Twinkle twinkle little star, I wonder what the heck you are?

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It was a hard life being the last of five sons to be born. Not only did you only ever get given hand-me-downs but you always got the worst deal in any situation. Gritspit for example shared a single bedroom with his other brothers, although really it was just the attic. In that small space there was enough room to squeeze in two double bunks, all of which were occupied but Gritspit's decisively larger brothers. So what Gritspit called a bed was just a wooden board nailed across the rafters in the ceiling and to which Gritspit had to climb over two beds and two slumbering brothers to reach. Not only that, if Gritspit grew much taller he would have to sleep with his head poking out the tiny shuttered window in the roof. Over all it was not the option he would of chosen but apparently his brothers called dibs before Gritspit was born so he didn't get a say in the matter.

It was late into the night and all the boys were deep asleep on whatever object they called a bed with Fidget curled up on Gritspit's legs. It was remarkable that anyone could sleep with all the noise in the room from the multitudes of snorting, grunting, wheezing and general snoring that took place every night. But after a while the rhythmic sound of that unpleasant cacophony could lull the accustomed into a sleep deep enough it couldn't be heard.

It was in that noise that a sharp tap shattered the rhythm of sleep. Lucky none of the boys heard it, lost in their ocean deep sleep, none but a pair of dragon ears that twitched. It came again, slightly louder this time and Fidgets eyes opened slowly and blinked in the gloom. He lifted his head from it's warm spot on Gritspit's belly and raised his ears to listen. It was quite for a long while and Fidget was about to lower his head and go back to sleep when the sound came a third time.

It was coming from the shutters of the small window as though something was hitting the wood from the outside. Fidget crawled his way up the length of Gritspit's body and sat on his face while he nudged the shutters open. Gritspit gave a muffled grown of protects but Fidget aptly ignored it. He craned his neck out of the window in the cold sharp light of the moon he could see a figure standing outside below the window. He looked as though he was picking up stones from the floor and Fidget realized what was making the noise. Although he couldn't make him out, Fidget knew this was Horik come to collect Gritspit. He remembered the conversation the pair had had and it looks like Horik had finally decided that this was a good night.

Fidget chittered in annoyance, what was it with humans and wanting to know about things that didn't have anything to do with them? Anything that lived far enough away from people as stars did, clearly didn't want people poking their nose in their business. But Fidget was awake now and he was feeling spieful enough to make sure Gritspit had to be awake too. Only problem was Girtspit was not easy to wake, even with Fidget sat over his face the boy had barely stirred. But Fidget knew a sure-fire way to get the boy up and he whipped his tail around, gave the tip a few slobbery licks and the poked it in Gritspit's ear.

The boy shot up in alarm and disgust at the cold slimy tail in his ears then looked around blearily for the couse. Fidget didn't give Gritspit time to retaliate, he scuttled out the window and sailed down to the ground where Horik was waiting. Gritspit on the other hand poke his head out the window to see where Fidget had gone and noticed Horik standing there. It took a few moments for realization to dawn on Girtspit but once it did he disappeared from view.

Fidget waiting with Horik as the faint sounds of activiety could be heard coming from the house. Fidget was feeling hungry through for whenever the little dragon woke up his stomach did too and it was far too early for Gritspit's mother to have Gritspit's breakfast on the table for him to eat. Instead his nose began to twitch as he stomach talked loudly to it. After a short while he began intrusively poking his nose into Horiks clothes and pokes is the search for something edible.

After a short while Girtspit stumbled out the house with his pack and walked up to them.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

    Every night since the night that Gritspit had agreed to join up with Horik and his little adventures, Horik had been checking the night skies in hopes of what would be a perfect teaching opportunity. Fortunately enough tonight was one of those nights that Horik needed to teach Gritspit and so forth, but it was late as it was so he figured it wasn't going to be easy to get Gritspits attention in his own home.

    Horik rolled his eyes to himself at his own doubt before he walked away from his window, grabbing his heavier clothing and putting it to replace his more casual attire he normally wore. It was a colder night there was no doubt about it, but comparative to other nights it was actually considerably cool if you dared to say so. Horik glanced to the stairs that led down to the ground floor and then over to Argent who was dead asleep despite Horiks movements about the room. Sometimes Horik was thankful his dragon didn't wake up at the smallest of sounds, it helped to avoid having to explain things to the dragon every now and then, especially things that Horik would rather keep to himself and not have to explain.

    Horik grabbed the small satchel that was already preloaded up with some supplies including a few star maps and quietly made his way downstairs and out the front door. He dared not wake his parents and thankfully he didnt do so in the process, so while he had the chance he scurried away from the home and off to Gritspits home.

    It was a short walk, though travelling anywhere in the village was a short walk mind you. Horiks first instinct was to knock on the door, but that was a pretty stupid idea to begin with so he quickly disposed of that thought. It took him a while before finally coming up with a way to get his attention, and if not Gritspits then hopefully Fidgets with his much more acute hearing abilities. Horik looked around the dimly lit ground thanks to the moon that was out tonight, he was able to find a few sizable rocks nearby. One by one and slowly might he add that he threw the rock up to the upstairs window.

    It took a little bit before he had some sort of response, and as he figured it was Fidgets. Horik made a motion for Fidget to go back, and likely for any reason to grab Gritspit from his sleep. With the short disappearance of the dragon before he returned away and made his way down beside Horik, he figured he just had to wait now, and wait he did.

    Shortly after he smirked to himself when he watched Gritspit walk out towards the pair, Fidget was curiously poking around Horiks clothes and Horik gave a pat on Fidgets head.

    "Well hello there sleepy head." Horik looked around with a smirk still plastered on his face as he motioned for the boy to follow, "Come on, not taking us too far from here so be happy bout that. " Horik explained before starting off down the path with Gritspit in tow.

    "Hope you werent in the middle of any amazing dreams. Would be a shame if I woke you up in the middle of said dreams." Horik looked back with an eyebrow raised and a smile at the corner of his lips, "How are we on this fine night though? The moon is out and the stars are adorning it in the night sky. Not to mention those stars are NOT covered by clouds for once. " Horik commented as he continued forward, making his way across one of the small bridges that led out towards the forest of Berk.

    On the other end of the bridge Horik noticed a barrel near one of the posts, curiously enough he looked in and noticed a few pieces of fish at the bottom. The smell was bad, but that was just because it was the smell of fish, not because it had been going bad or anything. He shrugged to himself and reached in, grabbing the fish and looking over to Fidget, "Here Fidget." Horik said as he tossed the fish to the feet of the dragon and smiled as he made a motion with his head to have them keep going on, Horik wiping his hands off on his pant legs

    "So excited to be out on the first day looking at the stars. Try not to be to excited for it though, I mean it can be a little boring at times."

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Gritspit approached Horik, mouth agape with a massive yawn and blinking through dusty eyes. Gritspit personally had nothing against being awake at this time at night but he body didn't agree with it. He let Horik continue to talk to him and he felt something akin to envy for the older boys casual alertness. Was being up this time at night a common thing for inventors? Maybe when you have so much stuff going on in your head it was hard to turn it off. Needless to say Gritspit has no problems there.

So when Horik inquired Gritspit answered. “I'm fine, but the rest of me still thinks it's in bed.” He said then gazed up at the clear sky, the pin pricks of light peppering the dark gown of the night. At his back Fidget was still chittering to himself, he wasn't about to let the humans forget about him after he was dragged out on this cold night. Thankfully he was momentarily distracted by the fish Horik threw to him. Fidget snatched it up with his usual ungrateful manner then proceeded to scuttle up and nip at Gritspits ankle. Gritspit tried to ignore his peeved dragon as he tried to work out where Horik was taking them but after a while he ankles was feeling raw and his groaned and turned around to face his dragon. “Fine, you big baby! Here...” and he lifted the hem of his outer jacket. Fidget needed little encouragement and crawled up inside the jacket, his head poking out the top.

Gritspit continued on his way with Horik, his gate slightly laboured now as he was having to carry his dragon like a heavily gravid woman. Fidget had hunched his neck in a bid to keep himself warn, still chittering ungratefully as Gritspit did his best to appease him. Gritspit then started to gaze upwards, his mind returning to the task at hand.

“So...what are the stars anyway?” He asked despite it probably being too late at night for such broads and laden questions. “My mother told me that the stars are fruits of the gods that hang on a massive world tree that only they can see and the branches of the tree hold all the different worlds together. She says if you eat one that you could gain the power of the gods but that a mortal would probably die first before they gained that power. She also said if you looked closely you could see shapes in the stars of the animals that live in the tree, like there is this massive eagle, and a squirrel and Nidhogg the dragon lives in it's roots...” He paused for a moment, squinting up to the heavens. “But I can't see a dragon up there, you'd think a dragon big enough to like in a world tree would be easy to spot.”

Through Gritspit's ramblings they were probably getting close to their destination.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

    Horik listened to the quiet commotion going on behind him between Gritspit and his dragon. He smiled to himself as he kept walking on, letting his imagination paint a picture in his head rather than looking back and having his eyes reveal the truth of what was going on behind his back. It wasn't long after the grumbles stopped that Horik heard a question asked to him, a question about the stars high above.

    The inventor listened in onto what Gritspit had to say about the stars. Talking about what his mother had told him about the stars being fruit on the world tree and the power of gods and such. Horik chuckled to himself as he let Gritspit finish off with his explanation before he decided to start on what he thought the stars were.

    "Okay well I'm going to go off of common sense here. Or at least my version of common sense. To me the stars and our sun are giant balls of fire in the sky. Now you might be thinking. Horik started as he jumped over to a tree trunk and swung around it and stopped himself when he saw the boy and dragon again, "How could the stars be fire?" He said in an imitation of Gritspit, "Well that's the one thing that's a little mind boggling. But I came to that conclusion because the stars give off light, and our sun also gives off heat. Hence the reason why its so much warmer during the day." Horik said as he moved from the tree trunk to Gritspit.

    "Another theory of mine is that the stars have to be like... massive. If the sun is able to give off heat like it does, and the distance that it is from the ground, well it has to be big to be able to feel the heat from here right? Its like a fire, far away you feel nothing, but the closer you are the warmer it is. So if that fire is say... a house that's on fire, then you'll be able to feel the warmth from further away." Horik said as he made little hand gestures when he talked about the fire and warmth.

    A rush of cold wind passed by and it even got through Horiks layers of clothing. He shivered for a moment but it quickly passed as the wind died off. He shook his head a bit and gave Gritspit a light punch in the arm, "THOUGH, we can only chart the stars from here. And that's exactly what we will do right?"

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There was one benefit to having a head as empty as Gritspit's, it meant there was always room for new ideas. With Horik's explanation Girtspit folded his arms and scrunched his face up in deep thought...or as deep as thought gets for Gritspit. There was a pause where a truly quiet man could probably hear the dusty gears if Girtspits brain turn and at that same laborious speed the words of his thoughts trickled from his lips. “If...the stars are fire....then what would they eat?”

He cocked his head to one side, his eyes distant as he clung to the slippy fish of a though in his head. “All fire must eat, and when fire has eaten it dies....But....the stars have been there since my father's father's father's father....since the first father....then what could a star eat to live so long? Or....does the fire die by morning and is born again at night....”

There was a look of relief on Gritspit's face when he managed to get the thought out and could let go of the fish. In this new found enthusiasm for his mental faculties he decided to pounce on the next passing fish. “...and how would it hang in the sky? Fire has always fallen to the ground. Does not your explanation just make more questions?”

It wasn't meant as an insult or a doubt of Horiks reasoning, but more a curious probing of the extent of Horik's knowledge on the matter.

[Horik Stormpike & Argent]

    Horik listened in to what Gritspit now wished to inquire from him now. He heard Grit ask about what the stars would thrive on as would fire thrive from wood normally. That was a question that Horik had thrown around in his head for quite some time, having some ideas but not enough proof to be able to really validate any of them. Though then again most of his ideas didn't have enough proof, but they did follow the law of common sense, something most Vikings might have lacked periodically unfortunately.

    "Well yea that is true.. Plus you sound like you just gained half a brain from your wording there." Horik smirked at the boy as they kept walking along the forest floor, the breeze was becoming more apparent, helping to give the idea that they were approaching an area where the trees would soon begin to give way to open land. "But I have only two ideas. Either A, theres a massive dragon living in the middle of the sun, which seems a little unthinkable. Or B, the sun is always feeding off something, and my idea has been its either wood or gas, because both are pretty flammable. But either one still raises the questions on how it would last so long on those fuels. So Ive just kind of left it alone."

    Soon the trees that surrounded them faded away as they stopped appearing in front of them. The ocean sat in the distance as they approached the cliff side. Horik walked over towards the edge, but far enough away to keep even the idea of falling over the edge out of mind. Horik moved snow out of the way from a spot on the ground and he took a seat, slipping his bag off his back as he sat down and placed it beside him, "Come on over and sit." He motioned for Gritspit to take a seat beside him.

    Horik opened up the bag, grabbing a couple of metal tubes out and laid them on the ground. Horik slipped his gloves off and put them in his lap and looked to the tube. He ran a hand along his cheek, feeling the hair from his beard rub against his hand, "Okay.. So were going to be looking through some of the known constellations. Hoping that you can point out at least a couple for me. " Horik smiled as he took out a star map from one of the tubes and rolled it across his lap and looked down at it, the moonlight giving more than enough light to be able to see the map clearly.