Return to ones home

Chapter 1

With Hiccup gone, the Dragon's gone and Berk making lots of enemies with villages that still opposed the progress they had made with the dragons, many people had to learn how to fight to protect their homes from these new enemies. It wasn't like It was with the dragons because they were only after food and nothing else but now they face multiple enemies. The two most prominent being the Outcasts, led by Alvin, and the Berserkers, led by Dagur. They would and could destroy everything they have, crush their homes, kill their families and ignite their island in flames if the villagers didn't stop them.

As a result of their enemies Astrid had to become a fierce warrior one whose presence demanded fear and respect from all around her. A result of her intense training was that she had become as beautiful as a Valkyrie with a body every man in the world would lust after. Astrid cloths reflected that about her. Now Astrid wore a tight red tunic that flowed with the curves of her torso. Moving over the outcrop of her womanly hips are a spiked leather skirt, with skulls sewed onto the waist line. Strapped to the small of her back was a large but hidden knife.

Her long legs are covered with a pair of dark blue leggings and her feet covered with thick fur boots which almost touched her knees. On her shoulders sat a set of spiked metal shoulder pads and leather hood, with fur trimming, fastened between them. Further down her arms there's a pair of leather arm guards that also acted as arm warmers. Between where the arm guards stopped, at her elbow, and where her shoulder pads started is just smooth open skin. Slung over her left shoulder is her golden blond hair braided in complicated weaves and loops. Astrid's face showed off a smooth but defined jaw line, Her pink lips soft against her creamy white skin. The only blemish that's visible on her face was a long cut right above her right eyebrow.

The tip of her nose was rounded at its peak giving it small appearance in proportion to her head, and on either side of her nose lay a pair piercing blue eyes. Added up she was the most beautiful woman Berk had ever had the pleasure of laying there eyes upon. Most of her bodys definition was a result of her training but nonetheless her beauty and fighting skill, made men all around the village and the few friendly islands try and get her attention and affection. when there efforts inevitably failed some of them tried to get her mother to sign a marriage contract between them and her and, much to Astrid's pleasure, was always unsuccessful.

Astrid's mother, Ingrid Hofferson, is in her early 40s and loved what was left of her family that being Astrid & Astrid's six year old brother Avex. She lost the husband and father to her two children during the battle with the Red Death. When the survivors got back they told her what had become of him, they told her that he'd been assigned as a deckhand aboard one of the ships Stoic took with him to the Dragon's nest. but lost his life when he wasn't able to able to escape the ship that had been set on fire by the Red Death's fiery breath. This loss made her hold onto her remaining family , that being her children that she loved with every fiber of her being. Astrid is her only daughter and she didn't want her to be married off like some farm animal like she was when she was but a girl so she let Astrid choose her own path. The path of the Shield maiden is what Astrid had chosen, its a life without love or children. Ingrid didn't agree with the choice of her child but let her be what she wanted to be and encouraged her on her path. She had secretly wished that a boy would come along and steal her heart and her wish was granted when the Chief's son Hiccup changed berk and stole Astrid's heart by showing her the freedom of flight, the goodness of dragons, and the kindness in his heart. That was all lost though when the storm came to berk and this dream of hers was blown away, but she still had a flicker of hope that another boy would come along and the two, Astrid and the boy, would fall in love. All this is why Ingrid didn't want her only daughter to marry with a heart of hate for the other person but a heart full peace, love and desire.

-O0O-

Astrid liked walking in the forest it always gave her a sense of peace with the world. Before Hiccup disappeared he had had the chance to show her how he looked at the world, so full of curiosity and the elegance in which everything worked together. In this time she had with Hiccup she started to learn how to look at the world the same way.

Astrid is on her way to the cove so she can finally get some peace and quiet from all the daily shenanigans she had to endure from Snotlout and the Twins throughout the day. Those three always found a new and creative way to irritate her, and the cove was her place to escape. To her the cove was a sacred place. This was the place where a bond like no other was formed, a bond that would change a young man and eventually all of Berk forever. Whenever she arrived at the cove she could always feel Hiccups heart and soul emanating from the very dirt and rock that surrounded her. She could feel his happiness from when he was with Toothless. When he was here hiding Toothless from the village he let his stress and hate float away. Now she was the one letting her stress go when she was hiding here. This is a place to let all your anger, anxiety, sadness, and stress all release into the vast woods surrounding it.

Deep down in a place she has never sheared with a single person, a place where all her hopes and dream lay hidden from the world, she had a wish that one day she would walk into the cove like usual day and he would be standing there right next to the rock which she sat on many years ago trying to find out what Hiccup was up to in dragon training and he'd be waiting for her to find him, but that was a fantasy. She knew what it was but that didn't stop her from dreaming. When she spends the night at the Cove she always had a dream about him. Most of these dreams are pleasant ones and some are even romantic.

One time she had dreamt that she was training with her axe in a clearing deep in the forest, once she had gotten tired she went to relax. she put her axe down, untied her hair put her head band on a rock on the edge of the clearing and laid down in the tall grass. What she didn't expect is that when she got up to get her things the headband had been braided with the most beautiful and colorful flowers on the island. They were weaved with the skill of an engineer and touch of an artist. A note lying next the headband read "For you milady" with Hiccups trademarked triple H signature. Whenever she thought about this it made her heart burn with passion for Hiccup and made her wish it had actually happened.

On rare occasions she has nightmares about him that would make any man no matter the strength cringe in pain for him. When she has a nightmare it always wakes her up screaming or crying out for him trying to relive the pain she saw him in. But one of these dreams One night several months after Hiccups disappearance in the storm she had a terrible nightmare. In it she saw Hiccup in a dark room chained to a wall, cloth covering cuts that went all up and down his torso. some of them were new but she could see old ones that had been sealed with his own blood, his face looked battered and bruised like he had been repeatedly punched with massive force but his eyes is what got her the most. They looked lost in pain but below that they looked more hopeless than all the years he had been tormented on berk by everyone that viewed him as a mistake. She heard him whispering to the shadows with a raspy voice that had been screamed out of existence over days and weeks of torture. What she could make out of his dry mumbling are words that still haunt her.

To clear her mind of the night mare she Shook her head from side to side then looked straight again. She didn't like to think about the bad dreams they always left her distant, confused and angry. In all of them she was just an observer, she couldn't do anything to help Hiccup or the ones that died around him. She was just always there seeing his pain, his wiles of sadness, but she couldn't run and hug him or comfort him no matter how hard she tried.

Her feet guided her into the Cove purely on instinct because she had been there so many times that she knew where ever rock, hill and pebble was located. Like always she placed her axe down, leaning on the steep rock walls next to the entrance to the cove, and strolled lightly through the grass taking in every sound she herd. There's a birds high pitched chirping to draw in a mate, theres a cawing sound coming from a group of Crows. A soft breeze made it way into the cove and brushed up against Astrid while she slowly paced around the lake to a soft patch of grass where she would lay down and watch the clouds.

In the hours she lay there in the cove in the grass watching the clouds she saw many shapes that resembled both land and sea animals, or land features like trees, and houses. this was her favorite thing to do when on the ground, just watch the sky like she did when she was a child in the late afternoon days. She had stopped doing this when she decided to be a shieldmaiden, to become the strongest of them all. She wanted to be treated like an equal to men and her parents wanted that for her as much as she did so they supported her and helped train her.

Her plan worked too, all the men, except Snotlout, treated her as an equal or superior, she had become stronger than most and more skilled. no one in the village could beat her at hand to hand combat, axe throwing or sword dueling.

Snotlout was still an egotistical ass that she always had trouble not killing but she couldn't do that for two reasons. One: because he was chosen as the next Hair to the chiefdom of berk,and Two: because he was not an enemy no matter how annoying he got.

Snotlout never missed a moment to shove that in peoples faces but his blood is in the Haddock line so there wasn't much she could do about it. When most villagers got drunk enough and the subject of Snotlout came up they would say there true feelings about his ascension to Heir of Berk. It's always negative thing when they talk about him, "He's too short", "That Snotlout boy needs to learn how to learn", " One of these days that ego of his is going to get him hurt or in serious trouble." Some of it was said in front of Snotlout but he didn't listen, all he did was continue to boast about his mighty greatness.

She liked to imagine what Hiccup looked like before the storm. His face just starting to mature, and loosing its baby fat. His jaw becoming a prominent feature in his physical appearance. He had also started to shed away all the years of torment they had put him through and started believing in his own abilities. On occasion she wondered what Hiccup would look like now had he not disappeared in a storm that ravaged berk and its surrounding islands. Astrid would imagine him with long slender legs and a tall torso, but he was still quite thin and small compared with other Vikings.

Other times she would think of him as filling out quite nicely,long thick legs made of pure muscle a nicely shaped torso that held his extremely tall body upright with broad shoulders that screamed power and authority. His face was always a mystery to her she never knew how to imagine what someone would look like but what she could imagine was always a face with strong features but above all eyes that had kindness for all thing living.

"Because he when i looked at him i saw myself" this rang through her head when ever she say him help a wounded animal or a person that was having trouble. Because he went through so much suffering he could connect with them and understand their problems then help resolve said person's problem. Berk didn't have very many people like that anymore it was almost a land of kill or be killed and the only thing still holding them together wasn't trust or loyalty but a need to be together as one to stand against their enemies. "Uhhhhh" Astrid sighed to the wind " Berk needs help Hiccup, and you're the one that need to bring our world back into a proper balance so im asking to anyone that's listening to help bring Him home because Berk needs him... i need him" she said to the sky as if to ask the gods, pleadingly, for an intervention to help their troublesome affairs.

I wanted to get this chapter out so its not as long as i wanted it to be. So far this story is really great, in my mind, and has a lot of potential if i do it right. I wanted to give a shout out to the story The Town A Few Degrees South of the Freezing Death i used an idea from her story but changed it up some so its not completely coping i would recommend that you read the story it's super romantic. Also huge thanks to I Am The Brovahkiin for helping me write parts of this and giving me advice you should also go and read his story The Boy Behind The Mask. This is one of my all time favorite stories i've read about How To Train Your Dragon.

I have the plot line of the story written down but to make this a long story with characters you feel for you need some fluff in it. I have some ideas planned out but not enough for the entire story, so please leave a review with your fluf ideas. If i like it i will send you a PM telling you that i will be using it in some way.

If you want to see pictures on the story that my friends and i will be drawing i made a twitter account. This is for people that want to see stuff on the story, get teasers on it, questions for me, and updates on when the next chapter will be out. I want to be an active write, that meaning that i interact with those who follow me and make the How To Train Your Dragon Fanfictions better, and more flushed out. the links to my new Twitter is right below so feel free to join.

" Return To Ones Home mycatsapanther"

link: /mycatsapanther