Awareness:

Written December 26th, 2019 – December 27th.

Published on New Year's Eve, 2019.

Soft, cool mist, calm, ever-shifting, touching the surface of the burbling water which gently laps at a shore as yet unseen, drawing closer as the point of view glides nearer. Into sight draws a flat shape, rising, yet never falling as do the waves, which wash up onto the it and retreat with the sifting rasp of sand. It is a beach, and the view turns to run along the edge of it, revealing two trails of footprints halfway between the light-colored dry side and the silt wetted by the tides.

Then, a light: bobbing as if the lantern were buffeted by the wind, yet the breeze is only a whisper, and the soft thump of footsteps grows with nothing to absorb the sound. Out of the grey the figures melt, men, one stouter one taller, wearing pointed helmets that bear no veracity to history, yet in this place they deal with a different sort of history, more dangerous and more arcane and more heroic.

The tall one raises his lantern and pans it around. Out of nowhere a bass guitar hums its solemn notes, yet these men do not, cannot hear it.

"See something?" asks the other guy.

"I've got a feeling, you lout, same one as when we're being watched, and my feelings never tell me wrong. There's someone out there eyeing us, I know it."

"If there is I haven't heard it," said the lout, "or seen it or any sign of it."

"We could have our dragons clear away the mist but somebody, somebody decided it was a good idea to explore this creepy-looking place on foot and leave the giant flying protective reptiles behind. Including my sister by the way. That idea was the only one more than half-baked."

"Hey! I don't need to be protected."

"Thank you very much Snotlout, that was really the observation I needed right now," said the tall man, rattling the chains of his lamp. He raised it in the direction of the view, peered through the mist and saw nothing. Behind him Snotlout was backing up in circles till he ended up back to back with the tall man. "I, Tuffnut will discover whatever this is and take it out. Or tame it, or tame it."

And he crackled his neck as if readying for battle, shifted his feet and let a grin grow on his lips.

"This isn't a danger feeling," said Snotlout, yet nevertheless his breathing was still tinged with fear. "This is just the tingly feeling that feels like I'm being watched and often comes before danger."

"I think that's a danger feeling," said Tuffnut. The view moves to his side and his eyes follow it, and he points with his free hand right at where it is, or close to it, the ray of shadow cast by his arm tangible in the gloom, yet ethereal; never to be touched.

"Dragon? Dragon hunter?" asked Snotlout, no echo to his words in a fog where there was no sun, where the light only diffused through the layers of haze in a faint imitation of its natural form.

"I've had this tingle before," said Tuff. "It's as if every time we get together on the Edge and Hiccup gives us news or whenever one of us gets into a fight or whenever something important happens to any of us, really, all of the gang – every time that happens I feel it, as if there's someone out there, watching our every move, invisible, waiting for their moment to strike."

"You could've omitted the part about them waiting to strike," said Snotlout. "Not that I would be worried, since I could handle whoever they are solo, but you could've said that in a place with, you know, a lighter atmosphere."

"Important stuff happens when I get this feeling," said Tuffnut, "stuff like me musing about the nature of feelings and important stuff."

He held out his hands and posed and then raised his eyebrow, for his hands were empty, and behind him Snotlout held the lantern by its chain. "I think we've done enough exploring for today," said the lout, and he walked back along the trail of footprints he had made coming here, Tuffnut having little choice but to follow along.

The view disappears and reappears with naught but the sound of burbling water, teleporting to another point in space and time, yet a nearby point in both of them; the fog has lifted – mostly – and the sun shines its warm glow down on the beach and the cliffs that surround it, illuminating the green forest that grows precariously on the rocks.

There is a camp there on the beach; a red dragon fluffs its wings by the circle of soot and charcoal that is a campfire, a two-headed green one snaps at a fly with one of its heads. Snotlout is leaning up against the red one, the Nightmare, and Tuffnut is nearby speaking with his sister; whether they're arguing or discussing or plotting a prank, it's impossible to tell. Both Snotlout and Tuffnut stand straight up, rigid when the view appears. Both peer over their shoulders at each other.

A rustling noise from behind becomes a rustling noise in front. Toothless streaks into the scene, leathery wings half-folded as he dives down to the island at a fast clip, a brown-haired boy – for he is a boy yet – pressed nearly flat on Toothless's back, his rider's vest fluttering with the wind which is not a real wind but created by the speed of a Night Fury, and behind the two a blue dragon races into sight, Astrid upon her back.

The dragons flare their wings and splash into the shallows, spraying clear, teal water into the air that daubs the rider's shirts with the blood of the sea. Hiccup dismounts and comes ashore, shaking the droplets away from his hair. The view pans nearer to hear his words.

"At least that washes out," he says, and then drags one step, as if feeling something. He peers at the cliffs and shakes his head.

"Did you find anything?" asks Ruffnut, standing with the others and a little forward as Hiccup walks up the beach with light in his eyes.

"Nothing much, just something that makes me wish we hadn't left Fishlegs back at Berk. A clue," he says, "a clue to another lense. It's on this island."

"Alright!" says Tuffnut, pumping his fist in the air. "Right place, right time, nothing in the way of us getting another thingamabob and using it to find more cool dragons. Is it just me or is this going to be an easy job for once?"

Everyone else gave him a look.

"I should've remembered there was no such thing," he says, sticks his hands in his pockets and slouches.

"Do any of you guys feel like we're being watched?" asks Hiccup. "I know it's paranoid but I feel like I'm being watched."

Tuffnut counter-surveils the situation from beneath his dreadlocks.

"Same," says Ruffnut, and then Astrid, and then Snotlout.

"Tuffnut?"

"It's like that feeling I had this morning in the fog, like someone's spying on me, waiting for their chance, as if I'm being observed by a hundred eyes all hungry for my flesh," he said, and tried for a deep, evil snigger, yet his voice wasn't bass enough for the job and ended up cracking on the last note, and this time there was an echo from the chiseled rocks, following closely on the heels of his cackle even to the cough at the very end.

"Am I supposed to take this seriously?" asks Hiccup.

"No," says Astrid. "Maybe."

"Don't trust anything he says," says Ruffnut. "He's my kind of crazy."

Snotlout clasps his hands together behind his back, breathes and speaks. "I was there with him and I felt someone watching us from offshore while we explored the beach. Whoever it was wouldn't come out and fight, so I must've scared them off."

He twirls his trusty mace in his hands to illustrate his point, letting the business end of the weapon slice within a hair's breadth of his chin, seemingly unaware of the danger of clubbing himself. But he is, and presently he puts the thing back on his belt, the better to avoid breaking his collarbone.

"I feel it now," said Astrid. "Not on the cliffs, to my right."

And she turns and looks through the view and out beyond it, frowning when she sees sand and open sea. Snotlout looks in that direction also, as do the twins, but Hiccup twists and gazes behind him, for he must feel it from that direction.

"I think it's close," he says, and gestures towards the waterfront with his head, towards the short breakers which fwoosh as they roll onto the bank and fall back in tresses. "Hey Tuff, go over there and tell me where you feel it from."

And Tuffnut does, and points towards the cliff.

"It would seem we have ourselves a dilemma here," says Hiccup at last, when everyone is standing in a circle around a particularly unremarkable patch of yellow sand. "Whoever is spying on us seems to be invisible."

"A Changewing?" asks Astrid.

"No," says Hiccup, hands at his sides with his elbows bent outwards, "too big. A new dragon?"

"One invisible and untouchable with my luck," says Tuffnut. "Imagine it, so unreal as to hardly even exist and lurking in the shadows even though it doesn't need to and following around random strangers with a gaze so powerful it breaks through the invisibility and makes itself felt on the back of our necks and ooh – need… air."

He falls to one knee and hyperventilates.

"Only I can defeat it. But not right now. Give me a second."

"Maybe it's Ryker and Vigo spying on us," said Ruffnut.

Hiccup reaches forward into the air gap, sees and feels nothing save a funny wash over his hand. "I think," he says, "it might be something else."

Hey again, it's Black here. I figured I'd return to this fic because I had an idea, and ideas plus inspiration to write equal plot bunnies, which explains why I was able to write this in such a small amount of time. The thing about sudden inspiration is that it tends to disappear as suddenly as it comes, so I kept this short and sweet and didn't try to make a monster of a one-shot with this.

Tell me what you thought, and don't hesitate to tell me what you'd be interested to see in the review box below. I appreciate your reviews – yes, you there reading fanfiction, wherever you may find yourself – and I would dearly like to see them.

Cheers and Happy New Years! From Blackberry Avar.

P.S: If you read all the way to the end, put the word 'bagels' somewhere in your review.