A strange mineral at the Cove.

"You'd think a giant fireball from the Heavens would be easier to spot on a small chunk of rock like this. But no-o," Hiccup ranted to himself.

Hiccup has been wandering the forest for any sign of where the meteor may have landed, having marked a personalized map of the island with a number of possible locations. He searched them all in a short time (cause while he was not very big, neither was Berk) and was now at a loss. As he pushed a branch out of his way, but rather than breaking, the wood merely bounced right back, smacking Hiccup square in the face. Rubbing the sudden sensation of pain out his eyes, he caught a glowing green... um... glow, beyond a mass of trees.

Hiccup followed the glow until he found the source. A strange glowing pit deep in the island's cove by the small pond, and standing there next to it was...

"Astrid?"

Suddenly Astrid, who flinched as she turned around brandishing her axe before her posture relaxed.

"Hiccup? What are you doing here?!"

"I was looking for the meteor. What are you doing here?"

"You shouldn't be out here. You don't have a weapon and you could be ambushed at any moment," said Astrid, ignoring his question

"By what?"

"'By what?'" Astrid repeated, thinking it was a stupid question. "Anything! Stray dragons, wolves, whatever that thing is!"

Astrid pointed the spiked tip of her double-edged axe at the meteor. The meteor was about the size of a dragon's egg, the blackened, outer shell punctuated by a number of cracks where a strange green glow bled out from them.

"Its a lot smaller than I thought it would be. What is it?" Hiccup asked.

"I don't know but I'm sure its dangerous."

"Let's find out."

"'Find out?' Hiccup, we need to get your dad. For all we know this thing could explode and destroy the entire island, or it could split open and let loose some kind of dragon, or..."

"Um, Astrid..."

"...it could be some kind of pod full of some fatal disease sent by Alvin and the Outcasts to wipe out our tribe..."

"Astrid..."

"What?!"

Hiccup suddenly grabbed her by her chin and directed her head towards the meteor. Before Astrid could break his wrist for touching her, she noticed what Hiccup saw too. The crust of the meteor began crumbling into grains of burnt sand before the strange orb split open, revealing a geode of glowing green crystals.

"Wow..." said Hiccup dreamily.

"They're beautiful," Astrid said, transfixed by the crystals.

As they stared at the crystals, Hiccup seemed to notice that the light set off by the strange, alien crystals intensify, the bright green light glowing brighter to a blinding degree. Before he would be able to push Astrid out of the way, the crystals detonated, unleashing an explosion that sent the two flying a few feet away from the crash-site.

Hiccup's hearing was deafened by a loud white noise before it returned to normal, his blurry vision focusing on the chunks of crystals that littered the cove, the once luminescent green emeralds now an inert, non-glowing, clear glass-like stone.