You walked to Hiccup's hut with the message from Mala. You'd already read through it and knew that he needed to see it. You had a feeling that you would all be heading to Defenders of the Wing island pretty soon. 

You knocked on the door and you heard Hiccup's startled yelp come from inside. You chuckled at it. Always so focused on his projects. 

"Just a minute!" He called. He opened the door a moment later. "(Y/n)! Hey!"

"Hey, Hiccup. Still startled or have you turned to embarrassed yet?" You asked. 

"Har, har, very funny."

"So, what are you doing?"

"Oh, you know. Not much. Just, uh-"

"Working on that secret project?"

"It's not a secret, (Y/n)."

"Then you wouldn't mind telling me what it is, would you?" You teased.

"It's, uh, well, you know..."

"Yeah, I know, Hiccup. You don't have to tell me, but you are starting to pique my interest with this thing. But, back to the main matters." You handed him the message. "It's from Mala, and it sounds important." He took it and read through it, his face falling. He looked at you with a frown. "Yeah, I know." 

"We better get the others and head there right away." You nodded in agreement. You got Arrow and Fishlegs while he got the twins and Snotlout. You all started getting ready to leave pretty quickly. 

Once you were at the island, Mala and Throk greeted you. You were happy to see them again. They were also happy to see all of you.

"We're so glad you all were able to attend our Changing of the Guard celebration. It wouldn't be the same without you." Mala insisted. Ruff bumped Tuff.

"Changing of the Guard celebration." He nodded and wrote it down.

"Interesting. Now, how often does this guard changing occur? Hmm?" Tuff asked.

"Once the Eruptodon is unable to fulfill its duties, it leaves us to live out its golden years on Vanaheim," Throk explained.

"Ah. Vana-what?" Tuff asked.

"Vanaheim. It will be its final resting place. This Great Protector has honored us with its presence for four decades." Throk explained. The twins looked confused.

"Come on. Forty years." Fishlegs told them.

"He must have some serious vacation time coming," Tuff said.

"Especially when you consider that most Vikings don't live that long." Ruff agreed.

"What are you two up to?" Fishlegs asked. You were honestly ignoring them. You wanted to learn more about the celebration. You already knew the twins' antics.

"Nothing," Tuff said.

"More secrets. Great." Arrow groaned.

"No secrets here." Snotlout took the book and read aloud. "How to do the great beyond on ten gold pieces a day?" Tuffnut snatched it back.

"It's a Viking travel guide. Just take that in." Tuff said. You couldn't care less.

"The Vanaheim legend, it's the mythical last resting place of all dragons." Hiccup said.

"A place like that would be such an amazing way for a dragon to spend its final years." You added.

"Vanaheim is very real. It's been part of our culture for centuries." Mala explained.

"That's amazing!" You said.

"So you've seen it?" Hiccup asked.

"By the Ancients, no!" Mala replied.

"Umm. Not to burst your bubble, but you gotta see it for it to be real." Snotlout said.

"We have had no way to follow it," Mala explained.

"Not unt-" Tuff began to shout, but hen he hushed himself. "Not until now."

"And nor would we. There are certain corners of the animal kingdom where humans mustn't tread." Mala said.

"Well, I couldn't agree more, Mala. We have to stay away from dragon culture that pure and undisturbed." Hiccup said, glaring at the twins. You glared at them as well.

"Are they eyeballing us?" Tuff asked.

"They're always eyeballing us. If they want a free travel guide, they're barking up the wrong tree." Ruff said.

"Ha! Yeah... Hiccup barks?"

"With the best of 'em. It's quite regal. More like a howl." You sighed heavily, going back to ignoring them. You saw Throk treating the elder Great Protector.

"It's going to be difficult for Throk. He and that dragon have a special bond. But it is with great happiness that they part." Mala told you both.

"Happy? I don't know about that. If I had to say goodbye to Toothless, I'd be pretty sad." Hiccup said.

"Yeah, me too. I don't know how I'd get along without Nightshade. The dragons are such a big part of our lives." You agreed.

"Sadness is a matter of perspective, you two. It's how you choose to view something that makes it happy, scary, intriguing, or sad. We don't view this as a day to mourn. It's a day to rejoice. This is a well-earned rest for the Great Protector. We should all be so lucky to have lived such a meaningful life." Mala explained. You thought about it.

"That's really sweet, actually." You said.

"Really?" Hiccup asked. 

"Yeah. I mean, if it's for the best, then Mala's right. We should be happy. The Great Protector will have peace in its final years." Hiccup smiled.

"Yeah, you're right."

Once it was time for the dragon to leave, you all watched as Throk said goodbye to his dragon friend. You were saddened by it, but it was also beautiful in a way. A bittersweet ending that's for the best for both of them. I guess one day, we all have to say goodbye.

You all began to leave and head to breakfast. As you were walking, you suddenly felt a hand in yours. You looked over, seeing Hiccup there. He gave you a shy but sweet smile. 

"I-I, um, hope you don't mind this." You chuckled.

"I don't mind at all, Hiccup." 

"Good! 'Cause neither do I! N-nothing being minded here. Uh...y-yeah. Heh..." You could tell something was wrong.

"Hiccup, what is it?" He looked at you again.

"What? What do you mean what is it? I'm good. Totally fine." You raised an eyebrow at him. He frowned. "Still a terrible liar, aren't I?" He asked. You nodded with an easy smile. He sighed heavily. "I don't know, I just...all this has got me thinking."

"So nothing new, then?" You teased. He gave an unamused laugh.

"Har har, very funny." You giggled.

"I thought it was." He sighed with a smile, squeezing your hand harder to shush you. You went quiet, listening to him. 

"But in all seriousness, I...I really don't know what I would do if I ever had to say goodbye to Toothless. I wouldn't want him to go, you know?" You nodded understandingly. "And...I also have no idea what I would do if I ever had to say goodbye to you..." You were stunned.

"Hiccup..."

"I know Mala said to look at this a bit differently, but...I don't know what I would do if I lost you or Toothless." You smiled sweetly at him, your heart warmed by his words.

"Well, you know what those words mean to me, Hiccup?" He looked at you, confused.

"What? They mean I don't want to lose-" You kissed him, hushing him and giving him a way to relax. He kissed back, your remedy working since you could feel him start to calm down. You pulled back, cupping his cheek.

"They mean that you care about us more than anything. And that alone makes me so happy." He looked surprised. You hugged him. "You don't need to worry about things like that yet, Hiccup. Come on, let's go get something to eat. Okay?" He smiled and nodded.

You all began to enjoy breakfast together. It was nice to have some time to relax. You enjoyed the calm. Wait...since when are any meals calm? Something's missing here...

"Hey, has anyone seen the twins? I mean, when was the last time they missed a free meal?" Yup, that's what's missing. You thought as Hiccup spoke.

"Your twins departed our island at sunrise," Throk explained.

"Departed? To where?" Hiccup asked. But then both of you understood. "Oh, no..."

"They went after the dragon!?" Arrow exclaimed.

"They must've! Oh, I swear, one day I'm gonna-" You quickly calmed Hiccup.

"There's no use raving about it now. We need to catch up to them. Come on, gang! Saddle up! Let's get moving!" 

"As much as it displeases me to say this, but (Y/n) is right. All of you must go and retrieve them immediately. The disturbance of that island may cause changes to dragon culture as old as the Ancients. No human must ever disturb such a thing."

"I couldn't agree more, Mala. (Y/n)'s right. Let's hurry and get in the air after those two." As you all hurried to saddle up and ship out, Mala came up to you.

"(Y/n), before you go, I must give you this. Nightshade can track our dragon and your twins with it." You took the purple rag Throk used on the Great Protector earlier. 

"Thank you, Mala."

"Even though it upsets me that you all must go to Vanaheim, I know that is the only way to protect its culture from being tampered with. Please, I ask you all to not linger there too long."

"We'll be out as fast as we can, Mala. And e won't harm or disturb the island. I promise."

"I trust your word. Now you must hurry. Goodluck to all of you."

"Thank you, Mala." You replied and hurried after the others with Nightshade as you all took off. Hiccup ranted angrily on the way there.

"Why did I ever let them out of my sight? I can't even have a breakfast anymore!"

"Gee, Hiccup, when you fail, you fail big time."

"Thanks a lot, Snotlout." Hiccup growled through gritted teeth.

"Okay, we know the Eruptodon travels north. So, based on its size and speed, we should be able to close the distance." Fishlegs stated.

"We better be able to! Those idiots just can't hold back from crossing all the wrong lines, can they?" Arrow snapped.

"Mala gave me this. Although, she was not too pleased we were going." You said, holding up the purple rag.

"Oh, I'm with her on that. None of us should be anywhere near that place, which is why we need to catch up to those two...twins." Hiccup refrained from saying worse. You gave the rag to Nightshade.

"All right, she's got the scent. Here we go." You both took the lead with the others following close behind. You all arrived at the island. It as huge and looked a bit complex. As you were flying along, you saw statues. You were confused by this. Toothless growled and so did Nightshade.

"Easy, bud. They're just Sentinel statues." Hiccup told him. You pet Nightshade to calm her down as well.

"I don't understand. If no human has ever been here..." Fishlegs began.

"Who carved those Sentinels?" Hiccup finished.

"Just because Queenie and Throkster haven't been here doesn't mean nobody has." Snotlout pointed out. I guess he's right. You all kept flying and you were stunned by what you saw. It was a huge meadow area and it looked beautiful.

"Guys, check this out," Fishlegs said, pointing it out. Then, you and Hiccup spotted Barf, Belch, Tuff, and Ruff all around a tree with purple fruit. You all flew down to them. After one angry lecture by Hiccup, the twins got defensive.

"How were we supposed to know what that look meant?" Ruff asked.

"Well, what did you think it meant?" Hiccup snapped back.

"I don't know. I mean, we're not existential." Tuff said.

"Uh, I think you mean extrasensory." Fishlegs pointed out.

"You don't know what we mean because you can't read our minds," Ruff replied.

"That'd be a curse." Snotlout retorted.

"Yeah. But what if we could? Read minds." Tuff said, clearly getting another wacky idea.

"Try me," Ruff said. They did and Tuff gasped before laughing.

"You shouldn't say that about Hiccup. Hiccup barks. Which tree? The wrong one."

"Not funny. None of this is funny!" Hiccup told them.

"I knew you were thinking that!" Tuff said.

"I highly doubt that." You muttered.

"We shouldn't be here. We can't upset the natural order of things when it comes to dragons, gang. Especially as they transition over to the afterlife. We're leaving. Now." You all began to leave, but then the statues came to life! You were all surrounded in no time.

"Oh, what the Thor!?" Fishlegs said.

"Stay together. There's too many of them to take on alone." You all tried to get by. "Guys, we have to bust through them." Nightshade fired a dart before breathing her blue flames. The strange dragon, however, countered her attacks perfectly and you were forced to back down. You both dodged and landed once you saw the others had been knocked out of the sky.

"I'd just like to point out that, once again, Mala and Throk have conveniently left out the part where we almost get killed! Whoa!" Snotlout shouted before falling out of the tree.

"How could they know that, Snotlout? They've never been here. No humans have ever been here!" Fishlegs told him.

"Still, they should have I mean- Shut up, Fishface!" 

"These Sentinels are the reason no one knows about Vanaheim." Hiccup said.

"If anyone ever snuck in here, they'd never get out." Arrow agreed.

"That's it!" Ruff said as if that were a good thing.

"Vanaheim. A Once in a Lifetime Adventure. Jot that down. And also make little hearts over the I's." Tuff told her.

"Way ahead of you. Because I knew you were thinking that."

"There's no way that's true. We need to find a way out of here." Hiccup said.

"Maybe we could, you know, just hang out for a bit. As long as we're here." Fishlegs started. Hiccup glared at him. "Or we could leave immediately."

"All right, I think these guys' power comes from them as a unit. So, if we split up, they split up. Let's go in two waves, opposite directions. We'll cut them in half first, then take them on, one on one. Arrow, Snotlout and Fishlegs go first." He turned to the twins. "Can you guys tell what I'm thinking?"

"Yes. Yak barf. Yak lice. Yak nose. Yak breath. Rocks. Water. Trees. Hmm. None of those, huh? I knew it! So I'd rather not say." Tuff said.

"That's...ten seconds I'll never get back again. Let's move it!" They tried first and the rest of you did as well, but nothing worked. You couldn't get past them.

"Hiccup, these dragons are unlike any we've seen before." You told him.

"All right, if we can't fly out, maybe we can leave on foot." He theorized.

"Ooh, it'll give us a little longer to investigate this place." Hiccup wasn't happy about that. "What? Hiccup, the dragon knowledge we could find here would be immeasurable."

"And that knowledge, my friend, could make its way into-"

"The Idiot's Guide to Secret Island Crashing? Ha." Snotlout said, cutting Ruffnut off.

"That was not bad, you know. Don't expect a piece of the pie though." Tuff told him.

"Yeah. Don't expect a piece at all. Don't even expect to see the pie." Suddenly, the Great Protector came over. It looked unsettled and unhappy. Something was clearly wrong.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What is it? You okay? It's almost like he's warning us." Hiccup said.

"Great timing, GP. Could have used that morsel of information yesterday. However, it will make it into the book. And also, the word 'morsel' I'm hungry for a piece." Tuff said.

"Ten more seconds of my life I'll never get back again. Look, the number one priority is getting past those Sentinels. Let's split up again so we can cover more ground. And don't touch anything! This place is sacred. It's not meant for human interaction." Hiccup said. 

You all split up. Fishlegs went with the twins and you, Arrow, and Snotlout stayed with Hiccup. You had been noticing the behavior of these strange dragons. They definitely seemed to be guards of the island. But the real question was for how long had they been here? Clearly long enough to learn a few things about the dragons that came here.

"You alright, (Y/n)?" Hiccup asked. 

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Just thinking." 

"You've been pretty quiet. What's on your mind?"

"Just these dragons. I don't understand why they just...sit there. I mean, they stopped us when we tried to leave, but they didn't do anything when we were coming in. You'd think they'd want to keep intruders out too, right?"

"I don't know either. You were right earlier. These dragons are unlike any we've encountered before. We know practically nothing about them."

"Well, if we're going to get out of here, I think exploring and trying to find out what we can is our only option, even if we really shouldn't have known any of this stuff."

"I guess you're right. It's all we can do. For now, at least." He agreed. You all went up to one of the dragons. It was still again, eyes closed and it once again looked like just a normal statue. Snotlout stormed up to it.

"Hellooooo? What's the deal with these things? Hey!" Snotlout yelled at one, but it didn't react at all. Then, he sniffed a few times. "Huh? Fruity. They smell exactly like this stuff." He said, holding up one of the purple fruits. Hiccup got on Toothless, but the dragon woke up and roared at him, sending Snotlout tumbling in surprise. Toothless growled and Hiccup quickly got off of him.

"Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere..." He stated nervously. Soon, you all regrouped back at the tree with the fruit.

"Hiccup, sneaking out isn't gonna work," Arrow stated.

"Clearly." Snotlout grumbled in agreement.

"Yeah, I agree. We just need to out-strategize them."

"So how are we gonna do that?" Snotlout asked.

"Yeah. These dragons seem to be very intelligent. On top of that, they're more powerful than all of us combined." You stated.

"I've no idea." Hiccup replied. The Eruptodon roared again, clearly still upset.

"What's its problem?"

"Well, clearly, it's unsettled being here," Fishlegs said.

"Or it's unsettled that we're here." Hiccup replied.

"Well, it may have to get used to it. There's no walking out of here either." Arrow said.

"Hey, have you guys noticed that no matter what dragon attacks, the Sentinels have the perfect defense?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah. It's because they've seen every type of dragon over and over. They've found all the strengths and all the weaknesses." Fishlegs replied.

"Point of order, my good man. We beg to differ. We've been compiling a list of the dragon tombs for our book." Tuff said.

"Yeah. That's great, guys, but-"

"Look closer, my one-legged comrade in arms." Ruff cut him off.

"It's not what's on the list, but what's not on it. Think, Hiccup! Use the brains Thor gave you and disregard how he gave you puny stick-like biceps." Tuff told him. You saw his eyes widen as it hit him.

"The Night Fury. There are no Night Fury bones!"

"Which means if Vanaheim isn't the last resting place for Night Furies, then they might not try and stop you and Toothless from leaving," Fishlegs said.

"And even if they do, they won't have developed the same defensive tactics that they have for the other species." You felt a little unsure about this. "Yeah, if we can make it out of here, I could go get help!" You knew you couldn't change his mind and that it was probably the only option, but you couldn't stop yourself from calling out to him.

"Hiccup, wait!" He paused. "Be careful..." He gave you a smile.

"I will. I'll be back, guys. I promise." He took off and you all watched as he was able to get away and leave the island. You let out the breath you'd been holding. Be back soon, Hiccup...

*The next morning*

You woke up and saw that Hiccup was back. You were the first to wake up, so you ran over to him, careful not to wake the others. You hugged him and he smiled,