Chapter 2

The Village of Berk

The Letters were sent out that night by carrier pigeons. Each small feathery thing had a red envelope tied to their leg, a different name scribbled on it in running black ink, McGuffin, Dingwall, Macintosh and Haddock. One pigeon broke off from the other three, shooting like a dart through the still night air. It was heading far north, about three days travel by boat, but by air, it was a mere four hours. Piping his little wings against his small feathery body, the pigeon gave a little peep as he lost sight of the dark green land beneath him, a chilly blue swallowing the lush friendly grass. On and on the pigeon flew. The Letter bounced against his feet as he tore through the air, slicing the silence like cloth with the small peeps that he shot out. Berk was only two hours away now.

Lights winked at the small bird in a friendly manner, twinkling at the tired pigeon like fallen stars as the bird soared down towards the sleeping Viking town. Looking around, the pigeon's eyes widened at the largest house in the town, smoke was pirouetting out of the dark chimney. Landing with a small thump on the Viking house windowsill the pigeon knocked on the thick lumpy glass pane with his small beak. A shifting could be heard from inside and a silhouette was cast against the window. The glass shook slightly and the window was opened. The pigeon peeped again as a hand reached out and grabbed the bird. Stoick the vast gave a chuckle as he brought the carrier pigeon inside, holding the small ball of feathers gently in his fist. "Gobber! I told you they would answer." Stoick boomed, laughing as he dumped the bird on the dining room table.

"They might have answered Stoick, but I don't think it's going to be the answer you want to hear." Gobber said sagely, lumbering over to Stoick from the fireplace and setting his tankard of mead on the table, next to the cooing pigeon. Stoick smirked at his friend's words and untied the red letter from the bird's leg. Ripping the letter open Stoick read the letter quickly, his gray eyes darting from side to side.

"So Stoick?" Gobber asked tentatively. Stoick did not answer, he was still immersed in the letter, but a small smile was twirling around his lips as he read on. Gobber reached down and picked up his tanker of mead again, intent on swallowing the last mouth full, but just as he lifted the mug to his lips Stoick let out a loud roar of laughter and slammed the letter down on the table. Gobber and the bird both jumped, the pigeon making a great squawk and flapping up to perch on Gobber's helmet. Gobber on the other hand had let out a cry of surprise and slopped the beer all down his front.

"I knew it! I knew that they could not refuse!" Stoick bellowed slapping Gobber happily on the back, "Didn't I tell yeah Gobber didn't I?"

"Oh yes you sure did." Gobber said sadly looking down at the spilt beer, "You sure did tell me."

"I'm going to go tell Hiccup the good news!" said Stoick happily, "He'll be so excited."

"Oh yeah," Gobber grunted sarcastically, "He'll just be tickled pink." Stoick did not seemed to pick up on the blacksmith's sarcasm for he merely waved goodbye to the ale stained Gobber and left the house, in search of Hiccup. Gobber let out a sigh as Stoick left, "You know," the blacksmith said seriously to the cooing pigeon still perched on the left horn of his Viking helmet, "I think that this might all work itself out in the end." The pigeon cocked his head and made a loud peep. "Oh now watch your mouth." Gobber snapped back "You don't know that." The Pigeon peeped again. "I will admit you have a point there but try to be less sour about everything." The pigeon cooed and ruffled his feathers once, "Yes much better, and now, lets see about finding you a place to sleep." Gobber left after that, his newfound friend perched on his helmet, cooing in a content way.

Hiccup was sitting in the back room of the smithy, arms resting on his desk and head buried in the green fabric of his sleeves. This was Hiccup's thinking position, and Hiccup was thinking harder than he had ever done before, trying to figure out the potentially life ending situation. Tomorrow he had to go up against a fearsome fire breathing monstrous nightmare, and secretly he had a Night fury hiding in his backyard, one of the rarest and most prized dragons in the whole archipelago and he was keeping it as a pet. What am I going to do? Hiccup thought, his brow crinkling as he leaned back in his chair. Maps and diagrams were scattered all over his desk, red circles dotting good hiding spots and charcoal X's marked fishing ponds. This was all Hiccup could come up with, running away. Breathing heavily, Hiccup flung the treacherous map to the ground, eyes turning hard and cold for a second in a brief fit of panicked rage. "What am I going to do?" Hiccup spat, running his fingers through his choppy auburn hair. Jumping up from his desk chair, Hiccup dashed over to his bookshelf to look for something to help him. Running his shaking fingers over the leather spines, Hiccup faltered on one particular dusty book title. Pulling it out from its fellows Hiccup looked daggers down at the black cover, decorated with a red dragon sown into the fabric. "Stupid book!" Hiccup spat throwing the dragon book across the small candle lit room. "Why can't I just kill the damn dragon like everyone else!" Hiccup sobbed, slumping to the floor beside his small bookshelf. Running his fingers through his messy locks again, Hiccup tried with all of his might to think of a way out of fighting the dragon tomorrow, that did not involve running away or breaking a leg. Suddenly a loud bang could be heard from outside of the small office. Hiccup jumped and crouched down on the splinter minefield that was his office floor.

"Hiccup!" Astrid's voice cascaded out from the small crack in the door of the stuffy office. "Hiccup you better answer, you have some explaining to do!" Astrid shouted again looking around the blacksmith for the cowering boy. Hiccup of course did not answer. He had more sense then to stab a sleeping dragon in the eye, and by the sound of Astrid's voice she was angrier and as ready for blood than a hungry Nadder. Taking a deep breath, Hiccup crawled as quietly as possible to the slightly ajar door. Gasping in a final gulp of air Hiccup reached up to the mettle latch and slowly shut the door, praying to Oden that Astrid would not find him. The door shut with a slight snap and silence fell outside of the office. Hiccup's heart was in his mouth as he listened to the silence that was falling like hammers on his eardrums. Then he heard Astrid's alarmingly close steps fade away. Letting out a growl Astrid stomped out, swearing under her breath. "Where is that stupid kid." She snarled, slamming the door to the smithy behind her. Hiccup let out a long slow breath and leaned against the door.

"Thank gods." Hiccup breathed running a hand down his face and shaking his head once. Two weeks ago Hiccup would have liked nothing better than to have Astrid chasing him around like the black death, but now, when she was ready to rip him limb from limb to find out how he was doing so well in dragon training, Hiccup would rather be treated like nothing more than a pesky shadow by her again. "Like she would believe me if I did tell her." Hiccup scoffed, "Hey Astrid the reason why I'm beating you in Dragon training is because I actually have a pet Dragon named Toothless. Yeah he's a Night Fury, you know, the one that's the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, but also likes belly scratches and Atlantic cod. I really hope you don't mind, and I'm glad that you understand that I trained a drag-" But Hiccups rant was cut off when the door of his office was opened behind him and Hiccup, who was still leaning up against the door, fell backwards and landed with a sharp intake of breath right underneath his father's curious gaze.

"Hiccup?" Stoick began looking down at his son, sprawled at his feet. Hiccup got up as quickly as he possibly could and stood awkwardly in front of his dad, utter surprise and shock splattered all over his freckled face.

"Oh um hi dad, hi, I was just . . . flooring, um w-what are you doing here?" Hiccup's eyes shifted from his father's confused face to a small red letter gripped in the hooligan's chief's fist. "What's that?" Hiccup asked, pointing down at the scarlet letter.

"This as a matter of fact is why I'm here."

"Oh . . . really, um, care to elaborate?" The awkward moment that was scratching like sand paper ended as Stoick smiled down at Hiccup and gestured for him to go inside the office. Hiccup walked slowly over to his desk again, pulling the small chair over to him. The chair legs grunted and moaned as they were dragged over the uneven wooden flooring, as if in some kind of warning to Hiccup to run now while he still had the chance. The small Viking boy looked up at his dad with curiosity, slowly rubbing his bruised arm from the unexpected fall.

"Hiccup," Stoick sighed, "I'm really sorry to tell you this but I have some bad news." Hiccup's expression twisted slightly.

"What?" He asked slowly.

"Unfortunately you can't fight the dragon tomorrow, now I know this-"

"Really!" Hiccup interrupted, an enormous weight lifted from his shoulders, "This is great, I mean this is," But then Hiccup realized what he was saying, "Uh I mean, Damn, really?" Hiccup corrected, filling the small sentence with as much sadness and disappointment he could muster. "Oh dad that's awful, I was really looking forward to um, doing that stabby stuff." Stoick was never good at seeing a lie with his friends and family, having gotten so good at spotting a subtle lie, that he was quite terrible at seeing a big one.

"Yes I know, it is rather poor timing, but there is a good reason why you have to miss the dragon fight tomorrow."

"Is it because you don't want to send your sixteen year old son into a cage with a Monstrous Nightmare?" Hiccup asked hopefully.

"What? No." Stoick laughed, waving a hand at Hiccup's ridiculous statement, "This is a good reason." Rolling his eyes Hiccup crossed his arms and waited for his father to speak, biting his tongue so he did not retort in a very sarcastic manner. "Hiccup your going to be part of a very old and important tradition amongst the people of Berk." Stoick said slowly, building up the surprise that he was about to dump on his son.

"Drinking?" Said Hiccup coldly.

"What no, this one is much more social and important." Stoick retorted, a bit taken aback by his son's apparent disgust.

"Well what is it then?" Hiccup asked with a bit of impatience.

"You're going to compete for the princess Merida's hand in marriage." Stoick said proudly. Hiccup just sat dumb struck for a second, his mouth dropped and his eyes widen.

"Um, what?" Hiccup said slowly, his arms falling limply to his sides.

"The Scottish lands lye three days south of here, their daughter Merida is going to be married off to the eldest son of one of the lords and chiefs of the surrounding lands, and I having only one son." Here Stoick paused, just briefly, but Hiccup noticed, the boy's cheeks burned with anger but he did not say anything, and Stoick continued. "So I have nominated you to compete in the games. We set sail tomorrow at dawn." Once again Hiccup just stared at his dad, mind reeling. Processing the information that was just thrown at him was more difficult than any dragon fighting class Hiccup had ever experienced. The words that his father had just casually mentioned to him shot through the trembling boy's brain, his mouth still dropped in disbelief.

"You want me, to fight for a girl's hand in marriage?" Hiccup asked slowly, his face bleached with shock. "I have no idea who this girl is, where she is and what she's like, and were leaving tomorrow?" Stoick nodded with a small smile, thankful that his son understood the situation. "WHAT?" Hiccup gasped, louder than he had expected. "I can't just go marry some girl I don't even know! I have a life here, a home, Astir-" Hiccup stopped himself from mentioning Astrid's name, not wanting to bring up a touchy subject with his dad, who was less than brilliant at dealing with Hiccup's problems.

"Hiccup, you need to understand, you have to marry the Scottish girl, if you marry her then we will have enough men to defeat the dragons, we can have our lives back son." Hiccups innards curled at those words. Dragons. Like always this was about dragons, his tiny fists clenched at the unfairness of the situation.

"You want me to marry this girl so we can use their army?" Hiccup grumbled, his bangs falling over his darkened eyes as he looked up at his father. "Well I guess that makes sense." Hiccup spat, sarcasm dripping from every syllable.

"Good, I'm glad you understand son." Stoick sighed placing a comforting hand on Hiccup's shoulder and making the boys back bend from the weight.

"But I wasn't-!" Hiccup started but once again his dad paid no heed.

"You'll need this." Stoick said cheerily, dropping a large leather sack into his son's arms.

"What?" Hiccup grimmest, holding the sack a little ways away from his body, not wanting to make too much contact with it.

"Oh and this." Stoick added, dropping a small short sword onto the sack. Hiccups hole body bent forward as the sword was tossed nonchalantly onto his shaking arms. "Normally the challenges involve fighting, and what better way than by sword."

"Wait what challenges?" Hiccup stammered as his father pushed him out the door of his office.

"Well how else do you win a princess' heart then by fighting for it?" Stoick responded as he shepherded his reluctant son towards the door of the smithy.

"I thought dinner and a good conversation would be nice too?" Hiccup retorted stiffly, cradling the sword awkwardly in the leather bag.

"Nah, we're Vikings, we don't really do talking." Stoick laughed and with that pushed his son out the door. "Now go home and pack, I need to inform the other Vikings about our new plans."
"But dad-" Hiccup started; however Stoick was no longer listening. His back was turned and he was running in the other direction, up towards the dining hall. Hiccup's shoulders dropped as he looked down at the short sword. "How am I going to explain this to Toothless." Hiccup moaned.

Hiccup did not bother with the packing, not just yet. Throwing the bag and the sword angrily on the ground near his desk, Hiccup ran over to his small wooden bed. Throwing himself down on the uneven wooden paneled floors, Hiccup reached a hand out into the darkness that inhabited the space beneath his bed. A clink of metal sounded and Hiccup's hands closed around something cold and leathery. With a small groan Hiccup pulled out a black artificial tail fin, with copper gears lining the side of the hand-made creation. Nodding once Hiccup heaved the black tail fin up and ran out of his room, leaving his sword resting forgotten next to his Viking helmet.

Panting Hiccup ran from his house, eyes fixed on the dark tree line of the wild shrubbery outside of his village. Jumping over logs and duking under branches, Hiccup bolted to the clearing that Toothless was sleeping in. Night was at its thickest, swallowing all thought of calm that Hiccup normally felt running through these woods. Long black shadows stretched out like pillars, casting lines upon the small boy's body. Black squirrels scurried up and down the rough branches of the pine trees, hissing and chattering at Hiccup as he sped through the darkness. The Viking felt like he was intruding on something sacred and alien to him as he clambered over a large bolder, pulling the leather tail up to rest next to him. Hiccup cast a worried look around the still darkness. Then taking a deep breath Hiccup slid down the rock, keeping a firm grip on the artificial tail. He went speeding down the deep scar in the earth that Toothless had made when he crashed into the ground the night Hiccup had shot him out of the sky. Tiny pebbles and clumps of dirt went cascading down beside the boy, as he slid toward the clearing where he knew Toothless was sleeping. Stumbling up from the long slide he had just done, Hiccup brushed himself off quickly and picked a dry leaf out of his auburn hair. Hiccup then bolted forward towards the clearing.

Reaching a large pile of rocks, Hiccup expertly maneuvered his way through the stone maze having done it too many times to count. But the boy then winced as he knocked his head against a dead branch that had somehow managed to wedge itself between two rocks. Muttering insults under his breath Hiccup finally stumbled to the end of the maze and blinked in the sudden light. The Moon was smiling down at the dirt-covered boy, looking a like a toenail in the dark velvet sky. Hiccup gazed shakily around the small clearing and spotted a large smudge of black, looking like an ink stain in an otherwise green surrounding. Smiling Hiccup jumped down from the small cliff he was positioned on and walked quickly up to the sleeping dragon. "Toothless!" Hiccup called hugging the tail fin to his chest. The black dragon snorted once and opened his eyes wearily. "Yeah buddy, I know it's late but this is important." The dragon's eyes narrowed slightly and gave Hiccup a quizzical look.

Hiccup explained the recent situation he had just been dumped on by his dad, expressing his worry and confusion about the current calamity in his otherwise simple life. Toothless listened closely, his ears dropping and his pupils dilating. Sadness was something that dragons very rarely show, as expression is rather limited in their faces, but now, the normally bouncing Night Fury looked just plain gloomy. Hiccup finished his story with a small smile, and rubbed his hand over the dragon's warm scaly head. "I just don't understand bud, nothing seems to make sense anymore." Toothless gave a comforting gargle and rubbed his nose into the small boys chest. "But- I have to try Toothless, I need to do this so I can finally do something useful, for my tribe, for my dad- . . . this could be the thing that I was meant to do, marry this girl." Toothless gave the sad boy a lick, soaking his hair in dragon saliva. Hiccup gave a small laugh that was mixed with a gasp of disgust. "Toothless, yuck, was that really necessary?" Hiccup croaked, wiping the drool from his eyes. Toothless gave a gummy smile then spotted the black prosthetic tail on the ground behind the boy. Cocking his head, Toothless paced over to the tail and gave it a quizzical sniff. Hiccup looked over to see where Toothless was going and spotted the forgotten prosthetic too. "Oh uh, yeah that." Hiccup said sadly walking over and picking up the tail fin. Toothless looked questioningly at Hiccup, not liking the smell that was drifting off the dejected boy. "Toothless, if I do win the challenges and Princess Merida marries me, then . . ." Hiccup looked miserably down at the mossy ground and squeezed the tail fin hard. "Toothless, I won't come back from Scotland." The dragon's eyes widened and his pupils dilated into slits. Giving a snarl of disapproval Toothless rubbed his nose into the boy's chest again, in some kind of signal for stay. Hiccups head drooped and he released his hold on the black tail fin, letting it fall to the ground. He hugged the thick neck of his dragon, eyes pressed shut. Toothless gave a coo of sadness twirling once around his small rider, his hot breath ruffling the boy's hair. Hiccup, feeling rather sick, sat down beside Toothless and the Night Fury lay down beside him, curling his tail protectively around Hiccup's small body. Boy and dragon lay together for some time, Toothless keeping his human worm with his fire filled chest. Both of their eyes were closed, but each clung to consciousness, as they wanted to remember their last potential night together.

But then a bird started to sing. Hiccup cracked his eyes open to see the stars that were once shining like lanterns in the ebony sky had now started fading away. It was then that the boy realized that they were leaving at dawn. Groaning Hiccup got up, unwinding himself from Toothless's long black tail. Picking up the prosthetic fin again, Hiccup walked solemnly over to the drowsy dragon's tail and unhitched the brown leather prosthetic and replaced it with the black one. Toothless started shifting, feeling small nimble hands running up his back, untying the metal link that allowed Hiccup to control the tail fin. Eyes widening in sudden horror, Toothless bolted upright, knocking Hiccup over, just as he was about to unhitch the saddle that was hugging Toothless' chest. Hiccup hit the dirt with a dull thump, choppy auburn locks cascading into his surprised green eyes. "Toothless." The boy said sadly as the black dragon backed away from the sprawled teen. "Toothless I got to get that saddle off you, you don't need it anymore." Hiccup said forlornly. Toothless shook his head sharply, his pupils dilating into slits again. Hiccup got up slowly, hands wrapped around his bruised torso. "Toothless if I don't come back then you can't fly, and if you cant fly then your dead!" Hiccup choked. "So- so I made you that." The small Viking moaned pointing dejectedly at the black fin now strapped around the thrashing tail of the Night fury. Toothless eyed it hatefully, giving it a good thwack on the ground. "Hey stop it! That took me a whole week to make!" Hiccup shouted, running over to the dragon. "See look, you can move it on your own." Hiccup said shakily, pulling at the tail fin so the copper gears rotated. Yellow eyes widening Toothless shifted the position of his tail fin, and both real and fake responded. "Yeah, there you see, now you can fly on your own, you don't need me any more bud." Toothless gave a sharp hiss as Hiccup made to unhitch the saddle again. Backing further away from his rider, the snarling Night fury defended his hand-made saddle with his life. Hiccup withdrew his hand from Toothless and gave the dragon a small smile. "Thanks bud." Hiccup whispered.

Dawn was fast on his heals as Hiccup ran back towards the Viking village. After showing Toothless how to use the fin, the ebony dragon had blasted off from the clearing, leaving Hiccup all alone again. Fighting back a tear Hiccup had left. Now he was running as fast as he could back to the disapproving looks and glairs of his fellow humans.

Bolting through the back door of his solid house, Hiccup scrambled up the wooden stairs of the dining room. Crossing the small landing at break-neck speed, Hiccup tossed himself into his room and slammed the door behind him. Breathing heavily Hiccup smiled as he turned from the heavy wood of his bedroom door only to have the smile pealed off his face by the sight of Gobber standing flabbergast in the corner of his room. "Ah Gobber- what the! What are you doing here?" Hiccup shouted, jumping at the sight of his teacher.

"I was sent to get you." Gobber said slowly walking over from his corner to look closely down at Hiccup. "Where have you been?" Gobber asked suspiciously, looking from Hiccup's pale sweaty face, to his red eyes, to the black circles now blossoming under his eyelids. "You look awful."

"Thank you for the reassurance Gobber." Hiccup said sarcastically, ducking under the blacksmith's arm and diving over to the sack that was lying forgotten on the floor. Picking it up, Hiccup ran over to his chest of clothes and started shoving shirts into the leather sack.

"You haven't even packed yet?" Gobber croaked.

"No." Hiccup said dryly, now tossing brown and black pants into the bag.

"What have you been doing instead boy?" Gobber gasped, his mouth dropped with confusion.

"Uh, sleeping." Hiccup lied, grabbing two pairs of boots and a belt.

"Oh and I suppose you just landed in a pile of leaves in you dreams then." Gobber sneered; pointing out the dead leaves still stuck to the back of Hiccup's head. Hiccup brushed at the leaves hurriedly and started shoving the boots and the belt into the bag. "Oh no, you're not hiding that from me." Gobber snapped, stomping over to look Hiccup in the blood shot eyes. Hiccup looked away and tried to run over to his desk but was stopped by Gobber's meaty arm. "Hiccup . . . did you get any sleep last night?" The blacksmith asked with slight concern, narrowing his eyes at Hiccup's vacant expression. Hiccup shrunk under the piercing look of his teacher, and bit his lip.

"Uh yeah, a bit." Hiccup stammered, looking through his choppy bangs at Gobber. The blacksmith's expression grew stern. Crossing his arms, Gobber gave Hiccup a fatherly look. "I'm not your dad Hiccup, you can't lie to me, so you better fess up now or I'll drag this out for as long as you can bear to stand." Hiccup frowned and turned away from Gobber, walking over to his desk and started rummaging around in the drawers. "Oh so its going to be like that eh?" Gobber sneered, watching the back of Hiccup's head closely.

"Yep, like that." Hiccup answered, pulling out his leather bound sketchbook and five or six charcoal pencils.

"Alright Hiccup, but you know this, you brought this on yourself, and no amount of cheek will get you out of it."

"Oh really" Hiccup muttered placing his sketchbook into a satchel with the Berk crest branded on the side.

"Yes really, at the end of this trip I'm gonna know what you were doing out in those woods." Gobber said confidently. Hiccup looked up at the smiling blacksmith, shocked that the man had known where he was.

"Oh really Hiccup I'm not stupid, your tracking mud in all over the floors." Hiccup looked down sharply and groaned at the muddy footprints scattered all over his bedroom. Running a hand over his face, Hiccup tried to ignore the laughter now coming from the corner.

"Gobber what took you?" Stoick's voice boomed out over the docks as he spotted the blond blacksmith walking steadily over towards him. A small figure then came into view, with a messy crop of auburn hair shining like an acorn in the rising sun of the cold morning. Hiccup was sinking under the weight of the sack that was resting over his aching shoulder. But the sword that was bouncing on his hip and the helmet on his head, did not help the weight either. Only his satchel, which had his sketchbook and a scale from Toothless, remained light as a feather on his small, lanky frame. Gobber looked down at the struggling teen and grabbed the leather bag from Hiccup, tossing it over his own muscled back instead. Hiccup let out a cry of protest but let the moment of weakness go. Gobber smiled at Hiccup as he and the boy walked up to the chief. "So where were you?" Stoick asked again looking from Hiccup's vacant face to Gobber's smiling one.

"Oh you know Stoick, some last minute packing, goodbyes, that sort of thing." Gobber said nonchalantly, giving the chief a convincing smile. Stoick glanced down at Hiccup again who as staring steely eyed at the ground. Dirt caked his face in places and his green tunic was damp with dew, pieces of dead leaves and twigs were lodged in his son's knotted hair and the normally bright green eyes were blood shot, with dark circles looping around his lower eye lid. "He uh, fell down a hill." Gobber said awkwardly noticing the look that Stoick was giving Hiccup. The blacksmith gave his apprentice a sharp nudge to back up his story. Hiccup looked dazedly up at his dad and gave him a quick shrug, then walked over to sit down on a small wooden crate. Stoick and Gobber exchanged looks and Gobber shook his head once, he didn't know what was going on either.

Hiccup was gazing miserably down at his shoes when some footsteps brought him out of his small coma. Hiccup looked up to see a pair of fur boots standing in front of him, the left one cocked so the person's body weight was resting on a large battle-axe. "Astrid!" Hiccup choked, looking up at the snarling girl's face. Hiccup stood up quickly so he was on the same level as the blond. Astrid stared piercingly at Hiccup, her blue eyes cutting him like glass as she glared at him. Then the ferocity and hate slowly leaked out of her watery blue eyes and the storm clouds lessened in her heart. Hiccup swore that she had never looked prettier.

"I still think there's something off about you." Astrid said slowly, "But- that doesn't mean that I won't miss hitting you." She smiled and punched Hiccup hard on the shoulder. "Try not to die out there, I wouldn't want to miss it."

"I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." Hiccup chuckled, smiling at the pain that was prickling through his shoulder. Astrid hesitated, then gave Hiccup a quick hug, squeezing him a bit too tight. Hiccups eyes widened at the gesture and awkwardly wrapped his small arms around the girl. But then the two broke apart, standing silently together for three brief seconds. The twins and Fishlegs then came over and said goodbye to Hiccup as well. The moment was short, but Hiccup appreciated it very much. The only one that was missing was Snotlout. Hiccup asked Astrid were his cousin was, but she merely rolled her eyes.
"You're not going to like the answer." She said coldly. Hiccups brow furrowed but his confusion was soon ended, unfortunately.

"Hey Hiccup! Guess who's coming to watch you get your butt kicked by a couple of lord's sons." Hiccup groaned at the sound of Snotlout's cocky voice. Turning, Hiccup was tackled by his over intoxicating cousin. Coughing, the much smaller Viking picked himself off the hard ground of the deck and looked daggers at Snotlout.

"Why are you coming?" Hiccup choked, his arm, once again rapped around his bruised chest.

"Uh I'm your cousin, duh. My dads like second in control, if he's going why shouldn't I?" Snotlout answered, talking to Hiccup like he was four.

"I can think of several reasons." Hiccup retorted coldly. Snotlout made to answer but his dad then shouted at him to come over and help with the luggage. Giving Hiccup a burning glair Snotlout ran over to assist his father.

The rest of the teens then departed after that, waving goodbye to Hiccup one more time before walking back up to the village. Hiccup watched the disappearing glow of Astrid's hair in the rising sun, miserable that he was leaving now. Sitting back down on the small crate, Hiccup turned over all the events that had just happened in his head. I just got hugged by Astrid Hofferson. Hiccup thought happily, that, I was not expecting today. Hiccup was suddenly cast in shadow as Gobber's huge form loomed over him "Right lad, we're ready to board." He said in a falsely cheery voice. Phil, Gobber's pesky pet sheep sat next to him, giving Hiccup a board look.

"Gobber, you cant take your sheep." Hiccup said drowsily looking up at his teacher with a tired sort of annoyance.

"What why not?" Gobber asked, his voice rising in protest.

"Gobber . . . some - someone's going to eat him." Hiccup said delicately, but really not caring two figs about that stupid sheep. Gobber looked down at Phil then back to Hiccup, eyes wide. "Gobber what do you expect will happen if you bring a walking lamb roast onto a ship with rationed food. They're Vikings Gobber, they don't like being hungry."

"Ah, well I guess you're right lad." Gobber sighed, motioning for Phil to go back to the house. Phil left with a murderess glare at Hiccup. Hiccup looked back at the sheep in confusion, never trusting that fluff ball. "But if I cant have that Phil." Gobber piped up whistling once and looking expectantly at the sky, as a carrier pigeon fluttered down from the tree beside the docks and landed on Gobber's helmet. "Then I can have this Phil!" Gobber said proudly, who was looking overjoyed at the sight of the cooing pigeon.

"What? Gobber what's with the pigeon?" Hiccup asked tentatively looking with apprehension at the small gray bird perched jointly on the blacksmith's helmet.

"It's Phil." Gobber said simply, smiling at the confusion on his apprentice's face.

"Do you name all of your pets Phil?" Hiccup asked smugly.

"Don't insult the name Phil, it's a good strong name, now come on, we're boarding the ships."

Sighing Hiccup slid off his crate and followed the blacksmith to one of the two boats that were tied to the dock. A pair of yellow eyes watched him board the ship and sail away, disappearing into the heart of the horizon just as the sun fully rose into the sky. Toothless was perched in a tall spruce tree not ten yards away, his nose quivering with the scent of his small friend. No dragon will ever abandon their treasure and Hiccup was as big a trove as any gold or diamond. Giving a snort, Toothless took off into the sky, flying above the clouds to avoid being spotted by enemies. Yellow eyes bounced from ship to ship till the dragon saw the patch of auburn sparkling like bronze in the early morning sun. Toothless was going to Scotland with Hiccup, because right now, both needed each other more than ever.