Meet Me At the Halfway Point

New Discoveries

End of Spring (Year Two)

It was a normal day in Berk, just as normal as a dragon village can get. And on this day Hiccup found himself walking around the village. He was holding out in front of him large drawing layouts of architectural designs for the new adjustments to the island, to make living for both vikings and dragons more comfortable. He inspected the just completed watchtowers, the latest feeding stations, and checked out the construction on the new cave dragon stables. Hiccup was overall pretty pleased with everyone's hard work, and New Berk was coming together nicely. Hiccup circled around his village and found his way back to Gobbers workshop, who was busy melting down old dragon traps to create all kinds of steel for the island's development.

Hot steams spewed all around the workshop as Gobber pulled a large piece of metal that he didn't see Hiccup come in until the steamed cleaned.

"Oi, guess who finally decided to grace us with his presence today!" Joked Gobber.

Hiccup laughed along placing down the village layout onto a table and grabbing an apron to help out his friend. "Hey give me a break if I'm not here I'm-"

"Yes- yes training dragons, updating th' maps," Gobber playfully interrupted "We've heard it all before, any updates from our world traveler?"

Hiccup came over with a bucket of coal to refuel the fires, as he was confused by the statement. "I wouldn't necessarily call myself a world traveler yet...only just finished mapping just inside our archipelago and just now started exploring further out east."

Gobber took his giant hook and rubbed the inside of his ear, "All this time and you just scratch the surface- I thought ya wanted to see what's beyond our waters."

"Not true! I traveled northwest reaching the highlands!" Hiccup shut his eyes in frustration, he was not supposed to say that.

"Highlands?" Asked Gobber, raising an eyebrow, that sparked his attention.

Hiccup began to think of ways to get out of this conversation, make up a lie? No. Gobber would see right threw that, play dumb? Maybe. Hiccup decided to play it down.

Hiccup cleared his throat, "Yeah, but didn't see much, new islands for sure but didn't see any dragons... must avoid the climate or something." Shrugging his shoulders.

"Did you see the Kingdom o' DunBroch?" Gobber asked, his mood altogether shifted, dropping his hammer to the ground coming closer to Hiccup asking in a soft tone so as not to be overheard.

Hiccup took a step back but still stayed level headed, "Ah, yeah, I saw it from afar but didn't land...not interesting enough... so I just turned around," finished Hiccup looking down at Gobber with a weakish smile.

Gobber squinted his eyes, then like a snap of his fingers abandoned his suspension,"You're right, nothing interesting about that kingdom anyway. There's a reason th' dragons don't travel that way... did you hear what the twins did yesterday? Took Snotlout's helmets 'n' filled them all with yak's milk and left them out in the sun all day, yet still smells better than my helmet that's for sure." Gobber had completely moved on from the subject lifting his hammer to continue reshaping the steel.

Hiccup let out a sigh of relief for dodging that question, he wasn't ready to tell anyone about Merida or of DunBroch and he began to wonder if he will ever be? She's been a secret for so long would anyone understand why? However, another thing came to his mind of what Gobber had just said 'there is a reason dragons don't travel that way' should Hiccup ask any further? "Hey Goober?..."