Archive of Our Own

“Fishlegs, where’s Hiccup?” Astrid asks as she walks into the dining hall. 

“Probably obsessing over Viggo, as usual, why are we so worried it's all normal” Snotlout carelessly blurts out, earning a cold hard glare from Astrid. 

“Yeah, he’s probably still working on finding Viggo’s base. At least, that's what we were doing together before I left him to take a break.” Fishlegs shrugs out, but concern is clear on his face.

“And that was…”

 “around lunch...?” Fishlegs cautiously responds, but clearly it wasn’t cautious enough as Astrid's frustration quickly grows. She starts to storm out to Hiccup’s hut, but is stopped by the twins standing in the doorway. 

“Well my dear Astrid, I for one find it endearing. Our brave leader has been clearly outsmarted, and I mean like- really outsmarted. Viggo’s got him beat!” Ruffnut starts. Snotlout giggles at the partially true statement. 

“Yet now he works day and night, to best our ENEMY!!!” Tuffnut finishes, only getting louder as he continues speaking of course.

Tuff continues, “maybe you just don’t see the ferocious trait of hardworking..-ness. Is that even what ferocious means? I thought it did but now as i said it…”

Astrid sighs at their apathy of helping out a friend. She pushes by them and calls Stormfly to fly her down to Hiccup’s hut. 

“Hiccup?” Astrid calls out as she lifts up his hut door. 

“In here!” Hiccup responds, but doesn’t turn around being too absorbed in everything he’s doing. 

She sighs, gently taking the pencil out of his hand as he’s writing, forcing him to look up at her. “Hiccup I’m worried. You’re overworking yourself.” She looks around at the room littered with old maps and anything that could even just remotely help him out in finding Viggo. Hiccup follows her gaze and grimaces at the sight. Even he had to admit, the hut was a mess. 

“Astrid, I'm fine. Right now, our biggest concern should be finding the Dragon Eye before it's too late.”

She takes his hand, getting him to listen. “I know that and we will. But that's not gonna happen if you’re so tired you can’t even think straight.” He opens his mouth but she stops him and continues. “You need a break. Come on, the team’s eating dinner right now. Come join.” She turns to the maps all laid out.

“Yeah I guess I could eat. Woah wha- what are you doing?” He asks as Astrid rolls up his layout of maps and clues. 

“Taking this with me. Obviously I can’t trust you to just stop on your own. You’re Hiccup.” She says with a small smile. He returns it, just so slightly. As overbearing Astrid can get when it came to his well being, it only meant she cared. And something about that fact always warmed his heart in a special way. 

—

“Hiccup! Coming to join us I see.” Tuffnut exclaims as Hiccup walks in, Astrid following holding all the papers. “Woah, is that what you’ve been doing all day?”

Hiccup looks back at Astrid fumbling around to keep ahold of everything, then he looks back at the group sheepishly. “Yeah, just locating different islands and ruling if they—“

“BORING!” Snotlout interrupts. “Can’t we just eat in peace without talking about dragon hunters?”

“What, are you scared?” Ruffnut teases. Tuff laughs.

“No-no, he’s right,” Hiccup says as he sits down. “Sorry guys, I guess I’ve been a little too obsessed with finding Viggo lately. Let’s talk about something else for once.” He gives Astrid a reassuring smile, making sure she’s satisfied with his response. 

—

“-and that's how you start a successful avalanche!” Tuffnut exclaims, banging helmets with Ruffnut in pride. He slurps the flavor off his last yak chop, earning a cringed look from Astrid. 

“Well, on the topic of avalanches, we need to plan our preparation for the blizzard coming tomorrow night” Fishlegs says matter-of-factly.

Snotlout rolls his eyes at Fishlegs’ paranoia, which is a common occurrence. “Wow Fishface, way to ruin the fun” 

“No he’s right. We need to make sure everything is closed up and prepped. This is gonna be the biggest storm of the year” Hiccup says. 

“Which I will be handling. As the island-voted Storm Warden.” Astrid says. “Don’t worry Hiccup. We all work as a team. You can relax on this one.” She says. He sighs.

“Fine. But if you need help-“

“I’ll come get you yes, yes.” Hiccup nods in satisfaction. 

“Alright, I don’t know about you guys but I’m going to bed. See ya.” Snotlout says getting up with a stretch. The others follow. Hiccup tries to hang back for a bit and take a peak at his maps, but is ultimately shoved out by Astrid and Toothless, just wanting him to get rest. 

—

“Alright bud. Since Astrid took all of our work, might as well get some rest.” Hiccup says to his dragon, who’s setting up his little “bed”. Hiccup sighs, seeing the evident exhaustion of Toothless. Maybe he had overworked the dragon, and the others. 

Which was why he had to work while he could. To not stress the others out. If Hiccup could get all his research done while the group was sleeping, he could lay off in the morning and look like he’s taking a break. They’d be happy with him, and he’d be happy with his progress. Careful not to wake Toothless, Hiccup slowly raises his door and heads off the mess hall. 

Right as he stepped outside Hiccup could feel the stinging chill in the air, reminding him of the blizzard coming soon. He thought about setting up preparations, but ultimately decided against it since Astrid wanted the job, and they weren’t supposed to know Hiccup’s up to do this anyways. 

Laying out the supplies on the big center table, Hiccup immediately got to work. Drawing up plan after plan, dozens of possible theories as to where Viggo could be going with the Dragon Eye. If he was even taking the Dragon Eye with him. Hiccup groaned in frustration realizing that Viggo could be hiding the Dragon Eye somewhere too. 

But, no. That wouldn’t make sense. Because then what purpose would the Eye have hidden? Unless Viggo’s main goal was just to keep the Dragon Eye hidden, and in that case it’s currently sitting at the bottom of the ocean. Hiccup sighed and tossed the failed idea behind him, starting a fresh plan. 

Papers were littered everywhere from failed drafts. Maps laid out all over the table lined up in a specific thought process that only a sleep-deprived Hiccup could understand. But he did, because this meant much more than just a victory. It was protecting his island, the dragons, Berk, his friends, and possibly preventing a war. 

The fireplace started to dwindle, but the light filling the room only got brighter. Another failed stupid plan. He growled in frustration, tossing the paper behind him to join the pile. But it didn’t hit the floor. Taking a second to realize this, Hiccup whipped his head around. 

“And to think I didn’t want to get up. Hiccup breaking down! Has Snoggletog come early?” Snotlout blurted out with a cackle, the crumpled paper in his hand. 

“Oh great” Hiccup muttered, seeing the gang all standing in the doorway eyeing the mess. Toothless stood in the front clearly concerned, also looking a bit guilty. “Toothless bad! You really had to wake ‘em all up?” The dragon in question walks over to Hiccup, nuzzling his head under Hiccup’s hand. 

Astrid pushes forward now, “are you kidding me? What happened to your promise yesterday?” 

“Well I don’t know if I ever-“

“Whaaa- Hiccup Haddock, of all people! I never expected you to be the one to break a promise. So disappointing.” Tuffnut says, shaking his head. 

“So disappointing indeed, brother.” Ruff agrees. 

“No, guys. I never promised anything. I took my break yesterday and just wanted to get some research and ideas down before you all woke up. So I could help with locking down the Edge for the blizzard during the day.” Hiccup tries to explain. 

“No. There will be no helping with the blizzard or writing ideas down for you until you get proper rest and your mind off things for a day at least!” Astrid says pushing the papers away from where Hiccup’s sitting. “I mean have you seen yourself?”

  “Uh- uh no? What do you mean by ‘have you seen yourself’”

“She means that you look dead! Your eyes are red and your reaction times are so slow that even Meatlug could surprise you.” Snotlout says, being brutally honest as always. 

Hiccup looks at Fishlegs for help. “I- well- Fishlegs you’ve been doing some of this research with me! You know how important this is..”

Fishlegs looks at Hiccup guilty as to what he’s about to say. “I’m sorry Hiccup, but Astrid’s right. You can’t keep working like this. I mean, you haven’t been able to think of a single good plan the whole night because of how tired you are.” He motions to the floor which is littered with crumpled up papers. 

Hiccup sighs, but gets up. “Fine,” he shrugs. “But this doesn’t go on for more than one day” he waves his finger at all of them, earning a round of nods. “C’mon bud” he calls Toothless, climbing on his back and flying down to their hut. 

It doesn’t take long for Hiccup to fall asleep. As much as he hated to admit it, he was a little relieved that he’d agreed to at least one day of rest. It was much needed. 

—

After watching Hiccup enter his hut, Astrid rallies together the rest of the group. “Ok guys. We need to prepare for the incoming blizzard. According to Fishlegs weather calculations-“

  “Which is never wrong, by the way,” Fishlegs adds with a smile.

“Right- this blizzard could be the worst we’ve seen in a while. We’re gonna need plenty of food available, for both humans and dragons, warmth, water, shelter, and protection on the huts. I’m going to cover for Hiccup’s patrol shift. Fishlegs, you get the food and water we need together, and store it all in here, accessible. Ruff, Tuff, and Snotlout. You three will board up the windows of the huts and other facilities. We don’t want to risk them getting torn apart.”

“Ugh. Who put you in charge?” Tuffnut asks.

“We all did. It was an island vote as to who would be Storm Warden, and we unanimously picked me.” Astrid says getting annoyed at their incompetence.

“Well, I’d like to rescind my vote!” Tuff snaps back.

“Too late for that. Does everyone understand their assignments?” She asks, and receives a bunch of nods. “Alright. We’ll meet back up in a couple hours to see where we are at. Stormfly, let's go.” Stormfly lets out a small roar, signaling that she’s ready. As they turn to the door, Toothless pounces in their way, eyes wide. He nudges Astrid a couple of times. “What Toothless? Is Hiccup doing something?”

The dragon just sits up and looks at her in response, implying that the answer to that question was a no. 

Astrid sighs. “You wanna help?” The dragon smiles in return, which gets a little laugh out of Astrid. She runs a hand over the area between his eyes, “Okay, fine. You can come with Stormfly and I, you can help herd the dragons that don’t fly into their shelters.” Toothless nods, jumping out the exit. Astrid follows now on her dragon's back.

“eugh. If there’s anything I don’t like, it's an overly smart dragon.” Ruffnut says at the interaction just seen between Astrid and Toothless. 

“Tell me about it, sis. Which is why Barf and Belch are so great!” He says looking affectionately back at their dragons. They hop on, followed by Snotlout and Hookfang going off to the same. 

“Alright come on girl, we’ve got work to do!” Fishlegs says to Meatlug as she excitedly jumps up and down. He tosses her a little rock that had eroded off the cliff and onto their landing platform, to which she excitedly eats. They head off to gather enough crops and feed for the dragons. 

“Ugh. This is totally the worst job ever. I mean, how does Astrid think saving the huts takes precedence over protecting the boar pit?!” Tuffnut says as he and Ruffnut head down to board up Hiccup’s hut.

“Don’t worry bro, she clearly just doesn’t understand true entertainment.”

As they line up a board onto Hiccup's window, Tuff notices a glimmer in the light. He drops the board on the ground. “Oh. My. Thor.” he says immediately abandoning the task to climb through the window. “Hiccup’s inferno sword! Ruff, look!” He says shaking it in an attempt to turn it on. It just clanks around.

“Tuff! He’s gonna wake up!” 

“Relax sis. Hiccup’s like, days sleep deprived. I don’t think anything's waking him up right now. And Toothless is off doing- well, I wasn’t listening when Astrid said what he was doing, but it's something!” He half-whispers back. Ruffnut sees this as enough reassurance and walks in to check out the sword. 

“Ooh Hiccup would never let me use this! If he saw me right now” Tuffnut shakes the sword around trying to turn it on. 

“Woah- watch it!” Ruffnut says, dodging the sword. In doing so, she trips over and falls, knocking over Hiccup’s chest. They flinch at the loud noise, almost sure that Hiccup would wake up. But he doesn’t, being in such need of sleep. 

“Sis, you just hit the jackpot.” 

Ruffnut turns to see what she fell on, and can only marvel at the box of Hiccup’s gadgets that he’d never usually allow them to touch. It only takes one look for them to agree on what to do. They drag the box outside and start rummaging around.

Snotout, up at his own hut right now, notices the pause in hammers banging and looks over at what progress the twins were making. “Ugh. How come we had to get paired with them?” He says to Hookfang noticing that they’ve stopped working. “They’re as useful as yaks in water. And that's a lot coming from me.”  Snotlout flies down to Hiccup's porch area, where the twins sat admiring their finds.

“Guys why have you-“ He starts but once he spots what they’ve come across, he stops.

“Oh hey Snot. We found Hiccup’s inventions, wanna join?” Tuffnut says, unsheathing a miniature inferno sword. 

“Uhhh, a-duh!” He says sliding next to them. The trio looks through the stuff for a while, exploring what is usually off-limits to them.

Meanwhile, at the beach, Fishlegs and Meatlug were hard at work. “Ok girl. We’re running out of time to gather food so you have to deliver these buckets of fish to each person's hut yourself. We’re giving everyone a backup supply of dragon feed just in case something happens to the one at the hall.” He places the buckets precariously on the gronkle’s back, making sure each one was balanced. 

“Ok, I’ll be here finishing gathering food for the hall. Meet back after you're done.” She grumbles in response and flies off to complete the task.

—

Meatlug lands on Hiccup’s hut platform, the last bucket of fish balanced on her back. She shakes it off in front of Hiccup's door. “Oh! Hey Meatlug… uhh” Tuffnut says to the dragon, who’s now eyeing them suspiciously. 

Snotlout shoves her sniffing nose out of his face. “Out of all dragons to see us it had to be you! Fishlegs, why did you teach her to be such a straight-arrow.”

Tuffnut starts digging through the chest, then holds up one of Hiccup’s spare legs. “Aha! I see Hiccup do this with Toothless all the time. Go fetch dragon!” He chucks the leg over the cliff and Meatlug excitedly flies down to retrieve it. 

“That… actually worked.” Snotlout says, a little surprised. 

“Of course it worked. For I, Tuffnut Thorston, am a dragon master!” 

“Eugh, whatever man.” Snotlout says turning back to the chest. Before they could do much more, Meatlug was back shaking her tail excitedly. “Look what you’ve done. She wants to fetch again.” 

“Don’t worry my friend” Tuffnut says to the dragon, fishing something out of the chest. “There is more where that came from!” He pulls out another of Hiccup’s spare legs and tosses it over the edge again. The dragon excitedly chases. This continues for a couple more rounds. 

Tuffnut grabs another one from the chest, tossing it over. “Hopefully this time she actually finds the leg, because this  is the last one. I don’t know where she’s been putting them all.”

Snotlout quickly gets up from his position, “wait, she hasn’t been bringing them back?”

“Uhm, no? It’s fine though since Hiccup has like 3 spare legs. He really doesn’t trust himself…” 

“No! He doesn’t trust us! Prime example right here.” Snotlout gestures to Tuffnut, who’s now thrown all three of Hiccup’s spare legs over the edge, “I thought you were playing fetch!”

Tuffnut shrugs. “We have. Just Meatlugs pretty bad at fetching… legs.”

“No dummy! Meatlug’s been eating the legs. They’re metal!” Snotlout palms his face in disbelief. “Oh Hiccup’s gonna kill us. We’ve given the gronkle a taste for his metal leg!” 

He looks over and sees Ruffnut and Tuffnut scurrying to put all the gadgets they’ve been looking at away. He sighs, but helps them anyway. They quietly put the chest back where they found it, and head back outside. 

Tuffnut picks up a piece of sheetmetal, and lines it up on Hiccup’s window. “Well guys, I remember nothing. Take it to the grave!” 

Snotlout huffs, “Yeah, right.” He looked around and chuckled nervously. “But actually, Hiccup does have a strong punch. So.. let’s do that please” He grimaces, recalling that time Hiccup had punched him in the face, then gets on Hookfang and heads to his hut to finish boarding it up. 

Everyone finished their jobs in the next hour or so. Astrid and Fishlegs were a little confused as to why the twins and Snotlout were actually working, but didn’t want to ruin it so just kept quiet. 

“Alright guys. I actually didn’t expect this to go so well… Good job?” Astrid says to the group, mainly towards the twins and Snotlout. 

“Heh.. yeah all in a day’s work” Tuffnut says cracking his knuckles. 

“Where’s Meatlug? It’s her early afternoon snacktime. She never misses early afternoon snacktime.” Fishlegs says looking around. Snotlout glances back at Ruffnut and Tuffnut. They just shake their heads, signaling to stay quiet on the situation. It doesn’t last long though, as they hear Hiccup yelling from his hut. They all rush out the door and down to Hiccup’s platform to see what’s going on. There’s a hole torn through his door that’s ‘oddly’ the size of about Meatlug. 

“Uhh hey Meatlug, what’s going on girl?” They hear from inside his hut. “What- what are you- how’d you even? No- no! Give that back Meatlug!” They hear a thump, then another, followed by a playful growl. Suddenly Meatlug flies through the hole smacking her lips and Hiccup stumbles out hobbling behind her, ultimatley tripping and rolling right in front of all of them. 

“What the..” Fishlegs looks confused at his dragon and her odd behavior. “Meatlug, why were you in there?” 

Hiccup looks up at the group, who’s watching the interaction. Astrid helps him up, allowing Hiccup to lean on her for support. “Yeah, the better question is why did Meatlug eat my metal leg?” He sticks out the nub of a leg he has, and jumps a bit to gain balance. 

Snotlout can’t help himself, and lets out a cackle. “Oh this is priceless.” He looks at Hiccup, the ever so perfect one, whose eyes are now red from exhaustion, hair all tousled from abrupt sleep, and hobbling on one leg. They all just look at Snotlout annoyed. “I mean he’s the dragon master according to you all, yet he lets his leg just get eaten by a gronkle! A gronkle!” Snotlout just continues laughing. Astrid scoffs, and Hiccup rolls his eyes. 

“Yeah yeah ,very funny. Fishlegs you need to keep an eye on her more. I guess she’s not as perfectly trained as you thought.” He positions himself to face the group more. “Astrid can you-“ he does a little jump signaling that he is in fact still standing with no leg.

“Oh.. right. Get a leg” She lets him lean on Toothless, and steps into his hut to find the spares. Snotlout, Ruff, and Tuff all share a look, knowing what’s about to come. 

“Meatlug girl, we talked about this. There are certain metals you can’t have! And although I didn’t mention it, I feel like you should understand that Hiccup’s leg is out of the question.” Fishlegs reprimands, receiving a low grumble in return. “No! No early afternoon snack for you today.” Meatlug gives him a sad look, and Fishlegs can’t help but coo at the dragon. “Oh don’t worry girl. You’ll get your afternoon snack though.” 

Astrid walks back out, empty handed. Hiccup looks at her confused. “Uh Astrid, the leg?” 

“Yeah you didn’t happen to change where you keep them all, right?” She asks sheepishly. 

“No they should be all in the chest” he starts to jump over inside to see. Toothless just scoops him up on his back and walks Hiccup over himself. “Thanks bud.” Hiccup gives Toothless a little pat on the head, then looks in the chest. “How could this be? I have three spares where are they? And, why is this such a mess in here? This is not how I leave—“ he slowly turns around and sees Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout all looking opposite directions, trying to seem innocent. 

“Oh what did you guys do this time? Did you go through my stuff while I was asleep?” He asks, hobbling over to the trio. The intimidation tactic is soon failed though, as he just stumbles right in front of them. Fishlegs ends up catching one of his arms to hold him up. “where did you put my metal legs?” theres’ no response. “Fine I’ll just—“

“Okay, okay! We were looking through your chest and Meatlug found us so we decided to play fetch to distract her just like you do with Toothless but Tuffnut didn’t realize that she was eating the legs so we accidently gave her a taste for your metal legs and when she wanted more she ate it right off you!” Snotlout blurts out. He lets out a sigh. “Whew. That felt good to get out.” 

The twins stare at him in disbelief. “Seriously? He didn’t even say what he was gonna do!” Tuff says.

“So much for taking it to the grave. You broke under no pressure.” Ruffnut adds. 

“Are you guys kidding! Now we have no materials to make more legs! And we can’t go back to Berk since a storm is coming right through the passage!” Astrid yells. Hiccup puts a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, but it doesn’t do much. 

“I knew my Meatlug wouldn’t just steal. Aww don’t worry girl I never doubted you. Well, I guess for a second I did but only for a second!” Fishlegs hugs Meatlug, to which she lets out a happy grumble. 

Astrid sighs, “Alright, well we might as well head over to the clubhouse.”

Astrid started walking toward the main hall, and everyone started to follow. Hiccup, the ever so independent one,  attempted to hop using Toothless as support. He was their leader, after all. He needed no one’s help but his and Toothless’.

Even so, it only took two steps for Hiccup’s foot to catch a ridge in the ground and send him flying. Toothless squealed, and Hiccup collided straight into Fishlegs. “Whoa!” Fishlegs yelped, catching him before he hit the ground. This interaction earned nothing but a sigh from Hiccup. 

Snotlout immediately burst out laughing. “You know, for a guy who’s always talking about balance, you’re surprisingly bad at it.”

“Oh really?” Hiccup shot back. “How about you try walking with one leg?” It wasn’t like Hiccup to be so snarky in his responses, but having one leg and almost no sleep for the past couple days was gonna make him petty. 

Snotlout crossed his arms, being the ever so confident one. “Honestly, I’d probably be incredible at it.” 

“Please Snotlout, enlighten us and try,” Astrid muttered. Snotlout lifts his leg to hobble, but as soon as he notices his off-balance stops and just keeps walking normally.  

Toothless crouched beside Hiccup and nudged him with his head. “Thanks, bud.” Hiccup patted his dragon on the head. The Night Fury immediately scooped Hiccup onto his back in response. “There. Much better.” Hiccup admitted.

Before anyone could say any more, a loud crackling filled the clouds. Everyone looked up at this, seeing that the sky had gone noticeably darker. The steady snowfall -usual in viking winters- was rapidly changing to something worse. 

Wind whipped through the Edge, rattling shutters and sending loose snow spiraling through the air. “Uhh guys?” Snotlout said concerned. 

Fishlegs slowly turned toward the clouds gathering above them. “Oh.”

Nobody liked the sound of that. “Oh?” Astrid repeated.

Fishlegs adjusted his helmet. “Well… that’s not what… I had calculated previously.”

Astrid sighed at his vagueness. They had all trusted Fishlegs before to find out how much time they had before the storm. Usually, it was Hiccup and Fishleg’s job. But obviously, Hiccup’s been occupied. This wasn’t ideal to suddenly not have time to prepare. “Fishlegs.” 

“The storm appears to be moving faster than anticipated.” He mumbles out shyly. 

“Fishlegs.” Astrid said, the anger in her tone only increasing. 

“Much faster.”

Snotlout juts in, needing answers. “How much faster? Thanks to those two muttonheads,” he motions to the twins, “my hut isn’t fully prepared for the storm. My S is exposed…” Astrid only glares at him, and Snotlout quickly corrects himself. “But of course, we have other, bigger issues.” 

A particularly strong gust answered for him, forcing the entire group to lean against the wind. Even Hookfang, the biggest and heaviest of the dragons, dug his claws into the platform. Fishlegs winced and turned to the group. “A lot faster.”

Almost immediately another crack sounded from somewhere across the island. The twins pointed, at the same time, to what seemed to be the directions of the sound’s origin. “Hut.” Tuffnut noted. 

Ruffnut nodded her head. “That was definitely a hut. Y’know, it was probably Astrid’s hut. Since of course, we didn’t get to reinforce it.”

Astrid groaned. “Everybody move. Now.”

The riders quickly mounted their dragons and headed toward the clubhouse. Astrid waited for Hiccup, but quickly realized that since he had no left leg to ride Toothless, they were grounded. “Here, Hiccup ride Stormfly up. I’ll fly Toothless.” She said. Toothless warbled in response to being separated from his rider, but Hiccup patted his head and carefully stepped off. 

“Good idea.” He hobbled over to Stormfly, and Astrid helped hoist him up onto the dragon. Hiccup waited to make sure Astrid was set on Toothless, then they rode off to the clubhouse. 

As they crossed the Edge, they began seeing the upcoming consequences that the storm has in store. Icicles lined every rooftop, some falling off and piercing the wood beneath. Trees blew in the wind, and Astrid was sure that they’d eventually fall over. 

By the time they reached the clubhouse, snow was already beginning to pile against the walls. Snotlout and Fishlegs strained to hold the doors open for them, as the increasing snowfall made it difficult. Seeing their struggling, Hiccup and Astrid rushed inside and the two let go of the doors, letting the wind slam them shut. Hiccup flinched, almost sure that there was gonna be an issue with the doors from that once the storm cleared. 

For a brief moment there was silence. Then everyone started talking at once.

“Alright, where’s our food supply.”

“We should inventory weapons.”

“No, we should find Chicken.”

Everybody turned.

Tuffnut looked offended. “What? Chicken is important.” Everyone just paused, he genuinely seemed to have that at the top of his worries right now. “Actually, she’s not just important, she’s family,” He corrected.

Chicken clucked proudly as she jumped atop his shoulder. “Ah! Good Chicken, there you are. I knew you would turn up.”

Astrid stepped forward. “Okay. Nobody panic. It’s just a mid-winter storm.”

“Nobody’s panicking,” Snotlout said, in a tone that sounded a lot like panic. “Like you said, it’s just another big mid-winter storm. That we’ve dealt with plenty of times. Back at Berk. With our parents. And with the Chief. And- oh my Thor we are going to die!” 

Astrid sighed as another gust of wind rattled the clubhouse walls. It was Hiccup’s job to keep everyone in check. But looking over at their leader leaning on his dragon, one-legged, and barely awake, Astrid felt like she had to step up and make it her responsibility. This was going to be a rough snow-in. 

Snow blasted against the windows hard enough that they could barely see outside anymore. The storm had rolled in so quickly that by the time everyone reached shelter, the passage out of the Edge had completely disappeared behind a curtain of white.

At least all the dragons were accounted for.

Barf and Belch were curled up near the far wall. Hookfang was asleep beside the forge. Meatlug had somehow convinced Stormfly to share the warm spot closest to the fire, though the Gronkle kept eyeing Hiccup every few minutes.

Hiccup noticed this and pointed at her. “Don’t.” Meatlug grumbled innocently. “You know exactly what you did.”

She looked away.

Fishlegs went over to pet his dragon. “I think she feels bad.” Meatlug grumbled happily as Fishlegs scratched her head. 

“She ate four legs, Fishlegs.”

“It’s not her fault she was given the taste for your metal legs! If anything it’s theirs.” He pointed across the room. 

Ruffnut was digging through a pile of scrap metal while Tuffnut sorted through a barrel of odds and ends. “Do we have any yak chains?”

Snotlout, sprawled across one of the benches watching them with obvious amusement, questioned out. “What exactly is a yak chain?”

“It’s a chain.” Tuffnut responded. 

“Good start.”

“For yaks.” Ruffnut added. 

He sighed at their vague yet stupid answer. “You know, if you two spent half this much effort doing actual work, we’d probably have conquered the Archipelago by now.”

“We don’t conquer anything, Snotlout.” Hiccup said, now involved with this painful-to-listen-to interaction. 

Tuff nodded seriously. “Yeah, we liberate.”

Hiccup looked at Tuffnut for a second, confused if he was being serious or not. “I- I guess you could put it that way. I mean we liberate dragons from dragon hunter’s captivity so.”

Snotlout rolled his eyes. “Okay, boring. No need to get technical.”

Near the fireplace, Fishlegs sat with a Maces and Talons board set up. “Hey Hiccup. Come play me!” He invited. The two of them always loved playing Maces and Talons. Unfortunatley, no one else liked to play them because of how good the two were at playing the game. Which was fine with Hiccup and Fishlegs, because they were always down to play each other anyways. 

Hiccup patted Toothless on the head, quietly asking for him to get up so he could help him over. Toothless grumbled, but got up anyway. Hiccup set up his pieces on the board, and not so long afterwards the two were deep in a game. 

Astrid smirked from where she sat sharpening her axe nearby. For the first time in days, Hiccup actually looked relaxed. Sure, he still looked exhausted and not totally himself, but there was no maps, plans, or Viggo surrounding him as usual. Just a board game and a snowstorm. Maybe this snowstorm has its silver linings after all. She thought as she watched them play. 

Fishlegs frowned at the board. “Hmm.” It was clear he was generating a play up.

Hiccup immediately narrowed his eyes. “What?” He asked suspiciously. 

Fishlegs continued staring. “Nothing.” He replied, but the growing smirk on his face said otherwise. 

“Fishlegs.”

“I’m just saying, your Viking Chief is exposed.”

“My Viking Chief is not exposed.” Hiccup replied, offended that he would even say such a thing. 

“It very much is.”

Hiccup looked down. “Oh.” For anyone who knew the game, they would know that was an amateur move. One very unlike Hiccup. So clearly Hiccup wasn’t thinking straight. The more Fishlegs thought about that, he knew it could be for many reasons. Hiccup could just have the exhaustion catching up to him, his mind could be preoccupied with thoughts of finding the Dragon Eye, or maybe even the growing chill that’s been filling the room from outside could be getting to him. Fishlegs doubted the last one, but he honestly hoped that it was that option. 

Fishlegs grinned despite those thoughts. “And my Hunter attacks.”

Hiccup slams his fist on the board, shaking the pieces up a little bit in doing so. “Oh come on.”

Fishlegs readjusted the pieces, and moved his forward. “My two Hunters trap your Viking Chief, taking the game.” He nods proudly at his win. 

Hiccup groaned. “That was totally unfair. I don’t know what happened”

“You say that every time you’re losing.” Fishlegs replied, a little agitated that his friend couldn’t just take the loss.

Astrid sighed watching the interaction. The two never argue. Not with anyone, and especially not with each other. She didn’t want to pin all the blame for the fight on Fishlegs but, well, she could definitely knock some sense into him right now. He knows the state Hiccup’s in and should know better than to instigate his overexhausted snarky comments. 

“Well-“ Hiccup started. 

“Aha!” Tuffnut suddenly shouted, unknowingly breaking up the incoming argument. Astrid internally sighed. 

Everybody jumped.

“I have done it!”

“Oh no,” Astrid muttered, all her thanks towards Tuffnut dissipating as she awaited whatever mess he has created now. 

Ruffnut nodded enthusiastically. “No brother, we have done it.” She put her hands on her hips and proudly boasted. “Hiccup Haddock, get ready to be amazed with the impeccable Thorston craftsmanship.”

“Oh no,” Hiccup echoed.

The twins grabbed something from behind the workbench and carried it toward him. It looked like something that had been assembled during a fever dream. Several pieces of metal were riveted together at strange angles. As they presented the thing up, some little piece fell off and to the ground with a clank. 

Chicken clucked proudly on Tuff’s shoulder as they presented it. 

“Guys…” Hiccup started, annoyance already laced in his tone.

Tuffnut held up a hand. “We need no words.”

“Not one.” Ruff added. 

“Just appreciation.” Ruffnut and Tuffnut proudly presented the creation. “We are sorry we fed all your legs to Meatlug.” Tuffnut paused. “Although technically it wasn’t our fault. We had no clue Miss Rock Eater over there would be indulging in metal too.”

“And caused your current leglessness.” Ruffnut finished. 

“We’ve been over this many times! Gronkles eat both rocks and metals! Gronkle Iron? What do you think that came from?” Fishlegs says, defending his dragon from the blame.

“Whatever. We made you a new one, Hiccup.”

Hiccup stared at the thing, then at the twins. “Oh I see. It’s a leg” A pause. “…Thanks, guys.” He tried to replace the annoyance in his voice with optimism as he spoke. 

Astrid immediately recognized that tone. It was the same tone Hiccup used whenever Gobber showed him a weapon that was definitely going to break on impact.

The twins either didn’t notice or didn’t care, as Tuffnut practically shoved it into his hands. “Try it on, H. Only the best for you”

“Maybe don’t—” Fishlegs advised, but the twins persisted. 

“Try it on,” Ruffnut repeated.

Snotlout grinned, seeing Hiccup torn between being a good friend or keeping his sanity, he pushed his friend a little bit further. “Oh definitely try it on.”

Hiccup sighed. “Fine, fine. I’ll try it out.” With surprising ease, Hiccup attached the makeshift prosthetic. He looked at the twins, who were eagerly waiting for him to stand. He sighed and stood up, slowly. The leg actually held.

The twins gasped, excited that their creation was successful. Astrid blinked, still wary of the design and concerned for Hiccup. Snotlout just looked disappointed that he hasn’t crashed yet. 

Hiccup cautiously shifted his weight. “Huh.” Another step. “Huh.” He repeated. 

Fishlegs leaned forward. “Oh my Thor, I think it works.”

The second the words left his mouth, a loud crack echoed through the room as if on cue.

Hiccup froze. The leg folded in half and dropped Hiccup straight down. He slammed against the floor, groaning in pain. Toothless was immediately at his side grumbling in concern. 

For a moment there was complete silence. Then Snotlout fell off the bench laughing. “Oh, that was great!” He was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. “Go make more guys!” Astrid glared at him as she and toothless helped Hiccup up. 

“Well.” Tuffnut said, accepting the leg’s fate. 

Ruffnut nodded thoughtfully. “Back to the drawing board.”

“Back to the drawing board indeed, sis.”

Hiccup stared after the twins in anger. Astrid noticed this and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hiccup…” She could tell he was about to break. 

He stared down at the shattered leg. Then over at Astrid. 

Meanwhile, Tuffnut and Ruffnut had been arguing on the next design. “Right H? A more modern take on it would be ideal, but for aesthetic reasoning you need-“ 

“Okay. That’s enough. I’ve had it.” Hiccup snaps. “This whole time, I’ve tried to keep quiet about my worries with Viggo. Then you guys take my work away.” He hobbles away from Astrid, leaning all his weight on Toothless to address them all. “Of course, lucky us, the biggest storm that we’ve seen in years comes in faster than ever. But, we aren’t prepared because you guys had sent me to sleep during storm prep. And nothing, I mean nothing got done!” He laughs, not in amusement though. “Then, somehow, even in my own hut sleeping, you guys find a way to get to me. And Meatlug eats all my metal legs! And if I recall, somehow it’s MY fault?” 

Everyone was silent. They hadn’t realized how much Hiccups been holding back up until this point. Even Snotout was stunned into silence. 

“So I’m sorry Tuff, but no. I don’t need a ‘modern take’ on the leg, or whatever you wanted. All I need is to wait this storm out and go back to Gobber. After that, I will destroy Viggo and his project.” He said, no longer yelling, but the annoyance was still prominent in his tone. 

“Hiccup..” Astrid said,trying to reach out to him, to which he hopped back a step. 

Hiccup sighed, trying to calm himself enough to speak. “I am going to work on my maps now. You guys do what you want, I am getting work done.” He said, implying that at this point, no one should be taking his stuff away from him again. “Let’s go bud.” He said softly to the dragon, who started walking him away from the group. 

As Toothless took Hiccup to the corner where Astrid had left his maps, the others finally disbanded from their little circle where Hiccup had yelled at them. Astrid, still being the angry member of the group, chucked the pieces of the leg into the fire. Hiccup had never yelled at them before. Matter of fact, he never yelled at anyone like that before. 

Astrid had thought all his anger was from the others, but was her taking Hiccup’s work away from him really that anger invoking? Which Astrid hadn’t realized? She looked across the room, where Hiccup had already engrossed himself in maps and theories. She watched as he flipped through pages of an old book, totally oblivious to her stare. 

After that, everyone had finally settled down a little. The storm outside hadn’t. The clubhouse creaked every now and then as powerful gusts slammed against the walls. Snow rattled against the shutters. Somewhere overhead, something loose banged repeatedly against the roof.

Fishlegs insisted everything was structurally sound, yet nobody felt particularly reassured by that.

As evening turned into night, the riders slowly spread out around the clubhouse. Hookfang, Barf and Belch, Stormfly, Toothless, and Meatlug had all claimed spots around the fire, creating a large pile of dragon scales, wings, and tails that occasionally shifted whenever one of them got comfortable.

At some point, Fishlegs had brought out the Maces and Talons board again.

He offered Hiccup to play, to which he declined. Astrid reassured Fishlegs that it was nothing against him, and Hiccup was just still a little worked up from before. Seeing Fishlegs down, Astrid reluctantly offered herself as an opponent instead. 

At some point after that, Hiccup had fallen asleep halfway through his work

Nobody had noticed at first, as nobody even looked his way. No one really wanted to risk making eye-contact with an angry Hiccup anyways.

“Okay, so if my Cavern Crasher attacks from the western ridge—” Fishlegs stopped talking. Astrid wasn’t looking at the board anymore. He followed her gaze to the area where Hiccup was. His head had tilted back against the wall. One arm was still resting on the table. The charcoal he’d been writing with sat loosely between his fingers. Fishlegs looked around the room. “Uh.”

Astrid glanced back at Fishlegs, forgetting that they had been playing. “Oh. Uhm.”

After the last few days, it wasn’t exactly shocking he’d knocked out like that. Snotlout snorted from across the room. “Imagine being so tired you fall asleep in the middle of working. After yelling at everyone for needing to finish it! Hah!” 

Fishlegs looked offended for his friend. “That’s actually very serious.”

“Or your guys’ maps are just plain boring!”

“They’re not boring. It’s what is going to help us find Viggo before it’s too late.”

Snotlout opened his mouth to argue. Then closed it. He thought about it for a second, then opened it again. “Well look how far that’s gotten you.” He said smugly. 

While the two continued bickering, Ruffnut quietly wandered over to the table. She leaned forward and stared at Hiccup for several seconds. Nothing happened. “Hmm.” She waved a hand in front of his face. Nothing happened. “Tuff.”

Tuffnut looked up from where he was attempting to teach Chicken how to do Thor knows what. “What?”

“I think he’s dead.” She said. Obviously no one else was as concerned and knew the twins were ridiculous, but they let the bit continue. 

Tuffnut abandoned Chicken and joined her. The two crouched beside Hiccup, prodding him. “Tough call.”

She nodded in agreement. “Tough call indeed.” Now they were snapping in his face, Chicken clucking along with the two. 

“He usually makes some kind of annoyed noise by now.”

“Or gives a speech.”

“Oh, yeah! Definitely a speech.”The twins looked at each other, then back at Hiccup. They poked him, yet Hiccup didn’t move. Now Toothless was awake at the commotion for his rider. He walked over to the twins and growled for them to back up and let Hiccup be. They quickly withdrew their hands and listened. 

“Okay -uhh- no problem Toothless.” Ruffnut assures.

“It’s okay T. Anger is one of the stages of grief. I get you.” Tuffnut says patting the dragon’s head. One little snarl from the Night Fury and Tuffnut just backs to where his sister stands. 

Astrid rolled her eyes. “Hiccup’s not dead. He’s just sleeping.”

“Ah! Grief’s hit Astrid now, too. She’s in denial.” Tuffnut dramatically calls out. 

Astrid chose not to answer that, instead scoffing at their immaturity. 

The storm roared outside again, loud enough to make several of the dragons lift their heads. Most of the riders looked toward the shutters instinctively. Everyone except Hiccup, who didn’t even flinch. That is what caught their attention the most. The fact that out of all of this, no noises were loud enough to take him out of this deep, needed sleep. `

Fishlegs slowly adjusted his position to see Hiccup better. “Actually…”

Everybody looked over. “What?” Snotlout asked.

Fishlegs frowned. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him sleep this hard before.”

Astrid’s expression softened slightly. “Neither have I.” Under all his quipping, arguing, and anger, was just exhaustion. For a few moments nobody said much, as if they all had the same idea in mind. The fire crackled, and snow hammered the walls. Yet Hiccup remained completely unconscious.

Fishlegs glanced toward the collection of maps and papers stacked on the table Hiccup was using. He had mostly ignored the papers ever since Hiccup became so obsessed with them. Fishlegs just hadn’t seen a point in trying to help out anymore. Sure it was probably wrong to step out of such a big project like this, but Hiccup made it almost impossible for anyone else to step in. 

Until now.

Fishlegs stood and gathered some of the papers. Astrid noticed immediately. “What are you doing?”

Fishlegs shrugged. “I’ve been helping him with the research.” It wasn’t a total lie, he had been helping out. Just… not recently. 

“Not helping enough if he ended up like this,” Snotlout muttered. It sounded mean, but wasn’t particularly cruel. Fishlegs knew that too. Snotlout was just being honest.

Fishlegs sighed. “I know.” He picked up a pile of the maps and spread them out on the floor. The entire stack was covered in notes. He wasn’t even sure he could fit another word on some of these pages. Small handwriting filled nearly every empty space. Previous routes,  island names, calculations, crossed-out theories, ideas, there were dozens and dozens of them. 

Fishlegs could only stare for a moment, stuck in awe. “Oh my Thor.”

The others slowly gathered around. Even the twins.

“Woah” Astrid marveled at the intense notes and ideas. It felt like looking into Hiccup’s brain from the past couple of days. Which wasn’t pleasant. 

Snotlout held up a page. “This is from three days ago.”

“So?” Fishlegs questioned, taking the page out of Snotlout’s hand. 

“So this is his handwriting when he’s rested.” He grabbed another sheet. “And this is from yesterday. Ha-ha!” He cackled, finding it overly amusing for the situation. Truly, the difference was obvious. The writing became messier the newer the notes got, words trailed off halfway through sentences, even entire sections had been crossed out so aggressively that the parchment had nearly torn.

One page simply read:

Dragon Eye?

followed by six different theories scribbled underneath it. All six had been crossed out, aggressively as the parchment was nearly torn. 

Then circled. Then crossed out again. 

Snotlout picked up another page after Fishlegs had snatched his previous one. “Wow.”

Astrid glanced over. “What?”

Snotlout flipped the parchment around. The back side was covered too. And another attached page. And another.

“Oh my Thor,” Ruffnut said.

“Is this all from the last few days?” Tuffnut asked.

Fishlegs nodded slowly. For a second, nobody spoke. Not because they suddenly felt sorry for Hiccup,  but mostly because they were trying to figure out when he’d even had time to do all of it. 

Snotlout looked over at the sleeping rider, then back at the stack. Then finally, back at Hiccup. “Okay…” He trailed off. “That’s a little crazy.”Coming from Snotlout, that was saying something.

The twins exchanged a look. It wasn’t of sympathy exactly. More confusion. This was Hiccup, the guy who always had a plan, their leader who usually knew what to do. Seeing page after page of crossed-out ideas and failed theories felt strangely wrong. Tuffnut scratched his head. “So… he actually doesn’t know where Viggo is.” Astrid grumbled and almost punched him in the face for stating something so obvious. 

“No,” Fishlegs said, being the one with the most patience for the twins. “That’s the problem. If he knew, or we did, we would be on the way to retrieve the Dragon Eye.”

The clubhouse grew quieter as the night dragged on.

Not completely quiet. That would’ve been impossible with Tuffnut and Ruffnut in the same building. Or with a storm trying its hardest to tear the Edge apart outside. Every now and then a powerful gust would slam against the walls, rattling the shutters and causing one of the dragons to lift its head before deciding everything was still fine and settling back down.

But compared to earlier, things had calmed considerably.

Hiccup hadn’t moved.

At some point, he’d slid down slightly against the wall, his arms folded loosely across his chest. Toothless remained beside him, one wing partially draped over his rider. Every now and then the Night Fury would open one eye, glance around the room, and close it again.

Fishlegs was still sorting through the maps.

What had started as curiosity had somehow become a project. Parchment covered nearly half the clubhouse floor now, Fishlegs had to admit, he understood why Hiccup became so engrossed in his work. What felt like such an easy task -find the thing that the riders had in their possession for months- became so confusing so quickly. 

Astrid had eventually abandoned trying to stop Fishlegs from falling down the same rabbit hole as Hiccup, and instead found herself helping. She sat cross-legged near one of the map piles, separating islands into groups while Fishlegs attempted to organize Hiccup’s notes into something resembling coherent thoughts.

“Okay,” Fishlegs muttered. “This one goes with these.”

Astrid snatched the page from him and looked for somewhere else to put it. “No it doesn’t.” She confidently stated. 

“It absolutely does.”

Astrid held up the page, flipping it to what she thought would be right-side-up. “Fishlegs, this is a drawing of a catapult.” She rotated the page a couple times to see how he missed the true drawing. 

Fishlegs frowned. “Why is there a catapult?”

“I don’t know.”

The two stared at it. “Actually,” Fishlegs said slowly, “that might be a defense theory. As to where the Dragon Eye would be hidden?” Even Fishlegs’ explanation for the drawing drew him to be unconfident of that being its intentions. 

Astrid looked concerned. “That’s worse.”

Across the room, Snotlout had claimed a bench and was trying to not get involved. He didn’t want to after watching Astrid and Fishlegs. Everything the two would say to each other would just lead to an argument as to who was right. And Snotlout never won arguments against Astrid. 

But his curiosity got the best of him and Snotlout wandered over. He sat next to Fishlegs and leaned over to grab a piece of parchment from the growing pile. “This one just says ‘probably not in archipelago.’” He states unimpressed. Had this really been what Hiccup had lost days of sleep over?

Fishlegs looked up. “Let me see.” Snotlout tossed it over. Fishlegs squinted. “Oh.”

There was a brief silence, Ruffnut broke it snorting. 

Even Astrid laughed. “Well that’s helpful.”

“I think he was eliminating possibilities,” Fishlegs defended.

“By discovering things that aren’t islands? Oh my Thor.” Snotlout argued back. How come no matter what Hiccup did, it was always smart. Or the right thing? What about him? He was a Jorgenson after all. Jorgensons were always perfect. 

“He was tired.” Fishlegs defended his friend. That got everybody glancing toward Hiccup again. He wasn’t lying. The evidence was currently asleep against the wall.

Tuffnut wandered over and picked up another page. Unlike Fishlegs, he wasn’t actually reading it, but looking at the drawings. “Hey.” Nobody answered. “Hey.” Still nothing. It wasn’t unlike the crew, after all, Tuffnut did have a record of saying some pretty random stuff in serious times. “HEY.”

Astrid finally sighed in acknowledgement. “What?”

Tuffnut pointed at one of the maps. “Why is this island circled?”

Fishlegs looked over and immediately froze. Astrid noticed right away. “What?”

Fishlegs grabbed the page. “This island, I remember this one.” He quickly dug through another stack of papers. Soon he had three maps laid out side by side.

“Well, duh. We’re Dragon Riders. We’ve practically seen every island. I’m surprised we haven’t found the edge of the world yet, actually.” Snotlout slid off the bench and wandered over. “What’d you find?”

Fishlegs pointed. “This island showed up in two different hunter reports.”

Astrid leaned forward. “And?”

“And Hiccup crossed it out.”

“So? He crossed out almost everything else in these junk piles.” Snotlout sighed. 

Fishlegs hesitated. “I… don’t know. This is different.” The group gathered closer, even the twins’ interest was piqued.

Fishlegs pointed toward a note scribbled in the corner. “‘No natural harbor. Impossible for fleet.’”

Astrid nodded. “That makes sense.”

Fishlegs looked at the map again. “It does.” He pulled out another. His brow furrowed. “Except… Viggo doesn’t always use fleets.”Nobody spoke, so Fishlegs continued his theory. “The Dragon Eye route. The trap islands. The hunter outposts. Half of them weren’t places you’d normally choose.”

Astrid crossed her arms. “So you’re saying Hiccup crossed it off too quickly?”

“Maybe.”

It wasn’t much, actually it wasn’t even close. But it was more information strung together than they’d had before. For the next hour, the riders found themselves slowly pulled into the research whether they intended to be or not.

The twins contributed exactly what everyone expected, which was somehow still useful. Fishlegs initially ignored them, until he realized they were pointing at an island directly beside one of Hiccup’s marked routes. 

Snotlout spent most of the time criticizing Hiccup’s organization, in an effort to boost his own ego. 

Fishlegs and Astrid only continued to try and piece together the broken bits of hints and details Hiccup had left. By the time the fire had burned low, the floor was covered with reorganized maps and notes. It still wasn’t enough to locate Viggo, but for the first time in days, some of the scattered information actually connected.

Astrid was studying one of the routes when she noticed movement. “Hiccup.” Everybody looked up. Hiccup blinked slowly, seeming completely lost for a moment. 

Then his eyes focused on the room. Specifically, all his days of work laying across the room in the hands of the other riders. “Oh no.”

Fishlegs immediately raised both hands. “We can explain.”

Hiccup rubbed his eyes. For a second he looked ready to argue. Fishlegs seemed to almost be bracing himself for another Hiccup-crashout. 

But then Hiccup noticed one of the maps. “Wait.” He leaned forward.

Fishlegs slid it over quickly, relieved that Hiccup’s ‘don’t touch my work’ speech was temporarily saved. Hiccup studied it. As he picked up more papers, the tiredness slowly disappeared from his face. “Where’d this come from?”

Fishlegs smiled as the way-too-familiar exhaustion that had been etched into Hiccup’s face disappeared, and his motivation and senses came back to him. Fishlegs started happily explaining the new thought process to that piece and the gang started working collectivley, as one, to accomplish their one goal. 

Finding the Dragon Eye.