(This story contains HTTYD2 spoilers so be careful!) Hi people! So I know I promised a series of one shots, but as I was writing them I realized that they really, really sucked. The ideas sounded good in my head but were awful on paper. So I decided to bail on that idea and just write another story. It took a while for me to come up with the idea for this but I did! I hope you enjoy this story and keep on reading! You guys are the best! :D (Also, authors note. I know that things with the Outcasts are different in the tv show, but I'm not really basing this story off the show so let's just disregard that shall we?)

Chapter 1:

Chief of Berk, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, sat amidst the sea of injured Vikings in The Great Hall. Some of these Vikings lied on makeshift cots, some sat on the ground, and some healthy Vikings tended to the extremely injured. Hiccup sat on the ground and wrapped his palm in a strip of gauze, careful not to irritate the deep gash that was on it. Gingerly, he wrapped layer upon layer until he was sure cut was safe and that the bleeding would stop. He was left with a right hand covered in fabric and stinging with pain. However, his small hand injury was nothing compared to some of the other Viking's in his village. Hiccup took a look around at them and cringed. Men, buff men, were laying and weak, completely at the mercy of pain. Men, who just a moment before, were charging into a battle with the intent to win. Men, men who knew well, looked unrecognizable with the plethora of injuries gracing their bodies.

Hiccup got up from his seat and walked around them, taking it all in. These were his people, the people his father had left for him. Seeing them hurt was like seeing his own child hurt. He felt it was his duty to protect these people, and here they were wallowing in pain. In the course of his walk, one patient in particular caught his eye. It was Dagmar Larson, the youngest child in the Larson family. She was only eight years old but very, very small for her age. She was lying in a cot all alone and looked a sickly pale color. She had obviously been crying and who knows if anyone had even bothered to check up on her. Hiccup made a B-line for this young lady, ready to offer his help. He was chief after all and he needed to protect his own.

"Hey there, sweetie. You alright?" He asked, sitting on the side of the cot. She looked at him and her eyes lit up. Hiccup must have been the first person to inquire about her health since she got there.

"I'm okay." She coughed.

"What are you doing here? Don't tell me you were battling?"

"I...Was. I'm sorry. My brother was doing it and so were my friends. And...They don't accept me because I'm small. I just wanted to show them I could do it." Her raspy voice and held back tears broke Hiccup's heart.

"Aww, honey," He began to stroke her head with his left hand. "I know what that feels like all too well. I was like you. I was small for my age too. Small and weak. Everyone made fun of me and laughed at me. All the time, I got myself into trouble trying to be like them. But do you know what happened? I stopped trying to be like them and did my own thing. Look where I am now. I'm chief! If I'd continued to try to be like everyone else, we wouldn't be riding dragons at all. We'd still be killing them. You weren't old enough to remember it but we did. If it weren't for me, none of Berk would be like it is now, and my lovely wife, Astrid, would sill be laughing at me instead of married to me. You see, Dagmar, when you try to follow along with everyone else, it only makes things worse and you end up getting hurt. You're way too young to be in this situation. Do you parents know you're here?"

"No." She inaudibility whispered as she let a tear drop from her eye. More and more started to follow.

"Shhh, don't cry! It'll be okay. I'll go find them and tell them you're here. Be strong. And remember, don't go running off into battle to impress you're friends. Want to impress them? Tell him Chief Hiccup officially dubbed you Berk's coolest person ever. You will henceforth be known as Dagmar The Coolest." Hiccup pecked her head and gave her a slight hug. He slowly walked away, looking at his injured hand and sighing. He got away with only a scrape, but most of his people were seriously injured, even a young, innocent child.

As Hiccup was walking, he ran into his Mother, Valka. She had her arms crossed and was smiling at him.

"What's up with the grin?" He asked her.

"Nothing much really. Just what you said to Dagmar. You'll make a great father someday." She replied, laughing.

"Whoa, no! Not you too. Look, dad already pressured me enough with the baby talk when he was alive. You may have filled his space but not his shoes. I don't want to hear it from you too."

"No, believe me I understand. My father used to tell me the same thing," She proceeded to mimic her father the way Hiccup used to. "Valka, you got to think about settling down and popping out a few kids soon! I don't want my bloodline to end with you!" She and Hiccup both chucked at her little display. It was crazy how much Hiccup took after Valka. They were partially the same person. He took little after his father, but Hiccup was a great chief. He got that from being around Stoick for twenty years.

"I just have so much to deal with. Adding the child pressure on top of it doesn't help. My first priority is figuring out what in Thor's name is happening with The Outcasts. I mean, they attacked us for no reason! At least no reason I can think of. This is considered an act of war! I can declare it if I want to, but I won't. Not after I saw what they could do. We're not prepared for a war. Neither are The Outcasts. Oden knows why they attacked. I've known Alvin for years and this isn't in his bag of tricks. Unless the fight is a front and we'll have another Whispering Death incident. But Alvin never repeats a tactic twice. Regardless of why they attacked, I need to make sure it doesn't happen again. I led my men into battle blind and look at the outcome. I'm just glad no one died. Yet."

"Hiccup, you can't seriously be blaming yourself for this? It wasn't your fault, it was a surprise attack."

"I know, I know. But... seeing my people like this. I feel guilty for only getting a scratch while some of them suffer and whiter away. Dagmar Larson over there, eight yeas old, is injured. She's a child, she's not supposed to be here! All Alvin did was cut my hand with his sword, but he and his army did far worse to everyone else. I can't help but feel it was my fault."

"What else were you going to do, sit there and let them attack? We drove them away. We won. It's over. We're okay."

"I guess. We'll have to start assigning people places to guard on Berk. The healthy ones who didn't get hurt. I'll assign people a time and a place and we'll be sure nothing like this happens again. I'll ask Gobber to increase weapon production too. As much as I hate weapons it needs to be done." Valka silently agreed by nodding her head. She was Stoick's wife and Hiccup's mother, but she always left all the chiefing to them. It just wasn't her place.

Hiccup and his mother parted ways shortly after they met up. She went on to take care of other injured people. It was her natural motherly instinct to do so. For twenty years, she lived amongst dragons all by herself. She's been a member of the village for two years now and she's making up for lost times. The people accepted her back like she never left and really enjoyed her presence. The villagers also enjoyed the presence of new two-year veteran Eret. He originally came from an island of dragon trappers, but his mind was changed and, having nowhere else to go, joined the Berk community. He was given the task of taking care of Stoick's dragon, Skullcrusher. The two bonded quickly, like they were made for each other.

Eret made his way through the crowd of Viking's to talk to Hiccup. Being new, he didn't really understand who The Outcasts were or why they attacked. He did fight in the battle, however, breaking his right wrist.

"Haddock!" He shouted, running up to the boy just as he finished helping wrap up somebody's wound.

"Eret Son of Eret, how can I help you?" He replied.

"What was that all about, huh? Those guys. Why the Hell did they attack us and why aren't we declaring war!"

"Those guys are The Outcasts. They've been our bitter enemies for years. They're people we outcasted from Berk and sent to their own island. They've held a grudge ever since. Their Chief, Alvin the Treacherous, is especially stubborn. He's always threating war with us, even though he knows he's unprepared. He wants to steal The Book Of Dragons to learn how to train them, raise an army, and conquer the world. Unfortunately, we cannot declare war. If you haven't noticed, we're the definition of unprepared. Look at all these injured men and women, and look at all these broken swords. Going into war now would be a suicide mission. Yes, we have dragons, but we can't win a battle with them alone. The Outcasts have ways of destroying dragons. We need weapons and shields and good, strong men. We just don't have those now. All our weapons and shields are broken and our men our all lying on the floor wounded. As much as I want to declare war, I can't. And the cost of it, mental and physical, would just be too much." Hiccup held up his injured hand and gestured to Eret's wrist. He nodded in understanding. Eret was very outspoken about his opinion, but he did know when to and not to hold his tongue. This was a moment when he should. He understood that Hiccup, being a young chief, was under a lot of stress. He didn't want to push his luck and end up a member of The Outcast Tribe.

Eret, not having much else to say, bid Hiccup adieu and went on his way. Hiccup went back to tending the wounded. He went around to almost everyone and made sure they were okay. The battle took place in the early hours of the morning and ended fairly quickly. All the injured were taken and placed in a makeshift hospital in The Great Hall by sunrise. It was still early in the day, but Hiccup felt like he's been in there forever. Tending became tedious and Hiccup became dizzy. So many sick and injured people surrounded him and he couldn't bear it. He felt like passing out at any second. Luckily, a voice behind him snapped him back into reality. It was the voice of his lovely wife, Astrid. They were married for a year, today marking their first anniversary, but that was the last thing on their minds.

"Hiccup, there you are! I was worried sick! What happened to your hand?" She asked, worried.

"I got into a sword battle with Alvin. He kind of slashed my hand. But it's just a cut, I'm okay. Nothing compared to what some of the other people got. Eret broke his wrist, the twins have pretty bad concussions, although I think that was from victory head banging too much, Snotlout's cut up pretty bad, Fishleg's is fine but Meatlug is a little shaken up, and eight year old Dagmar Larson is over there with Oden knows what- Gods! I still have to tell her parents she's here!"

"Hiccup, calm down. I don't like it when you get like this. You've been in here too long, c'mon let's go. After all, today is supposed to be a special day!"

"I know, sweetheart, I know. But... I have to care for these people. I'm chief, and a chief protects his own. As much as I'd like to go get some air with you, I just can't."

"Hiccup, please. I love you and care about you! I can see when you need to take a break and you do. You look sick, please. Come get some air with me."

"I feel awful. I think I might have caught your stomach bug. Thank you."

"We're married. I get sick, you get sick. C'mon." She proceeded to grab his arm and pull him outside The Great Hall. Even if he didn't like, she was going to do it to help him. She loved and cared about him too much not too.

Once outside, Hiccup was met with his best friend in the world, Toothless the Night Fury. When Hiccup went into The Great Hall what seemed like hours ago, he told Toothless to wait for him outside. He thought we would just wrap his wound and be done, but he got caught up with caring for everyone else. Toothless, being as obedient as he was, waited. When his master showed up, he proceeded to lick him profusely.

"Hey, bud! Sorry I was a bit longer when I expected. I'm happy to see you too!" Hiccup pushed Toothless away in the most affectionate way possible. He cracked a smile and turned to Astrid, half covered with dragon saliva.

"It's okay, it's an acquired taste." She said, smirking and kissing Hiccup, playfully wiping the saliva off of her after. Toothless laughed at the two like he always did. They were like one big, happy family. Husband, wife, dragon, and mother. It was perfect.

"So, Mr. Haddock. Let's get your mind off chiefing a little bit, okay." She said, grabbing his waist and pulling him in.

"That's going to be hard to do."

"I'm up for a challenge." She smirked again and kissed him. Whatever she was doing, it was working. Hiccup's mind wondered from caring for his people to loving his wife. He kissed her back and smiled too, being happy in her presence. He was truly in love with this woman. Something about her just made him light up and feel happy. He'd always had a little crush on her, but as they got older, he began to love her more. Astrid didn't really have a crush on him, but one day it just all clicked for her. She loved him and she knew it. Not even death could tear their relationship apart.

"So," Astrid began. "Anniversary. What are we going to do?"

"Astrid, I... I don't know if we can do anything," Hiccup sighed, pulling away. "I have people to look after, questions to answer. I need to have a meeting and explain to everyone what happened, I need to find housing for the inured, I need to go talk with Alvin and see why he did this, I need to do so many things, Astrid. I just... I want to stop. I can't do this chief thing anymore. I was just thrown into it, I can't. I'm far too young for this, Astrid. I... it's physically taking a toll on me. In just the past two years, I've been getting sick more often. Like right now. I feel like death. I'm dizzy and nauseous and weak and I'm shaking. It's too much to deal with. My dad... He knew what he was doing. He... He had time to know. When he was my age, Hell he wasn't even married! I'm twenty-two and chief of a village. I might be the chief my dad was, but I don't think I can keep it up much longer. Sometimes, I think Snotlout would make a better chief. He can handle it. I want to spend time with you, Astrid. I want to love you and live like a normal family. My mom's right. We should have a child by now. But we can't if I'm busy like this. I hate it, I really do. It's too much pressure and I... I feel like dying sometimes just so it can all be over." After his speech, he took a step back, almost falling but catching his balance. Astrid noticed this, grabbed his arm and led him down the stairs, Toothless following.

"You're really sick. I'm taking you home right now. Maybe it's blood loss or stress or something, but you're talking crazy. I know you, Hiccup. You're able to balance chiefing and living. You could before, why are you backing out now? You just need more rest and help. I'll help you, I'll be there for you when you need me. Just ask. There's no getting rid of me. We're together until death do us part." He smirked at his wife's advice. If it weren't for her, he wouldn't have made it as far as he did as chief. Truth be told, he was stressed from the start. He just faked it better back then. Now, it was all bottling up inside him and starting to seep out. It wasn't long before he would just explode and give up. But if Astrid stayed by his side and patched the wounds, he might just be able to keep on going.

The more they ascended down the stairs, the weaker Hiccup got. His muscles started to feel heavier and it got harder to move. Astrid had to work more to hold him up, but Hiccup just kept sinking. She just assumed it was the stairs throwing him off and he'd regulate himself when they hit the bottom. However, when they did, the opposite happened. Hiccup's muscles froze completely and he couldn't move. His ears began to pop and a cloud of white shrouded his eyes. His hearing started going along with his vision. The last thing he saw was a dragon rushing to save him and the last thing he heard was his wife calling his name.

"Hiccup!" And with a thud, he hit the ground.

Well, that was something, haha. Thanks for reading my exposition blasts and ramblings. It'll get better as it goes on, but this was more of an "introduce you to the plot, conflicts, and a few characters" chapter. It'll get better and less expositiony as it goes on. Also, I will try to update consistently since updating isn't my forte. I think every Sunday I'll post a new chapter. I'll try to at least. Well, enjoy this story! :D