Emma: The Glow Within (Book 2, HTTYD Fanfic)

Chapter 32: Sky Flight and Snowball Fights

I smiled brightly. "I love you too." I said to Danny. We were just about to kiss when a familiar explosion burst from nearby.

The twins on their zipple-back.

"Come on, love birds, it's dragon flying time!" Tuffnut called from his two-headed dragon.

I errupted in giggles at their terrible timing. Daniel laughed too, but I think he was mostly laughing at my childish-sounding laugh. I smiled.

"Come on, Danny, time to fly!" I snatched his hand and dragged him back to the mouth of the cave where the rest of the gang was mounting their dragons.

I first carefully placed the night fury egg in a cushy pile of grass before walking up to Hiccup. Hiccup was taking off Toothless's saddle. "What are you doing?" I asked, standing on my tip-toes to try to see what he was up to. Hiccup grinned.

"You are going to fly Toothless. I'll ride with Astrid on Stormfly." He smiled, moving out of the way. He had put on the saddle that didn't require his peg-leg, but was replaced by a normal stirrup.

"You're on." I laughed, getting onto Toothless and waving for Danny to get on behind me.

::I'm going to beat you, Stormfly!:: Toothless teased playfully. Stormfly gave a playful roar in reply.

I put my feet in the stirrups and stroked Toothless's head. His midnight scales were smooth yet sheer and strong.

Fishlegs mounted beside me on Meatlug, Astrid and Hiccup on my other side on Stormfly, then Snotlout and the twins on Barf, Belch and Hookfang. The Monstrous Nightmare flamed up for a few seconds, making Snotlout yelp in surprise. Blaze and Tyra stayed behind.

"Where are we racing to?" I asked.

Hiccup pointed to a stretch of silvery-grey mountains in the distance. "There. 3, 2--"

I braced myself, closing my fingers around the leather handels that help steer Toothless. Daniel's arms closed around my waist.

"One!"

I took a breath and we shot into the air. The cold air stung at my face, but I didn't even care.

"Woohoo!" Hiccup burst from beside me.

"Come on, Toothless, show them what you've got!" I clicked the tail into the next position, using knowledge I barely knew I had. It just came naturally. Toothless sped forward, whizzing past the others like the sound of an arrow.

I laughed a laugh of joy and reached my hand up to trail it in a streak of fluffy clouds. Snow began to fall, delicately carved flakes landing in my eyelashes and hair. I put Toothless's tail into another gear and did a loop, laughing as I was doing so. I turned back to look at Daniel, a genuine smile etched onto his face.

"Not on my watch!" I heard Astrid call from behind me. She handed her dragon a stick of chicken, her speed instantly doubling.

"Awesome!" Ruffnut and Tuffnut called as they flew upside down. Astrid and Hiccup shot past me, giving me an accomplished grin as the went by.

"Come on, Fishface, keep up!" Snotlout teased, passing the twins.

"Come on, Toothless, let's win this!" Toothless purred before slicing through the air, passing Stormfly with relative ease. He did a loop in the air and the began rocketing straight down, swirling like a raging tornado, as he dove at breakneck speed. He spread his wings just I time and the wind caught them. With a delighted roar, Toothless landed on a flat part of the mountain. Hiccup and Astrid were second.

"Woohoo!" I called, highfiving Danny. "Nice work, Toothless." Toothless smiled a gummy smile as I petted his ears. I slid off of Toothless, surprised when my feet sunk into about a foot of snow. I giggled, trying to take a step forward.

"Here." Daniel reached for my hand. I grabbed it and tried to steady myself but squeaked as I toppled backwards, pulling Danny with me. I erupted once more in childlike giggles, watching the snowflakes drift from the diamond sky.

Hiccup helped me to my feet. "Alright, gang. Let's do some training excersises. With all that's been going on lately I think we need it. Let's start with target practice. Astrid?" He gestured to his girlfriend. Her silvery-yellow hair and crystal blue eyes sparkled. She pulled out an axe and grunted, flinging it into a tree.

"Ruff, you're up."

"I'd rather throw the axe at Tuffnut's face." she admitted, pulling a two sided axe from her belt.

"Dah! No throwing at faces!" Hiccup warned half heartedly, as if it would make much a difference.

"Fine." Ruff it threw the axe, missing the tree. In fact, it didn't even go half way. It simple clattered to the ground and sank into the snow.

"Watch and learn, sis." Tuffnut burst, shoving his sister out of the way. He straightened his helmed and cracked his knuckles, picking up the fallen axe. He threw it as hard as he could, emitting a battle cry that sounded much like a dying sheep, sending the axe into the foliage of the tree. All this accomplished was making a few terrified birds fly away.

"Uh, yeah. Nice. Let me show you how it's really done. Hehe SNOTLOUT." SNOTLOUT gloated, pushing the twins to the side.

"You might want to take lessons, Gorgeous." He said to me. I scoffed a half hearted laugh and narrowed my eyes, resisting the sudden urge to break his arm. I could tell Daniel was resisting the same urge.

Snotlout, (over dramatically), cleared his throat and threw the axe. It missed the tree by about a foot and shot past it. "The sun was in my eyes, Emma, what do you want me to do, block out the sun? I can do that, I just don't have time right now!"

I rolled my eyes. "Danny?" I handed him an axe.

"I'm more of a bow and arrow type of guy." Daniel said, holding the weapon awkwardly.

"Come on, just give it a try." I smiled. Daniel took a breath and threw the axe. It hit just below Astrid's.

"Nice." Astrid commented earnestly.

"Beginners luck." He shrugged. "Emma?"

I took the axe and gripped it in my hand. I hurled it with ease, lodging it right beside Astrid's.

Hiccup through his fire sword instead, striking the tree just below the mark.

Fish legs failed so badly, I'm not even going to describe it.

I gasped as I felt a cold ball of snow crash against my side: a snowball. It came from Danny. I rolled a all of snow up in my hands and hurled it at him, hitting him in the chest. I then hit Hiccup who hit Astrid and then it was an all out war.

I laughed as I dodged some snowballs. I levitated three at a once and threw them at Snotlout.

"Hey! That's cheating, no powers allowed!"

"Yeah, says who!" I threw four more at him with my powers.

Fish legs was basically screaming and running in all the wrong directions, failing to miss any of the snowballs that flew his way.

My excitement caused it to snow even more, which none of us minded. It just supplied us more ammo. I ran to Astrid. "Astrid! Team up?"

She smiled. "Totally! Let's take them down." For once I didn't feel like she hated me, we were finally friends. We pelted the others with ease until everyone was too worn out to fight anymore. We high fiver in victory. "Yes!"

The snow was so thick, we could barely see the others. "It's way to hard to see to fly back, we should take cover in one of these caves." I called over the roar of the wind. The cold scraped my face like a dagger, stinging with unforgiving persistence.

A minute later, we entered another cave. This one was much smaller and harder to find. Toothless lit a lantern, casting light across the cavern.

"What's this on the wall?" I asked no one in particular. I stood up and went to look closer at it, the dim light not quite enough to destinguish the marking on the wall of the cave.

That's when I realized, "It's a map. It's the missing corner to the map to Dark Valley..."