A few simple characters from the last few stories were just crying out to me for more to be written about their adventures with Hiccup and Astrid so I thought 'Eh... why not? Hope I have not made it too confusing for any first timers to my selfish version of the HTTYD universe but I hope to have lots of adventure and laughs with some romance on the side. Ah... romance (sigh).

Act One: Southern Discomfort

Prologue

Generals and Emperors and Kings... oh my!

People such as these have always done their very best to obtain and maintain an advantage over their foes and in many cases, their friends as well. These advantages mostly take the form of high numbers of troops, offensive capabilities and strong defences but there are also great advantages to be had with the right information and so anyone skilled in gathering such information is of immense value to the leader of any nation or army unless that leader feels that such a person... cannot be trusted.

1 The Bell Are Ringing

Even though Staggshund was a quiet little town, it inhabitants could still make a lot of noise if they wanted as they got on with their daily lives and being a farming community, those lives got started pretty early in the day so Hiccup had resigned himself to the fact that the time for sleep was well and truly over as the sound of a passing hay cart and several chatting Elydonians drifted up through window of his bedroom in the Staggshund Inn. It was a very comfortable little room and the bed was much softer than the ground at the campsite south of New Loren where he and his friends had spent the last several nights trying and failing to relax.

Almost anything that could go wrong, did go wrong on that little trip; firstly the Dragon Riders were forced to stop in New Loren (which they had been warned not to do by their friend King Joric) because of a stowaway hiding in Astrids gear pack and then Snotlout had started to get all defensive whenever anyone tried to talk with him. An injured Hobblegrunt and a group of Animal Trappers just added to the trouble before things were finally topped off on the flight back to Elydonia by an encounter with a professional spy (who turned out to be much nicer than Hiccup would have thought under the circumstances) but he was still glad to be back in a place that, although it wasn't home, was still very welcoming and safe.

The town of Staggshund lie to the east of Bolthorn Castle where the current king, Joric the Fifth held the throne. It was good for the Berkians to have an ally in power after the previous king and his son had attempted to annex Berk and the surrounding islands, kidnap Astrid and Sigrid as well as execute Hiccup and Snotlout for good measure.

"Good morning."

"WAAH!" Hiccup jumped back in surprise and fell off the bed.

"ASTRID! What the... how long have you been sitting there?" He tried desperately to get his heart rate and his breathing back to normal as the light of his life smirked at him.

"Oh... about ten minutes; you're so cute when you're asleep. I thought you'd be used to my sudden appearances by now."

"I am" he protested "but only when I'm conscious."

"Well I hope you're not gonna react to my presence that way when we're married."

"I do believe most strongly that my reactions to you when we are married will be very different indeed" Hiccup grinned as he crawled back up onto the bed to give Astrid her first kiss of the day.

"Hmm... morning breath" she noted.

"Get used to it" he grinned.

"Sigrid is here" Astrid informed him.

"Already? I didn't think she'd arrive till much later."

"It's Skywolf; she says that he misses being with other dragons" Astrid explained.

"Hmm... that may be a problem when we go home to Berk."

"Don't worry about it too much babe; we've got a few days to work it all out so get your butt moving and come down to breakfast."

"Oh... you've made breakfast?"

"Of course not silly; Wally the Innkeeper did."

Hiccup sighed with relief as Astrid shut the door behind her. He loved her dearly and her cooking was pretty good but he did prefer his meals not to consist of 97% eggs which were Astrids culinary specialty. He poured some cold water into the bowl near the window and splashed his face even though he already felt very awake after his morning shock. It was good to be clean again after last night's bath even though water was only lukewarm because Staggshund didn't have dragon powered water heating like Berk. After Hiccup finally managed to get his hair to sit reasonably flat, he made his was downstairs to find Astrid sitting with Sigrid the Strong in the dining room enjoying a wonderful cooked breakfast.

"Oh come on" Hiccup sighed when he saw that, unlike everyone else, his plate consisted of nothing but a fried egg on toast... with some scrambled eggs... and a poached egg; not to mention on the side... a boiled egg.

"WHY?" was all he could come up with.

"Sorry Hiccup" Astrid grinned sheepishly "when Wally asked what he should cook for you, I think I may have put too much emphasis on how much you like eggs but don't worry; I'm sure they're every bit as good as mine."

"Okay... yes you do have a way with the ol' chicken fruit but variety is nice too."

"Stop yer whining" Sigrid remarked as she stuffed her face with some bacon and fried tomato "if you were on a ship it would be fish, fish and more fish; and you know what the pickled herring does to Gobbers tummy."

"Only too well" he replied taking his seat.

The last three Berkians in town enjoyed their breakfast in relative silence for a few minutes as the world started up again outside in the morning light. Hiccup and Astrid had been back in Elydonia for a few days so that meant that Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins would be home by now with six new Hobblegrunts to join, what some Viking laughingly called, the Flocks of Berk. Hiccup was sure that his father would be very pleased because Stoick liked his dragons the same way that Hiccup liked his breakfast; with variety.

"Astrid tells me that you're having some dragon trouble in Bolthorn Castle" Hiccup remarked as he put far too much salt on his scrambled eggs.

"Yeah... Skywolf is not having the best time there and if things don't improve soon, then I may have to send him back to Berk with you after the wedding."

Sigrid was certainly looking forward to her upcoming nuptials but the marriage between one of Berks finest warriors and King Joric the Fifth of Bolthorn had brought forth a few unforseen problems but none was more serious for the bride than the fact that she may have to give up her beloved dragon.

"So what exactly is the problem?" Hiccup asked.

"The problem is, my dear Hiccup, that I can't spend enough time with him; he can't follow me around the castle like he would if he were on Berk and he can't go and find other friends to be with so he spends most of his time stuck in the stables where the horses are terrified of him and the stable hands don't know what to do with him" Sigrid sighed.

"And that was why you came here so early this morning" Astrid understood exactly what it felt like when your loved ones was suffering.

"He had a bad night" Sigrid continued "so I stayed in the stable with him and we left as soon as the sky turned from black to grey. I'm not even sure if Joric knows that we're gone yet but I had to get my poor boy back here as soon as I could so he could have some fun with Toothless and Stormfly; the people here are much better with dragons as well."

"That's only because they've had more time to get used to them but the people in the castle will too... eventually" Astrid smiled as she reached over and squeezed Sigrids hand "and I'm sure Joric has noticed that you're gone."

Joric had not impressed the Dragon Riders very much during their first encounter back when he was only the captain of a ship; he had been sent by the previous king of Elydonia to escort Prince Nainn and annex the islands of the Berk archipelago but he had later proved himself to be a man of compromise who was willing to do whatever it took to protect the lives of his crew and the ordinary people of his land (unlike King Rekkur who would gladly sacrifice anyone in battle just to protect and increase his own wealth and power).

When Rekkurs son had kidnapped Astrid and Sigrid, it was Captain Joric who had first noticed that these were not the frail women that they pretended to be; He could see that these two had managed to lull their captors into a false sense of superiority and he was sure that they would soon escape. It was when Joric had approached the warriors, both to offer his help as well as to ask for theirs, that Sigrid had begun to see him in a very different light and after their escape plan had succeeded, she found that she could not get the memory of him out of her mind.

From that moment on, whenever they had been near to each other, there was always something; a look, a smile, whether they were making plans with the Dragon Riders, just passing in the street or going into battle, these two simply could not keep their eyes off each other and so when it came time for Stoick to lead his people back home, Sigrid was determined to be the last to go just so she could spend one more minute with Joric before she had to leave. Joric however had other plans and so as the Dragon Riders made final their preparations to depart, he gently took her hand and lead her away from the others.

"I'm sorry for making your last minutes in Elydonia so awkward, but I have something that I must say to you before you go."

Sigrid did not feel awkward but she did have a very strong feeling that after Joric had said his piece, she would find it even harder to simply get onto Skywolf's back and leave for home without crying.

'Dammit' she thought 'now I do feel awkward.' Sigrid knew what he was going to say; he was going to tell her how special she was, how much he was going to miss her and that he would never forget her smile... but she was wrong.

"I don't want you to go" Joric pleaded "please stay... and be my wife; Sigrid... will you marry me?"

Stoick had roared with delight when they had told him the good news and he even started making plans for the wedding.

"We'll all fly back next spring and I'll give the bride away and..."

"HOLD ON CHIEF" Sigrid stopped him "I'm not going back to Berk with you now... and the wedding will be in a few weeks."

"Ah... well... yes" he grabbed the king in a bit bear hug "congratulations Joric; you're not only getting yourself a beautiful wife and a mighty warrior but Sigrid is also the person that I always turn to when I need something done right so it only stand to reason that she'd make the perfect Queen even though she still hasn't turned thirty."

"QUEEN?" Sigrid almost fell over "Oh no no no no no; I'm not going to be the Queen."

"You're marrying the King my darling" Joric smiled "of course you're going to be the Queen."

"I feel sick" Sigrid turned very green and sat down on the ground.

"I must go and tell Hiccup" Stoick declared when he had finally stopped laughing "He's not going back to Berk yet and so as the future chief of Berk, he can have the honour of giving you away."

"Please tell me that you're still going to marry me" Joric smiled as Stoick rushed off.

"queen... queen..." was all Sigrid could say as she hugged her knees and rocked back and forth.

I wonder how many chapters this story will end up being? I have plans for twenty so it may end up with over forty. Next post should be up next week (even though I have to go back to work soon) so have fun and drop me a line or two. Marty & Moon (purr) =^..^=