"Wakey wakey!" The roar woke Hiccup.

"Wha-?"

"Come on,  Snozzle Terror, let's go!"

"Toothless?" Hiccup blinked open his eyes, "What did you just call me?"

"A Snozzle Terror, anyway, HURRY UP!" Toothless brushed the name away before roaring in his rider's face.

Hiccup slowly sat up.  "And where did you get that?"

"Probably from Marina; she calls me that when I sleep in," Willow explained.

"Okay," Hiccup yawned, rubbing his head, "so, what now?"

"It's dusk, which means it's time to leave.  Get ready," and Willow walked out the open door.

"Well, bud, how'd you sleep?" Hiccup asked as he stood up and stretched.  He gazed out the 'window' into the newborn, purple night sky.

"Pretty well, that rock was really comfortable.  But niw, it's time to leave, so let's go!"

"Alright, it's time to leave, I got it."

Toothless led them out of the small, Rocky room.  The door closed smartly behind them.  Hiccup listened to it click shut.

They ran down the hallway and entered the room they had arrived in the day before.  Willow and Marina were waiting for them.

"Right, follow me, we need to get you two all kittered up with your part of the goods."

Willow and Marina walked to a much larger door at one corner of the large room.  Marina opened her mouth on a low burn and the door swung open.

The group entered a brightly lit hallway, with dips in the walls to house blue, yellow, orange, green, purple, red, black, and white flame.

"Whoa," Hiccup comented on the multicolored fire, "this is amazing!"

"Yeah, we burn different minerals to get different colors.  Such as copper for green, arsenic for blue, potassium for purple, and so fourth," Marina explained.

Toothless sniffed, "Is that... Garlic?"

"No, along with burning arsenic, you can get an odor like that of garlic."

"Oh."

Soon, they reached a fork.

"Uh, what now?" Hiccup asked.

"Follow me."

She took off down the right tunnel, running quickly, with Marina directly behind her.  Hiccup didn't question it, just raced after her.

Before he knew it, they reached another fork.  And another.  They were twisting and curving, climbing and dipping through the underground maze.

"How do you - know where - to go?" Hiccup asked through puffs of breath.

"I just do," Willow called back.

At last, far past when Hiccup lost his sense of direction, they stopped.  In front of them stood a door, with the same lock as all the others. 

Marina unlocked it, and they stepped into a huge room filled to the brim with goods.  Everything between fabrics, gems, scrolls and maps, metal, weapons, food, foreign concoctions and decorations, and half of the stuff Hiccup had never seen.  Including a cylindrical looking thing, like a kaleidoscope, that had something that looked like a dragon's head on one end.  It was covered in runes, and had a red gem in it, like an eye.  He looked back to Willow, not giving the object a second glance.

After Hiccup caught his breath, he asked, "Did we have to run?"

Willow turned around and smiled.  "No."

Toothless laughed, which earned him a glare from his rider.

"Anyway, I have some hooks and extensions for your sadle, so you can carry all the necessary goods," Willow walked to a wall covered in saddle bags, some large, some tiny, and some absolutely massive.  She bent down to a chest at the base of the wall and opened it.

As she rummaged through it, Hiccup asked, "So, what's the schedule?"

"This round will be for the other half of idividual diliveries, which means we'll be traveling and trading with the rest of the lands that only have one or two Dragon riders.  You and your family were the last of the first half."

"Okay, and when we're done with that?" 

"We'll come back here to restock Before heading off to the tribes of Dragon riders," Marina explained as she nosed through a pile of bags.

Willow walked over to Toothless and began applying the extensions.

"Marina, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Looking for Swift's spices."

"Could you pick up Snove and Daniel's extra thick wool while you're at it?"

"Sure."

Hiccup watched as his new friends worked.  He couldn't wait to meet these new Dragon riders.

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" 'lright.  Yesterday's raid could've gone better.  'ow?"

Gobber paced in front of the group of four young Vikings.

"Uh, you know, personaly, it could've had something to do with Ruffnut washing her hair -"

"I did not wash my hair!  You did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!  You shoved me into the well!"

"I did not! I pushed you!  AAARRRGGGGHHH!" Tuffnut flung himself at his sister.  They wrestled each other to the ground, and when Gobber finally got their attention, they could've been sold as a human pretzel.

"I don't think it was tha', Tuffnut Thors'on."

"Well, Astrid ran off.  No one's seen her since," Fishlegs spoke.

Gobber opened his mouth, but Snotlout cut him off, "Nah, she just went to book our Honeymoon and gather up our wedding presents."

"Actualy," Gobber wacked the smug Viking over the head, "Fishlegs is right.  If Astrid hadn't run off, two 'ouses wouldn't've burned! We need to find her.  She needs to do her final exam, and we need her 'elp in these curse'd raids."

"Got it, coach!" Snotlout exclaimed, "We'll find my beloved maiden!"

"Right, yer do tha'," Gobber turned his back, and the gang dashed off.

➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰➰

"Astrid!  Oh Ashy Astrid!"

"Would you shut up!  She won't come to us if we call her that!"

"Fine, fine.  Astrid!  Astridboo!"

"What are you doing?" Ruffnut turned to her brother.

"What?  It's what Snotlout's doing!" Tuffnut defended himself.

"Go find your own Astrid!" Ruff pushed her brother into a bush.

"I will!" he retorted, "Only after you find your own!" he pushed her into the tree behind him.

The two engaged in an all out wrestling match, and only stopped when someone called out, "Hey, losers!"

They looked towards the direction of the noise.  "What?" they asked in unison.

The bush rustled.

"Do you think it's Astrid?" Ruff asked Tuff.

"No, she calls us something else."

"What was it she called us?  Dimwits?  Dimheads?"

"Muttonheads!"  The bush rustled again.  The twins gasped in the realization.

"It is Astrid!"

"No, you idiots!  It's me!  Astrid calls you Muttonheads."  the bush parted to reveal a struggling Snotlout.  "Listen," he said as he picked twigs out of his hair, "I'm offering up a reward for anyone who finds Astrid first."

"Really?"

"Two chickens and a yak," Snotlout confirmed.

"I'm finding Astrid!" Tuff exclaimed.

"No, I am!"

"Uh, guys, I found Astrid," Fishlegs made his way through the trees towards them.

"You did?"

"Yeah, follow me."

Fishlegs led them through the trees towards the center of the forest.  Soon, they reached a tall rock wall, with a small opening at the base.  There were scorch marks around the entrance, like someone had blasted it open.

"She's in here."

The gang walked through the entrance, admiring the shear beauty of the cove.

"Hey, isn't this where Hiccup, well, ya' know," Snotlout said as he looked around.

"Yes."

Astrid was hanging from a tree by her ax.  With a snap of her wrist, she dislodged the ax and fell to the ground.  She walked towards them.

"I have strong reason to believe that beast," she pointed to a tree with a burn mark on it, and many knives stuck in it.  At closer inspection, Snotlout realised it was a picture of a dragon, burned to a tree. "Will return here.  And that's when I'll get my revenge." Astrid continued.

"Revenge?  Astrid, no one has ever faced a Night Fury and lived!" Fishlegs told her.

"I know.  That's why I'm going to be the first - and last - to kill a Night Fury."

"Sweetheart, this is crazy.  You have to come back to the village with us.  I'll seek your revenge for you.  What you need is a Viking to protect you.  You need me," Snotlout finished his speech, only to be shoved into the dirt by Astrid.

"What do you care, Snotlout, you never liked him!  And I will never be your 'Sweetheart'.  My loyalties lie elsewhere.  I will kill this Dragon if it's the last thing I do."

Astrid turned around and walked away.  That's when they saw a tarp propped up on two sticks.

"Astrid, wait, you aren't seriously thinking of living here until you kill that dragon, right?"

She turned back around, "That monster killed Hiccup! The hier!  Our colligue and friend!  We deserve revenge.  I will stay here until that Dragon gets what's coming for it.  And after that, I'll travel the world and hunt down all the Night Furies, until there are no more left.  You cannot do anything."

Astrid turned and walked away, leaving her peers surprised and shocked.

"She's gone mad."