Whenever the nomads decided to jump in the deep and travel to new lands, they tried to prepare for nearly any situation or problem conceivable. It took Hiccup and Robin days to pick a route, pinpoint landing spots for short term breaks or one night camp-outs. Hiccup, being the safety god himself, could never press enough on the importance of evading possible enemy territories. It sometimes drove Robin insane, but he always accepted and respected Hiccups final decisions, knowing it was for the benefit of their group.

And to safely guide a flock of no less then twenty dragons and thirty passengers, plus luggage, it meant several days of long-term, slow-paced flying. During these travels Hiccup had to wake up earlier then usual, an hour or two before sunrise so Toothless could get his crazy energy out of his system and convert it into loopings and tight turns or even upside-down maneurves. Robin was usually awake by the time Hiccup got back and would always boast about how happy he was to have a super lazy and fat Gronckle instead of a Night Fury who turned out to be an adrenaline junky.

Robin's Gronckle was absolutely massive, and, like he had said, incredibly lazy. The dragon never growled, and it's purr sounded like the rattling of old engines, the deep rumbling sound of a Volcano almost ready to burst. Never moving an inch unless it was to eat, roll over or breathe.

He had named him Big ol' Buff, hinting to it's obvious size. And had a beautiful color similar to crushed pepper. It was one of the friendliest creatures Hiccup, or anyone in particular, had ever come across.

Hiccup, obviously, was the leader of their pack, him and Toothless flying up front and his closest friends following closely behind. Everyone else was safely tucked behind them and some had doubled up on a few of the stronger dragons to even out the numbers. Right now they were on their way to the fourth stop already of their trip, which was a small town at sea rhumoured to possess a flourishing trading port. Most things they needed they could find around them, wood to burn or plants to eat and fresh water to drink. But it was the luxury products, such as fabrics, medicine, fine leather or a blacksmith to give their gear and weapons a small fix, that could only be found in a city.

The shapes of their town of destination started to rise in the distance and the whole group settled on a clearing not too far from the village. Hiccup had learned a valuable lesson quite some time ago, that if you wanted to be welcomed into a city, DON'T land your dragon anywhere near a town. People tended to freak out at the sight of monstrous, fire-breathing lizardss descending upon their poor homes and would scatter faster than ashes in the wind. Resulting in unnecessary panick and no supplies to go with.

So as soon as they landed Hiccup started to give instructions to a group of strong men and maidens, also known as the guards of the group, they were their first line of defense and maintained the basic structure of order in camp. As usual no one was to leave camp untill they had completely settled down and had set up their base rules. Poor Hiccup was very tired and he was in no mood to organize another search party for lost children.

After that a small group was sent out to fish, the dragons had flown exceptionally far today so a little treat would be in order as a thank you. Within half an hour their camp was starting to take shape, the tents were set up again since they would be staying here for three days before taking off again, and the young viking figured he could get some well-deserved shut eye now. He yawned, made quick do to remove Toothless's gear, and fell down under the shade of an old oak tree. Sighing in contentment as Toothless plopped down beside him with a thud, shaking the ground, and rolled over a few times before deciding he was comfortable as well. Hiccup chuckled and was soon wrapped in a pair of black dragon wings, shielding from light and sound. It never ceased to surprise him how well his dragon could read him and knew how to adapt himself to please his rider. It was under the safe cover of his big black wings where the young man found peace and relaxed, nearly slipping into the dreamscape and catch up on some much needed sleep.

"Oi! Haddock, you sleepin'?" He was roughly pulled back by Robin's voice, assaulted by light as the man lifted one of the wings to reveal the viking curled up against his dragon, earning a startled then annoyed glare from said viking and dragon. He was met with amused blue eyes and freckles smiling at him.

Hiccup sighed in exasperation.

"I was just about to actually."

"Oh, my apologies," Robin kneeled next to him giving his shoulder a friendly slap and offering him an apologetic grin. "Just wanted to let you know that me and a few others are going to that town, thought it'd be my good deed of the day to ask you if you needed anything."

"Besides sleep you mean?"

Robin sniggered at Hiccup's sarcasm, the man loved the dry sense of humor to no end.

"Har har har Haddock, I suppose that's a no. But there are people watching the little ones, so you can go get your beauty sleep."

Robin was about to leave before Hiccup called after him.

"Try to find out how these people feel about big, fire-breathing lizards will you?"

After that Hiccup was gently wrapped up again, enjoying the dark and the nice warmth inside this little cocoon. His subconscious mind detached itself from the vessels of his body and in his dreams he flew among the dragons, headed in no particular direction really. Right now he was just one with the winds and skies letting them show him the way.

It wouldn't be the first time for him to dream about this particular setting. He loved dragons and he loved flying, he always took joy out of these dreams, happy about how his subconscious knew him so well.

He was awoken a few wee hours later, the sun had set already, cloaking his surroundings in the fading pink and purple colors of twilight. The strange rumbling sound of Toothless laughing reached his ears and he looked up to find his Night Fury enjoying a nice belly rub. He instantly recognized the ash-blonde mop of curls, joyfully bouncing around Sybill's smiling face. Wait... was she blowing raspberries on his belly?

The sound of a fat fart made the dragon make sounds he had never heard before, Toothless almost seemed out of breath, making poor choking sounds of laughter. It made Hiccup laugh harder then he had in the past few days, earning the attention of both of them.

She looked surprised, then delighted and ended the series of emotions with an apologetic stare.

"Did we wake you?" Her voice small and eyes big, Hiccup could easily forget how young she actually was.

He got up, stretched his stiff limbs, it's what he got for sleeping on the ground, and casually walked over to them.

"You did," he admitted, but there was no trail of annoyance or anger to be heard in his voice, the girl and dragon both relaxed. "But it was for a good cause, pampering my dragon, you'll spoil him like that you know."

"I couldn't help it," her voice was purposely soft, as if she was trying to hold back a bunch of laughs. Her eyes were giving Toothless the 'I-blame-you' look. "He made me do it you know, your dragon can be very persuasive."

"More like stubborn and demanding, if he really wants something he'll bug you crazy." That comment made Toothless sweep Hiccup off of his feet with a flick of his tail.

"I dare to think he disagrees with you," Sybill earned a happy croon from the Night fury who put his head on her lap begging her with his eyes to be petted. The girl immediately fell for this puppy dog trick and spoiled him. "You're nothing but a big bear hug, are you."

"Ohohoho, I see what's going on here, you're turning my own dragon against me young lady." Hiccup pointed a playfully accusing finger at her.

"You're just jealous that he likes me more than you." The girl threw her arms around Toothless his neck and showered his scaly head with kisses.

"I care to beg the difference!"

"Hiccup's right lass! No one likes you more then I do." Sybill was swiftly stolen from the Night fury who growled in protest and Robin's arrival soon ended in a swirl of laughter and flailing limbs. He had flung the girl over his shoulder one arm closing around her waist and the other around her legs. Robin could easily carry the girl everywhere and anytime he wanted, taking complete advantage of their difference in height to tease her about it.

"Robin! Put me down!" Sybill hit the man's back with her tiny fists, not doing any damage being the weak potato she was.

"Not before you feed me woman! The camp is hungry you know." Ah there it was again, food, the main topic of their discussions. "You were only supposed to get Hiccup for dinner, not sneak off to pet dragons!"

"I got distracted!" She protested, feigning innocence.

"Yeah I noticed!" Robin carried her off to the big campfire where dinner was about to be served. He stopped to look back at Hiccup. "You coming too, or do I have to save a plate for you?"

"No, no I'm comming! I'll catch up with you in a minute." He waved them off and watched the two of them leave, she was back on her own two feet, holding onto the guy's hand, she was leading the way and he happily let her. The sight of them made him feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, knowing deep down that he was part of that silly, loving friendship.

Toothless was either sensing Hiccup's flurry of sentiment or was feeling equally sentimental. The black dragon pushed his nose against Hiccup's shoulder, purring affectionately. His big, green eyes were warm as they looked from the viking to the people around the fire.

"I know bud," Hiccup returned the loving gestures by scratching all of the dragon's favorite places. He knew them by heart and could find them even if blindfolded. "I love them too."

The two of them joined everyone else around the fire soon enough, Hiccup was soon snatched by a couple of girls and young women who needed his opinions on something insignificant. But he wasn't given the chance to answer or say anything for that matter before he was carried off by men of all ages, who were convinced that too much attention from the ladies would go to his head and make him insufferable. Sybill had brought him his dinner, telling him the cooking team had made his favorite meal tonight.

The evening proceeded nicely, people talking, sharing stories, making up stories on the spot to entertain others. His group of people had a source of energy like no one had ever seen before, they glowed in the darkness, like stars in the sky and candles on the table illuminating something great. The older ones carried the children to their beds as soon as their heads started to drop and after a while only a few people were left around the fire, creating a nice and lazy atmosphere.

Robin had snatched the empty place next to Hiccup, Toothless had occupied his other flank, absent-mindedly stroking the light curls of Sybill who was snoozing contently on his lap. His eyes were glued to her peaceful face a faint smile of adoration preoccupying his lips. Hiccup quickly stirred the fire and added a log to fuel it before sitting back down, there was a sense of tension in the air that had been hanging around Robin ever since he had returned from the village. At first Hiccup had not noticed it, thinking nothing much of the frowns that sometimes crept up on his friend's face before he quickly dropped them. He had been awfully quiet during dinner as well, being the usual loud-mouth and prancer it started to nag him a little.

Hiccup had tried to get the man to talk but her had waved it off, signalling him that now was not the right time, later would be better. So here they were, around a nearly empty campfire, about to break the ice and spill the beans.

"So," The young viking broke the nearly deafening silence, even though he hadn't spoken that loud it still sounded like the crack of a thunderbolt. He hesitantly looked over his shoulder to watch Robin's reaction. "Are you going to tell me what happened or should I activate my mind powers to get it?"

Robin didn't respond, which started to worry Hiccup a little, usually Robin would appreciate his 'special' sense of humor. It could only be deadly serious if he remained this quiet.

He sighed. "That bad huh?"

The blonde man next to him tore his eyes from the sleeping girl to meet his gaze. "It's not bad perse, but it is definitely worrisome."

"Why what happened?"

"That's what me and my mates would've liked to know. When we arrived in town, it seemed like it had just been under an attack of some sorts. It was so quiet, there were no people! None at all, but their things were still there, some houses looked like someone had been there just a minute ago. As if they just left whatever it was that they were doing and disappeared into thin air."

"Well that sure is odd," Hiccup's voice was soft, his mind working a double shift as it tried to wrap around what Robin was telling him. Trying to find some sort of answer to this peculiar situation.

"What's even odder and what worries me the most, is that some places were absolutely wrecked! Smashed windows, shattered furniture, Hiccup some houses had completely been burned down!" His voice was getting louder by the end and he stiffened painfully when Sybill started to squirm a little, making soft noises of protest and half asleep mumbling before resuming her nap.

They continued their conversation in hushed voices.

"Do you think this could have been the work of dragons maybe?"

"I don't think so, but I'd have to see it for myself to be sure about it."

"Hiccup, I think we should leave again, whatever happened here is terrible yes, but what if whatever or whoever did this is still around? Their next target could be this camp! We could be in danger already just by being here."

"No!" Hiccup had blurted it out before he had even considered things. He didn't think when he continued. "We're staying."

"What?" Robin looked at him like he had lost his mind.

"We have to find out what is going on here, maybe there is someone still alive in that town, maybe there is something we can do to help!"

"But what if there's not? Think Haddock! Something awful could have happened here, pirates, disease maybe even a dragon attack. We could be endangering the lives of our people by staying here!"

"You don't have to come with me Robin, me and Toothless can check it out one last time, you can prep everyone in this camp to leave tomorow before nightfall. If I find nothing we can go again!"

This ended with a series of half harted chuckles from Robin who shook his head fervently. As if he had just had the stupidest thought in a life time. His deep blue eyes spoke volumes. "Do you really think I'd let you go alone? Hiccup, sometimes I really wonder if your brain is as big or as clever as you claim it to be because, boy, you sure come with the stupidest ideas you know that?"

"It's.. kind of what I do." Hiccup shrugged innocently.

Robin slapped his back, all friendly but super hard and painful anyway. "No if you are going to endanger your life to try and pull off something stupid, I'm going with you and pull off whatever madness with you!"

"But I.."

"End of discussion!" Robin would have made a great viking, firm and stubborn as a rock.

The smile that crept up Hiccup's face was involuntary but a true one nonetheless. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"But," And with that word all of Robin's bravado crumbled away in a heartbeat. "Before we go and get ourselves killed, what exactly are we looking for?"

"Someone, a person, or anything at all that can tell us what happened out there or see if we can help in any way." Hiccup's mind started to form a swift plan of action for the morning.

"Oi! I know that look! Stop thinking Hiccup, this is not the time," Robin gently shoved him, clearing his mind again. "You ought to go fetch some sleep or else you won't be able to keep your eyes open when you need to!

That said and done they bid the others a good night and headed to the seclusion and the quiet that was Robin's tent. Hiccup's tent had not been set up yet so he had to make do with sharing Robin's, not that the big man minded it a single bit. With all madness aside and to put long stories short, his first ever sleepover had been an emergency crash in Robin's tent a few years ago.

He and Toothless had been on guard duty that night and in all confusion he had accidentally stumbled into the wrong tent, not knowing of the mistake untill early morning when the Nightfury had scared the living crap out of Robin by pouncing on his tent like a crazy hellhound.

After that it had become a bit of a habit for them to share a tent, if they weren't it meant that Robin had enough of Toothless early plans for the Viking and wanted to sleep in for a change.

"Haddock, you go ahead, I've got to put this little monkey to bed first." He gestured to the little girl who had latched both her arms and legs around Robin. Her voice was drowsy as she protested.

"I'm no monkey!" She lifted her head from his shoulder so she could look at him. "I ain't got a tail, do I?" She twisted her body awkwardly to check, maybe she thought she was asleep and dreaming. So a tail could be very possible.

Low chuckled rumbled through Robin's chest as he landed a sweet peck on her nose. "Let's go get you safely tucked in before you hurt yourself."

"Robin, can I sleep with Marina tonight? I ... don't want to be alone."

"She's on guard duty if I'm correct, so I'll make you a deal. I'll carry you to Marina's tent and stay with you until you either fall asleep or until Marina's shift is over."

The little girl mumbled something Hiccup couldn't pick up on. But he took it as his cue to head towards his own bed.

"Okay bud, wake us up before sunrise okay?" The dragon just blinked at him and Hiccup took that as a yes.

The young viking stumbled into the tent and dropped himself on the mattress without even bothering to take off his boots, he had to be up in a few hours anyway. When his head touched the pillow he was already off to dreamland. Snoring like a bear.

He didn't notice Robin joining him nearly two hours later, completely exhausted and clumsily going about like a drunk zombie but with this incredibly goofy smile splitting his face.

The night proceeded slowly and dawn crept up on them like a ghost. It would be a few more hours untill sunrise so under normal circumstances the two lads would have been able to catch some more propper sleep. But this was no normal morning.

Out of the blue the ginormous Groncle came and completely destroyed their tent and any other that had been in his way. His massive body crushing the two men and distressed howls and whines woke up half of camp, the dragon's roaring made the other dragon feel restless and caused quite a bit of havoc. Total chaos and panic had struck upon camp before anyone had even had a chance to wake up properly.

Robin cursed like a sailor as he tried to calm Buff down, this was so unlike him! Buff was the embodiment of laziness and relaxation itself! Whatever could have happened to ignite such strange behavior?

"Buff!" The man tried, jumping in front of the dragon to try and catch it's attention. "Calm down would you!"

Toothless had scurried to Hiccup's side in the meantime, who was trying to reel in the other dragons. The Nightfury watched his rider with amusement at his futile attempts and decided to cut things short by firing his famous plasmablast, people and dragons alike were thrown off guard and silenced by the sudden wave of heat and loud bang of purple flames.

"That's one way of doing things... thanks bud!" The black dragon crooned softly at the positive reaction he got from Hiccup.

"You big lump of idiocy! What was that all about?" Robin was at a loss of words, still trying to get the big red Gronckle to calm down still. It kept jumping about, shaking the ground and roaring it's head off.

"What's gotten into him?"

The answer resulted with a firm whip of the big bouldered tail of Buff, throwing his rider onto his back and running off, knocking a few poor guys off their feat.

"Toothless quickly! We have to follow them!" Hiccup had already jumped on Toothless's back trying to lock his foot into the pedal of his flight gear. Only to realise he had not saddled his dragon yet! He growled in frustration and his mind started to race for a sollution. "I'm sorry bud."

He climbed off again and headed for a nearby Nadder.

"Asher, I'm taking your dragon for now, please saddle Toothless in the meantime and follow after me when you're done!" He quickly instructed the Nadder's owner who then hurried off with the Nightfury (who looked back at Hiccup with reluctance in his eyes.) to get him ready to go up in the air.

"Hiccup where are you going!" The goung man had been about to take off but a scared little voice called him back to reason. He turned his head to meet the big scared eyes of a very young boy.

He hopped off again, crouching down in front of the young lad to reach his eye level.

"I'm going after them Theo, don't worry though I'll be back soon!" He pressed his hand firmly on the little boy's shaking shoulder and squeezed some encouragement into him. He stood back up to meet the eyes of the others who were looking at him with mixed emotions. Some were confused, others frightened, and he knew they needed their leader to clear things up.

"Everyone, please listen carefully!" He raised his voice slightly to be heard in the back and tried to sound as positive as possible. "There is no reason to panic! There is no reason to be afraid either, if you want to help me please do so by staying calm and listen to those in charge!" He thanked the gods for keeping his fear out of his voice. "I am going after Robin and Buff and I'm asking you to stay here, I won't be gone for long. I promise!"

The Nadder, whose name turned out to be Spritewing, took off as soon as the young viking had settled behind it's head. The dragon instinctivily knew what direction to head off to and in no time had they caught up with Robin and his mad Gronckle.

But not before they were greeted by a city on fire and people running about, crying out for help.

And after the fastest update in my entire life I hereby (somewhat ashamed) present you the longest wait for an update ever! I sincerely appologize for the long wait and if most of this chapter feels like filler. But I wanted to get the travel asthetics down properly.

Also don't worry about the few new names that were thrown around in this chapter, like I said in the last chapter, only Sybill and Robin will play major parts in this story. Everyone else you may forget about.

A funny fact for you guys. Did you know that, technically speaking, Nadders are actually Wyverns, not Dragons! If they have two wings and two legs they are specified as a Wyvern.

As always I hope you enjoyed what little bits I gave you and let's keep our fingers crossed for more excitement in the next part.