AN: Well, this first chapter is up somewhat earlier than I had expected, even with me having to juggle school and family commitments with it, so hopefully it's still worth the wait/effort. I've not really seen any HTTYD stories with this sort of premise (if there is, feel free to inform me of it) so I thought I'd try something a little different.

I'm aiming for this to be a comedy-drama, but since I've never actually had to deal with or experience the themes this story is going to portray I'll just apologise in advance if the way I deal with/portray these themes comes off as insensitive to real people with these problems.

Dialogue written in Bold Italics is narration and/or fourth wall breaking from Astrid's perspective.

Also, just for a heads up, though I'm adding Chapter 2 later today, since the chapters will be somewhat longer and more detailed than my usual standard, the following updates for this story will be weekly (Wednesdays, specifically) rather than daily. Anyway, on with the story...

CHAPTER ONE
Astrid's Framing Device

"Alright, girl... let's just settle down here..." Astrid muttered out as Stormfly flew down to the island that was about a hundred feet below where they were flying. It was a fairly small island in terms of geography, though it more than made up for it's lack of width with the height of it's towering, steep cliff edges.

"Easy, girl... easy..." Astrid spoke softly as Stormfly lowered downwards towards the island. She was trying to sound happy and had a smile forced onto her face, but she was hurting on the inside. The last thing she wanted to do was let Stormfly figure out that something was wrong, but as it ate away at her more and more it made it harder and harder for her not to break down into tears on her dragon there and then.

Even with the pain she felt, Astrid hated to bring Stormfly into this. Her beloved companion didn't deserve to be a witness to what Astrid was about to do, but as they got closer and closer to the island Astrid slowly began to accept that neither she or her dragon had a choice in this matter.

"Good girl, Stormfly... good girl..." Astrid groaned to herself as Stormfly landed on the lower, South side of the island and she slowly got off of her dragon's back. She remained silent as she strolled up towards the higher end of the island with Stormfly following just behind her.

"My name is Astrid Hofferson... and I have a problem..."

They'd been flying for a few hours and had travelled quite a notable distance from Berk, so Stormfly was clearly experiencing some fatigue from the trip. Astrid only had to wait about five or ten minutes before her dragon was sitting curled up at the bottom of the Eastern hill, inches away from falling asleep.

She smiled, a little more genuinely this time, as she caressed her dragon's forehead, softly saying "ssh... ssh..." as Stormfly lowered her head and closed her eyes, with some audible snoring following a few seconds later. Astrid exhaled in relief. Provided her dragon stayed asleep while she did what she was planning, it was probably going to be a lot easier to pull off than Astrid had initially thought.

"Goodnight, Stormfly..."

"Admittedly, this problem's been a pretty long time in the making, and with the benefit of hindsight I'd have probably done something about it before it got too bad..."

Astrid took a deep breath as she reached the top of the Eastern hill, the steepest and highest part of the entire island. She sat on the rock at the edge of the cliff, looking out calmly at the striking red sunset that bled it's colours out onto the ocean.

"Okay... come on, Astrid, come on... you can do this..." she muttered to herself, a hint of both worry and hesitation in her voice as she continued frantically wringing her hands together. "You can do this... you've gotta do this... ugh... you can't really do much else now, can you...?"

She was the Fearless Astrid Hofferson. She was a Viking. A Berkian. A dragon rider. She'd gone through a lot over the last few years, and she was not going to let this scare her. It had to be done, and when she had to do something, she did it.

"But, obviously, I didn't, so it got worse, I got worse and now I've pretty much ruined my entire reputation with my tribe and my betrothed..."

"Hoo... here goes..." she groaned breathlessly as she stood up and walked closer to the edge, allowing her to see the roaring sea crash and smash against the side of the rocks about fifty feet below her. She stood there contemplating for another minute or so, before she finally tensed her eyes shut.

"But still... things could always be worse, right?"

And then she jumped.

"Oh wait... no, I just threw myself off a cliff... so... I guess not..."

Time seemed to slow around her as she plummeted down with her front facing the sky, but Astrid felt perfectly, and surprisingly, relaxed. She was going to die. And not in battle, either, but by suicide. She should have been ashamed, terrified even, but she wasn't. She heard what sounded like a voice and a cry in the distance, saying "Astrid... Astrid..."

But she paid no attention. Astrid simply closed her eyes and shut out the noises around her, letting the wind blowing up from under her guide her body closer down towards the rock. As she felt herself falling unconscious, she was just able to notice the growing sound of flapping wings and the silhouette of a hand reaching towards her.

This must have been a Valkyrie, having flown down to lead her through Odin's battlefield to Valhalla, though she was surprised that committing suicide still allowed that. With nowhere else to turn, Astrid didn't react in the slightest, letting the familiar-feeling hand take hers.

"Well... I guess before I literally hit rock bottom I might as well recap how I got to this point... so why don't we wind back the clock before mine comes to a permanent stop..."