Alright, so, it is March 31st now...the last day of my hiatus...but I got this idea in my head and I couldn't just wait until tomorrow to see what you guys think. :) It's a short story, so...not exactly a full story, but really not a one-shot, either. It's my version of the ending of "Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Man" (episode 8, Riders of Berk in case you want to know). Hope you like it! :D

"Ugh, it's so hot!" Snotlout said, wiping sweat off his forehead. "Is anybody else hot? 'Cause I'm really HOT!"

"I know," Tuffnut said. "I'm sweating like a dragon at an eel party!"

Astrid looked down when she felt something brush against her legs. As she looked at the ground, it appeared to be shimmering. Well, that certainly wasn't normal. It didn't take a genius to figure that much out.

"Uh, guys…?" Astrid said, taking a step backwards. "Is it just me, or is the floor moving?"

Hiccup looked down and saw that sure enough, Astrid was right. He knelt down, shining his torch close to the ground. The shimmering whatever-they-were scattered in the opposite directions. Hiccup stood up straight again, glancing at his dragon.

"Uh, Toothless, can you give us some light?" he asked. Toothless growled and then shot a plasma blast towards the far corner of the wall. On impact, light filled the cavern. Fishlegs looked down at the floor that appeared to be "moving." After a few minutes, he sat back.

"That's why it's so hot in here," Fishlegs said, just before he gasped. "Fireworm dragons!"

"Whoa," Tuffnut breathed, kneeling down, stretching his hands towards one of the Fireworms.

"Stop!" Hiccup shouted, just before Tuffnut touched it. Tuffnut looked up at him in confusion. "Their skin burns hotter than the sun."

"Yeah," Tuffnut said, picking up one of the black Fireworms, "but how hot can the sun really be?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the Fireworm glowed bright orange. Tuffnut gasped and dropped the dragon. "Yyyyyoooouch!" he shouted. "Owww, augh!"

As soon as Tuffnut shouted, the entire floor lit up, orange and red. Fireworm dragons practically covered the floor, leaving little to no room for a clear path.

"Whoa," Tuffnut said.

Toothless blasted some Fireworms away that got too close to him and Hiccup, but more of them kept coming. The rest of the dragons continued doing the same, firing all the fire they had at the different dragons.

Then, in front of them, three pedestals rose out of the ground. Man, Hiccup was really beginning to hate this treasure hunt. Of course, there was no way he was going to back out of it now. They had gotten this far. He wasn't going to give up. So, stepping forward, he approached the three pedestals.

On top of each sat a small object; another piece of the metal contraption they were slowly building. But which one was the right one? Was there even a way of knowing?

"Grab 'em!" Snotlout shouted desperately. "And let's GO!"

Wow, Snotlout was really slow at catching on. Didn't he know that grabbing all of them could be disasterous?

"No, it's a choice," Hiccup said. He was a bit surprised by how calm his voice sounded, considering their situation. Well, no time to dwell on that. "Listen to this, guys." he looked down at the map, and then began reading: "'Something pure and something strong. Look first to yourself, and you don't go wrong.'"

"Strong," Fishlegs mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "That must be the one made of iron!"

"But iron's not pure," Astrid said. "Take the gold."

The Fireworms were ganging up on the dragons now. Hookfang ran out of fire, and Meatlug jumped in front of him before the Fireworms got to him, blasting the pests with lava.

"It's getting really hard to breathe!" Astrid announced as if it were a great discovery. Thank you for that, Astrid, Hiccup thought sarcastically to himself. Because we obviously don't already know that. He kept thinking about the metal objects; which one to take, which one to take?

"That's what happens when you're getting roasted alive!" Fishlegs said to Astrid. And let's thank Fishlegs for that inspirational speech, Hiccup thought to himself while also trying to think of a solution to the puzzle.

"You might wanna make a decision soon, Hiccup!" Fishlegs said. "We don't have much time!"

Of course, Hiccup already knew this, probably better than anyone else there at that time. A Fireworm brushed against Hiccup's leg, and he yelped in momentary pain, stepping backwards, falling against Toothless by accident. Toothless breathed plasma onto the Fireworms, scattering them almost effortlessly. Hiccup patted his head in a silent "thank you" and then took another step forward.

"'Look to yourself,'" he repeated one of the lines of the riddle to himself, approaching the middle pedestal. Just by looking at it, he couldn't tell what kind of metal it was, but something about it just felt...right. He couldn't explain what it was. Maybe it was his instinct as a hiccup? He didn't know. Something, however, lead him towards that one pedestal, and that one piece of metal.

"Careful, it could be a trap," Astrid said from behind him, but he was hardly listening to her, not taking his focus off his target. He had already considered the fact that it could have been a trap. He didn't need to think about it a second time.

His hands hovered over the piece of metal uncertainly. What to do? Now that he was standing right in front of it, his mind begged to differ. What if this wasn't the right one? What if he was leading his friends to certain death? Maybe he should tell them to get out before he touched it...but then again, he knew they wouldn't leave.

Before he fully registered what he was doing, he plucked the metal off the pedestal. At first, nothing happened, and he examined the shiny object in his hand. The next instant, however, the floor beneath him vanished. He heard Astrid shout his name, and then he was falling. Falling down, towards the ground, oblivious to how far a drop it was. He didn't want to think about it.

Astrid and the others were shocked as they listened to Hiccup's shrill scream echo throughout the cavern. Then, just as Astrid was about to order they go look for him, the ground beneath her vanished as well, and she and the other riders fell, with their dragons, just as their leader had.

Then, all at once, they were knocked unconscious.