ya_assemble | Ya know they say never meet your heroes...

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Ya know they say never meet your heroes...

Camp Kiesel was proud to play host to boy scouts, girl scouts and cub scouts from all across the state of Utah every summer. Even prouder of how many years they'd gone without a significant accident or injury. Sure there were always the little bumps and scrapes and cuts that came with being out in the wilderness teaching useful skills to kids. But nothing news worthy.

That could however change tonight.

Trembling with fear a pale young boy with thick rimmed glasses sat in the middle of a drifting canoe as it floated aimlessly across the placid lake. The bullies who had forced him into the canoe were laughing and jeering from the shore while the young victim was forced to confront the murky depths of the lake he had been too scared to swim in that afternoon.

Wrapping his arms around his knees he whimpered and clamped his eyes shut. His throat felt closed tight and he doubted that anyone in the cabins would hear him even if he screamed.

Not that he would allow himself to suffer such humiliation. Drowning would be better then that wouldn't it?

If only he were fearless. If only he could laugh at the things that hurt and scared him. Be a big brave viking! A might hero like...

"Where am I?"

The boy opened his eyes sharply hearing an all too familiar voice. Staring down at him in confusion was none other then Ruffnut Thorston, one half of the terrible twins from his favorite TV show and movie.

She squinted her eyes at him in confusion adding "And who are you?"

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Ruffnut had never been the smartest of Vikings, and honestly she liked it better that way. Let the big brains like Hiccup or the experienced leaders like Stoick lead the tribe. She'd be content to tipping over Yaks and blowing things up.

Still she wasn't sure even Hiccup could puzzle his head around this strange situation.

"So you just...let them throw you in this leaky boat without any oars?" She exclaimed in confusion and exasperation.

"W-well...they're bigger then me. " The boy whimpered confused as to why he'd gotten the girl twin instead of the boy. He wasn't about to let her know that though. Instead he was looking up at her with desperate eyes pleading for her help.

"Yeah well you're stuck now." She smirked in a cruel sort of way that broke his heart. "I gotta get back to Berk. If I'm gone for too long my brother puts all my stuff outside and tries to claim my half of the room."

"Y-you're not...you're not going to help me?!"

"What? You want me to throw you into the lake?" She grinned wickedly and stood up in the boat violating at least three rules of safe boat time fun at camp. No life jacket, no adult AND she was standing up in the boat making it rock and sway.

"S-stop it!!" The boy begged and cursed his unfortunately luck to have idolized a viking who apparently was almost as much of a bully as his bullies.

Meanwhile underneath the rocking boat, stirred by the child's fear...something loomed out of the depths of the lake. Something with long spindly limbs reaching for the surface.

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A black shape, almost invisible in the night sky, swooped around the area above the campground/

"This is where the new myth's supposed to be. See anything bud?"

Not yet, n-hang on a second. Toothless sniffed at the air. Still don't see anything, but I do smell something. Fish oil.

"Ruffnut." Hiccup made a resigned sigh. "Better go pick her up before she breaks something. Or someone."

I am really not looking forward to carrying her back, Toothless muttere back mentally, before changing directions to follow the scent.

"S-stop rocking the boat!"

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do? You couldn't even keep yourself from getting out here in the first place!"

Ruffnut was continuing the long standing tradition of not being helpful in any way, causing the water to ripple and splash around the canoe and grinning in a wicked way

The boy's face grew pale and his eyes wide as he saw the long black tendrils of something monstrous rising up behind Ruffnut. His voice was lost once again so he just pointed and whimpered.

Ruffnut however remained oblivious.

Up from the depths, two stories high with eight glowing red eyes and rows of dagger like teeth! Finally Ruffnut's attention was drawn by the sound of cascading water falling off it's skin back into the lake.

"What the?!"

There was a high-pitched whistling noise, characteristic of a certain dragon species flying at high speeds, and then BOOM! The monstrous squid was rocked by an explosion of blue-purple fire.

Th squid changed focus from the boat to whatever had just attacked it, not exactly an easy task considering its foe blended into the darkness so readily. It was almost immediately struck by another plasma bolt.

"Toothless?" Ruffnut's head couldn't move fast enough to follow the almost invisible dragon in the night's sky.

"Toothless!" The both stood up sharply in excitement having finally gotten the hero he was hoping for! Unfortunately for him that threw the boat off balance enough that as the beast thrashed in anger and pain trying to find it's tormentor, Ruffnut fell onto her rear and the boy flopped right over the side of the boat into the lake.

"Kid?" The blond braided viking peered over the edge and saw with dismay that he was not in fact coming back up.

Casting a glance back to the skies Ruffnut froze. What should she do? The kid obviously couldn't swim but the beast was in there too! How was she supposed to save him by herself?

As it turned out the choice would be made for her as an errant tentacle sent the Canoe flipping in the water plunging Ruffnut into the icy darkness.

Suddenly it was like she was being struck by lightning. A surge of life rushed through her making her eyes snap open and sucking the air from her lungs. She watched in confusion as it drifted towards the surface in a bubble.

So she was...drowning? But not?

She saw the boy who had been so scared and he didn't look much better now, thrashing about in the water desperately, panic overtaking his every instinct.

Deciding not to question her not drowning, Ruffnut swam towards him.

"Ruff!" Hiccup yelled, before he had to duck as Toothless flew under a swinging tentacle.

Right, they had a bigger problem to worry about. Ruffnut would probably be fine, she could swim.

"Try to aim for the arms! We can't help either of them unless we take this thing out!"

Got it! Toothless took aim, and fired, hitting the base of a tentacle.

Seeing the beast from it's underside was somehow even more impressive then the flailing tentacles that had stunned her up on the surface. It was long and squishy looking like a bag of guts barely contained. Blubbery like Fishleg's stomach.

Oh right, the kid!

Scooping him up in her arms Ruffnut turned her attention back to the surface. The boy was still flailing and for her troubles she got scratched and her braids pulled sharply.

Lucky for him, Ruffnut found pain endearing.

Kicking her legs she watched the Surface seem to rush to greet them. She'd never moved so easily through the water but now it was like flying!

And then suddenly they were flying, the water falling off them and the kid was coughing up water down the front of her soggy vest. Legs flailing in the air she felt them connect with something and decided to make the most of it. Only after a few seconds did Ruffnut look down to realize just what was happening.

She appeared to be running on the water.

"What the...?"

Skidding to a stop in confusion she promptly sank like a stone again bobbing to the surface with the choking hacking child.

This night was quite possibly the weirdest night she'd ever had.

Meanwhile the beast was losing it's battle with Toothless. Lacking any sort of ranged attacks Toothless had the clear advantage.

Hiccup glanced back, spotting Ruff and the kid in the water, and let out a breath of relief. "They're out of the way. Want to make this thing regret even thinking about surfacing?"

Oh, Hel yes, Toothless lit up like a Christmas tree, a bright blue glow lighting the lake. The squid almost chuckled, thinking it finally had the upper tentacle. It was sorely mistaken.

As it lashed out to strike at the pair, it was hit by a massive barrage of plasma bolts. It tried, in vain, to rally. A tentacle being blasted to shreds and and part of its face being blown to chunks soon saw it sinking beneath the water, likely to bleed out.

"Anyone here need a ride?" Hiccup said, after the duo had flown over to check on Ruff and the kid.

With a crooked smile Ruffnut kicked against the water again and pushed the kid upward so Hiccup could snag him. Once again she was standing on the surface of the water, but was so focused on Hiccup she hardly noticed.

"I dunno how I got here or what's going on, but I'm blaming you." She informed him before promptly sinking once more.

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Back on dry land Ruffnut, Hiccup and Toothless were starring down the bullies that had forced the poor glasses wearing kid into the boat.

Hiccup could give them a stern talking to, Ruffnut knew that much, but having been a bully herself she also figured it wouldn't do much good. She was so frustrated to be on this side of the lecture...it seemed to go against everything she stood for as a delinquent!

The more she thought about it the more it ticked her off. These guys weren't even that creative about their prank! Anyone could shove a nerd into a boat and push it into the water, they didn't even steal his pants or anything! Where was the petty mayhem? Where was the senseless destruction?

Feeling this irritation welling up inside her she opened her mouth to say something before Hiccup had the chance, and a geyser of steaming hot water shot from her mouth blasting the leader of the trio in the face and knocking him on his rear.

Her face immediately burned red with embarrassment. First the crazy swimming and now this? It was...disgustingly cool but what just happened!?

Well whatever it was the bullies were screaming and running for their cabins now and the boy was gazing up at his heroes in awe.

"H-hiccup?" She coughed, wiping some droplets from her mouth and silently begging him for an explanation, because for once in her life she actually wanted the smart guy to try and make her understand something.

"Okay where should I start with this..."

You could start with how I can talk in people's heads now.

"We are not starting with...you sent that to her too, didn't you?" Hiccup facepalmed as he got a sense of massive amusement from Toothless. The dragon had telepathically spoken to Ruff. It was a rare thing for him to talk to anyone but Hiccup, but he couldn't resist having just a little fun with it.

"Basically, what's going on is that we've been pulled to another realm in order to fight an evil god named Kuk that feeds off of fear who is trying to destroy all of reality, and we got powers when we ended up here." Hiccup paced, with characteristic gesturing and shoulder jostling.

"How we got here? Apparently, stories travel through the realms easier than anything else, so children here have heard of us through those stories. And with reality starting to break down, they're starting to call on people from those stories in order to have someone to protect them from Kuk."

"Which begs the question," he said, giving the scout a bewildered look, "why Ruffnut?"

"GAH!" Was her less then intelligible reaction to hearing a voice in her head other then the one that told her to burn things. She clutched at her head defensively, watching the pair with wide eyes while Hiccup explained.

The cub scout found this entirely amusing.

Once Hiccup was finished and Ruffnut had resigned herself to not understanding the situation any better (she should have known better then to have expected that) She turned on the boy as well.

"Yeah why me? I'm awesome sure but not exactly someone safe."

The boy smiled at them both, positively beaming in the darkness.

"I wanted someone who's not afraid. Someone who laughs at danger."

Hearing this, Ruffnut's chest puffed out and she stood a little taller, grinning smugly. Then after a moment he added, "I was trying for her brother though." He confessed in the honest way that children have.

Her face fell and she groaned bringing a hand to her face and rubbing it in frustration. Up until the last part she'd been feeling pretty good about this kid.

"Don't worry if you aren't getting it all right now. I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around all this." Which was a testament to just how confusing a mess this whole thing was.

"I can probably explain better once we get back to base. Which reminds me, we should start heading that way now. If we stick around here much longer, more things like that squid are going to show up looking for us. And while I know you would love to stick around and fight them, we've caused enough chaos around here tonight."

While Hiccup had given the Riders orders before, there was a certain element of command in his voice that Ruffnut had probably only heard coming from Stoick.

She opened her mouth to protest, more out of habit then anything but there was a different feel to his words. Something she couldn't place her finger on just yet.

Glancing back to the kid for a moment she shrugged, "Yeah OK, sure. Let's get out of here. Stupid camp anyway." But despite her attempted indifference the boy didn't look bothered. He was smart enough to piece together his own reasoning for why she was willing to leave him in the dark.

She was protecting him, they all were.

Sauntering away from the kid she approached Toothless cautiously, eyeing him suspiciously like she half expected him to blast her for getting too close. It's not as though Toothless was every particularly mean to her, but he also had never spoken inside her brains before.

"Is base far from here? How'd you guys find me?"

Hiccup sighed, not entirely believing he had to say the next phrase coming out of his mouth.

"There's a man who lives on the moon who told us where you were going to show up."

"As for where base is? Really, really far. You remember how Astrid's aunt kept coming back from the opposite direction when she was trying to find the end of the world? It turns out she wasn't actually lost, there just isn't an to end the world. It's like a massive ball. And the North Pole, where we're heading? Is at the top of it."

"Good news is, I have a magic glass globe that can take us right there. So we don't have to fly for hours and hours getting there."

Hooray!

Ruffnut's look of confusion only got more and more dense as Hiccup explained the basics of their new situation. At the part about the world being a ball she snorted in derisive objection. By the end of it she threw her hands in the air.

"Yeah alright sure! Why not? Because clearly I've gone insane and you've tied me to a boat and sent me out to sea. This is all just some kind of weird crazy dream thing. There is no way I just heard the smartest guy I know tell me there's a man on the moon, the world is round, and that we have a magic globe."

Because the alternative was...what exactly?

"Is Astrid at the base? I need someone closer to my level." Which meant to say Hiccup was too smart for her to follow other then blindly.

Why did you have to bring her up... Toothless whined. Sensing what was coming, he buried his head under his paws.

"Nope!" Hiccup said with false cheer.

"See, here's the best part," he continued, voiced loaded with enough sarcasm that even Ruffnut should've been able to pick up on it, "she was here. Except, apparently, we can all be magically sent back home without any idea or warning that it's going to happen. So, on top of getting dragged here in the first place, almost dying when I did show up, and nearly getting murdered by actual ghosts, I get to deal with that too."

Ruffnut listened to his mini-rant with the same sort of attentiveness she usually lacked when Hiccup got going and once he finished she gave him a moments pause before pressing further.

"So basically she dumped you. Wow, guess I owe Tuffnut that eel jerky I was saving under my bed. We've had that bet going on for like...ever."

Completely misinterpreting the situation she seemed mildly disappointed that she had apparently opted to bet in Hiccup's favor for once.

Hiccup stared, bewildered that she could interpret anything he'd said that way.

"That is not what happened. She didn't dump me, she got pulled back home by mysterious magic forces without any warning. Believe it or not, there's a difference Ruffnut. A very large, extremely obvious, difference."

"If you say so. Just don't let it get you too bummed out." Ruffnut ignored him patting him on the shoulder "You've still got Toothless and me so that's better then being soul crushingly alone!"

Aren't you glad you came and got her Hiccup?

"Where's that magic glass globe?"

He honestly wasn't.

"Right, globe." Hiccup pulled the snow globe out of Toothless's saddlebag.

"Here's the trick. Say the name of the place you want to go to into it. In this case, the North Pole, and throw it." Hiccup did so, and the sphere shattered, opening a portal.

"And there you go, one magic doorway for getting us the Hel out of here."

"Whoa!" Her eyes lit up in delight at the display of this most useful magic and before she knew it the temperature had dropped because they had suddenly appeared at the farthest most Northern point in this world.

Even the incredibly chatty viking girl was left speechless when she saw the majesty and color of this workshop however.

"Whoa!"

"Welcome to Santa's Workshop," Hiccup said, gesturing widely. "Currently run by an eight foot tall rabbit and Jokul Frosti. The Yeti, those big furry guys over there, build the toys, the elves, the short ones with the bells, test the toys and bake cookies. And then drool on them. And chew on things. And run around like crazy. If it wasn't for the lack of wings I'd swear they were a new breed of Terrible Terror."

At Hiccups description Ruffnut finally managed to blink away her shock and her lips twisted into a crooked smile once more. The elves sounded like her kind of fun! Mildly chaotic, sometimes destructive and lots of energy.

"And this is the army we've got to fight evil and save the day?" She laughed. "Hope the rabbit comes with an axe or something."

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Ya know they say never meet your heroes...

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