Hiccup's blood turned icy as he saw that the stairs had disappeared. They were trapped. But he tried to keep a positive attitude. "Well," he sighed, trying to hide his stress, "once we find the dragons, we'll be able to fly out."

"If they're even here," Fishlegs added worriedly.

Hiccup gave him a confused look. "What do you mean? They have to be," he urged, "if we all ended up here, our dragon's must've, too."

But the faces of the other riders were not as certain. Even Astrid looked unsure. "They would've come looking for us by now, Hiccup," Astrid told him hesitantly.

Hiccup shook his head. "Maybe they are looking for us," he suggested, "we just need to give this place a look-over. If they're not here..we'll figure something else out."

The others nodded and the search began. Before them was a nicely kept pathway, bordered with thick greenery. The six began to go down it.

⇧ similar to this ⇧

But it wasn't long before Hiccup stopped everyone with a shout, "wait." Holding his arms out so no one could pass him, he went on, "this isn't right; we shouldn't be on this path."

"Why not?" Snotlout demanded.

"Because, look at it," Hiccup responded, pointing to the ground, "it's so well maintained, but the stairs were covered in vines."

The twins exchanged a confused look. "And..?" Tuff wondered.

Hiccup began to pushed everyone back to their starting point in a rush. "It doesn't make sense," Hiccup told them, "just like the stairs disappearing...I don't think this path is real."

Once they were back at the beginning, Tuffnut rolled his eyes. He wiggled past Hiccup and stood in the middle of the path a few yards away. "Looks pretty real to me," he observed.

"Tuff, I don't think we should split up," Astrid warned.

But soon, Snotlout was also on the path again. He stood beside Tuffnut and put his hands on his hips. Frowning at Hiccup he retorted, "you're just overreacting; see? This is fine."

As if cued by his words, a wall of vines suddenly shot up from the ground, cutting Snotlout and Tuffnut away from the others.

"No!" Hiccup shouted. He fell as the earth crumbled from the rapid vine growth. Once the plants stopped moving upward, he and the others rushed to them.

Ruffnut tore viciously at the vines, ripping them apart as she yelled in fear, "Tuff!" But even when a hole was ripped through the wall, the two boys were gone.

"Where did they go?" Astrid questioned in panic.

Fishlegs was too scared to talk, standing back with worry written all over his face. Hiccup took Astrid by the hand and called for the others, "we have to go around through the forest. If we can get to the other side of the vines, we can find them."

He rushed into the thick foliage with Astrid, Ruff and Fishlegs hot on their heels. But once inside the forest, their vision was darkened. They could only see the large leaves that hung before their faces. And once Hiccup and Astrid made it to the path, Ruff and Fishlegs were gone, too.

• • •

"Hey, no!" Tuffnut yelled as the vines ascended, cutting him and Snotlout away from the group. The two boys immediately tore their way through the vines, but their friends were no longer on the other side. "What? They were right here!" Tuff shouted in a panic.

Snotlout was finally starting to realize that this wasn't the paradise he'd thought it might be. He looked around nervously. "Oh Thor," he muttered, "what now?"

Tuffnut held his helmet to his head anxiously as he paced. "Oh, why couldn't I've gotten stuck with Hiccup? Or Astrid? They're smart, they'd know what to do."

"Hey," Snotlout scolded, glaring at his friend, "I can be smart."

"Okay, then what are we supposed to do?" Tuff asked him.

Snotlout hesitated before responding awkwardly, "I said I can be." He pushed passed Tuff and began to wall down the path. "If I were Hiccup, what would I do?" He mumbled to himself.

Following Snotlout, Tuff thought the same thing to himself. Then, an idea struck him. "The lake," he stated with a confident grin, "we should go to the lake! Think about it, it's the only water source. Hiccup would go there, and the dragons would, too."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Tuffnut," Snotlout hesitated, knowing he was going to regret saying these next words, "..you're absolutely right."

The male twin's grin widened. Tuff punched the air and exclaimed, "oh yeah."

The two began to walk toward the center of the jungle where the body of water should be. It was hard to decipher where the center really was, considering that the sun didn't move to indicate which way was which. Not to mention how much larger the forest seemed now that they were in it. But once again, they found themselves in a predicament. Something large and green blocked their path a second time, after an hour of walking. But this time, it wasn't vines. This time, it had a giant body and menacing black eyes. This time, there was a much lesser chance that they'd get past it alive.