//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: When Worlds Collide 
// Story: Crossing the Divide 
// by RF and AG 
//------------------------------//

	While nerve-wracking, the flight to the smaller group of clouds had been short and successful. They were perfect cover, being the large fluffy clouds that look like sheep’s wool. Being on the shaded side of the cloud, and with just our heads peering out from the cloud, we could quickly duck into the cloud, if we thought anyone might be looking at us, or in our direction. 

It was chilly up here, and I was glad that I bundle up warmly whenever I go flying with Toothless. My hands were feeling achy in the wet chill and my face was feeling rather numb, and my nose was pretty ruddy due to the prolonged exposure to the cold air that was up here. I love looking at these large puffy clouds, floating high above the earth, removed from the troubles and cares of mortals. And the play of light upon these clouds is awe-inspiring and beautiful, and yet at times fearsome and terrible as well. How the tops glow in whites and cream colors, while it progressively gets darker, until it is like a charcoal, or sometimes even as black as midnight, depending upon the weather and the time of day. The sound of the ocean wind, the cries of seafaring birds such as seagulls greeted my ears, as well as the sound of Toothless’ wings flapping, a constant ‘fwoomf, fwoomf’ that I’ve learned to tune out, due to how familiar with I have become. 

Toothless and I were hovering just on the inside edge of the cloud we had flown towards, though my head was barely poking out of the top so I could catch a glimpse of the city that we were nearing. For once, it was as if the gods were smiling on us, since the cloud group was not only higher than the suspected city, but it was also aiming to pass directly over the city. 

Of course it would take a good while before we were actually above it, so for the meantime, I continued to look at the upcoming city from our current spot. Perhaps there was a chance that we could be accepted as normal beings instead of the previous two encounters. Being treated as a monster, a mistake of nature, each experience scarring my heart and soul. It robbed from the joy of exploration, of encountering new peoples and cultures. 

From what I could see through my spyglass, there were massive building like structures made of clouds, along with what appeared to be roads, and smaller buildings. They looked like someone had taken a large amount of cream and using utensils, carved away the unwanted extra. They had the same appearance and light behavior as untouched clouds, which was why I thought they must be made from clouds, though I’d be very interested to know how they could get them to retain their structure and not become like a natural cloud form. Not only that but there were people walking amongst the clouds! Well … people was a loose term. I could see others that looked extremely similar to the gryphons from before, as well as another type that looked like gryphons but were different. Finally, there seemed to a third type of cloud walking animal, though this type looked closer to the deer that I had seen before except there were a few major distinctions. 

These new ones, looked closer to miniature horses that had wings on their sides, and varied in many different colours. Of course, by many I meant a whole mess of different colours. The deer folk that I had met were mainly the same, hardly ranging in colours outside of browns, greys, and some blacks. These new winged horses were by far the most colourful thing I had ever seen … well outside of a few dragon species. Either these winged horses could easily escape from predator species, or their meat must be really poisonous or something. I could only shake my head at how contrary their coat colorations were from those of the horses and ponies of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I bet if I looked long enough at the city, I would have seen one of each colour imaginable, but something else stole my focus away.

Somewhere in the distance behind us, I heard an extremely loud bang. One that seemed to resonate across the entire ocean, or at least that was how it felt. A sudden shockwave almost pushed me off of Toothless, but my saddle luckily kept me on him. Whatever this bang was, it warranted a little investigation, aside from just spying from the clouds. 

At first we turned to face the direction it came from, my eye still peering through the spyglass. I was about to tell Toothless to take us over to where it came from, but I caught something in the field of my vision, something that should have been completely impossible. 

There was a blue winged horse flying directly at the cloud we were in, not to mention it had a massive rainbow trailing out from her. I couldn’t have dreamt this even if I had tried. 

“Take us into the cloud!” I quickly shouted to Toothless, worried that we would get seen by the winged horse. He nodded immediately before swooping lower until we were completely hidden in the clouds. It became darker, as less light penetrated through where we were. It was eerily quiet, aside from Toothless’ wingbeats and thundering of my own heartbeat in my own ears. With the chilly water in the cloud, I began to regret not bringing anything to protect my hands and face. The cold pierced to the bones, as my hands ached and I gave a mighty sneeze from the chilly cloud tickling my nose. My body was tense, ready to respond to anything that might happen, at least until the blue winged horse passed by. 

Why was I worried about a single winged horse? In reality I wasn’t worried about that single horse, I was more worried about that horse telling the entire city of our presence. The village was isolated enough to be of little risk, and I couldn’t control the encounter with the gryphons, but an entire city, who possibly feared dragons, hunting us down could become a major problem. 

We continued to hover in the clouds, constantly looking in the direction of where that horse was coming from. Toothless was on guard, probably feeling my sense of urgency and worry. I on the other hand was praying that the horse would be smart enough to just fly around the clouds. Though I wasn’t sure exactly who to pray to in this situation, since there wasn’t exactly a god for being passed over by flying horses … maybe Thor and his lightning would work?

        Time seemed to stand still for a brief second as my current worst fear materialised from out of the cloud cover. It was hardly enough time to move and unfortunately the blue horse was currently on a direct flight path with me, not Toothless but me. 

        “Toothl-” was all I managed to get off before the collision knocked me clear off the saddle, despite the belts holding me on. They had snapped completely with the force of the impact, while I was lucky that I couldn’t feel anything broken. Though I still had more important things to worry about, such as falling to my death from the middle of a cloud. The chill of the air whipped by me, as the wind of my plummet greeted my ears. I watched in horrified fascination, as the dark blue, choppy waters of the ocean below rapidly grew larger in my vision. 

        “Toothless!” I shouted out again, hopefully loud enough for him to pick up. Without a second thought, I reached down to place my hands into the wingsuit hooks before flinging my arms out. In theory that should have stabilized me long enough to let Toothless reach me; in theory. In reality, the left wing of the suit had been torn, from what I was not sure but I knew that I could only fix it if I didn’t die. 

Despite the extreme wind whipping past my face, making it hard to concentrate, I forced myself to focus on flipping myself around so that I was looking back up at the cloud that was, without a doubt, slowly growing more and more distant. It was a little bit of a struggle to do so, but I eventually was able to position myself so that I was no longer looking at my impending doom. 

I was about to shout out once more, but my cry would have been unnecessary for the moment I opened my mouth, I saw Toothless break from the clouds, aiming himself downward with wings tucked in to hopefully reach me in time. 

A glimmer of hope in the form of the massive black dragon was all I needed to cease my worries. This had happened before, but as long as Toothless knew where I was, we would both make it out of the peril. Though the worries continued once more when I saw a second thing shoot out of the bottom of the cloud. I couldn’t see it right off the bat, but the more I focused, the better it came into view.

That blue winged horse was trying to catch Toothless and it was actually getting pretty close. 

I reached up an arm to point behind Toothless, hoping to get his attention. While successful initially, the fact that the horse was no longer behind him but instead plummeting side by side with Toothless caused my gesture to be futile. Toothless’s eyes widened briefly before narrowing into a look of pure contempt. 

I don’t know if the horse saw it coming and couldn’t react in time, or Toothless had caught it by surprise, but the moment it was even with Toothless’s wing, my friend shot one of his wings out, smacking the horse out of it’s dive. The horse went flying and I tracked it for all I could before I felt myself land on the solid back of Toothless, knocking the wind completely out of my lungs. 

My eyes quickly glanced to his tail, noticing that it was locked in its open position, giving Toothless the ability to fly on his own. My mind blanked briefly before recalling that I had locked it there when we were hovering. I let out a deep breath, my eyes closing blissfully, before shooting open as I remembered that Toothless had hit that winged horse pretty hard. 

My eyes searched the local area, the crashing waves among the cliffs nearby or the churning open sea proved to have no sign of the horse. Though, along near the edge of the cliffs were what must’ve been anchored rafts about every five vika. They looked like they’d make very useful rescuing platforms, for anyone unfortunate enough to fall into the waters near the steep cliff face. At first I was a little worried that we had killed it, but had to quickly put those thoughts to the back of my mind.  If one of those gryphons had been from that city, and they found out that we had hurt a possible citizen … we had to get out of the local area and into a place to lay low for a bit. 

“Let’s get above land level, Toothless, and find some place to set down, preferably some place that is concealed … .” 

Toothless let out a little bit of a whine, most likely wondering if I was okay. I just patted him on the head, nodding at his worried eyes. He took my answer with a large smile before facing back forward to focus on flying. I was okay and it was all thanks to Toothless, but I still couldn’t help but wonder what happened to that blue horse.

Not to mention how that thing could even be close to as fast as Toothless … though it was during a dive so it was easier for a smaller object to cut through the wind at higher speeds. I bet those small wings couldn’t hold up against a Night Fury during an actual flying competition. I bet that horse found out the hard way that a Night Fury’s wings hold a lot more power than their size shows. 

“Too bad we didn’t make better contact … gryphons, deer, and now horses. Who knows what else there is in this new world,” I said before focusing on finding a place to have Toothless set us down. 



{C         D          T      *     *     *   {Rainbow Dash}   *     *     *      C          D          T}



I had been participating in the 73rd Global Endurance Race, and had been smoking the competition since no other flyers were capable of making Sonic Rainbooms. But when I have this much awesomeness, coolness, and radicalness contained in a single body, sometimes I just have to release it all, otherwise I might burst if I tried to contain this much awesomeness, coolness and radicalness. 

Anyways, it was a lovely day for flying, as the winds were gently blowing in an easterly direction. The large cumulonimbus clouds slowly drifting across the sky, the tops glowing in brilliant whites and gentler cream colors, while the underbelly were darker greys and charcoal blacks. The sensitivity of my wings and feathers provided sensory feedback. I could tell how strong the wind was blowing, which direction it was blowing, barometric pressure, humidity, if there were any possible atmospheric ionic charge, and dew point. The oceanic wind could provide some resistance once a certain speed was reached, which meant that the flyer would have to fight the wind … well, more so than usual, since the race was a mostly westward flight path until some place that is east of 'cloud-land.' I was never that great with geography, I just followed the general instructions.

I never told anypony that I could easily calculate the multiple weather-centric measurements, I didn’t want to look like an egg-head after all. Twilight would have a field day if she knew that I could do all of that off the top of my head.

Anyways, I noticed a group of clouds ahead of my flight path, but because I was an ace at weather manipulation and cloudbusting, I knew that these clouds weren’t going to hinder my pure awesomeness. I pierced the first several clouds, my speed and the resulting sonic boom completely destroying the clouds that I was flying through.

What I wasn’t expecting though was that the next cloud I entered had somepony in it, because I flew head first into something really solid and not at all composed of cloud. I was grateful that the racing management and sponsors required that we wear special flight helmets, in the event that something like this happened. Because at the speeds that I was flying at, I could have knocked myself unconscious, or even died!

Needless to say, I was pissed that the security teams failed to get whoever that pony was in that cloud off the racing track, but that wasn’t the most pressing issue. The collision had stunned me enough that I found myself dropping like a rock. I started flapping my wings, as I took note of my present condition, and that I hadn’t broken any of my wings, or broken any of my primaries. Still, I knew that I was going to have to land and send up a flare, so I could get checked out by the medical teams that were positioned about every checkpoint or so.

As I plunged out of the bottom of the cloud, I spotted a strange creature falling towards the ocean. A black dragon was dive bombing towards the creature, and I just reacted, as I didn’t want the creature to end up that dragon’s meal! I gave up correcting my heading and instead sped up my flapping, as I continued to let gravity aid me in getting closer to the weird creature as it fell. My ears were folded back, but even so, I could hear the rushing of wind as I plummeted towards the dark blue, choppy ocean, as I used my wings to adjust my fall so that I could rescue the odd looking creature. The cool smell of salty ocean air, as well as the tell-tale smell of ozone was a familiar smell for me. The ozone smell, not so much that of the salty ocean air. I was just grateful that ponies couldn’t get drunk off the smell of salty ocean air. Ozone smells more like copper than it does iron, despite that ozone not bonding with any metals whatsoever.

The creature looked nothing like I had ever seen before, but just because it looked funny didn’t mean I was heartless enough to let that black dragon eat it for it’s snack! I gave a few more strong flaps to propel me forward even harder before I did what any smart flyer would do, tuck my wings and keep my body aerodynamic. The distance between me and that dragon was closing quickly, and soon enough I would rescue that strange creature because Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash always wins. 

The moment I had gotten near the dragons wings though, that stupid dragon used its wing to swat me away from it. I frantically flapped, as it had sent me spinning, to steady myself as I pulled out of my dive, gliding towards the large island to my south. I hate to admit it, but that dragon had knocked me silly, and I was going to have to land, so that I didn’t end up dying from pride or being a stupid foal that pushed herself harder than her body was able to handle. 

Although I couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief too quickly, since I still needed to land on the big island, well continent really. But I had seen out of the corner of my eye, the strange creature land on the dragon’s back, which was really strange, since there was no dragon alive that would allow anything to ride on them. I noticed that they were also flying towards the land, but they were flying in a more west-southwest direction, while I was flying straight south. After that, I turned my attention in front of me, since I didn’t care to have any more aerial collisions than the one that I had just been in.

The landing had been a little rough as my head was still spinning a little from being knocked around by that dragon … that and landing was probably the weakest part of my flying. That was always a secret of mine and not a single pony would ever find out about that, not matter how close they were. Speaking of landings, the beach I aimed for was nice and soft so that when my hooves actually touched ground, I quickly fell forward, letting the rather soft sand embrace me quickly. If it weren’t for the last few moments, I would appreciate the dirty golden-brown color of the fine beach sand, the lighter blue of the ocean water once land was nearby, and the occasional warmth whenever the sun would shine upon the earth, in between the large cumulonimbus clouds. I could hear the ‘shh, shh’ sound of the ocean breaking upon the seashore, as well as the sound of the blowing ocean wind, and the raucous cries of seagulls.  For a brief moment it was just nice to lay on that soft sand and let my body take a second to catch up with itself.

Once I finished laying on the beach, I got up and trotted up far enough so that unless there were some freak typhoon or something, I wouldn’t have to worry about the waves washing me away, should I fall asleep before the medical team arrived at my location. I reached into a small pouch that had been hanging from my neck, and assembled the flare. It was just a matter of placing the small supporting cylindrical hole on the flare canister onto the stick, and placing the stick firmly enough into the ground that it wouldn’t topple over from anything. I then pulled the string, as a magical flare shot forth from the canister. It was a really bright red flare, and while I waited for the medical crew to arrive, I proceeded to check my feathers for any cracks or breaks, and assessing the condition of my wings for anything other than the familiar burning sensation and aches of used flight muscles. 

This kind of self-assessment was crucial for any flyer, and any flight school worth their salt made sure that their students had memorized the symptoms for each and every condition that a the wing structure might encounter, before they even began to teach the basics of flight. I don’t even remember how many hundreds of hours I spent memorizing all those conditions and symptoms. But at moments like these, being able to correctly self-assess one’s own body could mean the difference between soaring through the skies, and being as ground bound as the non-pegasi ponies. 

I gave a short, involuntary shudder at the thought of me not being able to fly again. I’d rather give up my chance at being a Wonderbolt, than never being able to ever fly again. I honestly don’t know how the unicorns and earth ponies can live their whole life on the ground. I fervently hoped that I’d never have to find out.

Fortunately, aside from some bruising near my neck, due to my flight helmet getting pushed into my neck muscles from my little aerial accident, I didn’t have hardly any damage. I proceeded to preen my wings, removing loose or broken feathers, as I continued to wait for the medic team to arrive. If they took any longer, I’m going to take a nap. I chuckled to myself as a thought crossed my mind. So much for them being first responders! Sweet Celestia are they slow! 

Was it too much to ask for them to have a little bit of hustle to help one of the top flyers in this race, or to help anypony for that matter? They were lucky that I was tougher than most others for if it had been someone weaker, they could have really been hurt and the slow response time could have hurt them greatly. 

I paused for a second, realising that I couldn’t redirect my anger out on somepony else. No, I was mad that the dragon got the best of me and made off with that strange beast, and yet I was getting mad at the response teams instead of that dragon. I was also disappointed, because this was just like getting to live a page out of the Daring Do series. Getting to encounter strange cultures, and rescuing ancient treasures. It would be nice if it spoke common Equestrian. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself before laying down, resting my head on the soft grass that eventually gave way to sand.

After a few minutes of letting my eyelids drift lower and lower, I saw several spots in the sky, as I groaned impatiently. “Well, it’s about time.” Figuring that it would be maybe another half hour, I laid down, resting my head on my forehooves, and resting my eyes for awhile until the medical crew finally arrived. 

Despite a few parts of me wanting to berate them for being so slow to respond, I knew that was not who I was. Everypony gets mad but they should never take out that anger on somepony that doesn’t deserve that anger. I think that had been the subject of one of Twilight’s letters to Princess Celestia, though that hardly mattered.

Once I had informed them regarding the results of my self-assessment, I permitted the  field medics to look me over, the unicorn among the group performing an extremely complex scan. I don’t pretend to understand how unicorns do what they do. It would be akin to trying to use meteorological terminology in a conversation with a foal who has not been taught anything about barometric pressure, dew points, or ionic charges.

Anyways, after the medic’s assessment agreed with mine, they escorted me into the emergency wagon, and after making certain that I was properly secured, the flight crew lifted off, the unicorn belted in, reclining on a bench along the wagon’s side, as I slowly yielded to exhaustion, and slipped into the blessed relief of a restful sleep. I did wonder what that strange dragon riding creature was up to, however, before completely surrendering to the realm of sleep.



{C          D           T       *      *      *     {Hiccup}     *      *      *      C           D           T}



Toothless and I had retraced our flight path a little ways along the coastline of the landmass which we were flying over. I gingerly touched my forehead, feeling a swelling sensation. It was times like these that I wish I had worn the helmet that my father had made for me, from one of Mother’s breastplates. I … don’t remember Mother as an infant, but I have to say that she must’ve been on one hell of a diet to attain her … attributes. I’m still a little weirded out that the inside of my Viking helmet at one time cupped and protected her breasts during the dragon raids of Berk.

I spotted a nice place to land, shrouded slightly by trees as well as being right next to a small stream that fed into the ocean. I patted the top of Toothless’ head before pointing over to the small clearing. He simply nodded before banking to the right and angling downward. I trusted Toothless to fly solo as I recovered from the collision and near death experience.

Once Toothless and I had landed, I removed the saddle, and proceeded to check Toothless for any broken bones in his wing from when he hit that flying pony with his wing. Sure his wing was tough, it had to be in order to support his bodyweight in flight, but that didn’t mean he was invincible. I gave Toothless his much larger waterskin, as he used his wings to hold it up for him to drink. I drank from my skin, still seeing bursts of light and colors in my eyes, as well as feeling dizzy and a pressure in my head. 

I’d seen Vikings with the same symptoms, coming home from a battle, and they were usually alright after taking it easy for several days afterwards. I’m just glad that that pony didn’t take my head clean off my shoulders, or even snap my neck from our little accident during our encounter earlier. 

Without any warning, an extreme pressure made its way all across my head, forcing me to my knees. It was a quick but intense pain that had passed almost as quickly as it had arrived, that didn’t stop me from reaching up and clutching my head as I felt minor aftershocks run through me. Toothless instantly rose and moved over to me to see if I was alright. 

I reassured Toothless when he saw me sink down, as though my head hurt. “I’ll be okay, bud. I just need to rest a little while, and not push myself too much.” He appeared to accept my reassurances with reluctance, and opted to curl up around me, as I reclined against his warm body.

I rummaged about in one of the rucksacks and extracted several new harness straps, to replace the ones that broke. I had encountered similar situations before, and so made sure to keep extras on me, whenever Toothless and I would go adventuring. Unfortunately, the torn gliding membrane on my suit was going to require a larger patch of leather. Considering the number of intelligent races that I’ve encountered, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the cows could talk too! 

That left me with two options; one: I could return to Berk, procure the necessary materials to repair my gliding suit, or two: I could attempt to procure similar or new material with similar properties that my leather glide suit has.

As disappointing, returning back to Berk seemed the surest option. I had become quite fascinated with all the different talking species that I had encountered since our explorations of the lands beyond the wall of clouds. I decided to wait until the cover of night before flying back on the course that we had came from. It should still be in the early, early morning by the time that we traversed back through the dragons’ territories.

I ate some more of my food rations, before turning to Toothless. “I’m going to get some sleep. Feel free to catch some fish from the river. You should probably try and get some sleep too, if you feel like you need it. I’ll wake you when it’s time to go.” With that, I took a strip of soft doeskin leather that I had frequently used to cover my eyes whenever I felt like getting some sleep before the sun had gone down, and covered my eyes with it, smaller strips of leather securing the ribbon to my face by tying it behind my head. With that, and feeling secure with my buddy Toothless at my side, I gradually fell into a deep, restful sleep.



{C          D           T       *      *      *     {Later}     *      *      *      C           D           T}



I awoke, deep into the night, needing to relieve the pressure in my bladder. Going a little bit downstream along the banks of the river, I lowered my pants and undergarments, sighing in relief as I proceeded to empty my bladder. Washing my hands in the water near the riverbank, I shook my hands free of the excess of water, and went over to where Toothless had been sleeping. I’m guessing he must’ve fallen asleep sometimes towards evening, because his forefeet were cupped over his eyes. I should ask him if he wants an eye cover like what I use.

I paused a moment, glancing at the star spangled heavens and the many stars in it, and the glowing clouds and rivers in the sky. The full moon illuminated one of the large poofy clouds, casting a silvery halo about it. Its brothers and sisters were arrayed in a different splendor, the tops glowing in soft whites and silvers, while the underbellies were as dark as the inside of an unlit cave. The nearby river shimmered the reflections of what stars weren’t hidden, as a gentle spring breeze blew through the area, a soft rustling sound coming from the trees, while the river made splashing sounds, as the ocean made the familiar ‘shh, shh’ of the waters breaking upon the beach., the smell of moss, trees, and salty ocean air greeting my sense of smell.

“Come on buddy, time to wake up, time to go.” I murmured to Toothless, as I tried to rouse him out of his slumbers. He groaned sleepily, and one of his forelegs batted about the air, before it hooked behind me, and then he hugged me close to his warm underbelly, as his wings wrapped about me, in a warm cocoon. As nice and pleasant as being Toothless’ snuggle buddy was, we needed to get moving. I smiled, as I started to tickle his sensitive underbelly, causing him to squirm and laugh before launching me off of him, and then pouncing over me, licking the side of my face.

“Ugh! Toothless, you know that doesn’t wash out! This is for how I chose to awaken you, isn’t it?” Toothless just gave me a small smile, and I swear on Odin, that he was giving me a smug look.

After getting Toothless to get off of me, I rose to my feet and surveyed the surrounding area just to make sure nothing had happened during our little nap, and thankfully nothing did, That meant we could just pack up and leave for Berk. I picked up Toothless’ saddle and proceeded to walk over to him.

I got him saddled up, and our gear back on him, the familiar smells of leather and oil soothing me. Our gear was suspended from the saddle, before I mounted back on him. “Let’s go home.” I held onto the saddlehorn, as Toothless slowly ascended into the sky. I tugged on the straps securing me to the saddle, making sure they were snug and secure, as I gazed into the spangled night sky. The moon was just starting to peek over the horizon, like the head of a mischievous child looking to see if his prank was successful. 

I inhaled to cool salty ocean breeze, feeling relaxed. Living on Berk, it was ever a part of our lives, and we Vikings just didn’t feel at peace unless we were near the ocean. We arrived at the mountains we had trekked through earlier, one side lit up in a silvery-grey color, while the shadows appeared as black as soot. The forest top lit up in similar silver colors, the undersides of branches and trunks also like the color of soot. The mountain streams also lit up by the light of the moon, the liquid silver dancing and shaking unceasingly. Even at night, the land was immensely beautiful. I wondered if Asgard was anything like this. I certainly couldn’t imagine how the Asgardian realm could possibly top the beauty of this place. I patted Toothless’ cheek to get his attention, and once I had, I pointed straight up, and then made a gliding motion with my hands. Toothless nodded, flapping furiously to gain altitude to sufficiently clear the mountain range. I clenched my hands around the saddlehorn, grateful that my flight suit protected me from the frigid air often encountered at high heights and lands to the far north, such as Berk is.

We made it across the mountain range, but noticed that the wall of cloud was not there anymore. I patted Toothless’ cheek again, making a spiraling motion which moved from a centered point outward. He nodded, and we slowly started to fly in an spiral, ever expanding our spiraling flight from where we had initially hovered in confusion, since we had fully expected that the massive cloud wall to be immobile. I shrugged my shoulders at first, thinking that I just was wrong in my assumption of the clouds.

I motioned to Toothless to carry on westward in order to clear the mountain range so that we could make decent time back to Berk. Toothless nodded in excitement before shooting off. The initial explosion of power from him sent me back in my seat before I lurched forward and grabbed the handles of the saddle. It was only a few seconds before we crossed the mountains, and I was smiling under my mask … until I noticed something unusual. 

On our initial flight through the clouds had us almost right over top an ocean before a small section of land, followed by the mountains. When we had crossed over to this new land, there was a larger section of landmass that had included a few forests scattered among open plains. The moment Toothless and I cleared the mountain range, we were not met by the ocean but instead found that larger area of land. 

I don’t understand how that happened, how we got turned around so easily but somehow we had been in fact going east again. Toothless was just as baffled as I, since he was the one to initially stop. “I don’t know, either buddy. Whatever happened, we probably just messed up a little is all. Let’s head back again.”

Again we headed westward, across the mountains. aiming to make it to Berk. Just as swiftly, and much to my surprise again, we found ourselves over top of that landmass on the new land’s side. I growled lightly in frustration before signalling Toothless to go back again. 

And again.

And again.

And again.

Once we had flown in this pattern for several hours, I let out a scream in sheer frustration since no matter how many times we tried, we always found ourselves back over the new land. Toothless lowered his ears in a sign of submission or fear, I was too angry to read too far into it. I let out a massive sigh as I fell backwards onto his back. “I’m sorry, Toothless. It’s just … this is too frustrating!”

Toothless let out a few reassuring grunts, probably in an attempt to tell me it was alright. I patted Toothless’ cheek, and pointed upwards, in the hope that maybe gaining height in the air might provide a better vantage point, as greater heights meant that one could see greater distances. He nodded, flapping furiously as we gradually climbed in the air. We went until I could not tolerate it. Toothless, given his draconic build, didn’t have much of a problem even at these heights, but I was breathing as though I had ran all over Berk.

We spun around, looking for the wall of cloud, as the sun peered over the horizon. It was a breathtaking sight, as clouds transitioned from dark blues and blacks to purples, reds, pinks and oranges. I spotted the landmass we had journeyed from and pointed to it, while making the gliding motion. At the heights we were at, I fully believed that we could glide across the mountain range, without being spotted, or if we were, being mistaken for a high flying falcon or hawk.

We flew over the mountain range without mishap, to my mild disappointment. I was hoping that we might be spotted so that Toothless and I might pour on some speed and aerial maneuvers against the dragon clans. But as I’ve found out in adventuring, only a small part of it actually involves danger and action-packed situations. We retraced our flight path, until we spotted the city on the ground, which lay beneath the one in the clouds.

We had nearly flown the exact same path as last time, seeing the exact same small islands, sections of beach, splatterings of trees that eventually formed a forest. It was all the same, except this time we didn’t see the village that was made up of those deer people. We probably just passed it without looking. During the flight, my eyes started to glaze over at having to look at the same stuff, though this was mainly due to my frustration still boiling a little inside of me.

The village looked to be rather open in how it was set up. No walls to guard the city, but there were a few guard towers here and there. It seemed that the city must not have had many issues with hostiles. The buildings got a bit more sparse as the city expanded outwards but there was still a fair amount of density. It wasn’t as crazy as the center of town, and it made Berk look small in how it wa set up. The sheer amount of buildings squished together was outstanding.

I simply filed all this information away, instead focusing on finding a solid landing spot that would ensure we wouldn’t be surrounded immediately or land on someone. I eventually spotted a section beside a dirt road that looked perfect for us to land on before entering the city. I patted Toothless before pointing to the section, to which he nodded before swooping down. The landing was smooth as usual, and thankfully not filled with people surrounding me immediately. There were a few odd looks from some ponies and even a gryphon or two but aside from that we had not been given much attention.

Though that brought up a whole new topic; the sheer diversity of the city. The amount of of intelligent species within the city was amazing! Not only were there gryphons, but also flying ponies, dragons, deer folk, some strange half man-half bull creature, large ferocious looking cats, about the size of the ponies, large snakes, half goat-half man creatures, and fantastical creatures which looked like nature itself had come alive, trees that had taken a pony form, water that appeared like the snake clans, and I had even spotted a few pony shaped mix of rocks, gems and dirt walking casually within the city! This gave me greater hope of not only that Toothless would be allowed to enter the city, but that I might even procure the proper materials to fix my gliding suit.

It was tough to get over the fact that this new area of the world was so brimming with life that was so similar to our own. Vikings had thought for centuries that we were the only ones that were intelligent enough to do what we did; build houses, forge tools, and create a society. Our whole world was shattered when we found out that dragons were nearly on par with us, minus the creation of tools bit. I could only imagine what would happen if the rest back home could see what I was seeing.

I felt a minor pang of anger and fear when i thought of home. The incident above the mountains had worried me more than I had felt since dad’s passing. What if I was never able to get home, to see mom, or Astrid again. I know she wasn’t far along when I left but what if I missed the birth of our child? Could I even live with myself if that were to come to pass? 

I shook my head at that line of thought, for despite my deep rooted fears, I knew that I couldn’t succumb to such ideas. There was always a chance to get home and even if it wasn’t for a while, I would get home. To give up at a mere suggestion was un-viking like and though I wasn’t like the other vikings, I was one none the less. The moment my mind was made, I took a deep breath, holding it in briefly before letting it out. 

The first order of business would be to browse the shops and stalls of the city, especially ones focusing on flight-centric products. Of course finding some basic necessities was also something to look for. That brought up a single question though, how was I going to pay for the materials? There was no doubt that they had a regional currency that would be the main form of trade, or at the very least a bargin system. The latter wouldn’t be overly beneficial to me, unfortunately, for I was lacking any materials that would even be suitable for bargaining. That of course left me with only one option; I’d have to provide a service to exchange for this city’s currency or something of value in order to procure the materials necessary for me to repair my gliding suit. 

With our direction set, Toothless and I ventured into the city, all the while garnering many curious looks from passersby and locals alike. Most of the dragons here, for the few there were, walked on two feet, while the ones at the mountain range mostly walked on four. I wasn’t certain if they were different from the other dragons, or if they walked on two feet until a certain age or stage of life was achieved. It would be a nice way to expand my knowledge on the dragons of this land but if they were anything like the ones that we had encountered before than there would be a problem trying to interact with one.

It seemed that the area we had found ourselves near was actually a place of trade, a commerce if you will. It was a little odd in my mind that it was placed more towards the outskirts of the city but I was hardly one to speak from experience considering there were only a very small handful of towns I had ever been too. This marketplace was by far more impressive than what Berk had to offer, with shop stalls and buildings being lined up down each street. It made for one impressive and a little bit overwhelming experience, but I was no newcomer to seeing fresh sights so I paid it no heed after the initial shock. 

Despite us being in the less dense area of the city, we still found ourselves almost constantly surrounded by others that were going about their day. The crammed streets made it extremely tough for Toothless to even be able to walk without incident. Toothless ended up having to be extra cautious when turning and also mindful of his tail after one of the deer folk took a tumble because they hadn’t noticed his tail. This single accident had brought to my attention the possibilities of damages he could cause to the sales stalls and the products they were offering if he took a single misstep. Poor Toothless, he looked really embarrassed when I used a bit of rope on the end of his tail, where his tailfin begins to jut out and secure it to one of the saddle hooks.

I did sympathize with him, though. Dragon tails are often prominently displayed in courtship and mating. For us Vikings, it would be the equivalent of walking through our villages completely naked. I’ll make it up to him, though how I would do that, I didn’t rightly know. Maybe some exotic tropical fish? I looked about me as I took in the sights of the streets we had been wandering through as I pondered on how I would make this embarrassing moment up to my good buddy.

The marketplace was extremely large in diversity, but of course I hadn’t known of any other except for the very small one in Berk. Though that one had mainly included the smithing shop and a vendor or two. in fact, we hardly saw people selling wares aside from Trader Johan. So to see all of these different creatures, selling so many different wares was something to behold. Hopefully with such a diversity, we could find everything we needed to not only fix the gliding suit but to also something to take back to Berk.

Toothless wasn’t exactly liking the market, since all the creatures among him were making it tough for him to gain any sort of space. The problem with his tail wasn’t helping any either, and my makeshift solution was probably making it just that much worse. His eyes were cast down nearly the entire time, though not enough to stop him from watching his movements. I truly felt bad for him, and even though I had already made up my mind to make it up to him somehow, I felt that I should find a way sooner than later.

“I know Toothless, I know. It’s just until we get back out of the city. Just … bear with it for now.” As I went from prospective stall to prospective stall, I’d get Toothless to flap his wings once, since I needed to test the air resistance properties of the various fabrics, some feeling so strange and exotic I could only wonder at where it came from, or how it was produced. Each time Toothless shook his head, which was a little discouraging to be honest, but it didn’t change that I needed good airtight material to repair my gliding suit.

It was funny to see some of the shopkeepers reacting as they did when I would walk up to their stand and browse their fabrics. Some had been very receptive and not really caring what we looked like, while the others had … reacted a little poorly in comparison. When Toothless made his judgement, that always ended up in a negative decision, and I would put down the fabric and move on, they hardly seemed discouraged. We had been through nearly ten different fabric stalls when a little detour came up unexpectedly.

“Psst, strange creature!” I looked around, noticing a gryphon curling one of his foreclaws at me, beckoning for me to join him in the dark and  dirty-looking alleyway he was in. Considering that such places were prime mugging spots, I was understandably hesitant to join him. Sliding my flame sword out of it’s sheath but not igniting it, I cautiously moved forward, ready to react to any quick movements, real or perceived.

“Put that away, if I had intended to hurt you or rob you, you’d be dead quick as you please.” The gryphon growled, sounding rather displeased. 

I shook my head, “I’ll just keep them out, for you know .... a means of defense, what with those talons. I mean no offense, but I’m also not going to be foolhardy enough to put away any means of defense from a stranger that I know nothing about. No doubt you can tell we aren’t exactly of this area, so I’m not taking a chance here.” 

The gryphon burst out laughing, “You’ve got spunk, fledgeling, I like that!” The gryphon uncovered the wares that he was offering, as he spoke, his back towards me, which was both foolish and touching, since it was a show of trust to a stranger. Because with the less than honorable, it would have been an opportunity to attack him and steal his wares.

When he turned around, I looked at him a little closer, as he had several jars of fireflies to illuminate his humble little shop. On the lion half, the coat was faded and patchy, scars occasionally crossing each other, while the eagle half looked much the same, except with feathers instead of fur. He had a lighter jagged scar arching over the top of his beak, and three scars forming a triangle shape around his right eye. The milky appearance of that eye made it rather clear that he was blind in that eye. His feathers and fur looked rough and unkempt, and a little dirty from the dust and debris scattered through the alleyway. His build also looked smaller than the gryphons I had encountered. I don’t mean that he was shorter than they were, but that his body looked like he had muscles, but not like he must have appeared in his prime.

“So … why me?”

“Because, unlike those other fletchlings, you’re an earth pounder, the wonders of the skies are new, refreshed for you, because you can’t fly unaided. These fletchlings take the sky for granted with all her breathtaking beauty and her shifting moods. They live in her, the sky. They live too close to her, and are therefore blinded by familiarity. For you, however, it will always be like going from the distance of a star to that of the distance of the sun, each time is new, refreshed because you don’t live in the sky, you’re dazzled temporarily, but not blinded.” 

There was a certain truth to what he was saying, despite him not knowing a single thing about Toothless or I. Sure we had flown often and I had even been ‘flying’ next to Toothless for sometime now, it probably wasn’t the same as living with the ability to just take off whenever one wanted. This gryphon had never dealt with a twosome like us, yet he still was able to read us like a book.

I didn’t reply to his words, instead opting to peruse his selection of fabrics and other tools which was supposed to perform some function necessary for flying. I found a fabric that I particularly liked, especially for its ability to capture air. I turned to Toothless who did his little flap test, and I was amazed when he nodded his head in approval at the fabric. “What fabric is this?”

“Ah, ah, ah. Now if I told you that, it would hardly be unique now. The most you’re going to get out of me, fledgling is the name. Teflon.”

 “Interesting, very interesting. How much?” I said as I held up the fabric, mainly to inspect it further. 

“Six bits for 9 hoofs length of the fabric.”

“Okay … as you probably can see, I’m not from around here, and I’m not familiar with the measurements used in this land. How much fabric does one hoof have?”

The gryphon pulled on the bolt of fabric until it was about 1/4th of a foot. “There, that’s about a hoof in length.” he replied.

“I’d buy it, except for one problem. I have none of these ‘bits’ with which to buy them. I don’t suppose I could get you to set aside those six bits worth of fabric until I have earned the necessary bits, would you?”

The gryphon chuckled as he looked about him. “Sure, because I’m totally swamped right now.” He motioned a claw about him, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

I chuckled, feeling somewhat embarrassed, rubbing the back of my head. “Right, so once I find the bits, will I find you here?”

He scribbled something on some parchment, “I’m staying at the Glorious Plumage. You can leave a message for me, once you have the bits and a time and date wherewith to meet you at. ‘Cause I move all over town, so I won’t be back to this particular alley for awhile. Just ask for DuPont.”

“Got it.” I turned about, now pondering how I might acquire these ‘bits’ which were the natives currency. I’ve seen ponies and other various creatures patrolling the city in their armor, the back of it having a stylized image of a sun in bas-relief upon their armor. They were probably my best resource for the information on what I’d need to find some service or good for me to provide.

I wandered about, before I encountered one of the rock and dirt composed ponies. An earth nymph, if I remembered mythology of the ancient Greeks correctly. Having grown up around Vikings, I didn’t want to frighten the creature, as it could provoke it into attacking me, and considering my most un-Vikinglike build, it was probably safe to say that I wouldn’t win in a fight against any trained warrior. 

I hurried to get in front of the armored earth nymph, making sure to give a wide berth at first, so as to give me enough reaction time if it, he, or she should decide to attack first and ask questions later. Given that he was part of some kind of peacekeeping force, I wasn’t too concerned about that, but I would rather be safe than sorry. After all, I had promised Astrid and Mom to come back safely, even though I had no idea where that wall of cloud had gone.

I saw the pony nymph freeze upon seeing me move into its line of sight. I gave a nervous grin, waving at the literal earth pony. “Hi, I’m new around here, and I was wondering where I might go to earn some bits.”

“How do I know you’re not dangerous?”

“You don’t, however, my actions will speak for themselves. Listen, I just want to earn some bits.”

“... You make a good argument. Fine, I’ll take you to a place you can go. Just see to it that you don’t cause me any trouble. I don’t trust you entirely, I will give you the benefit of the doubt, however.”

It was difficult to fully follow my guide, with Toothless in tow, as my eyes and body went from one exotic sight to another. It was overwhelming, really, the sheer diversity of species within this city, and the strange-looking wares and produce that stores and vendors were hawking to prospective buyers. Fabrics, exotically crafted earthenware and china. There were silver, gold, and other metallic goods with a craftsmanship that Vikings could only dream about. There were colorful flowers, and fruits and vegetables, some of which I could not hope to name, without gaining familiarity of the native plants. It was overwhelming, the sheer amount of colors and things. I actually did manage to lose sight of my guide several times, before with an impatient huff; he, it, or she took my hand in his, her, its mouth, guiding to me to a large building before me.

“This here is the Freelancer’s Guild. If there’s a particular job that requires any skill or service that you’re capable of providing, this guild can match you to a particular job … for a nominal fee of course.”

“My thanks, uh …”

“Granite Quartz.”

“Right, I’ve been wondering for a while now but are you male, female, or neither gender?”

“I’m actually capable of being in any of those appearances. I’m an earth nymph, so I can be male, female or neither.”

“So, what about right now?”

“I’ve said too much already. I wish you well, creature. Just don’t cause us any trouble. ‘Cause if you do, I’ll make it so that you wish you had never caused any trouble in the first place.”

With that Granite departed, as Toothless and I entered the building. The insides of the building didn’t appear like it did from the outside. Instead of high arched ceilings, they were about  seven feet high. The floor was of marble, but the ceiling appeared to be made of oak, though they must do something to their wood, because it looked almost like it was wet and coated with something, which gave the wood a warm, golden color.

I went to the desk which sat in the center of the room. A pony that didn’t have either wings or a horn was behind the desk. She was a light purple for her coat, with a pastel yellow mane. On her rear thigh was an image of an open book with the word index at the top of both pages.

“Woah! I’ve never seen a creature like you before!”

I chuckled, rubbing the back of my head. “Yeah, I’ve been getting that a lot lately. Anyways, I was informed that this was the place to come to if I needed a job.”

“That’s right!” her voice sounding cheerful and energetic. She pulled out some forms with her mouth, and placed them on the desk facing towards me. “I’m going to need you to fill out these forms for me before we can get started. Also so you’re aware, we take one-third of your earnings for helping you find the first job, after that, it drops down to one-fifth for each job that we match you up with.”

And I thought Vikings were bad.

An hour and a half later, I turned in the filled out forms, which she then placed in a folder, marking my name on it, before trotting away to one of the rooms behind her with an open door. The mare returned back to her desk. “Please be patient while one of our senior members reviews your information and currently available jobs.”

So, I sat down, retrieving a block of wood from my rucksack, and began to whittle away at it. After a while, the carving started to look like Astrid if she were in the battle armor of the Valkyries. Of course, her figure was her slim, athletic one, before her body changed to accommodate and nurture our child forming within her.

“Mr. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third?”

“Hiccup is fine, miss.”

“Right, if you will please follow me, I shall escort you to Master Portsmouth. She will then inform you of suitable jobs for you, as she has taken into consideration your data and what the job will require.”

“Right, come on bud, let’s get going.”

The mare looked frantically waving her hooves as though to keep us away. “No, no, no, no, no! I’m afraid that the room isn’t big enough for a dragon of his size. Plus, Master Portsmouth has had a terrible experience with dragons. No, the dragon must wait for you in the lobby.”   

“Er … right. Wait here until I get back. Be safe.” I instructed my buddy. “No one is going to attack him if he’s all by himself, will they?” I inquired of the purple-coated mare, as I caressed Toothless’ scaly cheek.

“No, of course not. But just in case, we do have another option!” She took something in her mouth and began to do something on a large whitewashed plank. When she was finished, there was a crude drawing of a sword and Toothless, with a red circle with a diagonal line running through it. She took an awl and bore some holes on either side, and ran a loop of rope around the backside, knotting each end of the rope on the front side of the board, before hanging it around Toothless’ neck.

“Why use pictures?”

“Why, for those who can’t read, of course!”.

It was a strange thought, as all of my friends were literate to varying degrees. Some excelled at it, such as Astrid, Fishlegs and myself, while others would prefer to engage in more … Viking-esque activities. Well, when Ruffnut and Tuffnut weren’t trying to one up each other in who could endure the most painful things in the most visually appealing ways, or Snotlout wasn’t busy singing his own praises, that is.

Once the sign was suspended around Toothless’ neck, I followed the mare as she led me to an office, and sweeping her hoof in a gesture to enter the room. I was greeted by an elderly reindeer female. She had a dark pink wrap, wrapped around her neck, which had white flower petals pointing towards the center of each ‘flower’ interspaced evenly along the entire length of the wrap. Lower down, there was a blue wrap, like the color of the darker blue part of the sky during the day. Her coat was like a cinnamon brown, while her underbelly was a light cream color.

“Hiccup?” the doe inquired, her green calcite-colored eyes looking me all over, as I entered the room.

“Yes, Master Portmouth?”

“Yes, taking into consideration that you’re teamed with a fast and agile dragon, and that you appear to work well together, you have several options that I see. One is as a trader escort, where you will guard them from thieves, brigands and dangerous creatures; another is as a bodyguard for V.I.P. that can fly, or are using aerial means of conveyances: and another is as a guard for the Global Endurance Race that is currently taking place.”

“Well, I think that the one as a guard for the race would be an ideal beginning job for Toothless and I to cut our teeth on.”

“Doesn’t that hurt?”

“What? Oh no, we aren’t going to actually cut our teeth. It’s more of a saying where I come from. It means that it’s a good task for our level of experience to gain more experience, which can help us be better at our job and make more and different kinds of jobs available as we continue to gain experience.”

“Alright, I shall notify the appropriate authorities regarding your decision to take on the job as a racing guard. What’s the best way for us to get in contact with you?” she inquired.

“Well, having me come to this place would probably be the best, since I’m not all that familiar with the layout of the land, or its landmarks.”

“Right … Then please come back here tomorrow afternoon at around 14 hundred hours so that you can meet up with your employer and begin your duties.”

I looked at her in confusion, not understanding what she meant. “I don’t know what time you’re using.”

She sighed. “What increment is your day divided into?”

“We divide the day into eight segments.”

“So midday would be … ?”

“The fourth part of the day measurement.”

Master Portsmouth calculated and adjusted some things by drawing two representations. One of which was divided a circle into 24 segments, while eight of the lines were emboldened in a black charcoal. “Do you have a name for your fifth part of your day measurement?”

“It’s called Undorn.”

“Okay, so come here about halfway between midday and Undorn.”

“Yes Master Portsmouth.”

She held out her hoof, while I looked at it, before grabbing it in my hand and shaking it. This got me a strange look however, and instantly I knew that I had done something that was not a part of their customs.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Oh! I was just expecting you to curl your paw up into a fist and bump it against the bottom of my hoof. That’s a pretty universal greeting wherever you go, except solely in the Gryphon Kingdoms.”

“Ah, well what I just did is how my people greet each other in my land. As you can probably tell, I’m not from around here.”

The doe snickered at this, “yes, I gathered that. Though I hope in the future you don’t run into others that are … less tolerant of foreigners.”

“I hope so too,” I said before I bumped her hoof in the ‘proper’ way, “until tomorrow, Master Portsmouth.”

“Take care, Hiccup.” She said as I exited the door. Now all there was, was to find a place to hunker down until tomorrow. After gathering Toothless of course; hopefully he wasn’t too displeased with me leaving him behind like that.



{C          D           T       *      *      *     {The Next Morning}     *      *      *      C           D           T}



I had a relatively restful night, though given that I had not yet been paid for taking on a guard job, Toothless and I ended camping some mil outside of town. It wasn’t much but we could easily make do and as long as we were not bothered, then who was I to complain. Besides, I’m a viking, we were made to withstand any cold and this place was hardly cold at all.

Awakening to the sound of birdsong, I got up, and washed my face in a small stream about 1/7th mil away from where I had pitched camp. I hastily washed in the frigid stream, shivering and uttering curses on Helheim, before donning fresh clothes. I soon had one of my makeshift nets stretched across the stream to catch some fish for Toothless and I to have breakfast. What I might have caught probably wouldn’t be enough for feeding a dragon of Toothless’ size of course. 

The only solution would be to get on him and attach the net to a hook on my saddle, and have Toothless drag it through the ocean, to get enough fish for him to fill up on. But I could get started on making my own breakfast though, so as to reduce the time spent between feeding him and I. One bonus is that I wouldn’t have to gut or cook the fish for Toothless.

He took flight shortly after I finished attaching the net and just as quickly he made his way to the ocean. It was nice to have easy access to it, just like back home. I shook my head though, trying not to think about our predicament; I had more important things to worry about, namely breakfast. The fish in front of me was nearly done roasting, over the makeshift fireplace that Toothless lit, when he returned with his own breakfast. I just shook my head as he lazily dumped the fish pile on the ground before going to town on it. 

After Toothless and I ate breakfast, the next order of business was to fashion a crude enough sundial so that I could keep track of the passage of time. It would be bad to be late to meet the ones hiring Toothless and I. A piece of rock that could easily be carved on a dragon’s claws was the easy part of the task … getting Toothless to carve the sundial accurately was a whole different story. It took about six tries before he finally got the idea and made one that was perfect. After adding a few etchings, the sundial was perfect enough to make sure we would never be late.

I then proceeded to pack up camp, and stowing most of it in a couple of large rucksacks which were designed to hang from the hooks of my saddle. Toothless and I amused ourselves for awhile, chasing each other, or playing our version of tag. It was exhausting having to chase him, and even though it might have looked silly to others, it was a great way to stay in shape. Eventually though, I relented and collapsed from the massive exertion.

After recovering somewhat from my exhaustion. I checked the sundial, and it was about 10 o’clock. Toothless and I had lunch, before we went airborne to fly back to the city, to return back to the guild so that we wouldn’t be late meeting the ones hiring our services.So Toothless and I flew over the city, until I recognized the familiar sight of the guild building, whereupon we landed about the distance of a steinkast away from the building so as to not startle anyone just by dropping out of the sky right near the entrance. This time a pony shaped tree nymph sat behind the receptionist’s desk today. I heard the town’s clock sound the 2 o’clock in the afternoon. 

I leaned upon the receptionist’s desk. “Excuse me, I was told to meet someone here at two o’clock? My name is Hiccup, and I spoke with Master Portsmouth yesterday about guarding a global-spanning racing track?” 

The receptionist pulled out a scroll of parchment, checking it over before nodding to me. “Follow me, and I’ll take you to meet the one they sent to fill you in on the finer points of the job.” The receptionist leading me to a different room than the one where I met Master Portsmouth.

“So, do you have a name?”

“Everything has a time and season. In time, even I shall wither and die, though you fleshy types will have come and gone long before I do. We do not give our names to anyone other than our family, and our closest circle of friends. Most nymphs are like that, given our longevity. If you must call me, or any other nymphs by a name, call us based by our appearance.”

I gave the nymph a flat stare, before replying, “I don’t even know what kind of tree you are.”

The nymph turned his/ her/ its head towards me as he/ she/ it raised an eyebrow. “I’m a cherry tree nymph.”

I paused, thinking of possible names. Fortunately, unlike my father, I didn’t believe the typical Viking notion regarding naming someone. Basically that giving a horrible and ferocious sounding name protected them from trolls and ogres. Personally, I think that came about so that parents wouldn’t have to think up imaginative or original names, and to embarrass the Helheim out of their kids. “So … Cherry?”

“Hmmm, well it’s summertime now, so Berry Cherry would be a more accurate description. Do you think so?”

“Helheim, I’m the stranger in a strange land. I don’t know anything about naming ponies, but if it works for you, then it works for me. At least you don’t try to give absolutely horrible names to your young.”

Berry Cherry rolled her/ his/ its eyes. “You might be surprised.” 

I chuckled, feeling amused at her/ his/ its response. “Perhaps. This has been bugging me for awhile, but are you currently male, female or neither? Because I ran into an Earth pony nymph that was in a stallion form, but its harder for me to tell with you nymphs.”

“I’m currently in my female form. Had I been in my male, I would have told you to pick something like ‘Cherry Colt’ and for my non-gendered form I’d have suggested something like ‘Cherry Glee.’”

These ponies and their names, I swear. Before I could be distracted upon pondering the oddity of pony naming sense any further, we arrived at the room where I was to meet the one who was to inform me in greater depths regarding my duties as a guard for a racing track that circled the globe.

Berry Cherry opened the door ushering me into a room very similar to where I had met Master Portsmouth. Inside a female pegasus pony was adorned in a mixture of metal plate armor and some kind of wood. Her chest and belly was protected by metal plate armor, while her sides, back and legs had wooden armor strapped upon them. On the right part of the metal breastpiece was an icon of a cloud sporting wings, and I’m guessing that the lines behind it which ended in curlicues either represented speed, or wind, or perhaps even both. 

The mare rose upon my entrance, her eyes looking me up and down. She looked to Berry Cherry, raising an eyebrow.

“We need fliers, not ground pounders.”

Berry Cherry simply chuckled. “Don’t you worry none, he’s very qualified for the job.” 

The guard shot her an unamused look, her wings ruffling and twitching a little. “Fine, how is a wingless—whatever he is, going to get into the air to guard the flight path from any additional ponies flying into the flight path and causing any additional accidents?”

Berry Cherry looked around, as though she was ensuring that there weren’t any unwanted eavesdroppers. She proceeded to snicker, before waving the armored mare closer. “You’re gonna love this. Mister Hiccup here, is a Dragon Tamer. He has a dragon on which he flies on!”

“—Friend, actually.” I interjected, not liking the implications associated with being called a dragon tamer.

“What’s the difference?” Berry Cherry inquired.

“Tamer implies that dragons aren’t intelligent, and are mere beasts A friend doesn’t do that. A friend will communicate and show trust that a dragon will not hurt him or her. Toothless might not be able to communicate in my native language, but that doesn’t mean that he’s completely incapable of communicating, or that he isn’t intelligent. I won’t treat my buddy and partner like that, nor will I tolerate others treating him any less than how I would.”

I turned my attention towards the guard pegasus. “Before we continue our conversation, might I ask your name? My name is Hiccup.”

“You don’t sound very Hiccup-y.” the guard responded.

I barked a laugh, not only not expecting her to respond like that, but the irony of how closely pony names seem to match up to their special talents. “Of course not! Hiccup is how my culture identifies the runts of our society. Basically their very existence is a source of shame and mocking for the members of my society. Plus our people think that by giving their offspring terrible names scares off monsters back home. So they gave me the gloriously horrible name of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. So, I die a little inside each time my full name is used. At least I never had to hear my mother use it while I was growing up. I cringe just imagining her doing that in her voice, sounding upset and looking at me with disappointment.”

The two ponies giggled at that. I rubbed the back of my head, a gesture of my embarrassment. “Well, it seems that there are some things that are universal, regardless of culture.” The guard mare replied. I grinned sheepishly at her. 

“—So, I still don’t know your name, Miss Guard.”

“Zephyr.”

I saw an opportunity to tease her a little and decided to go with it. “What about the fur?”

“No, Zephyr! Zephyr is my name!”

“The Fur? That’s a strange name for a pony.”

“No, Zephyr, as in the wind?”

“What does the fur have to do with wind?”

“My name doesn’t have anything to do with fur! It’s Zephyr, a word to describe a type of air movement.” 

I chortled, giving a her a large amused grin. “I knew that. I was just teasing you.”

“You—” She then proceeded to voice her frustration in an animalistic growl, glaring at me out of the corner of her eye, as she trotted back and forth before me, with her nose pointed skyward. 

Berry Cherry giggled, before pushing at me with one of her forehooves. “You’re incorrigible. I got to get back to the receptionist desk. You two behave yourselves now.” 

I wasn’t sure if she was implying something, that she was imagining things which weren’t ever going to happen, or what, so I opted to give her a thumbs up, before realizing that to a pony, they might not understand what such a gesture meant. Instead as a parting shot, I replied with a, “yes Mom.”         

Zephyr huffed once more, before ruffling her feathers, once more before doing a few breathing exercises to calm down from the agitated state that I had teased her into. While she was doing this, I took the additional time to observe her further. She had a dark crimson-purple coat, like the crimson-purple in the sky at sunset. Her mane was of a similar color, but a few tints lighter, moving more towards a pastel coloration. Her eyes were a brownish-gold, and made me think of a similar precious stone in my homeland. Tiger’s Eye, Trader Johann called it, I believe. He says that it shimmers like the eye of an enormous jungle cat that it’s named after. Though considering some of his tales, I’m not sure if I’ll believe him or not. I guess I’ll reserve judgement until I ever see the actual eye of a tiger. Though, given my responsibilities as chief of Berk, it’s highly unlikely that I ever will. Unless Trader Johann or another entrepreneuring soul decides to have one in a travelling zoo or something. 

Anyways where was I? Oh right, observing Zephyr. Now I’m no horse whisperer, but she had a slightly more muscular build than Berry Cherry did. But she wasn’t overly muscled. She had the body that balanced speed with strength. She wouldn’t be matching speeds with the blue pegasus with the rainbow colored hair that I had ran into the other day, but she wouldn’t be a pushover for other pegasus ponies, or anything weaker than her earth pony counterparts. I had already taken notes regarding her armor, so I won’t repeat myself here. I don’t know if she was considered an attractive mare, since I lacked knowledge of the pony’s culture and didn’t know what these ponies considered feminine beauty. Not that it mattered, since I was happily married to Astrid. Talking to them was weird though, since if you ignored the bodies they were in, they could have easily passed for humans. 

“So, regarding your duties—” Zephyr resumed, returning my attention back towards her, instead of the inner introspection and silent observations which I had been making mere  moments ago. “Essentially, what you will be doing will be patrolling along a section of the racing track to ensure that no one enters the racing track, either through ignorance, daredevilry, or foolhardiness. We’ve already had one accident yesterday, according to one of our racers, and the one responsible for guarding that section of track has been punished appropriately for her failure to show up for her shift.”

“What if there is an accident? What should I do then?”

“If your dragon is capable of saving the both of them, then try to do so, or save whomever you can. If you need the nearest medic team, you will be provided with a small sack of non-magical flares. We tend to have a combination of aerial guards, and grounded guards, such as earth ponies and unicorns, just in case we need to be ready for whatever possibility. If, in the event that a racer or a flyer, or both become injured, fire off the flare first, and then do your best to protect and comfort them. The grounded team will likely see the flare as well as the medical team, and ought to make their way to the flare’s position. However, I must warn you that you might have to defend the injured, even if the grounded part of your team never shows up. We do try to ensure that such events are highly unlikely to happen, but … well there are bound to be slip-ups and oversights, with an organization as large as ours. I’m telling you this so you can that you won’t be blindsided in the eventuality that your grounded team doesn’t show up. You’ll probably get an unicorn, since you probably fulfill the earth pony qualifications, while your dragon fulfills the aerial support aspect.”

She paused, before continuing. “You’ll likely be outfitted with a wooden shepherd’s crook. Now I want it to be known that violence and force are only to be used as a last resort, when all other attempts fail. If the ones entering or on the racecourse aren’t willing to obey your attempts at persuasion or use of authority, fire a blue flare, and it will indicate that you need additional backup. Do that, if you have the time, otherwise, do what you must, to get them off the track, to prevent any additional accidents.” 

“Sounds simple enough. How much of a stretch will we be patrolling?”

“It’ll be about 3600 hooves for distance.” 

“Can I compare your hoof to my foot?”

Zephyr looked at me looking a little confused, and a bit uncomfortable. “Sure, but shouldn’t you already know our measuring system?”

“I come from far away lands, we use a different measuring system than you ponies do, it would seem.” I replied as I placed my heel to match with the rear of her hoof. Her hoof was out ⅓ the length of my foot, so dividing … It would calculate to about 42 mil. Not a bad stretch to patrol, for a flyer. “Right, I think I have an idea of how far you want me to patrol.”

“Or you could just fly until you met the next patrol before turning around before flying into the next patrol.”

“No, because if they were at the farthest point away from me in their patrols, then that would mean flying both mine and their parts of the track. It could be hazardous seeing as how there could be a significant enough gap in my patrol time for a civilian, or daredevil to get onto the track path. No, just give me some landmarks to go by and Toothless and I will be fine.”

“Right. Well, I think it would be best if I showed you the stretch that you’ll be patrolling, instead of just telling you. That said, why don’t we hit the armory and get you the gear that you’ll need.”

“What about that? I doubt that you have any armor in my size with your insignia.”

“Oh, heh, don’t worry about it, you’re not the first creature that wasn’t a pony, gryphon or dragon that was able to fly, but wouldn’t fit into any of our standard armor. What we do then is simply have the creature that is working for us to cinch some belts over their armor which has our insignia on it. Simple, and then it gives them the authority necessary to execute their jobs, excepting matters wherein the Royal Guard is required, or whatever that nation has as a policing force. Royal Guard acts as both policing force and military for the land of Equestria. I just used it as an example, because my native country is Equestria.”

Needless to say, I was immensely amused at the horse puns which she seemed to be oblivious to. I could feel myself grinning as we exited the room, I holding the door for the lady as my body shook in silent laughter.

“Alright, what is so funny?”

“The nation for ponies is named Equestria?”

“That’s right.” she replied, tilting her head to the side, obviously not understanding my mirth regarding their country’s name.

“The word exist in a modified form and does relate to our activities with horses.”

“Ponies.”

“Equines then. We have knowledge of both horses and ponies in the land from where I come from, though on my island, our major livestock tend to be sheep. At least we don’t have to worry about dragons coming back and carrying off our sheep—usually. So hearing that your nation is called after an activity that we humans do with our equines, I found to be very punny.”

Zephyr groaned, her ears folding back on her head. “Please don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Make pun related jokes. It’s both painful to hear, and thinking about them hurts my head.”

“—Well, you did ask.”

“Well, now I’m sorry for having done so.”

“Don’t be, finding these quirks of yours makes it easier to feel a sense of comradery with you. I mean, If I ignore the fact that you’re in a pony body, I could easily imagine talking with another human.”

“I suppose … . Anyways, if you and your dragon friend will follow me to our barracks, we can get you the gear that you’ll need and then get you to the stretch of the track that you’ll be patrolling, so that you can get started on your job.”

“Alright.” I replied, as I followed her out of the office, waving to Berry Cherry as I passed her. “See you later Berry Cherry.”

“Bye bye, Hiccup. Don’t be a stranger now.”

“Alright. Hey Zephyr! Do you mind waiting for a bit while I get Toothless outfitted again?”

“No, I’m just going to leave you behind, forcing you to choose to either follow me, or leave your things behind.” She leaned slightly against one of the walls, near the doors entrance, but far enough away from the doors that she wouldn’t be hit, should they fly open. She had a slight smile, watching me with obvious interest as my hands worked, as I placed Toothless’ saddle on, and securing the rucksacks that we had brought along with us. After a brief wait, Toothless and I were ready to follow Zephyr wherever she would take us.

“Lead the way.” I told her, as I pushed open one of the doors fully open for Zephyr and Toothless to pass through, before passing through the doorway myself. Once we were on the street, Toothless lowered his body, enabling me to swing myself up into the saddle. Soon we were soaring the brilliant azure skies, as we journeyed towards our next destination.