Chapter 7

Ships appear, rocking on the waves; each adorned with a symbol of Berk. Stoick hovers over the familiar nautical map, looking at an uncharted corner, covered with swirling illustrations of dragons and mist.

"I can almost smell them. They're close." A wall of fog is shown, with pillars of rock stabbing upwards to be seen near the top.

"Wow." Fishlegs gaped at the screen. "So that's the dragon territory then? How is the fog staying in such a completely straight sheet like that? At the very least there should be some excess willowing into the air."

"It's maintained by what Vikings categorize as a Smothering Smokebreath. Instead of fire, they're able to produce smoke which they can then control and keep in any condition that suits them. Or maybe all of you didn't notice the suspicious cloud of fog on the ceiling?" Mettina pointed upwards, where lo and behold, an extremely circular cloud was hovering.

"Oh."

"Steady." Each of the Vikings on board the ships are staring at the fog, faces grim with anticipation. Stoick stares for another moment, before giving the command.

"Take us in."

"Hard to port!" The skipper immediately calls to the boats behind, pushing his weight against the rudder. Each of the other skippers echoes him, passing the message along, as Stoick strides to the bow of the ship.

"For Helheim's Gate." Stoick declares solemnly as the ships sink into the mist, fading from view. Only for the silhouette of a Monstrous Nightmare to appear moments later, outlined by fire.

"And there are the sentries…"

"Hey, you know, I just happened to notice the book had nothing on Night Furies." Hiccup flails her weapon filled hands about as she speaks. "Is there another book, or a sequel? Maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet-AH!"

"A little Night Fury pamphlet?" Aedus asked incredulously, looking down at his girlfriend, who just puffed her cheeks up and crossed her arms stubbornly. "One of these days I'll figure out where you get this stuff."

She screams suddenly, as a blast of fire fries her axe as she's holding it up. She looks around wildly, before seeing a blue Deadly Nadder hop down into the corridor in front of her.

"Yay! Time for tag!" Kai clapped his hands together, as Astrid looked over with an expression that seemed to question his sanity.

Haha! I love being the 'insane' one! Kai thought gleefully, knowing that his behavior was ticking off Astrid.

"Focus, Hiccup! You're not even trying!"

The Deadly Nadder hopped back up onto the top of the wall, cocking its head one way and another to look for more victims.

"Today, is all about attack." Gobber continued leisurely as flames were sent down at the teens. "Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter."

"Pfft. As if. Nadders are some of the fastest dragons you can find. You'd need some pretty serious speed to even think of taking us on that way." Kai rolled his eyes, waving his hand around as if to emphasize his point.

The Nadder spots Fishlegs' hiding behind a wall. He whips his tail of spikes, the darts thudding into Fishlegs' shield as he runs and screams.

"I'm REALLY beginning to question your teaching methods!"

"Yeah, if you're gonna teach someone something, give them theory first, then try to put the theory into practice. Just practice without the theory is useless," Mettina sniffed.

"Look for its' blind spot. Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike."

"Except for Zipplebacks. Two heads means all directions are covered."

Ruff and Tuff rush in, diving and rolling up to the Nadder's nose. The Nadder sniffs the air - it can't see them. However, the twins soon realize that they are both inhabiting the same space.

"Do you ever bathe?" Ruffnut face screws up as she sniffs, and Tuffnut becomes offended.

"If you don't like it, then just get your own blind spot!"

"How about I give you one!"

"Do you two ever not argue? I mean there's a dragon literally standing in front of you, and you're discussing whether or not you've bathed?" A random dragon asked incredulously.

The twins just shrugged.

They push against one another, unaware of the Nadder cocking its head to search for the source of the racket; at least until it spits fire at them.

"Blind spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much."

The audience laughed. If there was one thing they could agree on, it was that sassy Gobber was a hilarious Gobber.

Hiccup wanders up to Gobber, while the others dart past.

"Hey, so how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?"

"Wow Hiccup. Figuring out ways to 'sneak up on me'? There are more subtle ways for you to get my attention." Aedus joked, waggling his eyebrows up and down as he teasingly leered at his girlfriend, who just pouted while shoving him.

"None one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale. Now get in there!"

"I know, I know, but hypothetically..."

"Hiccup!" Astrid whisper yells at her, the lanky girl finally taking notice of the other teens, who gesture for her to get down.

Only moments later, the Nadder pokes its head around the wall, stepping into an adjacent corridor. Astrid takes a deep breath, almost as if she steeling herself, before silently rolling across the intersection. Snotlout follows, however as Hiccup moves to do the same maneuver, her shield pulls her back to the ground mid-roll with a clank. Catching the attention of the Nadder.

Hiccup winces at the sight of that particular failure.

Taking advantage of its distraction with Hiccup, Astrid rears back to strike. However, Snotlout sweeps her to the side, cocking back his axe arrogantly.

"Watch out babe. I'll take care of this."

He misses.

"Dude," Kai winces, a reaction shared by many, at seeing just how badly Snotlout had messed that one up. "Tip for the future; if a warrior has a shot, don't mess it up. Trust that they'll get it, and don't assume you can do better."

"And don't act so blatantly arrogant!" Verity screeched, whacking Snotlout on the head. "You threw that axe without even taking aim!"

The Nadder looks back, half smug and half confused, as if wondering what this Viking was trying to do. Realizing that he had failed horribly, Snotlout tried to save the rest of his dignity.

"The sun was in my eyes, Astrid. What do you want me to do, block out the sun? I could do that, but I don't have time right now!"

Slowly, all the heads in the room turned to Snotlout, whose eyes had widened in obvious embarrassment, as even he understood just how stupid what he said was. Everyone turned back to the screen, all of them too dumbfounded to even think of commenting.

They both run off down the corridor, before splitting up, the Nadder tearing off after Astrid, knocking down the walls in its pursuit. Cut to Hiccup, who is standing over by Gobber again, oblivious to the ruckus occurring behind her.

"They probably take the daytime off. You know, like a cat. Has anyone ever seen one napping?"

"Hiccup!" Gobber yells, and the girl spins, only to see Astrid jumping off of the falling wall, heading straight for her.

"-Hiccup!" Astrid comes flying through the dust and crash-lands on top of her, laying them out in a limb-tangled mess.

"Oooh! Love on the battlefield!" Tuffnut teases.

"Nope." Aedus declared, encasing his arms tighter around Hiccup's waist and firmly planting his head on her shoulder. "Mine."

Stoick and Gobber both twitched slightly at this, but at this point they both knew better than to argue with the dragon safely tucked behind the barrier.

"She could do better." His twin responds, as the two tangled girls finally realized their position, and Astrid began forcefully pulling herself out. As the blonde girl stood up, free, the sound of the Nadder beginning to charge drew her attention. Her eyes widening in alarm, she grabbed her axes' handle, only to realize it was stuck in the shield attached to Hiccup's arm. Panicking, she began tugging with more and more fervor, while Hiccup tried to help.

"Just... let me... why don't you…"

Putting her foot on Hiccup's face to gain leverage, finally the shield strap broke, and Astrid swung both the shield and axe at the Nadder, the impact of it breaking the shield into pieces. The Nadder spun around yelping in pain, as it stumbled away to lick it's wounds.

"…Sorry," Astrid grumbled, turned her head away from Kai's beaming face.

"Well done, Astrid." Gobber hobbles off to wrestle the Nadder back into his cell.

Hiccup stumbles to her feet, only for a panting Astrid to turn on her, her glare causing the smaller girl to automatically shrink.

"Is this some kind of a joke to you? Our parents' war is about to become ours. Figure out which side you're on."

Aedus moved one of his arms from Hiccup's waist so he could grab her hand and squeeze it, silently conveying his support to her. He knew this was one of her biggest problems. Whether to side with her village, or with her dragon friends.

She grabbed her axe and stomped off, the other recruits following after her. Hiccup watches, stung, but with another emotion creeping across her face as well. Contemplation.

Okay. So. I've really been jumping around a lot of fandoms recently, but I am moving back towards this one, so I'll definitely be finishing this story soon. After that, if I'm willing to open that can of beans, I might do a re-write, or just write a normal version of this, rather than just a watching-the-movie one. But I digress, that will come after I finish this.