NEW STORY! WHOOPEDYDOO! This is a request made by freyathefearless, Guest. Awesome viewer, and I would like to thank said pardon for this idea. Love writing. :) This is my FIRST update on this particular story today, and I really hope you all enjoy it. :)

Hiccup laid on his bed, tossing his charcoal into the air, catching it when it came down, and repeating. He had airmailed Astrid only five minutes ago asking her to come right away, and he didn't get a reply from her yet, so he figured she was going to.

At that moment, Sharpshot returned with another note from Astrid. Hiccup put his charcoal pencil behind his ear and took the piece of paper out of the dragon's grip, rubbing his head slightly as a "Thank you."

Satisfied, Sharpshot alighted on Hiccup's head and stayed there. Hiccup let him, too. He unrolled the paper and read what Astrid had wrote:

What in the world, Hiccup? I know you won't tell me, so I probably shouldn't bother asking, but what is this all about? Why be so secret about the whole affair? You never airmail me. Don't reply unless you really want to, I'm coming over. Give or take a few minutes. Don't do anything stupid without me.

H.

Hiccup frowned at the note. Why didn't she just trust his judgement? Well, in all honesty Hiccup didn't blame her. He didn't trust his own judgement at times. Still, though. She'd known him really well for a few years now. You would think she'd be a bit more trusting.

Bored, Hiccup flopped back onto his bed and sketched out a quick note to Astrid. On the piece of paper, he wrote out:

Who knows? You never know with me, Astrid. Just come on over, and I'll explain. It isn't really dangerous, I just think you should hear my opinion before everyone else. And I'm not being secret about the whole thing. It's a private idea I have that, at the moment, I am only willing to share with you. Hurry up, though. I'm waiting. And great ideas are hard to wait on. Or...at least I hope it's one.

H. H. III

Hiccup gave the note to Sharpshot, and he took off out the window to give the note to Astrid. Hiccup continued tossing the charcoal. About five minutes later, Astrid jumped through his window, and he nearly karate-chopped the charcoal in midair.

"Astrid!" Hiccup said. "Little warning next time, please! Even something so small as a knock! Do people knock anymore?" He swung his legs (well, leg and prosthetic. Man, he hated saying that) and stood up in front of Astrid.

She smirked and rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Mr. Bossy." She stopped smiling and stared at him with her piercing blue eyes. "Why'd you airmail me? What's so urgent?"

"Who said urgent?" Hiccup asked. She raised her hand to punch him on the shoulder, so Hiccup refrained, putting his hands up and closing his eyes to shield himself. "Okay, I have an idea."

Astrid let her hand drop to her side. "An idea?" She frowned. "All this secrecy for an idea?" She didn't sound mad, though, and Hiccup knew she wasn't. She liked his ideas, although she probably wouldn't admit it very often. Granted, some of them went up in smoke, but a majority of them survived.

"I wanted to talk to you," Hiccup said.

"It couldn't wait until tomorrow?" said Astrid.

"Waa waa," Hiccup said with fake sympathy. "Go back to bed if you want."

"Oh no you don't!" she said. "Come on, Hiccup! What is it? I'm dying over here!"

"A new version of The Mangler," Hiccup said.

"The Mangler?" Astrid looked torn between smiling and frowning. "Isn't that thing you used to shoot down Toothless all those years ago?"

Toothless looked up from where he was sleeping and then laid back down again. It was a subject he wasn't exactly accustomed to. Well, neither was Hiccup.

"Yeah," Hiccup said. "Well, I'm working on blueprints for a redesign of it."

"A redesign?" She sounded excited. "Whatcha gonna change?"

"I was thinking," Hiccup said, "since we do have dragon raids occasionally, and if Alvin somehow learns how to train dragons, we could use the new version to shoot them down without hurting them."

"Hey, yeah!" said Astrid. "That really is brilliant, Hiccup."

"But I didn't want Snotlout and the twins to learn about it," Hiccup said, "because...well...you know how they are. Not too bright...rather on the dangerous side...you know."

Astrid nodded. "Yup," she said. "So, when are you going to start designing it?"

"I've already worked up a blueprint." Hiccup reached over and pulled his notebook off the desk and flipped to a page titled "The Mangler B, #1". He marked all his inventions with numbers depending on the number of tries. And since "The Mangler B, #1" was a different design with a different purpose altogether, he named it with a B between "The Mangler" and the number.

"It's just a prototype," Hiccup said. "Probably won't work too well. Like my other prototypes." He flipped back a few pages and showed Astrid his last version of "The Mangler." It was marked "The Mangler A, #71." Hiccup had tried seventy one times on that invention, and now he was throwing it away.

All in a days work.

"Wow," said Astrid. "You don't fool around too much, do you?"

"'Course I do!" Hiccup said. He flipped even further back, and instantly Astrid jumped back a step.

"NO!" she shouted. "WHAT IS THAT!?"

"You don't want to know," Hiccup said simply, shutting the notebook. She now approached him as if the notebook were made of fire.

"Can't unsee that," said Astrid, shuddering.

Hiccup shook his head with a half-smile. "No, you can't," he said. "So...you want to come with me to the forge and start work on it?"

"Sure!" said Astrid.

She and him turned and jumped out the window, since it was faster than the front door. Then, they headed to the forge, chatting the whole way about different ideas for the new "The Mangler B, #1."

"How many tries do you think it will take?" Astrid asked.

"No idea," said Hiccup. "Might as well get a start on it.

"The Mangler B, #1":

"Okay, here's the connection cable," said Astrid.

"Thanks," said Hiccup. "Okay, here's the trigger, let's just pull it and..."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

"Well, that didn't work," said Hiccup. "Let's try that again."

"The Mangler B, #2":

"Okay, this time," said Hiccup, "let's change the location of the cable, put the trigger here, initiate the bola here-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

"Back to the drawing board," said Astrid.

"The Mangler B, #57":

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

"Agh, maybe we should just call it a night," said Hiccup, setting his hammer down. "At least we know for sure which ideas do and don't work."

"We failed," said Astrid.

"We didn't fail," said Hiccup. "We simply discovered fifty seven ways that don't work."

Astrid smirked. "Fine," she said. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya," said Hiccup.

Then, they heard the war horn blow.