Xiumin stared at the dragon riders hovering in front of him. He hadn't gotten a chance to meet any living human for a long time now. Not since that incident.

"You.. ride a Bewilderbeast?" asked the one riding the Deadly Nadder. 

"Well, not technically," he answered. "I'm more like... her guardian."

"Guardian?" the Skrill's rider echoed.

"Yeah, like I'm raising her," Xiumin replied as he turned to him. "I've taken care of her ever since—is that a Skrill?"

"Uh..." he hesitated. "Yeah."

"I've never seen one in person before," Xiumin said in admiration. "He's beautiful."

"Thank you," the rider mumbled awkwardly.

"Should we go inside?" Xiumin suggested. "I understand it's a little cold out here."

"Actually—" the Monstrous Nightmare's rider spoke.

"Just go, Chanyeol," the rider of the Typhoomerang interrupted, silencing him.

Wordlessly, Xiumin watched the riders fly back inside one by one. He was in awe at how synchronized they were, both with their dragons and each other. The last to enter was the Scauldron; that particular rider seemed to be protective of the rest. "Let's go, Snowflake," Xiumin urged gently as he balanced himself on her tusk. Snowflake obeyed with a puff of icy breath, slowly crawling back into the Den. Xiumin noticed all the icy shards on the ground in shattered pieces and Snowflake realized it as well. "Look at the mess you made," Xiumin reprimanded jokingly. The alpha apologized with a grunt, earning a chuckle from him. "It's okay, I'll clean up and rebuild the Den after this."

The dragons landed on top of a cliff, making space for each other. Snowflake arrived last and faced the cliff, immersing her feet in water. With her size and height, Xiumin was at the same level with the riders with a mere lift of her head. He took a step forward and faced them. Their dragons were all sticking close to their riders, a trait that Xiumin admired. Tao stepped forward. "These are the Academy riders I told you about. They are the ones participating in the Thawfest games."

"Stick & Stone?" Xiumin asked.

"Yes," Tao replied. "I'll introduce them to you." He walked over to the rider standing furthest to the left, the one leaning against the Changewing. "This is Kai. He teleports. And this," he gestured to his dragon, "is Blink."

"Wait a minute," Xiumin interrupted. "He... teleports?" he repeated.

"Yes," Tao answered, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "All of us have unique abilities of our own."

"I thought I was the only one," Xiumin whispered in solemn realization. "I'm not a monster."

"I'm sorry?" Kai asked, not catching what he said.

Noticing the change in atmosphere, Xiumin plastered a smile on his face. "Oh, nothing," he waved it off. "Nice to meet you, Kai."

"Hello," Kai answered politely.

"This is our youngest rider, Sehun," Tao continued. "His dragon is Havoc."

"Hi," Sehun nodded in respect, followed by his Typhoomerang lowering his head as well. "I control wind."

"Oh, wow," Xiumin said, not expecting it.

"This is Luhan. He rides a Deadly Nadder. Her name is Dreamfyre," Tao gestured to him. "His power is telekinesis."

"Nice meeting you," Luhan said as Dreamfyre squawked out a greeting as well.

"Our eldest rider is Suho, who controls water. His dragon is Riptide. He leads the Academy riders along with Kris," Tao said as he gestured at the Snaptrapper, which, to Xiumin's surprise, had nobody accompanying it. The next thing he saw was something that he would never thought of seeing in his whole life.

The Snaptrapper transformed into a human being. It shrunk to eye level, merging its four heads into one and stood on its hind legs. Xiumin was then looking at a young man far taller than him. "Hi, I'm Kris," Kris greeted with a low voice. "I shape-shift."

"Into a dragon?" Xiumin exclaimed.

"Yes," he answered simply.

"Wow, that's really cool," he said, fascinated.

"Thank you," Kris said politely.

Tao decided to move on. "This is D.O. He has super strength, and he rides a Gronkle. His name is Stoneheart." D.O mumbled a greeting with a respectful nod. "Chanyeol controls fire. His dragon is a Monstrous Nightmare named Phoenix."

"Hi, it's really nice to meet you," Chanyeol said cheerfully. Xiumin returned it warmly, glad to have someone talk to him so comfortably.

"The rider of the Skrill is Chen," Tao said. "As you have already met just now."

Chen, who was previously playing with some lightning sparks with his dragon, turned around. "Hello," he greeted with a bright smile. He seemed to be always smiling no matter what, and Xiumin found that adorable.

"And the one that courageously tamed the Screaming Death is Baekhyun. He projects light. And causes trouble. And destroys things. And annoys people. And talks a lot—"

"Yes, thank you," Baekhyun interrupted quickly before Tao gave anymore comments. "I'm sorry about the... um... Bewilderbeast. It really was an accident."

Xiumin laughed. "It's okay. Snowflake doesn't hold grudges. I'm glad to meet all of you. You guys seem... close," his voice was coated with envy.

"Yes, we hang out a lot together," the Deadly Nadder's rider said. Xiumin had forgotten some of their names as he had to remember so many at once. Was it Lu Hong? Or something close to that?

"Well, should we start training?" Tao suggested.

"Yes. You have all the things prepared, right?" Xiumin asked him.

"Yes, it's outside," he answered.

Xiumin faced the riders awkwardly. "Tao said you needed ice for this game so we have to do it outside. But I have to rebuild the roof first. It's slightly... damaged," he said sheepishly.

"Sorry," Baekhyun mumbled in embarrassment.

"No worries. It will just take a moment. Follow me," Xiumin said before leading the way out of the Den.

As soon as they were outside, he made an iced platform for them to land on and politely asked them to wait for a moment. Xiumin sublimated the broken ice shards and got to work on rebuilding the roof. Snowflake helped a lot as she could breathe ice that solidified upon contact. He just had to make sure none of the ice touched the riders as she patched up her Den.

After the roof was as good as new, Xiumin hopped onto the makeshift platform and built frozen barriers to form a rectangular rink. Its corners were curved to avoid injuries. He raised two poles at each end of the ring, representing the goals. He carved a straight line to separate the ring into two courts with four perfect circles near each corner. "I'm sure you are already familiar with the rules, now let's separate into two teams. How many players have we got?" Xiumin started counting the dragon riders. "Wait, there's only nine of you. The teams can't be separated evenly. Can Tao join in?"

"Only dragon riders from the Academy can participate in the Thawfest games," Tao answered.

"Well, then join the Academy," Xiumin suggested matter-of-factly.

"In case you haven't noticed," he replied, "my dragon is not exactly riding size." He gestured at the tiny Terrible Terror crawling around his feet.

"Is there no other young rider that can join the Academy, then? The game really can't be held if there is an odd number of players."

"Well, you can," Chen suggested.

"Oh, no," Xiumin shook his head vigorously. "There is no chance that I'd join the Academy. I don't even know what you guys do."

"They train with their dragons in an arena. You know, work on teamwork and synchronization," Tao answered for the riders.

"Well, 'in case you haven't noticed'," Xiumin started, quoting him with a smirk, "my dragon can't exactly fit into an arena."

"Touché," Tao answered with an amused smile.

"Excuse me?" Xiumin asked.

"Too-shae," Tao repeated slowly. "It's used to admit that someone made a clever point."

"I have never heard of that word before in my life," Suho interjected.

"I picked it up from France in 1990," he explained. Seeing their confused faces, he sighed. "Somewhere in the future." The riders nodded in familiar understanding. Xiumin understood that Tao could control time; he probably could time travel too.

"The arena is just for our convenience," Kris told Xiumin.

"Yeah, so we don't blow up the houses or something," Baekhyun mumbled in embarrassment, almost as if he experienced it before.

"So you can train anywhere you like, to be honest," the Typhoomerang's rider said. Xiumin forgot his name too. 

"You're actually serious about this?" Xiumin asked doubtfully.

"Yes!" everybody replied in unison.

"But the dragons will have to come with me. They follow the alpha. I can't leave them behind," Xiumin said, hoping to change their mind.

"Sure, the more the merrier," Baekhyun agreed easily.

Giving up, Xiumin sighed in resignation. "Okay. I'll move to Berk and join the Academy." The Academy riders cheered and whooped while Xiumin laughed at their enthusiasm before calming them down and separating the teams into two. "Okay, Tao, you're the referee. Separate us into two teams."

Tao scanned the riders and pondered for a moment, holding a mix of blue and red ribbons. "Xiumin, Luhan, Kris, Chen, Sehun, you're Blue Team. Suho, Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Kai, D.O, you're Red Team. Tie the colour of your respective teams on your left arm."

"Awesome," Chanyeol exclaimed while he high-fived Baekhyun. Luhan clapped Sehun on the back with a brotherly hug and held out his clenched hand to Xiumin for a fist-bump which he hesitantly returned after watching the example from Kai and D.O. Xiumin thought it weird, to be honest, that people would hit each other on purpose.

Tao handed them each a pair of skates. "This is just like skating back on Berk during Snoggletog. Only this time, you will be holding sticks." He handed them carved sticks to be able to lead the puck. "The only rule of the game is that you have to use the stick to control the puck. Any questions?"

Baekhyun raised his hand and asked without waiting for a response, "Why is Snowflake trying to eat Fleet?"

Everyone turned their heads to the Bewilderbeast and saw a tiny green tail wiggling from between her clamped mouth. "Thor Almighty—" Tao exclaimed.

"Snowflake!" Xiumin yelled in reprimand. "Spit her out this instant!" He was not shocked at her behavior; she tended to do that when she was bored, each time with a different species. Snowflake growled low in in denial. "Snowflake," he warned. With Fleet still stuck in , she snarled and continued her version of playing with dragons. "Snowflake, how many times must I tell you that you cannot, under any circumstances, bite a dragon. Now spit that Terror out immediately!" He sounded like a nagging mother and he was aware of it. A sharp pang of sadness pierced his heart at how much he reminded himself of his mother and he mentally shook himself for having such thoughts. 

Sensing her guardian's building depression, Snowflake opened , freeing Fleet, which headed straight for Tao, wrapping herself around his neck. Xiumin barely noticed Tao caressing his dragon in a soothing manner. Snowflake lowered her head to meet Xiumin in the eye and playfully huffed out a breath of ice that coated Xiumin's silver hair, earning a chuckle from him. "I'm okay, girl. Thanks for caring," he murmured to her while ruffling his own hair.

"Okay, let's start," Tao announced and everybody gathered in the ring after getting ready. "The Red Team's home is on my left. They shoot in the opposite direction and vice versa for the Blue Team." As he spoke, a blue baby Scuttleclaw perched on the top of the Red Team's goalpost while a red one did the same on the Blue Team's goalpost to indicate where the opposite team should shoot. "Every time the puck enters the goal, the Scuttleclaw on top of it will shoot a blast of fire. Just remember to head for your team colour and you won't shoot into the wrong goal. Baekhyun, stop hitting Kai's !" Baekhyun straightened up immediately and positioned his stick properly, mumbling an apology. "Sehun, the stick is not for poking people!" The youngest rider froze with his stick under Luhan's rib and Luhan flinching while trying to contain his laughter. Tao sighed and looked to the leader for help.

"Alright, guys, focus. Thawfest is coming soon. We need to be serious about this," Suho ordered and to Xiumin's surprise, everyone listened and quieted down after a few seconds. He guessed the riders really respected him as a leader.

Xiumin noticed as Tao mouthed his thanks to the leader. "Okay, each team send out a representative to the center of the ring to steal the puck the moment the game starts." Kris and Suho stepped forward without argument from any other riders. "Another teammate as goalkeeper." The two teams discussed this time, and after a few moments of whispering, Chen and D.O headed to their own goals to guard. "Red Team faces the Blue Team's goal and vice versa." Xiumin glided to the other half of the ring and took his position, facing the blue Scuttleclaw. and waited while the others readied themselves. He watched as Tao placed the pebble—or 'puck', as Tao liked to call it—in the middle of the ring, between Kris and Suho. They gripped their sticks tightly, ready to hit it any moment. "Ready," he announced. "Start!"

Judging by Kris's tall built compared to Suho's midget frame, Xiumin expected Kris to steal the puck first, but he seemed to have reacted slower and Suho hit it, the pebble sliding across the ice towards Kai.

Everybody moved at once. 

Kai led the puck towards the red Scuttleclaw. He swerved left and right to avoid Luhan and Sehun trying to steal the puck. Finding an opening, Kai smacked the puck towards Baekhyun who was a few meters away from Xiumin. Xiumin took advantage of their distance and shot past Baekhyun, intercepting at the last moment and catching the puck. He faintly heard Baekhyun let out a frustrated cry and suppressed a smile. Xiumin quickly zoomed towards the blue Scuttleclaw with everyone at his tail. Kris and Sehun were flanking him, blocking two players from the Red Team. Once they were near the goal, Suho blocked his path and Xiumin went defensive. He kept the puck near him while he fended off Suho's stick with his own. He realized that he wasn't capable of protecting the puck anymore and desperately searched for an opening. A few feet behind Suho stood Luhan, crouched low and ready, signaling Xiumin. With one last push of his stick, he hit the puck, sending it flying towards Luhan. Without wasting any time, Luhan shot the puck towards the goal. D.O dropped to his knees to block the puck, only to realize he was a second too late.

The blue Scuttleclaw released a burst of green flames.

The Blue Team whooped and cheered, all of them slamming into Luhan and tackling him with hugs. With everyone's lack of expertise in ice-skating, Luhan lost balance at the first tackle and fell with Sehun landing on top of him. It was probably unwise of Sehun to throw all of his weight onto Luhan's shorter figure, because Xiumin noticed Luhan gasping for air at the bottom, though his lips were curved into a grin. The others hauled both of them up and ruffled Luhan's hair or gave him high-fives.

Xiumin was awkwardly standing a distance away as he didn't know what to do because he didn't know them as well as the others. Thankfully, Tao spoke up. "Okay, okay, break it up." He wedged himself in between Luhan and everyone else. "It's just one goal, you need to score more than that if you want to win the game." Everybody straightened up. "The losing team starts the game," he announced, laying the puck in the middle of the circle that was nearest to the pebble before it shot into the goal.

The game started again and it was going fine. Everybody was adapting well. Of course, it was until the Blue Team almost scored again and Kai was trying very hard to steal the puck. D.O was putting in as much effort, both guarding the goal and battling the crowd. Sehun had control over the puck with Kris behind him and despite situations, Xiumin found it enlightening that D.O and Kai were both trying to win the battle over the two looming figures. The struggle got a little out of hand and Kris slipped on the ice, knocking into Kai who was standing in front of D.O.

Kai crashed into D.O, who, probably due to his supernatural strength, shattered one of the goalposts as he crashed into it. Not being able to control the momentum, the pair slid across the ice and also shattered the rink barrier. The world seemed to slow down as they fell off the edge and plummeted to the ground far below. Probably wasn't a good idea to build the rink one thousand feet up the mountain, Xiumin mused for that one millisecond. 

Everyone let out a panicked cry and ran towards the edge, looking for the falling figures. D.O seemed to have passed out, probably while hitting his head crashing into all the ice, and Kai was desperately fumbling for his hand, for what reason Xiumin didn't know. It was until the Changewing and Gronkle both took off into their direction that Xiumin remembered Kai could teleport. He was probably trying to teleport them away from impending death. 

Kai managed to get ahold of D.O's hand and pulled him into an embrace. A puff of smoke surrounded Kai as he tried to teleport but both of them remained airborne. Acting on instinct, Xiumin jumped off the platform, gliding on the ice that materialized under his feet and formed a path towards them. Xiumin wasn't going to let anyone die. Not again.

Kai noticed Xiumin rushing over and yelled, "Catch him!" when he realized Xiumin couldn't save both of them together. Their combined weight would crush him.

"I'm almost there!" Xiumin shouted. Kai released D.O from his embrace and shoved him towards Xiumin. Xiumin's iced path curved at the exact timing and intercepted D.O's fall, catching him and draping him over his shoulder. Once Kai was reassured that D.O was safe, he teleported away in a puff of smoke, probably onto his dragon which was still fighting gravity to reach her rider.

A blue Raincutter that Xiumin previously named Shortlegs voluntarily dived towards Xiumin and he gladly plopped onto his back. Shortlegs headed back towards the destroyed rink and Xiumin secured D.O by wrapping his arms around his limp body.

As soon as he landed, the riders surrounded him, all saying things like, "How is he?" or "How did this happen?" or even "I can't believe he's strong enough to break ice with his head."

Kai pushed through the crowd spluttering, "I-I'm so s-s-sorry. I t-tried to t-teleport b-b-but my p-p-powers weren't working I-I don't know w-why and—"

"It's okay, Kai," Suho said gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. Then his voice raised above others. "Alright, alright. Give him some space. Back up a little." The riders obeyed immediately, shuffling backwards loudly. Xiumin laid him down on the ice and Suho bent over him immediately.

"D.O," he called worriedly. "D.O! He's unconscious. We have to get him to Lay," he muttered.

"Lay?" Xiumin asked, confused.

"Our physician. He has healing powers," Luhan answered him then turned to Suho. "If we have to get him to Lay, we better do it quick."

Suho nodded in agreement. "Practice is over. We've had enough training for the day anyway. We'll be ready by Thawfest. Everybody, saddle up! We're going home." The riders mounted their dragons, all except Xiumin. Suho looked at him questioningly. "What are you waiting for? Hurry up and gather all your dragons. You're coming with us. Now."

"I seriously doubt all my dragons can fit on your island," Xiumin said with uncertainty.

"We have a dragon hangar," Suho said without hesitation. "They'll fit. Now keep up or we'll leave you behind. We're not sure if D.O has a concussion but he's still unconscious."

"Okay, you guys go ahead. I need some time to gather the dragons," Xiumin said.

"Alright," Suho said. "If I remember correctly, just keep heading southeast and you'll find Berk."

"No problem. Take care," Xiumin warned kindly as everyone took off with Tao leading the way.

"You too," Suho said before taking off with his Scauldron.

And Xiumin knew that Suho didn't mean physically.