The blustery wind whipped Hanna's hair one way, before changing its mind, and flinging it the other way.

Winter was on its way.  It was approaching fast, as it always did in the Viking world.  And once it was there, it would grip the world with both hands, and refuse to let go.

The sun was high in the sky.  Hanna had left the Sanctuary early that morning, and had gone to spy on Darius.  She had watched his daily Dragon killing class, before leaving the island.

It was nearly lunch time as she swooped into one of the many tunnels in her rocky home.

"Hanna!  Where have you been!"  Hiccup looked up from his work in the forge when his sister swooped in.

"Out," she said simply as she dismounted.  "What are you working on?"

Hiccup scowled refusing to let her change the subject.  "You forgot to leave a message with Bronzeblaze!"

"Oh.  Whoops?"

Hiccup returned to his work, still unhappy. 

Toothless looked up from his nap as Valka and Cloudjumper entered the room.  The twins' mother was in her exploring suit.

"Going out, mom?" Hanna asked.

Valka nodded.  "I'm going to take a few dragons out exploring with me."

"Alright," Hanna said as she moved to the cabinets.  She began to pull jars and utensils out of them as Hiccup scribbled something down on a piece of paper.

"Be careful out there, mom.  Winter's coming," Hiccup said without looking up.

"Alright, son.  I think I could've figured that out for myself, but whatever makes you happy."

The young Dragon rider sighed.

"Don't worry, I won't be gone long."

Valka said goodbye, told them to stay out of trouble and to not forget to feed the dragons, and then left, taking a good amount of dragons with her.

Hiccup continued to draw something in his notebook when his sister sat down on a stool next to him, a freshly made sandwich in her hands.

"So, what are you working on?" she asked.

"Where did you really go this morning?" was Hiccup's response.

Stonescale grumbled.  "I could tell you-"

"Stonescale!" Hanna hissed.

"What?  He probably knows now."

"Really?  Are you serious?  You've been stalking him?"

"It's not stalking."

"Umhm, yeah, because visiting a guy's house and drawing pictures of him isn't stalking," Hiccup said, "Not to mention, he doesn't know you exist."

"Hey!"

"Listen, Hanna! You can't keep going there!  I know vikings!  They're excedingly stubborn, and don't change very easily!  Why do you think I left Berk?  I knew they wouldn't except me and my ideas of dragons being friendly!"

"Hiccup, I'm not trying to change-"

"If he sees you, Hanna, he'll kill your dragon, and maybe even you.  He's tried to kill me at least three times already."

The red-head looked to her dragon, who had looked up at these words.  She then bowed her head.

"Fine.  You're right, Hiccup.  I'm putting myself and my Dragon in danger by going.  I'll stop."

"I'm glad."

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Darius walked through the forest, thinking.  His village needed a different approach.  The Night Fury and his rider were clearly very smart.  They couldn't keep hitting them head-on.  They needed to outsmart them somehow.

If only he could explain this to his village somehow.  But they would never listen. 

Darius kicked a tree root.  Vikings were too stubborn.  They would never listen to ideas that seemed dumb.  Or really, that seemed smart.

He sighed.  If only Vikings had more than one layer.  A talent other than fighting and killing.

He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.  On it was a drawing of himself, with his arm around a girl.

The girl was very pretty.  Her hair was in a bun on top of her head, but it was very windswept; she had strands hanging loose.  Darius quite liked this.  The girl wasn't a perfectionist, unlike his father.

The girl also had a certain air about her that indicated she was also very intelligent.  Perhaps if he could find her, she could help them with the Night Fury and his rider.  Or, even, the Flightmare and its rider.

Darius had never seen this girl in his life, and no one on his island could draw like this.

He looked up.  She must live in the forest.  She had obviously been watching him for a while.  He only hoped he could spot her sometime.

Wind cut through the trees unexpectedly.  Snow began to fall from the sky.

Darius turned around.  No doubt his father would be looking for him.  They had to finish the fence before the first big snow.

They were planning on buying a few horses from the village to make traveling back and forth this winter a bit easier.

Darius began to walk back through the woods to his house, folding and pocketing the picture once more.

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"Okay, Blade.  You don't mind whipping up some Gronkle Iron for me, right?"

"Not at all, boss," the green Boulder Class Dragon said, waddling over.

"I'll help too, Hiccup," Meatlug offered.

"Alright, thanks."

"Hiccup!" Hanna burst into the kitchen.

Her brother looked up.  "Yeah?"

"Stonester and I found a new Dragon slide in the Dragon Eye!"

"That's great!" He exclaimed excitedly, before he turned back to his work.

"Are you going to come and look?"

"I'll see it later; I'm a bit busy right now."

"Alright.  You better show me your finished product when it's done!" Hanna turned back around and ran out of the room.

Hiccup sighed before holding up some blueprints.  "What do you think, Toothless?"

The Night Fury raised his head.  "Ooh, it looks cool!  But, why a shield?"

"It won't be just a shield.  Look, right here, it'll have a catapult, and I will be able to turn it into a cross-bow!  It'll be a hidden weapon!"

"Cool! I can't wait to see it!" Toothless warbled.

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Hanna ran through the tunnels, back towards her room.  Hiccup would be busy in the forge for a while, maybe even hours.  She could very possibly slip away to get one last peek at Darius.

However, the point Hiccup had made earlier haunted her thoughts.  "If he sees you, Hanna, he'll kill your dragon, and maybe even you." The thought scared her, but if she only went to get one last drawing.  One more.  As a parting gift.  Stonescale would understand.

Her mind was made up.  She roared for Stonescale, and he soon appeared, swooping over the rocks in the tunnel.

"Hey, Stonester.  Wanna go for a fly?" she asked when he landed.

"You know it!"

Hanna climbed onto her dragon and took flight.  They took the back way out, in case Hiccup would decide to ask questions.

"So, any particular destinations?"

"Ah... How about the Bloody Barbarians' island?"

Stonescale stopped in midair.

"No."

"Stonester, it's just one last time! Please?  I just want one last drawing!"

"No!" the Hobblegrunt began to fly the opposite direction.

"Come on, Stonescale!  Just one last time!"

"Hanna, he'll kill me!" The Dragon had turned a midnight blue and his crown had flattened against his head.  He was truely scared for his life.

Hanna stopped fighting him.  She spoke softly.  "Hatchling, please," she begged.

Stonescale stopped once again.  She only ever called him Hatchling when she really needed something.

"You know me," she continued speaking, "I would never let any danger come to you.  You are my dragon, and I am your rider.  You're irreplaceable, and I don't know what I'd do without you.  Please.  I promise, this will be the last time.  I won't put you in danger like this ever again."

Stonescale hovered in place, before turning back around.  "Last time," he said.

Soon, the all too familiar pine-covered island came into view.  Stonscale knew the route perfectly, and lit down in the forest nearest Darius's house.

The forest floor was dusted with snow.  As Hanna dismounted, the Hobblegrunt turned dark again.

"Stonescale, we'll be fine.  You can stay here if you want; I won't be long-"

Suddenly, the fearful Dragon straightened up.

"Stonescale?  What is -"

But Hanna heard it too.  Footsteps were sounding through the forest, and they were growing louder.

The Hobblegrunt raised his wings and disappeared through the trees.  Hanna turned just in time to see a tall, dark-haired Viking teen appear from behind a trunk.

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Darius was walking through the snow-dusted woods, the drawing in his hand.  The snow had stopped walking an hour before.

He had only just been able to get away from his father.  They had spent another long and tiring afternoon putting the fence up.  It was now complete and tomorrow they would start working on the stable.

Darius looked at the drawing again.  He had had it for a week now, and carried it with him everywhere.  The girl in the picture was always on his mind, and he had never even met her.

His head snapped up as Dragon noises filtered through the trunks.  He began to walk slowly towards them.  He spotted through the trees a dark colored Hobblegrunt and... A girl!

Darius ran forward.  The Dragon spotted him, and quickly flew off.  The girl turned around to see her savior, and Darius's eyes widened.  It was the girl in the drawing.  Her emerald green eyes were wide too, and clouded with fear, but she had just been starred down by a dragon; he couldn't blame her.

"Hello?" he asked with curiosity.

She continued to stare at him.

"Who are you?"

Still, she stared at him.

"Can you understand me?"

The girl looked at him, and... growled?

"Gruryus?" she growled.  He almost thought she was trying to say his name.  But, how could she know his name?  They had never seen each other before.

Unless, of course, she had seen him.  If she had been spying on him.  Of course she had been.  He looked at the paper in his hands, and then held it up for her to see.

Her eyes, if possible, grew wider.  She reached into her red vest and pulled out a leather-bound book.  She flipped through the pages frantically, but finally stopped with a look of defeat.  She slipped the book back into her vest, and it suddenly occured to Darius that she could have perhaps filled that entire book with drawings.  His curiousity concerning the girl increased.

She looked up at him, her expression unsure.

"What's your name?" he asked, before remembering she probably couldn't understand him.  He then pointed to himself and spoke his name, and then pointed to her.

It seemed she understood what he was trying to say.  Well, her response was different this time.

"Harrrnnuah," she spoke in the same growl.

Darius looked at her.  "Hanna?" he guessed the name in Norse.  The girl nodded enthusiastically.

"What are you doing here?  Where do you live? Why don't you live in the village?"

She starred at him cluelessly.  Darius decided to take a different approach.  "Here, come with me."

He held out his hand.  Hanna raised her hand to take it, but stopped when a roar echoed through the pines.  She looked up, and then at him in fear.

"It's okay.  I'll protect you."

Another roar sounded.

He made to take her hand, but she pulled away, before dashing into the trees, heading towards the noise.

"No, wait!"  he called after her, before drawing his dagger and taking off after her.

She never looked back, but kept running, even as he called after her.  She was extremely fast, and Darius soon lost her.

He slowed to a stop, looking around and calling her name.

Suddenly, a satisfied roar reached his ears.  That Dragon Hanna was running at, was celebrating.

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Hey, guys.  I know I told you in a previous chapter that RTTE season 4 would come out in early December?  Well, I checked the release dates of the previous seasons, and the first and third were released in the same month.  Oops.  I was under the impression that the first season came out in July, the second in January, and the third in June.  Oops.  Instead, it was June, January, June, and probs January.  I'm thinking either the sixth or the tenth, but it's just a guess.  Anyway, hoped you liked the chapter, and there is still one more to read!

Bye!

¤Cloverpool¤