a while." Hiccup said as he hefted his backpack on his shoulders.

"Yes, the connection there was terrible." She said. "Good news though. Our expedition was successful and we'll be flying home tonight. How is everything over there? Have you been eating well? You haven't been running through the rain have you?"

"Good mom, everything is good. I was just heading to work." Hiccup said.

"Alright honey, we'll talk when we get home. You're father sends his love and be careful!!" Hiccup's mother said.

"Sure, sure mom." Hiccup said with a little exasperation. His parents had been overprotective ever since he was born. He might have been born early but he surely didn't need to be sheltered so much, especially now that he was 21 already.

Hiccup got on his bike to go to work which was only a couple of blocks away. The sky was clear and a light breeze passed him as he cycled down the road.

Hiccup was nearing the Berk Metropolitan museum when he noticed that an old beggar was going to walk right into oncoming traffic. "Hey stop!" He shouted as he jumped off of his bike and ran to the old man. He managed to pull the old man, who was apparently talking to himself, back to the sidewalk just as a semi-truck drove past at full speed.

"Are you alright?!" Hiccup asked as he checked the guy over. "You nearly became a pancake!!"

"Ah.... I'm fine, I'm fine lad." The man said as he shakily got up. His gray beard whipped in the wind and Hiccup noticed that the old man had an eyepatch over his right eye. "I didn't even see that truck coming." The man joked. "Two of my friends were being sassy to each other again."

"Eh.... okay." Hiccup said as he raised an eyebrow when the man pointed to the sky and shouted "Now go back to your blasted perch you two!!"

"Those two have been getting sassier every year." The old man muttered.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Hiccup asked once more as he went to retrieve his bicycle which he let fall on the sidewalk. "Yes yes I'm fine Hiccup."

Hiccup stopped and looked at the man. "How did you know my name?" He asked. The man simply chuckled and pointed at Hiccup's ID badge which hung around his neck. "Oh" Hiccup said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck.

"The name's Wodan" The old man introduced and then his stomach growled loudly. "Eh... sorry about that."

Hiccup dug around in his backpack and took out his sandwich. "Here Wodan, you can have this." He said. The old man wanted to refuse but Hiccup insisted. "I can get more so feel free to take it."

"Thank you kindly lad." Wodan said before taking the sandwich. He then dug around in one of his pockets. "Now where is that thing?" he grumbled. "AHAH!" He shouted as he presented Hiccup with a golden ring. "I want you to have this" Wodan said as he held out the gleaming ring.

Hiccup's eyes widened and he immediately started to protest. "No really, I couldn't possibly." He said. "It must mean a lot to you if you've kept it."

Wodan however was just as persistent. "Oh don't you worry Hiccup." He said with a smile. "I'm sure you'll find more use for this than little old me. Consider it a thank you for helping me and sharing your food." The old beggar said before thrusting the ring in Hiccup's hand and walking past him with a wave. The man walked into an alley and Hiccup went to follow only to find the alley empty. He looked at the golden ring in his hand, two intertwining dragons were etched into the ring. On the inside of the ring there was an inscription. Hiccup squinted at the words and then he recognized them. It was written in the old Norse dialect. "A golden heart is better than any riches" Hiccup read. He was quite glad that he knew old Norse.

He looked down the alley again and then back to the ring. He decided that he'd return it to the old man if he ever saw him again. This ring looked much too precious and must have had some significance for the man.

Hiccup placed the ring in his pocket before jumping back on his bicycle and heading towards the museum. He entered through the employee entrance where he bumped into Snotlout, the security guard.

"You're late." Snotlout grumbled. Hiccup looked at his watch and then raised an eyebrow. "Only by five minutes."

"You know the boss doesn't like tardiness." Snotlout stated.

"The boss also doesn't like employees reading Playboy during their shift but I don't say anything do I." Hiccup fired back as he smirked.

"Touché" Snotlout said.

"What are you even doing here in the morning? I thought you had the night shift today." Hiccup asked as he placed his backpack in his locker.

"Well Savage called in sick today so the boss asked me to fill in." Snotlout explained looking quite annoyed. "The only fun part about doing both shifts is that I get paid overtime."

Snotlout then went on his rounds before the museum opened and Hiccup greeted Fishlegs who was busy cataloging new artifacts. "Morning Fish"

"Morning Hiccup" Fishlegs greeted. "Hey did you hear about the twins?" Fishlegs asked as he put down a jade Buddha.

"No, did something happen over the weekend?" Hiccup asked as he knew that the twins were notorious for their mischief.

"Well they are on window cleaning duty until further notice." Fishlegs explained. "Apparently they nearly broke a Ming Dynasty vase over the weekend and Alvin just had enough."

"Sounds like the twins alright." Hiccup mumbled. "Well I'll be seeing you." Hiccup said as he headed towards the library attached to museum. When Hiccup got there he grumbled, that he would knock the Dewey Decimal system into his colleague's head, upon seeing the pile of books waiting to be sorted. The part-timer which worked the weekend shift either didn't return the books to the shelves or returned them to the wrong shelves leaving it to Hiccup to scour the small library each Monday and figure out where everything should go.

Hiccup reluctantly set to work. He was on a ladder holding a small pile of books when the door opened. "Hiccup!" His boss called and Hiccup startled.

"AAAH!" Hiccup yelled when he fell backwards off of the ladder. The pile of books fell on top of him. Two hitting him on the head, one in his stomach, while the heaviest one hit him in the groin.

"J...Just a m... minute!!" Hiccup gasped.

"Honestly boy, why do I put up with you?" was asked by the big burly man who was Hiccup's boss.

Hiccup stood up shakily, holding onto the ladder for support. "Well... eh... Alvin, it's because I can read and write in several dead languages." Hiccup sheepishly said as Alvin rolled his eyes.

"I put up with ya because your parents are some of the best archeologists associated with the museum." Alvin grumbled before thrusting some papers at Hiccup.

Hiccup looked at them and saw that they contained Norse runes, with bits and pieces translated. Translated very badly in Hiccup's opinion.

"Dagur's been working on a new project. He needs you to look those over and fix the errors."

Hiccup's brow furrowed when Alvin mentioned Dagur. "You do know he hates me right?" Hiccup asked as he remembered the time Dagur threw a Gladius in his direction when he corrected him on a Greek translation. "He would never willingly ask for my help."

"I might have twisted his arm a bit." Alvin explained. "This is an important project and I don't want any mistakes. You can take the rest of the day off when you're done."

"Eh.... Okay." Hiccup said lifting an eyebrow at how generous Alvin was being. "I do need to know where these runes are from." Hiccup then said as Alvin gave him a critical look. "It would impact the translation as words and meanings changed over time." Hiccup explained.

"All I know is that your parents emailed it over a week ago from their expedition. According to them it's late 8th century. It was from a preserved scroll." Alvin muttered and Hiccup was curious why he had been hesitant with the information.

Hiccup nodded and picked up the pile of books on the floor before heading over to his desk to work on the translation. He started humming as he translated, happy that old Norse came so easily to him. He had first started on languages hoping to impress his parents so that he could accompany them on expeditions. It hadn't worked very well as they were adamant that he stay cooped up, safely behind a desk.

Hiccup let out a sigh. His parents had become overbearing the last few years. Especially when he tried to get his own apartment. His mother had argued with him that their house was closer to work and he would have it to himself when they left for their job.

Or the time when he tried to get a job. Oh, he got a job alright. He solicited much to the annoyance of his parents at various places which they deemed inappropriate. One of those was as an assistant for a reptile caretaker. He had always loved reptiles but that job didn't sit well with his parents. Apparently his mom had ranted that she didn't want her little boy to wind up as Anaconda food, so Stoick, his father, had asked Alvin to hire Hiccup at the museum, where they worked, and apparently could keep an eye on him.

Hiccup muttered something intelligible about 'them still using the wrong books' as he redid the entire translation. He smiled when he was finished and then glanced at the clock. Three whole hours seemed to have passed and Hiccup headed to Alvin's office to give him the papers.

Hiccup entered the office after knocking. "Finished it" he said as he handed over the documents.

"You couldn't drop these at the language department?" Alvin asked as he frowned and flipped through the pages.

"And have Dagur run after me with another ancient weapon when he finds out that I scrapped his entire translation? No thank you." Hiccup grumbled.

Alvin nodded. "Good. Take the rest of the day off then." He said and bid Hiccup goodbye.

Hiccup gave Alvin a mock salute before heading out. He passed Fishlegs who was hunched over some papers. "See ya Fish!" He said. Fishlegs looked up at Hiccup. "So you're taking the rest of the day off?"

"Alvin was pretty generous today." Hiccup explained. "He wanted some Norse script translated and then gave me the rest of the day off for it."

"Oh he offered me one too actually." Fishlegs said and Hiccup quirked an eyebrow. Alvin really was feeling generous today.

"You're not going to take it are you?"

"Thor no, I'll probably be doing an all nighter just cataloging these." Fishlegs stated. "We got a new shipment in for our Ming dynasty exhibit."

"You do know you'll be stuck with a cranky Snotlout tonight right." Hiccup remarked.

"That's why I have a box of cupcakes in the break room." Fishlegs laughed. "Haven't you been wondering why Snotlout has been putting on some weight lately?"

Hiccup sighed in exasperation and bid Fishlegs goodbye for the day. He grabbed his backpack and unlocked the combination lock on his bike. It was almost two o'clock already and Hiccup didn't really want to head home to the empty house yet. He decided to head over to his godfather's place downtown.

It was a little old antique shop in the heart of the city and it stood out from the gray skyscrapers surrounding it. Hiccup stopped in front of the shop and smiled at the crooked sign that read 'Gobber's odds and ends'. Gobber refused to straighten the sign and insisted that it was more esthetic like that.

The bell above the shop jingled as Hiccup pushed his bike inside. "Afternoon Uncle Gobber!" Hiccup greeted as he saw the man fiddling with an antique radio.

"Hello Hiccup!" Gobber happily chirped looking up briefly. "What brings you here so early in the afternoon.

"The boss decided to give me the day off and I didn't want to go home yet." Hiccup explained as he leaned on the counter. "And my parents will be home any day now. Apparently they had a pretty good expedition."

"Ah" Gobber nodded in understanding. "So last bit of freedom heh?" Gobber asked. Hiccup was really grateful to his uncle. If it hadn't been for the man intervening with his parents he'd probably be wearing a padded suit and helmet everywhere he went. Heck, he wouldn't put it past his mother to add padding on the padded suit.

"Why don't I close up early and we'll have a drink while trying to figure out this blasted radio.

"Gobber, it's two thirty in the afternoon!"

"Meh, it's five o'clock somewhere Hiccup." Gobber laughed as he went to flick the sign to closed.

So Gobber and Hiccup spent the better part of the day sipping beer and taking apart old radios. Hiccup glanced up at the clock on Gobber's wall and blinked. Surely he had read it wrong.

"Gobber that clock isn't broken right?" He asked.

"Nope laddie. It's finer tuned than me fiddle." Gobber stated. "Why?"

"Well apparently we've been sitting here tinkering for almost six hours." Hiccup said as he looked outside. Sure enough the street lamps were already lit.

"You know what they say laddie. Time flies when you're having fun." Gobber laughed as he put away the beer bottles.

"I'm gonna head hom- arrg" Hiccup grumbled as he felt his pockets. "I left my keys on my desk."

"Well then laddie ya better skedaddle." Gobber said as he waved Hiccup off. "You come back to visit!" Was shouted as Hiccup gave a wave back.

Hiccup pedaled hard as he made his way back to the museum. When he got there he saw that the doors were already closed. He looked at his watch which showed 9:37 and he grumbled. He made his way to the front door and knocked hoping that Snotlout was at his station but the inside was pitch black. Hiccup frowned and then walked with his bike to the employee entrance behind the building. He swiped his ID card and the door opened with a click.

"Snotlout?" Hiccup called as he noticed that the break room was also quiet. "Fishlegs?" He called this time as he knew Fishlegs often came to the break room when they were working over time. Hiccup guessed that Fishlegs might have finished his work and gone home but that would have left Snotlout. 'Maybe he's doing rounds' Hiccup guessed and decided to be careful. He didn't want to end up being tasered again.

Hiccup knew the route by heart and quickly walked to the small library. He used his card to open the automatic lock and entered. Hiccup smiled when he spotted his keys on the desk and grabbed them.

The golden ring fell out of his pocket after he had placed the keys there. Hiccup bent down to pick it up. He had completely forgotten about this. He really needed to track that old man down and wondered if Gobber knew anything. His uncle knew almost everybody in the city.

Hiccup walked out of the library with the ring still in his hand and closed the doors behind him. He turned around in the hall intending to head home when he saw someone coming in his direction.

"Snotlout is that you?" Hiccup asked but the figure gave no indication. The moonlight shining through a window illuminated the figure as it got closer. Hiccup stiffened as the figure looked like a walking skeleton draped in armor and a shroud. The figure got closer and Hiccup instinctively took a step back. The thing kept advancing towards him and Hiccup wanted to scream but he was now to terrified to even do that. He tripped after continuously backing away and now the skeleton which had apparently come to life was towering over him.

He didn't know if it was the alcohol talking or is brain taking a vacation but all he managed to meekly get out of his mouth was "uhm....Hi..."

The skeleton looked at him curiously before extending its hand. Hiccup couldn't take it anymore. He fainted right there on the spot with a 'thud'.