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Hello there!
A/N: This story is an A.U. and does NOT follow the canon events from the movies and t.v. series, so don’t be surprised to see things happening differently from what you know. Also, the dragons are super smart and can talk telepathically, so please don't have a fit when they start talking. :P 
Before the Dragons  
Book 1 of the How To Light Up The Night series

Preface:
Once upon a time, in a frigid land filled with enemies, there lived two young couples that were very similar in temperament but vastly different in species. In one case, we have two dragons entrapped by an evil Queen. And in the other, we have two humans that didn’t quite fit the norm. (One admittedly a lot more than the other.)These couples were astonishingly smart, strong, and sometimes just very lucky. Is it any wonder that stories are still told to this day about their epic adventures filled with romance, danger, and unbreakable bonds that somehow changed the world as they knew it?Some of the tales told about them seem quite unbelievable now, but after years of research, this author has pieced together the following story that, by all accounts, is as real as the stars in the sky. And it goes like this:
Motherless:
As shouts and dragon roars filled the air outside their home, Alga Hofferson cradled her one month old baby to her chest as she watched her husband of three years run around their bedroom while he tugged on armour and gathered up his weapons.“Be careful out there, Hector,” she said with a hint of worry in her voice even as she ogled his backside while he bent over to scoop up his horned helmet. “The dragons are becoming more daring with every raid. I would hate to lose you.” And that very fine arse. Hector paused in his preparations long enough to smile at his beautiful, slender, golden haired wife. He balanced her determined chin on a long, callused finger as he brushed a kiss over her mouth, and then placed another on the pale blonde fluff on top of baby Astrid’s head. “I’ll be fine, sweetheart. And just think, next time the dragons come, you get to have all the fun while I look after the little one.”Alga smiled in anticipation as she gave Hector a playful punch to his thickly muscled arm. “Right. You know I’m holding you to that.”The Viking man laughed as he strode out of their room and towards the outer door. “I wouldn’t dare do anything else, my fierce wife. I like my equipment in functioning order.”Alga smirked as she followed her brawny husband; a man handsome enough to make her sigh in happy bliss whenever he wasn’t paying attention. (Couldn’t ruin the tough girl image, you know.) “I like your equipment in working order, too, babe.” Very, very much. Hector turned back with a hand on the now open door, winking a sky blue eye at her. “We can give it another test run when I get back, sweetness.”The woman snorted and pushed him out the door. “Maybe if you take out a Deadly Nadder, I might be sufficiently impressed,” she teased with a gleam of anticipation in her royal blue eyes.“Then I’ll be sure to do just that,” he called over his shoulder as he plunked his helmet over his long, multi-braided, white blond hair.Alga sighed softly as she watched his broad shouldered form meld into the dark night interspersed with dragon flames and flakes of snow, hugging her happily gurgling daughter just a fraction closer to her chest. Thor, please protect him. You know how much I love him. Only moments later, another, even broader, figure emerged from the dark, running up to her house with a baby tucked facedown under his arm like a ball and his battleaxe gripped in his other hand.
Gods almighty, Valka has got to have a talk with her husband about how to hold a child. It’s a wonder he hasn’t dropped him yet.
“Alga. Thank Thor,” Stoick the Vast, Chieftain of their tribe, said as he thrust the small baby at her. “Here. Take care of the wee Hiccup for me, would you? I don’t know how I let Valka talk me into watching the youngling when there are dragons to fight!”Alga snuggled the auburn haired male baby that was no bigger than her own girl, despite being a couple months older, against her chest as well, laughing to herself as the clearly agitated man stormed into the fray without even waiting to see if Alga was open to the idea of taking care of two drooling and cooing babies.She looked down at the pair, who were now staring at each other in apparent fascination, and smiled lovingly at them. “At least you two get along.”With one last longing glance at the (literally) heated battle taking place in the village of Berk, Alga reluctantly stepped back into the house and closed the door.The Viking woman known as Valka Haddock carried a sword and was armoured from head to toe, but actually fighting the dragons was never her intention.Instead, while in the guise of defending her village, she was actually looking for evidence of her theory that the dragons didn’t actually intend them harm, but were just looking of food. She winced as another hut went up in flames with the help of a two headed dragon called a Hideous Zippleback. That... isn’t helping.“Begone you filthy beast! Those are MY sheep!”Ears figuratively perking at the roar of outrage from nearby, Valka ran down the wooden platform masquerading as a street then climbed the stairs up to the next level of the cliffside village.She skidded to a stop when she saw the massive brown Stormcutter dragon hovering over Hairy Handor’s small flock of sheep. Despite her unwillingness to hurt such a magnificent dragon, she knew the sheep were important to the survival of the people of Berk, so she charged forward with her sword raised high and screamed out a Viking cry at the beast, hoping to scare it off.Its head swivelled around on its neck to look at her as the four massive wings flapped in the air, creating a current that made it hard for Valka to move forward against. Is all that flapping really necessary? She set her shoulders and pushed forward anyway, eyebrows rising in surprise when she swore the dragon rolled its eyes at her in a mocking fashion.She’d almost made it to the admittedly sketchy looking fence holding the sheep in when her fearless husband leapt from a higher level of the mountainside village right onto the back of the dragon. Stoick! The Stormcutter roared in fury, spewing flames from its wide mouth as Stoick raised his massive battleaxe to strike the dragon.Valka froze and then dropped to the ground as the dragon spun and more flames shot over her head. She looked up in time to see Stoick go flying through the air and then land near the sheep in a graceful roll, startling the usually placid beasties into a chorus of 'baaaaaaas'. (A dragon flapping overhead wasn't worth their notice anymore, but a rolling Viking was something altogether different.)She could only watch as her fearless husband jumped back onto his feet and charged at the dragon again with an impressive warcry. Gods, Stoick, don’t get yourself killed. Man and dragon danced through the night, flames spewing everywhere and Stoick dodging, leaping, and rolling as he continued his determined attack on the dragon with his battleaxe flashing reflected firelight. Magnificent. They’re both absolutely magnificent. A loud crack behind her caught her attention. Valka turned just in time to see the house she’d been standing near crack again as dragon flames ate through the supporting beams in an alarmingly speedy fashion. Shite! “Valka! MOVE!” rang through the air even as she was already running the first step away from death. She was a little too preoccupied with not dying to notice that Stoick's yell had a bit of an echo inside her mind.A massive brown body suddenly appeared above her just as the house tumbled over in a cacophony of falling timber. Large claws wrapped around her shoulders and dug into her armour but didn’t go past her layers of fur and tunics. Valka was carried up into the air, heart in her throat and breath frozen in fear. Oh, Gods! This can’t be happening! “VALKA!” Stoick yelled from below.She looked down and saw him sprinting after her and her captor. “STOICK!” Valka called back, hand reaching for him beseechingly despite already being higher than he could possibly reach.In a last ditch attempt to stop the dragon from stealing his wife, Stoick threw his battleaxe as hard as he could, aiming for a wing.Valka heard the Stormcutter roar as the axe struck true before being dislodged with the next flap of its mighty wings. She gasped as its flight faltered in the air for a moment before it determinedly flew on, ignoring the tear in the skin of its wing.She strained her neck around as best as she could for one last glimpse of her husband as he was forced to stop at the edge of a cliff. “VALKAAAAAAAA!” tore through the night sky one more time as he fell to his knees.Tears fell from her eyes. “Stoick,” she whimpered. “Hiccup. Take care of our baby,” she implored the air, hoping her husband heard her heart’s last wish as she was flown to what she assumed was her doom.The Stormcutter bent its head down and looked at her curiously, no malice in its eyes anymore.“Please. Take me back,” she begged the dragon."No," came back a very clear deep male voice in her mind.Uhhhhhhhhh…. Valka stopped breathing in shock. "What did you say?" she managed to wheeze out of empty lungs after a minute."I said no," the dragon thought to her once more before he blinked once and looked up again at where he was going. He continued on his journey to some unknown location through the winter clouds, heedless of her cries to take her back or at least explain himself.After an hour, she gave up and just processed the fact that dragons, or at least THIS dragon, had the ability to mind speak. Valka was flabbergasted to say the least. It raised so many questions and made the war with the dragons seem even more wrong to her. If dragons were intelligent beings and not just animals, then humans had no business slaughtering them hither and yon, defending their livestock or not.Stoick lost the will to move for the better part of an hour, just staring off into the distance where the dragon and his beloved wife had disappeared into. His cries of, Valka! had all become internal after he’d lost sight of them, and they sounded increasingly pathetic even in his own mind, but he couldn’t seem to stop.His heart felt like it had shattered into a million pieces and it hurt to breath as if those pieces were stabbing him from within.By the time he worked up the energy to move, he was near frozen and covered in snow, but he hardly noticed, the cold in his soul so much greater than what his body was feeling. With one last, Valka…, he trudged back into the village, barely noticing that the battle was over and people were putting out the last few sputters of flames.Out of habit, his feet walked to his home at the top of the village, every step feeling just as arduous as the last. He walked into the living area and stopped, staring at the hearth that had a cauldron of fragrant smelling stew bubbling away in it. His appetite for dinner was long gone, and the smell made him faintly nauseous, so he swept his eyes elsewhere.They landed on the cradle in the corner beside the table and he suddenly straightened.
Hiccup!

My son!

I still have my son!
Suddenly rejuvenated, Stoick spun on his heel and he bolted back down the pathways towards the Hofferson house. About halfway there, his best friend, Gobber, caught up to him, holding Stoick’s battleaxe, and pulling him to a stop by the tunic. Stoick almost snarled at him, but regained control at the last millisecond. Easy. He’s just being helpful. I’m sure Hiccup’s fine with Alga still. “Stoick! There you are! Some of us were starting to worry, since Sven found this near his house and not a sign of you to be found.”Stoick took his battleaxe almost reluctantly, feeling rather like a failure at the moment, but as the Chief of the tribe, he forced himself to push that aside for now. He had to keep up appearances for the sake of his people, no matter what. He gulped his pounding heart back down to where it belonged and pretended there was nothing wrong with his life right now. “Thanks, Gobber. I thought I’d lost it when I threw it at a Stormcutter.”“Hmmmmph,” Gobber grunted, not quite convinced by Stoick’s act. He could see that Stoick wasn’t quite himself, having been best friends since they were children. Concerned, he followed his leader to the Hofferson house and watched him bang on the door, patiently waiting for whatever was wrong to make itself known.Stoick was relieved when the door finally opened and Alga smiled at him as she handed over Hiccup. “He was an angel, the little darling. Feel free to bring him over anytime. Astrid actually likes him, unlike that time Helga brought Snotlout over; she wailed the whole time the little Jorgenson was sharing her crib.”Stoick actually dropped his battleaxe as he reached for Hiccup, and then cradled his son against his chest, exalting in every tiny breath the baby took, a stronger, nearly overwhelming love for his son growing as he treasured the last piece of his wife he’d ever see. “Thank you, Alga,” he said solemnly. “I might have to do that more than you expected, though. He’s going to need a nursemaid.” Thor, that hurts to say. “What?!” erupted from the voices of Alga, Gobber, and Hector, who’d come up behind his wife, cradling a sleeping Astrid in the crook of his arm.Stoick kept his gaze firmly on the reddish brown fuzz on his son’s head that was the exact same shade as Valka’s beautiful hair while he very reluctantly explained with, “A Stormcutter carried her off. Valka is gone.”“Oh, Stoick,” Alga said softly, putting a gentle hand on his arm for a moment. “I’m so sorry. We will miss her, too. But don’t worry about Hiccup. I and the other women will make sure he gets all the milk he needs.”Stoick nodded once. “Thank you.”Mind numb, and head bowed over his son, he turned and walked back up towards his home.Gobber sighed after his friend as he bent down and retrieved the battleaxe once again. “Poor Stoick. You know he’s taking it hard when he forgets his favourite weapon.”Hector and Alga nodded in agreement as they watched their Chief and friend walk away like the weight of the world had settled on his broad shoulders. They shared a look, so grateful that the same fate hadn’t happened to them.That was the first and last time a dragon stole a human from the village, but the war against the dragons intensified tenfold as Stoick’s hate for dragons increased as well. They built better weapons to hit the dragons with such as catapults and trebuchets and they increased their sentries to have a better warning of a dragon attack.Stoick believed the reason no other humans were ever taken was because of the increased defences and the stepped up warfare training he put his people through.In reality, the true reason the dragons weren’t interested in the humans was much simpler; none of the other humans were sympathetic to the dragons and they could sense it, being highly empathic and telepathic creatures.After what felt like the entire night, but was actually three and a half hours of being held in the talons of a flying beast who danced and jumped the clouds like it was a game, Valka was taken to an intimidating looking island of ice. The Stormcutter flew into a cave, agilely navigating through the winding tunnel.After half a minute, it suddenly dropped her.Valka hit the ice floor hard, but immediately bounced back onto her feet. She ignored how her arms tingled with returning circulation and kept an eye on the dragon that landed in front of her. What are you up to, dragon?They eyed each other for a minute before the brown dragon turned his back to her and walked further into the tunnel.Hey! “Why did you bring me here?” Valka called after him, cautiously following.The dragon glanced back over his shoulder for half a moment and then walked on.Rude bastard. Valka frowned at its back, but followed nonetheless. It’s not like she had a better option; swimming home over the vast ocean would be impossible. "I know you can talk, so why don't you demonstrate the ability again?" she called after it.The dragon snorted loudly and looked back at her over his shoulder again. "I will talk when I wish to and not when an impatient, stupid, human female demands it of me."The words rang through her head in an exasperated tone, making Valka smirk as she walked behind the dragon. "Ha. I just got you to talk, so who's the smarter one now?"The dragon froze for half a step before a rumble emerged from his chest that sounded suspiciously like laughter. "Very good, human known as Valka. Very good."Valka smiled to herself as she noticed that the air was getting warmer with every step even as the tunnel narrowed until it was just big enough for the Stormcutter to walk through with his four wings tucked tight to its body.They turned a corner and suddenly the world opened up before her as the dragon moved off to the side so she could see as she came to a stop beside him.Valka gasped as she saw the water and ice paradise filled with dragons of all shapes and sizes. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered in awe.Staring out over the steaming pools of water with baby dragons playing within, slides of ice with dragons zipping down, and countless ledges and nooks with adults napping on them, Valka felt her heart fill with an emotion that could only be described as ‘home’.Despite loving Stoick, she’d always felt different from other Vikings. She’d hated the war with the dragons. Hated the needless killing. Hated how it was accepted as just the way things were.And her husband had never understood her desire for change.Valka released a quiet sigh as the peaceful scene settled in her soul. “Thank you for showing me this,” she said to the dragon standing motionless beside her. “I don’t suppose you’re going to eat me now, are you?”The dragon turned his head and stared at her, reading her emotions or whatever he was doing. And then he grinned, opening his mouth wide and showing a LOT of sharp teeth. "Humans don't taste very good, sooooo, no, I'm not going to eat you."Why am I not surprised? He probably tried one of the many who seem to be allergic to bathing. Maybe that’s what happened to the missing Thorstons. Valka snorted at her own musings, smiling. “That’s what I thought.” She studied the dragon for a minute, noting the intelligence and curiosity in his big yellow eyes as he gazed back at her. "Why did you save me? Why did you take me?"He sighed and looked away for a moment, studying the other dragons that were slowly but surely noticing that there was a human in their midst. "Because you are different from the other humans and you didn't belong with them.""You're right about that," Valka admitted. "Thank you, I suppose."He looked at her again and nodded once in acknowledgment.He looked so gentle and friendly now; she was suddenly struck by the urge to touch him. That’s insane. But… I’ve always wanted to, so… Mentally shaking her head at herself at her stupid impulse, and scrunching up one side of her face in worry, she nevertheless reached out a hand towards his blunt muzzle.She watched with half an eye, ready to snatch her hand back in an instant if the soft look in the dragon’s eyes changed, and waited to see what the dragon would do.“If you wish,” the amused thought popped into her mind. Stretching out his neck, the Stormcutter sniffed her fingers, then licked her hand, and then put its muzzle under it, initiating contact. “You do smell and taste better than the last human, I’ll give you that. Perhaps I SHOULD eat you,” the dragon teased, his golden yellow eyes twinkling.Valka shivered at feeling living dragon scales under her fingers for the first time even as she laughed. It was a truly thrilling experience she would never forget. Blue human eyes met dragon yellow and stayed locked as she gently stroked its nose.“Do you have a name?” she murmured. "You know mine, so it's only fair that I know the name of the dragon that is going to be my companion for the foreseeable future."The dragon’s eyes widened for a moment before a contented look came over him. "Cloudjumper," he rumbled in her mind. "My name is Cloudjumper." And with that, he bumped her hand with his nose and then lunged towards her.Valka ‘eeped’ unintentionally at the sudden movement but forced her muscles to stay still. She was rewarded by having the back of her tunic grabbed gently in his teeth as Cloudjumper picked her up and placed her on his back where the neck met the shoulders.She grabbed a spine on the back of his head as he leapt up into the air and rumbled out a happy roar as he flew over the dragon sanctuary.Valka laughed exultantly as the dragon she now thought of as hers told all of the other curious dragons about his new human pet.With the wind whipping through her long braided hair and a smile plastered to her face, Valka rode her very first dragon as it joyfully circled the massive cave. Hundreds of dragons joined them in a colourful array of species, swooping together just for the joy of it.The feeling of ‘home’ increased in Valka and she knew in that moment that she could never go back to Berk; not as long as hunting and killing dragons was the norm.She had just one regret that would haunt her for years:For Valka would be leaving her husband without a wife and her son without a mother.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Playmates:
With Valka gone, the women of Berk stepped up and took care of Hiccup’s needs, but none more so than Alga.Valka had been a very good friend and Alga missed her; taking care of her son helped fill that gap in her life just enough to dull the ache of her passing.Stoick became a little too overprotective of his smaller than normal son in everyone’s opinion but his own. Alga believed that Hiccup needed to be anything but coddled if he was going to thrive in a society of big warriors and wanted to train him alongside her own daughter, who was also petite for a Viking. Stoick wanted to keep him indoors and away from anything that could possibly hurt him as much as possible.Being the Chief, and the boy’s father, Stoick won that argument.By the time Hiccup was old enough to have an opinion about what he wanted, the pattern had already been set; Stoick was just too afraid of losing his last loved one to risk letting his son become a proper Viking.At least Hiccup had Astrid to keep him entertained. 
2 Years Old
Stoick walked up the wooden ledges from the cove with false cheer as Gobber hobbled down from above to meet him, waving his hook merrily.“You’re finally back!” the stout blacksmith yelled while still a ways away. He was passed by a few wives running down the path to meet their men who’d been fishing for the past week and were now dealing with their catch with excited calls as they tossed barrels of fish onto the docks.Stoick restrained the urge to roll his eyes at that intuitive statement of the obvious and simply walked faster to close the distance between them so he didn’t have to yell back. “Yeah, we’re back.”“What happened?” Gobber asked curiously as he finally just stopped and waited for Stoick to come to him, the lumpy, sloped, wooden path not the easiest for him to negotiate with his very new and unfamiliar peg leg. (Courtesy of a Monstrous Nightmare.) “Your fishing trips are usually only a couple of days; some of us were starting to worry you’d met up with pirates or something.”“Worse than pirates,” Stoick grumbled as they continued up the path together. “Pirates would have been easily taken care of. We were constantly attacked by dragons. Every time we’d pull up a net full of fish, a dragon would appear out of the water and snatch the entire thing right out of our hands. Then we had to chase down the godsforsaken beast to get our net back, repair it, and try again. We did that for three bloody days. Finally killed that pain in the arse Thunderdrum only to have a pod of young Scauldrons take up where the Thunderdrum left off. I swear they were playing with us.”Gobber snorted inelegantly. “They probably were. My many times removed grandfather, Bork the Bold, made a few notes about dragons occasionally being devious pranksters.”Stoick growled under his breath. “Your great-great-whatever-grandfather was too curious about dragons by far. Too much time studying and not enough time killing the flying menaces. Maybe there’d be fewer of them now if he had.”Gobber raised his hand and hook in a placating motion. “Hey. You don’t have to bite my head off about it. I’m just quoting from an old book that even you’ve admitted is occasionally helpful.”Stoick heaved a sigh and glanced sideways at his long-time friend. “Sorry, buddy. I’m just frustrated and tired right now. I just want to go get my son, eat something that’s not hardtack or yak jerky, and sleep for a week. Is that too much to ask?” Knowing my life, yes it is. Gobber smiled as they turned up the path to the Hofferson house. “Nope. I wouldn’t think so. Hiccup is just yonder, I have a nice mutton stew simmering in my house that you’re more than welcome to, and I’m sure no one would begrudge you an entire night’s sleep. They might get a little grumpy if you actually hibernate for a whole week, though, so I wouldn’t recommend it,” he said teasingly.Stoick shot his second in command a grateful look. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Gobber.”Gobber grinned back as they walked up to the Hofferson house. “I do. You’d actually get skinny and go stark raving mad while trying to take care of everything yourself, eat yak jerky for the rest of your life, hardly spend any time with Hiccup, and get grumpier than a polar bear interrupted from its dinner.”That was frighteningly accurate. I can’t cook worth shite. Stoick snorted as he gave the wooden door a healthy bang. “You know me too well, old friend.”Gobber just grinned wider and bumped his shoulder against Stoick’s as the door opened.Hector smiled warmly at the men from behind his long moustache. “Come in! Come in!” he said heartily, holding the door open for them and then closing it with an enthusiastic swing behind them. “The wee ones are in the nursery, playing.”Stoick gave Hector a grateful clap on the back. “Thanks, friend, for looking after Hiccup. Again.”“Think nothing of it,” Hector said for the hundredth time as they walked up the stairs made from a single massive log to the second level. “You know we love having him here to keep Astrid happy. We’ve been trying to make another sibling for her, but...” Hector shrugged sheepishly. “It hasn’t worked so far. But the trying is fun,” he added, perking up. “And you know Alga just adores the wee Hiccup to no end.”That only made Stoick’s chest hurt; it should be Valka who adored his son. But she wasn’t here, so he pushed the hurt away and told himself he was grateful that Hiccup had such good people looking after him when he couldn’t. Which is more often than I care to admit. Putting on a false smile, he simply said, “I know.”Alga stuck her head out the open nursery door. “You three heavy louts make enough noise to summon the Gods.”“Thank you, sweetheart,” Hector said with a pleased grin.Alga rolled her eyes to herself as she nodded into the large room filled with handmade toys. “You have got to see what they’re doing now.”Stoick raised a bushy brow. “What is it this time?” he said as he and the other two men crowded into the room, making it feel positively tiny.“Just watch,” Alga said, looking down at the two toddlers who had barely glanced up when the males arrived, not being anywhere near as interesting as their game.So Stoick did.While Astrid watched eagerly, nearly bouncing up and down in her impatience, Hiccup made a high, tall, and perfectly straight wall out of alphabet blocks. There were two sets; one that Gobber had carved for Hiccup and another that Astrid had received from her grandparents for her second birthday. You could tell which was which by the colour of the wood and the paint used on the letters.As soon as the wall was done, Hiccup would look at Astrid with a grin and say, “Kay, Asti, kill.”And boy, would she ever.The tiny girl swung her wooden toy sword like a Valkyrie, yell and all, and sent the blocks flying, making Hiccup laugh in delight.And then they scrambled around the room, giggling, as they gathered up all the blocks and started all over.Because it was backwards to him, it took three go rounds before Stoick noticed that there was a distinct pattern to the blocks that Hiccup set up. Every single time, the top row of blocks spelled out, ‘ASTRIDS WALL’.
Holy Thor, my son’s a genius!
He nudged Gobber with more than the necessary amount of enthusiasm. “Hey, Gobs. Is it just me, or has my son taught himself how to read?”Gobber shook his head slowly in disbelief as he caught what was spelled on the top row just before the blocks flew everywhere again. “Errrrmmm. I don’t think it’s just you.”
Thank you, Thor!
They both looked over at Alga with thick brows raised up to their hairlines. “Did you teach him to read already?” Stoick asked incredulously.Alga shook her head, long gold braid swaying with the motion, and a grin plastered to her face, pleased the men had noticed what she wanted them to see. “Nope. Wasn’t me. But their names are spelt out on some of their things so we know whose is whose. And there’s those picture books we read bedtime stories from. One of them has a big wall in it being attacked by a prince to get at the damsel in distress. Hiccup has clearly picked up a few words from familiarity.”I’m calling that an understatement. Stoick snorted. “You can call it whatever you like. I’ve never seen a two year old who could spell out words before. I’m declaring my son brilliant here and now.”“As if anyone could stop you,” Gobber teased.Stoick puffed up his chest, crossed his arms over it, and sported a proud grin as they watched the children play for a few more minutes.“Ya know,” Stoick said, finally taking more note of Astrid. “The girl’s got an impressive swing. She’s going to make a fine little warrior one day.”Hector puffed up in pride too. “I always thought so. She takes after her mother,” he said with a loving glance at his wife.Alga wrapped an arm around Hector’s waist and kissed his cheek. “Smart man,” she murmured.The children finally tired of their game and decided the adults were worthy of attention. Leaving the blocks scattered all over, they bounced and giggled over to their parents. Astrid looked up at both her parents expectantly. “Hungy?”At the same time, Hiccup plastered himself to Stoick’s leg with a happy cry of, “Daddy!”Stoick bent down and picked him up in a hug, closing his eyes in pleasure at having his son back. “Hey, my little Hiccup. Did you miss me?”Hiccup buried his tiny hands in Stoick’s impressively long and thick beard and nodded solemnly, green eyes wide. “Daddy gone too long.”Stoick sighed. “I know, Son. I know. Daddy’s sorry. Stupid dragons.”“Stupid dragons,” Hiccup repeated.Stoick nodded. “That’s right. You remember that one. Stupid dragons.”Hiccup nodded back, copying his father.The massive Viking smiled mistily at the tiny boy. My brilliant, genius son. Valka would be so proud of you.Meanwhile, Astrid and her parents had been having an entirely different conversation.“Hungy,” she repeated.“Clean up your toys first and then we’ll go have dinner,” Alga said firmly.“But...”“Toys.”“But Hicc...”“Now,” Hector and Alga said at the same time.Astrid’s tiny shoulders slumped and she hung her head, her braid falling over shoulder as she sighed in defeat. “Okay.” She trudged back to the blocks and started kicking them in the vague direction of the boxes they belonged in, grumbling about how it wasn’t fair.Noticing this, Hiccup squirmed to get down and ran over to Astrid and started picking up as many blocks as he could fit in his arms. “I help, Asti.”She beamed at him, smacked his cheek in a sloppy kiss just like she’d seen her mother do to her father multitudes of times, and then started picking up blocks in a more civilized fashion. “Tanks, Hicci.”The children had the blocks stacked neatly in their boxes, even divided correctly by set, thanks to Hiccup, in only a few minutes. And then they ran back to their parents.“Now dinner?” Astrid said, looking way up.“Now dinner,” Alga said, smiling, as she bent down and picked up her daughter, hugging her.“That goes triple for us,” Stoick said as he picked up Hiccup again. “Uncle Gobber’s got some mutton stew waiting for us at his place.”“Yay!” 
7 Years Old
Astrid climbed up the plank wall at the back of the Haddock house with deft movements until she reached the closed shutters to the window of Hiccup’s second floor room.In the dark, and with most of the village occupied with a dragon raid taking place in the northern yak pasture, Astrid wasn’t worried about being spotted. She reached up and banged on the closed shutters until Hiccup unlatched them and swung them open above her head. Climbing the last plank, she heaved herself up and into his room, dropping down on his bed with a grin.Hiccup just shook his head at her from where he knelt on his bed, a resigned look on his face.“I know, I’m bad,” Astrid said with a giggle. “But you HAVE to come with me this time, Hiccup. Don’t you want to see the dragons?” Please, please come see our parents fight the dragons. They’re so awesome.“You know I do, more than anything. But Dad said I was to stay in the house whenever the dragons were nearby or I’d regret the consequences.” Hiccup shrugged. “Don’t know what the 'consequences' are, but I don’t know if I want to find out.” His brain shuffled through some of the options he’d previously thought up. Maybe no food? Or no books? Or the absolute worst; no Astrid. “Don’t be a baby,” the girl said with an exaggerated roll of her sky blue eyes. “Your dad loves you. What’s he gonna do? Lock you in your room even more often? Seriously, Hiccup, get your butt down that wall and come with me. You’re never going to be able to prove to your dad that you’ve got what it takes to be a dragon fighter if you don’t even know what they look like.”Hiccup sank into himself in defeat, his shoulders meeting his ears. Even Thor knows she’s right. “You do have a point with that one. I guess it wouldn’t hurt anything to go see a dragon fight as long as we stay hidden and are back before the adults.”Astrid beamed. “That’s the spirit!” She scrambled back out the window and was down the wall in five seconds flat, dropping the last metre to the ground easily.Hiccup shook his head at himself, tugged on a fur vest for warmth over his green tunic, and then followed his best friend out the window. I can’t believe I’m doing this. Dad will KILL me if he finds out. His climb down wasn’t quite as graceful, but he made it without falling, so he considered that a win.Astrid was bouncing on her toes, impatient to get going. “Geez, you’re slow,” she said as soon as he was standing solidly on the ground beside her. “Come on, Hiccup, let’s see if you can keep up with me this time.” She immediately took off in a sprint across the hill and towards the northern pasture across a bridge and up a small cliff from the village.Hiccup ran after her, puffing a little to keep up, and forcing his legs to propel him faster. The girl was incredibly fast and in much better shape than him, since her mother’d had her in warrior training from the age of two. Hiccup, on the other hand, only got to train when he and Astrid were left alone to play or she snuck up to his room like this when the parents were away. His dad much preferred that Hiccup spend his time apprenticing in Gobber’s blacksmith shop than learning warrior skills.Most days, Hiccup was all right with that, since he loved working with metal, and Uncle Gobber was entertaining to be around. But he’d much rather spend his time with Astrid and not feeling like an infant to be coddled.They reached the top of the cliff in only minutes, thanks to Astrid’s nimble feet and Hiccup’s determination to not be left behind. They were accompanied by the ever clearer sound of dragon and Viking roars and the crash of boulders striking the earth from the catapults set up on the edges of the pasture above them. Once there, they dropped to a crouch and moved from rock to rock until they reached the edge of the massive grassy field set on a long and gentle slope.The entire time they were waddling like ducks, Astrid was basically pulling Hiccup along by his sleeve because he couldn’t take his eyes off the star studded sky and the flying creatures outlined within.“They’re magnificent,” he breathed when they stopped moving, eyes flitting from a large spike covered dragon to a stocky one with tiny wings that looked like they couldn’t possible keep the dragon up in the air.“Yeah, I suppose,” Astrid admitted as she grabbed Hiccup’s arm again and tugged. “But look at my Mom! She’s battling a Monstrous Nightmare all by herself!”“Whoa,” Hiccup breathed, impressed. They watched the woman and the flaming dragon exchange blows and bursts of fire for a minute before Hiccup was distracted by something else.A boulder soared towards a two headed one that was flying with determination after the stampeding yaks who were essentially trapped on the cliff-top summer pasture. Watch out! Hiccup thought as he held his breath in fear for the beast. The dragon dodged the boulder easily and he breathed again in relief.
Wait. I’m cheering for the enemy. Bad Hiccup. Bad. Watch the Vikings. Cheer for them. Cheer for your Da….
His eyes widened as his dad ran past their hiding spot, yelling a warcry and shaking his battleaxe at the tail end of the two headed dragon that was now carrying a wailing baby yak in its claws. Stoick threw the battleaxe with a mighty heave. One of the double sided blades struck true in the dragon’s leg and it dropped the baby yak with a dual yelp from its two heads. Stoick caught the baby yak with a triumphant smirk. Whoa! Hiccup was seriously impressed.“Go, Dad!” Hiccup couldn’t help but shout before clapping a hand over his mouth in horror. Too much cheering! Too much! He ducked down behind the rock and stared at Astrid with big eyes.
What did I just do?
Stoick’s head whipped towards Hiccup’s hiding spot, positive he’d heard his son’s voice. If he’s here…. By Thor, is he ever… Out of instinct, he dropped the baby yak even as the Hideous Zippleback tore the axe out of its leg with one of its heads and spit it back out at Stoick with a burst of electricity.Stoick threw himself to the side, just avoiding getting struck by his own axe that was now sparking. Rolling to his feet, he left the axe on the ground for the moment and stalked towards the rocks at the edge of the field.The baby yak bellowed in fear and galloped back towards the herd, crying for its mama.Peeking around the rock, Astrid took one look at the chief’s murderous expression and gulped. We’re so dead. “Now you’ve done it,” Astrid muttered. She jumped to her feet, pulling Hiccup up with her. “Running would be a good idea right now,” she said even as she was putting action to words.Hiccup ran, trusting Astrid’s word on the matter. He was afraid to look back and see his dad’s displeasure and disappointment.Stoick stopped and narrowed his eyes under furrowed brows as he watched the two children race for the path that led down the cliff, not even bothering to try and hide themselves. “Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third!” he yelled after them. “You better be in your room when I get home!”Hiccup flinched as he ran, never having heard such a tone of anger from his dad before. At least... not directed at him.As the children disappeared from sight, Stoick growled and then stalked back to his axe. Bloody child. Is he TRYING to get himself killed? He picked it up, ignoring the residual heat in the handle. He knows I can’t bear to lose him too. Stoick stomped across the field and took up a defensive position near the yak herd again, just itching for another dragon to try and steal a beastie so he could work out some of his fear and anger on it.Hiccup ran like his feet had wings and found himself back below his bedroom window in what felt like an instant. He skidded to a halt and finally dared to look back, more than half expecting to see his father bearing down on him with axe raised high above his head and a murderous look in his eyes.But his dad wasn’t there.
Thank the Gods.
Hiccup gulped in great gasps of air as he leaned back against the wall of his house in relief and rested his hands on his knees. Astrid settled beside him, barely breathing hard at all, and started to giggle. That soon built up into peals of laughter and she slid down the wall to sit on the ground.Hiccup just stared at her like she’d lost her mind. Eventually he said so. “Are you nuts? My dad caught us!”Astrid shook her pale blonde head, tears of laughter leaking from her eyes. She wiped them away with a furred forearm cover as she got herself back under control. “That was awesome, Hiccup, truly awesome. The very first time I talk you into doing something even remotely dangerous and you manage to blow it within minutes. Did you see your dad? He looked madder than any dragon I’ve ever seen by far. Oh, Thor, I’m going to remember this forever; what an epic night.”Oh, it was epic all right; epically terrible. I never should have left my room. Hiccup glared at his friend as he sank down to the ground beside her and wrapped his arms around his legs. “I’m glad you had fun,” he grumbled, his tone saying the complete opposite of his words. “But you’re not the one who’s going to become dragon bait soon. I’m sure I’ll make a tasty little snack to lure the dragons with.”Astrid punched him in the arm. “Don’t be such a drama queen. You’re dad won’t feed you to the dragons.”Hiccup rubbed his arm and glared at her some more. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. The rumours say that’s what he did to the last person who disobeyed his rules.”Astrid snorted. “You mean Hairy Handor? I heard Mom tell Dad he was banished for stealing sheep, NOT fed to the dragons. I think the rumours were just started to help keep others in line, like ghost stories.”“Hunh,” Hiccup said, only a little relieved. He was still worried about what the unknown ‘consequences’ were for his disobedient actions. He huffed out a sigh and plunked his head back against the wall, staring up at the stars and the glow of firelight coming from the top of the cliff. “I don’t know if it was worth it, but thanks for talking me into going up there, Astrid. I loved seeing the dragons up close.” They’re even more beautiful than I imagined. Astrid smiled as she nudged her shoulder against his. “You’re welcome, Hiccup.”They both looked up at the sky in comfortable silence for a minute before she sighed. “I guess I better go back home now.” She jumped to her feet and walked backwards as she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Good luck with your dad.”“Thanks,” he called back sarcastically as she grinned and waved before spinning on the ball of a foot and dashing off in a sprint into the night towards her home situated lower on the mountainside.Heaving himself onto his feet, Hiccup looked up at his window high above his head and sighed. He could climb, or... he could pick the lock to his room. Picking the lock sounded like more fun, but he really did need to get better at climbing quickly so Astrid couldn’t complain about his climbing skills anymore.Sighing one more time, just because, he stuck his fingers into the highest gap in the planks he could reach and started climbing. After what felt like hours, the dragons finally gave up and flew away, those that hadn’t been killed, that is. Stoick joined the cleanup crew as they dragged and heaved dragon bodies out of the field and tossed them over the cliff and into the ocean below. (After people took their prizes of teeth and claws and horns, that is. The meat and hides were not used for food or survival unless it was a last resort since the meat tasted like ashes and the hides were too scaly.) And then they gathered up all the boulders and rolled them back to the catapults in preparation for the next attack.At some point during all that, Stoick found himself rolling a boulder beside Alga.“Guess who snuck up to watch the fight?” he said in a disgusted tone.Alga raised a brow and shook her head. “You had to know it was going to happen sometime, Stoick. Your boy is intelligent and curious. And Astrid... Well, let’s just say she’s got a determined streak in her wider than your belt. I knew that she’s been following me, and honestly, I don’t see anything wrong with it. The kids need to learn how to fight the dragons sometime. Observation is a very good start.”‘Hiccup doesn’t. Even observing is too dangerous,’ Stoick grumbled unintelligibly under his breath, knowing Alga would probably smack him over the head with her axe if she actually heard him say it.Alga forged on, despite her Chief’s mulish expression, having come up with an idea recently that she was quite fond of, while thinking of her daughter’s future. “In fact, the old method of simply throwing the teenagers into battle isn’t the most ideal situation. Too many of them get hurt or lose limbs in their first few battles until they get smarter. I was thinking we should start an actual dragon fighting program for the kids where they could learn in a controlled environment.”Stoick stopped pushing his boulder and gawked at Alga’s back as she continued for a few rolls before noticing he had stopped. Is she proposing that we CAPTURE dragons to use as training aids?! That’s insane!
But…

I think I like it.
She turned back and stared at him. “Soooo? What do you think?” she asked him when he still didn’t say anything for a minute.Stoick was working through the idea in his mind and images of an enclosed training ring were forming. A slow grin spread under his moustache. “I think it’s brilliant! We’ll start building the ring tomorrow. No time to waste while we have good weather, after all.”Alga smiled widely. “Great.” She turned and started pushing her boulder again, her Chief quickly catching up. “Soooo. What are you going to do about Hiccup? Do you still mean to keep him from training like a proper Viking?”Would it be so bad if I did? Stoick shrank a little into himself as his movements became methodical. “I don’t know, Alga. He’s just so... little. And fragile. What if he gets hurt? I don’t think I could bear it.”Alga still didn’t agree with Stoick on this, but she let it drop. “Alright, Stoick. He is your son, so you know best. Just... go easy on him when you get home, okay? There was no harm done in him coming out with Astrid to watch a fight.”“No. I guess not, but there could have been. A dragon could have snatched him and I’d have lost him too.” He narrowed his eyes at the woman. “That daughter of yours is a bad influence on my son.”“I think she’s exactly what he needs,” Alga said in retaliation. “Hiccup would wilt to nothing if she wasn’t constantly encouraging him to be active.”“At least he’d be safe!” Stoick all but yelled.“Argh!” she yelled back. “You’re the Archipelago’s most stubborn male. I’m so glad I didn’t choose you as my mate when both you and Hector were courting me all those years ago!”Stoick flinched, having temporarily forgotten that brief period in his life before he’d met Valka at a Tribe gathering. “So am I!” He shoved his boulder the last couple metres to the pile with a mighty heave and stomped away before he completely annihilated his long friendship with the woman. Stubborn, interfering, besom. Hector walked up to Alga and joined her in watching their Chief’s stiff form retreat from the field. “What was that all about?” he asked, dying of curiosity, only overhearing the last part.Alga shot him a look as she wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Just Stoick being his stubborn self again.” As usual. “But he did like my idea about using real dragons to train the children, so that’s something.” She breathed in her husband’s familiar scent overlaid by the strong scent of smoke as his arms closed around her in return. Alga smiled up at him. “Thank you for being you, Hector. You have no idea how much dealing with Stoick makes me appreciate you.”Hector raised a brow and kissed her forehead. “Thank you? But really, what did our Chief do this time?”Alga explained. Stoick stomped into his house, up the stairs to Hiccup’s bedroom, pulled the key to the room out of the pouch on his belt, unlocked the door, and slammed it open.Despite hearing his father coming up the stairs, Hiccup jumped anyway and then huddled even further away from the door against the wall behind his bed. Consequences. Here come the consequences. Oh, Thor. Stoick glared at his son from under thunderous bushy brows, a little ashamed to see his son afraid of him, which just made him angrier. “You’re not to see that girl ever again!” Stoick declared before grabbing the door and slamming it closed.He stomped back down the stairs and then flopped into his favourite chair in front of the fire, all the anger melting from him and leaving him feeling very old and very tired at only thirty seven years.Hiccup stared at the closed door in shock for a few minutes before slow and silent tears escaped his eyes. His dad had found the one thing that Hiccup considered worse than being used as dragon bait; being separated from Astrid.‘Consequences’ had become the worst possible thing that he had imagined. Fortunately for Hiccup, Astrid really was the most determined child in the world.She managed to obey the Chief’s edict that she not go near Hiccup ever again for a whole week before she couldn’t take it anymore, missing her friend something awful.She couldn’t get to Hiccup’s room anymore from the outside because Stoick had covered the planks in tree sap that was nearly impossible to get off her hands and clothes and was a dead giveaway of whenever she tried to climb them.So she waited for just the right circumstances when Stoick was down at the docks, preparing to leave the village for a Chieftain's meeting, and Gobber had been called away from his shop to deal with something or other. Sneaking from shadow to shadow, she dashed into the blacksmith shop through the rear entrance, startling Hiccup into dropping a glowing orange rod of metal he’d been carrying with tongs.“Astrid!” he exclaimed as he quickly picked up the rod again before it left too bad of a black mark on the stone floor. Gods, I missed you. Putting the glowing rod on an anvil, he braced himself for the impact as she ran over and hugged him with all of enthusiasm her wiry little body was capable of. “You’re not supposed to be here,” he said, even as he hugged her just as tightly back.Astrid pulled away as she grinned at her best friend. “As if some stupid rule could keep me away from you. Your dad would have to banish me from the island for that to ever happen, and even then, I’d probably still sneak back and visit you.”Stoick paused as he walked into Gobber’s shop, looking for his friend, and shook his head as he heard Astrid’s heartfelt words. A reluctant smile formed. Why I thought I could separate those two when one of them is ASTRID THE DETERMINED is beyond me. Maybe Thor knows. Continuing on into the back room, he leaned against the doorway as the kids looked up at him guiltily. “I hereby rescind my decree based on what I just heard. But...” he said, holding up a finger before they could celebrate. “If you come anywhere near a dragon battle again, Hiccup, I can guarantee that you won’t be sitting down for a month. Do you understand me?”Hiccup nodded almost frantically, eyes wide. “Yes, Dad. No more dragons. Got it.” Astrid’s worth all the dragons in the world. Stoic nodded once. “Good.” He shot a warning look at the girl who had a speculative and scheming look on her little face. “And I will lock him in his room for a month, girl, so you better wipe whatever thoughts you're having right out of your head if you want your friend accessible to you, understood?”Astrid heaved a sigh, crossed her arms, and glared at the massive man, but nevertheless said, “Yes, Sir.” Mom’s right; he is an overbearing jackass. We’ll just have to work around his idiocy. Stoick raised a brow at her less than respectful tone, but let the insolence slide, since she wasn’t his child to discipline. “Good.”Spinning on his foot, the Chief of Berk left the blacksmith shop.The children looked at each other and smiled as they realized they could see each other again without Astrid having to sneak. They whooped, hugged again, and then Astrid sat on an overturned crate and watched Hiccup bang the metal rod into something useful while they talked animatedly about everything they’d done for the past week.Hiccup couldn’t wipe the smile off his face all day after that. It was good to have his friend back.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Attraction:

13 Years Old
Astrid threw the double sided axe at the target with every ounce of strength that she had as it rolled by on its cart, courtesy of a massive shove by her father. She only had time to confirm that the blade struck true in the neck of the dragon shaped target made of yak leather and straw before the hairs rose on the back of her neck in warning.Spinning, she drew the sword off her back just in time to block the sneak attack of Ruffnut. The girls exchanged fleeting grins before donning their mock scowls as their swords clashed with a clang. Astrid parried back and forth with the taller girl for a minute before she got that tingling sense of warning again.Whirling once more, but keeping Ruffnut in her peripheral vision, she snarled at Tuffnut as he came at her with his sword raised overhead for a downward blow. Blocking it, she kicked him back with a foot to the stomach and then swung back around to parry yet another swing from his twelve year old twin sister.Nearby, in the relatively flat and grass covered ground centuries of Berkians had designated as a sparring area, the other two boys in their age group also sparred back and forth with dull metal swords. Snotlout was shorter than Fishlegs but a year older and by far the more confident of the two. But what Fishlegs lacked in confidence, he made up for in sheer size and strength, being the epitome of a brawny Viking. In fact, he was the only one of their training group who fit that description. Unfortunately, in Astrid's opinion, he wasn't inclined to take advantage of that strength, being more inclined towards reading than training. Snotlout was stout and muscular, but even shorter than Astrid. The blond haired twins were quite tall and towered over Astrid, but they were very slender still.Astrid mostly tuned out Snotlout's mocking taunts to poor Fishlegs as she concentrated on the twins with narrowed eyes. As they advanced on her in a synchronized stalk, she made a strategic retreat to where the cart had come to rest up against a boulder.Reaching behind her with her right hand, she yanked her axe out of the straw dragon and the wood of the cart. Ah ha!"Uh-oh," the twins said as Astrid smirked and twirled her axe and sword around her fingers with practiced ease.You know it, suckers. "Are you ready to die?" Astrid taunted the twins as she now advanced on them, axe in one hand and sword in the other."Nope," Tuffnut squeaked."Perhaps," Ruffnut said with a shrug.Astrid mentally rolled her eyes at the weird boy who seemed to have his priorities somewhat askew. They should have called him Onenutt. That was all the time Astrid gave them before she went all badass Valkyrie on them, sword and axe ringing sweet notes of victory in the air as she exchanged blows with the twins. She drove them further and further backward until they stood on the edge of the cliff that bordered their sparring area and then with a deft twist of the axe, disarmed them both.Pointing her weapons at their necks, Astrid raised the eyebrow that wasn't covered by her bangs. "Do you yield?""Yes!""No!"Ruffnut shoved an elbow into her brother's side. He changed his answer to, "No," but sounded anything but happy about it.Astrid grinned. "Excellent." Time to give the twins a much needed bath. And with a flying kick that made her braid lift off her back and her spiked skirt twirl, she kicked Tuffnut off the cliff. He was still screaming when Ruffnut grinned as she received a boot to the stomach as well. The girl laughed as she fell, turning the drop into a backwards dive into the ocean a few metres below.Astrid watched them fall with a triumphant smile and returned Ruff's wave when she popped back up to the surface of the ocean. That girl isn't exactly normal either, gotta admit.
And now… to deal with the remaining Viking wannabees. Methinks they are in need of good bath as well.
As Astrid turned her sights on the last two boys, the cart went zooming past again. Changing her grip quickly, she threw her sword at it and the tip imbedded itself in the chest of the fake dragon. Flipping Ruffnut's sword off the ground with a toe, she caught it and continued her stalk towards her last two targets."Is that the best you can do, Jellyfishlegs?" Snotlout sneered as he kept up a steady attack on Fishlegs' defences. Fishlegs was essentially just holding his shield in front of him and letting it take the brunt of the blows. "Come on... Attack me back. Be a man for once."Fishlegs swung his sword half-heartedly at Snotlout, inspiring an eye roll from both Snotlout and Astrid. "Technically, neither of us are men yet," Fishlegs pointed out. "We don't receive that title until we've defeated a dragon after turning fourteen.""I know that, Stupidlegs," the shorter boy sneered.Astrid cleared her throat loudly to get their attention, since they had completely ignored her march up to their pathetic excuse of a fight. When that still didn't do the trick, she gave up and threw her axe directly between them, the metal reflecting glints of sunlight as it spun."What the..." Snotlout exclaimed as the axe skimmed uncomfortably close to his nose on the way by. He stared at Astrid with wide eyes. "What in Thor's name was that for?"Astrid gave him an exasperated look as she walked around him and retrieved her axe from where it had buried itself in the ground. "That was for calling Fishlegs names. Could you, for once in your life, just be nice?"Snotlout snorted like a yak. "Be nice? I don't know this word. Jorgensons don't do 'nice'.""I've noticed," Astrid said dryly. She nodded at him with her chin. "How about we see if you can actually beat me for once?""Oh, you're on, sweetcheeks."Astrid was already swinging at his head with her axe as she growled out, "Don't call me that, Jorgenson, or you'll be talking in a squeaky voice for a week."The brown haired boy just managed to block her axe with his shield before he lost his curly horned helmet. He shot her a hurt look. "You wouldn't do that to me, would you, babe?"Behind them, Fishlegs was backing up and holding his shield in front of his crotch, just in case.Astrid continued to rain blows on Snotlout's shield and sword as she backed him towards the cliff. "In a heartbeat, and you know it. Or is your memory really that short?"Snotlout flushed as he remembered the consequences of a wandering hand when he'd parked himself beside her at a communal dinner last week, right in the spot he knew she'd been saving for Hiccup. Astrid had not appreciated having his hand on her thigh at all or having him take Hiccup's spot. And even more so because he'd managed to work it under her skirt, which he'd thought had been rather clever of him. She'd stood up abruptly, picked up her axe, and then very deliberately dropped it in his lap, head down. He was lucky she hadn't cut anything off, and he knew it. As is, his trousers had needing some repairs and his manhood had been sore for days. "No. I remember," he mumbled.Astrid smirked at him as she saw the acknowledgment of her dead seriousness in his eyes. She'd eat her boot, though, if he actually left her alone; the boy was as dense and conceited as they come.She stopped attacking as he was now exactly where she wanted him. "Just keep your hands to yourself and the comments respectable and we'll get along just fine." And with that, she kicked him right off the cliff and listened with great satisfaction as he screamed like a little girl on the way down.Looking down, she watched him hit the water with an undignified splat and then sink like a floundering rock. The twins were laughing their heads off as they swam for the nearby dock, pausing every couple of seconds to try and drown each other.Snotlout popped back up to the surface and rescued his helmet before it sank and then swam over to where his wooden shield bobbed on the water. He then glared up at Astrid as he floundered in the water. "You made me drop my sword! How am I supposed to get it now?! Dad'll kill me if I lose it!""Not my problem!" Astrid called back.She smiled to herself as she turned away from the cliff while Snotlout's sputters of outrage rang through the air. She raised a brow at Fishlegs, who'd followed them over and was watching Snotlout with a frown on his face.Noticing her attention was now on him, Fishlegs sighed in defeat and placed his weapons on the ground in front of her. "I'll save you the trouble," he said resignedly. "And I might as well get Snotlout's sword before he drowns himself trying." And then he jumped off the cliff."That's the only smart boy in the lot," Astrid commented to her father as he walked up and put an arm around her shoulders.Hector laughed as he squeezed her to his side in a half hug for a moment before letting her go. "Excellent training session today. You're mother would be proud of how well you've taken to her old axe. Too bad she's away right now."Astrid twirled said axe around her hand a few times. "I'll show her when she gets back. Any word on how Grandma's doing?"Hector shook his head as they gathered up weapons and tossed everything in the cart. "Not yet." He pulled her sword out of the dragon target and frowned at the tip, or at least, where the tip used to be. "Geez, Astrid, you broke it. I'm impressed."Astrid put her axe in its sheath across her back and took the sword from her father as he handed it to her. "Wow. There's like, a whole finger's width missing. Do you think Gobber can fix it?" she asked hopefully.Hector shrugged. "Don't know, but you might as well go give it to him and see what he says. I'll round up your swimming victims, run them through a few more drills, and then have them help me finish cleaning up here. As the winner of the day... again," he winked, "you can have the rest of the afternoon off."Astrid beamed at her dad. "Thanks, Daddy. I'll see you at home for supper later?""Sure. Say hi to Hiccup for me," he called after her back as she'd already turned and started jogging away.Astrid raised the sword in acknowledgement and ran faster, eager to spend a couple hours with Hiccup.It only took her five minutes to make the trip to what could be called 'downtown' Berk, if you were generous. Aside from Gobber's Smithy, there was also Big Bertie's Pub and Thrifty Thundra's Trading Post on the same 'street'.Astrid went in the front door of the smithy and found Gobber already talking to a customer; haggling over the price of the broadsword lying on the counter from the sounds of it.When Gobber noticed that she didn't immediately head to the back to talk to Hiccup like she normally would have, he raised a brow at her over the shoulder of the customer. Astrid raised the damaged training sword in explanation.Gobber whistled in appreciation, pausing his conversation. Both men took a step nearer to examine the sword better. "What did you do to it?" Gobber asked as he poked at the jagged end with a finger.Astrid shrugged casually. "I threw it like a spear at the dragon cart.""Did it work?""Oh yeah."Gobber ruffled her hair and grinned at her approvingly. "Good for you. But as for the sword, it'll never be quite the same. Shorter for sure. But I think I can fix it. But first, give it to Hiccup and see what he can do with it; boy likes a challenge.""Sure," Astrid said eagerly. She smoothed her bangs back into their customary place over the left side of her face as she walked into the back room and was immediately struck by a wave of heat.The forge was roaring hot as Hiccup worked over it, banging a red hot strip of metal into the vague shape of a sword with a big hammer. She knew that Hiccup would work over that metal for hours, heating, folding, and flattening it again and again until it became indestructible steel.Well... (as she looked at her broken sword) It's supposed to be indestructible, anyway."Hey, Hic..." she started to say, but her words faded away as she took in his appearance. Being the one whole month of summer, he was only wearing a thin, short sleeved green tunic on his upper half and it was plastered to his chest from the same sweat that glistened on his forehead. He was still short and scrawny for a Viking, but from his work in the smithy and their clandestine training, his arms were corded with lean muscles. And his chest and abs were shaping up nicely too, she couldn't help but notice.Oh, yummy. Gulping, and flushing from more than the heat in the room, she resisted the urge to fan herself like a simpering female. Get a grip, girl. He's not ready for you to pounce on him like a cat in heat. Maybe he never will be.
Thor, what a depressing thought.
Hiccup was her best friend, and, as far as she could tell, he was content to stay that way. There was no point making things awkward between them yet by letting on that she found him cute as hell with those dreamy gem green eyes and his shaggy auburn hair that had a complete mind of its own. His sweet smile didn't hurt anything either.Her mother said not to worry about his apparent contentedness with their current relationship because boys were much slower to mature and could be ridiculously obtuse when it came to seeing what was right in front of them. Astrid was counting on that to be true and figured she could wait another year or two for Hiccup to figure things out on his own. If he hadn't by then... Well, she might just have to tackle him to the ground and kiss him until he figured out that she was a GIRL.Clearing her throat loudly to be heard over the ringing of the hammer, she tried again. "Hey, Hiccup!"Hiccup looked up and around, beaming that glorious smile at Astrid that made her heart stutter in her chest. He put the strip of metal back in the fire to heat again as he said, "Hey, Astrid! How was training today?" he asked as they walked towards each other."It was good," Astrid said, not one to boast. "Same old." She held out the sword for him to see. "Except for this. I... kind of broke it." Her stomach developed a case of butterflies as he stopped in front of her, close enough to smell. Inexplicably, his fresh sweat scent just added to the weird things her insides did whenever she was in close proximity to him.Hiccup chuckled as he took the sword and stared at the end assessingly for a few seconds. "I see that. I'm guessing, from what I know about you and how this broke, that you hucked it at something like it was a spear and that snapped the end off."Astrid was once again impressed by his powers of deduction. "Wow, you're good. The end is embedded in the dragon cart."Hiccup shrugged, blushing slightly at the praise. "It was just a matter of simple logic."Astrid was still impressed. "Anyway, Gobber says you get to try and fix it first."Hiccup's emerald eyes lit up as he gazed at the broken sword with increased interest. "Sweet."I want his eyes to light up like that for me, she thought whimsically.Astrid smiled sappily at his back as he hurried back to the forge and put half the sword in the fire. Picking up the other length of metal with his thick leather gloved hand, he said, "You have an hour?"For you, I have eternity. But those words were kept tight to her chest and she only let out a simple, "Yep." Astrid pulled her axe off her back and leaned it against her customary crate that now had a cushion of folded grain sacks on top, courtesy of Hiccup. Sitting, she added, "In fact, I have the rest of the day off from training, so you get me until supper time.""Also sweet," Hiccup said with a grin over the fire at her. "Maybe you and your dad can come to my house for supper tonight. I've got a fish soup slow cooking over the hearth and someone brought some blueberries over as a gift for Dad, so there's some blueberry pie leftover from yesterday.""That sounds wonderful. We'll definitely be there. Dad and I are seriously missing Mom's cooking right now," she said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "We try, honest we do, but somehow, everything always ends up burnt or just flat out tastes awful. We've been living off of yak jerky sandwiches for the last couple of days."Hiccup chuckled, smirking at her. "It's a good thing that I actually learned the lessons your mother taught us about cooking, then, isn't it?""That's because you're a know-it-all who soaks up any and all knowledge like a sponge," she retaliated in the same teasing tone he used.Hiccup sent her a cheeky wink and then returned to his task. She watched him bang on the metal for a couple of minutes before he stuck it back in the fire. He pulled the broken sword out, frowned at it for not being hot enough yet, and then put it back in. Gods, even his frown is cute. "Sooooo," Hiccup said, leaning casually against the huge anvil only a couple steps away from the forge. "Tell me what really happened with training today. You wouldn't have the afternoon off unless something exciting happened."Astrid crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow. "Why would you think that?"Hiccup smirked as he crossed his arms right back. "Because I know you. And because the other kids haven't made an appearance yet to taunt me with how they're becoming great warriors and I'm a pathetic wimp who's never going to be a proper 'man'." Hiccup rolled his eyes at this, more or less having accepted his lot in life by this point. "That means they're still training, which means that you should be too. Unless you did something spectacular to earn a couple hours off. So spill."Astrid sighed in defeat. He knows me too well, by far. Or... Maybe that's a good thing? "I hit every target today with my axe. I'm really getting the hang of it. Man, I wish Mom would come home so I could show her," she added wistfully."That can't be all," Hiccup said. "You've always had excellent aim, no matter what weapon you're using."Astrid flushed slightly at the praise and stroked her braid self-consciously. "Thanks," she mumbled. "I may have defeated all of the kids multiple times over the course of the day, and I may have kicked them all off the cliff and into the ocean. Except for Fishlegs; he voluntarily jumped."Hiccup gawked at her for a few seconds before he burst into laughter. "Oh, Thor, I wish I'd seen that. It would have made my day to see Snotlout floundering around in the water. In fact, just imagining it is enough to make my day. Maybe even my week." He shook his head as he went back to the forge and fished out the broken sword, then smiled at the while hot end. "Perfect.""Just to make your day a little bit better, Snotlout screamed like a little girl as he fell," Astrid volunteered.Hiccup looked up at her and grinned widely. "Excellent. I'm adding that to my mental image right now."Astrid giggled as he returned his focus to the sword, banging away at the end in an effort to reshape the metal that was left. Thor, that is so hot. I could watch him swing that hammer all day.For the next little while, she simply enjoyed watching him work over the two swords in turns, having nothing else pressing to talk about at the moment. It was hard to hear over the banging of the hammer anyway, and working on the hot metal was time sensitive.At some point, she ran her hand over her braid and finally noticed a good third of her hair wasn't actually in the braid anymore. Since that just wouldn't do, and feeling embarrassed about being so dishevelled looking in front of Hiccup, she pulled the leather tie off the bottom to fix it. She knew it was silly, considering he'd probably seen her in every possible state of cleanliness and/or dishabille over the years, but she was now hormone bound to follow the urge that said she needed to be as pretty as possible in front of Hiccup.Hiccup glanced up at Astrid between swings and time slowed down to individual milliseconds as his life was forever changed by a sudden realization that Astrid was drop dead beautiful.
Oh. My. Thor. How have I missed that?
In what felt like perpetual slow motion, he watched in stunned awe as a she shook a veritable cascade of white blonde and gold hair around her shoulders. The multihued strands were soft looking and glittered in the reflected firelight, and they curled slightly nearly all the way down to her waist. Then she ran her fingers through it in what might have been a quick motion, but to him it felt like three hours, at the very least, before pulling the entire mass over her shoulder again and dividing it into three sections for rebraiding.Her sky blue eyes glanced up caught him looking at her, prompting a shy smile from her. Hiccup stared at those eyes like he'd never seen them before, just now realizing how incredible the colour was.Meanwhile, his arm had been swinging in an automatic motion, but without looking at what he was doing, and his suddenly nerveless left hand forgetting how to hold on to the end of the metal strip, he hit the metal wrong and it fell off the anvil and directly onto his boot.Hiccup didn't notice.Not right away.Not until he swung the hammer again and the clang sounded wrong as the hammer struck the much denser metal of the anvil.And then he smelt the burning leather of his boot, which was nowhere near as thick as the glove he wore on his hand. And... the hottest part of the metal had landed on his boot, of course, because Loki liked to mess with him like that.His eyes widened and a very ungentlemanly, "Fuuuuuuaaaaahhhhhh!" escaped his mouth. He kicked the metal off of his boot, then hopped around on the other as the burning hot sensation registered in his foot. "Thor's right butt cheek!" he cursed as he hastily pulled off his boot and wool sock, which both had holes in them, and examined the top of his foot with relief. It was red, but not blistered, thank Thor.Meanwhile, Astrid had jumped off her crate, partial braid coming undone again as she did so, and had hurried over to see if Hiccup was alright. "Did you burn it?" she asked as she peered at his foot as well. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his bare foot was relatively all right. She also couldn't help but notice how much bigger his foot was since the last time she'd seen his feet bare; it was surely inches longer than hers now. Someone's growing. Now his body just needs to catch up to his feet. Hiccup was still shaking his head as Gobber ran into the back, exclaiming, "What happened?!""No, it's okay," Hiccup finally answered Astrid's question. "A little of Gothi's healing cream and it'll be fine. But my boot!" he held it up and everyone gawked at the ruined boot that had a huge hole in the top of the foot. "I don't think I can save this one."Gobber looked from the ruined boot to the half formed sword on the stone floor and figured out the answer to his question on his own. He shook his head at Hiccup. "I understand the dropping of the sword on your foot part - done that mor'n once myself - but what inspired you to let it sit there long enough to do that to your boot?"Oh, Gods. Hiccup flushed beet red and looked anywhere but at Astrid as he frantically thought up a believable answer. "I, um, was thinking about my new design for a dragon catching bola launcher."Gobber rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Not that again. I told you your dad's never going to let you get close enough to a dragon to try it out on. Give up already, kid. You'll rest easier for it."Hiccup's shoulders slumped as he waved his holey sock a few times to cool it off before putting it back on, since a holey sock was better than the cold stones of the smithy floor. "I know, Gobber. Trust me, I know. I just wish he could see that I could be helpful despite being small."Gobber clapped a big hand on his shoulder and squeezed affectionately. "So do I, Hiccup." With a shake of his head he went back to the front of the shop to deal with another customer who was commissioning a new set of armour.Hiccup sighed as he tossed the boot into the corner full of leather scraps used for various handle wrappings and armour fixings. I still can't believe I did that. Then he retrieved the sword from the floor and stuck it back in the fire and pulled out the other one before it melted completely. He glanced at the girl still hovering at his side from under his lashes and was presented with an eyeful of the small mounds on her chest that her formfitting blue shirt did absolutely nothing to hide. He almost swallowed his tongue. And HOW in Thor's name did I not notice till now just how astonishingly beautiful Astrid is? But she's my best friend. Am I even allowed to think of her as a girl?Astrid touched his back in sympathy for a moment and Hiccup nearly flinched from the touch, he was so confused by his own emotions. "I'll go get some cream for your foot and bring you back the spare set of boots from your room, okay?"His smile was a little wobbly as he nodded once. "Sure, Astrid. That would be great."He pretended to concentrate on the sword until he was sure she was no longer looking at him and then he gave up all pretence and just watched her figure walk out the back door of the smithy with wide eyes as he took in the even more startling fact that Astrid was starting to get curvy in the hip department as well, making her narrow waist look even smaller. And her gorgeous, multihued hair tumbled down nearly all the way to that trim waist and swayed with her graceful steps.Yeeesh. Hiccup gulped, his hands suddenly trembling and his body going on high alert.He very carefully avoided the hot sword as he all but collapsed down to the floor on knees that felt like noodles and leaned his head back against the base of the anvil, staring up at the ceiling blankly as the image of Astrid walking away from him played over and over in his mind. I'm in trouble. Big, big trouble. How am I supposed to hide the fact from her that I've suddenly discovered that she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen? He didn't know, but he was going to have to. He knew how much she hated Snotlout's attentions, and the other boy was considered a much better looking Viking than Hiccup; being all brawny and ruggedly handsome. If she didn't want Snotlout, there was no way she'd ever even consider an even smaller and way skinnier non Viking as a mate. She's so stunning she could be a Goddess… She IS a Goddess. A Warrior Goddess. She'll never want to settle for pathetic little me. Hiccup shook his head at his hopeless situation, wishing he could take back the last five minutes and go back to the way things were before. It was safe and easy when they were just friends. But he knew he couldn't, not now that he'd seen her as a possible mate instead of just a friend.And I'll just have to live with it, cause Thor knows there's no way I'm ever talking my libido into taking back its epiphany. Hiccup looked down at the strained laces on his trousers with a frown. Seriously, though, we can't walk around like this every time the Goddess is around. You're going to have to take an ice bath or something. He shivered at the thought of shoving ice down his pants and it was enough to cool off his libido. For now.He'd always loved Astrid in a platonic kind of way, but he knew it would now forever be in the in the unrequited way. And that hurt way more than he cared to think about.
The most beautiful girl on the island is my best friend. Why does that suddenly sound like a curse?
Meanwhile, on an island somewhere far, far to the northwest of Berk, a large flock of Night Furies ranging in age from hatchlings to great-grandparents sunbathed and played in the warm summer sun.A thirteen year old dragon (which would make him about as mature as the average teenage human, since this species of dragon matures very slowly, unlike some others that can reach full adult size in only a year) was flying over the ocean, playing tag with his two younger siblings.The pitch black dragon's ears suddenly felt the barest hint of a vibration, signalling some kind of unfamiliar sound. Pausing in his graceful play, the Night Fury turned his head in the direction the sound was coming from. What was that? Noticing their older brother was distracted, the seven year old twins swooped in and nipped his wings with tiny bursts of purple plasma. "Got you, Toothless," Spin and Finn crowed together.Toothless gave his siblings an annoyed look when they came around for another shot, stopping them in midflight. "Enough. You win." With a pointed nod of his head, he said, "Go back to the island. Tell Mom and Dad I'll be back in a bit. I'm just going to go check something out.""Do we have to?" they whined in unison.Toothless opened his mouth and built up some low level purple plasma in warning, not needing to add actual words to the unspoken, 'go or die'."Okay, okay, we're going," Finn said quickly. Toothless smirked at them as they hung their heads dejectedly and reluctantly turned around, radiating disappointment that their fun was over.Satisfied that his little brothers were flying back to the safety of the island, the teenage dragon turned his sleek head back to the direction that had caught his attention. The very faint, unknown sound came again. Curious, he flapped his wings and shot through the nearly cloudless sky at a speed so fast, he was nearly invisible. After a minute, he stopped and hovered in the air, head turning from side to side as he waited to see if the sound would appear again.It did.Now really curious, Toothless flew towards the sound again, his echolocation ears vibrating slightly.Five minutes later, he stopped again, already at least a hundred kilometres from his home island. He listened again. The sound, which was actually the call of a massive alpha dragon, vibrated through his ears again. The Night Fury's eyes glazed over as he listened and he found himself flying once again in the direction of the call, but now doing it without conscious thought.He was still flying hours later when the call suddenly stopped.Blinking, Toothless came back to himself and looked around in confusion. He was over the ocean and there was no land in sight. And... he couldn't sense 'home' anymore. Where am I? A sense of fear overtook him and he cried aloud and mentally for his parents, despite knowing they most likely couldn't hear him. "Mom?! Dad?!"A call of, "Hello?!" did ring back across the sky, but it most definitely wasn't his parents. Nevertheless, Toothless perked his ears in that direction and flew as fast as he could (which was about 1500kms an hour) towards the other cry, desperate to not feel lost and alone anymore."Hello?!" he cried again as he flew, and the other cry echoed him back.In only a minute, Toothless flapped to a halt in the sky as a nearly identically shaped dragon did the same right in front of him, coming from the opposite direction. "Ummmmm, hello? What are you?"The lost male black dragon looked at the equally lost female white dragon in surprise, having never seen a white version of a Night Fury before. He also couldn't help but notice that she was strikingly beautiful. Toothless purred in pleased surprise.The pearlescent white dragon tilted her head slightly and ogled him in return, a faint purr eventually rumbling from her chest as they flapped their wings slowly to stay above the clouds. "Hello," the female said tentatively in his mind.They flew around each other, scrutinizing and studying every tiny detail of the similarities and differences of the other and liking what they saw very much. "Hi. I'm Toothless and I'm a Night Fury," he said matter of factly after a minute. "What are you?""My name's Luna, and I'm a Light Fury," the girl dragon replied."Wow. We're like... Opposites," Toothless gushed.Luna giggled. "Clearly." Her eyes closed slightly as she studied him some more, liking his clear green eyes. "What kind of name is Toothless, anyway?"Toothless opened his mouth and showed his grin, minus the retracted teeth, then popped them out before sheathing them in his gums again.Luna rolled her eyes. "Yes, that's a cool trick, but all Furies can do that. That still doesn't explain why your parents gave you such a wimpy sounding name.""Hey! I like my name," Toothless protested. "It's different. And Mom says she named me Toothless because I didn't pop them out of my gums for weeks longer than most baby dragons.""I guess that makes sense," Luna admitted. But it's still a weird name. She kept that last thought to herself, though, not wanting to hurt his feelings."It makes perfect sense," Toothless said proudly.Silence fell between them for a minute, as the awkwardness of two dragons meeting under such strange circumstances suddenly struck them.He eventually worked up the courage to break it. "Soooo, what's a pretty girl like you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"Luna repressed the urge to roll her eyes at the much overused pickup line because there actually was a valid question in there. "I'm... lost," she admitted."Hey! So am I!" Toothless exclaimed. "You didn't happen to hear a strange call and the next thing you knew you were nowhere near home?""That's exactly what happened!" Luna said with wide eyes."Weird.""So weird."Awkward silence fell again as they continued to hover in the sky. "So now what?" Luna eventually said."We could fly back to an island I saw a few minutes ago?" Toothless offered. "The sun is setting and it's probably not smart to try to find our way back to our homes in the dark.""That sounds like a good idea to me," Luna admitted.Puffing himself up as big as he could, Toothless preened for the pretty, young dragoness.Luna ducked her blue eyes and chuffed out a laugh. He is awfully cute, even if he is somewhat smaller than me, indicating a slightly younger age. "Come on, smart one, let's go see this island of yours."A couple minutes later, they landed on the beach gracefully, if a little tiredly. Toothless filled his chest with fire and lit the sand in a large circle in front of him. "Your bed, pretty dragon of light."Luna flushed in pleasure at his poetic words. "Thank you, helpful dragon of night." Should I…? Oh, what the hell. She walked forward tentatively until, finally, Luna stretched her nose out and touched it to his in a 'kiss' of gratitude. Gem green eyes closed as a purr rumbled from him again, making her smile. Luna purred as well and nuzzled her face against his and then turned to curl up on the nice warm sand he'd provided.Toothless huffed out a pleased sigh that she'd accepted his small gift and then turned away to warm up another circle of sand for himself.But she stopped him with a call. "There's plenty of warm sand here. You can join me if you want." Whoa, did I just say that? Dad would have fit if he found out I invited a strange dragon to sleep with me."Really?" Toothless said in amazement as he turned back around.Well, I can't take it back now. "Really." I just won't tell Dad. Not wanting to give her time to change her mind about sharing space, which was tantamount to declaring friendship at the very least, Toothless curled up behind her and rumbled happily.The two exhausted, confused, and lost teenage dragons took comfort in the presence of the other and fell into a deep sleep.And that was how Light met Night.But just like Astrid and Hiccup, they had a far from smooth road ahead of them.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The Mating Dance:

Night Fury Island, 2 hours after Toothless left...
Spin and Finn tumbled along the beach, roughhousing and giggling as they tried to pin each other to the sand. They came to an abrupt halt when they rolled right into thick black legs and a large shadow loomed over them. Scrambling to right themselves, they looked up at their father with innocent green eyes from identical faces."We weren't doing anything bad, Daddy," Spin said."Honest," added Finn.Longwing smiled at them gently. "Aside from being really late for dinner? I suppose not. But I'm looking for Toothless too. Have you seen your brother lately?""Ummmm," the boys thought together, scrunching up their muzzles."We were playing tag with him a while ago," Spin said."Over the ocean," Finn added helpfully.
"And then he heard something and told us to come back home."
"And he flew away," Finn finished with.Longwing sighed, shaking his head. "That boy is always off exploring something. Come on then, my wee sons. It's practically dark, ten minutes past your bedtime, and you haven't even had your dinner yet. Your mother is not pleased that all of her children are not where they're supposed to be, so you better be awful good when we get home. As far as your wayward brother is concerned, we'll give Toothless till morning to get back before I get worried about him.""Okay," the twins said, unconcerned, as they bounced along the beach beside their father for a couple steps before they all spread their wings and took off for their nesting grounds near the middle of the island.
The next morning, on an unknown deserted island...
Luna woke up confused for a minute, opening her eyes to an unfamiliar location and finding herself nearly snuggled up beside a virtual stranger. No one would have blamed her if panicking had been her first reaction, but instead, the only thought in her head was, Stars, Toothless is freaking cute when he’s asleep. Not that he’s not also very cute when he’s awake, but… look at him! Toothless was lying on his back, one wing outstretched and the other covering his belly. The first glimmers of sunlight glinted off of his scales, bringing out a sheen of dark purple and blue. Such a beautiful colour. So different from a Light Fury, and yet the similarities are quite apparent as well. I wonder what my parents would think of him?Thinking of her parents made their multiple warnings about boys and strangers come rushing back, causing her to bound onto her feet in a rush. She eyed his sleeping form warily as her parents' voices resounded through her mind.
"Boys only want one thing, Luna. And it's not friendship."

"Don't talk to strangers, sweetie, it's not safe."
And then there was the conversation they'd had that had sent her flying away from home in a huff and had her getting trapped in that hypnotizing call that had eventually led her to meeting Toothless:
"You're not dating until you turn fourteen, and that's final. If I catch you gallivanting with a boy before then, you'll be in big trouble. And don't even think about mating with one until you're sixteen!"
"But Daaaaad," she'd whined, thinking of the super cute, fifteen year old Light Fury called Lightning who'd asked her to go fishing with him yesterday.
"No!"

"Fine!"
Luna winced as the memory haunted her. If only I hadn't acted like such a child, I would be at home right now. So what if I have to wait another quarter year before I can go on a date with Lightning? If he’s truly interested in me and not just after that 'one thing' that Dad has never actually been specific about, then he'll wait for me to grow up a little more.Growling at herself under her breath, Luna turned to towards the water, and then turned right back when she heard her companion call out the mental equivalent of a mumbled, “Luna.”“What?” she answered, only to realize that he was still asleep. His eyes were still closed, his tongue still peeked from the corner of his mouth, and his breathing was still deep and even.Toothless rolled over, wings moving as though they were hugging something. "So hot. Hold you forever."She gasped and stumbled backwards, eyes bugging out in surprise. Holy Dragoness! He's imagining us together!  As mates!And then he shifted again, his hips rocking slightly against the sand, “Luna. So perfect.” His hips twitched once again and then a snore emerged from his mouth.Holy Great Dragon. Her eyes bugged out and he didn’t seem quite so harmless and cute anymore. With one glimpse – long, gawking look - of his unconscious desires, Toothless had gone from adorable boy dragon to potential mate material.Not that she was looking for a mate or anything; she was still much too young to have children of her own. But the thought had been planted, easily usurping Lightning in her mind, which left her feeling incredibly confused.
I thought Lightning was the one for me, but… this black dragon is making me rethink everything I ever thought I wanted.
Needing to think, and turn off her mind at the same time, Luna bolted for the questionable safety of the ocean to mindlessly chase some fish. It was as she was diving after a rainbow trout that she had a sudden epiphany about what her father meant when he said boys only wanted one thing from females; they wanted to stick their penises inside of girls and MATE. Not just form a bonded companionship pair, but MATE.The disturbing thought had her looking at Toothless, still sleeping on the beach, with narrow eyed suspicion. He better keep his snake to himself, or he is going to find himself seriously hurting. The realization that boys weren’t quite as safe as she’d assumed them to be was an unwanted shock that she wished she’d received in a somewhat gentler fashion. Surely Mom could have said something? How hard could it be? All it would take would be a, ‘Luna, sweetie, the reason your father doesn’t want you to date yet is because boys can’t be trusted. They have an unfortunate lack of control of their bodies and will try and hump you at any and all opportunities. DON’T TURN YOUR BACK ON THEM!’ Luna snorted at her own imagination. Surely they’re not as bad as all that. But I think I’ll keep Toothless at wing’s length from now on, just in case.
Stars, if I hadn’t left home in a snit, I wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.

I am SUCH an IDIOT!
Luna turned her frustration on the poor fish, pursuing them with single-minded determination.She was so mad at herself right now. It was her own fault she was lost. Her own fault she spent the night cuddled up beside a strange dragon boy on an island who knew how far away from her home. If her stomach wasn't growling at her like she hadn't eaten for a week, she'd take to the sky this instant and start searching for home. But even in her frustrated state, she knew better than to embark on a possibly very long journey without proper nourishment.It didn't take long for the rush of doing her favourite activity to lull her out of her bad mood. She loved swimming. She loved chasing fish through the ocean. She loved playing with the waves.Her mom had always joked that she'd been born into the wrong class of dragons. Luna sort of agreed with her. Except for the little fact that she was happy she didn't look like a Thunderdrum or Submaripper. It may be vain of her, but she liked her sleek, pearlescent body. She happened to believe that Light Furies were the most beautiful of the dragon species and had no rivals for the title.That is, until she met Toothless. There had been stories about a black version of the Light Fury, but no one in her homeland under the sea could remember seeing one. Now that she had, she had to admit the Night Fury was every bit as striking in looks as the Light Fury was. Toothless might be a stranger, a boy with questionable intentions, and maybe a bit younger than her, but he was awfully nice to look at, she'd give him that.As far as his personality was concerned, and whether she would actually like him once she got to know him better? That was a question that she decided it was probably best not to explore further. She should just go home and forget she ever met him. It was better for her mental health anyway. She knew her dad would have a fit and half if he ever found out that she'd actually spent the night cuddled up against him, so she was going to have to be very careful to keep that part of her adventure shielded.And then, as if her musings had called him to her, Toothless appeared beside her in the water with a cheerful greeting and tried to lick her cheek.Upon waking, Toothless found himself alone and possessed of a grumbling empty stomach. Gah, I’m hungry enough to eat a whale! Not that I’d ever eat a whale - too blubbery – but maybe a whale’s worth of cod or trout would be nice. I wonder what the fishing’s like around here?He rose to his feet and stretched, arching his back and spreading out his wings as far as they would go before curling them back up against his body and giving himself a shake to divest himself of the last dregs of sleep.The sun was just rising over the highest part of the island, sending steamers of golden light over the beach and making the ocean sparkle merrily.And bounding through the waves like a streak of moonlight, opalescent scales gleaming in the sun, was an incarnation of the Great Dragoness herself as Luna fished with angelic grace. His heart thumped like a drum in appreciation and he panted with breath stealing desire and awe. He watched her dive for fish for a few minutes, sensing her pleasure in the act as she played with the waves more than anything.
Oh, stars above! She’s so beautiful. I could watch her all day, every day. I might have gotten myself hopelessly lost to do it, but that dragoness right there, she was worth it.
Toothless finally shook himself out of his mesmerized stupor and bounded across the sand and then splashed into the ocean with the dragon version of an excited chortle. The cold water had the thankful affect of shocking his hormones into submission, since he’d be very embarrassed if Luna caught him lusting after her.His mother had taught him to respect females, and his father had taught him to keep his male appendage to himself until the female invited him to use it, or he might end up losing it due to a female’s wrath. He had no desire to have body parts bitten or slashed off, thank you very much.He shot through the waves to join her with a called out, "Good morning, Luna!" and reached out with his nose to give her a good morning lick against her cheek just like he'd seen his parents do a thousand times.Luna reared her head back like he'd just done something vulgar and gave him a shocked look. "What in the stars are you doing?" she asked suspiciously.He blinked at her in confusion as he paddled in the water to stay afloat, wondering what had changed. We nuzzled noses yesterday, didn't we? "Saying good morning?""Haven't you ever heard of the personal space bubble?" she huffed."Well, yes," he'd admitted. "But I didn't think that applied anymore."Luna rolled her beautiful blue eyes at him and turned her back to him as she scanned the water for a fish to chase, clearly saying she was done with him. He was pretty sure he heard her think, 'idiot' just loud enough that he was convinced she’d meant for him to hear the insult.Maybe I am. How could I have been so stupid to assume such a beautiful dragoness would just fall for me? Toothless whimpered softy and watched her dive for a fish before he turned back towards the pale sand beach, his appetite gone.He swam listlessly through the water, letting the waves push him as they wished, eventually hitting the sand with a slump to his shoulders, a droop to his wings, and his head hanging low. Toothless trudged back to the spot they'd slept together in last night and sank back to the sand. He curled up, tucking his head under his wing to block out the sun, and felt sorry for himself.He was lost and the girl of his dreams that he didn't even know he wanted until he met her had rejected him. Toothless felt like indulging in a pity party was more than appropriate at the moment.Luna was horrified with her behaviour.Not because she didn't want him to lick her cheek, but because she DID.Unfortunately, she hadn’t been very nice about turning him down. And now she felt like pond scum.As she pretended to chase fish, and pretended to ignore him as he swam away like she’d just murdered his family, she cursed herself for being such a mean bitch.But she’d been so surprised at his sudden appearance, and had just finished giving herself a talking to about not letting him get close.And his warm tongue on her cheek had felt so NICE.
Stars, I’m in such trouble right now.
She tried to ignore him as he curled up on the beach in clear dejection. Tried to ignore the voice in her mind that said she should go apologize. Tried to pretend that fishing was the only important thing right now. But the longer she stayed in the water, the more her own words of disdain haunted her. He hadn't deserved that. Perhaps he'd been a little forward and assuming, but he obviously had done it out of the joy of seeing her and not in any way meaning to be pushy or like he was going to jump on her in the next second.Sighing in defeat, Luna gulped down one last fish, and then swam back towards the beach.The sight of him all huddled up in their sleeping spot and radiating pathetic hopelessness made her heart literally hurt in her chest. Well, Gronckle droppings, now I just feel worse.Slinking over to him, she clenched her stomach a couple of times and then regurgitated half of the fish onto the sand in front of him.Toothless unburied his head out from under his wing and blinked at her and then the pile of fresh fish."I'm sorry I was so mean," she thought before she stomped away. Glancing around her, she spotted a nice looking grassy hill above the beach that looked like a nice spot to soak up some sun before she left to go find her home.As Luna landed on the hill, she studiously ignored the fact that she was stalling and lying to herself about actually wanting to leave Toothless behind.Toothless watched her fly off, making sure she wasn't going far, before he looked at the pile of fish and his appetite came roaring back as his previous joy filled him. She hasn't completely rejected me! Thank you, Great Dragon! Hope filled him again as he slurped up the fish eagerly in less than a minute.Then he looked up at the hill she'd settled on with her back to him and her face turned to the warm summer sun. It was close to the time of year where the sun stayed up all day and all night so they got a lot of it right now, but it was still cold enough that he could appreciate basking in it as well.Toothless took a minute to close his eyes and feel the warm rays seep past his iridescent black scales and warm him from the inside out, much like his heart felt right now.Wanting to show how much he appreciated her apology, Toothless turned and bounded into the water. She'd given him a present of half her fish, so he thought it was only fitting to return the gesture. It also seemed like the perfect way to earn her affection back.Not that he understood how he’d lost it in the first place, but females were strange creatures sometimes, so it was easier on his peace of mind to not try and overthink it.Fifteen minutes of superspeed fishing later, Toothless was back on the beach. He shook the water off his scales and wings and then flew up to her hill. He regurgitated a pile of fish at her feet and then beamed at her, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth as he panted from his exertions. "For you, my beautiful drop of moonlight."Luna turned her head slowly and stared at the fish and then at Toothless. "Thank you, but I didn't ask for this and I'm not yours, so get that thought out of your head before you regret it. I'm not in the mood for dealing with you right now." She refused to be swayed by presents and pretty words, no matter how happy and tingly they made her feel."I'm sorry." Toothless slumped a fraction before his eyes lit up as another idea struck him. He raised his wings and started hopping around like a possessed bird, dancing to the beat of the ocean's waves below.Luna gawked at the boy dragon, fairly certain that he'd lost his mind. What in the name of all the stars is that supposed to accomplish? When he hopped within range a minute later, she bopped him on the nose with a paw, careful to keep her claws sheathed. (He might be insane, but she didn't want to actually hurt him.) "What in the frigid depths of the ocean are you DOING?"Toothless froze, his nose smarting, and then tucked his wings back against his body, hanging his head in embarrassment. "The mating dance?" he said tentatively. "It always works for my dad when Mom is mad at him. It makes her laugh every time."Luna snorted. "I imagine it would. I don't know where you got the idea that I'd be interested in a mating dance, ridiculous or otherwise, but I can assure you that I'm most definitely not looking for a mate right now. I’m too young to have children, and Dad would kill me anyway, even if I was interested."Toothless blinked at her as his jaw dropped. "Ummm. I'm way too young to have kids of my own too, so that wasn't my intention. I was just trying to make friends with you and make you happy. That's all. I swear."Luna rolled her eyes at the black dragon boy despite how sweet that was. "While I appreciate the thought, you really need to work on your timing. I'm leaving soon, anyway, so just let it be. I need to find my home. My parents must be sick with worry by now."Toothless hung his head as he realized his own parents must also be very worried. They were used to him flying off and exploring the area around his home island, but he was rarely gone for a whole night. And even if he was, he made sure to get home in time for breakfast. "Mine too," he admitted.He sighed and shuffled away down the hill. "It was nice meeting you, Luna. Good luck," he thought to her despondently.Luna stared after him, somewhat surprised he was walking away just like that. "Good luck to you too," she called back. "And thank you for the fish," she tacked on.Toothless fluttered his wings at her in a shrugging gesture just before he dropped below her line of sight. Luna sighed and ate the fish, knowing she'd need the nourishment. Then she curled up on the grass and closed her eyes to let the fish digest for a few minutes before she took off.Toothless reached the beach and wandered back to his sleeping spot, plunking his haunches down and curling his tail around his feet as he looked up at Luna's hill. His green eyes were sad and thoughtful as he wondered where he'd gone wrong.He hadn't lied to her; he really hadn't even considered trying to mate with her. All he'd wanted was to win her friendship and see where it went from there. He had just recently reached the age where female dragons had started to look intriguing to him and become sexually mature. After meeting Luna, he knew he'd measure every other dragoness against her. Somehow, he knew they would all come up wanting in comparison. None could ever be as luminescent in colour or perfect in form. And when she wasn't being grumpy with him, her personality was wonderful.She was right though, he should just go try and find his family, but he found that he was head over claws infatuated with her and he didn't want to leave her vicinity until was forced to.He also drew hope from the simple fact that she hadn't left yet, either. Surely, if she didn't return my interest, she would have flown away instead of keeping up this pretence of indifference?He shook his head and sighed at his own stupid wishful thinking. He didn't know what had drawn him away from home, but for now, he didn't regret it. Meeting Luna was worth it. And even if she did leave him, perhaps he could seek her out when he was older and she was more receptive to taking on a life mate. How hard could it possibly be to track down a clan of Light Furies?Spotting a length of driftwood a few steps away, Toothless ambled over to it and picked it up in his teeth. He then proceeded to doodle, using the length of rough wood to dig shallow grooves in the sand. This was something he'd found out he could do by accident years ago. It had soon become a deliberate hobby that made his little brothers giggle when he drew pictures of them or made caricatures of other dragons on the island in silly poses; especially their dad.Smiling around the stick from thinking about his family, and happy with his decision about Luna, the doodles took on a more deliberate focus. A few long squiggled lines reminded him of waves and he was inspired to draw the scene he'd woken up to.Hearing a pleased purr coming from Toothless and strange scratching noises, Luna opened her eyes and turned her head over her shoulder to see what he could possibly be doing now.Her body quickly followed her head and she was suddenly sitting up and staring down at the beach in amazement.Toothless is drawing a picture! Of me! Swimming! It was upside down from her angle, but she could easily make out what was being sketched into the sand.Her feet moved of their own accord as she walked down the hill, completely mesmerized by the image taking shape right in front of her. She'd never seen a dragon draw before but she knew the concept existed because the humans were said to make images on cloth, planks of wood, or thin sheets of tree bark.Luna wandered onto the beach and carefully traversed the edge of the large drawing that was at least twice her real size until she stopped beside Toothless and just admired the picture as he finished her face by making a swoop in the sand to represent her smiling mouth.She couldn't help but wear that expression now as she looked at her picture and then at Toothless. "This is amazing. Absolutely amazing."Toothless spit out the stick and grinned widely as he retracted his teeth, demonstrating where his parents had come up with his name. "Thank you, Luna. I made it for you so you wouldn't forget me."Luna sucked in a breath. There is absolutely no chance of that ever happening now.Despite how goofy and immature Toothless had seemed at first, it was now blaringly apparent that he was special. He had to be vastly more intelligent than an average dragon to teach himself how to draw, and she was finding him suddenly ten times more attractive than before.
Which had been a lot, if I’m being honest with myself.
Lightning completely faded from her mind and Toothless became the only dragon she could ever see herself calling her life mate. Yes, it was a little vain to want the most intelligent dragon in the world for her own and as the father of her future children, but she didn't care. But it wasn't just his talent that had drawn her to him. She hadn't wanted to leave his side even before he'd shown her his artistic skills, so she felt perfectly justified in letting herself claim him here and now.
Sorry, Daddy.
Growling ever so slightly, Luna pounced on him as his eyes widened in alarm. She knocked him over onto his back and pinned him down with her front feet.
"What...?"
"Shush." The growl faded into a purr and she rubbed her cheek against his, blending their scents. "I hereby claim you as my future mate, Toothless Night Fury."Toothless was so astonished at how good it felt to have her weight holding him down and her cheek rubbing against his that it took him a moment to understand the thoughts being sent into his mind.He opened his eyes in shock and met hers, wondering if she was playing a cruel joke on him. The sincerity he saw in her beautiful blue eyes reassured him and he purred in return.
I always knew my drawing would be good for something more than making my brothers laugh.
He wrapped his front legs around her and reversed their positions so he was now on top of her and he was the one doing the cheek rubbing. "I accept your claim, Luna Light Fury."Luna smiled up at him and then pushed him off her so she could rise to her feet. "Good. Now we just have to break the news to our parents. I vote we do yours first, since I know my Dad won't be happy about this. Maybe your parents can come talk some sense into him?"Toothless chuckled as he rolled off the sand and stood, shaking the sand out of his wings. "I don't know how happy mine will be about it either, but I'm all for it."Luna gave him a wide, tooth filled smile. "Excellent." She looked up at the sky. "Shall we?"Toothless nodded once, regally. "After you, my moonlit Queen."Luna paused as she spread her wings and looked at him. "Oooooo. I like that one. And to be honest, I liked the first one you called me, too."Toothless smirked to himself as he spread his wings and launched off the ground. "I'm glad, my breathtaking Luna, because I'm going to shower you with compliments until we're too old to fly and beyond."Luna giggled as they powered up into the sky. "I'm holding you to that, my clever Toothless. A few more pictures wouldn't hurt either.""I can do that," he thought back eagerly.Now up high in the air, they hovered with slow flaps of their wings as they turned around in circles, looking out across the unfamiliar ocean, and then stared at each in dismay."Umm, I hate to ask this, but do you happen to know which way your home is? Because I sure don't," Toothless admitted with a wince.Luna shook her head slowly, eyes wide as the reality of their predicament came crashing back to the forefront of her focus. She'd conveniently forgotten just how lost she'd been when she'd come out of the random daze of yesterday. Now, she honestly didn't know what to do.All she knew for sure was that she was beyond happy that she wasn't all alone right now,Toothless sucked in a big breath and forced himself to concentrate. "Okay. Logically, I should be able to figure this out. When I left home the sun was in the second half of its trip across the sky and I flew away from it. The sun is currently in its rising pattern, which means that to get home, I should fly away from it again. With any luck, we'll eventually encounter an island I'm familiar with and then we'll soon be at my home."Luna flew a little closer and rubbed her head against his neck. "You continue to impress me with how smart you are. You keep this up and I think I'll fall in love with you."Toothless grinned at her and nudged her fondly. "Then I shall strive to continue to be your clever Night Fury with the utmost dedication because you have some catching up to do in the falling in love department."Luna giggled as she chased after him as he flew away from the eastern sun. "You aren't seriously admitting that you love me already? We've only known each other for half a day."Toothless flew a circle around her with a few joyful flaps of his wings. "That's exactly what I'm saying. I liked you last night, but when I saw you play in the ocean, you caught my heart. I've never seen such pure joy and grace in a dragoness. And your unique beauty doesn't hurt either.""Oh. Oh my. Thank you." Luna was essentially speechless at his confession. She had a feeling she would never regret picking Toothless as her future mate no matter what her daddy said, whenever she did manage to get home.Watching the black dragon fly with graceful ease around her hovering position, warmth filled her from muzzle to tail fins. I think… getting lost might just be the best thing to ever happen to me.A few hours of dedicated flight to the west, the sun was just beginning to rise on Night Fury Island, but Toothless' family was already wide awake. His parents hadn't slept well, plagued with worry for their son.Longwing gave his mate a reassuring lick on her cheek despite his bad feeling. "I'm just going to go for a quick flight of the area. I'm sure he's fine and we'll be back in no time."Ebony sighed. "I hope so, dear. I really hope so." She gathered Spin and Finn under her wings and they watched as Longwing took off for the nearest island a two minute flight to the south. 'Please bring them home safe,' she prayed to the Great Dragon in the sky. 'Please.'Ebony had never felt so worried about Toothless before, not even the first time he'd disappeared on his first 'adventure'. There was a sinking feeling in her gut that just wouldn't leave her alone.Pushing the worry to the side for the moment, Ebony smiled at her young twins. "Come on, boys. Let's go fish up some breakfast for your father and brother for when they get back.""Yes, Mom," they replied in unison, little wings flying after her much bigger form as she took off for the fishing cove.Four hours later, Longwing's voice was hoarse from calling for Toothless and his wings were starting to get tired. He'd flown ever expanding circles around his home island and he wasn't sure how much further he dare go before he lost his sense of where home was.He was just about to give up for the morning and go report back to Ebony when he spotted another island in the distance. Finding a new surge of energy, Longwing picked up his speed and flew for the island, once again calling for Toothless.Toothless didn't answer, but his sensitive ears did catch the sound of something calling back. Sort of.He rounded a corner of the island and found a human longship docked in the small harbour. On the boat, multiple hairy humans were exclaiming as they looked up at him with pointing appendages.Longwing hovered in the air with great flaps of his wings as he studied the boat carefully, sending out a loud mental call for Toothless one more time, just in case the humans had captured him. But he didn't sense his son in any fashion. Not by smell or sight or sound.Feeling defeated, Longwing turned around and flew for home at a fraction of his maximum speed, reluctant to return to his mate and tell her that he'd failed. He could only hope that he'd somehow missed Toothless and that his son would already be home and waiting for him when he got there.Unfortunately, his thoughts were too worried and preoccupied to notice that the longship followed him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

New Homes:
The newly affianced couple had only been in flight for ten minutes when they heard the mesmerizing call again.Toothless and Luna barely had time to think, Nooooo, not ag... before their eyes glazed over and they swooped around in a half circle and flew back towards the sun. Half an hour later, they flew into a thick bank of fog. Enshrouded by the fog was a fearsome tower of an island with glowing cracks of red throughout the rocky mountain.The island reeked of sulphur and death. The feeling in the air cried of fear and forced obedience.It was a miserable place.And it was home to the Red Death.The massive Titan class dragon Queen was bigger than a whole fleet of longships, uglier than a flock of wart covered Gronckles, and scarier than a village full of females PMSing at the same time. She lived in the fiery magma depths of the volcano at the centre of the island, making her nearly invulnerable to attack. She demanded obedience and offerings of sustenance from the dragons caught in her siren call.And they obeyed.Toothless and Luna were no exception.Like the mindless drones of a queen bee, they joined a long line of assorted dragons flying through a cave system. It was at this point that Toothless finally shook off the hypnotic call and came back to himself. He never did understand completely how that happened, but the sound of so many wings flapping in such tight quarters made the subsonic tone of the Red Death's call little more than a background buzz that his stubborn will power was able to overthrow. He looked around him with wide, panicky eyes, confused as to what was happening. Dragons! So many dragons! I've never seen so many different kinds in one place before! And where am I?! And where's Luna?! "Luna! Luna! Where are you?!" he called, head swivelling back and forth, looking for her frantically. He tried to stop, but there was no room and the other dragons flew into him, battering him with their wings mercilessly, uncaring about anything but following the voice that demanded all of their attention. With little choice, he continued to fly along with the crowd, but kept to the edge as much as possible and slowed down as much as he dared until a white dragoness flew past him. Nearly sagging with relief, Toothless quickly caught up. "Luna?"When she didn't respond with so much as a glance from her blank eyes, Toothless tried again, nudging into her shoulder and whimpering a little. "Luna! Please, Luna, wake up!"Still nothing.He nudged her harder and practically shouted into her mind while roaring in her ears. "LUNA!"Luna shook her head as if trying to shake the noise out of her mind and finally looked around her with dawning clarity. For a moment, she wore the same look of confused horror that Toothless had, until she saw him flying beside her. "Toothless! What's happening? Where are we?""I don't know," he had to admit. "But I think we're about to find out," he added as the cave opened up into a giant cavern that smelled terrible and was degrees warmer than comfortable.They settled onto the ledge of the opening as they watched dragon after dragon drop an animal or regurgitate a belly full of fish into what appeared to be the steam of the magma at the bottom of the cavern. But Toothless knew better. He'd heard about Queens from his mother, but had never encountered one, living on Night Fury Island all his life. The closest thing they had to a Queen was Midnight, an ancient dragoness that had lived so long, she had great great grandchildren on the island. (Toothless being one of them.) She was treated with the greatest respect and food was brought to her, but not because she demanded it but because she simply couldn't fly anymore and her extended family cared about her well being.This Queen, wherever she was in the depths of the volcano, was not someone to respect, but someone to fear. Toothless now understood how he'd become lost. Even if her call wasn't what he'd first heard that had inspired him to leave home, it was what had summoned him to this area of the world. And if she'd done it once, she could do it again.Toothless shared his thoughts with Luna in a quick burst, and then added on, "We need to get out of here. Now!""I totally agree," Luna said just as a mighty roar filled the cavern.Droves of dragons dove into alcoves and quivered on rock ledges, trying to disappear.Great Dragon, I think she heard us, Toothless thought, gulping in fear. The Furies froze halfway in the act of retreating as the Queen's willpower took over their bodies with impertinence quelling force. Against their will, they faced the center of the cavern again as a dark grey dragon covered in small red spikes, and nearly as big as the hollow mountain it resided under rose up out of the mist. Six piercing eyes pinned them to the ledge they were standing on."You think to escape me?" A booming female voice echoed through their minds as she roared at them again with a cloud of fetid breath, making them wince, eyes stinging from the putrid stench of rotting fish and sulphur. "I think not, my pretty new minions."Toothless and Luna were forced to their knees by her will, bowing before her. He could barely breathe from the pressure nearly crushing his brain and body into submission.
"You will nest nearby and you will provide me with food every day or I WILL kill you. Do you understand?!"
Luna trembled beside him, tears leaking from her eyes from the pain. She whimpered as she nodded once.Toothless was hardly any better, but his pride wouldn't let him cry. "We understand, Your Highness. We will do as you command." He didn't know what he'd do now about finding his family, but Toothless couldn't take the chance of risking Luna's life by disobeying the Queen."Good!" roared the Queen, both mentally and out loud. The cavern shook and the thousands of dragons within huddled even further into the rock walls. "Now feed me your pathetic offerings and you may go. And for future reference, I prefer animals over fish, so you better bring me something with legs at least every second day.""Yes, my Queen," Toothless and Luna said together, their tones more subdued than either of the strong willed dragons had ever uttered. The pressure eased off their minds and bones as she opened her massive mouth and waited.Toothless gulped and looked at Luna. She sniffled but stiffened her muscles with resolve. "Come on, Toothless. We can always get more fish."And with that, Luna flew off the ledge and towards the waiting mouth filled with teeth bigger than her. Not to be outdone by the courageous dragoness, Toothless followed. They regurgitated their fish into the waiting mouth, in danger of passing out from the smell of the Queen's breath as they did so.As they turned to fly away, the Queen surged up and closed her mouth with a snap that just barely avoided taking off the ends of their tails.Toothless shuddered in shock and fear and flew faster as the most spine chilling laughter he'd ever heard, or would ever hear, reverberated through his mind.They zipped back through the cave, not speaking a word because they were too stunned at the turn of events to do so. With numb minds and faintly trembling limbs, they flew back to their little island out of sheer instinct and landed on the grass hill with trembling legs.Toothless sank to his haunches and Luna did the same directly beside him. She leaned into him and he leaned right back, drawing support from each other, needing it desperately."What are we going to do now?" Luna whispered forlornly, finally breaking the silence.Toothless sucked in a shuddering breath before answering. "I guess we make this our home for now. We can't fly away or she'll draw us back. She must let us go searching for animals, though, or she'd never get any."Luna snuggled even closer into his side and he raised a wing and settled it over her. "I don't like this. I want to go home. I want my parents."Toothless looked off across the ocean in the direction he was fairly certain his family was, an overwhelming wave of homesickness forcing his breaths out in too-quick pants of emotional pain. "Me too, Luna. Me too."
"At least we're not alone."
Toothless turned his gaze to the white dragoness, seeing a glistening tear leak from her eye. He licked up the droplet as it slowly traversed the fine scales of her cheek and his own distress faded as he realized that together, they could face anything. "Yes. At least we're not alone. We have each other. And I promise, you will always have me at your side for as long as you want me."Luna looked back at the midnight coloured dragon, and felt herself calm at the quiet assurance in his tone. In that moment, she fell in love with him as they formed an unbreakable bond of trust and loyalty. "I will always want you at my side, Toothless. And I will always stand by yours." She licked his cheek to seal the deal and then bounced back on to her feet, wings unfurling as a playful breeze tickled her scales. "Now let's go get some more fish! I'm hungry."The young Night Fury watched her glide down the hill, eyes blinking with awe and astonishment, not only at her abrupt mood change, but also at the unspoken glimpse of her emotions that she'd let him feel. I think... I think she just admitted to loving me back! By the Great Dragon, she already loves me back!
YES!
The excitement of the moment had him clumsily dashing after her like a baby dragon first learning to fly. He didn't care. He was going to go fishing with the new love of his life and the rest of their problems would sort themselves out later. 
6 days later, not too far from Night Fury Island...
A brown Stormcutter flew through the clouds with easy flaps of his four mighty wings, following a small fleet of five longships. On his back, a standing rider dressed in brown and turquoise leather armour and a spike horn covered mask, a red cape, and carrying a staff with carved bone hooks at both ends balanced easily on the flying dragon.Valka peered through a spyglass at the longship in the lead, frowning at the white haired man dressed in shimmery black leather from the neck down. Despite the colour of his hair, the man wasn't old. He looked to be in his prime and was fit almost to the point of being slender. She also got the impression he was far from a typical Viking, even though the rest of his crew appeared to be.
This man is too well groomed and carries himself too well to be anything like an average, thick muscled and equally thick brained Viking male.

I don't like him. 
His men were armed to the teeth and looked suspiciously familiar, making her think they were actually Drago's henchmen. She'd spent too many years rescuing dragons from Drago's evil grasp to not recognize at least a few of them.And now that she looked, the longships' shields and sails were covered in Drago's symbol of a sword through a dragon head, and the decks were lined with the usual assortment of evil dragon catching paraphernalia.Whoever this man was, he was new, but he'd somehow earned Drago's trust enough to command a small fraction of the Warlord's army. She wasn't sure how that had happened, though, considered the Warlord was roughly four times this man's size in breadth and was notoriously suspicious of possible usurpers to his position as the 'Dragon God'."I have a bad feeling about this," she murmured to Cloudjumper as she tucked the spyglass into a pouch on her belt."I agree," Cloudjumper thought back, a subtle growl coming from his throat that rumbled up into her feet."Let's get ahead of them and see if we can find what they're hunting."
"Gladly."
Valka reached forward and grasped a spike on the back of her dragon's head just in time to avoid being blown off by the sudden gust of wind as he accelerated to a breathtaking speed. They left the longships behind in moments.Gods, I love flying! It never gets old, she thought as adrenaline coursed through her veins, and exultant, feminine laughter filled the clouds. Her dragon echoed her laughter in a deep, rumbling bass, deliberately aiming for the thickest clouds to fly through, just for the fun of it. By staying on the same trajectory as the longships, it didn't take them long to find the dragon hunters' objective.Cloudjumper circled the island from afar as Valka pulled out her spyglass again. She gasped as she caught sight of the black dragons that inhabited the mountainous island. "Are those... Night Furies?"
"Yes."
"I thought they were just a myth," Valka nearly whispered in awe."Not a myth," Cloudjumper chuckled. "But they are rare. I have only ever seen one, and that was many many years ago. A whole clan of them is almost unheard of.""Let's see if we can prevent them from becoming even rarer," she said with determination lacing her tone as she tucked her spyglass away again. There is no way I'm letting that white haired snake of a man and Drago's'  goons capture or kill these magnificent creatures."As you wish." Cloudjumper swooped down towards the island, instantly catching the attention of more than one Night Fury.A cry rang through the air and within moments every adult dragon was winging towards Cloudjumper and the young were told to go hide.Cloudjumper landed on the beach, dwarfing the Night Furies that landed in a semi circle in front of him and regarded him with guarded suspicion. Some even growled as they noticed that Cloudjumper was carrying a human passenger.A big male Night Fury stepped forward from the front of the group and faced the bigger dragon with a confident stance. "Who are you and why have you brought a human to our island?" he demanded of Cloudjumper.Cloudjumper stared down the leader and the group of about twenty black dragons with calm authority. "I am Cloudjumper, and this is my human, Valka. She is a good human, not like the others. We come to warn you of danger. A pack of the bad kind of humans will be here within the hour. They come to hunt you and kill you for your hides, or enslave you and force you to be little better than attack dogs. If you do not want this fate, you need to leave this island. Now." The leader quelled exclamations of alarm from his flock with a look before he turned back to the bigger dragon. "Why should we trust your word? You carry a human. It could be making you say these things."Cloudjumper snorted in dry amusement. As if a paltry human could ever tame and enslave me."Does my will seem overtaken to you? Valka is my friend. We work together to free dragons from the humans coming your way. We only mean to help you and bring you to a place of safety." To prove his words, he blasted the whole clan of Furies with an image of the longship fleet along with past memories of dragons in cages, starving and tortured. He also threw in a picture of the white haired human dressed in black armour that looked an awful lot like the scaly hides of these Night Furies. That got the gasps he was looking for.The leader was clearly undecided as he looked from Cloudjumper to his clan and back again."I think we should do what he says, Longwing," a female dragon said as she came to stand beside the leader. "Think of the children."Longwing sighed. "I am thinking of the children, Ebony. But what about Toothless? What if he comes back and we're gone? And what about Midnight? She can't fly anymore. And the eggs; it's not safe to move them if we don't have to.""If it helps," Cloudjumper said after shamelessly eavesdropping on their silent conversation, "I don't know what to say about your missing dragon but I can carry your dragoness. And as far as your eggs are concerned, they'll have a better chance of survival being moved than staying here. You do not want to know what happens to the spirits of young dragons raised in captivity."Longwing hung his head and closed his eyes as he made a hard decision for the good of the clan, no matter how much it hurt to think of Toothless coming home and finding everyone gone. Maybe I can come back periodically to see if my son has come back. That thought helped settle the decision in his mind.Longwing looked up at the big brown Stormcutter. "All right. We'll leave. I am trusting you on this. Do not make me regret it."Cloudjumper nodded once. "You will not. You'll like Sanctuary. Or at least, I'm sure your young will. There are many young dragons there for them to play with.""Oh joy," Ebony said with a roll of her eyes. "More young dragons to try and keep out of trouble."Longwing chuckled after his mate as she flew off to retrieve the twins, along with a handful of other dragons that went to get their children or their eggs. He looked over his shoulder at Cloudjumper as he turned away. "Come on then, and I'll take you to Midnight. The old girl might actually enjoy this. It's been years since she flew.""Then I am doubly glad to help. No dragon deserves to be grounded. Flying is our life." Cloudjumper said as he followed the Night Fury towards the center of the island.Meanwhile, Valka had nearly been vibrating with curiosity, dying to know what was happening with the dragons. Unlike Cloudjumper, she couldn't eavesdrop on mental conversations unless they were specifically broadcast to her, and then it wasn't really eavesdropping, was it. "What's happening?" she said quietly as they flew across the island.
"They are coming with us. I am going to carry an old dragoness that can no longer fly."
"Ah. Good. That's good," Valka said with a relieved smile. "I hope our Bewilderbeast doesn't mind the addition of another flock so soon after the last batch we rescued."
"I doubt that will be a problem. Falkor is a generous King. But... Perhaps I should have told the Night Furies that they are going to have to become his loyal subjects in order to live in Sanctuary. It appears this flock is unaffiliated with a Queen or King and they might not like the slight change in lifestyle."
"I think, in this case, it is better to explain after we get there. There is no time for any second guessing.""I agree," Cloudjumper thought as they came in for a landing on a big, moss covered ledge on the side of a mountain. "We'll tell them later." He bowed to the ancient dragoness that toddled forward to meet them, cloudy green eyes wide with curiosity. She looked much too old to still be alive; with tattered wings and scales turned to grey around the face. "Hello, my Lady. I am here to give you a ride to your new home."
Two weeks later, unnamed island...
Toothless landed on the beach, calling for his girlfriend, excitement thrumming through his veins. "Luna! Luna!"Luna emerged from the ocean where she'd been diving for fish and quickly swam over to the beach, shaking off the water when she made it to land. "What is it, Toothless?"He bounded over to her, radiating his excitement. He touched his nose to hers briefly in a warm hello after not seeing her for a whole day before giving her his news. "As you know, I followed a Deadly Nadder that was bringing the Queen a furry animal on a regular basis that she likes the best, wondering where he was getting the sheep and yak from."
"Yes. And...?"
"You'll never guess what I found!" Toothless was practically bouncing with the energy filling him.
"What? What did you find?"

"It's amazing! And perfect!"
Luna was about ready to smack him upside the head for not actually giving her a real answer. "What was perfect, Toothless?" she said, holding onto her patience out of determination alone.
"A hidden cove! It has a lake with fish, a waterfall, is surrounded by rock walls, is almost inaccessible to anything that can't fly, and has a nice network of caves to spend the winter in. And best of all, no one else lives there! Ooooo. And even better than that, it's on the same island the furry animals come from. Feeding the Queen will be easy!"
"It does sound perfect," Luna admitted. Their current island was fine for the summer, but it offered very little in the way of protection from the winter elements. (Even fire breathing dragons preferred to stay out of the cold if they could.) She narrowed her eyes at Toothless as she realized the cove sounded just a little bit TOO perfect. If it is such a find, why aren't other dragons living there? "Alright. Spill. There has to be something on the downside you're not telling me."Toothless looked down at his toes when he couldn't meet her suspicious gaze anymore. She was too smart sometimes. Not that he'd want a stupid mate, but still... "There's a herd of humans living on the island too. It's their animals the Deadly Nadder has been stealing."Luna gawked at him for a few seconds, jaw actually dropping a bit. "Let me get this straight. You want us to live on an island already occupied by the dragon killing humans and steal their animals? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"Toothless flinched at the mental screech. He glanced up at her disbelieving blue eyes before studying the individual grains of sand under his paws again. "Yes? And No. I think it's a perfectly feasible idea. They have patrols constantly scanning for dragons coming in from the ocean and weapons that are worthy of respect. But if we already lived there, we wouldn't have to worry about that. We can snatch an animal in the dead of night while the humans are sleeping. One of the caves lets out onto a cliff face just above the ocean. We can swim in unseen every time we come back from feeding the Queen."Luna sucked in a deep breath and carefully thought through everything he'd said. Perhaps he was right and this might just work? "All right, Toothless. Show me this cove of yours. I'm willing to give it a shot, at least."Toothless finally looked up and grinned widely at her before pouncing on her and licking her face enthusiastically. "Thank you, thank you! You won't regret it, I promise! You'll love it there, it's so pretty. There's even some sand to make pictures in.""All right!" she laughed as she licked him back once and then pushed him off her. "You've convinced me." She stood and shook off the sand and then nudged her cheek against his when he'd done the same. "Come on, my persuasive one, let's go brave the land of the humans."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Misunderstandings:

Fourteen Years
Hiccup was quickly coming to the conclusion that this might be the worst year of his life. And that falling in love with the prettiest girl on the island was possibly the stupidest thing he'd ever done.Not only did it make maintaining their friendship without giving himself away ridiculously hard, he also now had to watch every unattached male (and some of the attached ones too) under the age of twenty fawn all over her and make complete asses of themselves as they fought with each other to impress her with their prowess.At the moment, Hiccup was in his loft room, at his desk, doodling sketches of Astrid and thinking of all the depressing reasons she would never return his affection.One - Astrid would want a real man as her husband; one who could fight the dragons and protect their children. Despite their secret training, Hiccup was almost positive he'd never be approved to go to the dragon academy next year when it ran again. And thus, he'd never be considered a real Viking.Two – Astrid could do so much better than him when it came to physical appearance. Hiccup thought of himself as only passably okay looking with stupid, untameable hair that looked awful if he let it grow long and only somewhat better when it was short. He was also now shorter than her by a good hand's width, since she'd had a final growth spurt and he hadn't. In fact, Hiccup was petrified he'd never grow again, and be stuck at child height forever.Three - By the time Hiccup did catch up to her in height and (Please, Thor, please) filled out a bit so he didn't rival a twig for the skinniest thing on the island, he just knew that Astrid would have picked another boy for her husband. Hiccup could even take a good guess as to who it would be; one Elof the Lucky. The sixteen year old was the star of last year's dragon school, had the blond and blue eyed looks of Thor, and the build to match. The only thing Elof was missing was a high degree of intelligence, but with his looks and fighting skills, who cared?Hiccup sighed and traced a finger over the outline of Astrid's braid in a sketch where it was flying out behind her as she whirled on the ball of her foot, axe just one second away from being released in a throw. She was so magnificent, so beautiful, he knew his drawings didn't do her justice, but he couldn't help drawing more and more of them.Unable to help himself, Hiccup flipped to the second last picture in the messy pile and uncovered his favourite guilty pleasure; a sketch of Astrid wearing nothing but her hair as she lay on her front, chin propped on her crossed arms and a dreamy look in her eyes.Gods, he'd felt like a pervert when he drew it, and half of it was guesswork, but it was just so hot, he couldn't make himself burn it. Nor could he stop himself from imagining it... her... naked and kissing him, her long, glorious, golden locks surrounding them, as he dreamed of unlikely scenarios in the dark of night.Now, his fingers traced the line of her hair as it followed the dip of her back and the rise of her bottom. He sighed softly again in longing, wishing he could bury his face in the back of her neck and just breathe her in before pushing her hair to the side and running kisses down the length of her spine."Hiccup!"
Shit!
He jumped guiltily at his father's bellow coming from the base of the stairs, shaking fingers scrambling to bury the naughty drawing and the other Astrids amongst the sketches of fanciful inventions. Thor, it felt like he was yelling at me for ogling, but it had to just be a coincidence. Right? "Yes, Dad?" he called back, wincing when his voice cracked. He jumped up from his chair and moved to look down at his father from the top of the stairs before Stoick could get the idea to come up to his room."I'm going to hang out with Gobber and the guys at the pub for dinner tonight," Stoick explained, looking up at him with an expectant expression, so Hiccup started down the stairs. "Are you going to be okay rummaging for yourself?"Hiccup restrained the urge to roll his eyes at that; he'd been left on his own more often than not and was easily the better cook of the two of them. And his father knew it, he just liked to conveniently forget on a regular basis. "Yes, Dad, I'll be fine. I might go to Astrid's for dinner, anyway," he tacked on as he stopped on the bottom step, now looking way up at his massive father who still topped him even with a temporary height advantage.Stoick's mouth quirked up in a smile under his moustache as he clapped a hand bigger than Hiccup's entire head on his scrawny shoulder, nearly making the boy's knees buckle. "Good. Good." He steered Hiccup towards the door as he walked that way. practically carrying him without even realizing it. "You know, I wouldn't be opposed to adding that girl to our family. Quite the little warrior she's turning out to be," he said with a twinkle in his eyes and a wiggle of his thick brows. "You really need to get a move on and win her already before someone else does."What the Hel?! Is he seriously encouraging me to go courting? Hiccup somehow dragged them to a stop and gawked at his father for a second before exploding. "Dad! That's just... How could you think... What in Thor's name gave you the idea that I even like her like that? And even if I did, which I'm not saying I do, I don't stand a chance against the likes of Elof the Lucky."Stoick gave his son a puzzled look. "What? What's wrong with you? You look fine to me. You're the son of the chief, have the famous Haddock good looks, are a mighty fine blacksmith, and have enough smarts for three Vikings put together; you should be beating the girls off with a stick." Stoick adopted a smug look. "I know I was, at your age."The teenage Viking practically growled as he felt years' worth of contained temper boil over at his father's blatant obliviousness to his situation. "You don't have a clue do you?! There are no girls! And there will probably never be any girls! I'm short, scrawny, and forbidden to learn how to fight dragons! I'm the laughing stock of the island; no girl is ever going to want that for a husband!"Stoick reared back as if he'd been punched. "I see." His green eyes welled with sorrow as he looked down at his son and noticed just how short he was still for his age. But he's always been just my wee Hiccup, hasn't he? "I can't make you taller or bigger, and I can't give you permission to go to dragon school next year. You'll never survive it and I just can't lose you too; you're all I have left."And that's why I should've kept my stupid mouth shut in the first place. Hiccup sagged on his feet, shoulders drooping, as his temper fizzled out and died under the familiar guilt trip. "I know, Dad. I'm sorry I even brought it up." He opened the door. "Go. Go have fun with your friends. I'll see you in the morning."Stoick studied his son, looking defeated and smaller than ever, finally realizing that he might have done wrong by him, but not quite willing to take the step that would fix it. "All right, Son. Just... try to think about what you do have going for you, okay? You'll grow eventually, I'm sure, and there will be other girls if your friend can't see what's right in front of her."There are no other girls but Astrid as far as I'm concerned. But Hiccup kept that thought to himself and only scoffed lightly as he pushed his father out the door. "Thanks, Dad, for the pep talk," he said, only mostly sarcastic. "I'll go right over to Astrid's and confess my undying love." Hah! Never in a million years, he added in his head. I have no desire to ruin our friendship or be laughed right out of her house. "Now go, before the others drink all the beer before you get there."Stoick smiled and ruffled Hiccup's hair. "That's the spirit, Son." He grabbed Hiccup and pulled him out the door too before closing it with a hearty slam. "I'll walk you to the Hofferson house and pick up Hector if he hasn't left already."Hiccup swallowed a groan. He'd totally been lying about going to Astrid's, not currently in the mood to deal with all the emotional drama that came with being in her presence, which had been increasingly difficult lately, no matter how much he loved spending time with her. But now it seemed he didn't have a choice. If he could just convince his body not to react to her alluring scent, or how the light shone on her golden hair, or her sweet and commanding voice, or the enticing curve of her hips, or any of the hundred other things that so easily turned him on, it wouldn't be so bad. He snorted mentally. As if. His wayward hormones absolutely adored Astrid and were determined to show it at all times. Which is why his tunics had gotten longer lately and he'd taken to wearing a long, thick fur vest, even in the month that passed as summer in the archipelago.   The trip down the mountainside went much too quickly and not quickly enough, as Hiccup had to listen to his father go on and on with forced cheerfulness about his courting days as a young man. It had just started to transition from uncomfortable to interesting when he mentioned the first time he met his mother at a tribe gathering, but then they arrived at the Hofferson house and that monologue screeched to a stop.Hiccup almost wanted to turn around and make the trip again so his father would say more about his mother, because he hardly ever talked about her, and Hiccup was always eager for any little tidbits he did learn about her.But that wasn't to be. At least, not today.Stoick gave the Hofferson door a hearty knock, grinning when it was finally opened by Alga. She didn't give Stoick time to even ask, already knowing what he wanted."Hector's already left for the pub, Stoick.""Oh. Good," he grunted before turning right back around. "Have a good evening, Alga, Hiccup," he yelled over his shoulder, eager steps striding down the street.The tall, blond, beautiful, and relatively lean for a Vikingess, woman focused on Hiccup and smiled gently. "Astrid already left for your house. You must have missed her somewhere."Hiccup gave the female who was the closest thing to a mother he had a grateful smile. "Thanks. I'll go find her."Despite the conundrum of having to deal with rampaging hormones whenever he was within a few metres of Astrid, he couldn't help but feel a thrill of delight that put a bounce in his step as he climbed back up the mountain. Anytime Astrid chose to spend her evenings with him always made him feel like the luckiest boy in the world, even if it was just to make yet another attempt at turning Hiccup into something resembling a warrior on the sly.Hiccup was all for the sword and battle axe training, he just wasn't particularly good at it. Perhaps because he knew it was akin to whipping a dead yak since he knew he'd never be allowed to go dragon hunting, that he just couldn't focus enough to even come close to beating Astrid at her forte. Or maybe it was because he'd rather watch her than fight her. The one thing he had mastered over the years, though, and much to Astrid's delight, was knife throwing. The challenge of refining such a delicate skill had intrigued him from the start and he could actually give Astrid a run for her money when they had a friendly competition. He even won a good forty percent of the time.Reaching his house, he expected to find Astrid leaning against the wall, waiting for him, or even inside, since there was a bit of chill in the early autumn air. But she wasn't there.So Hiccup continued on past his house and over the bridge that linked the village part of the island with the big center section of the Isle of Berk. Up here, aside from the livestock pastures, there was also the training grounds and the dragon arena.Neither Hiccup nor Astrid had been inside the dragon arena, since only the older teenagers were allowed inside during their dragon training, and it was kept locked up tight the rest of the time. But he'd seen it from the stands that circled the outside and found it awe inspiring and intimidating. Hiccup had to wonder if he'd ever see the view from the inside, looking up. At the moment, he very much doubted it. At least Astrid will next summer, when it's her turn to take the dragon training. She's sooooo going to be the star of that group of teenagers, he thought smugly. Snotlout, Ruffnut, Toughnut, and Fishlegs didn't stand a chance of being the first chosen by Gothi to fight the Monstrous Nightmare that equalled graduating to true Viking status, not against the truly magnificent Vikingess, Astrid Hofferson. Hiccup was both anticipating and dreading that fight. He knew she'd be spectacular, but at the same time, he was sure he wouldn't breathe for the whole thing as he lived in terror that something might go wrong.In this instance, he could understand where his father's overprotective streak was coming from.He didn't like it, but he could understand it.Hiccup finally made it up to the clearing designated for sparring and came to an abrupt halt as his eyes scanned the space, his heart breaking even though he knew this day was coming.
Oh Gods. Oh Gods. Oh Gods. I think I'm going to be sick. Or die. Or both. 
To the left side of the clearing, pressed up against a boulder, Astrid had her mouth plastered to Elof's and her hands were buried in his long hair as he bent over her much smaller form, his hands against the rock on either side of her head.Hearing a moan from one of them spurred Hiccup's frozen and faintly trembling body into moving again. Swallowing down the bile lurking in his throat, he spun right back around and ran all the way back to his house, his heart feeling literally stabbed from the pain of what he'd just witnessed.He flung open the door and slammed it as hard as he could behind him, taking great comfort in the physical act, then ran up the stairs to his room where he flung himself facedown on his bed by the window. His narrow shoulders shook with the effort it took to hold in the pathetic sobs that wanted to escape as he hugged his pillow for dear life. Gods, he wanted to scream and wail at the injustice of it all, but at the same time, he was quietly accepting. Because he'd known she would fall for some other boy soon enough. Honestly, he was surprised it had taken her this long to give in to all the attention she'd been receiving lately. Then again, maybe this wasn't a new thing, and she'd just been keeping her relationship with Elof quiet for some reason. Maybe so she didn't hurt my feelings?That thought was somewhat comforting, but it didn't help much.Hiccup rolled over onto his back, still hugging his pillow for comfort, and stared up at the ceiling that was sort of glowing with the reflected light of the lowering sun, a single glistening tear rolling down his cheek to fall uncomfortably into his ear. 
Unrequited love sucks.

Half an hour prior...
Astrid left her house right after her dad did, and made straight for the sparring clearing in search of the silver skull that had fallen off her belt. She hadn't noticed it was missing until her mom pointed it out, since it was one of the back ones, but now felt terrible about it. She refused to actually lose it, because Hiccup had made her the belt as a Snoggletog gift last year and she loved it dearly. It was just so... her. He was good like that, knowing what she'd like. She knew Hiccup would happily make a new skull to replace the missing one, but they were made of silver and that particular metal wasn't the easiest to come by. She had no idea how he'd found or bartered for the silver to make the ornaments she did have, but she really really appreciated the effort and cost of it.Odin knew, it only made her love him more. Was there a sweeter or smarter boy on the island? Not even close.Astrid was distracted enough in her worry and thoughts that she didn't notice Elof moving up to walk beside her until she was almost out of the main part of the village and he spoke."Whatcha doin'?"Thor! Astrid nearly jumped out of her skin from the unexpected sound of the husky voice beside her, but refused to show it. She glanced up at Elof with a cool and indifferent expression as her heartbeat settled back down to normal. "Oh. Hi, Elof. I was just going to go look for something up in the sparring yard. I lost one of my skulls."Elof gave her his usual perfect smile, filled with nice straight teeth and tinged with hope. "I can help ya look if ya want. I'm not doin' nothin'."Astrid was about to turn him down when she thought better of it. Two sets of eyes are better than one, as they say. And finding the skull was really important to her. "Sure, I guess." She tried to keep her tone as discouraging as possible, not wanting the pushy oaf to get any ideas.Elof lit up and then his look turned kind of smouldering as they walked. Ugh. How does he not get it that I'm not interested? Astrid picked up the pace to put as much distance as possible between them.Ever since she'd grown a pair of breasts, the boys had come to the very annoying conclusion that she was now dying for their attentions. As far as she could tell, with the sole exception of Hiccup, the young males of her species were possessed of wandering hands and one track minds. It was bloody annoying. She'd already turned down more offers of one on one 'sparring' sessions then there were livestock in the fields. And... she'd had to flat out refuse five proposals of marriage already, saying she wasn't ready to marry anyone yet, just to be sort of nice. (Two of which were from Snotlout.) At this rate, though, her refusals were going to start sounding more like, 'Never in a million years, you moron' because she was quickly getting fed up with the whole thing.Astrid supposed that if Hiccup didn't exist, then she'd probably have said yes to Fishlegs' calf eyed proposal, since he was the least loathsome of the lot, being decent enough to look at, smart, kind, and turning into a half decent warrior with her help.The two guys she would never say yes to, even if they were the last men on earth, were Snotlout and Elof. One was obnoxious to the extreme, and the other was a lust driven beast who was nearly as dumb as a yak and couldn't hold an interesting conversation that didn't involve recapping his latest dragon kill into infinitum to save his life.She'd thanked Thor about a thousand times already for the refreshing gift that was Hiccup, even if the boy was being obtuse about figuring out that she was a girl. It was ironic really, considering that she wished all of the other boys would forget that little facet about her and treat her like one of them instead of all this groping nonsense.Not that she believed Hiccup would ever be so ungentlemanly as to actually grope a person, but at this point, she wouldn't mind if he did, just so she knew that he returned her interest.The walk up to the training grounds went fast enough, with Astrid lost in her thoughts and making generic, 'un huhs' when necessary to Elof's latest speech about the greatness that was him. She was more relieved than she could possibly express in words when they finally arrived and could direct Elof to start looking before they ran out of daylight.She also very deliberately sent him to the other side of the grass covered space so she didn't have to listen to him jabber on anymore.Astrid had nearly covered the entirety of her half of the sparring grounds and was now walking along the edge when Elof ran over, looking triumphant. "I found it, Astrid!" he called, holding out the small silver skull triumphantly as he skidded to a stop in front of her."That's great, Elof. Thank you so much!" she gushed in relief as she reached for it.The pain in the ass who believed himself to be Thor's gift to womankind held the skull up higher than she could reach, a lustful cast taking over his features. "Ah ah. What do I get for finding this for you?"The blond Vikingess wished she could say, 'A swift kick to the nuts', but she'd tried that with him before, and he'd just thought she was coming on to him; the meathead had a ridiculously high pain tolerance, and as far as she could tell, liked a little pain with his pleasure. (The very thought of it made her want to gag.)So, instead, she rolled her eyes and sighed in resignation. "Fine, one kiss on the cheek, but that's it, and you keep your hands to yourself, got it?"Elof smirked, clenching his fist around her ornament. "Got it."Astrid looked up at the cheek he'd presented with a tilt of his head that she was supposed to kiss and shook her head. "You have to bend down, moron. I'm not climbing you like a tree."Aside from looking a little disappointed at that, Elof did as she asked, planting his hands on either side of her on the boulder she was standing beside. "Better?"Thor save me from idiots. "Yes," she huffed, before rising on her toes and pressing a brief peck to his clean-shaven skin.She should have expected it, knowing the lengths boys (including the one in front of her) had gone to to try and steal kisses from her, but she was still surprised when he turned his head and captured her mouth in a slobbery kiss.And then he crowded her up against the rock, pressing his thick form against her and making it clearly obvious that he found her desirable as he rubbed against her suggestively.Astrid was not impressed.She grabbed handfuls of his hair and yanked. Hard.Elof moaned greedily, believe it or not, and pressed on, trying to get his tongue in her mouth. Astrid was tempted to let him, just so she could bite it, but she was afraid he'd just like it. So she ran her hands down his chest - which he took as more encouragement by the mumbled, "Yes, baby." - and groped around his belt until she found the eating dagger tucked under it and then proceeded to press it very deliberately against the unwelcome thing poking her in the stomach like a rabid snake through their clothes. Thank Thor for clothes or I'd feel very defiled right now. As is, I feel like I've been humped by a horny yak.The dagger stabbing his sensitive bits fortunately got his attention in a hurry.Elof quickly backed up, eyes wide as she followed with narrowed eyes, not letting up on the pressure with the knife. "If you ever kiss me again without my permission, I will cut this off, do you understand me?" she snarled."Yes," he squeaked.Astrid applied just a fraction more pressure to the knife. "Good. Now give me my skull."He dropped it into her waiting hand like it was a hot coal."Thank you." Astrid clenched her fist around it and smiled with a vicious baring of teeth. Then she whirled and threw his dagger across the clearing, burying it to the hilt in the center of a target. "That's what I'll do to your manhood if I ever hear of you forcing yourself on any other girl, either, got it?"Elof gulped as he gaped at his quivering knife with wide eyes and then nodded frantically."I'm glad we understand each other," she said sweetly as she sauntered away like nothing was amiss, in complete contradiction to her pounding heart and sweat soaked shirt.For a few seconds, Astrid had genuinely been afraid because he was so much bigger than her and there was no way she could outmuscle him.But she would always be smarter and that was where the boys constantly underestimated her.She also thought she might start carrying another knife hidden up her arm wrap, just in case. With the position Elof had her in, she hadn't been able to reach the dagger in her boot, and that had worried her until she remembered where he kept his.
Thank Thor that's over. And Gods willing, one less boy trying to get under my skirt.
By the time Astrid made it down to Hiccup's house, she'd more or less put the incident behind her, having wiped her mouth thoroughly in disgust with the back of her arm, and then making a side trip to a stream to rinse her mouth out repeatedly when that hadn't felt like enough. She'd felt contaminated until she'd done so. She still felt kind of contaminated, actually, and needed a good dose of Hiccup's well mannered intelligence to help her forget how much trouble she might have been in if she wasn't a well trained warrior girl with more determination than actual strength. If I was one of the barmaids with no training, I wouldn't have stood a chance against him. Not that those hussies would have wanted to say no, but still...   Sighing at the unfairness of being a girl less than half the size of an average male Viking, Astrid finally looked at the skull in her hand, instantly spotting where the metal had broken off from where it used to be attached to her belt.At least I know just the right person to get it fixed, she thought with a smile as she knocked on the thick wooden door.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Confessions:
When he heard the knock on the door, Hiccup had a moment of sheer panic and he froze, unable to think of what to do.If it was Astrid, he wasn't sure if he could bear to see her.If it was a member of their tribe looking for his father, then he really should go answer it. He just didn't want to.The decision was taken from his hands in the next moment."Hiccup?! You in here?" Astrid's voice came from within the house directly after he heard the door creak open.
Oh Gods. She came in. Of course she came in. She's Astrid. 
And... I have to say something before this gets awkward. Hiccup was incapable of not answering her, even if there was a little part of him that would rather hide under the bed and pretend that no one was home. He sat up, tossing the pillow back in the general direction of where it belonged."Yeah, I'm upstairs. I'll be down in a sec," he called back, proud of how his voice sounded almost normal, only creaking slightly on the 'I'."Kay," she called back cheerfully, the door creaking again as she closed it behind her.
How can she sound so normal? Shouldn't she sound guilty?

No. Of course not. She has nothing to be guilty about. She's not actually betraying me or anything. At least, as far as she's concerned.
Thor, kill me. I don't want to go down there. But I have to. Or she'll come up here, and that's even worse because there’s my bed. And I’ve imagined way too many things about her and I together in this bed. Gods, I’m pathetic, and maybe a bit disgusting. Hiccup scrubbed his hands over his face and then through his hair, making it stick up, before he realized what he'd done and made a sad attempt at patting it back down. Giving up after a few seconds, he stood. "You can do this," he muttered to himself under his breath, needing the pep talk. "It's just Astrid."
Just Astrid.

Ha.

More like just the most beautiful, kickass girl ever. Who just happened to be locking lips with a guy worthy of being called a Viking not so many minutes ago.
What is she doing here already, anyhow? Shouldn't she still be snogging the appropriately named Elof the Lucky? Just before Astrid had showed up, Hiccup had come to the conclusion that she had told her mother she was coming to his house as a cover to go hang out with her secret boyfriend. Was I wrong about that?The young Viking male was certainly confused as he slowly trudged down the stairs.Annnnnnd, she's gone? he thought with confusion tinged with just a hint of relief as he gazed around the open concept living space. I didn't take that long to come down, did I?
No I didn't. And I didn't hear the door open again. She must be around here somewhere. 
Astrid most definitely wasn't in the sitting area or the kitchen. He didn't even bother looking for her in his father's room, knowing she wouldn't dare go in there. Which left only one place. He found her rummaging in the cold storage room under the house, the open door in the floor under his stairs a dead giveaway once he'd walked far enough around the stairs to see it.Hiccup climbed down the ladder and found himself the recipient of a gorgeous beaming smile, her white, even teeth gleaming in the light of the lantern hanging from a hook on the wall. His poor, bewildered heart skipped a couple of beats and he grinned back out of habit."Hiccup," Astrid gushed, happy to see him, looking rumpled and adorable, as usual. Her heart tripped happily in her chest and all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him and demand that he help her forget that the last half hour had ever happened. Instead, she continued to play it cool as if her world was just as relatively normal as it had been yesterday and that she was perfectly fine with being just the best friend of one Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. "I saw that you hadn't started anything for dinner yet, so I thought I would make us some sandwiches.""That sounds great," Hiccup said automatically, wrapping his arms around the heavy wheel of yak milk cheese she pushed against his chest. Okay. I'm doing this. It's just another day and we're still the friends we've always been. This isn't so bad.They climbed up the ladder and gathered the sandwich makings onto the table. Between the two of them, a loaf of bread, a wedge of cheese, and strips of cured yak meat quickly turned into a platter of sandwiches. Hiccup served them a mug of mead each from the barrel and they sat down across from each other to eat.As usual, Hiccup ate like he was starving, and Astrid was only slightly more dignified; a long day of work or training, plus growing teenage bodies would do that to a person. They were too busy inhaling their meal to talk much, but the silence was comfortable after so many years together.When the last crumb of bread had been picked up from the platter and the last dreg of mead drunk from his mug, Hiccup sat back in his chair with a contented sigh. "That was good."Astrid put her mug down and wiped her mouth with her arm. She leaned against the wooden slats of her chair as well and belched softly before giggling. "Yep. My stomach agrees." She gave Hiccup an inquisitive look. "So... What did you do today?"Hiccup shrugged, slumping down further. "Nothing much. Same old really. Ate breakfast. Went to work. Banged on some metal. Delivered some metal. Banged on some more metal. Had lunch. Repeat morning. Finished the new dagger I made you from some scraps. Came home. Sketched. Had an uncomfortable talk with my dad." He didn't add the part where he found her making out with Elof, not even wanting to go there. Instead, he raised a brow. "And you?"Astrid waved a hand. "Same old for me, too, for the most part. Did you say you made me a new dagger?" She leaned forward eagerly, hoping she'd heard him right.Hiccup grinned. "I did."Astrid jumped up from her chair and rushed around to his side of the table, hugging him around the shoulders briefly. "Thank you!"Hiccup nearly died from the bliss of having her arms wrapped around him, her enticing girl scent wafting over him, and her breasts pressed to his arm, even if it was just for two seconds. Thank you, Thor!As she straightened up, she said, "Where is it?"Hiccup chuckled at her impatience. "On my desk. I'll get..." it for you, he was going to say, but she was already gone, flying up the stairs two at a time.Always so impulsive. He shook his head in amusement and rose to his feet. Seeing the wheel of cheese, he grabbed it and took it back down to the cold storage room. From there, he climbed back up the ladder, closed the door in the floor, and then went outside to get some more wood for the fire while there was still a little daylight left to see by.Astrid skidded to a stop in front of Hiccup's desk, eagerly snatching up the small dagger that sat on the right side of the desk, catching the last rays of the setting sun with a merry glimmer.She admired the little dagger that was more ornament than anything, turning it this way and that to see it at every possible angle. The double sided blade was no longer than her fingers, but sharpened to a deadly point with edges to match, and had a beautifully sculpted cross guard. It had a yak horn hilt, polished to a high gleam. (She knew from experience that would have taken hours to do.) And the best part, in her opinion, was the carving of a skull he'd put on the top of the hilt, to match her belt and shoulder guard skulls.This wasn't a simple afternoon side project like he'd made it sound; Hiccup had probably spent days on this.
Gods, I love him. It's not even my birthday or Snoggletog.
And it was the perfect size to hide in her arm wrapping. It's like it was meant to be, she thought as she did exactly that.Astrid glanced out Hiccup's window, smiling when she saw him carrying a load of wood that literally obscured his ability to see where he was going. She was about to run down the stairs to get the door for him when her gaze caught the corner of a paper sticking out from under a pile of other sketches.Curious at what looked like a foot, since she didn't know Hiccup drew anything but fanciful inventions, Astrid slid the other papers to the side and gasped in surprise because it was a drawing of her. A very good drawing, in fact, of her and Ruffnut sparring with swords, frowns of concentration on their faces as they stared each other down in mock battle. 
Would you look at that. He's surprised me yet again.
Astrid was seriously impressed with Hiccup's skill at capturing the moment. The shading, the impression of movement, the accuracy of their features; it was all worthy of an artisan.  He might not ever be the world's best warrior, but he had so many other things going for him that it didn't matter. Besides, she was more than capable of defending herself, so it's not like she needed a giant of a man to protect her.Is there more? Now really curious, Astrid started flipping through the stack of sketches and found drawing after drawing of her or her with someone else, sparring in some fashion or another. That made her smile, because Hiccup had definitely captured what she was most passionate about.And then she found a drawing of herself wearing nothing but her hair.How dare he?! was her first thought as she gasped in outrage. But that faded as she realized that you couldn't actually SEE anything indecent in the sketch. The more she studied it, the more she realized it had been drawn with loving detail; from her dreamy expression where her chin rested on her folded arms, to each strand of hair, to the blades of grass that she was lying on, to the way her toes curled as she waved her feet in the air. This picture wasn't meant to be lewd, it was a work of art. Astrid actually remembered the day he probably drew this, but she'd been fully clothed at the time. It was about a month ago, in the peak of summer, and they'd spent an afternoon picking berries. Before going home with their baskets of delicious loot, they'd spent a few minutes lying in the grass, looking out over the ocean. Astrid remembered wondering out loud what the rest of the world looked like and if she'd ever get to see it, having never left the island except for that one time to visit her grandparents on a neighbouring island a couple hours voyage away.As she stared at the picture, Astrid had a revelation. 
Oh. My. Gods. Hiccup LIKES me! As a GIRL! He wouldn't be drawing so many pictures of me if he didn't. And he most certainly wouldn't be drawing NAKED pictures if he didn't.

Holy Thor.
A flush of pleasure swept over her from head to toe and she nearly squealed with happiness.
Now all I have to do was get him to confess.

Or maybe I should just tackle him to the floor and kiss him.

Choices, choices.
A crash of wood and a colourful curse detailing Odin's ugly little toe coming from downstairs startled her out of her contemplation.Astrid quickly returned the sketches to a fairly accuratuate approximation of the way she'd found them and then dashed across the loft and down the stairs.She found Hiccup kicking a chunk of wood into submission, apparently after it had rolled off his neat stack of logs and landed on his toe, if his mutters were anything to go by.The log was sent sailing into the fireplace in the center of the living space with a triumphant, "You can burn first, you cursed thing.""You tell that log, Hiccup," Astrid said on a laugh, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm sure it will be properly repentant when it's nothing more than ash.""Exactly what I thought," Hiccup said with a twitching snarl, amusement starting to replace anger, but not taking his eyes of the offending log until it had caught fire with belated enthusiasm.Sighing, Hiccup backed up to sit on the stone bench that lined one wall and pulled his boot off to rub at his sore toe through his wool sock.Quashing the ridiculous urge to offer to kiss it all better, Astrid walked over and sat beside him, just close enough so that their shoulders and thighs brushed. Now, how do I bring up the subject of our feelings?  With no real idea yet, she started with something safe. "Thank you for the dagger, Hiccup. It's beautiful, and exactly what I need."Hiccup looked over at her in surprise, forgetting about his throbbing toe. "It is? It's not very big. I thought it might make a nice eating dagger, at best."Astrid quickly shook her head. "No, it's perfect." She pulled it partway out of her arm wrapping in demonstration. "Look, hidden dagger for emergencies."Hiccup shot her a look of happy enlightenment. "It is perfect. I never thought of that.""Well, I did. I was wishing I had one just an hour ago in fact."Now Hiccup was feeling a great deal of concern. "Why, what happened? And don't you have another in your boot?""I do, but there are occasions where I can't reach my boot," she said as she dug into the pouch on her belt and pulled out the silver skull, dropping it into Hiccup's hand as he looked at it in surprise. "So I lost this today, and I went back up to the clearing to find it. Elof volunteered himself to help me look, and since I couldn't bear to lose it, I agreed." Her voice was serious and quiet as she stared at the fire, not really wanting to look at him as she told her story.Hiccup was starting to get a sense of dawning horror as he put puzzle pieces together and he didn't like the picture he was coming up with. Astrid's next words confirmed his suspicions, making him feel like an utter idiot. And like murder might be something he was capable of. "He found the skull, of course, and demanded a reward before he would give it back. I agreed to give him a kiss on the cheek and that was all. He took advantage and squashed me up against a boulder while making a solid attempt at slobbering all over my face." Astrid glanced at Hiccup, biting her lip as she wondered how he was taking this. The look of outrage building in his expression on her behalf was gratifying to see.Hiccup was wishing he was five times bigger and could call out Elof and beat him to a pulp for daring to touch Astrid without her permission."I couldn't budge him off of me, the giant oaf, so I grabbed his dagger from his belt and basically stabbed his manhood right through his tunic and trousers. That got his attention mighty quick.""Holy shit!" Hiccup yelped, eyes wide as he suppressed the urge to cover his own pride and joy out of sheer male instinct. "I bet it did!"Astrid grinned. "I also threatened to use his dangly bits as a target if I ever heard of him forcing himself on other girls."Hiccup burst out laughing. "Oh, Thor, I wish I'd seen that. That would have made my year."Astrid's smile turned sly as she finally figured out what to do about Hiccup. "I know something that will make your year even better."Now he gave her a puzzled look, raising one eyebrow. "What's that? Cause I honestly don't know if you can top the mental image I have of Elof getting put down like that." (Elof had a habit of shoving Hiccup anytime he happened to pass him and calling him Rabbit Fart or something equally as dreadful.)"I was thinking I'd like to kiss someone of my own volition for once," Astrid said softly, leaning closer to Hiccup and giving him her best doe eyes and pretending she wasn't totally quaking on the inside from fear of rejection.Hiccup gulped, breaking out in a sweat as all of his fantasies seemed to be coming to life. Best to make sure, though. "Are you... saying... you'd like to... kiss... me?" he finally managed to get out past the lump in his throat.Yes, you idiot. Get with the program! Astrid bit her lip again for an entirely different reason as she nodded and leaned even closer to him."Oh, Thor," her prey squeaked out just before Astrid pressed her mouth to his in a two second peck before pulling back.The blonde warrior girl studied Hiccup's expression, hoping she hadn't mistaken what the drawings meant. He looked awestruck and maybe like he'd just been given a glimpse of Valhalla. That will do. Thank you, Thor.She breathed a relieved sigh as his beautiful emerald green eyes opened and met hers, a beaming smile within their seemingly glowing depths. Like magnets, they were drawn back together and their mouths met once again in a soft, exploratory kiss that lasted for at least a minute before getting a little more intense. Astrid found her hands creeping up and around his shoulders, fingers tangling in his silky auburn hair. She gave a little hum of approval when his arms wrapped around her waist in a gentle grasp, and she shifted even closer to him.
This is a million times better than that awful kiss Elof forced on me.
Feeling braver than he ever had in his life, Hiccup daringly opened his mouth a little wider and licked at the seam of her petal soft lips. She gasped lightly in surprise and then returned the caress. Now practically humming with satisfaction, Hiccup did it again, but so did she. Their tongues met. Retreated. Met again. Licked lightly. Tentatively. Pleasure and electricity raced through them. He groaned his approval. She moaned in her throat. And then his tongue was IN her mouth and he was exploring her sweet taste like he'd never expected to be able to do. I could die right now and be the happiest of boys. He determinedly ignored the arousal she inspired and concentrated only on learning every tiny detail of her mouth and what actions made her squirm with pleasure in his arms. After a few more perfect moments of oral sparring, Astrid reluctantly pulled back a fraction when she started to feel lightheaded, realizing it wasn't from how amazing this kiss was, but from the lack of air. She rested her forehead on his, their eyes looking at each other with adoring awe, as she let go of his hair and hugged his neck. "I like kissing you," she whispered."I like kissing you, too," Hiccup managed to croak out, his heart pounding at a thousand beats per minute. He was pretty sure he was dreaming. His arms were wrapped around Astrid and his mouth had been attached to hers; this couldn't possibly be reality.The small pain in his palm where a piece of broken metal was poking it said otherwise.Hiccup dropped the little skull with a quick flick of his wrist, ignoring the sound of metal on stone as it bounced away. He couldn't tear his eyes from her beautiful blue ones that reminded him of a rare flower that only bloomed for three days per year. She was looking at him with something he was afraid to name, but the word 'love' definitely came to mind anyway.His father did have a point; someone else was bound to win her over eventually if he didn't at least try. Hiccup decided that it was now or never.So he sucked in a big breath for courage and blurted out in something that essentially ran together as one word, "I love you, Astrid. Will you marry me when we're old enough?"Astrid leaned back in surprise in his arms, staring at him with wide, blinking eyes as her jaw dropped. Holy Hel, I was never expecting THAT to come out of him! I would have been happy with a confession of, 'I like you, Astrid, a lot.'
This, though. This is much better. So, so much better. I knew there was a reason I loved this boy. 
"Yes!" Astrid all but leapt on him, knocking him down onto his back on the wide bench, and planted enthusiastic kisses on his cheeks and nose and jaw between even more breathy yeses.He stared up at the girl mostly sprawled across his upper body, the soft mounds of her chest pressing against him in a way that threatened to permanently fry his brain, and her hands on his shoulders. He wasn't sure what he was more shocked at; their position or her answer. He quickly settled on the later, since she'd hugged him before, just never in a reclining position. Holy yak! She actually said yes! She's clearly a few sheep shy of a herd if she thinks I'm appropriate marriage material, but I'm never in a million years going to tell her that! Once he recovered from his shock that Astrid had actually said yes, Hiccup kissed her back, moving one hand up to bury in the depths of her braid at her nape and hold her still so he could capture her wandering lips properly again. (Not that he really knew what properly was, but they seemed to be doing all right, judging by how it felt, her happy purrs, and the pleasure zinging through him.)Some unknown time later, Astrid pulled away again, feeling a little overwhelmed, and moved to rest her head on his chest. As she listened to his heart pound under her ear at essentially the same rate hers was, she thought it only fair that she confessed her feelings as well. "I love you too, Hiccup. I always have."Hiccup looked at the top of her head in renewed shock. He could kind of understand the always part, since he'd always loved her too, in one fashion or another. But what he couldn't quite understand was how she could love him NOW; not when there were other guys available to pick from. Bigger guys. Stronger guys. Guys that were either already full fledged Vikings or would be after the next dragon training.He would never be true a Viking in the eyes of their tribe, or many other tribes for that matter. Not unless he managed to talk his father into letting him take the dragon training course next year. Yeah, right. Like that's ever going to happen.But maybe... Maybe there's another way to prove myself. A vague idea took root in that moment that Hiccup would have to think about further some other time. But right now, his curiosity was killing him. "Why me?" he said suddenly."Hiccup," Astrid chided as she sat up, folding her legs under her, and he followed, sitting cross-legged on the bench. She tilted her head to the side. "Why not you?"Hiccup spread his arms wide, glancing down at himself. "You seriously don't see anything wrong with this?"Astrid studied him up and down, trying to find the flaw he seemed to think was there and found nothing. His face was as cute as ever, topped by that hair that made her smile more often than not with its riotous autumn colours and nature. His physique was still lean, but the layer of hard muscle over his bones gave testament to his years of work. She did admit that he might be shorter than her now, but she had faith that he would grow like a weed again soon enough; his father qualified as a small mountain, Hiccup had to at least come close to resembling Stoick in height, if not breadth, sooner or later.She grinned at him. "Nope. I see nothing wrong with you. You're the epitome of cute. And I'm betting that you'll grow up to be the epitome of handsome and take my breath away on a daily basis even more than you already do."She clearly has a better opinion of my looks than I do, but I guess that's a good thing. Thor, she thinks I'm cute! Hiccup felt his face heat at the praise, but he couldn't help picking at his own insecurities. "But I'm short, and scrawny, and I'll probably never be a dragon warrior."I wish I could kill Stoick for making Hiccup think he's not good enough. There is nothing wrong with this boy that a little confidence from his father wouldn't fix. But since Stoick isn't likely to ever get a clue, I'll have to do what I can myself. Astrid huffed a sigh and stood, dragging him up to his feet by his hand. As she marched towards the table with him stumbling along behind her, she said, "I can almost guarantee the height thing is temporary, so get over that. And I don't care if you're a dragon warrior or not; you have so much else going for you, it's not even funny." She pulled out a chair on one side of the table and pushed him into it.Hiccup gawked up at her, not having a clue where she was going with this.Astrid sat in a chair opposite of him and held her hand up, elbow on the table. "And as far as scrawny goes, I don't think you understand just how strong you are, so let me demonstrate."Hiccup eyed her hand suspiciously. Why does it look like she wants to arm wrestle with me? It's been years since we tried that. Because she did, he realized, as she huffed in exasperation and reached over and grabbed his hand, forcefully putting his elbow on the table too. "How does this prove anything?" he asked, even as he noticed how cute her hand looked held in his bigger one, feeling their calluses rub against each other’s skin. (And that was something he hadn't noticed before; that his hands were bigger than hers. Maybe I really am going to grow some more. Yay!)Astrid glared at him through her bangs like he'd forgotten he was an intelligent being. "Do you consider me to be strong?""Yes, of course," he rushed to say, not wanting to offend her any further than he already had in whatever way he'd done so. He wasn't lying, though; Astrid was a lean but curvy package of supple strength from years of warrior training. He'd seen her throw Snotlout around like the stout boy was made of dry grass, and win sparring matches against her father, who was only a bit smaller than his own."Good. Now arm wrestle me like you mean it. Pretend I'm Snotlout or something." Astrid looked at him steadily until he nodded once and readjusted his grip on her fingers.She smiled as she felt the bones in her hand being lightly crushed together. He didn't know his own strength, just as she thought. "One.""Two," Hiccup said next, staring at her eyes and watching them narrow in concentration."Three," they said together, and the battle was on.Hiccup braced himself, hoping to at least not be walloped in the first couple of seconds like always used to happen, and was surprised when the pressure she put on his hand didn't immediately slam it against the table. He could see that she was definitely trying, the strain on her expression and in her arm muscles was clearly apparent.And then he did what she suggested and pretended that she was Snotlout. Or better yet; Elof. Gods, I hate him. Haaaaaaate.He started to win.And two seconds later, her hand slammed against the table.Hiccup looked at his arm like he'd never seen it before. "Loki's bony knees, I didn't know I could do that!"Astrid burst into laughter. "Gods, Hiccup, you think all those years of swinging a hammer haven't built up some muscle? Or the training we do when we can? You may not be built like a boulder like the average Viking male, but you're no scrawny wimp.""I guess not," Hiccup admitted, somewhat hesitantly."You're not," Astrid said firmly. "And anyone who says otherwise is going to regret it."Hiccup didn't know how he felt about having a girl defend him, but it was Astrid, so there was no way he was ever going to talk her out of her ideas.This was confirmed as she continued on with, "In fact, some of them already do." The contented smirk she wore just affirmed that she had enjoyed beating up whoever had offended her on his behalf. I'd bet almost anything one of them was Snotlout."You're like a beautiful Valkyrie come to Earth, you know that?" he blurted out, unable to help himself as he gazed at her adoringly with his chin resting on a loose fist.Astrid giggled, a becoming blush settling on her sculpted cheekbones. She rose from her chair and leaned across the table, kissing his mouth in a lingering fashion, making his cheeks flush too. "And you're the smartest person on the whole island, probably the whole planet. And did I mention cute? Cause I'm sure I did."Hiccup was trying to come up with an appropriate response to that when the door banged open and his father stomped in like a pissed off polar bear. He marched halfway to them and glared at them from under his heavy brows.What in Thor's name... Hiccup thought in alarm, a bad feeling settling in his gut."Get out of my house, Astrid, and never come back," the Chief of Berk growled out after a few long seconds of tension filled silence."What?! That's not fair!" Hiccup exclaimed, shooting up to his feet as Astrid stood and startled sidling towards the door by going around the fireplace. He followed her. "What has she done to warrant that?!""I don't have to explain myself," Stoick snarled as he stomped back to the door and waited for Astrid to leave, his white knuckled hand holding it open for her.She stepped out, afraid to say a word, unable to recall a time when Stoick had looked so angry or dangerous. Astrid shot Hiccup a helpless look that just about killed him. All he could do was shrug and mouth, 'later', so she knew he'd talk to her as soon as he could manage it. And then his father slammed the door in her face.Hiccup stared at the closed door for a moment before changing his focus, rage filling him at how his father had treated Astrid. "What in Hel's name was that?! I thought you wanted me to court her!" Hiccup yelled at his father's back as Stoick stomped towards the closed door to the left of the stairs."Not anymore!" Stoick yelled back, just before he slammed the door to his room, leaving one very confused and hurting Hiccup standing alone in the middle of the living room.
What could possibly have happened to Dad in the last two hours to cause such a change in his attitude?

A/N: Hel is the Norse goddess of the Underworld and is Loki's daughter. Aside from the different parentage, she is essentially the same person as Hela, Thor's sister in the Marvel Universe.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The Rift (part 1):

Earlier…
Elof took a step towards the target containing his dagger and then immediately stopped with a whimper. Pushing his tunic to the side, he extricated his sorely put upon manhood from his leggings and cursed foully.
That bitch actually made me bleed!

Gods, how long is that going to take to heal?
Grimacing, he gingerly tucked himself back in and stomp-flinched over to the target; rage drowning out (most) of the pain.As Elof made his way back down to the village, only one thought was prevalent in his mind:
Astrid Hofferson is going to pay for this.
Stoick was working on his third beer when Elof stormed into the tavern like a furious thundercloud. Curious, he tracked the young man on his journey through the tables and benches until Elof joined a group of his friends. (The sixteen to twenty year old group that weren’t really mature enough yet to hang out with the ‘old people’, but were old enough to consider hanging out at the tavern an acceptable pastime.) The boy immediately started muttering to his friends, clearly complaining about something if his flailing arms and red face was anything to go by.Stoick raised a brow at Elof’s father, who was a few bodies over and across the table from him. “Oi! Olaf! Any idea what’s up with your boy?”The large Viking snorted into his mug of beer, glancing over at the other table. “Astrid probably rejected him again. Boy’s been after her for months.”Hector, who was across from Stoick, grinned behind his raised mug, sending a teasing smirk at Olaf. “That’s because my girl’s too smart for the likes of your son.”“Hey!” Olaf said with token offense. But everyone knew he didn’t mean it. “Just cause Elof isn’t the smartest kid on the island doesn’t mean he’s not a catch.”Stoick nodded over to the other side of the room where one of the younger barmaids was currently leaning over Elof and blatantly displaying her abundant cleavage for him to see as she placed a mug of beer in front of the teenager. “There’s a whole flock of young women who agree with you, Olaf. Your son just needs to pick one of them.” Stoick paused to sip at his beer. “Besides, my boy is the one who's going to marry Astrid,” he said proudly, a smirk twitching his thick mustache up on one side.Hector spewed out the gulp of beer he’d just taken, splattering Stoick with spit and foam, as Gobber, Bucket, Spitelout, and everyone else at their table burst into guffaws of laughter. “Hiccup? Marry Astrid? Over my rotting corpse!” Astrid’s father glared virtual daggers at his friend as he thunked his mug down onto the table, making it slosh over.Stoick slammed his mug down too, then deliberately wiped his face as he turned red with the rage building in him. He placed his hands on the table and loomed over it, crowding into Hector’s personal space. “What. Did. You. Mean. By. That?” he asked slowly and very dangerously.Not one to back down, Hector copied Stoick’s stance, pushing his Chief back a bit so they were centered over the table. The whole tavern hushed as people realized that something exciting was happening and all eyes trained on the long-time friends.“I mean,” Hector said through clenched teeth, “that your son is not good enough to marry my daughter!”Stoick sucked in an outraged breath as the tavern gave an, “Ooooooo,” as a whole. Pretty much every person there silently agreed with Hector, but no one had ever been brave enough (or stupid enough) to say anything against Hiccup to Stoick’s face before.“What’s wrong with my son?” Stoick growled in a deep rumble that every person felt in their bones, causing goosebumps to rise. His eyes narrowed as he gave Hector a look that said he better choose his next words very carefully or he would be paying tribute to Hel with a broken and bloody offering.Hector was just drunk enough to decide that he could face the wrath of Hel and win. “Your son, Stoick the Vast, vaunted Chief of our Tribe, is a tiny excuse for a human being who you’ve raised to never be seen as a respected Viking of this or any tribe, never letting him leave home or training him with weapons like you should. I will NEVER give my daughter permission to marry someone who couldn’t possibly be strong enough to protect her or her children!”
That’s not true! Hiccup’s more than worthy!

Isn’t he?
Shoving aside the doubting niggle of a thought, Stoick huffed as his mind (fortified by idiocy inducing alcohol), came up with an equally hurtful retort. “Well, maybe I don’t want Hiccup associating with your daughter anyway. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way the boys in this village hang all over her. Odin knows, she’s probably slept with the whole lot of them!”“OOOOOOOO!” came from their audience once again, all eyes going wide at the slur to Astrid’s honour.Hector turned just as red as Stoick, steam practically coming out of both of their ears now. “HOW DARE YOU!?” He was just about to throw a punch at Stoick when another voice paused his fist in midair.Elof saw his chance to make Astrid pay, so he took it. He jumped to his feet and called across the room, “It’s true! Astrid’s VERY free with her... affections.”“Shut up, Elof,” Olaf said warningly, narrowing his eyes at his son.Elof ignored his father and forged on. He glanced at his buddies, silently telling them to back him up. (And after what he’d told them about his injured manhood, they were willing enough.) “We’ve all had her, haven’t we, boys?”The other young men at the table nodded enthusiastically, putting on matching leers.Now Hector looked like he was ready to go over to Elof and kill him instead (or as well).Olaf grabbed Hector by the tunic before he could do more than swing one leg over the bench. “GO HOME, ELOF!” Olaf yelled. “You’re going to regret saying mistruths about Astrid.” Olaf glared at all the young men. “All of you. Get out.”They scrambled off their benches and made themselves scarce.But the damage was already done.And Stoick had started it.This is all his fault! Hector turned back to the man he used to call his friend and lunged across the table at him, three hundred pounds of furious male crashing into four hundred pounds of equally furious male.The wooden floor nearly broke when they crashed into it, fists swinging wildly.The remaining adults backed away from the fight in a quick scramble, not wanting to be struck by a wayward fist or boot.Stoick smashed a massive fist into Hector’s jaw, knocking the other man off of him and jumped up to his feet. Hector was back on his feet a second later, too, ignoring the ringing in his ears. He swung at Stoick again, landing a gut punch that did almost nothing to the bigger man. “Do you know what you’ve done?!” he cried as he continued to rain punches on Stoick’s torso, ignoring the returning ones that pushed him back with each one.“Maybe I just brought the truth to the light,” Stoick snarled, already regretting his rash words about Astrid but unable to take them back. He’d never meant to actually dishonour Astrid; he’d just wanted to make Hector hurt the way he did. But he hadn’t been thinking clearly, and now everything was a mess. Fuck. All he could do was punch it out with Hector until the other man gave up.So that’s what he did.Hector fought until he couldn’t stand anymore, falling to his knees as the room spun around him dizzyingly, lip bleeding, both eyes nearly swollen shut, and nose very much broken and also gushing blood.Stoick only had a sore jaw from a lucky punch that he hadn’t dodged fast enough.He stood over his ex friend whose head was hanging on sagging shoulders, panting heavily, the room dead silent. “I’m sorry about what I said about Astrid. It was uncalled for and undeserved. I know she’s not a whore, no matter what Elof said.”“I’ll deal with him,” Olaf added.Stoick nodded his thanks to the other man before focusing on his adversary once more.Hector mustered the strength to look up at his chief, wiping at the blood dripping off his chin. “You think that’s going to matter? You’ve all but ruined my daughter. Those boys are never going to leave her alone now.”“I’ll beat anyone who dares molest her to a boneless pulp and then toss them off the island,” Stoick vowed, glaring at everyone assembled so they knew to spread the word to their sons.“Whatever,” Hector muttered, spitting out blood, staring at Stoick’s boots once again. “I’m still not going to give Astrid permission to marry Hiccup. I stand by what I said.”“I’m sorry you feel that way.” Stoick looked down at Hector with sorrow in his eyes, wondering if ALL of this was his fault. Between Hiccup’s belief that he was the laughingstock of the island, and now Hector’s statement of rejection, Stoick was finally realizing that maybe he wasn’t as good a father as he’d thought he’d been. Is it too late to start teaching Hiccup how to fight?
Is there anyway I can fix this for him?

Maybe... the truth?
“Hiccup loves her, you know,” the giant man said softly.Hector’s gaze shot up again as he snorted in disbelief, spraying blood across Stoick’s boots, then winced as his nose protested mightily. “Tough. Tell your son to stay away from my daughter or I’m moving my family off this island.”Stoick almost said, ‘You do that, then,’ but then he thought of how much Hiccup adored Alga and Astrid and just couldn’t do that to his son. He could only hope that with time, maybe he could fix this. So all he growled out past the lump in his throat was, “Fine. And you better tell Astrid to stay away from Hiccup. No point getting his hopes up if you aren’t going to approve the match.”Hector glared through the slits of his rapidly swelling eyelids. “As I said, I’ll die first.”“Don’t tempt me,” Stoick snarled before spinning on his heel and stomping out of the tavern before he lost his temper again and flattened Hector into the floor.As he marched up the path to his house, the feelings in Stoick swirled around like a tornado. He was furious with Hector. Furious with himself.And so very ashamed.
Why have I never seen that by trying to protect Hiccup, all I’ve managed to do is hurt him? By preventing him from training with all the other kids, I’ve singled Hiccup out as different. Weak. Fucking Hel, I’m an idiot.

But what can I do? I don’t want him to fight the dragons. I don’t him to get hurt. Or killed.

I can’t… I can’t lose him too. I just can’t.
Is it really possible that my tribe won’t accept Hiccup as their next Chief if he doesn’t do the dragon training? Stoick was starting to think it was. And he was beating himself up for it.
What kind of future have I been setting my precious son up for?

To live a life without a wife or the respect of his tribe all because I’m worried about losing him?
Stopping only feet from his house, Stoick looked up at the partially covered black sky, a star twinkling merrily through the clouds here and there, mocking him. “Thor, strike me down now if this is all my fault!” He waited, hardly daring to breathe.Nothing.And then, off in the distance, a rumble of thunder filled the air over the sea, sounding like derisive laughter to his ears.Suddenly terrified that Thor was about to judge him for real, Stoick crashed into his home and found Hiccup gazing at Astrid like she’d hung the stars in the sky and he felt a hundred times worse because he’d ruined Hiccup’s chance at marrying the best girl on the island.Unfortunately, he took his temper and fears out on the girl in question, because he didn’t know what else to do."Get out of my house, Astrid, and never come back," he growled out, hardly able to look at her as he waited impatiently for her to get up from her chair at the table and skedaddle.He couldn’t look at Hiccup either, not wanting to see the betrayal he knew would be written all over his face."What?! That's not fair!" Hiccup exclaimed, shooting up to his feet as Astrid stood and startled sidling towards the door. He followed her, of course, because that’s what Hiccup has always done. "What has she done to warrant that?!"Absolutely nothing, Stoick thought. But how can I possibly tell the kids what a fool I’ve been? And... why the fuck is Hiccup only wearing one boot?"I don't have to explain myself," Stoick snarled out, bypassing the boot thing as unimportant, thankful for the adult card that let him get away with such nonsense, even if it was just for the next few minutes.He flinched inwardly at the looks of sheer hurt that the kids gave him, but kept up the glare nevertheless. Astrid finally made it to the other side of the doorframe and turned back to look at Hiccup with wide, pain filled eyes.Stoick couldn’t bear to see her looking like that, so he slammed the door in her face and quickly made for his room to escape the inevitable fight he was bound to have with Hiccup over this."What in Hel's name was that?! I thought you wanted me to court her!" Hiccup cried, making Stoick pause midstep and shrink inside his tunic.Gods! Why did I have to bring that up earlier? "Not anymore!" Stoick yelled back, never so grateful to see his room in his life. He quickly slammed the door behind him and sagged against it, eventually sliding down the wooden planks to sit with his back against the door.“What have I done, Valka?” he whispered, a tear escaping despite having the heels of his hands scrunching his eyes closed.Astrid stared at the door in stupefaction. What did I do? Why does Stoick suddenly hate me? "What in Hel's name was that?! I thought you wanted me to court her!"Astrid jolted at the words Hiccup yelled loud enough that she could clearly hear them through the thick door. She gasped, hand flying up to cover her mouth. Does that mean that he was pushed into asking me? Gods!Tears suddenly stinging her eyes, she whirled and raced down the path, her fiancé’s words haunting Astrid all the way home.
Did Hiccup only ask me to marry him because that’s what his father wanted? Well, had wanted, anyway.

I’m so confused now.
She’d thought Hiccup had genuinely loved her; his words and eyes certainly seemed to say so. She’d loved kissing him, snuggling with him. It had been everything she’d ever dreamed it could be. His kisses had been sweet and gentle, and later, just the right amount of forceful to take control without being overbearing.Astrid loved that he’d taken the lead on something, since he usually let her dictate whatever they were doing without a complaint. It had been a nice change and it had made her feel like a girl for once and not just a warrior.It was funny how any sort of attention like that from another boy had never made her feel feminine, but only as an object to be fought over like the best piece of steak on the platter.She’d even let him stick his tongue in her mouth when he’d whispered it over her lips. Playing tongue tag hadn’t been anywhere near as revolting as she’d thought it would be. In fact, it had been really hot and she’d started to feel a new kind of heat building in her core that she was only vaguely familiar with.But she knew what it meant.It meant she truly desired Hiccup.Her mother had explained the whole sex thing when she was twelve, the conversation of which Astrid had found incredibly uncomfortable to live through, but now Astrid could see how she might actually like the idea of being so intimate with another person. (The likes of Elof and Snotlout most certainly hadn’t done it for her.)She’d also more or less accidentally noticed that Hiccup had become every bit as excited as Elof had, but unlike the older boy, Hiccup hadn’t pushed himself against her at all, which she was grateful for. She liked kissing him very much, but that didn’t mean she wanted to get married and have kids anytime soon.Because that’s how it worked for the honourable people on Berk; you pick your mate, get engaged, make out a lot until you’re ready to be an adult, get married, make love like bunnies, and then produce a child or two. Theoretically, you could get away with the making love part before the marriage part, but smart girls didn’t chance the shame of getting pregnant before they were married.Astrid was a very smart girl.Which brought her back around to her original conundrum; Do I still want to marry Hiccup knowing that his father may have pushed Hiccup into asking me?
Honestly…

Yes.

But we’re going to have a very serious talk about this. I need to know that marrying me is what he actually wants. Because… Thor knows, it’s what I want.

Eventually.
Astrid sighed to herself, kicking a pebble off the path.
How can life be so complicated sometimes?
A cry of, “Hector!” from her mother’s voice had Astrid paying attention to her surroundings again, finding that she’d walked nearly all the way home without noticing.Seeing a small crowd in her doorway, Astrid jogged past the last couple of houses between her and her house. She found Gobber and Bucket helping her dad into a chair in their living room, her mother hovering at his side and looking about ready to go murder someone.“What…? Dad!” she gasped as she got a good look at her father’s face. “What in Thor’s name happened to you?”“Had a fight with Stoick,” he mumbled.“Oh, Dad.”“Hector… Really? You know Stoick is virtually unbeatable in a fight,” Alga said in exasperation as she dabbed at the dried blood on his lip and under his nose. “What were you thinking?”Gobber and Bucket backed out of the house, looking at each other in alarm. “We’ll just be going now,” Gobber mumbled and then closed the door on what was probably going to be a rather loud ‘discussion’ about what had happened in the tavern.The Hoffersons barely even noticed their leave-taking, too busy staring at each other as they waited for Hector to answer the question.Hector sighed and winced as his ribs protested. (Stoick had fists like Mjolnir.) “I don’t think I was, to be honest. I was slightly drunk at the time.”“Dad. What did you do?” Astrid asked worriedly, starting to get an idea that Stoick’s proclamation had something to do with this.Hector glanced at his daughter apologetically, since he knew how much she cared for Hiccup as a friend. (They had been basically inseparable since they were babies, after all.) “I may have insulted Hiccup to Stoick’s face.”“Dad!”“Hector!”Hector winced again at the identical sounding screeches. He rushed to defend himself before he was attacked for slurring their beloved Hiccup’s name. (Honestly, he had no problem with the boy as a person, he was well mannered and had spent roughly half his life in their home, making him feel almost like their own child, but that didn’t mean he was good enough to marry Astrid.)  “Stoick started it by saying Hiccup was going to marry Astrid.”Astrid gaped at her father. How was that worthy of insulting my Hiccup?“What’s wrong with that?” Alga demanded, more or less echoing her daughter’s thought. “Hiccup’s a nice boy. Much nicer than most of the boys on this island, that’s for sure.”“Do I really have to explain it, Alga?”“Yes!” both females said together, making Hector wince again. (He was feeling rather ganged up on right now.)“I essentially told Stoick that I would never let Astrid marry Hiccup because the boy will never be a proper Viking with the way Stoick is overprotecting him, but… not quite as nice as that.”“Oh, Hector,” Alga said, shaking her head as she saw Astrid’s expression turn furious. “That was a mistake. Astrid loves Hiccup.”Hector gawked at his daughter, who now had her fists clenched and looked like she wanted to lop off his head with her axe. “Is that true? You love that wimp of a boy?”Hector ooooffed as Alga landed a hard punch on his shoulder. He shot her a ‘what was that for’ look and ended up reeling back at the disappointment on her face.I just can’t say anything right today, can I? Why do I have the feeling I’m going to be sleeping on the bench in the living room for the next few days?Astrid just barely fought back tears of hopeless fury. “How can you be so stupid, Dad? Of course I love Hiccup. You’re the reason Stoick banished me from his house, aren’t you?”Stoick really did that? “Yes,” he admitted. “But Stoick was right to do so. You’re just going to have to get over your crush on Hiccup because I don’t want you to have anything further to do with him, do you hear me?”“It’s not a crush!” she all but yelled. “And you can’t stop me from seeing Hiccup if I want to!”Hector narrowed his already slitted eyes at his daughter. “Oh, yes I can. If I catch you hanging out with Hiccup again, I’m moving this family off the island.”Alga gaped at her husband.Astrid was speechless for ten whole seconds as she stared at him like he’d just slaughtered every human on the island, and then all the animals too, just for the fun of it. “I hate you,” she hissed, before spinning and running upstairs to her room, gulping back sobs of despair.He almost felt like crying himself, feeling like the world's worst father. “Hector…” Alga said, shaking her head at him.He held up a hand. “Don’t start, wife. I’m not changing my mind. I might have to move us anyway because of what Stoick said about Astrid tonight.”Looking at her beaten and slumped husband, Alga felt a glimmer of sympathy for him resurface and a small kernel of dread took life in her gut. “What did Stoick say about our daughter, Hector?”He looked at his wife and shook his head mournfully. “It’s not good, Alga. Not good at all…”One minute later, Hector had to stop Alga from going on a rampage to behead both Elof and Stoick.But he almost let her go, because he thought they deserved it.
A/N: Just in case you've been living under a rock and don't know your Norse mythology OR watch Marvel movies, Mjolnir is Thor's very large hammer. :P

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The Rift (part 2):
As he stared at his father's closed door, Hiccup's confusion slowly morphed into a fiery anger that lit him up like nothing had ever done before.Being told things like, 'No, Hiccup, you can't come on the fishing trip, it's too dangerous,' or 'No, Hiccup, you can't help with the water brigade, it's too dangerous,' were good at inspiring frustration, but he was used to being held back.But this... this outright banishing of Astrid from his house, and possibly his life? Now that just rubbed him every kind of the wrong way.Hiccup clenched his hands into fists and he narrowed his eyes at the door he wished would magically disappear in an explosion of wooden splinters. How dare he evict the girl I love from our home! How DARE HE!For the first time in his life, Hiccup felt like a real Viking as he whirled away from the door and literally STOMPED around the central fire place, fuming, his thoughts nearly incoherent. (Also for the first time in his life.) The only jumbled thought that even sort of made sense was the almost overwhelming desire to grab an axe, start hacking at his father's blasted door, and when he was through, start hacking away at his father's overly large and imbecilic head. (Not that he could reach that high. But that didn't compute in the moment.)Hiccup had made about ten trips around the fireplace before he noticed that his right foot was starting to sting on the bottom from how hard he was pounding his feet into the stone floor with every step. Why in Hel does my foot hurt?He glanced down in confusion and blinked at the wool stocking that covered his foot. A glance to the left showed a brown leather boot.Hiccup pretty much deflated as the sheer absurdity of what he was doing struck him.
I’m stomping.

In.

One.

Bloody.

Boot.
"Gods help me," he muttered.Sighing like his favourite pet sheep had just died (not that he’d ever had a pet sheep, but you get the idea…) , Hiccup shuffled over to the bench and sat, pulling on his boot. Then he let himself fall over backward so his back was on the hard stone and his feet dangled above the floor. Crossing his arms over his chest as if to hold in his thumping heart, Hiccup stared up at the beams of the curved ceiling high above him.
Why is life so fucking unfair?

What have I ever done to the Gods to offend them so?

Why am I so much smaller than everybody else my age?

Why is my father such a pigheaded, yak stubborn, VIKING?

Just...

Why?
Hiccup huffed out another sigh through pursed lips, making a 'pffffed' sound, and turned his head to the side. A flash of silver caught his eye from further down the bench, making him sit up abruptly. He lunged across the distance and snatched up the skull, cradling it gently in his hands as he settled back down on the bench with his knees drawn up to his chest and his back leaning against the wall.
Astrid.

Thor, Astrid is the best thing to ever happen to me.

Beautiful. Fierce. Smart. Caring. Courageous. Honourable.

Like no one else on the island.

And she loves me.

Me!
Only Odin knew why, but Hiccup wasn't going to ask him, just in case the fickle god decided to take even that away from him.He still couldn't believe that she'd kissed him. And that he'd kissed her back.That was the best moment of his life by far. She'd actually been in his arms, draped over his chest, all soft curves and lithe muscles and hard armour. She'd smelled amazing, like lilacs and female. Her soft lips had fit so perfectly to his and her mouth had tasted even better than she smelt, like honey drizzled over fresh bread and something else he had no name for but he wanted more of it.Hiccup closed his eyes as he relived that perfect moment, a muffled groan escaping as a spike of arousal inspired a little twitch of excitement from the mindless appendage inside his trousers.
Thor, I want to go find Astrid and kiss her again.
Hiccup's eyes popped open. Hang on. There’s nothing stopping me from doing just that. Dad’s closed door certainly isn’t going to do it. Snickering, Hiccup rushed to his feet, pocketing the little skull. He was out the front door in five seconds flat, closing it quietly behind him, just in case his father was in a mood to forbid him from talking to Astrid too.With the light of the rising moon as his guide as it peeked through the clouds threatening rain, plus the odd torch lighting the way, he jogged down the path to Astrid's house, anticipation swirling through him at the thought of holding her in his arms again.He was about halfway there when he nearly ran into Gobber, who was coming up the path to get to his place. "Hey, Gobber," he said with a quick smile as he backpedalled and then moved to continue on.Hiccup was pulled to a stop and nearly off of his feet as Gobber caught him by the back of his tunic. "Just a minute, there, Hiccup."The boy caught his balance once again, then turned and gave the long moustachioed man who was essentially an uncle a curious look. "What's up?"Gobber patted him a couple times on the shoulder as he looked down the hill at Astrid's house. "I wouldn't go there if I were you.""What? Why?"Gobber shook his head sadly. "I doubt you'll be very welcome at the moment. You... might want to give Hector a couple days to cool off before you go anywhere near Astrid again. And even then, it would probably be best if no one saw you talking to her."Hiccup opened his mouth to ask what in Hel's blazes was going on, but Gobber gave him a look of such remorse that it had him snapping his teeth closed as a feeling of absolute dread took over."I know you two are all but joined at the hip and that there's really nothing that you wouldn't do for each other," Gobber said softly. "But if you value your friendship with Astrid at all, you're going to have to be really careful about things if you don't want to lose her completely.""Gobber, what's going on?" Hiccup said through a throat tight with fear.The big man sighed and shook his head again. "I think you better ask your father that one.""What did he do?" This was forced out through gritted teeth. Hiccup's feeling of dread was quickly morphing back into something even less pleasant.Gobber's head was swaying from side to side once again, a look of sympathy in his eyes that Hiccup was frankly terrified to see. "Honestly, Hiccup, you really don't want to know. It's up to Stoick if he tells you or not."Hiccup's hands clenched into fists again as the earlier feeling of rage fully returned. He glared up the hill towards his house. "Oh, he's going to tell me or he won't like the consequences." His words were a vow."Ummmmm," Gobber said, his eyebrows climbing up his forehead at this new Hiccup. He watched with incredulous disbelief as the usually happy-go-lucky boy started up the path, stomping all the way, and muttering curse words that actually made him blink in shock as they floated on the air back to him. "Hunh. I guess there is some Stoick in there," Gobber muttered to the electrified air. "Who'd a thunk it?"The clouds rumbled above as if to say, ‘I did! And I approve!’Gobber glanced up and smiled. “Well, If that’s your opinion, who am I to argue? Watch over the boy, will you?”A bolt of lightning flashed horizontally across the sky above the ocean, looking like a godly grin.The blacksmith grinned back and then started hobbling up the path again. “Thank you, Thor.”Hiccup did his own impersonation of a pissed off polar bear (although more of a cub than a full grown male) as he slammed his way into his home. He was still muttering curse words as he grabbed an axe hanging on the wall just to the left of the door and then continued his stomp to his father's door.And then he swung.Stoick heaved a sigh when he heard the outside door crash open, assuming that Hiccup had left in a huff.His eyes nearly popped out of his head when a recognizable sounding 'THWACK' hit the door just above his head, making the entire door shudder.Stoick leapt to his feet and stared at the door with wide eyes, seriously unable to believe that someone was attacking his door with an axe. And with a respectable amount of force, no less. And that that someone may in fact be his miniscule son, Hiccup.The following words bellowed through the wood confirmed his incredulous suspicion: "DAD! Get your massive arse out here this instant and tell me what in Odin's name you've done!" This was emphasized by another thwack on the door about halfway up. To Stoick's amazement, this actually caused the wood on his side to splinter a bit.
Holy crap on yak! My son is actually acting like a Viking! I don’t know if I should be proud or alarmed.
Recovering from his shock, Stoick unlatched the door and swung it inwards, causing his son to hop after it as he'd had one foot on the door to brace against it as he tried to pull the axe out of the wood.Stoick grabbed the axe near the head and yanked it out of the wood, lifting it up, teenage boy and all. He glared at his son, because, proud or not, he was still the chief and this wasn’t exactly permissible behaviour towards one’s chief. And he said my arse was massive. My arse isn’t massive. It’s everything above it that is. Hiccup let go, dropping down to the floor."What is the meaning of this?" Stoick growled as he tossed the axe off to the side, uncaring that it crashed into his wardrobe.Hiccup almost shrivelled up under the heavy weight of his father's furious gaze, but he was still on his own rage high and he wasn't quite ready to let it go. He stiffened his shoulders and glared right back, wishing he was twice as tall so he could look his father in the eye and have a proper nose to nose stare off. "What is the meaning of this, he asks?" Hiccup snarked in sheer exasperation, rolling his eyes towards the heavens. He focused on his father again. "What is the meaning of this? I'll tell you what this is. This is me at the end of my rope with you, Dad." He nearly spit the name. "This is me demanding answers."Stoick wasn't pleased with the temper tantrum, but there was a little part of him was still amazed and a more than a little proud that his son was actually standing up to him. "Answers for what? I told you I don't have to explain myself.""Seriously?" Hiccup cried. "You're seriously just going to ignore the fact that you tossed my INTENDED OUT OF OUR HOUSE?! You're seriously going to ignore the fact that you've done only Thor knows what so that I'm not welcome in the Hofferson house either? What the fucking hell did you DO, you oversized Neanderthal?!" Hiccup actually stomped his foot and poked his father in the chest, he was so livid.Stoick's eyes nearly bulged out of his head once again as his son said a vulgar word he didn't even know that Hiccup knew. And what the fuck is a Neanderthal? His son had never had a temper before. Hardly ever cursed. And he most certainly didn't glare down his father like he was possessed by Tyr.Stoick’s pride in his son grew, but it still wasn't to be born."WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?!" Stoick bellowed.Uh oh! Hiccup gulped, sense finally returning to him. "Nothing?" he hedged, backing up a couple of steps.Stoick grabbed a handful of Hiccup's tunic before he could get away, lifting him up by it so they were eye to eye. Gods, he's so light still. I swear my axe still weighs more. He narrowed his eyes at his now cringing son. The wincing fear made Stoick hate himself in that moment. Shit. It’s not like I’m actually going to beat him, he knows that.
Doesn’t he?
"It didn't sound like nothing to me, but I'm going to pretend it was," he said with a snarl, then dropped the boy and turned away, like he couldn't bear to look at him anymore. "And only because I owe you."Hiccup sucked in a huge gulp of air, certain that his dad had been about to wallop him halfway across the house. He was quite relieved that he didn't. "You're not going to tell me what you did, are you?" Hiccup said softly to his father's expansive back.Stoick scrubbed a hand over his face and huffed out an exasperated breath; the desolate tone in Hiccup's voice was killing him. He looked at the painting of Valka that was hanging over his bed with sorrowful eyes, wishing she was here with every ounce of his being. Her eyes seemed to look back at him accusingly, but somehow understandingly as well.Without turning around, he said, "I got in a fight with Hector and some unintentional words were said. Just stay away from Astrid for the time being until I can fix this. That's all you need to know."Hiccup stared at his father's slumped shoulders as his clever mind read between the lines and came up with a logical deduction. "You said something bad about Astrid because Hector said something derogatory about me, didn't you?"Stoick slumped just a little bit more. "Maybe.""Tell me.""You don't want to know."That's what Hiccup was afraid of. And simply by that, he had a good idea of just how bad this was. There was only one thing you can truly hurt a girl's reputation with and that was her chastity or lack thereof. Gods, I might actually hate him for this. "I can't believe you," he whispered, chest literally clamping around his lungs as he realized just how much his father had ruined tonight. "I'll be lucky if Hector doesn't move his family to a different tribe from a slur like that."Fuck. My son is too smart for his own good sometimes. Stoick turned around slowly, like his feet were weighed down by boulders. "I'm sorry, Hiccup."Hiccup scoffed. "You're sorry? You're SORRY?! Thor, Dad! I finally work up the courage to tell Astrid I love her and ask her to marry me and you're sorry? Are you that determined to ruin my life completely? She was the only good thing I had. The ONLY thing!"The biting words nearly broke Stoick's heart. Trying to defend himself, and maybe wanting Hiccup to share his pain, Stoick said, "Hector wasn't going to let you marry her anyway."Hiccup gasped. In five seconds flat, he was on the verge of exploding again. "AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT?! For fu... Frigg's sake, Dad. You're the one who wouldn't let me train like all the other kids. You're the one who doesn't take me on fishing trips. You're the one who has me hide like a coward every time a dragon so much as flies past the island." Hiccup gave his father his best death glare and said very softly and very clearly. "All of this is your fault and I don't think I'll ever forgive you for it."Stoick literally sagged in his boots as Hiccup spun on his heel and climbed up the stairs to his room. He followed, watching his son's retreating form with stinging eyes. "Hiccup..."There was no answer."Please, Hiccup. I'll train you. Teach you to fight. We'll change Hector's mind."There was still no answer from above, but Stoick could hear the sound of movement up there. He watched the stairs with worried eyes and waited.Hiccup couldn't believe what he'd heard, and a little part of him rejoiced at finally getting his father to admit that he was wrong. But it wasn't enough to change how very betrayed he felt. He continued packing his bag, throwing in his drawings and sketching supplies and his extra clothes. Then he scooped up his pillow and fur blanket and marched down the stairs.Stoick's already fractured heart broke even further when he saw everything his son was carrying. "Where are you going?" he choked out quietly.Hiccup met his father's eyes steadily from the last step. "I don't know yet. Maybe the woods. Maybe Gobber's shop. I'm ashamed to call you my father right now and I can't bear to stay in this house with you. If you were serious about allowing me to train, then I'll ask Gobber to teach me." (He wasn't going to get Astrid in trouble by admitting that she'd been helping him train for years.) "I don't want anything else to do with you right now.""Hiccup... Please...""No. I'm done, Dad. Just done."Stoick couldn't meet those accusing green eyes that were so much like own anymore. "I am sorry, Hiccup. I was wrong. About... Everything."Hiccup almost changed his mind when he saw how defeated his father looked, but the loss of Astrid was enough to drive him on. He walked all the way to the door before he said over his shoulder, "Yes. You were."Then he left.Stoick collapsed onto the bottom step, buried his face in his hands, and for the first time since the memorial for his beloved wife, he cried.Hiccup trudged further up the hill, away from the village. He wasn't kidding when he thought he might stay in the woods. If the storm came any closer, it would probably chase him back to Gobber's shop, but for now, all he wanted was to be alone.Going into the village was just asking to be made fun of and bullied and he honestly couldn't stomach the idea of it anymore.He correctly assumed that his father's fight with Hector had taken place in the tavern, which meant that the entire village would know what had happened by now. Aside from Astrid, Alga, Gobber, and maybe Fishlegs, Hiccup doubted there was one other person down there who would be able to resist taunting him with his undesirableness as a son-in-law.He honestly thought that if he knew how to sail, he'd probably go jump in a boat and find a new island to live on. I might do it anyway, if Astrid leaves for good. At that point, he wouldn't care if the perils of the ocean prevailed.With every heavy step into the dark landscape, Hiccup turned off his emotions until he was just numb. He didn't want to rage. He didn't want to cry. He most certainly didn't want to feel the guilt that was starting to eat at him for some of the things he'd said to his father. Numb felt good. Numb he could deal with.He walked and walked until he was past the livestock pastures and then walked some more, aiming for the far side of the island, wanting to get as far away from his problems as he could. The dark didn't bother him, having lived in a land that was cursed with no sun at all for two weeks of the year for his entire life, he was used to it. And the rumbles of thunder and lightning from over the ocean seemed like a fitting background tribute to his mood. There was just enough hints of moonlight filtering through the thinner clouds above Berk and through the thick tree tops to see the darker shadows that were the tree trunks and various other obstacles such as rocks, so he didn't run into them.Eventually, a soft, repetitive, thunking sound registered between the rumbles of thunder, making Hiccup pay more attention to where he was going. Curious, he walked towards the noise. When it paused for a minute he did too, needing the sounds to follow. They picked up again and Hiccup walked faster. As he grew closer to the familiar thunking noise, a new sound became audible.It sounded like the sniffles and gasps of someone crying really hard even though they didn’t want to.
Who would be out here, crying and assaulting the trees?

Ohhhhh.

Astrid!
Picking up a jog, Hiccup soon broke into a small clearing filled with moonlight as the clouds suddenly decided to part. And in the clearing, he saw the back of a blond goddess poised to throw a dagger at a tree that already had a dozen sharp blades in it, buried to the hilt. His heart practically leapt out of his thin chest with joy and relief before it clenched with sympathy as another choked sob was wrenched from her."Astrid," he breathed. Thank you, Thor, for bringing us back together. “I’m here.”
A/N: Tyr is the Norse god of war. Frigg is the goddess of marriage and Odin's wife.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Tears, Kisses, And... A Flying Sheep?:
Astrid was only a step away from her bedroom door when the guilt over what she'd said to her father froze her feet.
I don’t hate him.

I could never hate him.

Roll my eyes right out of my head exasperated with him? Yes. He is a Viking male after all and suffers from idiotitis, just like all the other Viking males. But I'll never hate my father.

I love him. He’s a good dad. He provides for the family. Is one of the best warriors on the island. Is really good to Mom to the point of embarrassing situations. And best of all, he takes care of me but doesn’t coddle me. He lets me be the warrior I was destined to be, small female or not.
Astrid swiped at the tears leaking from her eyes with a frustrated hand. Gods, what a mess. She was still beyond angry with her father for forbidding her to see Hiccup anymore, but she also couldn't leave him thinking that she hated him for real; her dad looked like he'd taken enough of a beating tonight as is.She spun back around and was a quarter of the way down the stairs when her parents' conversation floated up to her and she froze again, her hand going to her mouth to stifle a gasp."...didn't mean it, but Stoick implied that the reason that Astrid is so popular with the boys is because she was being loose with her favours.""He did WHAT?!" Astrid would have seconded her mother's screech if she wasn't in such shock. Why would Stoick say such a thing?!
Oh. Right. Dad insulted Hiccup first. And Vikings are firm believers in the 'eye for an eye' mentality.
That didn't excuse it by any stretch of the imagination, but she could see how a somewhat drunk Stoick could have blurted out such a stupid thing.Her father's next words almost sent Astrid into her own Viking rage."That's not the worst part," he said gravely."It's not? How could it not?""Elof, that dunderheaded son of Odin, jumped up and confirmed it, saying that he and his buddies had all had her."There was a few seconds of stunned silence as Astrid felt herself heat with a rage like she'd never felt before. And then her mother expressed the same rage, her voice deadly. "I'll kill him. I'll kill them both. Berk is going to need a new chief and that overgrown baby is going to regret ever saying such a thing about Astrid if it's the last thing I do."
Mom’s going to have to get in line, because Elof's last minutes on this earth are numbered!
She spun back around on the stairs and ran to her room and geared up for war. Her battleaxe went in the sheath across her back and she slipped the leather cross strap that held her set of matching throwing daggers over her head. And for good measure, even though it wasn't her preferred weapon anymore, she belted on her old sword.When she stomped her way back into the living area, she found her father holding her mother back from leaving with a hand gripped around her wrist. Her mother still looked murderous and she had her axe in hand."Let me go!""I can't let you do it, sweetness. You have to see that. Stoick may be an idiot, but he's our chief, so that’s out. And you can't murder that little misbegotten pile of yak dung, no matter how much I'd love to let you. His father promised to deal with him. And Stoick said he'd beat to a pulp anyone who dared to proposition Astrid and then kick them off the island."Her mother sighed, some of the fire leaving her as she slumped slightly. "Fine, but they better watch it, or I will find a way to make sure a dragon eats them the next time there's an attack."Hector laughed as he pulled her away from the front door and back to the chair so he could sink back into it gratefully. "I might even help you."At this point, Alga's awareness of her surroundings returned and she realized that Astrid was standing at the bottom of the stairs, wearing every weapon she owned as far as she could tell. "Oh dear."Hector turned his head as well, and he sighed. "You heard?"Astrid nodded once. "I did.""I can't let you go out and kill them either."Astrid huffed, blowing her bangs up before they settled back over her left eye. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine," she muttered petulantly."I'm sorry, baby," Hector said softly.Astrid shot him a look as she walked across the living space towards the front door. You better be sorry, she wanted to yell at him. This was all your fault after all. But she kept that inside, not wanting to get into a screaming match with her father right now. Instead, she managed to keep it to a slightly more civilized: "I'm sure you are. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm still royally pissed off at you."Hector narrowed his eyes at her tone, but decided to let it slide. Astrid had had enough for one night. "Where do you think you're going?" he said, stiffly rising back to his feet.Astrid paused with her hand on the door. "Target practice.""In the dark? With a storm on the horizon?""The moon's out above Berk still." Sort of.Hector growled, but conceded she needed an outlet to vent on. "Fine. But no Hiccup. And don't go seeking out Elof either. You can use him for target practice tomorrow if he gives you any more trouble."Astrid looked over her shoulder at him as she opened the door. "Deal." She took one step out, eyes on the pathway in front of their house before she quietly said, "And I don't hate you," before she quickly closed the door behind her.Hector and Alga stared at the closed door for a minute of silence before he sank back into the chair again, pulling his beautiful blonde wife into his lap and winding his arms around her. She dropped the axe on the floor and wrapped her arms around his back, snuggling her head into his shoulder. Resting his chin on her head, he huffed softly. "Do you think she's going to be okay?""I think Astrid is always going to be okay in the end. Our daughter is strong, Hector. Even stronger than people give her credit for."Hector closed his eyes and absorbed the comfort his wife provided him with. "I hope you're right, because I have a feeling it's not going to be easy for her for the next little while until things settle down again. Gods, I want to chop off Elof's prick and feed it to him," he added under his breath.Alga snorted out a giggle, looking up at him as she pushed one of his many braids behind his ear that had escaped the leather tie holding them all back, trailing her fingers gently over his battered face. "Did you ever stop to wonder what inspired Elof to slur Astrid so?"Hector shook his head, raising a brow.Alga smiled slyly. "I bet you anything Astrid already fed Elof his manhood and he didn't like how it tasted."Hector barked out a laugh. "Thor's nose, you're probably right."Her grin widened. "Theoretically speaking, of course, cause I'm sure he'd be a puddle of bawling baby if she actually had.""There's always tomorrow," Hector said eagerly. I would even pay to see it.Alga laughed, a hint of anger and determination making it a little bitter sounding. "Yes, there's always tomorrow."Astrid ran up the path that wound through the village and up the hill, ignoring the thump of her sword against her leg with every step. If she couldn't go murder someone, she wanted to get as far away from everyone as she could get so she didn't give in to the temptation of turning right back around and aiming for Elof's house. She had every intention of calling him out, but she'd wait until tomorrow. Better to do it when the whole village can see me hand him his head on a platter anyway.She paused in her flight as she passed Hiccup's house, wishing with everything she had that she could talk to him. She could really use some comfort right now and he was the only one she wanted giving it to her.As she stared at the door in longing, "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?!" was bellowed from within in Stoick's very angry sounding voice, practically making the shingles bounce on the roof.Astrid nearly jumped out of her skin. Holy Thor, what is going on in there? Is Hiccup actually fighting with his dad? As far as she knew, Hiccup had never fought with his father. She was pretty sure Hiccup would have mentioned it if he had.She waited for another half a minute, straining her ears to hear past the distant rumbles of thunder and the wind that played with the loose strands of her hair. She was tempted to go press her ear against the door, but refrained even though she hadn't heard anything else from where she stood. Dying of curiosity, but knowing that interfering would be a very bad idea, Astrid sighed and continued on past the last house at the top of the hill. She'd ask Hiccup the next time she saw him about what had happened.
Assuming I ever get to see Hiccup again, that is.
A gasping inhale and an unwanted tear emerged at the thought. She wiped it away and picked up her pace again into a fast jog, in the vain effort of outrunning her sorrow.But with every step of her flight that had her running with ever swifter steps through the dark, the reality of her situation caught up to her even faster.Thor help me, I might never see Hiccup again.
Dad might make me move off the island.
The whole town now thinks I’m a whore. (Probably not even a fraction of them, but she was losing the ability to think rationally at an exponential rate.)
Gods. They’re probably gossiping about me right now.
Astrid's heart beat frantically as she gasped for air, screams bottling up in her throat as choking sobs took precedence.She barely noticed that she had passed the yak pasture and was headed into the forest due to the blurring of her vision from the tears that were now streaming down her face. Instinct made her slow enough so she didn't bounce off a tree, but that was as far as it came towards paying attention to where she was going.Astrid ran until she was shaking with the effort of trying to breathe through clogged sinuses, cry, and run at the same time. When she stumbled into a small grassy clearing, her legs gave out and she fell to her knees.She lost track of how long she knelt there, having a very uncharacteristic pity cry, but she did notice when the pity slowly morphed into anger.Still crying, because she couldn't seem to stop, as if fourteen years worth of held back tears had decided to all emerge at once, she rose back to her feet as she grabbed her axe off her back and threw it with all her might at the first tree she saw through her tears, screaming incoherently to the heavens as she did so.It landed with a satisfying THUNK and Astrid imagined it was Elof's head that had just been split like a melon.
Thor, that felt good.
Swiping at her tears with the back of an arm so she could see a little better, she then threw her daggers at another tree, one after the other, as hard as she could, a mental image of Elof's sneering face inspiring extra force.When they were all gone, including the one from her boot and the new one from Hiccup that had been in her arm wrap, Astrid unsheathed her sword and swung at a nearby bush, hacking at it until it was little more than twigs and fallen leaves.Chest heaving with effort, and those stupid tears that wouldn't stop still messing with her vision, Astrid dropped her sword and stumbled over to the tree full of daggers and yanked them out, holding as many in her left hand as she could before she was forced to sheath at least half of them. Then she spun and found another tree to target and let loose with the first dagger.She was on round three of dagger impaling of what was now Stoick's imaginary head when she heard her name called out in a barely audible tone behind her. Astrid spun, saw Hiccup, dropped the dagger from suddenly nerveless fingers, and literally bolted at him.Hiccup dropped his bedding and opened his arms just in time to catch the Astrid shaped missile as she ran into him. He staggered back and ended up sitting on the ground, but he didn't let go of her as she buried her face in his chest, held him tighter than was comfortable, and proceeded to cry her heart out into his tunic. The occasional, "Hiccup, Hiccup," that she managed to mumble out between sobs made him feel like the only male on the planet as he shared her sorrow and basked in the fact that he was the one she chose to be comforted by.He put his cheek on top of her head and whispered soothing nonsense to her as he stroked a hand down her hair in a repetitive motion meant to calm. Her tears were breaking his heart because he'd never seen her cry before. Ever. Not even when she’d dislocated her shoulder in a wrestling match or split her forehead open after falling out of a tree. (She still had the scar from that one, hidden under her headband.)He had seen her sad a few times, to be sure, like when her mother had a miscarriage at three months pregnant when they were ten, or when her grandmother died, but this was a whole other level of sorrow that Hiccup could barely comprehend.When she was still crying five minutes later, Hiccup was starting to get scared.Needing her to stop and be the strong Astrid that he knew once again, he tried talking to her for real. "Astrid. Sweetheart. Please stop crying. It's going to be okay. We'll get through this. I'll figure something out. I won't let those idiots separate us, even if I have to follow you to whatever tribe you end up with and hide nearby. Please, Astrid. Please stop crying. I love you. You're my everything and it's killing me to see you so sad."Astrid didn't know what was wrong with her. There shouldn't be any water left in her body to expel through her eyes. But the tears just kept coming. She felt like she was being drained from the inside out.She tried to get control, she really did, but it wasn't until he said he'd follow her anywhere and that he loved her that the tap in her eyes finally slowed down. Her sobs turned to hiccups and then to quiet panting breaths that eventually steadied into normal breathing.Hiccup sighed in relief when her sobbing stopped and her arms relaxed their vice grip on him, kissing the top of her head gratefully. "There now. It's okay, sweetheart. It's okay."Astrid echoed his sigh and moved her cheek to a dry section of tunic, which ended up putting her ear over his heart. She listened to the steady thump thump, thinking the sound was incredibly comfortingly. Tingling in her legs made her aware that she was crumpled up nearly painfully on the ground and she shifted into a more comfortable half kneel, sort of lying on her hip. But she didn't move her head. She liked where it was. But she did take a quick swipe at her face to clean off the snot and tears before wrapping her arm around his back again.They sat in silence for a while before Astrid worked up the courage to tilt her head up and look at him. "I'm sorry. I just cried an ocean on you."Hiccup smiled softly, brushing her sweaty bangs off to the side so he could see both of her beautiful eyes that looked midnight blue in the moonlight that had chosen to stick around. The thunder rumbles had faded away as well, he realized belatedly. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure this tunic needed washing anyway. You just gave it its first rinse, is all," he joked.Astrid smiled as she sat up and punched him in the shoulder lightly.Hiccup heaved a long suffering sigh, hiding a grin at her standard display of affection as he jokingly rubbed the spot like it ached. "What was that one for?""For being you." She leaned closer and kissed him quickly, blushing lightly. "And that's for being you, too.""Hmmmmm," he said smirking, burying his face in the crook of her neck and pressing a kiss to her soft skin, happily breathing in her somewhat salty female scent. "I think I like being me right now.""You should," Astrid said on a giggle as his lips travelled up her neck, tickling her lightly and sending tiny shivers through her. She sobered and pulled away again slightly, her eyes looking mournful once more. "I'm not so sure I like being myself at the moment, though."Hiccup was afraid of where she was going with this, and her sudden change of attitude brought his hopes of another make out session crashing back to earth. He knew that was selfish though, and pushed his own desires off to the side for her. "Because of what my father said about you? I had a fight with him about that, by the way," he added quickly, so she knew he was on her side."Yes, sort of. And I think I heard a bit of that fight on my way by your house." Astrid huffed a sigh, pulling away completely and leaned back on her hands, looking up at the moon that was a good three quarters full in the now nearly cloudless black sky. The wind that whispered through the tree tops had chased them off quickly. "How much do you know?"Hiccup grabbed his pillow and put it behind her and then folded up his blanket and made another pillow for himself. He talked as he worked. "Not much. I did get him to admit that he said something he shouldn't have about you and I guessed the rest." He shrugged off the bag of stuff that he'd been carrying and lay back on his folded blanket, looking up at the moon too. This was a delicate subject and neither had the courage to look at each while they talked about it, but both knew it needed to be said.Astrid looked back at the feather stuffed pillow, shooting him a grateful look, before she reclined backwards as well. That lasted for all of five seconds before she abruptly sat back up and unbuckled her belts, tossed off the axe and dagger carriers that were crisscrossed over her chest and back, and then removed her spiked shoulder pauldrons. Then she lay back down, sighing in relief at how much more comfortable that was. She suddenly felt completely exhausted and just wanted to curl up and sleep for a week. Her left hand reached over and grabbed Hiccup's hand that was resting on his stomach, wanting to touch him and needing the human contact more than anything.He squeezed her hand gently and laced their fingers together before resting their joined hands back on his stomach. Hiccup waited patiently for her to talk, sensing that she was working up the courage to do so.Astrid turned her head slightly, watching Hiccup stare up at the sky from her peripheral vision. In the dark, his profile stood out palely, reminding her once again of how cute he was. His nose was a tiny bit too big for his face, but she had a feeling he'd grow into it. And his pointed jawline looked just as nibble worthy as ever.Soon, she promised herself. I’ve been silent long enough. And he's been very patient. As always.Taking in one final steadying breath, Astrid told what she knew. "My dad was all but carried home and he looks like he got in a fight with a Gronckle and lost. He admitted that he said something insulting about you after Stoick said you were going to marry me, which caused your dad to say something insulting about me in return." Note to self: Must remember to come back to the marriage thing. I have a bone to pick with him about that one."Oh, boy."Astrid shot him a grateful look from under her bangs at his exasperated tone on her behalf. "Your dad apparently implied that because I was always surrounded by boys trying to impress me and win my hand in marriage, that I was being loose with my virtue."He turned his head and looked at her with remorse all over his face. "I knew it! I knew Dad had blown it big time by how he acted. I'm so sorry, Astrid. So very very sorry." He raised their joined hands and kissed the top of hers.Astrid melted at how sweet he was. His support made her feel a million times better, helping her realize that the rest of the village could hang themselves for all she cared. Hiccup's good opinion was all she needed.Hiccup continued. "I wish I could beat him up for you. I did take an axe to his door, if that helps."Astrid's eyes widened. "You didn't!""I did." Hiccup looked pretty proud of himself and Astrid thought it was rightly so.Astrid smiled at him widely. "Look who's showing his Viking side. I'm impressed."Hiccup felt his face heat at the praise, and was grateful it was dark out so she (probably) couldn't see. "Soooo. Ummmm. I hate to ask this, cause I know you, and I know that what you've said so far isn't enough to turn you into a watering pot. You'd just glare at or beat up anyone who tried to insult you to your face. Is there more that I don't know?"He was right, of course. If that was all there was to it, Astrid wouldn't have broken down. "Yes. Unfortunately. The worst part was when my dad said I could never see you again, and if I did, he'd move us off the island."Hiccup gasped. He'd sort of implied that the Hofferson's might move, but not because of him. "Thor, Astrid. How are we supposed to work with that?"She shook her head on her pillow, eyes stinging once again as she stared blindly at the moon. "I don't know."Hiccup's brow furrowed in frustration. "I'm sure we'll figure something out." He let the silence broken only by the sound of the wind and the night-time insects talking to each other sit heavily around them for a minute. "There's something else, isn't there?"Astrid nodded slowly, still staring up at the sky, not knowing for sure if he was watching her to see the movement or not, but assuming he was. "After your dad's slur on my honour, Elof added his confirmation, saying that he and the other older boys had all had me. I guess he didn't like being turned down again at the point of his own dagger," she whispered with false humour.Hiccup blinked once before he was beset by conflicting emotions of rage and sympathy. He more or less growled in his chest, not even knowing he could make such a sound. "Oh, sweetheart." Using their joined hands, he tugged her over to him and wrapped his arm around her in a hug. "He's a yak's behind and I'm sure most people know it. You know I'd kill him for you if that's what you want." Not sure how I’ll pull that off, but I’m sure I can come up with something diabolical and fitting to avenge my Astrid. Astrid smiled as she snaked her free arm under Hiccup's shoulders and returned his hug. "Thank you, babe, but I can take care of the walking ass myself. Besides, you'd have to get in line behind my parents."Hiccup chuckled and kissed her forehead. "Well, if you're sure?""I'm sure. Elof and I are going to have a lovely talk tomorrow in front of the whole tribe. I can guarentee he's not going to like it."He snorted. "I'm sure he won't." He rubbed her back absently. "Are you okay now? I promise I won't let your father separate us entirely."Astrid slid up a bit and kissed his jaw softly. "Yeah. I'm good now. I'm okay with us meeting out here whenever we can both sneak away at the same time, if you want?"Hiccup was getting lost in the sensations of having her breasts pressed to his chest and her soft lips whispering against his skin as she talked, but he managed to keep enough of his brainpower to answer her. "Oh, I want. But I won't have to do much sneaking. I was kind of planning to live out here in the woods for awhile. I can't stand to be anywhere near my father right now.""Hiccup," she whined softly. "You can't. Winter will show up anytime and you'll freeze."He cupped her cheek with his warm hand. "I know. I'll sleep in the smithy when it gets too cold. Don't worry.""That's all right, then," she breathed, getting lost in the dark depths of his eyes as he gazed at her longingly. Astrid realized their mouths were only a breath away from touching and she felt her own wave of longing sweep over her.She closed that last minuscule amount of space and pressed her lips to his in a tentative kiss, the hand behind his shoulders moving up to bury in his soft hair. Their joined hands were still trapped between their chests and she tugged her fingers free so she could cup his cheek in return.Hiccup's now free hand found its way to her back and he pressed her closer as their gentle kiss grew in confidence and passion. He licked her bottom lip, asking entrance again like earlier, and groaned happily when she opened slightly. But this time, instead of him seeking out her tongue, hers emerged and pushed his back into his mouth to duel playfully in his space.Astrid writhed slightly, rubbing her suddenly sensitive torso against the hard surface of his chest. Kissing him seemed to just get better and better the more they did it and she never wanted it to end. But need for some quick gasps of air had her pulling back and running her lips and teeth over his jawline like she'd imagined doing earlier. Hiccup seemed to like that, because he moaned softly in her ear. "You have a very sexy jaw," she whispered boldly, moving closer to his ear."Uhhhhh," was all he could come up with. All of the blood in his brain had officially run south and Hiccup was close to babbling incoherently, ready to beg her to press her wonderful mouth all over him. Literally. "Please...""Baaaaaaaaaaaa!"They broke apart, starting at each other in surprise. "What was that?" Astrid asked."BAAAAAAAAAAA!"They looked up, since the sound seemed to be coming from above them. They shared blinking looks of shock as a bleating sheep appeared to by flying above the trees all by itself."What the...?" Hiccup said, sitting up quickly as soon as Astrid did."BAAAAAAAAA!"And then the sheep crossed in front of the moon.It effectively disappeared and an outline of a flying dragon neither of them had ever seen before was clear to see for two whole seconds before it vanished again and only the sheep was visible."Baaaaaaa."And then even the sheep disappeared from sight as the trees blocked their view.Astrid and Hiccup stared at each other with wide eyes for a full minute before Hiccup blurted out, "Did you see that?""I saw it. But I don't believe it." Astrid shook her head slowly."Was that a black dragon?" Hiccup said. "Or was I seeing it wrong?""No. You didn't see it wrong." Astrid looked up at the sky again, fruitlessly. "That was definitely a black dragon. And the only black dragon I know of is a..." she paused, not even sure if she should say it. The mythical dragon was said to be the deadliest dragon alive but no one in their tribe or any of the nearby tribes had seen one to confirm it.Hiccup finished her sentence for her, awe in his tone and his eyes still wide with wonder at the somehow beautiful creature he'd seen. "A Night Fury."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

An Experiment In Human Mating Rituals:
Baaaaaaaaaaa!Toothless bent his head down as he flapped his wings to gain some height over the trees and glared at the wooly white sheep that he'd just snatched from a flock of the stupid creatures.The sheep ignored him.Baaaaaaaaaaa!He growled at it.Baaaaaaaaaaa!What is wrong with this stupid sheep?  It was perplexing the dragon to no end because they were almost always silent with fright when in the clutches of his claws."Quiet!" he thought at the verbose pain in his ears.Baaaaaaaaaaa!
"I said shut it!"
Baaaaaaaaaaa!
"Don't make me kill you."
Baaaaaaaaaaa!The warning fell on an oblivious mind, making Toothless snarl at his Queen's intended dinner. She preferred her offerings still alive and warm, but there was no way Toothless was listening to that obnoxious bleating all the way to her island.BaaaaaHe shifted his grip on the sheep and crushed its neck, making it fall limp in his claws.Toothless sighed in relieved remorse. He always felt bad about the fate of these poor fluffy idiots."…Black dragon I know of is a…""A Night Fury."What the...? Toothless paused in midflight, hovering on the spot as his head swung back the way he'd come, ears twitching at the human voices. Gronckle droppings! I've been spotted!In a year's worth of nightly raids, that had never happened.
What are humans doing in the forest at this time of night? And so far from their village of strange looking dwellings?
Now slightly panicked, he flew back on silent wings to investigate, ears straining for the next words. He dipped below the tree line, then landed entirely to drop his dead annoyance on the forest floor. Toothless hesitated as he slunk through the trees on silent paws, changing his direction slightly as he followed the sound of the female voice, the evening bugs quieting as they sensed a predator in their midst."Do you think we should tell the village?"
No! Bad idea!
"I don't know," a young male voice replied. "Would they even believe us?"
I'd rather not find out.
"There is the strong possibility they would think we were making it up to take attention away from everything that happened tonight."Now Toothless was curious. What? What happened tonight? Is something going on in the human village that is actually interesting? He and Luna had occasionally spied on them for something to do, but they'd found their routines to be rather monotonous after a while. And they were loud and obnoxious to listen to for the most part, often rhapsodizing on their dragon kills, or whining about their livestock being stolen and having to rebuild their houses all the time due to fire issues."There is that. Not to mention the small problem that we could not corroborate each other's sighting because we're not supposed to see each other." The young male huffed out a more audible than normal breath and silence reigned for a half a minute as Toothless finally crept up to the clearing the humans were in.He got his first look at the two humans who had spotted him, undoubtedly because of that stupid sheep.They were young humans, both small and slender in comparison to the vast majority of the other humans on this island.Toothless wondered if he should permanently silence them before they could give away his presence, but found he really didn't have the stomach for outright murder when they hadn't actually done anything to warrant it.
Yet.
"Can you imagine the prestige if we brought down a Night Fury?" the female said excitedly.Toothless snorted quietly to himself in amusement. As if that tiny little human is capable of taking me down.The young male obviously thought so as well, for he laughed in a disbelieving way. "Like that would ever happen. We couldn't even see it except for when it crossed the moon. And I didn't hear anything but the sheep. It's silent and invisible in the night. You'd have nothing to aim at."Toothless smiled in approval at the smart boy. Perhaps not all humans are a blight on the surface of the earth.The girl crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the boy. "Leave me some fantasies, Hiccup."The boy raised his hands in surrender. "Sure. Sure. If anyone could catch themselves a Night Fury, it would be you anyway."Toothless rolled his eyes. Never going to happen. She'd be better off setting her sights on a Gronckle. They're slow and not the brightest dragons out there.Apparently the boy's words were enough to calm her mild ire, for her glower cleared and she smiled at him brightly. "And that's one of the reasons why I love you; you're very good at flattery."Toothless huffed in silent laughter. The boy really was a smart one if he'd already mastered the fine art of mollifying a temperamental female. He had gone through his own trial and error period when it came to saying the correct things to Luna. The worst error being when he'd once tried to give her a compliment in the form of comparing her scales to the beauty of glistening snow. Just... not quite that poetically because he'd gotten all flustered by her big blue eyes, but the intent was there. It had come out sounding more like, 'Luna... You're like snow. I mean, your body is like snow. I mean, uggghhh, you glisten. Yeah. That's it.' Somehow, she'd taken that as an insult to her warmth and she didn't speak to him for two whole days, demonstrating just how cold she could be.The scrawny boy flushed, his body temperature visibly rising in Toothless' infrared based night vision as he stammered and made pathetic attempts at coming up with an appropriate response to the girl's declaration and compliment. Toothless could definitely sympathize. The one with the strange name of Hiccup (as if Toothless was any better) was still stammering when the girl stepped forward and forcibly quieted him by grabbing his upper body covering and pressing her mouth to his.Toothless had seen this act before, but he'd never quite understood why humans would do such a strange thing. Wouldn't it make more sense to simply say 'shut up'?As the two young humans continued to press their mouths together, their arms wrapped around each other and their jaws moved as they apparently used their tongues too. And noises of pleasure were starting to emerge from them.As heated pheromones started to waft through the air, Toothless quickly came to the conclusion that mouth touching was more than just a 'shut up' gesture. In fact, he was getting decidedly uncomfortable as he realized this was some form of mating procedure. Ugh. I do NOT need to see this! he thought with disgust as he quickly backed away, not wanting to witness anymore before they started humping or something. (Been there, seen that. He'd wished for the ability to scrub his eyes raw afterwards.) There was something about human mating that was incredibly unappealing. It was all sweaty and grunting and squealing like pigs. And most of them had hair in unattractive places, which he would have been quite content to never find out about. Dragon mating was much better. More like a dance in the air than a roll in the mud on the ground. Toothless was very happy that he had been born a dragon. Going back to the mystery of the evening, he was thinking about returning to the village tomorrow to do some spying; there was still that comment about things happening that had him curious. And he thought it prudent to keep a careful eye on these two to make sure they didn't start spreading tales of Night Furies on the island. Maybe Luna would want to come with me?As Toothless slithered through the dark forest back to where he'd left the Queen's offering, he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he pressed his mouth to Luna's and snuck his tongue into her mouth. He snorted as the instant answer of, bite it off, came to mind, distracting him enough that he accidently stepped on a dry twig, snapping it with a cracking sound that echoed in the silent forest. Oops. Toothless winced and forced himself to concentrate on where he was going, his excellent vision making seeing in the dark a non problem. But there was still that little niggle of curiosity at the back of his mind to try and press his mouth to Luna's. Just because. 
By Thor, I love her. Sooooooo much, 
He was so lost in her taste. Her scent. The silky depths of her hair where his hand was buried at the nape of her neck. The way her soft curves pressed against him as her arms clutched him around the neck and shoulders.Hiccup moaned in surrender as Astrid's delicate little tongue dominated his. He was happy to let her.Astrid echoed his moan with a hum of delight, fingers carding through his messy hair mindlessly. She never thought that she'd grow to love kissing so much in such a very short time. But she did. And she was already looking forward to every stolen kiss that she could get away with until they figured out how to talk their fathers back into something resembling sensible.Yes, her fiancé was a bit scrawny for a Viking, but she honestly didn't care. She'd rather have a smart, caring, sweet, gentlemanly boy who knew the meaning of a bath (cause Hiccup smelled amazing, like soap, hot metal, and a hint of male musk) than an oafish large male who only ever thought of themselves, forced females around, picked their noses, and smelled like dead fish.
I could hug and kiss Hiccup forever and be happy to do it.
And she vowed to thank Thor every single day for Hiccup, for she loved him beyond all measure.SNAP!Astrid and Hiccup jumped apart like guilty teenagers (which they more or less were) at the sound of the crack of a breaking branch,They stared at each other wide-eyed for a moment. "What was that?" he whispered.Astrid just shook her head. And then his warrior goddess sprang into action, tugging her axe out of a nearby tree, scanning the depths of the forest with wary eyes as she sidled over to the desecrated bush and toed her sword up into the air. She then tossed it at Hiccup in an easy throw.He was ecstatic when he caught it by the hilt for once without fumbling. Of course, she didn't see, still tense and ready for something or someone to spring out at them. Figures. I finally do something half decently cool and she's looking elsewhere. Hiccup came to stand at her back, taking up a defensive position. He scanned the dark shadows as well, ears straining for another warning sound.A full five minutes passed before they relaxed, the returning twitters and chirps of the evening insects singing an indication that all was well.Astrid huffed out a sigh. "I guess it was nothing. But I should be getting back anyway before my parents start to worry." She walked back to their makeshift bed and put her armour and belts back on, sheathing her axe across her back. Hiccup followed her around like a faithful puppy. She left him the sword belt and the sword. "You keep that one, just in case. Are you sure you're going to be all right out here?" she asked as she walked to the other side of the clearing and extricated her throwing daggers from the bark of the tree they were embedded in, sheathing them in the bandolier type leather strap that held them."I'm sure," Hiccup was quick to reassure. "I'm not afraid to be alone. I have something to prove to my father and I refuse to go right back home on the first night."Astrid gave him a quick smile of approval as she started searching the grass for the dagger that she'd dropped when Hiccup had shown up. "I wouldn't go right back home either if I was you. But you should at least come into town in the morning for breakfast and to watch me rip a few pieces off of Elof's thick hide. Preferably with a very dull knife."Hiccup chuckled as he spotted the gleam of steel and picked up Astrid's dagger for her, handing it to her. "I wouldn't miss it for anything. I have to work in the morning anyway. And I need more supplies to set up a proper camp out here. While I'm working, I'll eagerly wait for the yelling and cries of pain to start and then come running."Astrid laughed, kissing him on the cheek. "You know me so well."Hiccup blushed again. "Yeah," was all he could say.She touched his warm cheek briefly, smiling at him with moonlight reflecting in her eyes. "Have a good sleep, Hiccup. I'll look for you tomorrow, even if I can't say hi."Hiccup touched her cheek in return, stroking his thumb over her cheekbone, still marveling at how soft her skin was. "I wish you a good sleep as well, my Goddess. Dream of me?"Astrid flushed with pleasure at his touch and words. "Always."And on that cryptic remark, she pulled away and disappeared into the forest, heading back towards the village of Berk.Hiccup stared at the spot he'd last seen her for a long time. What did she mean by 'always'? Did she mean that she'd been dreaming of him already? Or did she mean that she'd dream of him from now on? Either way, he supposed, it's more than I ever hoped to hear from her. Sighing pathetically in a lovesick fashion, he moved to his blanket and pillow and settled down to sleep for the night, her sword at his side and the moon and insects to keep him company.And his very clever mind started plotting ways to capture or kill himself that Night Fury as a way to prove to the moronic adult males in his life that he was worthy of being a future husband to Astrid and a chief for their tribe.And if that didn't work, there was always his original plan that he'd come up with earlier.
Oooooooo. Or maybe I could combine the two.

They'd respect me for sure if I found the dragons' nest by using a captured Night Fury as a guide.
A little over two hours later, Toothless returned to their hidden sanctuary after taking his turn placating the Queen for another day.After making a detour or two.With a childish sticking out of his tongue, he flew right past the tiny island watch tower that contained a snoozing Viking. And then, unable to resist, he circled back and flew even closer and sent a very controlled burst of tiny blue flames at the corpulent male, setting his leather foot covering on fire.Toothless snickered to himself because he knew the now hopping and cursing human would assume he'd let his foot get too close to the fire while he dozed.Stars, I love playing with the humans. Don't get him wrong, he loved Luna beyond all measure, but their life would be a little too monotonous if he didn't have some extracurricular activities to keep things interesting. I can't wait until we've progressed to the point where we can use mating as a way to pass the time. Frequently. Very frequently. Luna, who had some unknown date in her mind for when they were 'old enough' to engage in mating acts, liked to pretend she was above such immature actions against the humans. But he knew for a fact that she lived to torment the fishing boats by going invisible and causing absolute chaos on their ships by moving things just enough to make the humans fumble or by releasing their nets and letting all the fish go and then laughing her head off as the humans blamed each other for bad knots or incompetent hands.Toothless flew around to the watch tower on the other side of the island, hoping to catch a second human asleep on the job.No such luck, this time. This human was wide awake, on her feet, and staring out over the ocean with keen eyes.
Figures.
He'd yet to catch a female human asleep on the job. Just like a dragoness, they were clearly more responsible than their male counterparts, which is why nature had made the females the mothers of young. If males were in charge of the dragon eggs, half of them probably wouldn't survive. As he quickly dove out of the Vikingess' line of sight, he thought, It's a good thing I'm basically invisible against the black night sky.
Unless there's a silhouetting moon involved, apparently. Must remember that one. 
Flying away on silent wings, he rounded the back of the island and came to a gentle landing on the cliff nearest their home that overlooked the ocean in one direction and their little piece of paradise in the other."You were gone longer than normal," Luna said as he settled onto his haunches right beside her. She leaned into his side as he joined her in her perusal of the moon and the constellations, accompanied by the steady sound of crashing waves on the rocks below them.Toothless gave his gorgeous girlfriend, who's iridescent scales outshone the moon in beauty, a sideways glance, wondering how she was going to take the news he was about to impart. And like all males, he tried to downplay the scenario as much as possible in a faint hope of saving himself from the anticipated wrath of his mate. "I had a small issue with a noisy sheep and a couple of young humans who were in the woods near the sheep pasture."It didn't take long for Luna's keen mind to connect the dots to what he didn't say. She turned her head and gave him an incredulous stare. "You were seen? By humans?"Toothless studied his toes like he'd never seen them before. "Maybe."
"There is no maybe. Either you were or you weren't."
As much as one could mentally mutter, 'yes', that's what the ashamed dragon did.
"Toothless!"

"It was the blasted wooly menace's fault! It wouldn't shut up! I had to kill it!"
"Toothless." Her tone was resigned this time. "What did you do?""I turned around when I heard them say 'Night Fury', dropped the sheep on the ground, and then snuck up to their clearing and eavesdropped." He paused there, not really sure how to justify his reasoning on letting the humans live. But, honestly, he wasn't a murderer and wasn't sure if he ever could be. Killing a sheep who was destined to be dinner anyway was bad enough. Killing intelligent, if bothersome, humans just seemed a little too much like killing one of his own kind.And, as far as he knew, Luna felt the same.But, so far, neither of them, despite living on a human settled island, had encountered any problems with them. (Until now.) It helped that both had the ability to go invisible if necessary. (Luna was especially good at it.) And despite playing with the humans a bit, they hadn't actually done anything that had given away their presence on the far side of the island."Annnndddd?" Luna was dying of curiosity now. And he was taking his sweet time continuing his story. "What did you hear? Did you kill them? Leave them? What?"
"They talked about whether or not they should tell their village about seeing me and decided not to, mostly because they thought they wouldn't be believed."

"So you're going to trust them to stay quiet? You know it could cause major problems if the humans started hunting us."

"I know. That's why I'm going to be keeping an eye on these two humans."

"You are?"
He nodded. "You can help me if you want. We can call it an adventure or something. And who knows? It could be fun. And maybe we'll learn more about the humans."
"If you say so."

"I do. I already learned something new tonight."

"You did?"
He nodded again, repeatedly and quickly, glowing green eyes glittering with excitement and mischief, which made Luna look at him suspiciously. "I learnt that mutual mouth pressing means more than just 'shut up'. It seems to be some sort of mating thing. The two young humans did it, and they seemed to be enjoying it very much based on their pleasure sounds and how their body temperatures rose. I'm pretty sure they were using their tongues too.""Really?" Luna said disbelievingly. "I can't see how that can be pleasurable at all. It sounds rather gross, actually." Toothless slumped a little at that, making Luna roll her eyes. "Don't tell me. You wanted us to try it, didn't you?""Well, yeah," he admitted. "I know our mouths aren't really shaped right for full on mouth pressing but I thought it could be interesting to try just for the sake of curiosity."He looked so dejected at the thought of not doing the experiment that Luna almost immediately caved in. He'd mope about it for days if she didn't. And really, it couldn't be that terrible to lick his tongue with hers. They licked each other's faces all the time in demonstrations of affection. This was sort of like that. Just… slimier.
"Fine. We can try it."
Toothless immediately lit up, of course. "We can?"
"Yes."

"Really, really?"

"Yes."

"Really, really, really?"

"Not if you're going to be an idiot about it."

"Sorry."
Luna rolled her eyes at her cute but clueless almost mate for what had to be the thousandth time in a year. "Just do it."
"Okay."
They stared at each other for a couple of awkward moments, neither really knowing how to start something they had no clue how to do. But then Toothless took a deep breath and puffed out his chest, filling himself with false confidence.Then he licked her cheek sweetly. "Thank you for indulging me, my beautiful moonbeam." As he thought, he moved around a bit so he was more in front of her, giving her muzzle little licks along the way. At the last word, he pushed the front of his rather wide mouth to hers dead on and then just sort of left it there.Luna had thought the licks were very nice, and she'd closed her eyes in pleasure. Then his mouth pressed to the front of hers and she opened her eyes to look at his. "This is weird. And not particularly comfortable."
"Agreed. Maybe it's better with tongue licking?"
Luna obligingly opened her mouth, retracted her teeth, and prepared to be disgusted.And then Toothless ran his tongue along hers and she found she really wasn't. He did it again and her eyes closed as a tiny moan of pleasure escaped her. She reciprocated the move, stroking his tongue with hers and he moaned too. Their mouths opened wider and soon they were fighting to see who got to lick who in a tumble of writhing, ultra sensitive tongues.In no time at all, Toothless was making a rumbling purr sound deep in his chest that she copied in a gentler fashion as their tongues danced together. By mutual agreement, their wings started to flap, catching the air, still kissing as the dragons rose into the sky. One was black as night, the other was white as light itself. They flew straight up with powerful flaps of their wings, front legs entwined.Once they'd reached a height that exceeded the reach of the moonlight, high up in the atmosphere, they pulled apart, hovering in place and looking at each other in wonder. By the light of the enchanted moon, Toothless has found yet another way for me to fall even deeper in love with him. As if his fun, artistic, sweet, and caring nature wasn't enough. Luna licked his cheek and ears affectionately. "That was amazing."Toothless grinned at her, mouth hanging open slightly. "Sooooo, you wouldn't mind doing it again?"She flew around him in a circle, making his head spin on his neck to keep her in sight, fluttering her eyelids at him in a flirtatious fashion. "I suppose we can add tongue licking to our daily routine. And perhaps watching your humans isn't such a bad idea, if they have other interesting things for us to try."Toothless beamed at his dragoness. "Awesome. Can I tongue lick you again now?"Luna laughed enticingly. "Perhaps. If you can catch me." And then she flew off like a bolt of lightning.He chortled in delight and shot after his feisty dragoness, heart thrumming in anticipation of the hunt.
By the Great Dragon, I love her. Sooooooo much.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The Morning After (part 1):
Stoick spent a long night doing his best to get mindlessly drunk on mead, since that was all he had in the house, and he couldn't bear to wander back into the village to find something stronger and possibly meet someone who might look at him accusingly of being a terrible father and Chief.Unfortunately, mead was never going to be strong enough to take down a man of his size, no matter how many buckets worth he consumed.So, instead of dulling his memory of his losses and failings, Stoick was cursed with having to make an extra trip or two to the outhouse and a guilty conscience that weighed like a full grown yak on his shoulders. Maybe even two full grown yaks; one for each side.He couldn't stop thinking about his fight with Hiccup. Couldn't stop thinking about his fight with Hector. How their words had finally opened his eyes to the truth of Hiccup's mediocre status in the tribe. Nor could he stop thinking about his Loki cursed words about Astrid. That poor girl had not deserved that from me by even the tiniest degree.He was also beset by worry over where Hiccup had gone and if he was all right. What if he got lost? What if he was carried off by a dragon? What if he ran away and never came home? These same thoughts repeated too many times to count.And to top off his misery, Stoick missed Valka more than his own life. He'd dragged the cask of mead and his solid wood chair into the doorway of his bedroom and stared at her painting for hours that night by the flickering light and shadows of the fire, mug in hand, and what felt like a never-ending stream of slow tears trickling into his beard as he begged the Gods to please bring her back to him and help him fix the mess he'd made of his son's life.Because he didn't know what to do.He didn't know how to make everything better again. And he couldn't make his tormented mind come up with anything helpful, either.Eventually, he fell asleep in his chair, empty mug falling out of nerveless fingers, and heart aching in his chest.When he woke up, the sun was already a couple hours past rising and shining directly into his face through the window in his room.Squinting and grumbling, Stoick forced his stiff body from the chair and made for the outside world. Because, personal hell or not, he was still the Chief and he had a job to do to keep his people safe, fed, and happy.Hiccup had spent a large portion of the night plotting before finally falling into an exhausted slumber. Despite this, he woke up with the first call of the woodland birds before the turning of the planet had done little more than ease the sky into a lighter shade of dark.The tops of the trees were black against the deep blue sky as he climbed a tree and hooked his bag, blanket, and pillow into a notch between branch and trunk to help preserve them from critters and possible inclement weather. I really need to get myself a tent. And some tools… Tools would definitely be helpful if I’m going to make a semi permanent camp out here.With Astrid's sword strapped to his waist, he jogged back to the village, which took him about half an hour, enough time for the first ray of the sun to crest the horizon. He was just early enough to sneak through town without meeting anyone. He reached the smithy before Gobber, which was normal, ignoring the grumbling of his stomach that was demanding breakfast, and set to work starting the forge.Five minutes later, he had a small piece of silver rod melting to make a new pin for the back of Astrid's silver skull ornament.While that heated, he unstrapped her sword, unsheathed it from the plain scabbard, and set to work sharpening it for her, not knowing if she'd need it for her confrontation with Elof, but figured it was best to be prepared anyhow.It didn't take him long to weld the new pin on to the back of the little skull with more melted silver, which was good because he was nearly hopping with eagerness to see Astrid again. He gave the metal a minute to cool naturally before dunking it in room temperature water to speed up the process, the weld too delicate to risk dunking it sooner.And then he was out the door and power walking towards Astrid's house with her sword cradled under an arm and her skull held carefully in his hand. He wasn't sure how he was going to get Astrid her things without getting in trouble if her father was still home, but he figured he'd come up with something on the fly if he had to. It was too important to him that Astrid be fully armed if she needed to be than for him to play things safe.More people were up and about now, and they either ignored him, called good morning, or sneered at him but refrained from outright name calling for once, not wanting to inspire Stoick's wrath if found out. Hector's beating and how Stoick had walked away from the fight virtually unscathed was still fresh in their minds. Every once in a while, it’s actually a good thing to have a four hundred pound battering ram of a Viking for a father.
I wish it was more than once in a while.

I wish I was bigger so that he could have been proud of me from the start and didn’t have to hide me from the world.
With that truly depressing thought, Hiccup arrived at the Hofferson's house just as they were walking out the door. He was immediately subjected to Hector's suspicious glare from within his bruised and swollen face, making Hiccup wince in sympathy as he pictured his father's massive fists pounding into Hector.Fortunately for Hiccup, who’d been scrambling for a good reason to be where he was, Astrid jumped down the step, exclaiming, "Oh, thank you, Hiccup, you already sharpened the sword I left at the smithy last night," forestalling her glowering father from coming to any more damning conclusions than he already had.Hiccup nodded quickly and handed her her sword, impressed with her quick thinking. He had to work really hard to not let himself beam at her stupidly and keep his expression and tone neutral. "I did. I saw it when I walked in this morning." Then he held out his hand and waited for her to hold hers palm up. "And I fixed this for you, too." As he dropped the little ornament into her hand, he managed to just brush her palm with the tips of his fingers.Astrid's breath caught at the touch and it was all she could do not to throw her arms around him in her thanks for his speedy fix of her skull. But she could feel her father's eyes on them and the silent warning on the air to wrap this up before he did something she'd not like very much. It was hard, though; her heart was still jumping in excitement from seeing Hiccup walking up the path as she opened the door.She caught his eyes as she closed her fingers around the skull, seeing the barely masked longing in the beautiful green depths. "Thank you."Hiccup's heart was pounding in his chest, the tips of his fingers were tingling, he was possibly trembling like a leaf, and all he wanted to do was kiss her good morning. But he hid it, somehow, and simply said, "You're welcome. It was nothing. Just doing my job." Then he nodded respectfully at her parents, pretending that they hadn’t practically raised him. "Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. H.""Morning, Hiccup," they replied in near unison. Alga looked at him sympathetically, her voice soft. Hector still glowered, and he all but growled his response. It wasn’t hard to figure out where he stood with each of them.Somehow, the boy made his jelly-like legs turn around and walk in a fair semblance of normal back towards the smithy. Which just happened to be the same way that the Hoffersons were going as well. Which meant he was acutely aware of them walking a few houses worth back, since they'd paused for Alga to put Astrid's missing skull back on her leather belt. He could feel their eyes on him in the form of the fine hairs on the back of his neck standing up in alert. He could hear the soft murmur of their voices as Astrid tried to tell them for what was probably the dozenth time that she'd be fine standing up to Elof on her own and that they didn't need to hover over her.They were going to hover anyway.And that's exactly what Hiccup intended to do as well, as unobtrusively as possible, of course.When Gobber hobbled in to his shop an hour after dawn, rubbing his neck, still wondering how it was possible to feel like he'd slept wrong, when he was pretty sure he hadn't actually slept at all over his worry about the current messed up situation, Hiccup was already there and was working on the backlog of weapons that needed sharpening and fixing from the last dragon attack a few days ago."Morning, Gobber," Hiccup said cheerily.Gobber eyed his apprentice blearily, wondering if he'd dreamed up the events of last night, despite never actually going to sleep. "You're in a surprisingly good mood this morning."Hiccup blinked just once as he realized that he probably shouldn't be this happy considering no else could know that he and Astrid had spent an absolutely idyllic time snogging in the forest last night, Night Fury interruption notwithstanding. He quickly came up with a viable reason for his good cheer. He shrugged and gave Gobber a lopsided grin as he sharpened a sword on the grinding wheel. "It's not every day I have a roaring fight with my dad and move out of the house."The elder Viking suddenly found himself wide awake and his neck woes were forgotten. "You didn't.""I did. I slept in the forest last night and felt like a sort of strong, independent, almost Viking for the first time in my life." He smirked, no heat to his otherwise bitter words.Gobber's face split into a wide grin and he clapped Hiccup on the back with his real hand. "Good for you."Hiccup tried not to stagger, but he hadn't braced himself fast enough. He recovered by turning it into a purposeful step towards the bench that held the finished items and picked up a couple more weapons that were ready for delivery. With his arms now full, he aimed for the front of the shop, Gobber following him. As he walked, Hiccup said over his shoulder, "And the best part, Gobber?""What's that?""Dad finally admitted that I should be training like the other kids."Gobber was left with his jaw hanging near the vicinity of the floor as Hiccup practically bounced out of the smithy to deliver the finished weapons, because he'd never thought the day would come that his best friend, his Chief with a stubborn streak wider than the ocean, would admit to being wrong.The morning sky was bright and clear as Astrid looked up at it, wishing for some clouds to show up so she could imagine them as Valkyries coming down from Valhalla to enact judgment on Elof. But it wasn’t to be, so she shifted her weight a bit in her lean against a support beam of the trading post's large deck, and returned to glaring at Elof’s house, which just happened to be across the path from her current location.She’d been standing here for two hours while she waited for the lying coward to emerge and face her.All around her, the village of Berk bustled as people went about their daily lives, shopping, cutting firewood for the winter, making repairs to houses that had been scorched in the latest dragon raid, chasing after their children and pet livestock, and so on. On the surface, everything seemed normal; with them calling good morning to her just like they always would have, but Astrid could sense the curious and sometimes judgmental glances they gave her when she wasn't looking at them directly.The tedious wait had been broken up by Hiccup, who’d managed to pass by her on four different occasions, ostensibly on deliveries or supply runs for Gobber. They managed to pretend that the other didn't exist well enough to satisfy her father, who'd parked himself in a chair on the deck of the trading post, but Astrid saw the secret gleam in his gorgeous emerald eyes as he passed her with the barest hint of a sideways glance.Those looks warmed her to the core and kept her resolute in her determination to annihilate the rumours no doubt flying around the village about her.Her father, of course, was keeping an eye on her and making sure no idiotic boys tried anything funny. Not even Snotlout bothered to hang around once he was subjected to her father's glare, eyes nearly swollen shut or not.Ruff and Tuff had kept her company for a while, chatting her ears off about absolutely nothing important, like usual. But they ended with a little bit of entertainment that actually caught her admittedly distracted attention; something about an officiating apprenticeship they tried for a whole day before the village officiator threw himself off a cliff to get away from the loquacious twins. They thought it was hilarious, of course. It was a shame, actually, because if anyone would be good at droning on about important things that no one wanted to hear about, Tuff was it.The one thing they didn't mention was anything to do with last night's rather epic fight.Either they miraculously hadn't heard the new rumours circling the village about her apparent promiscuity, or they'd somehow learned some tact.Astrid was betting on the former.Tuffnut was exempt from her father's glare, being a year younger than Astrid, and not yet showing signs of noticing that girls were desirable things. But then, with his less than fastidious twin sister as an example, he was not likely to come to that conclusion anytime soon. (Probably a good thing for female kind, considering he wasn't all that keen on bathing either.)Astrid generally liked the twins in an eye rolling, Thor save her, kind of way, but she was happy to see them wander off, apparently to try and talk Fishlegs and Snotlout into joining them on some prank or other. She wished them luck. As long as it isn't against me. Or Hiccup. They had a terrible habit of focusing on poor Hiccup for their jokes no matter how many times she'd warned them against it. The twins enjoyed the challenge of trying and failing to avoid her revenge, mental deviants that they were.
At least they’re not boring.

Which is what I am; bored out of my mind, that is.
Loitering around and accomplishing nothing useful was very much against her nature, and she was itching to do something. Anything. But she daren't leave her post, or Elof the Not So Lucky might sneak away and she didn't feel like tracking him down for their confrontation. For one thing, she rather liked this location, being practically in the center of the village and sure to attract a sizeable crowd once things became interesting. Astrid wanted the question of her good reputation cleared sooner than later, because she couldn't stand the thought of people thinking less of her.Sighing in a rather dramatic way, eliciting a chuckle from her father sitting above her, Astrid pulled the tiny dagger out of her arm wrapping and started trimming her nails. She almost gave in to the urge to make them into sharp claws so she could scratch Elof's eyes out, but refrained because that really wasn't her style. (Both fighting and cosmetic.) Instead, she trimmed the rough edges off into the neat half circles she kept her nails at, mentally grumbling that she had to resort to personal grooming to pass the time while waiting for her nemesis to get his lazy ass out of bed.Olaf returned from his overnight shift on the watch tower disgruntled and grumbling.He never should have taken that extra flask of whiskey with him, but his son's less than stellar behaviour had seemed like it was worthy of an extra drink or two. Somehow, he'd fallen asleep and managed to set his boot on fire. Aside from jumping off the tower and going for a swim, the only thing he could come up with while in a panic to put the fire out has him now smelling like his own piss. And then he'd been caught asleep yet again when Bucket had to prod him awake to take his turn on watch.Olaf was already not having a good day.And to make it just that little bit worse, his head was pounding, he needed to empty his bladder in a more conventional fashion, and a tiny blonde haired girl was parked across the path from his house, looking like a very pissed off young Valkyrie as she tossed a miniature dagger into the air over and over again.And Hector was sharpening his axe on the trading post's deck.And Alga was conveniently nearby as well, talking with a small pack of females like they had nothing better to do than eyeball his house and look murderous. He couldn't help but notice that they were all mothers of teenage girls.
Shit.

My stupid, stupid son is in big trouble.

And he bloody well deserves it.
Not for the first time, Olaf wished his wife hadn't died birthing his idiot son. And maybe he should have looked for a new wife to replace her, but like his Chief, he believed his mate to be irreplaceable. But he'd obviously messed up somewhere in the raising of Elof all on his own."I'll get him," he snarled to Astrid as he stomped past."Thank you," she said sweetly to his back.Olaf crashed into his house with a bang, slamming the door back against the wall. He promptly winced as his head protested the noise, but it didn't stop his feet from continuing their trek up the stairs to Elof's room. That door was crashed open as well, headache be damned.Elof was snoring away on his wooden bed platform, hugging his pillow, dressed in only his trousers, and completely oblivious to the drama awaiting him outside.Growling under his breath about Thor forsaken teenage sons, Olaf grabbed a foot and a wrist and dragged his son right off his bed, dumping him on the floor with a hard thud.Elof woke up sputtering before he got his bearings and glared up at his father as he scrambled to his feet. "What the fuck was that for?"Olaf crossed his arms and glared down at his son that he was thankfully still taller than. Just. "That was for lying about Astrid last night."Elof crossed his arms over his bare chest and curled his lip belligerently. "Who says I was lying? The little whore?"Olaf let his temper loose with a backhand to that sneering face that so favoured his wife's Thor blessed family. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" he roared at his son who was now sprawled on his bed from where he'd fallen. He sucked in a deep breath to cool his temper a fraction before he whipped off his belt and walloped his almost grown son like he was still a naughty child. "You will cease defaming Astrid right now or I will personally kill you, do you understand?!"Elof pushed himself back to his feet, the right side of his face burning like fire. "But she stabbed my dick! It was bleeding and everything!"Olaf blinked a couple times as he processed that somewhat shocking bit of information. And then his brain kicked back into gear. "And what did you do to deserve that?!"Elof couldn't meet his father's angry, disappointed brown eyes any longer. He shrunk into himself a bit and stubbed his toe into the floor board. "I forced a kiss on her that she didn't want."Olaf rolled his eyes and snorted in derision. "Then you deserved it. And you deserve whatever else she does to you.""What do you mean?""I mean she's waiting for you. And her parents. And half the village, it looks like. So get dressed and get out there and apologize for lying or you're not my son anymore and you can get your horny ass off this island and find a new tribe."Elof gulped at how dead serious his father sounded. Holy Thor, I think he actually means it. The words that emerged sounded like a pathetic squeak. "Yes, dad."Olaf nodded once. "Good. Now go fix the mess you made." He turned on his heel and stomped down the stairs and then out the back door to the outhouse to take care of one more aggrievance.He felt bad about striking his son, but he honestly didn't know what else to do get through to him sometimes. He loved his boy, he really did, and he was usually very proud of his accomplishments, but lately Elof had been acting more and more self entitled and like the usually unspoken rules of honourable behaviour didn't apply to him anymore. 
Maybe this incident with Astrid will finally be what is needed to open Elof's eyes to reality.

If I’m really lucky. 
Hiccup had just passed Astrid for the fifth time that morning, carrying another armload of swords and axes, when Elof finally showed his highly overrated handsome face to the light of day."It's about time," Astrid muttered to herself in a less than quiet tone, straightening up from her lean and crossing her arms over her chest.Hector snorted to himself in agreement from above. His axe had never been sharper in its life and his arse was going numb from sitting on the wooden bench for so long.Elof took a second to glance up and down the path, noting the unusually high number of people lingering in the area before he turned his focus on Astrid and sneered, curling his lip up in disdain. He stepped off the flat stone that graced the landing of his doorway and started walking across the twenty or thirty feet that separated them.Astrid immediately moved to meet him halfway. "Careful, Elof, or your face might get stuck that way," she taunted. Then she smiled at him in a most unpleasant fashion. "Then again, keep the sneer; it's a more accurate representation of who you truly are."Elof stopped a few feet from the girl who was roughly half his size, hands curling into fists at his sides. "Did you just insult me, you little bitch?"Astrid had her axe in her hands in an instant, trying to decide if anyone would blame her if she beheaded him or if maybe chopping him off at the knees might be a more fitting punishment.From his hiding spot just out of Hector's line of sight to the side of the trading post, Hiccup growled under his breath, hands closing convulsively around the hilt of a sword and dropping the rest of the weapons thoughtlessly.Hector shot up to his feet and growled much louder in a warning fashion, drawing Elof's gaze for a half a second before he was dismissed as unimportant. Hector was not impressed and was seriously considering pounding the lying, dunderheaded teenager into the ground until there was nothing left but a moaning mass of pulp left. Astrid can beat up whatever remains of the little shit after that.A little ways down the path, Alga was thinking nearly the exact same thing."ELOF!" His father's voice cut across the space from the doorway behind him. "What did I just tell you?!" Olaf all but thundered.Every single person in hearing range froze whatever they were doing or pretending to do and rushed to the area to see the drama, including one grumpy Chief of Berk.Elof glanced over his shoulder and sneered at his father too. "Why should I apologize to her? She doesn't deserve it."Astrid glared up at the world's stupidest boy. "If I'm a bitch, then you're an asshole, Elof the Lucky-to-Still-Be-Alive-Right-Now."Elof scoffed. "Oh, really? And who here is going to do me in then? You? Your pathetic, beat up father? Your mommy? Your afterthought of a boyfriend who isn't much bigger than the sword he's holding?" He flicked his eyes to where Hiccup had unconsciously moved to the front of the trading post where he was now quite visible after squeezing his way to the front of the crowd. "None of you could take me in a fight even if I had one hand tied behind my back and my feet were tied together."Stoick forced his way through the gathering crowd, using his bulk to his advantage. "I'm very tempted to make you prove that boast, Elof Olafson," he called out in a warning tone, all but stomping up to the teenagers. "Against me." He came to a stop pretty much in Elof's personal space and crossed his arms over his massive chest and glowered down at the boy who, while tall, was still about five inches short of Stoick's 6'9" frame and a couple hundred pounds of muscle lighter.Elof gulped, suddenly realizing he might have blundered. "I didn't…""SHUT IT!" Stoick bellowed.Elof snapped his mouth closed and looked sick as Olaf moved to join their little group.Astrid twirled her axe in her hands, smirking a little as the boy was put down. This might not be the beating she wanted to give him, but humiliation was working for her as a pretty close second.Stoick turned his piercing green gaze on Olaf. "Your boy is aggravating me, Olaf. Is there a purpose to this mess that I've missed that would explain things?"Olaf nodded quickly, glaring at his son. "Elof is supposed to be apologizing to Astrid for telling untruths about her last night but he's already forgotten what I told him about disowning him not even fifteen minutes ago.""I see." Stoick raised a bushy red brow at Elof. "If you have any sense in your pea sized brain, you will apologize to Astrid." The fearless leader of Berk closed his eyes for a second and appeared to deflate ever so slightly before adding, "Right after I do."The vast majority of the Hairy Hooligan tribe, who had gravitated to the proceedings like vultures to the dying, gaped at this unprecedented event. Stoick the Vast had never publicly apologized to anyone for his actions before yesterday and now he was on his second apology in less than a day.The world must be coming to an end.Stoick faced the tiny little warrior girl, who, despite being tall enough for a girl (though still a good foot shorter than Stoick), was still very lean for a vikingess, and winced at the look of hurt and disappointment on her face as she looked up at him. He rubbed the back of his neck as if that would help with the apologizing. "Astrid." Add in a heaved sigh for effect. And then another, "Astrid," that went nowhere.She raised the brow not covered by her side swept bangs at his procrastinating.Who knew apologizing to a girl would be so hard? Then again, I certainly did my share of apologizing to Valka, so this can't possibly be that different. Right? Stoick tried again. "Astrid. I am deeply sorry that I said some things that I know were not true which lead to the yakhead here to slur your name further. I'm also sorry that I kicked you out of my house last night. You know you're always welcome at my hearth."Astrid only needed a few seconds to forgive the man. He was a male after all, and their stupidity as a whole was a well known fact that womankind had learned to live with eons ago. And he'd always been nice to her during all of their previous interactions. And he'd looked like he was about to walk into a pool of lava without any boots on while he said it, so she didn't want to make the poor man suffer any longer. She smiled widely at the Gronckle sized man with the rather epic beard. "Apology accepted, Chief Stoick. You can rest easier now knowing that I won't let either of my parents murder you in your sleep.""Thanks?" Stoick thought she might be teasing about that last bit until he glanced at said parents and received matching glares. Apparently they’re still not entirely pleased with me. Oh well. Stoick shrugged it off, knowing his friends would forgive him eventually. He turned his focus back to Elof and scowled at him when he found the boy glaring obstinately at an axe twirling Astrid, their gazes locked on each other in a silent glare off.He smacked the boy upside the back of his head, eliciting a, "Hey!" of protest."Rescind your statement from last night, Elof, or you're out of this tribe and sailing away in a leaky dinghy with no supplies," Stoick growled.Olaf grimaced at the warning, knowing it was no empty threat. His son was an idiot, but he didn't want to lose him.Elof grimaced in a nearly identical expression, but he wasn't as stupid as everyone was thinking right now. He swallowed his pride, plastered on an expression that vaguely resembled sincerity, and said, "I'm sorry I lied about you yesterday, Astrid. Although I doubt anyone believed me anyhow; you're entirely too frigid to let any of us so much as snatch a proper kiss, not to mention get anywhere near your knickers."The crowd gave a chorused gasp while more than a few (Astrid, her parents, Hiccup, Stoick, Gothi, and several more women) glared with insulted indignation."Elof!" his father scolded with a wince, smacking the moron upside the head again. "Seriously, son, we have to work on your tact.""What?" Elof asked. "I'm just speaking the truth."Stoick growled under his breath. "Is that a satisfactory apology for you, Astrid? Or would you like more?" his tone clearly said he'd fully support her if she wanted more.Astrid did.She smiled maliciously. "Oh, I think more is needed. I want to see him fight the way he boasted he could."Her axe twirled in her hands again threateningly as Stoick said, "Done," and Elof paled to the colour of new snow."And just to make things perfectly clear," Astrid added with every syllable emphasized through gritted teeth. "Hiccup is not an afterthought nor is he my boyfriend.""Uh oh," Hiccup muttered, sensing where this was going. Astrid was in a right rage and she was going to say something that she (or he) was going to end up regretting later."Hiccup is my BEST friend. And my FIANCÈ. And he doesn't think I'm frigid at ALL!"Another shocked gasp from the crowd, except for a few exceptions, as Alga gave a knowing smirk. Stoick wasn't far behind, shooting his son a wink. Hiccup didn't see it though, because he had his palm over his bright red face.Up on a hill overlooking the village, hidden amongst the trees, two dragons looked on with their keen sight and hearing. "What's a fiancé?" the black one asked the white one.The white one shrugged. "Not a clue. Maybe another word for mate, considering you said those two acted like mates last night?" "Sounds like a reasonable guess to me." Toothless gave his own promised mate a panting smile for being so smart.She rolled her eyes at him playfully and nudged him hard enough with her shoulder to almost knock him off the thick branch they were perched on.His green eyes heated and she gasped in mock alarm, dodging just in time as he leapt at where she’d been perched. Giggling, they scampered through the tree tops in a game of chase that ended with Toothless pinning her down and licking all over her face repeatedly until she finally opened her mouth and licked him back.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The Morning After (part 2):
"HE'S WHAT?!"Astrid closed her eyes for a second as she realized what she'd done. But her shoulders and jaw set in determination within moments and she spun around and pointed her axe at her father. "Don't you start on me! Hiccup asked me before you said I could never see him again and I said yes. He's my intended whether you like it or not!""And I still forbid it!" Hector snarled, stomping off the trading post deck, and shoving his way through the crowd. He snatched Hiccup up by the back of his tunic on the way by and stomped into the circle of confrontation. Hiccup grunted as he was dropped in front of Astrid and Stoick. "This," Hector waved his hand over the approximate entirety of Hiccup, "is not marriage material. How can you not see that?"Elof tried to take the opportunity to slip away while the important players were distracted, but his father caught him by the tunic and forced him to stay with a glare that clearly said, 'You're going to take your punishment like a man, or else.'Astrid pushed the head of her axe into her father's chest. "And how can you not see past the obvious?!" she all but screeched. "Hiccup is so much more than an average idiotic Viking boy. He's smart and respectful and talented at his craft." She glanced at the almost new, beautifully made axe in her hand as an example. "Would you rather I marry Elof, the epitome of what all Vikings should be? Strong, tough, fearless, virile?"Hector grimaced and shook his head."Or Snotlout? A little short perhaps, but still falling under the above definitions?""Certainly not! He's a Jorgenson," Hector spit out.Astrid smirked at Snotlout's and Spitelout's matching sputters of, "What's wrong with a Jorgenson?""I rest my case," Astrid said smugly."There are other boys on the island," Hector grumbled. "And for that matter, I can take you off this island to meet a whole new crop of boys and you can forget Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third."Astrid crossed her arms over her chest, axe resting across one, glaring down her much taller father. "Not going to happen. I'll run away and sail back all by myself if you drag me away. And you'd have to knock me out to get my feet off Berk."Hector's head fell, many-braided platinum hair falling forward, as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Thank Thor I only have one daughter to deal with. I can’t imagine trying to barter with a whole passel of them and their teenage female dramatics.While the Hofferson's bickered, Stoick studied the people around him; seeing the boy who deserved a beating and the boy who easily held a sword in his hand with a fierce grip that turned his knuckles white, his feet unconsciously braced as if prepared to fight to defend his girl as he looked between father and daughter with concern etched all over his face. Stoick stroked his beard thoughtfully. What are the odds that my wee Hiccup actually knows how to use that sword despite the fact that he's never had any training from an adult? His best friend just happens to be the best and most dedicated young warrior on the island; is it perhaps safe to assume that she's been training him on the sly just because it was against the rules and she lives to fight?He glanced over to Alga, who, like all females with their uncanny senses, seemed to know what he was thinking as she nodded once with an approving smile. His eyebrow rose. Hmmmm. If anyone knew if Astrid had been training Hiccup, it would be her mother. That woman is Berk's best female warrior and a fiercely protective mother. It is undoubtable that she probably knows exactly what her daughter is up to more often than not.Stoick cleared his throat loudly to interject into the father / daughter battle of words. When they looked at him with matching glares from identical eyes for interrupting, he almost laughed. Instead, he schooled his face to remain serious. "Might I suggest a compromise?""You might," Hector conceded."I'm listening," Astrid added.Hiccup stared at his father with a new sense of dread, shaking his head slowly. He automatically didn't like any idea that might take Astrid away from him, even though he hadn't heard it yet. There was an obstruction in his throat that prevented him from saying, 'Dad, please don't make this worse', like he wanted to.Stoick smirked at all of the people in his little group. "I suggest that Hiccup fight Elof to prove he's a worthy Viking for Astrid to marry…""That's not a fair fight! Elof's twice as big as Hiccup and has years more experience with fighting." Astrid immediately spit out.Stoick hid his relieved grin as he noticed that she didn't say that Hiccup had zero experience with fighting. "You didn't let me finish," Stoick scolded lightly. "But Elof has to fight with his earlier boasts. His dominant hand will be tied behind his back to his belt, and his feet will be tied together so he has only a foot of leeway. And to make things just a little more interesting, they'll fight on top of the head table in the Great Hall. First one to bleed, lose their weapon, or fall off the table loses."While Elof sputtered protestations at how unfair that was, Stoick glanced between Astrid and Hiccup for approval. Astrid had a slow grin spreading across her face, further cementing his theory that she'd been training Hiccup whenever she could get away with it. And Hiccup looked… Actually, he wasn't sure how his son looked. There was relief there. Fear. Resignation. But the longer he watched emotions flicker across that little face, the more determination took precedence.Stoick was proud of his son."And what if Hiccup loses?" Hector said, deflating Stoick's puffed up chest a little."Then the engagement is broken and Astrid will agree to keeping an open mind about other boys, but they can still be friends. To tear them apart permanently is just cruel." Stoick said this with his 'And that's my final word on the subject' voice that brooked no argument."Fine." Hector conceded."Fine," Astrid echoed, after looking at Hiccup for a moment, their eyes meeting as they silently agreed that staying friends was better than nothing. It still wasn't great, considering how much she liked kissing him, but still, something she could live with. But she was fairly confident that Hiccup could beat Elof with the handicaps. Hiccup was by far more agile and swift footed than Elof and should have no problem staying on the table while dodging Elof's swings.Stoick turned to the muttering crowd and said in a booming voice so even the furthest could hear, "All right, everyone who wants to watch, to the Great Hall!"This prompted a marginally orderly stampede towards the Great Hall perched high on the hill overlooking the village."Olaf, take your son and prepare him for the battle."The brown haired man nodded and pushed a very reluctant Elof away by the scruff of his neck.Stoick held Hiccup back by putting a huge hand on his narrow shoulder. He sent Astrid and her parents ahead, since they had been hanging back as well. He watched with amusement as the girl dragged her feet and looked back at Hiccup every other step and his son stared right back at her with his heart in his eyes.Once he was sure they were out of earshot, Stoick made Hiccup face him by grabbing his other shoulder as well, feeling a lot of bone, but there was a lean layer of muscle on top of it, indicating at least some sort of strength and, please Thor, training.
Who would have guessed that I'd be happy that Hiccup disobeyed my orders?
Hiccup didn't know what to make of his father right now. Yesterday he was all snarling bear who'd been woken up from hibernation too early and today he was like a dog crawling on his stomach, trying to make amends. Not that he was complaining, but this was a side of his father that he'd never seen before and was wondering if it came with a catch."I think it's safe to say she loves you," Stoick started with as a way to break the ice after Hiccup stared up at him with an inscrutable expression for what felt like a solid minute of awkward silence.Hiccup felt his face heating instantly. He darted his eyes down, sure his boots were fascinating. And suddenly they were. One thing was for sure; his boots were maybe half the size of his father's. Will there ever come a day when I’m capable of filling my father's boots, both figuratively and literally? I very much doubt it. I’ll never grow as big as Dad. Will never be half the warrior he is. Will probably never earn even half the respect he does. Will probably never be able to lead and command our people the way does.
My future is really depressing.

But I do have one thing going for me, and that’s Astrid.

And that is enough.
Glancing up at the mountain of a man waiting patiently for him to respond, Hiccup had another epiphany.
Actually, I have two things. I have a suddenly supportive father too.

So what if I never fill Dad’s boots? Who says I have to? I can be my own person, do my own thing. And if Dad still wants me to take over as Chief one day, then I’ll deal with that when it happens.
Finally responding to his father's teasing, Hiccup nodded, looking up the pathway at a perfect blonde goddess' retreating form once again. "Yeah. She loves me. Don't know why, but she does."Stoick chuckled, putting a heavy arm across Hiccup's shoulders and starting a stroll up the path. "I know why. She loves you for the same reasons that I do, Son; she knows just how incredible you are."Hiccup gawked up at his father, the heavy sword in his hand all but dragging on the ground now as he carried it half-heartedly. "Wow, Dad. I think that was an actual declaration of affection. I might die of shock."Stoick snorted at the teasing tone, a weight lifting from his extremely broad shoulders as they settled back into their normal relationship that didn't include yelling at each other and saying cruel things they didn't mean. "Hiccup, without any fear of my being angry, please tell me you know how to use that sword you're holding."Hiccup glanced up at his father's serious tone, the underlying pleading almost easy to miss, but he knew the man well enough to catch it. Hiccup hefted the sword properly again and twirled it around his hand in a show of practiced control. "Yeah. I know how to use it. Not the best, but sufficient enough to defend myself from one Elof the Lucky. I'm assuming you already guessed that Astrid taught me or you wouldn't have offered me up like a lamb to slaughter?"Stoick nodded, further relieved. "That's good. I'm sorry I didn't teach you myself. I should have. Can you forgive your father his yakheadedness?""Sure, Dad." Hiccup paused as they approached the set of steps that led up to the monster sized doors that enclosed the Great Hall carved out of a small mountain of rock, Astrid waiting for them just outside. The giant statues on either side of the door made her look like a child's doll. "You know, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to teach me more. Like sailing and dragon hunting and more combat. I like training with Astrid but I'm sure there's more that I could learn. And just between you and me, my ability to concentrate is about zilch when she's sparring with me," he whispered.Stoick guffawed for a minute, bringing tears of laughter to his eyes. "Oh, Son. I could never spar properly with your mother either," he said through his retreating chuckles, wiping his eyes. He smiled down at the boy conspiratorially. "There's nothing like a beautiful female to turn us into hopeless dolts, eh Hiccup?"Hiccup found himself flushing again, peeking up at his own beautiful female. "I've come to the conclusion that they are the real leaders of the tribe. Just look at who every single person in the tribe will bend over backwards for; a wrinkled, hunchbacked, little old lady that doesn't even speak real words. If that's not an unspoken leader of the tribe than I don't know what is."Stoick clapped Hiccup's shoulder, nearly sending the auburn haired boy to his knees. "Your mother would be proud of you for figuring that little secret of life out so early. Most men never understand it until they've been married for years.""Including you?""Including me."Hiccup grinned up at his dad, his chest filling with pride at the approving look he was being given. "All right. Let's get this over with. I have a future father-in-law to impress.""That's my boy." Stoick followed his son up the steps.Astrid held out her sword as they approached, eyes drinking in the sight of the two Haddocks getting along eagerly. "Here, Hiccup. Use my sword. It's a better length and weight for you than…" she took in the design on the hilt of the sword Hiccup was carrying, "Spitelout's sword."Hiccup was quick to thrust the bigger sword into his father's hand and take Astrid's. "Thank you, my goddess. I actually have a chance now. My arm would have been screaming with the other in no time."She smiled at him softly, a hint of a blush rising in her cheeks at the endearment, and brightening further as she leaned over quickly and kissed his cheek in front of the smirking Chief of Berk. "Good luck, babe."Gods, I love her. Hiccup gave her a genuine smile that reflected that thought before the reality of what he was walking into settled on him again. Breathing deeply, he pushed open one of the doors to find a packed hall filled with close to a couple hundred Vikings of all ages, their voices rumbling over him in a wave.That wave of noise quieted in degrees as he was spotted. Squaring his shoulders, Hiccup walked through the silent and staring people, clutching Astrid's sword for courage, and pretending this was just another day in his usually monotonous life. It only took what felt like a year to reach the raised platform that housed the head table of the hall. Unlike most of the others that had been pushed off to the side until needed for a tribe feast, the head table never moved. This one was nearly as heavy as your average ship and made of incredibly thick Blackwood imported from someplace called Africa where the people were rumoured to have skin just as dark as the wood and it was so far south that it never snowed except for a few mountain peaks. (The concept of no snow to deal with ten months of the year was mind boggling.) The table had stood in this spot since the first generation of Hooligans had settled on the island, brought by the first Hamish, and it was likely to never move again.And standing on top of that table was a very pissed off looking Elof, tied as he bragged he could be, and wielding a broadsword in his left hand that was easily twice the length and weight of Astrid's. "Just frigging fantastic," Hiccup muttered under his breath. But he hadn't really been expecting anything less, despite his hopes to the contrary. He'd be lucky to survive one blow from that sword. Only thing to do is to avoid it as much as possible, Hiccup thought to himself grimly."Are you ready to die, Sheep Fart?" Elof taunted as Hiccup used a chair to jump up onto the table with something resembling grace.Hiccup summoned every ounce of false bravado he had within him and dug out a comeback from who-knew-where that he was incredibly pleased with. He raised his borrowed sword in a mocking salute. "Are you ready to be shown up by a wisp of a sheep fart, Elof-Who-Doesn't-Understand-The-Word-No? Or is it only GIRLS half your weight that can best you?"A murmur of interest went through the crowd at the implication that there might be more to the story of yesterday's events than most knew.The bigger boy snarled and surged forward, already forgetting the limited range of his feet. He stumbled badly and cursed foully before righting himself and shuffling towards Hiccup. "You'll pay for that, Haddock."Hiccup neatly sidestepped the first swing of the broadsword, smirking, wishing he was even half as brave as he pretended to be. "You can try, Olafson."Up in the treetops, Toothless’ ears twitched as he heard the humans below start to move en masse, surprising him enough to draw away from the very satisfying pastime of making his intended mate purr with pleasure as he licked her head and neck all over.“What’s going on?” she asked as they both sat up and looked down at the village below where all of the humans were hiking up to their gathering place in a big cave.
“No idea, but I’m curious enough to want to know.”
"Perhaps we can see something through the small openings in the top that the smoke comes out of?" Luna suggested. She'd never admit it, but the humans were suddenly a lot more interesting than she'd thought they could be. Especially the girl with wheat coloured hair that had defended her young mate so ferociously. That was an attitude that Luna could respect.
"Worth a try."
After listening very carefully and scanning the entire area for any stray humans, the dragons flew down the hill and landed lightly on the natural rock roof. Their idea of looking through the holes was swiftly shot down as the smoke stung their eyes.Wrinkling her snout in disgust, Luna shook her head. "It's no good. This isn't worth it."Hiccup paced in annoyance for a minute before coming to a sudden stop. "Luna, has any dragon ever tried to connect to a human's mind? Hear their thoughts and see through their eyes like dragons can with each other?"Luna stared at her pitch black companion with wide sky blue eyes. Just when I think I know him, he comes up with another outlandish idea. "I have never heard of such a thing, no, but there are no humans where I come from. Are you saying you want to try it? Connect to a human?"
"Yes. I think I am."
"Oh dear." Now it was Luna's turn to pace. "What if it doesn't work? What if they sense you? And who would you pick? The big one, their alpha?"Toothless was nowhere near as worried as his girlfriend. He shrugged negligently. "I doubt their brains are advanced enough to sense telepathy. And I'll try and connect to the young male, of course. He and the girl are the only ones I'm really interested in keeping track of because they know about me." "Right." Luna said skeptically as she finished another circuit of her chosen path, paws silent like a cat's, and narrowed her eyes at the intrepid male dragon. But it was too late, for he already had his eyes closed and a faint wrinkle of concentration between his eyes. She sighed, sat on her haunches in front of him, and waited, her tail twitching with agitation and worry.Toothless sent his consciousness into the mass of humanity below his feet, searching for the vaguely familiar feel of a human boy that he felt drawn to in some strange way.Maybe it’s because we’re both young males in love with dominant females.He gave a mental snort at that very true thought and continued to skim over the dozens of thought patterns that felt wrong, skipping the female ones automatically, until he finally landed in the mind of the boy known as Hiccup.And was immediately assaulted with the image of a sword swinging right at his head.Toothless scrambled out of the boy's mind and back into his own faster than a blink. "By the Great Dragon!" Toothless sputtered. "Humans are just as awful to each other as they are to us!"
"What? Why? What did you see?"

"Sharp thing! About to cut off Hiccup's head! It was terrible!"

"Is he dead then?"
"How would I know? I left," Toothless whined, pacing once again, and wondering why the thought of the young male human dying disturbed him so.Uncomfortable with the sight of Toothless in distress, Luna focused her hearing and actually concentrated on the muffled mess of noise coming from the space below her. Breathing. Lots of breathing. A fart. A sneeze. The sound of metal clashing against metal. A mass inhale as a crowd of humans held their breath all at the same time. And then a soft female voice barely vocalizing the words, "Come on, Hiccup. You can do this.""He's still alive," Luna reassured Toothless. "Which you would know if you would bother to settle down and concentrate with your senses as opposed to acting like an impulsive hatchling."Toothless snorted at the dragoness but calmed down enough to sit beside her, curling his tail around his paws. He listened to the sounds from below for a minute before he again grew impatient with the lack of knowledge. "I'm going back in to Hiccup's mind. I want to see!"Luna rolled her eyes at him, but he never saw it.He was confronted by swinging metal once again, but this time Toothless stuck with it, breathing at the same time as Hiccup did as the boy raised his own sharp metal sword to block it and braced his feet to avoid being pushed backward by the greater strength of the other human.It didn't take long for Luna to give in to her curiosity as well. Caving in, she went searching for the Astrid girl's thoughts and joined her mind.Now she could hear every thought and worry the girl had about her young mate. And see the battle first hand. The boy named Hiccup was half the size of his opponent, but not tied down and more agile by far. But even with his advantages, he was still having to work to keep his limbs attached to his body as the bigger boy did his best to hack Hiccup to pieces.Luna found Astrid's worry contagious and was soon wincing right along with the girl as the human boys fought, knowing that Toothless was experiencing the fight first hand.Hiccup's heart sounded like thunder in his ears and his entire world was focused on the sword in Elof's hand and the boundaries of the table he was trapped on. Not even Astrid and his father standing just behind the ornately carved chairs could distract him right now.He'd quickly come to the conclusion that despite his father's good intentions, the table was a bad idea. Elof couldn't take big steps, but he didn't need to once he had Hiccup trapped at an end of their insane fighting arena. What did Dad think I was going to do? Flip above Elof's head like a fucking acrobat? Hiccup thought in disgust and alarm as he felt the back of one heel slide past the edge.Since acrobatics he'd never even attempted in a stress free environment wasn't an option, Hiccup had been forced to actually use his own sword defensively, and his arms were growing numb from the constant pounding of the bigger sword against his. Even tied up, the older boy was too bloody graceful and aware of his surroundings to actually step off the table by accident. (He wasn't called the Lucky for nothing; Elof actually was a very good warrior.) And despite his haphazard and random training with Astrid, there was no way Hiccup was skilled enough with a sword to disarm Elof.
Astrid could have done it in her sleep, probably.
If Hiccup wanted to come out of this the victor, then he had only one option left; make Elof bleed. And that meant going on the offensive, but Hiccup couldn't actually picture himself swinging his sword hard enough to make Elof back up. Or maybe… it didn't. I need to remember what I do have going for me, and that’s my intellect. Perhaps it’s time to fight smarter, not harder.Elof wasn't exactly being creative with his swings, but they came fast and furious. The only reason Hiccup was still standing was because Elof was using the same pattern of attack of overhand and side to side. At the next overhead blow, Hiccup saw his chance and let the momentum of Elof's sword on his own take him down to his knees, which put Elof off balance slightly because he wasn't expecting it.In that brief moment of time, Hiccup dove right through the small gap between Elof's braced legs, thanking Thor that he as small enough to do so, and let his sword drag across Elof's calf as he did so. The recently sharpened sword sliced easily through the yak leather boot, his trousers, and just into the muscle.Hiccup slid along the table on his stomach for a moment, and then twisted so he was on his back, quickly bringing his sword up, just in case he needed to take another swipe or protect himself.Elof howled, hopping on one foot as he turned around and looked down at Hiccup with an incredulous look on his face.There was utter silence and many dropped jaws in the hall for ten seconds and then, "HICCUP WINS!" Stoick crowed loud enough for even neighbouring islands to hear, his voice echoing around the stone walls and decorated pillars. "He's drawn blood!"The hall erupted in cheers for their Chief's son, most of the tribe having found themselves coming to root for him throughout the course of the battle even if they hadn't started that way.They'd all seen a boy who clearly knew more about fighting than anyone thought, and who possessed a determination and willpower to succeed that far exceeded his physical limitations. No one would ever say that Hiccup had it easy, either, despite his opponent's handicaps; Elof had nearly knocked him off the table or severed a limb at least a dozen times. If the undersized boy hadn't been so quick at dodging and literally jumping out of the way, he would have lost. Hiccup Haddock deserved their cheers and had won a lot of respect that day that he'd never previously been given.As Elof scowled and hacked through the rope tying his feet together, Astrid leapt up onto the table and nearly knocked Hiccup back down as he was sitting up. "You were brilliant, Hiccup!" she gushed as she threw her arms around his neck and beamed at him, eyes shining brightly in the torch light that lit the glorified cave.Hiccup dropped her sword and hugged her back. "Thanks to you. I'd be dead if you hadn't trained me," he said, pushing her long bangs behind her ear so he could see her eyes better.Astrid immediately shook them back, smirking. "Nah, you would have ended up on the floor in about five seconds flat, but not dead.""Thanks," he said dryly. His lips twitched up into a matching smirk. "Guess what?" he whispered conspiratorially."What?" she whispered back, beautiful blue eyes twinkling."I get to keep you now."Her eyes turned soft. "I know."And then their mouths were exchanging tender demonstrations of love in a mutual fashion that left the men in the crowd grinning and the women sighing at the romantic picture.Elof vaulted off the table in disgust, cursed as he landed on his bleeding leg, then glared at the couple while his father untied his right hand from his belt.Olaf couldn't help himself. "I don't see anything frigid about that," he teased his surly son. He grinned as Elof stomped three steps, swore, then limped away, favouring his left leg, pushing his way through the crowd rudely. Olaf couldn't think of a more fitting punishment for his son than to be beaten by Hiccup, but they were going to have to work on that attitude.When Stoick looked over at his friend, Hector was growling and making a face at the public display of affection his daughter was currently engaged in. He figured the only reason that Hiccup was still breathing right now was because Alga was literally holding her husband back, and the boy was keeping his hands very properly on the girl's upper back. And it was clearly Astrid who was clinging to Hiccup. And they were very wisely keeping their tongues inside their own mouths. But the sweet kisses just kept going as if they could happily sit on the table and make out all day. Lucky boy.
Gods, I miss doing that with Valka.
To dispel the gloomy thought, he sidled over to Hector's free side and nudged him with an elbow. "Did you really think you could ever break those two up?"Hector sighed, ripping his fierce gaze away from the teenagers and giving Stoick a look that more or less said 'drop dead'. But he shook his head. "I should have known that forbidding Astrid to do something would just make her want it more. Not sure how I missed the fact that she’s been training Hiccup behind our backs, though. At least they're too young to get married yet. I don't even want to think about what all of that entails."Stoick and Alga laughed at Hector's woebegone expression. He clapped his friend on the back and, smirking said, “But just think of the beautiful grandbabies they’ll make together!”Hector shuddered visibly. “Oh Gods.”Toothless and Luna were pulled from their voyeuristic spying on the teens when the sound of the front door crashing open jolted them back into awareness of the real world. They quickly flew off the back of the Great Hall and towards the nearest cover in the trees, then turned around and made sure they hadn't been spotted.All they saw was the one called Elof limping down the path with a few other similarly aged boys following behind, doing their best to tell him how magnificent he'd been even while tied down, and the only reason he'd lost was because Hiccup was a sneaky little bastard who'd cheated the rules of normal combat.Toothless and Luna scoffed at that, having experienced the thoughts of two other teenagers who'd seen nothing wrong with Hiccup's clever move.As they padded quietly through the forest to stay out of sight, Toothless asked, "So… What do you think of the humans now?""I suppose spying on them is a better pastime than we first thought," Luna admitted. "Especially if they're kissing," she added cheekily, inspiring Toothless to give her a knowing grin. (She'd learnt the proper name for tongue licking while in Astrid's mind.) "Oh, and I found out what fiancé means."
"Yeah?"

"It means what we are; promised to mate when we're old enough."
"And how soon is that?" Toothless asked in what he hoped was a casual manner, holding his breath until he heard the answer.Luna looked at him through her lashes and smirked. She made him wait for a dozen, ear pounding heartbeats before she said, "When spring comes again, most likely."If Toothless' steps were a little bouncier after that, would you blame him?
A/N: Did any of you see that coming? I doubt it, because even I didn't know that Hiccup was going to fight Elof until Stoick randomly suggested it while I was typing. :D

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Arrows to the Heart:
Hiccup spent the next two weeks in a flurry of activity.His days were packed with all of the training exercises that Stoick could squash into them, leaving Hiccup exhausted but happy. They also happened to be the most exciting thing happening in the village at the moment, so instead of preparing for winter like everyone should have been doing, Hiccup ended up with a vast and varied audience that came and went as people made excuses to ‘stop by for a quick peek at the Heir’s progress’. (At least they were getting some extra exercise.)And his nights were spent camping, to prove his original point of independence.With Astrid. (Happy sigh.)Annnnnd every other teenager who thought camping away from the parental units was a fantastic idea. (Groan.) This was such a hit, that it became an end of summer tradition on Berk for years to come. (Possibly for the parents even more so than the kids if the number of babies born nine months later was any indication.)The good news was that Hiccup had made another real friend in the form of Fishlegs. During the inevitable late night babbling that occurs when you put so many teenagers in the same place with no supervision, Hiccup had discovered that Fishlegs was actually very intelligent and that they shared the same love of learning as much as they could about everything they could. And since Fishlegs had dedicated himself to finding out everything possible about dragons, something that Hiccup had only been able to do on the sly, he spent hours quizzing the bigger but younger boy, much to Snotlout's disgust.The bad news was that Hiccup never found more than a moment or two alone with Astrid per day, so their displays of affection were restrained to quick pecks on the cheek and some covert hand holding. Anything more and the other kids teased them unmercifully. As in, Hiccup had heard about a hundred different renditions of, ‘Hiccup and Astrid, sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G.’ and thought he might go batty if he heard it even one more time.So when an opportunity for some alone time showed up, our feature couple were all over it like a yak on the first patch of grass in the spring.“Today’s lesson is archery,” Stoick said to his eager pupils, pulling a six foot length of beautifully carved supple wood out from behind his back.He chuckled when every single young face fell in disgust. Weren’t expecting that, were you? “I know it’s not the most intimidating of weapons, but there's always a time and place for a good bow. Hunting, for example. Not many animals will let you within axe reach,” he joked.Now, Stoick didn’t usually train the children, having too many other chiefy type things to deal with, but because he’d dedicated himself to catching Hiccup up on his training, he’d somehow ended up teaching all of the other teenagers in Hiccup’s age range as well, even though they had already had all of these lessons. (The novelty of it, or something.)Snotlout grunted in dismissal. “I’m already good enough at the bow and arrow. I don’t need to practice more.”Stoick raised a bushy red brow as Astrid blatantly rolled her eyes at Hiccup, smirking knowingly. He took that to mean that Snotlout was barely proficient, at best. Thank you, Astrid. Let’s have some fun with the next generation of Louts, shall we?  “All right, then, Snotlout.” He held out his unstrung bow and a quiver of arrows that Gobber magically appeared with. “Take this, string the bow, and shoot an arrow into the bullseye of yonder target,” he said in his no-nonsense Chief voice, pointing at the furthest target available, clear across the very large clearing, “and you can go. If you fail, you’ll be staying for the lesson. Or… you can muck out the sheep pens without having to prove yourself.”Snotlout’s eyes widened in horror at his options. No matter what he did he would look like a fool. But pride had him snatching the massive bow out of the Chief’s hand. Maybe I’ll get lucky. “Fine. I’ll shoot the target,” he sneered as he unwound the string from around the wood that towered over his head.It took every ounce of muscle power he had to bend the bow to make the string reach, bracing his foot in the center and grunting with the effort. The not-so-subtle sniggers from the other kids just fuelled him on, determination finding new feats of strength that he didn’t know he possessed.Ha! he crowed internally when the wood was finally bow shaped and the string attached. Even bent, it was still just as tall as him.  Gods, I will never be able to draw this properly. But they don’t need to know that. Yet. Snotlout turned and smirked at his audience of peers. “I’d like to see any of you do that faster.”“You’re on, “ Astrid said, unable to resist a challenge. “AFTER you shoot it.”Snotlout curled his lip up at the girl. Gods, I hate her almost as much as I like her. She’s probably going to make it look easy. Why do I do this to myself all the time?Gobber nudged Stoick with an elbow and whispered, “I didn’t think the boy would even be able to string your bow. I’m reluctantly impressed.”“So am I,” Stoick mumbled back, watching with fascinated eyes as the short and stout boy doggedly notched an arrow into the massive bow and lined up with the target on the other side of the clearing. “Bet it doesn’t even make it halfway,” he said under his breath to his longtime friend.“I say three-quarters,” Gobber stage whispered back, observing the boy’s teeth gritting efforts at pulling the string back towards his ear.“Loser buys the beer tonight?”“You’re on.”Five seconds later, they picked their jaws up off the ground. “Who wins if he actually managed to shoot within a handspan of the target?” Gobber asked.No one? Snotlout? Nah. Stoick shrugged and stepped forward to take his bow back. He clapped the boy on the back. “That’s actually better than I expected, young Snotlout. But you still have to stay for the lesson.”The dark brown haired boy practically beamed at the backassed praise and then all but strutted back into his place with the other teens. “Yep. I dare any of you to top that.”“Oh, I’ll do better,” Astrid said, sneering at the annoying boy who was always so full of himself. “And I’ll even hit the target.”Stoick laughed, shaking his head at the feisty girl. “That won’t be necessary, Astrid. I didn’t bring my bow up here to watch the lot of you try to shoot it, but to use as a demonstration weapon so I don’t break the wee twigs that you half-grown children need to shoot with.”Astrid crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the Chief, disgusted that she’d been denied her chance to show up Snotlout. And at being called a child. Hiccup, sensing her ire, whispered to her, “I’m sure we can ‘borrow’ Dad’s bow when he’s away sometime and you can practice with it.”She softened, shooting her fiancé a grateful look.Meanwhile, Gobber had been walking down the line of teens, handing each of the trainees a four foot bow, already strung, while Stoick had continued talking. “As I was saying before, the bow is a very useful weapon to have. It can even be used against dragons, IF you’re a particularly good archer and can target the weak places like the eyes. But don’t miss; you’ll just piss them off.” Stoick laughed at his own wit.The exceedingly large man was still grinning when he turned his focus on his son. “Hiccup. Have you and Astrid practiced with a bow at all during your secretive training sessions?”Even though there was no condemnation in his father’s voice, Hiccup still couldn’t meet his eyes, instead staring at the weapon in his hands as he restlessly ran his hands over it; there would always be that lingering sensation of guilt. “No, actually. The bows are kept in the storehouse and it would have looked funny if Astrid was seen carrying one of them around for no good reason. It’s not exactly her weapon of choice, as we all know.” This last was said with an amused look towards said girl who currently had her favourite axe strapped to her back.Astrid grinned back, nudging Hiccup with her shoulder.Stoick snorted in amusement. “True, true. Never seen the girl with a bow, that I can remember. But can you use one, Astrid?”She raised a brow at the stupid question. Does he not know me at all? “Of course I can shoot a bow. Mother made sure that I’m better than proficient with every possible weapon known to Vikingkind.”Stoick let out a great belly laugh, shaking his head. “Of course she has. Alga won Best Female Warrior at the clan gatherings three years in a row back when she was a teenager. They don’t let her compete anymore. I’m not allowed to compete, either,” he couldn’t help but boast a little.“I can’t wait till I’m sixteen and I can compete,” Astrid said with a determined glint in her eyes. “I fully intend to equal Mother’s performance.”“I have no doubt you will, M’lady,” Hiccup said, firmly in the supportive fiancé category. His eyes caught hers and he was very pleased to see a hint of colour grace her cheekbones and her pupils expand. Ooooo. She likes that one. M’lady it is. “Gag me with a spoon,” Snotlout muttered.Astrid’s eyes shot to the other boy and she glared imaginary daggers. “That can easily be arranged, Jorgenson, so shut it with the commentary or you WILL regret it.”Snotlout gulped and backed up a step. By the Gods, she can be frightening sometimes. What is wrong with me that I’m turned on by it? “Yes, Astrid. Sorry, Astrid.”Stoick snorted under his breath. That girl is something else. She’ll be a good mate for Hiccup when it’s his turn to rule. No one would dare oppose him with her by his side. “Right. All taunting aside, let’s see what you’ve got, Astrid.”“Gladly,” the girl said. She traded her axe for a quiver of arrows and slung it across her back, handing the axe to Gobber for safekeeping. Then, after taking up a solid stance, she notched an arrow and drew back the string to her ear and sighted along the shaft to the nearest target about ten feet away. A deep breath in and out for absolute stillness, and then she let fly.The arrow landed dead center in the target and sank almost halfway through, prompting a quiet whoop from Hiccup.“Good,” Stoick praised. “How about…” He never got to finish his sentence as he watched in pleased admiration as the girl whipped out another arrow and sent it flying to the next furthest target about twenty feet away. The arrow also landed dead center. She continued to loose arrows until all five targets set on a diagonal line, including the furthest one that Snotlout had almost hit, had a vibrating arrow sitting in the center of each. Their curious audience of ‘passers by’ cheered louder with each successful bullseye.Stoick was VERY impressed. Girl actually does have a shot of equaling her mother in the annual Barbaric Archipelago Games. “Very good, Astrid. Since you’ve already taught my son the basics of every other weapon, why don’t you also show Hiccup how to use a bow while the others give me a demonstration of their skills?”Astrid beamed, pleased that she’d impressed the Chief. “Sure.”As she turned to Hiccup, who was grinning at her rather dopily with pride, she heard Stoick say, “How bout you first, Fishlegs?”“O… o…okay,” the poor boy stuttered out. Astrid mentally winced. Fishlegs was easily the least skilled with a bow of all of them, (or any weapon, for that matter) but not for lack of trying. He just couldn’t seem to figure out how to make his big body work for him instead of against him. If he ever did… watch out, world.She put her bow down on the ground and focused on Hiccup, who was already holding his bow more or less correctly and drawing back the string experimentally, getting a feel for it. “That’s good, Hiccup. But you’ll have to pull it back further than that to make an arrow get anywhere.”“Oh. Sure.” Hiccup put a bit more effort into it and then released the string. It snapped forward and he could feel the released power of the bow. Sweet. I think I like this weapon. Astrid turned Hiccup around so he was facing away from the group of teens and towards a cluster of boulders that didn’t have any bystanders lingering by them, and then handed him an arrow from her quiver. “All right. Now point your bow at the ground and nock the arrow into the string and hold it steady with your fingers. Make sure the top of the triangle of fletching feathers is pointed outwards.” She leaned into him as she helped him do what she described. “Now rest the shaft on top of the knuckle of your left hand. Good.”Hiccup could barely concentrate as her (very) hands on instructions continued and was grateful they were facing away from everyone for their own safety. (In case he accidentally shot a wild arrow.) Astrid was practically breathing in his ear as she spoke softly and her chest was pressed into his back as she basically wrapped her arms along his. His body also thought that Astrid’s proximity was worthy of notice and was overheating in less time than it took to actually pick a gap between boulders to aim at. Thor, this must be the sweetest torture ever. Please don’t let it ever stop. And thank you to whomever for inventing long tunics and fluffy vests that cover things best left not seen by the public. “Now pull back. Further. Further. Look down the shaft.”Thor help me, she said shaft again. I might go insane if I hear her say that even one more time while she whispers in my ear. Somehow, Hiccup kept his eyes open and managed not to groan out loud, but it was a close thing. Very close.“Stay focused on your target. Deep breath in. Slow breath out. Freeze. And release.”Hiccup did. Nearly in more ways than one. But the snap of the string skimming alone his forearm was enough of a distraction to pull his focus forwards again. Frozen in place with Astrid pressed to his back, he tracked the path of his arrow.It landed where he’d pointed it.As if he’d been released like a coiled spring, Hiccup jumped a foot in the air, fist raised in triumph. “Yes!”Astrid laughed. “Easy there, flyboy. That was a massive target. Let’s see how you do with a real target and without my help.”Hiccup was all for it.He turned around and faced the closest target which now had four more arrows poking out of it. None buried as far as Astrid’s, and none as close to the center as hers, but at least the other teens had hit it.Now fueled by excited adrenaline, Hiccup repeated all of the steps Astrid had walked him through, focused with narrow eyed determination at the dead center of the target, and let fly with another arrow.It landed right beside Astrid’s arrow.Hiccup did the jump of joy again.Astrid was suitably impressed, although not terribly surprised, since he’d already proved himself to be adept at aiming throwing knives. His hand to eye coordination was better than most and he was an excellent judge of scale and distances. “Very good, Hiccup,” she praised. “Try the next one.”Stoick’s focus was drawn away from the teenagers now making attempts at hitting the furthest target by the cheers of the watching crowd. (Who most certainly weren’t cheering for the twins, Fishlegs, or Snotlout.) He turned just in time to see Hiccup aim an arrow at the second closest target. A rapid look at the first target showed two arrows in the center. A fluke? Stoick refocused on the second target.The boy hit the bullseye, right beside Astrid’s arrow. Again.Stoick raised a brow in surprise. Didn’t know he would be that good at something. Ever. And then he felt bad for thinking it. I should have more faith in my son. He is MY son after all. “Well done, Hiccup!” Stoick called loud enough to be heard over the crowd of cheering onlookers. (For the most part, the village as a whole had decided to root for Hiccup as he trained, eager to make up for their years of derision, even if it had only been in their minds.)Hiccup grinned at his dad. “Thanks! This weapon doesn’t care how tall you are or how strong you are. It’s all about angles and precision and focus.”Stoick mentally rolled his eyes. Such a Hiccup thing to say. But he’s right. “How about you try your focus on the next target, Son?”Hiccup did so eagerly, holding out a hand for an arrow, eyes already pinned to the target in question.Astrid was grinning when she placed the arrow in his waiting hand. Now that’s the kind of single minded focus that’s going to make him a very good husband indeed, as long as he turns it on me every once in a while. She had no doubts whatsoever that Hiccup would be more than willing to put his considerable ability to concentrate on puzzles and problems towards making her a very satisfied girl. And she’d return the favour, of course, with great pleasure.Hiccup was just about to release his next shot when Hector came striding into the clearing, calling for Stoick with some urgency.Distracted at the worst possible moment, Hiccup turned his head and thus the bow. His shot went flying wide of the target by a good two feet. He stared at the arrow imbedded in the ground in dismay. Odin’s saggy ancient ass! What terrible timing!Hector raised an unimpressed brow at the poor attempt but did his best to not look too disappointed. He patted Hiccup on the shoulder consolingly as he walked past. “That’s alright, Hiccup. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it with more practice.” Lots and lots more practice. Hiccup’s mouth opened to protest that he really was better than that but gave up when Hector strode on without another look. Whatever. He’ll see if he hangs around long enough. I wonder what he wants? he thought as he watched Hector hand his father a rolled up note.Astrid held a hand over her mouth to hold in the giggles at the various expressions crossing Hiccup’s face. Gods, my dad couldn’t have timed that any better. Hiccup needs to learn to ignore distractions. And I have the perfect way to do it. But maybe when we’re alone. I doubt he’d appreciated it if I stuck my tongue in his ear or smacked his ass with witnesses present.
Thor, it’s been forever since we’ve been alone. I’m feeling rather… affectionate… right now, and would like me some cuddle time with my sweetie.

Everyone, go away.

Please.
As if the belated afterthought had actually been heard by the Gods, Stoick crumpled the parchment in his massive fist and then walked the few steps over to Astrid and Hiccup. He frowned at them for a moment while he apparently came to a decision. Astrid raised a curious brow and Hiccup tilted his head sideways a bit.“What? What is it, Dad? Bad news?”Stoick frowned some more, drumming the fingers of one hand on his crossed arms. “No. Not precisely. Trader Johann has brought news of an impromptu Chieftains meeting on Berserker Island. Since the weather appears to be holding into a late fall, I’m inclined to go.”  Hiccup only had a moment to be disappointed that he was going to be left behind yet again, for Stoick immediately continued with, “And you’re coming with me, Son. It’s time you learned to sail. And the other Tribe leaders have been asking to meet you for years, no point in disappointing them any longer.”The boy was instantly transported into a state of euphoric shock. “That’s… That’s… Dad… Great... Thor.”Stoick grinned at Hiccup’s attempt at speaking past his fumbling tongue. “Glad you approve. And to make your day just a little bit better, Astrid can come too.”While Astrid’s jaw dropped at the unexpected treat, Hiccup whooped with joy, and Hector bellowed, “WHAT?!”Stoick smirked at his friend who still hadn’t quite forgiven him even though they pretended their relationship was basically back to normal. “Don’t worry, buddy, you and Alga are coming as well. I can’t sail a Viking longship all on my own, after all.”Hector huffed, and stalked off, muttering about insufferable jackasses.Stoick pretended not to hear.He focused on the kids again. “You two, go pack up your things from that camp of yours. I expect you down at the docks to help load the ship within an hour, understood?”Hiccup and Astrid nodded, wide eyed, hearts pattering with excitement. She shrugged out of her quiver and they took off like a shot. In her rush, Astrid even forgot the axe she’d left with Gobber.The older, bald, one handed, and long mustachioed man looked down at the weapon in his real hand and snorted. That’s a first. Priorities change, I suppose. Both Hiccup and Astrid had the same thought as they ran; the faster they got their things and packed up, the more time they would have to do other, more interesting, things. For who knew when they would next have an opportunity to be alone? Certainly not on a crowded ship with their parents hovering nearby.It took them fifteen minutes at a dead run to make it to the camp near the far side of the island. It took them another five to unpitch their tents and pack whatever scattered belongings they had in them into bags that would go straight to the ship. Which gave them just enough time to catch their breath before they promptly lost it again by attaching to each other by the lips in a sudden clash as Astrid tackled Hiccup down to the forest floor amongst the cluster of tents, straddling his waist as she buried her hands in his hair to hold him as tightly as possible. Not to be completely outdone, Hiccup wrapped an arm around her waist and held her just as snugly as his other hand cupped the side of her face, fingers delving into the silk of her thick hair.Their tongues and lips and teeth did all the talking for the next minute, aside from a few strangled groans and needy whimpers. Even their minds were essentially turned off as their focus narrowed down to One. Single. Thing.Connection. After their near desperate passion was satisfied, Astrid pulled up a fraction, panting, hands planting on either side of his head, and smiled into Hiccup’s brilliant emerald eyes that were more black than green at the moment. “Gods, I missed this. I think we’re going to have to try a little harder to find some ‘us’ time.”Hiccup smiled widely, licking her sweet flavour off his lips. (Which made Astrid’s breath hitch again.) “I completely agree, M’lady. ‘Us’ time is going to the top of my priority list. Just… don’t ask me where we’re going to find it with our current schedule of work and training.”"Things will calm down once the snow buries us in for the winter," she reassured. He trailed a hand up and down her slender back, wondering how far he could get away with touching her. Probably not past the belt yet. But, Thor, does she ever have a narrow waist. And I can feel the beginnings of the flare of her hips. So. Freaking. Hot. His other hand ran over the length of her long braid and came to a stop at the leather thong that held it together. I wonder… “Astrid?”“Hmmmm?” she asked as she all but drooled over the sexy long eyelashes he possessed that she’d been eyeing enviously for years. Why do the boys always get the nicer eyelashes? It’s seriously not fair. Not that I begrudge him his; his eyes wouldn’t be half as gorgeous without them. But… come on. “Can I undo your braid? I love seeing you with your hair loose.”That caught her attention for real. “You do?”He nodded, fiddling with the tie hopefully. “I do. Your hair is like spun sunlight, dappled with silvers and golds. And it’s so thick and soft. I think it’s… you, are the most beautiful thing ever.”Astrid’s heart melted into a puddle of lovestruck goo. Not that she hadn’t already been in love with him before, but geez, could he get any more perfect? She swallowed past the sudden tightness in her throat. “Ohhhhhh, Hiccup. Of course. Undo it.” She could rebraid it on the way back if Hiccup carried her bag for her.Smiling in thanks, oblivious to how he’d just rocked her world yet again, Hiccup pulled the leather tie off the end of her hair. It immediately started to unravel because of how soft and luxurious it was. He pulled off her studded leather headband and then helped the freedom of her locks along by running the fingers of both hands through the silk of it gently until it sat in waves around her shoulders, hung past her face and tickled his, and cascaded halfway down her back. There’s so much of it. So unbelievably beautiful. “I am the luckiest boy alive,” he whispered in awe, hands trailing through her hair and down her back in a mesmerized pattern.Astrid blushed becomingly. “I think I’m pretty lucky too, to have you.” She leaned down and kissed him gently, sweetly, before tracing a finger over the lines of his face from his adorable nose to his elegant cheekbones to his strong jawline. So ridiculously cute, she thought with a mental girly sigh.Hiccup captured her hand in his and brought her finger to his lips, kissing the tip.Astrid liked that. She tilted her head and kissed his hand in return.“I have a confession to make,” he said with a rueful grin, eyes meeting hers over their joined hands.“What’s that?” she asked as she entwined her fingers with his, leaning back a bit to study him. She blinked at the extra hardness she felt against her rear end, but pride made her stay where she'd put herself. And then the look on his face had her wriggling ever so slightly out of sheer Loki-like mischievousness. Hiccup's mind shorted out for a moment or ten at the new position, but then he tugged his hand out of hers and grabbed her waist, pulling her forward, back into safe territory. Any more of the sweet torture of her heated weight on him where she really didn't need to be and things were going to get embarrassing. “Uhhhhhh, yeah. Confession. Right.” He blinked a couple times, rebooting his brain back to a minute ago. Now that she was in a safer zone, kneeling above his abdomen, and he could think again, he raised a hand and ran it through her hair, letting the silken strands sift through his fingers like a waterfall of gold. “You remember the day I almost burnt my foot right through?”Curious, Astrid nodded. “Yeah?”“That was the first time I noticed you were a ‘girl’ per se. Your hair had come half undone, so you pulled it out the rest of the way and BOOM. Just like that. I SAW you. I’ve been hopelessly in love with you ever since.”And… her heart melted again.  “Hiccup. Gods. You’re killing me with your words right now.”His mouth quirked up. “Yeah, well, you were killing me with your body a minute ago. You gotta watch were you sit. There’s only so much stimulation a male can take before they turn into imbeciles with only one thought left in their brain.”Astrid burst into a peal of delighted giggles, leaning forward to rest her head on his shoulder. She calmed after a minute, taking a deep breath, which gave her a good whiff of his scent; fresh perspiration and pine needles. Yum. Hiccup smiled at the side of her blonde head indulgently. She could laugh at him if she wanted. He didn’t mind. He was trying to be funny, after all. He stroked her hair and back as her giggles slowly subsided.Burying her hands in his shaggy mess of hair again, she raised enough to smile at him. “I have a confession also; I’ve loved you longer. Like, at least a year longer. I think the first time I knew was when you made my current headband for my twelfth birthday. There’s a reason I wear it all the time other than its intended purpose. It’s because YOU made it.”Hiccup cupped her face again in his long fingered hand, rubbing his thumb over her plump lower lip in a gentle caress. “Now you’re the one killing with words, M’lady.”Her brilliant blue eyes shone as she smiled coyly at him, kissing the pad of his thumb. “That was the idea, babe. Fair’s fair.”His eyes lit up. “Oh. Is that how it is? Well then…” He growled playfully and rolled them over in a sudden move, pinning her beneath him with his hands on her shoulders, making rumbling noises of hunger as he nipped at her neck and jaw and ear with tiny bites. “I guess... It’s my… Turn… To kill… You with… My body…” he said between love bites. “You look… Very edible… Right now.”Astrid giggled and wiggled, only half-heartedly trying to pull him off by his hair because she loved it but had to keep up the appearance of protestation. When she couldn’t take the tickling bites and kisses anymore, she rolled them back over. “My turn,” she warned, a fiendish light in her eyes as she leaned down to return the treatment.“HHHHHHMMMMM, HHHH, HHHHMMM!”The sound of a loudly cleared throat had Astrid flinging herself off of Hiccup in a flash of tangled limbs that eventually sorted themselves out.She looked up in horror, expecting to see Stoick, or worse, her father.Instead, she sighed in relief when it was only Fishlegs, his bulky silhouette unmistakable as he pointedly faced away from them. Thank Thor. Stumbling up onto her feet, Astrid pushed her hair out of her eyes with a slightly shaking hand.Hiccup was almost as quick off the ground, but he remembered her headband and hair tie. He fished them out of the forest debris, then handed them to her and she smiled at him. Brushing himself off, Hiccup walked over to the other boy. “Hey. Watcha doin’ here?” he asked as casually as he could manage.Fishlegs glanced at him, blushing worse than Hiccup was, amusingly. “I, um, was sent by your father to make sure you don’t get sidetracked. Turns out he was right,” he added in a mumble. I certainly got an eyeful of cavorting Hiccstrid that I didn't need to see. Now I'm going to have to fight off that image every time I go to sleep at night. And, Thor, why does Astrid have to be so bloody beautiful? It really isn't fair for one's peace of mind.Oh Gods. Now Hiccup was definitely the one blushing worse. “Uhhhh. Thanks.”Fishlegs glanced at Astrid as she appeared beside Hiccup, carrying their bags, which she handed to him. “Don’t mention it. Please.”The couple nodded, still blushing, and they all made their way back towards the village in awkward silence.By the time they made it to the docks, though, things were back to normal as Astrid coaxed Fishlegs into talking about his latest research into dragon lore. Her hair was once again braided and you’d never know that any canoodling had been going on.If you didn’t count the pine needles in Hiccup’s hair.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Power Shifts:
Hiccup loved sailing.They’d been skipping over the gentle waves prompted by a strong breeze for maybe five minutes and he already knew that sailing was going to be one of his favourite pastimes.He stood as far forward on the longship as he could, climbing onto the rail of the boat and clinging to the neck of the dragon figurehead with an exultant laugh as the wind whipped through his hair and clothes. It almost felt like he was flying.Theoretically, he should resent his father for denying him this amazing experience for so long, but Hiccup couldn’t get past how happy he was lately to even dredge up any negative feelings.The first hour of Hiccup’s first trip off the island had been less thrilling but nearly just as fascinating.Watching his father and fellow tribe members sit at the oars and fall into an easy rhythm of rowing to clear them of the harbor had brought a new appreciation of a Viking’s ability to actually work together when properly inspired. He’d taken a turn at the oars and had lasted for about five minutes before the unfamiliar muscle workout had literally had said muscles screaming. Fortunately for his ego, Astrid hadn’t done much better, since she’d only been off the island a few times in her entire life to visit her grandparents. Rowing was obviously something one had to practice at constantly. (And it explained why Vikings ended up with such huge muscles.)They’d ended up on a fairly calm ocean that had suddenly looked even more endless than Hiccup had ever thought possible, despite looking at it for his entire life. It was both intimidating and awe inspiring, making him feel like a tiny flea upon a giant yak. The sails had been lowered, again with easy teamwork, but the lack of wind had prompted Stoick to encourage his people to keep rowing. (The idea of sitting idle on the ocean when there was business to be about abhorrent to him.)But then the wind had finally picked up and the sails had filled with a snap, and just like that, their momentum increased to twice what rowing alone had achieved. The Vikings had cheered and put away the oars, happy to let the elements do the work.Now Hiccup found himself grinning like a fool and closing his eyes to better imagine that he actually was soaring through the sky like a dragon. His blood was thrumming through his veins like never before. (Okay, maybe in a similar fashion to when he was kissing Astrid, but certainly not during any other normal activity.)He felt like he could stay like this forever.“Whatcha doin’?”Hiccup turned his upper body around so fast at the sound of Astrid’s voice that he almost slipped off the rail, catching himself just in time with a second hand on the dragon neck. He grinned down at the curious girl who had her hands on her hips and an eyebrow raised just so. “I’m flying, or pretending it anyway. You should try it; it’s the best feeling ever.”Her pale eyebrow rose higher. “Oh, really?”  Her tone clearly said she wasn’t impressed.Hiccup took a couple seconds to think about why that would be since she was usually even more adventurous than himself, and then he felt himself flush in mortification. “I mean, the best feeling that wasn’t inspired by you, of course, M'lady. You win in The Ability To Wreck Havoc With My Senses category, hands down.”Astrid hummmmphed, mollified, and smirking, she said, “As it should be, Hiccup Haddock.” Then she vaulted up onto the railing and rose easily onto her feet on the other side of the dragon figurehead. Her arms wrapped around the neck nearly over his, and he put one hand on her forearm so that it was almost like they were holding each other.   She leaned backwards to look at him. “Now what?”“Now you just close your eyes and feel the wind.”“That’s it?”“That’s it.”So she did.It wasn’t long before Astrid was laughing like a bell and holding out her far arm to catch even more wind, feeling it whip her bangs back and her skirt tight to her legs.
Thor, Hiccup was right. It does feel like I’m flying.
“This. Is. Amazing!”“I know.” He’d never been so pleased to show HER something new for a change.She leaned back again to catch his eye, and then flicked hers upwards to the top of the enormous dragon head. “I bet this would be even better from up there.”“Uhhhh. But what if we fall?”“We won’t,” she said confidently. “The top is flat and big enough for both of us, we can rest our feet in its mouth, and you can hang on to the horn on its nose, and I can hang on to you.”Well, when you put it like that… All of Hiccup’s doubts about safety flew away on the wind and he nodded eagerly. “All right. Let’s do it.”She pointed her chin upwards when he hadn’t moved after a couple of seconds. “You first, genius.”“Oh. Right.” You can do this. It’s just like climbing a tree. And with that incredibly non-reassuring pep talk, Hiccup started climbing up the neck of the dragon. Fortunately, it was quite ornate and had lots of places to use as handholds. Only seconds later, he was all the way to the top with a foot in the tooth-filled mouth , hanging on tight as the ship slid down into a trough between waves. He sidled past the horns at the back of the head that Astrid would probably be able to rest back against if she wanted and then swung a leg over so he was sitting on the dragon’s snout.He’d never felt so daring in his entire life and he loved it.A couple seconds later, Astrid slid in behind him and his breath caught as her arms wrapped around his waist from behind. Thank you, Thor. “See, perfectly safe,” the tiny warrior girl said in his ear.Still clutching the horn in front of him tightly, Hiccup turned his head just enough so he could see her. “Sure.” He faced forwards again and closed his eyes, losing himself to the wind again. Astrid was right; it is even better up here. “Astrid.”“What?”“Thank you.”She hugged him tighter, her chest and the skulls holding on her spiky shoulder guards pressed against his back (but he was choosing not to concentrate on the metal objects), and tucked her chin into his shoulder, nuzzling his jaw briefly with her nose. “You’re welcome.”They spent a couple of minutes just feeling, hearts thumping with the excitement, when something quite astounding occurred to Hiccup.“Astrid.”“Yeah?”“Guess what.”“I have no idea what’s going on in your mind, Hiccup, just tell me.”He chuckled. “I suppose we’re equal on that point,” he admitted. “But what I was going to say was…  Guess what... We’re riding a dragon.”She blinked a couple of times, eyes going wide, and then she threw her head back and laughed joyfully for a few seconds before resting her head back on his shoulder. “Oh, Thor, Hiccup. Only you would think that.”He shrugged in her arms. “Well, it’s true.”She snorted. “In a fashion, I guess. It IS fun, though. I’ll admit that. But technically, we’re riding a boat.”He rolled his eyes over his shoulder at her as best as he could. “Dream crusher.”She smirked.“But what if it was possible, to, you know, ride real dragons?” he asked all of a sudden. “Kind of like riding horses like people do elsewhere in the world.”Astrid thought about that for a whole half second. “Yeah, right. Now THAT is never going to happen. Dragons are vicious killers, Hiccup. They will never be tamable like a horse or a yak or even one of those hump backed things they ride in the deserts of Arabia.”“Camel.”“Right.”He sighed, eyes staring blankly at the horizon. “But what if…”“No.”“But...”“No. You’d have a better chance of catching that Night Fury than ever taming even the least deadly of the dragon breeds.”He huffed. “You are definitely a dream smasher.”“But you still love me.”“Always.” He smiled over his shoulder at her, daring to take a hand off the horn and squeeze one of her hands. She squeezed back and the comfortable silence resumed for a while.But his eyes were on the horizon again and a thought had gotten stuck in his mind that he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to shake.What if it WERE possible to tame a dragon? Our world would never be the same again.  Curled up against his beautiful almost-mate, Toothless yawned widely, basking in the fall sunshine that shone nearly directly down on his shimmering black scales. Feeling content and well rested after a long night of hunting and flying, he slowly blinked his eyes open. Their little oasis of tranquility at the far end of the island was as beautiful as ever, if not more so, with the few leafy trees changing colours to a rainbow of fire colours.Over the course of the summer and fall, they had been gradually testing the boundaries of how far the Queen would let them go before she summoned them back with a mental burst of agony. It was never far enough to get anywhere near Toothless’ home island or Luna’s curious home under the ocean, but it did give them plenty of opportunities to explore more islands and meet (or sometimes avoid at all costs) more dragons. Some of the islands in the acceptable radius from the Queen’s island contained humans, but not many, fortunately, and they were easy enough to sense, with their noisy and smelly ways, before they flew into danger.There was one particularly rocky island, though, that they had found which they couldn’t seem to fly onto. It was like there was some sort of instinct that screamed at them to stay away. So they heeded it. It was a human inhabited island anyway, so it didn’t bother them to skip it in their explorations.Lately, they’d taken to stealing fuzzy animals from other human settlements for the Queen’s dinner, as opposed to their shared island with the intriguing young human couple. It was a strange thing, and they hadn’t really discussed the change of hunting grounds, but the night that they flew over a herd of sheep belonging to a different tribe of humans and Luna thought, ‘Let’s take one of these sheep for the Queen tonight,’ it had somehow just felt like the right thing to do to repeat that from then on.Uncurling, Toothless rolled over onto his back and stretched out as he scratched against the sand by the lake, grunting quietly with pleasure. Coming to a stop after a minute of delightful wriggling, he panted up at the blue sky, focusing away from the bright sun on a lone cloud that determinedly defied the otherwise monotonous expanse of azure. Why do we avoid hunting here now, anyway? Nothing’s changed except for our telepathic connections to the young humans. Rolling back over, and sitting up on his haunches, he nudged the side of Luna’s head with his nose, prompting a low growl of displeasure at being disturbed from her slumber.He ignored the warning and nudged her again, mentally calling, “Luna. Wake up!” at the same time.Growling slightly louder, she uncurled her head from under her wing and shot him a venomous look from her slitted eyes that essentially matched but usually outdid the blue of the sky above them. “What?”Undeterred, Toothless smiled at her widely. “I was thinking.”
“And you had to wake me up to tell me that?”

“Of course!”

“I was dreaming about home. My parents. My siblings.”
Toothless’ expression immediately sobered, and he slumped a little. “I’m sorry. I’ll just leave you alone. You can go back to sleep and resume your dream.”“That’s not how it works,” she snapped. “Dreams don’t just come back on command like that.”
“I’m sorry. I won't wake you up for inconsequential things ever again.”
Luna sighed quietly to herself as he started to slink off dejectedly, wingtips dragging in the sand. She sat up with a quick flutter of her wings to stretch them out. “Toothless.”He ignored her, depressed from having displeased her.“Toothless.” She added a touch of command to her tone.He stopped, but didn’t turn around. “What, Luna?”
“Come back.”
He seriously thought about not doing so.Usually, he didn’t mind that she was the dominant one in their relationship, since she was slightly older, and it was generally wise to please the female if one wanted to have a long and lasting partnership. But he was suddenly feeling like their power balance was way too one-sided.  Toothless drew himself up as big as he could, raising his wings above his back a bit to make a shield between them, turned, and studiously looked out over the lake. “Why should I? You can tell me whatever it is you want to say just as well when we’re apart as when we’re together.”Luna stared at the top of his ears in astonishment. (The only part of his head she could see.)For the first time ever, he wasn’t trying to be as close to her as possible. He wasn’t immediately catering to her wishes. He was actually shutting her out in a fashion.She didn’t like it. But at the same time, she respected it.From one moment to the next, Toothless had suddenly decided on a little independence.
Toothless is growing up.
Taking a deep breath to calm the little surge of excitement that thought sent through her, Luna tried again. “Come back, please. I like to look at your gorgeous eyes when you talk to me. I want to know what you were thinking about that had you so eager for me to hear about it as well.”Oh, he liked that. He liked that she thought his eyes were pretty. He liked that she was almost apologizing for snapping at him. But he still wasn’t budging.A need had been awoken in him with his defiance that he wasn’t entirely conscious of, but he knew he liked being on the other side of the power play and he wanted to feel more of it.Lowering his wings back to their normal resting place, Toothless turned his head and glanced back at her. “How about you come here? The lake is beautiful with the sun shining on it and the fish are dancing under the surface, making silver flashes. I would like it if you would sit with me and we can look at it together.”Luna couldn’t fault his reasoning and found herself walking to him. “All right.” A few more steps and she settled on her haunches beside the suddenly way more intriguing Night Fury.He looked at her with pleased eyes and settled a wing over her, encouraging her to lean her head on his shoulder. She purred in contentment and relaxed into him, looking out at the lake that was just as beautiful as he’d described. She hadn’t noticed until that moment, but he was now somewhat bigger than her and that caught the attention of her hormones as well. “This is nice.”A deep rumbling purr echoed from his chest in harmony with hers. “Yes, it is.”In that moment, their dynamic forever changed and a true partnership was formed.And the black ended up ever so slightly more dominant than the white, as it should be, considering Toothless was an Alpha, but just didn’t know it yet."What were you going to tell me earlier?” Luna asked suddenly after a few minutes of soul-soothing silence.Toothless looked at her, startled. He’d actually completely forgotten his earlier train of thought and it took him a moment to dredge it back to the front of his mind. “Oh… Um, I had been thinking about how our hunting patterns have changed since we started eavesdropping on the little humans. I’m sure it’s been many nights since we took an animal from this island; have you noticed?”Luna tilted her head slightly as she thought about that. “You’re right. We haven’t. Why not?”He shrugged. “I don’t know. Clearly it has something to do with our telepathic connections to Hiccup and Astrid.”
“Clearly. What if… What if by connecting to them, for some reason, we are becoming more sympathetic to the village as a whole? What if our instincts are starting to think of them like our family?”

“Which would make taking their animals feel almost like we are stealing animals from our own family?”

“Exactly.”
Toothless stared at his almost-mate in something resembling shock. “That’s just weird.” She grinned back. “I know, right?”He started to chuckle, which soon morphed into deep belly laughs. “By the Great Dragon, that’s the most ridiculous thing ever!” Luna joined him, her laughter sweeter and softer, but no less amused. “Can you imagine? Dragons and humans merging into a cooperative family unit?”He laughed even harder. “Never going to happen. Humans are too stupid to ever get past their preconceived notions about us.”Luna snorted elegantly. “Maybe not stupid exactly, Astrid is smart enough, I suppose. But definitely too stubborn to change a deep-set point of view.”“I suppose that’s more accurate. Hiccup is quite intelligent, I believe,” Toothless said almost proudly. “He likes to draw… like me. And he makes clever things.”“Well, Astrid likes to defend her own, like a proper dragoness,” Luna stated just as proudly, not to be outdone.“My human’s learning to fight,” he said defensively, somehow feeling like Hiccup had been insulted.“I didn’t say your human wasn’t fierce enough, but since you started it…” she said, flicking her tail against him, her eyes glinting teasingly.He growled playfully, crouching down and swishing his tail in warning. “Oh, now you’re just asking for it.”She backed up with a comic widening of the eyes. “Oh, no! The great Toothless Night Fury is going to pounce on me. Whatever shall I do?”Toothless chortled and growled at the same time, his entire backend now wriggling in preparation for the aforementioned pounce.  “You could attempt to run,” he supplied helpfully.Giggling, she backed up faster, deliberately aiming for further down the beach were the lake had an abrupt drop off against the rock wall. “Oooooo, I’m so scared.”And with that, he leapt at her.But she was ready for it and deftly dodged and then spun. In the next bound, she was leaping into the deep water of the lake, diving effortlessly underneath, wings tucked tight to her lithe body.Toothless recovered from his miss and bounded after her, plunging into the water and swimming after the streak of white that was arrowing through the water. “No fair! You know I can’t beat you in the water!”She merely laughed in his mind and then swept around in a circle, now aiming straight for him.Eyes widening in alarm, he started swimming as fast as he could back for the shore.He didn’t make it.Luna crashed into him from above, sending them tumbling though the water in peals of mental laughter. He kept up his determined direction towards the beach whenever he could, but she kept leaping on him from above and pushing him back underwater. “You’re not getting away from me that easy.”With one last determined lunge, he did just that, finally making it back to the sand. “Ha! And you said I wouldn’t…” He gulped as she flew right of the water and crashed into him again.They rolled end over end on the beach for a bit until coming to a stop all the way up on the grass.Toothless grinned, panting happily with his tongue half hanging out the side, as he found himself on top. “I win.”She wrinkled her nose at him. “Hardly. I clearly won, my deluded dearheart.”“Whatever you say, my love.” He nuzzled his nose against hers teasingly before rolling off her body and lying on his back beside her.They spent a few moments in quiet contentment, just catching their breaths.Eventually, she rolled over and rested her head on chest, looking up at him. “Hey. Do you think, going back to what we were talking about before, that we should continue to hunt elsewhere for the Queen?”Toothless looked down his nose at her, sighing quietly. “I don’t know. It seems weird, to be considerate of a human village, but I AM feeling rather sympathetic towards them right now.”“So am I,” she admitted.
“I guess it’s not too much trouble to get fuzzy animals elsewhere. An extra hour of flying, maybe. And it’s not like we have anything else important to do.”

“True. But what about the other dragons that hunt here? Do we let them continue doing so?”

“What other option do we have? I’m not going to start fighting my own kind just for the sake of some weird sense of affinity towards a human boy. And even if I felt like it, we’d be staggeringly outnumbered.”
Luna sighed softly and closed her eyes. “No. You’re right. We let the other dragons hunt as usual. It’s probably also best if we never mention what exactly we’re doing with our little humans, too.”
“I had no intentions of doing so. They probably wouldn’t understand.”
She slitted an eye open for a second, seeing him still looking down at her with soft eyes despite their serious conversation. His adoration made her feel all warm and bubbly, as it always had. Purring in her chest, she snuggled into his side a little more and draped a wing over his torso. “No, they definitely would not,” she said sleepily as she fell back into a light doze.The young Night Fury wrapped his free wing around her in return, eyes slitting nearly closed as he watched her nap. Despite the fact that he’d lost his family and was subservient to a tyrannical Queen, Toothless felt like the luckiest young dragon in the world to have won the heart of such a beautiful and unique (to him at least) dragoness.    After a few minutes, his eyes slid all the way closed, but instead of falling asleep like Luna, Toothless went mentally searching for the young mind that he found such amusement in listening to, since the boy spent much of his time thinking about the golden Astrid, and Toothless could usually relate to most of his thoughts.It took maybe a couple seconds longer than normal to make the connection, but once he was in the boy’s mind, Toothless immediately saw through Hiccup’s eyes and heard his thoughts.Thor, this is brilliant! I want to go sailing every day! “Astrid! We have got to talk the parents into letting us go on at least some of the fishing trips!”The boy’s ears were filled with soft laughter, and a sense of slender arms wrapped around his waist brought satisfaction to Hiccup. “Whatever you say, babe,” the girl said with clear amusement.Toothless then saw Astrid’s smiling face as Hiccup beamed at her, and then he saw the ocean passing beneath Hiccup in a speeding and bouncing blur, something he was quite used to seeing on his own, but never from the human’s eyes. It was rather disconcerting.And alarming, as Toothless figured out what exactly was happening.Pulling away from Hiccup’s mind for the moment, Toothless delved into Luna’s, body now vibrating with a strange sense of anxiety. “Luna! Wake up!”The dragoness grumbled, slitting her eyes open. Not again. Didn’t we just have this discussion? “What is it this time?”Toothless rolled out from under her, too energized to lie down any longer.Luna gasped as her pillow suddenly left and she flopped indignantly forwards.Toothless barely noticed. He started pacing around the sputtering Light Fury. “Hiccup and Astrid have left the island! They’re on one of those dragon boat things!”That got her attention in a hurry and she sat up onto her haunches, eyes wide. “They did what?!” Stoick climbed up from the hold, still smiling from the memory of Hiccup turning redder than a tomato when Hector had noticed dried pine needles stuck in his son’s hair. They’d all been rowing at the time, Hiccup making a valiant if rather pathetic attempt on the long oar that probably outweighed him, Stoick on the oar in front, and Hector on the oar behind.
“Eh, Hiccup. You know your hair’s full of needles, right?” Hector said, curiosity rampantly apparent in his tone.

Stoick turned around on his bench a bit, keeping up the natural rhythm of the oars along with the fifteen other rowers, sending his personal ship shooting forward with each of their powerful (mostly) digs into the water. He raised a brow in curiosity. His son immediately flushed and started stuttering in the most telling fashion as a hand came up to feel the back of his head, which made the spinning oar almost smack him in the face before he managed to catch it again. “I… I…Um…Fell. In the forest.”

Hector hadn’t bought it, if his skeptical expression was anything to go by. “You fell.”

Hiccup nodded almost frantically, eyes refusing to meet Stoick’s now laughing ones. “Yeah. Tripped on a root.”

“Which made you fall backwards?” Hector still wasn’t buying it.

The other rowers near them were now tittering with suppressed mirth. Including Astrid, who was on the oar opposite of Hiccup. (And doing a better job of it, despite her slight stature.)

“Yes. It was a slippery root.”

“Un hunh.”

Stoick and Hector locked eyes for a moment before they both looked over at Astrid, who was silently cracking up. “Methinks the ‘root’ was a female one,” Stoick said, laughing hard enough to make his vast shoulders shake. He wondered if the ‘trip’ was a fighting maneuver or something else entirely. Glancing back at Hiccup again, Stoick decided on the latter; that kind of mortified blush could not belong to anything less than a full on make out session on the ground, with the girl on top, apparently. Stoick decided it was probably a good thing Hector couldn’t see Hiccup’s face right now, or his son might be soaring over the rail and into the sea to take an assisted ‘swim’.

He was grateful he had a son and not a daughter. As a protective father, one’s outlook on such things was vastly different for the two genders.
The first thing Stoick saw when he walked on deck was Hector wearing his ‘that boy is much too close to my daughter’ glower again. And then came the peal of delighted laughter, which drew Stoick’s eyes to follow Hector’s gaze towards the prow of the ship.Hiccup! Thor, what is he doing? How did he even get up there? He nearly had a heart attack when he saw Hiccup and Astrid seated on top of the dragon figurehead. They were being splashed by the seawater as the ship cut through the waves and Hiccup’s arms were thrown wide as Astrid clung to his waist.Stoick caught his breath and drew in a giant lungful of air to yell at Hiccup to get his scrawny arse down before he fell into the ocean and got himself eaten by a passing Scauldron. “Hic…”His words were cut off by a hard punch to the arm.Stoick turned his head and glared at the culprit.“Leave him be,” Alga said firmly, not afraid of his glare in the slightest.“But he’s going to get himself killed!”“You have to let him take risks sometime, Stoick. You have to let him grow up and be his own man. You can’t protect him forever.”“But…” he got out, gesturing rather frantically at the precarious situation at the front of the ship.“No. Can’t you see that he’s perfectly fine and having the time of his life?”Stoick reluctantly looked at the situation with new eyes and saw that Astrid’s mother was right. And the woman clearly wasn’t worried about her daughter, who was in the same position atop a wet, wooden dragon head. Hiccup and Astrid were still laughing, and pretending they were flying, if he had to guess.A slow, if small, smile crossed his face. That actually looks kind of fun, he had to admit, and it made him wonder why no one else had ever tried it as far as he knew. “I suppose we can leave them there for now. But if the waves get any higher, they’ll have to come down.”Alga smiled at him approvingly, which sent a rare feeling of warmth through his chest. “That’s fine. And I agree.” She patted him on the arm. “It’s nice to see you acting with a little sense these days, Stoick. Valka would be proud.”Thor, why did she have to mention Valka? Stoick smiled tightly and walked away, closer to the prow, dodging bodies and crisscrossing ropes, before he said something he’d regret, even though he knew she was right.Stoick sat on a bench as close to his delighted son as he could get, just in case, and watched him have actual fun like a kid should for the first time in years. Hiccup had been apprenticing with Gobber since he was six years old, which left little time for playing. All of the children of Berk were expected to help out and do their share of the chores, but not all day, every day. In fact, except for playing with Astrid in the evenings, Stoick couldn’t remember ever seeing Hiccup run around the village with a flock of other children, laughing and just being silly.Hiccup had always been different; smarter, more efficiency oriented, unfazed by being alone, but he should have had more friends than just Astrid. He should have been just as carefree as the rest of them.But he wasn’t. Hiccup was more like a tiny little adult than many of the actual adults.It only drove home how bad of a father he had been without even realizing it.
Valka would have known how to encourage him to play more and study or work less. Valka would have noticed that the tribe as a whole thought little of him. Valka would have taken him sailing years ago and not been so stupidly overprotective of him that he didn’t get to experience all that life had to offer.

Valka loved to sail too.

She was so beautiful, standing in the prow, the wind whipping her long hair back like a banner, as she soaked in everything the sea had to give her.

Just like he’s… doing now.

Oh Thor, they’re so alike, it hurts. Thor, it hurts.
Stoick cast his misty eyes skyward, swallowing back the lump in his throat. My darling, I hope you can see him from up there in Valhalla. He’s so much more your son than mine. I’m sorry I messed up the first part of his life, but I swear I’m trying harder now.
I miss you, Valka. I’ll always miss you until we’re reunited again.
The supposedly undefeatable Chief of Vikings muffled a sniff in his sleeve and then turned his focus back down to Hiccup, who was riding a wooden dragon as it bounced over the sea. The wisp of a boy turned his head as if sensing his gaze and saw his father sitting just behind and below him. A flash of alarm passed across his features until he realized that Stoick wasn’t going to yell at him for doing something dangerous, nearly making Stoick flinch at how wrong that was. Then, as Stoick smiled up at him reassuringly, Hiccup returned his smile, which grew and grew until it nearly went from ear to ear and the boy's green eyes sparkled like gems.“Look, Dad, I’m flying!” he called, throwing his arms wide again, his hair whipping back and merging with Astrid’s blonde locks. (Her braid had come out in the wind.) Her smile was nearly as wide as Hiccup’s from where her chin was perched on his narrow shoulder as she let go of his waist to put her arms out too, interlocking their fingers in the most heartbreakingly beautiful sight Stoick had ever seen. They were flying together, as they always had, above and beyond the rest of the world.Stoick knew in that moment that together they would somehow accomplish things greater than any Viking had ever dreamed of.“Yes, Son. Yes, you are.”Stoick finally felt like he was doing something right.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Berserker Island (part 1):
Being curious dragons, and having nothing better to do, Toothless and Luna flew after their young humans, catching up to the boat in only minutes with their vastly superior speed. They stayed high enough and far enough back to just keep the boat in sight, so that even if a human did happen to glance their way they would see nothing more than two random birds in flight.After flying at a snail’s pace through the sky for more than an hour, Toothless huffed, bored out of his mind. Hiccup wasn’t even being good entertainment, just staring out over the water, his thoughts a repetitive jumble of ‘Astrid, love Astrid’, ‘Ooooo, look at that fish!’ (or whale, or shark, or aquatic dragon type, and so on) and ‘I wish I could fly’. Toothless smirked at that last one the first few times he heard it, but even that got old after awhile. “Hey, Luna.”The glittering white dragoness turned her head and looked at him. “What?”
“Where do you think they’re going?”

“How should I know? There are a number of islands in this direction. It could be any of them. Some even with human settlements on them.”
“True.” Toothless gazed off in the distance, mentally mapping the area in front of them. “You don’t think...”“What? Don’t think what?” she demanded when his thought trailed off and he didn’t finish it for too many seconds.Toothless looked at her, shiny black wings flapping once to maintain his glide through the sky, and green eyes filling with concern. “You don’t think that they’re going to the island where we can’t follow?”
“Which one? There’s a few that fit that description.”

“THE Island.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh! THAT island. I hope not. Just being near it makes my scales try and crawl right off my body.” She shuddered lightly in memory.Toothless agreed with her assessment of the effects the island had on them. “I hope not, too.”Seven long hours later, as the sun was hovering over the horizon, it became very clear that THE Island was the humans’ destination.Disappointed that they couldn’t continue to spy on their chosen humans up close, Toothless and Luna decided that they would give up and go hunt for their Queen and then go home, intending to find out from Hiccup’s and Astrid’s thoughts later what they’d been up to.Hopefully not telling anyone that they saw a Night Fury, though, Toothless thought with one last glance over his shoulder at the boat as it approached the craggy mountain island bathed in the gleaming light of the setting sun. I would hate to have to kill them because of it. Only a few minutes later, a four winged dragon and his rider flew into the area on one of their regular sweeps of the skies, looking for dragons in distress or other entertaining trouble to get into.Valka all but froze on Cloudjumper’s back as she recognized the clan crest on the sail of the dragon boat closing in on Berserker Island; an island which had far more than the usual number of dragon boats docked in its harbour. Her hand flew up to her chest in an automatic reaction to try and hold in the sudden pounding of her heart. “Stoic,” she gasped.“Stoic?” her dragon inquired curiously.“Yes. Stoic. My mate. You know, the one you stole me from.” She wasn’t quite successful in keeping the resentment from her tone.Over the last fourteen years, they’d flown far and wide, covering the entirety of the Barbaric Archipelago and way, way beyond, all the way to the mainland in three directions, but the one place Cloudjumper had refused to fly or even go anywhere near was Berk because he was afraid that she would change her mind and leave him. Which was silly, because Valka hadn’t wanted to return to her home, not really, not with the way they hunted dragons, but she had been dying for what felt like an eternity for even just a glimpse of her husband and son, just to know that they were all right.And somehow, in all that time, she’d never stumbled upon a Berk longship sailing elsewhere, not even a fishing expedition.Until now.“Ahhhh. Him. The big human with the evil axe.” Cloudjumper pointedly looked at his wing that had an old, faded scar on it from said axe.“Yes, him.” She pulled out her spyglass and trained it on the deck of the ship. Her heart stuttered again when she almost immediately spotted the giant and unmistakable frame of her husband standing in the prow of the ship. His profile was to her, and he looked just as handsome, or even more so than her memories. His bright red beard was even more prolific than she remembered, too. Thor, he’s still just as tempting as ever, she thought as her insides squirmed with remembered nights of passion. If only he wasn’t such a stubborn arse. She watched as he gestured to someone and then her entire system shut down again as a teenage boy, with wild auburn hair just like hers (but much shorter), joined Stoick at the prow and getting all but buried under the arm her husband flung over his narrow shoulders. He was slim and fairly short, just barely coming up to Stoick’s chest, which made him small for his age. But then, she’d always known her son would take after her more so than his father when he was born so tiny and earned his permanent nickname. (There was nothing Horrendous about her son, and she refused to call him that, no matter what tradition dictated). Her family had all been late bloomers, not finishing their growing in height until their late teens, and never truly bulking up like most Vikings. Hiccup. Oh, my sweet little Hiccup. Look at you. So handsome. So like me.
I should have tried harder to see you sooner.
Her heart ached with misery and joy as she watched her two men talk to each other, smiles on their faces as Stoick pointed something out over on the island they were approaching. They get along so well. I’m so happy they do. Not that it was in doubt. Stoick turned into the world’s biggest pile of Viking mush when he first saw Hiccup. Her heart warmed even further when a petite blonde girl a fraction or two taller than her son moved to tuck herself into Hiccup’s side, sliding her arm around his waist as he did the same to her. He brushed a kiss over her temple and smiled adoringly at her; a look she returned before they both turned their attention back to whatever Stoick was saying.
Alga’s daughter. It must be. Astrid, I think she called her. She looks like her. Well, a slimmer and much younger version, but still, she definitely looks like Alga. She’s perfect for Hiccup. And look how in love they are. I remember when Stoick and I used to look at each other like that. Before the never-ending fights about not killing the dragons because they were more intelligent and less vicious than he gave them credit for.
Wouldn’t Stoick just die if he knew I was right and he was wrong? she thought smugly as she patted the dragon she was currently sitting on. A dragon who trilled in amused agreement as he blatantly listened in on her thoughts.As her dragon hovered high up in the sky with gentle beats of his massive wings, Valka watched Stoick’s longship coast into the harbour. With the assistance of the oars, the ship was neatly and efficiently parked in a tight spot along one of the overcrowded docks. As she watched her little family disembark and be greeted by a man she vaguely recognized as Oswald the Agreeable, the Chief of the Berserker clan, along with a few other chiefs from neighbouring clans, an idea began to form in her mind.“Cloudjumper, I know you don’t like to fly too close to that island, but do you think you can at least get me to that little outcropping of rocks over there?” she asked, looking at a clear space hanging over the ocean below and nowhere near the village in the center of the island.
“It will be uncomfortable, but yes, I think I can do that.”
“Thank you,” she patted his neck gratefully. “We’ll come back after full dark, and do just that. I want to go see me son up close, even if he can’t know it’s me. There should be enough strangers wandering around the village right now that one more shouldn’t raise an alarm.”“If you’re sure that is what you want," Cloudjumper's mental voice rumbled through her mind doubtfully. “I am,” she said, spyglass still trained on her husband, son, and Astrid as they moved up the pathway that had been chipped out of the rocks and supplemented with bridges as necessary. “I may never get this chance again.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Berserker Island (part 2):
If he wasn’t currently standing on an island he’d never seen before and looking at people he’d never met, Hiccup would probably swear that he was dreaming and had been all day.From his first archery lesson (which he was definitely going to pursue further), to kissing Astrid in the forest, to his first ever boat ride, so far the day had been like a perfect dream.And now this.His father pushed him forward half a step on the dock, presenting him to four extra large chieftains and their hangers-on and all but boomed out, “Oswald! It’s been too long, my friend! And Hagan! Looking good. Drugger, also good to see you again. Alvin." Only a brief and barely polite nod to the last before he continued. "But look who I brought! My son, Hiccup!”It didn’t even matter to Hiccup that the other chiefs only gave him cursory once-overs before nodding politely (clearly unimpressed but not willing to aggravate Stoick with their true opinions ) because his father had proudly introduced him like Hiccup was a normal sized teenaged Viking.
And speaking of normal… There’s a rather scary looking specimen of young Vikinghood eyeballing me like I might make a tasty snack.
The older teenage boy – who looked about eighteen, had three blue lines tattooed over his left eye, and wore a truly impressively horned helmet - was pushed forward just like Hiccup had been. A move he didn’t seem to appreciate, if the look of annoyance he shot at Oswald was any indication. The Berserker chief wore the same boastful look that Stoick had, but he definitely had more claim to it.  “Nice to finally meet you, Hiccup. This is my son, Dagur. You two should get along well, since you’ll both be leaders of your tribes one day. Great ones, I should think.” (He was only looking at Dagur when he said the last.)Dagur liked that, at least, as he smirked and puffed out his already well developed chest. “Naturally.” The green eyed boy eyeballed Hiccup up and down with a sneer. “A better one than you, undoubtedly. You look more like target practice than a future chief.” This was said as the boy caressed the hilt of one of the six long daggers tucked into his belt.And the dream just turned into a nightmare. I’m getting a very bad feeling about this, Hiccup thought with a mental sigh of resignation.Astrid, being Astrid, was the first to react to the slur. She charged forward and glowered up at the somewhat taller and decidedly heavier than her boy, her axe off her back and pushing into his throat threateningly, narrowing her eyes at him. She took in a breath and regretted it as the stench of sweat and rancid meat hit her. Gods, take a bath! Her aversion didn’t stop her from saying her piece, though. If anything, it made her words even more emphatic. “If you harm so much as a single hair on Hiccup’s head, I will remove ALL of yours and not be too careful about any sensitive bits it might be attached to while I’m at it, got it?”Even as he wished he had the guts to defend himself like that, Hiccup still practically swooned with worship and desire for his fierce warrior goddess. Thor, she’s so fricking perfect it hurts.Apparently Dagur thought she was worth drooling over as well (and had zero sense of danger), because he pushed her axe away with a negligent hand, leaving a small trail of blood across his neck, and gave her a once over. Twice. “Hmmmmm. Me likey. Shave away, my beautiful Vikingess.” He reached to pull her forward with a hand around her waist.Astrid growled in annoyance, grabbed his hand, bent the fingers over backwards, and hooked a foot behind his. Dagur howled as something snapped in his hand and he hit the dock with a thud. Her boot went on his broken hand and she ground down, making him whimper. “No touching me, either.”All the men laughed as she stepped off with a toss of her bangs, turning back to Hiccup and winking at him, a huge grin on her face. Astrid loved taking down bigger opponents. She lived for it, in fact.Hiccup beamed back, about ten times more in love with her now than he had been a minute ago. (And that was already a heck of a lot.)“Good one, girl.” Oswald praised. “Never seen anyone get the better of my son like that before. Good for him to learn a little humility, I say.”Astrid’s parents and the other Berkians finally disembarked the longship to join the group on the dock, finished with tidying up and collecting their camping supplies for the night. “That’s our Astrid!” Hector boomed proudly, his arms full of bundles. “Best young warrior on Berk.”“Thanks, Dad,” Astrid said with a bright smile that lit up her face. (Their previously strained relationship quickly falling back into normal patterns as the days progressed, much to everyone's relief.)Cradling his right hand to his chest, Dagur jumped back up onto his feet and looked at his father. “I want her.”Oswald looked at Stoick with a raised eyebrow. “Is she available?”Stoick grinned at Hiccup. “Not anymore. My son already won Astrid’s affections. They’re engaged.”Oswald looked back at Dagur and shrugged. “Sorry, Son.”Dagur sneered. “As if that little runt is any competition.”Both Stoick, Alga, and Astrid glowered on Hiccup’s behalf, which he appreciated, but honestly, he wasn’t offended. Hiccup knew what he was.“That ‘little runt’ is my only son,” Stoick rumbled warningly. “And I don’t care to hear anyone insult him.”Hiccup puffed up with joy at being defended by his father.“And my fiancé,” Astrid said firmly, linking her free arm through Hiccup’s. (She was still holding her axe, hoping to take another shot at Dagur if he was stupid enough to give her an excuse for one.)Hiccup puffed up even more, feeling more wanted than at any other point in his life.“And I’m not changing my mind,” Astrid continued, glaring figurative daggers at Dagur. Gods, what a name choice. I wouldn’t mind throwing real daggers at Dagur either. “Especially not for an insensitive lout with the grooming habits of a swine.”Hiccup snickered under his breath as Dagur pressed his hand to his heart and looked up at the sky. “Thor! Can a more perfect maiden exist? Why do you torment me so by attaching her to someone so much less worthy?!”“Because I earned her respect,” Hiccup said, speaking up for the first time. “It’s the only way to win the heart of an earth-bound Valkyrie and keep all your limbs intact.”Astrid beamed and squeezed his arm. The elder males guffawed. And Dagur huffed, turning his nose up to the air as he spun and stomped away on the wooden dock. Hiccup couldn’t help but think that with the green eyes and the red braid that stuck out from below the back of his helmet, Dagur looked a lot more like Stoick than his own black haired (with some grey thrown in) father. At least Oswald has green eyes too, or I’d be really worried right now.Stoick clapped Oswald on the back as the group started to follow Dagur’s path.  “Soooo, my old friend, what is this sudden tribe meeting about? And my apologies if I’m late to the party. We just received word from Trader Johann this morning.”Oswald’s expression shifted from amused to exhausted and worried instantly. “You made good time, then.”“Yes, the winds were with us. And the sea beasties left us alone for once,” Stoick said with less prideful enthusiasm than he usually would have, seeing his friend’s distress. “But what is wrong?”“My daughter has gone missing,” Oswald said, his voice so quiet, it was only just loud enough to be heard over the sound of gentle waves hitting the dock and the nearby rocks.  Stoick gasped. “Not wee Heather?!”“Unfortunately, yes,” Oswald answered glumly as they started climbing stairs carved into the rock walls of the island. “My wee Heather girl has been missing for nearly a week.”“That’s awful!”“Aye.” Oswald heaved a shuddering sigh that practically shook his large frame. “We’ve looked all over the island. She’s not here. And none of the boats are missing. Nor did we have any known visitors just before her disappearance.”Hiccup glanced at Astrid, wondering if he should ask if it was possible for the girl to have drowned, but Astrid shook her head minutely, knowing him well enough to guess his thoughts (which were probably everyone else’s as well, but no one wanted to say it either.)“And no dragon attacks?” Stoick asked, as that had been his first thought.“No. You know we settled on this desolate rock because the dragons don’t come here.”“Aye. I know,” Stoick said softly as the group entered the bustling village that was almost big enough to be called a city. (The dragon free location was very attractive despite the mostly barren earth and rocks of the island.) “Just checking.”“That’s all right.” Oswald shot his friend a sympathetic look, knowing how Stoick lost his wife.  “Anyway. I’ve called together this meeting because I fear that my daughter has been stolen by one of our enemies… possibly for ransom…” He paused and then added, “or worse.”Everyone in the now rather large group winced.It wasn’t unheard of for Viking girls to be stolen and sold as breeding slaves, especially if they were comely; there were certain types out there that appreciated how hardy the Viking women were. And Stoick knew that Heather fit the criteria, having met her mother on a few occasions before she died at sea during a particularly vicious hurricane. Helean had been a beautiful red haired minx who loved to flirt for fun while still being loyal to the husband she adored. Heather, with her father’s black hair and her mother’s beauty, had already been driving the boys crazy with unsatisfied lust at just fourteen when he saw her in the spring during the yearly treaty renewal between their tribes. Much like Astrid, actually, Stoick thought with a tinge of amusement that only lasted a moment as the enormity of the situation set back in. Hiccup would be devastated if Astrid suddenly disappeared like that. I’d be scouring the ocean and all of the lands for the girl, no question.“That is certainly a possibility we’ll have to consider,” Hagan Frostbeard, the chief of Chilblain, was saying as their group meandered into a crowded communal space already crackling with voices, bonfires, and the mouthwatering smell of simmering meat.  Oswald indicated a large empty table set at what would be the head of the room, if the outdoor space was a room. “Trust me, I’m already considering it.”“So what do you want us to do?” Stoick asked as he settled his large bulk onto the bench beside Oswald, with Hiccup, Astrid, and her parents falling into place beside them, and the other Chiefs and some of their people settling across the table. Anyone who didn’t fit on the benches just made themselves at home at nearby tables.  A serving wench appeared almost seconds later with platters of bread and sliced yak meat and put them in front of them as another girl started pouring everyone mugs of ale.Oswald sighed and looked into his mug like it might spew answers for him. “I honestly don’t know, Stoick. But I thought it best that I let you all know what had happened in case one of your girls go missing as well.”“That was a good idea,” Hagan said. “Who knows who they could target next… if it is a conspiracy, that is. Even my girl could be a target.”As Stoick snorted into his mug, only sort of covering his reaction of incredulity, his long-time friend-turned-barely-tolerated-rival laughed outright. “Oh, aye. Smulder’s still a fetching lass, even with three decades behind her,” Alvin said with a teasing gleam in his blue eyes as he looked to the next table over. “I’m sure she’ll be at the top of any list of Vikingess’ to steal.”   Everyone followed Alvin’s line-of-sight and Hiccup couldn’t help his own hidden snort into a mug. The woman in question was closer to his father’s age than his own, and she probably outweighed Hiccup four times over. Soooo, a typical Viking Warrioress, but not generally something someone would want to kidnap for ransom or sell as a slave. From what he could see of her face in the darkening sky, she did look pretty enough, though, he’d give her that. Surprised she’s not married, actually. Hagan glared at Alvin out of principle, but there wasn’t too much heat to it. Alvin just smirked and stabbed a steak with his eating dagger, still eyeballing the Frostbeard heir.Stoick rolled his eyes. “If anyone is at the top of someone’s list, it would have to be our Astrid, here.”“Hey!” the girl in question protested.“I think that was meant to be a compliment,” Hiccup muttered to her as he cut up a very large and perfectly cooked steak for them to share.“Yeah, I got that. But still... Hey! No one’s gonna be stealing me. They’d find themselves in pieces first.”The men laughed at her boasting, but Hiccup had no doubt she’d follow through with her word. But just to be safe… “It wouldn’t hurt if we posted extra watches, would it, Dad?”Stoick squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. “Sure, Son. We can do that.” He turned the other way and looked at Oswald. “And as for Heather, we’ll spread the word and everyone will keep an eye out for her.”“Starting with Johann and the other traders,” Hiccup suggested. “They see practically everyone.”“Very true, Hiccup,” Oswald said smiling, a little wanly, but it was still a smile. “Smart boy, you have there, Stoick.”Stoick grinned at his son proudly. “I always knew that.”Hiccup beamed back, the day ending like a good dream after all.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Berserker Island (part 3):
After dinner, Hiccup and Astrid more or less snuck away from their table while the adults were having a rambunctious discussion about the pros and cons of leather armour versus iron in regards to melee warfare. It was something which Hiccup would normally find fascinating, but Astrid tugged on his hand and pulled him from the bench, so follow her he went.He always would.“Where are we going?” he stage whispered after they’d wound their way through the tables to the outer edges of the bonfire lit area.Astrid’s face was alight with mischievousness as they walked the boundary between light and shadows next to the back gardens of a row of homes. It was like their own little world that wasn’t bothered by the raucous voices only feet away. “Nowhere in particular. I just wanted to steal some time with you without hovering parents.”His breath caught as the still new thrill that ASTRID actually desired HIM tingled through him from head to toe, but he played it as cool as he could manage, simply grinning back at her and saying, “Oh. Well, in that case…” Hiccup used their joined hands to pull her towards the small evergreen forest that separated the village from the monolith of a mountain that rose up in the center of the island. He then turned so that he was walking backwards and put his free hand over his heart as he vowed solemnly, “If it’s privacy M’lady wants, than it’s privacy M’lady will get. Neither dragon, nor volcano, nor blizzard, nor interfering buffoons could stop me from providing what M’lady desires.”She giggled softly. “You’re such a dork, Hiccup. An adorable dork, but still a dork.”He shrugged and turned back around. “Lucky for me that works for you.”“Who says?” she teased, swinging their arms as they strolled.“Hmmmm. That’s a good question. I think it was a blonde goddess with a penchant for violence who said something to the effect.”“A blonde goddess who clearly has terrible taste,” an exasperated sounding voice said from their right just before Dagur stepped out beside them, looking incredibly intimidating with his horned helmet, well built body, and a feral gleam in his eyes as he effortlessly flipped a wicked looking dagger with his left hand into the air over and over.Hiccup somehow managed to hold in the unmanly squeak of surprise, but that didn’t stop his heart from jumping up into his throat or the unintentionally tight grip he took on Astrid’s fingers.“Speaking of interfering buffoons,” Astrid muttered under her breath.Hiccup snorted before laying into the older boy, his own pride and Astrid’s presence making him brave. “Thor’s teeth, Dagur! Cough or something before you sneak up on people like that!”“Now why would I want to do that?” Dagur grinned maliciously. “I happen to love sneaking and frightening little runts such as yourself. It’s one of my favourite pastimes.” He flipped his dagger again. “Right after using them for target practice.”Astrid tugged her hand from his with some effort and she stepped into Dagur’s personal space. She snatched the dagger right out of the air and tossed it at the nearest tree they weren’t that far from, burying it in the bark to the hilt. In the same flowing move, her axe was off her back and also flying through the air to land directly beside the dagger in the tree trunk. (She probably would have aimed to split the dagger if she'd been at all confident that it would work without damaging her axe.)She then turned to the demented red head with another dagger in her hand that she pulled from no-one-knows-where and pressed it into his abdomen warningly. “Next time you threaten Hiccup or make any move towards me other than perfectly polite, those both land here, understood?”Hiccup all but drooled with love and lust at his fierce warrior goddess. Thor?  If you're hearing this, thank you for her. Thank you. Thank you.Dagur, not looking intimidated at all, just laughed and backed up a step, hands raised in the air. (The right one was bandaged.) “Sure, Blonde Goddess. Sure. I get it. But if Hiccup dies through no fault of my own, you can bet your sweet little body that I’m going to come a-courtin’.”Astrid jabbed him just a little harder as she rolled her eyes and then put her dagger away back to who-knows-where. “And I’ll just throw you off a cliff and into the ocean, but that’s your prerogative if you like to swim.”  Dagur grinned. “I love swimming. This sounds like fun.”“Glad my demise gives you something to look forward to,” Hiccup said dryly as he grabbed Astrid’s hand again and started inching towards the abused tree. “But for now, my fiancé and I were just going to enjoy the ambiance under the pine trees over there for a bit.”“The what?” Dagur asked, looking confused before he shook it off. “Whatever. That’s boring. You should try exploring the cave system. Now THAT’s exciting. Especially in the dark. Lots of bottomless drop offs and such. I could take you if you want.”While exploring caves did sound like fun, Hiccup had no desire to do so with the deranged boy who would probably find some way to knock Hiccup into one of said bottomless drop offs. I wonder if that's where the missing Heather ended up? Wouldn't put it past him. Maybe I'll mention it to Chief Oswald. Delicately, of course. Astrid clearly agreed that going spelunking with Dagur in the dark wasn't the best idea, because she shook her head and let the older teenager down in the nicest way possible, probably hoping not to set him off into a murderous rage or something. “We’d love to. But not tonight. My parents would definitely freak if I disappeared for that long. Maybe tomorrow?”Dagur, thankfully, accepted the excuse. “Yeah, sure. No problem. Can’t freak out the parents, can we?” He backed up back towards the shadows. “We’ll go after bre… Ummmmph!”The Viking boy flailed as another person suddenly came out of the nearly hidden path he’d been backing towards and they collided. They both did an awkward dance until they regained their balance, Hiccup and Astrid snickering quietly. The other person was tall and slim and wearing a dark cloak, the hood of which fell off as they almost fell over backwards, revealing a comely woman with hair of a medium shade that was neither bright like Astrid’s or dark enough to be black.“Watch where you’re going!” Dagur spat, glaring at the woman.She flicked her gaze at Hiccup and Astrid, then ducked her head subserviently, pulling her hood back up. “My apologies. I didn’t see you coming in the dark,” she mumbled in a pleasant alto voice and then hurried towards the gathering.Dagur sneered at her back and then spun around to leave.“Hey!” Astrid called. “What about your dagger!”He looked back over his broad shoulder and winked with the eye surrounded by the blue tattoo. “Keep it, my Blonde Goddess, as a promise gift.” And then he was gone, back into the dark, as silent as a ghost.“Freaky,” Hiccup muttered under his breath.“I am so glad we don’t live on the same island as him,” Astrid whispered as they walked to the impaled tree.“Agreed,” Hiccup pulled out the dagger after she’d taken her axe back and returned it to its place on her back. “The workmanship on this isn’t bad,” he admitted as he examined it in the light of the distant bonfire.“Whatever it is, you can keep it or throw it away or melt it down or whatever,” Astrid said as she started pulling them deeper into the trees along a well trodden path. “I don’t want to keep anything of his that might give him more ideas than he already has.”“Good point, my wise Vikingess.” Hiccup paused and stabbed the dagger into a passing tree. “Maybe he’ll find it there in a day or two and understand that you’re not interested.”“Ha,” she snorted softly. “More like think of it as a more interesting challenge.”“You’re probably right.”“I know I am.”“That’s because you’re always right.”Astrid stopped and pushed him off the path and behind a thick tree. She leaned into him, grabbing fistfuls of his vest as she whispered in his ear. “You just keep telling yourself that for the next seventy or eighty years and we’ll get on just fine.”Hiccup shivered from the sensation of her warm breath in his ear and gulped at the promise in her eyes. “I will, M’lady.” Forever! She’s talking about us being together forever!
Gods, how did I get so lucky?
“Good,” Astrid smiled right before she kissed him.Hiccup very happily wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back.Once they were both panting and Astrid had managed to make his hair stand pretty much on end with her fingers, she grinned at him with a contented look that made his chest feel stuffed full. “We should probably get back now before my dad really does have a fit.”“Yeah. I guess.” Hiccup would happily brave the wrath of Hector Hofferson for another three minutes of Astrid’s lips, but it was her call.Despite her words, Astrid took her time carefully smoothing his hair down before she set a rather sedate pace as they meandered back down the forest path, their hands once again entwined. “Soooo, this has been an enlightening trip,” she said conversationally.“Yeah. Learned that rowing is even harder than it looks.”“And that you absolutely love sailing.”He beamed. “Totally. I also found out that I’m basically the girl in our relationship and you know what? I really can’t make myself care.”Astrid laughed. “I should say that’s not true, but I can’t argue with the facts. As long as you don’t start wearing my clothes, I think we’ll be fine.”Hiccup huffed indignantly. “I think not.” And then, feeling cheeky, he added in a completely serious tone, “I don’t have the hips to make your skirt look good, for one thing.”He grinned at the top of her hair as she snorted and then had to rest her forehead on his shoulder and cling to him as body-shaking guffaws overtook her for a minute. I might be the damsel in distress here, but at least I’m funny.He patted her back until she pulled herself together, standing upright again and wiping at her eyes. “Gods, Hiccup. Your sense of humour is going to be the death of me one day.”He rolled his eyes and tugged them onwards. “I hope not. I don’t think that’s on the list of heroic actions that will get you into Valhalla so you can retake your rightful place as a Valkyrie.”She paused again, her eyes meltingly soft as she kissed his cheek lingeringly. “And your natural grasp of everything romantic is going to make it very hard for me to wait until we’re at least eighteen to get married.”Hiccup cupped her jaw and cheek and pressed and a sweet kiss to her hovering mouth. “I’m glad. Just let me know when and I’m there, Astrid Hofferson.”She smiled softly. “I know you will be, Hiccup Haddock.”They made the rest of the short trip back to the gathering area in contented silence, letting their glancing looks do all the talking for them.At least, that was the case until Hiccup saw the cloaked woman from before standing in the shadows near the back gardens, arms wrapped around herself, and staring at his father like she was trying to work up the courage to go talk to him.“Can I help you?” Hiccup asked kindly as they approached, thinking she had a message to deliver to the clan chief or something equally important. Stoick Haddock was pretty intimidating in his massive size, even to a Vikingess.The woman startled and looked right at him for a moment, the firelight illuminating her hooded face clearly for a second before she ducked her head. Much more clearly than the first time he’d seen her. “No. No, it’s nothing,” she said almost sadly. Then she brushed past Astrid, walking quickly and aiming for the shadowed path she’d emerged from earlier that ran between the forest and the end of the houses.“That was weird,” Astrid said, turning and looking after the woman for a moment before shrugging and aiming for their table. She stopped when Hiccup didn’t budge despite her tug on his hand. “Hiccup?”He didn’t answer, because he was kind of in shock. I swear that’s the same face that adorns the painting in my father’s room. Adding a few years worth of aging, of course. And if that’s the case…Hiccup tugged his hand from Astrid’s and whirled around, scanning the dark for the retreating woman. “Mom?!” He thought he saw her shadow freeze and then take off at a run. It can’t be. Can it?“Hiccup, what…?” Astrid called as he bolted after the woman. Then she was hot on his heels.Hiccup skidded around the corner of the last garden and then took off down the path the woman was following. Thanks to the faint moonlight that was just rising over the horizon, Hiccup could see her figure far ahead of him on the path. Every instinct he had said he should yell, ‘Mom!’ again, but he fought it back, saving his breath and just running faster. If my first call didn’t make her stop, a second won’t either. Astrid, thankfully, didn’t ask any more questions as she ran beside him, her clever mind probably putting the clues together.Unfortunately, his mother – if that’s who she was – was very fleet of foot, and they never caught up to her before a piercing whistle sounded through the night and then her shadow disappeared completely as if she’d jumped off the end of a cliff. Heart in his throat, Hiccup finally made it to the edge of the island, expecting to see a boat, or worse, a woman trying to swim through the treacherous ocean and not making it.But what he actually saw shocked him even more than the possibility that this might be his supposedly dead mother who might have just committed suicide right in front of his eyes.Hiccup saw a four winged Stormcutter dragon flying away from the island and the cloaked figure of his mother (maybe) standing on top of its back and hanging onto a horn on the back of its head… Riding it.On purpose.And the dragon did not appear to be protesting.She turned, and he swore he saw her lift a hand in farewell before the swiftly flying dragon took her too far away to see.“Holy Thor,” Astrid breathed after a solid minute of watching the dragon fade into nothing more than a speck in the distance that soon became invisible to the naked eye. “I did not just see that.”Hiccup fell to his rear, his legs suddenly boneless.Astrid lowered herself slightly more gracefully to sit beside him. He looked at her with eyes that felt like they might escape their sockets at any moment. “Astrid… My mother. She was taken by a Stormcutter.”“I know. Hiccup. I know.” She squeezed his arm in silent support.He buried his face in his knees for a few minutes of stunned silence, just processing as he realized he could never tell his father what he'd just seen because it would break Stoick's heart in more ways than one.And then he looked up and stared blankly out over the churning sea waves, the image of the woman easily riding the massive dragon imprinted on his mind. “This… This changes everything.”
The End

A/N:  And that’s it for book one!  Book 2 has been started. :D