{Chapter One}

"After all we've been through, you're still in shock about this?" Jack smirked at his best friend, Hiccup Haddock. Their ship had just set sail for the lost island of Dunbrona, where the said princesses Merida and Rapunzel were supposed to be stranded. The two of them planned to kidnap both of them and hold them ransom—their greatest theft yet. Hiccup, the navigator, had been going crazy with the map-charting before their journey had started, but he kept coming back over and over again to perfect them.

Hiccup broke his gaze from the moonlit water. Blush crept its way up his cheeks. "Sorry. It's just—"

"You still can't believe that we've robbed forty-seven ships successfully and we're sailing off into the world to do an impossible task with little chance of survival. Right?"

"Yeah... well, something like that." Hiccup smiled embarrassedly, his eyes floating back to the water.

Jack could see that his friend was somewhat uncomfortable and decided to push him a little harder, because—well, what was life without a little fun?

"Why're you nervous? What's wrong? Something bothering you? Huh? Tell me. Tell me. TELL ME." Jack grabbed Hiccup's collar.

"I don't know!" Now Hiccup was quite red—he looked as though one might feel when cornered with questions about a topic you're touchy about. "I guess I'm just a nervous person! Why—do you want to know— I mean, I've already told you—"

"Okay, okay!" Jack forced back a snicker and released his grip, but he couldn't suppress his smile. "Don't hurt yourself now."

"What do you mean I'm hurting myself!? I'm not—" and here Hiccup paused with realization. "Okay. I see how it is." His shoulders slumped. Without another word, he walked off the deck and down into the bottom deck, presumably to [fake] charting more maps.

Jack had to laugh this time. "Hiccup! Wait!"

No answer.

Jack rolled his eyes playfully as he gripped the steering wheel. Idiot. Ah, well. He'll be over it before the day is out.

—

It wasn't until around a month into the journey that anything remotely interesting happened. They knew more-or-less that they were on the right track [if the tracks they had created were right to begin with] because of the excessive heat and blackish water and such Hiccup had predicted would come, but they weren't having much more fun than they would have had robbing some ship.

They were two young boys at the height of their career; they wanted entertainment, not consistency—well, at least Jack did.

In fact, Jack was beginning to wonder how better off they'd be just fighting another band of pirates. At least then he wouldn't be bored to death, rotting in the heat more-or-less twelve hours a day, doomed to the same routines over and over again.

—

One day, he got his wish.

He'd been steering the ship as usual, in the black of night, eyes drooping, baking in the sticky humidity, when he heard something moving within the waves, and saw what looked like a shimmer of scales just above the water.

His eyes widened. He paused, waiting, his legs stiff from standing so long.

Silence.

Jack came to the conclusion that he'd been up so long that he was seeing things. He shrugged the uneasy feeling off and continued steering.

Then, another noise—somewhat like a roar—echoed from the same spot the shimmering of scales had come from.

Jack wasn't half of the Swift-Legged Duo for nothing. His instincts bleeped like crazy. There was something dangerous down there, he could feel it.

He wanted so badly to see what was going on below the surface. He wanted so badly to fight whatever was underwater. He would have liked so much to give whatever was under there a good poke. But he couldn't risk their precious, near-impossible quest just to satisfy his ADHD needs.

Jack gripped the wheel harder, like it was his grip on reality, and swerved in the opposite direction.

No use.

WHOOSH.

A huge, scaly snaky shape erupted from the waves, spraying Jack with saltwater. It roared again like some kind of death drum.

Jack went into crisis mode and drew his lance. He ran forward ad was about to try and get it into the monster's gut, when—

"You can't fight it with a sword!" Jack turned around to see Hiccup standing in the crow's nest, holding a crossbow and a huge, black arrow. "Do you see how big this thing is?"

"It's the Loch Ness Monster!" Jack yelped, ducking as it swiped above the width of the ship. "What the bloody hell?! I thought these things didn't exist!"

"I know, neither did I—" Hiccup adjusted his grip on the crossbow. "It thinks we're going to hurt it!"

"We're gonna have to, before it kills us!"

Hiccup shut one eye, and positioned his arrow. "Okay, I think I've got it! ...Ready... GO!"

Hiccup pulled the trigger. The huge arrow whistled through the air, soaring like some kind of great dark bird. It sailed closer to the Loch Ness monster, closer, closer to its heart...

The arrow grazed the monster, but it wasn't dead—yet, of course.

ROAR.

"Oh, the gods hate me!" Hiccup groaned and clambered out of the crow's nest as fast as his one leg would carry him. "How-how-how-how did it not die? Seriously?"

A rush of adrenaline surged through Jack. His instincts kicked in. It was as though he'd just been dropped from a few thousand miles above on a roller coaster—although this situation seemed much scarier at this point.

He grabbed the wheel, pulling it to the side (it felt like lead) as hard as he could, until he felt as though his arms would break right off his hands. He could hear Hiccup yelling something, but his friend's voice was getting faint... he pulled harder...

Something had stuck into the bowsprit—something scaly. Jack wrenched open his eyes. The point had stuck right through the monster.

Of all the disgusting things Jack had seen (and he was a pirate), this one had burned its image in his head until the day he died. Nessie roared in pain. Jack steered the ship backward, and the Loch Ness monster went crashing into the water, never to be seen again.

He waited.

Silence.

And then—

"Jack!" Hiccup's yell was accompanied by panting and wide, green eyes. "That was incredible!"

Jack was too stunned to speak himself.

"I think you deserve a night off. Lemme take your shift, bud." Hiccup patted his friend on the back and walked over to the wheel.

That was their first huge surprise.

But it wasn't their last.

Heh. My first violent adventure scene. Thanks for reading! :^)