Chapter One: The Girl in The Water

It's been two months since the face off with Viggo and I can't help but worry about Hiccup. He still blames himself over losing the Dragon eye to that freak and what kind of consequences it could have on not only us but for all of the Dragons. Those we've found and those we have not. Honestly, I can't help but think that Hiccup is beginning to lose it. He hasn't sleep in days and when he does sleep it's only for an hour at a time. We do our best to help him, even Snotlout but nothing we do seems to help him relax. He's always tense.

I'm planning on taking him out fishing later today, maybe that'll help him relax, and who know's maybe he'll even fall asleep during it. I just hope that it'll work… I'm scared though, I'm scared this guilt is going to run him into the ground. He has to know that it's not his fault.

-Astrid.

Astrid looked down at Hiccup who was stumbling over himself in pure exhaustion. It was clear he hadn't slept again, which was the fourth day in a row. It was becoming dangerous for him to be walking, let alone flying on Toothless anytime of the day. Not just for himself but also for the dragon who depended so much on his one-legged rider.

Astrid wanted so much to just grab his shoulders and scream at him, or sit on him until the teen fell asleep but Astrid couldn't possibly do that for him because she knew that when Hiccup did sleep he had nightmares. Nightmares that on occasions left the boy screaming one of their names. Whether it be one of the other riders of one of the dragons he tried so hard to protect from the dangers. He felt personally responsible for each and every one of them; human and dragons alike.

He was essentially the Chief, which while Hiccup would say he wasn't "Chief material" the truth was she thought he would make the best Chief in history. Whether it be over Berk or Dragons Edge he was perfect and would do whatever it took to save them. Even if it meant dying himself. Which was another thing that scared Astrid so much, she loved him. She hated to admit it but she loved him! If she lost him she wouldn't know what she would do with herself.

"What are we going to do?" Fishlegs asked the blonde female.

"I'm thinking about taking him fishing, just the two of us. Maybe the rocking will help him sleep, even if just for a moment."

"That's a good idea, what should the rest of us do?"

"Keep patrolling the island." She said with a smile. "If Hiccup know's the island is being protected then he won't have as much to worry about while he's out fishing with me." She pointed out, "Which mean's I'm putting you in charge. At least for the moment."

"Yes!" Fishlegs said with an excited little dance.

Astrid smiled, "I'm going to get Hiccup, just please, try and keep the twins under control. We don't need to have Hiccup freak out while I'm trying to get him to relax." She pointed out, putting her hands on her hips in frustration.

"Okay, Astrid." Snotlout said, then winked, "But just know, if Hiccup becomes an even bigger loser than he already is I would make an amazing leader."

"Hiccup is not a loser." Astrid snapped, "Now be nice or I'll break your nose." She threatened before she began to walk towards the beach where Hiccup was still stumbling around as he tried to clean up the remaining evidence that a large battle had even taken place.

"Hiccup." Astrid said, making the brunette jump and stumble back. His green eyes had black bags under his eyes, which were bloodshot from staying open all the time. His skin was paler than normal and he looked as if he was actually losing more weight. It was nerve wracking for her to see the already small and frail looking teen become even smaller. "We're out of fish, why don't the two of us go out and try to catch some?" She smiled, "It'll give us a chance to talk about our next move."

Hiccup seemed to hesitate, as if trying to come up with an excuse why he couldn't go but he eventually sighed. "Y-yeah. Alright." He said, rubbing the back of his neck with a kind smile. "I don't… I don't see why we can't do that."

"Good." Astrid smiled, taking Hiccup's hand and leading him to a boat that was resting in the water. "Come on." She climbed into the boat, pulling Hiccup in and sitting him down in front of her. She then began to row the two of them out of the cove and into the ocean away from Dragons Edge.

"Is it really a good idea to do this without our dragons?" Asked Hiccup sleepily. "I mean… there could be an attack at any time and if we don't have our dragon's we can't defend ourselves from them, or warn the team if-."

"Hiccup. Hiccup you need to breathe, okay? We are fine, besides Stormfly and Toothless are within earshot. If we're under attack Stormfly will come get us and take us back to the Edge." She said, "Now, please try to relax with as stressed as you are you're going to start freaking out the fish."

Hiccup bit his lip with a deep breath, "You're right, I'm sorry." Hiccup sucked in a breath, relaxing a bit as he leaned back in the boat. He then cast the net out of the boat and into the water. "Deep breaths, try to relax. Just try to relax…" He said, then yawned as the boat began to rock him to sleep.

I finally got Hiccup to go to sleep, hopefully it stays that way. A few minutes of sleep will be able to help but that doesn't make the fact that he hasn't slept in four days any less true. Maybe he'll manage to stay asleep for a few hours, I mean, I know I lied about us being out of fish but it was the best thing I could come up with under the situation. He's in a lot of danger of running himself into the ground.

If there is an attack he'll be much too tired to defend himself, which I don't think he realizes that. That the more he stresses about what has happened and what's going to happen that he doesn't seem to understand exactly what he's doing to himself. It's too dangerous to follow the lead of somebody who can't even stand on his own two feet, let alone protect everybody on the Edge.

Viggo will be back for Hiccup, I know that, and the warnings that Viggo gave him the last time they fought I can only guess that it'll be a fight to the death. Somebody will die and I can only hope that deep down it's not Hiccup. The idea of losing his is heartbreaking on it's own for me, but if Stoick lost him… I can't imagine what he would be thinking. First his wife and then his son. I have to protect Hiccup, as much as he protects us.

-Astrid.

Astrid had just finished writing yet another journal entry when Hiccup suddenly sat up with a fearful gasp, looking around, letting out a cry that if hadn't been so full of fear would have been a scream. A scream that yelled out.

"Toothless!" He gasped and gripped the front of his shirt. "A-Astrid, w-w-where is-."

"He's on the island." Astrid assured him. "Relax. Okay? He's fine."

Hiccup sucked in a breath to calm himself down. "Okay. Okay, you're alright."

"Right… right." Hiccup stood up and looked at the water in the distance. "Wait… do you see that?" He asked.

"See what?" Astrid stood back up, glaring at the water. At first she didn't see anything until she spotted what looked like a barrel floating on top of the water's surface. She grabbed onto her belt grabbing her eye-glass and scanned the water. The more she looked though the more she realized that it wasn't a barrel it was a piece of driftwood with somebody resting on top of it. The person on top of it though was clearly weak and seemed to be struggling to hold himself on top of the floating wood.

"We need to go over there." Hiccup said, pulling the net into the water, as quick as possible, paying no attention to the small amount of fish in the net.

While Hiccup pulled in the net while Astrid began to row the boat over to the piece of driftwood. They were right, there was a girl with short brown hair soaked to the bone on the piece of wood. She had a bruised eye with a cut under it and there was also a Dragon Root arrow sticking out of her right thigh. She was pale and thin, and was littered in healing bruises which consisted of a fight.

"Is she…?" Astrid could barly say the words as Hiccup grabbed the girls arms and pulled her into the boat, laying her on the floor of it before putting his head against her chest.

"She's alive, but barly. Come on, we have to get her back to the Edge and help her." Hiccup said, sitting up and touching her head, making a mental note of the situation. From the little medical knowlage he picked up from Gobber and Gothi he could tell she had a fever and that the wound in her leg was infected, likely from the natural reaction to human blood reacting with Dragon Root, something he had personally experienced during a fight with Dagur.

Astrid nodded, rowing harder as they went back towards the island. She was a bit nervous about taking a stranger to the edge, for the last time they had done something like this they met Heather which ended up with mixed results. First she had been this sweet innocent thing who then betrayed them, then joined them, then betrayed them again, then joined them and then went missing! It was crazy how much that black haired girl made her head spin in confusion.

It took ten minutes to get to the beach, and by that time it was clear to both Hiccup and to Astrid that she was in really rough shape and needed help. Something which neither of them could provide.

"I'll take her up to the hall." Hiccup said, "You send Terror Mail to Berk, tell them we need medical assistance ASAP." Hiccup said, picking the girl up and putting her on his back. "Your handwriting's better than mine and they'll be able to read it more easily than mine."

Astrid hesitated, but nodded. "R-right. You're right. Okay." She took off towards the Terror Tower, gaining the attention of Stormfly and Toothless who after seeing the stree of her face went their sepperate ways. Toothless ran towards where Hiccup was heading while Stormfly stayed close behind Astrid. Astrid was worried about it for multipul reasons.

Astrid ran to the Terror Tower grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil, quickly writing a note for Stoick or anybody else that would listen;

Trouble on the edge

Need medical supplies and assistance ASAP

-Astrid.

"Go on big guy." She said, holding out her arm for a moment before the terrible terror took off and headed off in the direction of Berk, hopefully to return soon and with help. They would need help, and hopefully that help wouldn't come too late.

Once the dragon was out of sight she climbed onto Stormfly's back and they flew towards to the main hall where Hiccup was doing his best to lower the girl's fever and clean the wounds.

"How's it going?" She asked.

"I don't know, but… the arrow… this is a Dragon Hunting Arrow." Hiccup said, holding it up.

"But why would Dragon Hunter's attack her? Do you think she had a dragon?"

"Maybe or she could also be another Dragon Hunter and they were simply trying to get rid of the compitition." Hiccup said, "I mean… unless there are other Dragon Riders out there that we don't know about that's all I can really think of to explain it."

Astrid nodded slowly, watching as Toothless came over and began to sniff the girl before crinkling his nose and letting out a sneeze. "What's with Toothless?"

"Huh?" Hiccup turned, then went pale and stumbled slightly, almost falling to the ground if it hadn't been for the blonde being right next to him to support him.

"Woah, you okay?" She asked.

"Y-yeah, I must have turned to fast."

"Why don't you take a seat, okay? I can take over from here."

"Right… right, okay." Hiccup said, with a smile as he walked over to the other side of the hall and sat down, putting his head down on the fireplace, doing his best to relax under the situation.

Astrid smiled, walking over to the girl moving away the bottom of her shorts before reaching into what was left of the medical-kit grabbing ointment made from the root of the "Sharktooth Flower" and rubbed it on the cut on her thigh before bandaging it up. She couldn't help but frown at the little bit of supply's that were left and the idea of using just a little on this stranger who could very well turn and betray them in the end made her frown. Then again she also knew that if she didn't help and the girl died Hiccup would blame himself about it as well.

Breathe, you need to relax. Just because Heather turned out to betray us and then be our friend again… then betray us again… then be our friend again- well none of that matters! That doesn't mean that this girl will be that way.

"Mom…" The girl moaned, her eyes fluttering open for a second as she looked around. "Where… where is my mom?"

"Your mom?" Hiccup said, standing back up onpon hearing the girl's voice. "You were alone when we found you."

"I'll go out on Stormfly to see if we can find anybody else." Astrid said, while Hiccup walked over to the girl giving her a smile.

"Don't worry we'll find your mom. You have nothing to worry about." He told her, nodding to Astrid and watching as the girl jumped onto her Dragon, and took off into the sky.

Astrid scanned the ground as they went to the water and looked down at it, searching for any other peices of driftwood. She ended up flying two hours out and circling the island coming back in with no other signs of people. There had been a wreck but it looked as though it was a small fishing boat that had been wrecked for a while and washed back out to sea. Which brought up the question; Where did the girl come from?

Four hours later Astrid returned back to the Edge, and she wasn't alone, Gothi was there too and Gobber was riding with Stoick on his dragon; Skullcrusher.

"We got your message, who's hurt?" Stoick asked as they flew along each other towards the island.

"Hiccup and I found a girl on a piece of driftwood in the water, she's pretty roughed up… but Stoick Hiccup… you need to talk to him. Things have happened and he… he hasn't slept in a few days."

Stoick frowned in concern, "I'll talk to him, Astrid." He promised as they landed on the island and made their way up the the hall where Hiccup was sitting in a chair, struggling to stay awake.

"Hiccup." Astrid said, "Is she okay?"

"I don't know… she passed out not long after you left." He explained, "Did you find anything?"

Astrid shook her head. "No, nothing. If her mom was out there Hiccup I don't think she made it."

Hiccup frowned, jumping to his feet when his dad walked in behind Gothi and Gobber, looking at him curiously. It was clear by the look on the Chiefs face that he could see just what Astrid had told him. He was in rough shape and looked like he was going to pass out at any second. "D-Dad, what are you doing here?"

"When we got Astrids letter I feared maybe Dagur had hurt you, it sounds terrible as a Chief for me to say this but… I'm glad it was a stranger and not you, son."

Hiccup gave a weak, and painfully fake smile. "Thanks, Dad."

Gothi tapped her stick getting their attention before she shoo'd them out of the room so that she could be left to do her work. Taking the hint the nodded respectfully and walked out of the room, closing the door so she was able to work in peace without their talking there to distract her from it.

"Son, let's talk." Stoick said, putting his arms around Hiccup's shoulder and leading him away leaving Astrid and Gobber alone to do their own talking.

"What do you know about the girl?" Gobber asked.

"Nothing, we were out fishing when we saw her laying on a piece of driftwood in the water. When we got near we could tell she had been in a fight, but all her wounds were… old… almost healed actually. Whatever happened to her happened to her a day or two ago."

"And she was alone?"

"As far as we know, she woke up for a second and asked about her mom but I didn't see anything… if her mom was with her, I don't think she survived." Astrid said sadly. "We won't really know what happened though until she wakes back up and we can ask her."