Alright! It's been a little while since I talked about this sequel and I'm finally working on it! It's not as organized as the first one was when I started writing and posting chapters so there might be more time in between updates.

And, as a side note, I have a working title but I didn't want to post it by the title because it gives something away that I don't want spoiled. When a certain something happens I'll update the title. Until then it's going to be plain old (serious man voice) "Cheating Death Two".

Right, onward!

Chapter 1: One Year Later

A year has passed since Hiccup and Astrid returned from the long journey to find the man that eluded Death. Upon their arrival home the Vikings of Berk were eager to hear about the strange tale, although still a bit weary. Hiccup retold the tale of how he and Astrid flew for days to find the island shaped like an axe where pirates lay low and scum goes to die. Vikings were intrigued at how they tricked the dead man and were swallowed by the darkness along with him. "How did you escape?" was a popular question that was followed by a hungry silence for an exciting and heroic answer.

"I'm not really sure." Hiccup would shrug. It was true. He wasn't sure how they managed to get out of the underworld at all. Death could have kept them there but instead he let them go as was their deal. They brought him the dead man who went by the name Richard and Death gave Astrid the years she would have lived had she not died.

Although her chain to Death was cleanly severed and he no longer had a claim on her soul, Astrid still had a connection to the spirit world. Often Hiccup would catch her speaking to nothing and when she saw him staring she would smile, a little embarrassed, and shrug it off.

It did irk him a little that she could speak to spirits but that unease had faded with time. Astrid had stopped welcoming the dead into conversations in the village and instead chose the cave where Hiccup had brought her soul back into the mortal world. It was quiet and calm and well away from the village. She spent many hours a day there communing to the lost spirits and helping them find their way into the other side.

The Vikings of Berk had learned to live with Astrid and her role as a spiritual medium. Most were weary of her but swallowed their intimidation and accepted her back into their ranks as a worthy Viking. Her aunt Ingrid had made the most progress of the Vikings. She had taken this chance to get to know her niece better since she was the only family she had.

Hiccup was woken by the thunderous crack of a hammer on hot metal. The sudden sound shook him off his cot and he crashed into the floor. Stunned for the moment he groaned and pushed himself back to his feet. He popped his back with a stretch and groaned with the instant pressure release.

"You finally awake in there?" Gobber half-hummed from the forge.

"Yeah." Hiccup yawned. He'd fallen asleep in the smithy. Again. That's three times that week that he'd crashed on his workbench and somehow crawled onto the cot.

"I hope you're making progress on that contraption of yours. I'd hate to think all those late nights were for nothing." Gobber said.

"Oh, it's coming along." Hiccup said. He looked at his workbench. Prototypes and revamped designs of his 'flight suit' scattered the surface. Astrid had laughed at him when he said he was going to make it but the more he worked on it the better of an idea it seemed. A few more tries and he'll be close to a test run. But he'd wait until after the test to tell Astrid.

"Oh, Hiccup, I almost forgot." Gobber said. His rhythmic hammer strikes stopped.

"Hmm?" Hiccup asked as he walked out of his closet workspace. Outside he could see the bright morning. It looked like a beautiful day. If only his suit was done now. This would be a perfect day to try it out.

"Trader Johan arrived this morning. He said he had something for you." Gobber said with a tell-tale nod. "A letter, I assume?"

"Maybe." Hiccup said. A letter from Esol and Chuck would give him something else to think about which would make Astrid and his dad happy for a while. "Thanks, Gobber!"

"Don't mention it!" Gobber called as Hiccup started toward the docks at a run.

He wasn't the best of runners when he had two feet and with just one he felt like he was flailing himself. But he wanted that letter and he didn't stop until he could see Johan's ship at the docks. Vikings were sorting through his treasures and talking excited to each other and asking Johan all sorts of odd questions.

"Oh, that item was exceptionally difficult to procure." Johan was saying to an excited Fishlegs. In his hands was a book. Thor only knew what was inside it.

"Oh, how much? How much!" Fishlegs said clutching the book in his meaty hands. It was clear that the price didn't matter. He wanted that book and would sell his mother if he had to.

"For you, dear boy?" Johan said, "That dagger would do just fine."

"This?" Fishlegs said as he pulled the new and still shiny dagger from his belt. "Done!"

Fishlegs thrust the dagger to Johan who jumped back a little but took it delicately from his hand. Johan eyed the dagger eagerly while Fishlegs ran from the ship with a squeal.

"What about that?" Snotlout was saying from the dock. He was as close to the ship as he could be without actually being on the ship.

"No!" Johan said with two hands up toward him. "Nothing for you. You'll just break it."

"Oh, come on!" Snotlout whined from the dock.

"Yeah, you just break everything you touch." Tuffnut said tauntingly from the ship.

"Yeah, unlike me and Tuffnut. We're as gentle as a five armed Terrible Terror." Ruffnut said as she smacked her brother over the head with a wooden club. He collided with an organized stack of weapons and they all came crashing down. Somehow, by the power of Oden, Tuffnut was left unharmed.

Johan groaned. "Out! All of you! Out you hooligans!"

"I sense some irony in there somewhere." Tuffnut said as he and his sister were shooed from the ship.

"It'll take me a full day to reorganize all this." Johan grumbled as they went away snickering about who knows what.

"Johan?" Hiccup asked as he approached the ship. "Gobber said you had something for me?"

"Ah, Master Hiccup, why yes, I've got something especially for you." Johan said with a grin. He went down below and rustled around in what sounded like a chest full of paper and came back with a folded and neatly addressed letter. "From a Miss Esol."

"Thank you, Johan." Hiccup said and he took the letter.

"And I've been ordered to not leave without a reply." Johan said.

"I'll be back before nightfall." Hiccup said with a nod.

Johan returned his nod and Hiccup was headed back from the docks. He'd wait to open the letter with Astrid. They always opened the letters together and wrote them together as well. He had made it to the center of the village when the booming voice of his father stopped him.

"Hiccup! There you are, son." Stoick the Vast said with arms outstretched and a great grin on his face.

"Ah, hi dad. Sorry, I fell asleep in the forge last night." Hiccup explained.

"No worries, son. Gobber's been telling me that you've got something big you're working on." Stoick said with a wink.

"Uh, yeah." Hiccup said. He wasn't sure what that wink meant.

Stoick laughed. "I can't wait to hear about it. Does it have something to do with a certain Viking lass?"

"What?" Hiccup asked. "Not really. I mean, I guess in a way, but no, not really."

Stoick looked confused. "It doesn't?"

"No." Hiccup said. "Dad, what are you talking about?"

"You're not trying to come up with some extravagant way to propose?" Stoick asked.

"What?" Hiccup said. How did his father get a proposal out of late nights at the forge? "No, it's a flight suit."

"Oh," Stoick said. He seemed a little deflated. But soon he piped right back up. "But in all seriousness, son, you're getting to be at that age where a young man finds a young woman, and-"

"Whoa, Dad," Hiccup said taking a few steps away from his father. "Is this really a talk you want to have in the middle of the village?"

"Oh, it's not like that, Hiccup." Stoick said, a little red in the face but humored. "Although, I admit that I would like to be able to play with my grandchildren while I'm still able."

"Right." Hiccup choked out.

"So, I take this to mean that you haven't asked her yet." Stoick said. "You need to get on that Hiccup. It's easier when you're younger. Your mother was twenty when she had you and if I'm not mistaken Astrid is soon to be twenty,"

"Right, Dad, well, I'm going to talk to Astrid right now and I'll think of a way to slip marriage into the conversation on the way up there." Hiccup said, ducking out of his father's sight. Hopefully, he'd bought himself some time.

On his way to the dragon stables he let out a groan. His father had been nagging him more and more about marriage. Occasionally he'd thrown in something about being chief. That was years and years away and he didn't want to think about it right now. When he thought of marriage he got weak in the knees. He wasn't ready. What would he do with kids? How do you take care of them if they can't walk or feed themselves? There was just so much about being a parent that he didn't know.

No one knew that Hiccup and Astrid were already engaged. It had been a secret and Hiccup wasn't sure how to dispel the secrecy gracefully. They could fake a public proposal but that sounded stupid. Hiccup sighed. He'd talk to Astrid later. Maybe she had some kind of advice.

Toothless was in the stables with the other dragons eating on the seemingly endless supply of fish and moldy bread. At the sight of Hiccup he burst with energy and bounded to his rider.

"Hey there, bud." Hiccup said. "You want to go see Astrid?"

Toothless almost seemed to nod.

"Alright." Hiccup said as he climbed aboard the saddle. He tucked the letter into his shirt and made sure it was secure before he took off.

Astrid was surely up in her spirit cave but to make sure Hiccup flew by her house. Her bedroom was empty and so he immediately took off at a steep incline toward the clouds. Toothless flew higher and higher and Hiccup clutched the saddle with both hands. The wind was wiping past and he wished he'd brought the prototype of his flight suit's helmet.

No sooner had they taken off than the cave came into view. It had been a creepy crevice in the mountain's side but thanks to Hiccup it was more inviting. He had built a platform outside the cave big enough for two dragons. Stormfly was currently snoozing on it with her spiked tail draped off the side. At the sound of Toothless she shifted her head and opened one eye.

Toothless landed on the platform and Hiccup slid off.

"Hey, Stormfly." Hiccup gave her a pat on the side. She gave a grunt of a greeting and closed her eye.

The cave had previous been treacherously dark and impossible to pass through without a dragon. However that problem was fixed by a wooden walkway that extended from the platform and went all the way to the back of the cavern where Astrid would be. It was lit by torches hung periodically along the walls.

Hiccup started inside and Toothless gratefully stayed outside. Dragons were weird about spirits. Toothless had hated the cave from the very beginning. Stormfly wasn't too keen on it either. It's like they knew something strange and unnatural was happening within.

Astrid sat on the floor at the back of the cavern. The tub sized hole in the cavern floor that Hiccup had carved out had been emptied of water. Astrid said it had an eerie feel to it and she didn't like it. It spooked the spirits even. But the strange altar that the strange woman had built was still intact. And her odd yellow light was resting inside a lantern that Hiccup had hung from the ceiling. It lit the entire cavern.

The light had been a gift from the strange woman. Hiccup had never understood who she was or how she knew what she knew but without her help he never could have brought Astrid back. Who know where he'd be today without her help. And like the woman the light was strange and Hiccup didn't understand what kept it bright. He had decided that it was one of those things that it is better not to question.

Astrid was sitting beside the empty tub. Her eyes were closed and her chin was dipped a little toward her chest and she looked relaxed as if she were sleeping. Hiccup had come to know that this was her look when she had entered onto the spirit plane. Her body was anchored here and gave her a way back. Hiccup sat down a little ways away from her to wait for her return. It could be a while so he might as well make himself comfortable.

Spirits were a tricky bunch. Many were lost in the in-between world unable to cross over into the beyond. They were caught in the door and they didn't know how to get out. Many were confused and angered and just needed a little guidance. This is where Astrid learned to come in and help them.

At first the spirits were a little reluctant to come to her. They can feel the difference between them. It took a little while for them to accept her and come to her. Before, Astrid would find spirits that would accept her help. Now, they often come to her. It was strange to think that she was becoming famous in the spirit world.

Helping them was a little trickier. Some spirits she could talk to and sort out their problems verbally. Some spirits required more than just talking. Astrid had learned to enter into the memories of the troubled spirits and walk with them through lingering feelings and anxiety. It was a strange thing to try to explain. She had tried many times to explain it to Hiccup. Eventually he stopped asking and just went along with it.

Astrid had been met by a little boy as soon as she had entered into the spirit world that morning. He was five years old and couldn't grasp the idea of death. His pale cheeks were stained from tears and his throat dry and raspy from crying out.

Astrid had managed to calm him enough so that he could talk. She and he sat down in the darkness to talk through it. She'd never had to explain death to a child before and wasn't sure how to do it.

"I want to go home." He said. He kept looking around in the dark and trying to find something familiar. "I don't like it here."

"I know, it's really dark." Astrid said. "But you can't go home right now. You have to move on."

"But I want to go home. Why can't I go home?" He asked. "I don't like the dark."

"You've got a new home." Astrid said.

"I don't want a new home. I want my old home." The boy whined. There were tears welling up in his dark eyes again. "I want my old home. I want to go home."

"I'm sorry." Astrid said. "But there are people waiting for you on the other side."

The boy swallowed. "Who?"

Astrid had to think fast. "Anyone who's ever left. Like your grandparents and their parents."

"Are my parents there, too?" he asked.

She didn't know. "Are they not at your old home?"

"I don't know. They were with me when it got really hot." He said.

Astrid didn't know what to say. From his crying and rambling she had guessed that his house had burnt down. Maybe his parents had died in the fire as well. But then, shouldn't they be here? Or had they accepted death and moved on already?

"They could be there already." Astrid said. "They could be waiting for you. Or they might be looking for you. You need to go meet them there."

"Where?" He asked. "My new home? How do I get there?"

Astrid was stumped on that one. Most spirits understood what it meant to move on. This was one more complicated. If this boy didn't know what it meant to move on into the beyond then how was he going to go?

"Well, it's like…falling asleep, only…" Astrid said. She'd never moved on or had the chance to talk to a spirit that had. It was a one way street.

"I hate going to bed!" the boy said. He threw his arms across his chest and pouted.

Astrid sighed. This might take a while. She was about to attempt another explanation of death when she felt a presence beside her. It wasn't a regular spirit but rather one she knew well. Hiccup must be in the cavern with her body.

"Listen, I'm going to go but I'll be back. While I'm gone I want you to think real hard about what is bothering you, okay?" Astrid said to the boy.

"Like what?" the boy asked.

"Well, things like being mad or being sad about something. I want you to think about what you're feeling and when I come back you can tell me all about it. I want to know everything. Okay?" Astrid said.

"Okay." The boy nodded.

Not sure if her point was entirely understood Astrid gave the little dead boy a reassuring pat on the head. She stood up and relaxed back out of the spirit world. It was always a strange experience. It was like her entire body was being submerged in hot water when she came back to the mortal plane. It was the opposite when she left her body and went into the spirit world.

She came back into her limbs and their weight was momentarily a strange sensation. The spirit world was weightless and coming back always had a short adjustment. She was soon back to herself and sighed the stale air out of her lungs.

"Good afternoon." Hiccup said. He was standing a few steps away with that grin on his face. It always sent a warmth through Astrid's blood.

"Afternoon?" Astrid asked. "How long have I been up here?"

"A while. I came by earlier but I left just a little while ago and came back with lunch. Hungry?" Hiccup said. He gestured to a satchel of fresh bread and fish by his feet. "Ingrid said as I was leaving that you skipped out on breakfast."

"I did." Astrid said. Her mortal stomach was growling at the thought of warm food.

Hiccup reached down with a hand. Astrid took it and he pulled her to her feet.

"Johan arrived this morning with a letter. I thought we'd read it together." Hiccup said as they started walking back toward the platform outside. "And I brought supplies to write ours while we're here."

"Sounds nice." Astrid sighed. She inhaled the warm smell of the bread and the salty fish. Her mouth was watering. That's the last time she's skipping out on breakfast.

Alright, that's chapter one. I know it's a bit shorter than the previous chapters I've posted with this story. I try to aim for about eight to nine pages on Word but this one is only about six. Like I said, slightly less organized. Either that, or I'm running out of steam tonight and I really wanted to get the first chapter posted.

But whatever – whoo! Review, I'd love to know what you think of this first chapter.