The first thing that needs to happen after The Hidden World is someone needs to inform the extended family! Here are Heather and Dagur's reactions to the sad news...

A trading ship arrived at Berserker island, and people swarmed to the dock to see the new goods. Heather, Chieftess of the Berserkers, went to greet the trader as well. Her brother Dagur, who was there visiting his sister, followed close behind.

"An important message for Cheiftess Heather, from a land just West of here," the trader said, handing her a scroll. "A village called New Berk."

"New Berk?" Heather asked in confusion. She took the scroll and opened it.

"What does it say, sister?" Dagur asked.

As Heather read over the scroll, her eyes widened and she suddenly gasped.

"What is it?" Dagur insisted. "Is it Hiccup?"

Heather looked at her brother and nodded slowly. Her face was pale. "It's the dragons," she breathed. "They left. All of them left."

"Well where did they go?" Dagur asked. "How could Hiccup go on an adventure without me? Without his brother?"

"No," Heather shook her head. "The dragons left Berk, Dagur," she clarified. "This says that the Berkians moved to a new island in the West, and the dragons disappeared to a Hidden World."

"Berk without dragons?" Dagur laughed his loud, Berserker laugh. "Hiccup without his dragon?" He laughed even louder.

"Dagur…" Heather murmured gravely.

"That can't be right," he abruptly stopped laughing and grabbed the scroll urgently, reading it over himself.

Dagur looked at his sister and they exchanged pressing, significant looks.

"Prepare us a ship!" Heather ordered, running to the dock. "Quickly!"

Heather and Dagur were the best friends that Hiccup and Astrid could ask for. After the Drago fiasco, when they'd heard about Stoick's death, the Berserker siblings had rushed to Berk to console the new Chief. They had stayed for a week, just being around to assist Hiccup in adjusting to his new role.

It was not long after that that Heather had parted ways with her own dragon, Windshear. The Razorwhip had grown old enough to mate, and had set off to Wingmaiden island to have babies of her own. It was a very sad goodbye for Heather, but it was always comforting to know that her good friend was only a few islands away. Dagur had let his dragons go a few years back after he married Mala and became King of the Defenders of the Wing. Shattermaster and Sleuther had gone to live on Berk, in what Dagur called Hiccup's "dragon paradise resort."

Neither Dagur nor Heather had ever dreamed that Hiccup would let his dragons go. He was the leader of the Dragon Riders, the Dragon Savior, the infamous Dragon Master. It was absurd to think of him without his Night Fury.

Now, the siblings approached a large, very green island in their boat, with the Berserker colors waving in the wind. They could see a small village at the top of a hill in the distance. It looked nothing like Berk. This village looked so incredibly ordinary, it was hard to believe that this was really the island they were looking for.

"Is that it?" Dagur frowned. Heather had been thinking the same thing. It looked like not much more than a few partly-built huts and tents. Nothing that seemed permanent.

But then, there were several areas that looked to be in progress of creating bigger structures further down the hill. "It's a new village," Heather responded to her brother. "They are probably doing a lot of construction still."

The vibe of the place certainly didn't reflect anything… happy, that's for sure. In fact, it seemed like there was a kind of heavy sadness hanging in the air. The Berserkers became uneasy as they got closer, dreading what they would find.

Their boat reached a sandy beach. It looked like the villagers had begun to form a docking port, but it wasn't completed yet. As Heather and Dagur disembarked, they saw Hiccup and Astrid coming down the beach to greet them.

"Brother!" Dagur exclaimed. They both ran to embrace their friends.

Dagur pulled Hiccup into one of his tight, brotherly hugs. He was immediately struck by how little resistance the younger Viking put up, and how delicate he seemed. Dagur lessened his grip. "It's good to see you, brother," he said genuinely, before letting go.

If Dagur were being honest, Hiccup looked awful. Worse than when Stoick died. The young man was certainly trying hard to put on a brave face and to appear like a Chief, but Dagur knew his little brother better than that. The boy had never been good at hiding anything on his face. It rang loud and clear. Hiccup had gone completely flat.

"We came as soon as we got the news," Heather was murmuring quietly to Astrid, as the girls pulled out of a hug as well.

Dagur watched Hiccup worriedly. "Breathe, Hiccup," he said, shaking his shoulders. "I'm not squeezing you anymore, you can breathe!"

Hiccup inhaled, and forced a small laugh.

"There you go!" Dagur cheered. "He's breathing folks! He's still breathing!"

"I'm glad you're here, Dagur," Hiccup told the Berserker with a smile.

"Of course I'm here!" Dagur agreed. "What kind of brother would I be if I wasn't?" He threw his arm around the younger man's shoulder. "Now. Tell me about this New Berk. I bet you have lots of fancy, Hiccupy plans in store for your new village!"

"Well, now that you mention it, the Great Hall is going to have some pretty cool additions…."

The brothers made their way back up the hill towards the town.

Heather was watching Astrid. The young Chieftess-to-be had a worried frown on her face that looked like she had been stressing for too many days in a row. The girl clearly had not been sleeping enough.

"Is it really as bad as it looks?" Heather asked sympathetically.

Astrid sighed. "It's been pretty rough, yeah," she admitted. "We're getting by, so far. Keeping spirits high has never been so much work."

"You can show me the new village later," Heather suggested. "Where's the best place to throw an axe on this new island?"

Astrid grinned at her friend, and pulled her own axe out of the sleeve strapped to her back. "Follow me."

And the two young women wandered off in the opposite direction.

Oh no… now you're all gonna want me to continue this… I can't make any promises, sorry. I just wanted to show their immediate reactions. So for now I'm gonna say this is all you're gonna get. If I think of more I will add more.

Please leave a review to tell me how you liked it!