Ascertaining Horizons

2 | A Snowy Place

"How are we going to survive here with no fish to eat, berries to devour, or water to drink?" Hiccup grunted. He tried looking everywhere using his telescope with one of his eyes turned into slits.

"Shut it, Hiccup. I've had enough of your complaints for a day. It's so unlike you." Astrid glared at him.

Hiccup instantly raised his arms to the air, mocking defeat. "Alright, alright. So much for being grumpy." He said under his breath. Thankfully, his companion didn't hear it.

They continued to fly over the horizon, Hiccup using his telescope again, to look for something relatively close to a food, even though they knew, from the looks of the leafless trees or frozen water, they wouldn't find anything unfortunately.

"What's with this place, anyway?" Hiccup pondered, apparently giving up on looking so he set his telescope down and placed it inside his dragon's satchel.

"This place snows a lot." Astrid observed, ignoring his question.

"Obviously." He snorted.

She glared at him, then looked to the surroundings. "What I mean is, our place isn't even close to winter, yet in here, it looks like every day snows, even though it's not too far from our island."

"Is it?"

"Or maybe it's too far from our island like it's on the other side of the planet." She said dismissively, looking beyond the place to the sea, with no island nearby onsight. "I can't believe we've made it this far."

Hiccup looked at his telescope at the same time Astrid was looking too. A moment had passed, and he set it down. "Yeah," Hiccup agreed. He said, after a little while, his face scrunched in thought. "Viggo seems a lot more powerful lately."

Astrid nodded. She was apparently thinking too. "Looks like we need to be more powerful than him. Someone that could really outwit Viggo's cleverness, aside from you, of course." She added quickly when he raised a brow at her.

"Yeah," he agreed again. "Look at you, Astrid. Who knew you could be a wise thinker?" Hiccup smirked.

"As if I'm not a second in command to you?" She snorted. "You wish." She deadpanned.

Hiccup laughed. His eyes suddenly twinkling as he thought of something and his smirk widens mischievously at her.

"What?" She hissed, apparently annoyed by his playful grin.

"Let's race."

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"You cheater!" Astrid exclaimed, wiping a snow off her face that was thrown by Toothless using his tail, which makes him and Hiccup overtake and easily glided in front of her, leading in line.

Hiccup laughed, his pitch lacing with mischief and mockery as he asked her, "Didn't you even cheat when we were fifteen?"

"That's because you also cheated!"

"Right." He agreed instantly, not even bothering to argue with her. "No denying in there." He smirked, and looked in front to focus on his way ahead.

Astrid looked helplessly for a moment, until something sparked up on her brain. Her lips turned into a smirk too as she ducked and retrieved bunches of used paper from her dragon's satchel, crushed it into a huge ball, and told Stormfly to blast her magnesium flare once she threw it. The glowing ball, now looked like an asteroid, was flying into the air.

"Hiccup!" She hollered to him and he looked back at her. "Look in front of you, an asteroid ahead!"

Hiccup, being oblivious not to know that the glowing paper was a distraction as he watched it from a distance, wondered why he and Toothless suddenly stopped gliding.

"What the-?" He turned around, and saw Astrid smirking as Stormfly got Toothless's tail and swirled them over and over.

"Astrid!" He said dizzyingly as they stopped turning.

She laughed, and told Stormfly to shoot spikes to them behind so that they wouldn't have a chance to overtake them.

He grunted when he couldn't attempt to beat her. "So who's the ultimate cheater now?" Hiccup shouted.

"Still you!" Astrid yelled back, and she heard him snickering.

A moment later, Hiccup heard some noise and rumbling from behind. As he looked, there was a huge snowball coming right up to them.

"Not again!" He exclaimed, and he called her.

"What?"

"An avalanche!" She looked behind her, and saw that there is indeed an avalanche. She shrieked.

"Hiccup! Is Toothless's tail frozen again?" Astrid asked him as she looked behind to face him.

Hiccup looked at his dragon's tail, and predictably, his prosthetic tail was once frozen again. "Uh...unfortunately yes."

"Great, Hiccup!" She exclaimed sarcastically as she flew towards him and said, "Might as well steer Toothless away from the huge snowball!"

"I can't turn him!" He struggled to turn Toothless but the latter is also having a hard time moving from the snow himself.

"Try harder! You both can do it! C'mon!" Astrid yelled hysterically.

"We're trying!" Hiccup exclaimed, using all his willpower and might to move Toothless, without success.

"Oh, for the love of Thor..." Astrid muttered to herself, and she maneuvered Stormfly away from the struggling pair.

"Astrid?" Hiccup called her, wondering why she left them.

And then suddenly, a very huge impact hit him and Toothless that they were knocked to the side, stopping, and he watched as the huge snowball darted past them down to where Odin knows where.

At his right, he saw Astrid and Stormfly grimacing in pain. Apparently, they pushed them to the side to the let the snowball pass them without being run over.

"Astrid!" Hiccup exclaimed, instantly reaching to her side and held her into his lap. "Are you okay?"

Despite the wincing, she can't help but scoff. "Ya think?"

His face contorted with worry. "I'm sorry, Astrid, I've caused another problem to the both of you. Again. Seems like I haven't learned anything while we were playing in the snow before. But thanks." Hiccup ran his fingers down her bright blonde hair repeatedly, and his other hand massaged her forearm to keep it from throbbing.

They stared at each other for a moment, and Astrid, feeling her face heat up when she looked at Hiccup with his bright green eyes staring down at her still etching with worry and sincerity, she moved away from him slowly, and averted her gaze. "I'm alright, Hiccup. Thanks. It doesn't matter anyway."

"You sure?" Hiccup looked at her sceptically.

"Of course! It's fun, anyways." She tilted her head, raising a brow. "Do you think I'll refuse about something called a race?"

His face slowly relaxed, and he chuckled. "Yeah, right."

Astrid looked at him again, lips parted as she was about to say something but was cut off by a loud voice shouting from afar.

"Who do you think you are, invading my kingdom?" A woman, who seems like a few years older than them, was wearing a blue dress. Her platinum blonde hair, although paler than Astrid's, was sitting on a side of her shoulder with blue eyes also like hers, and her face is colored with makeup. She stared angrily at them, her eyes into slits, and slid her hands to her hips.

Hiccup and Astrid glanced at each other, as well as their dragons that glanced at each other too, for they know two words with a dash to describe their situation now: Uh-oh.

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A/N: Who do you think is the woman accompanying Hiccup and Astrid? Any thoughts you wanted to share in the comment section?

Be sure to continue to vote, readers! Thanks! :)