I still don't own HTTYD, but I own a Blue-ray of the first movie, it makes me feel better.

Does he have a plan for tomorrow? Of course he does, but it is mostly based on observations made on Toothless and the dragons in the arena's behavior, it was a far cry from a perfect plan but at least he won't be entering the Kill Ring just hoping for the best.

Hoping for the best was just half of the plan now.

"That dragon won't know what hit him!" if everything goes as planned, of course 'Please All-father Odin, let it all go as planned!'

His Dad smiled at him, it felt wrong to have him smiling that way while he keeps the dragon's nest location a secret, and having him agree with the betrothal contract with the Hoffersons only reinforces the point he made with Astrid earlier that night: his dad loves the Viking way.

Chuckling Stoick put his massive hand on his son's shoulder and shook it slightly "Good, now go to sleep, tomorrow will be a day to remember!"

Smiling and trying to ignore his thoughts about the nest Hiccup took his candle and walked to his dad's door remembering something else about tomorrow "Dad, are you going to offer the contract before or after the fight?" because giving Astrid the dragon's horns would be a lot less awkward if they were already betrothed.

Giving her the carcass was his plan "B", if his dad said no tonight starting to court Astrid would have put some pressure on Stoick and Astrid's dad, either one would have to step up and propose the marriage, because all of the tribe would be watching.

His dad seemed to think about it for a moment before smiling like the cat that eat the canary, maybe… it's not easy to know with that massive beard of his "I'll go before the fight and then we can announce the betrothal after you kill that dragon!"

Good, not the part were Hiccup has to kill the dragon, he wishes there was another way to do this, a way where he doesn't has to end the magnificent creature… but Astrid was right there: Berk's chief has to kill dragons.

"Ok dad, see you tomorrow!" he said closing the room's door as he walked out and approached the hearth where a pot with boiling water waited for him. Before coming back home he collected some of the grass Toothless loves, he figured the cause of that love was the smell of it.

He dropped a good portion of the grass in the pot to boil with the water and waited until the smell became more noticeable to look for a linen bandage the kept close to the table in case they needed to clean something with it, he smelled the fabric and luckily it was mostly clean, he dropped it inside the recipient so it could be impregnated with the smell all of the dragons he encountered so far seemed to love.

Removing the pot from the flames so it can cool down he took a look at the spear he got from the smithy, it was a normal spear, a long oak shaft and a small but sharp spearhead fastened on one end ready to strike. The spear was the one real weapon he can handle, that is the weapon he will use tomorrow, a small modification hopefully will transform it into a dragon slaying machine.

Or he hoped so!

0x0x0

Einar Hofferson woke up with the sun as every morning, his wife Ingrid occupying the left side of their bed like she always does, and she is waking up as well, which was strange.

She usually wakes up a few minutes before him so she could start with breakfast so he could eat something before he goes out for the day, she noticed him staring at her and seemed to take offense, it wasn't as if he was blaming her for sleeping more than usual or anything, it was simply an oddity to wake up and have her at his side… and it was nice.

"Sstrid came back late at night yesterday" she said talking more to her straw pillow than to him.

They both have been worried about their daughter yesterday, she was very angry after losing the final of Dragon Training to the Haddock lad, it's not as if they could blame her, Astrid herself was magnificent in the ring, fast and precise rolls and timing each movement to avoid the attention of the Gronkle the way she did was something that many grown up warriors could not do, but of course in the end it was all for naught because the Haddock boy ended it with his bare hands… and it happened in the blink of an eye.

It was as glorious as it was infuriating!

Over the years he saw his daughter train with her axe daily, never skipping a day and he and his brother Finn were always glad to show her any move and combination she asked for and she strived, she needed to challenge warriors six or five years her senior to find an appropriate challenge, before Dragon Training started he had been so sure his Astrid would be the one killing the dragon at the end of it, they could use that Monstrous Nightmare's carcass…

"Do you think the Haddock lad is alive?" it had to be asked, Astrid looked positively murderous yesterday, his wife merely made a guttural sound of acknowledgement that he was pretty sure no other man could decipher… she meant to say: Yes, he is alive.

Before Ingrid could reply they heard Astrid get out of bed slowly, just like her mother she wasn't a morning person, they kept their silence while listening Astrid's steps behind the linen curtain that protected their privacy from their children and after a second they heard the rusty grinding noise of her chest opening, Ingrid's glare was enough to tell him he should have oiled those hinges before going out to look for the dragon's nest… the chief barely gave the warriors enough time to pack their undies… and judging by how some of his fellow warriors stank when they finally returned many didn't even had time to pack at all!

Muffled sounds followed, she was probably getting her clothes for today out of her chest and then those damn hinges were provoking him a teeth-ache, maybe he should oil them today before going to the arena and spare himself from their infernal noise! Another sound soon came, wood hitting wood, probably their empty water buckets, he hears them every wash day when Ingrid takes them to the well so she can fill the tub in the backyard they share with other three Hoffersons families, but today isn't wash day… Astrid walked out of their door and the last sound they heard was the soft white noise of their door closing.

"Are you sure the Haddock lad is alive?" Astrid was acting strange enough to warrant verification.

"She told me she didn't killed him last night and there was no blood on her…" well it's not like he really thought his daughter would really kill the chief's son, but she was not above beating him for what she perceived as cheating in the Kill Ring… he wishes he could cheat like that dammit.

Finally his wife stood up and lit the fire on the hearth and prepared the irons to prepare some of the last jerky they have left for breakfast, at least tonight they will be having a feast in the Great Hall to celebrate their safe return and Hiccup's first dragon kill and tomorrow the chief will distribute rations among the warriors that participated in the expedition and a few silver coins, his family will be alright for a couple of months at least, winter will come in one month… they will survive of course, but they will lose some weight for sure.

With a grunt he stood up feeling the still cold air of the morning now that he doesn't have his bed's furs and his only cover was a large white tunic he uses to sleep, he walked towards his children's bed where his son Erik was still sleeping and asked himself if it was a good idea or not to wake him up yet or let him sleep longer, today most of the village will be celebrating, there was a lot to celebrate after all.

Hiccup the clumsy, small and skinny son of their chief leaves all of that behind and will become a man in the eyes of the tribe after killing that Nightmare… By the Gods the thoughts of that carcass were torturing him, he could trade the horns and fangs for furs and make new winter outfits for Erik, it is obvious he outgrew the ones he used last year, but it will be hand me downs again from his cousins for his son and maybe his daughter too depending on how much she grew as well, he noticed Astrid's best and only dress neatly folded in a corner of the bed, that was weird.

He could feel his wife's eyes on his back, she was probably glaring at him with her hands on her waist to let their son sleep a bit more, sighting he walked to their table and sat on his stool taking a piece of their loaf of bread.

Maybe he should consider Dogscales Ingerman offer for Astrid more seriously the next time he asked, he was a good man, an excellent carpenter and ship-maker, he will keep ignoring Spitelout Jorgenson though, the man's son has no trade and is not half as good a warrior as they claim him to be, besides, they are Jorgenson, the sole thought of being related to them makes him sick!

The sound of water being dropped into their shared tub interrupted his thoughts "Astrid is acting strange" he told his wife while pointing at their daughter's dress, a bath and a dress in the same day was extremely suspicious to him, but he couldn't guess why she was acting this way and a shrug from Ingrid told him she couldn't either.

"Morning" Erik woke up apparently and he was walking to the table while rubbing his eyes to chase away the last remnants of sleepiness.

He greeted his pride and joy by messing with his blond hair in the way he abhorrence the most gaining himself a pout and a glare from those trademark Hofferson blue eyes of his, it was an impressive glare for a six year old boy, he lifted his son and put him on his lap and gave him the rest of his loaf of bread to bribe him out of his anger, it would have worked better if it was some pastry… but it was always so much entertaining to mess with him, he really loved his son.

Both males of the household watched as Ingrid served them their portions in wooden bowls and a basin of water to wash their hands and faces before they dug in, the sound of water being poured in the half-full tub in their backyard was heard again, four buckets full of water was the minimum required to take a bath he doubted Astrid would go to the trouble of getting more and was probably getting into the tub and getting over the early morning bath "It's too early to take a bath!" he said with shivering a little at the thought of how cold the water in the tub must be feeling.

"What is Astrid up to?" his wife asked after shivering herself, on washday everyone waits until midday when the water is warmer before soaking themselves and rubbing the soap against their skin as fast as they can, very few on Berk have the resources to make hygiene pleasurable.

He shrugged in response, she stayed on the island, her guess is better than his right now, it made him uncomfortable to not know, Astrid was always constant and reliable up until now "Let's not make anything big over a bath and a dress" he finally said, true it is suspicious but today was special, there will be a feast tonight after all.

Ingrid just nodded but was clearly more curious than him, as demonstrated by her constant stares directed at the wall that covered the view to the bathtub.

A few minutes later Astrid entered again using their back door she was wrapped in a big linen cloth she must have used to dry herself and greeted them "Morning" and she was responded in the same fashion. Her hair was loose and wet as she walked to her chest once again tormenting them with the noise from its hinges, he paid her no further attention while she dressed.

A few minutes later the quietness of his home was interrupted by someone knocking thefront door, it was loud and polite, he heard Astrid gasp behind him, turning around to face her, and she was already using her dress and was combing her hair with Ingrid's dragon bone comb, but what really caught his attention was not that, no, it was her wide open eyes and slightly open jaw, there was no surprise on her expression, but he couldn't quite tell what it was either.

Sighting Ingrid got up again and walked to the door, she was still wearing her sleeping tunic, no need to dress up to just to greet a neighbor.

"Chief!"

Well that was unexpected, in a hurry Einar put his son in the floor and went to his personal chest to look for clean leggings, he won't allow his chief to catch him with his pants down… or without them. Sitting on the floor to speed up the process he saw Astrid again hurrying with her own braid, she was definitely not surprised "Papa" she said but in that precise moment Stoick "The Vast" entered his household commanding all his attention, he just really wished his daughter didn't beat Stoick's son so bad he cannot kill the Monstrous Nightmare today.

Stoick was looking his usual chiefly self, nothing out of the ordinary, same helmet, same armor, same tunic bellow his armor, same belt, same war hammer and same boots and bracers and a roll of parchment on one hand and a bottle of ink in the other… those objects were not something the chief would usually carry with him, parchment was valuable as was the ink but they were not something you need on your day to day life, they were used to keep track of the many necessities of the tribe, and those were mainly handled by Gobber not Stoick himself, Einar was not the most intelligent man on Berk, he was a good warrior and guard,he never fell asleep while on duty, he was a dedicated father and husband, but if one puts a daughter behaving in a strange manner and chief visiting his household with items used in administrative duty and forging betrothal contracts… he looked at Astrid again and she smiled awkwardly and nod.

It couldn't be, could it?

"Chief! Good Morning" he was trying not to jump to conclusions here, even if Astrid practically confirmed his suspicions not two seconds ago.

What were the chances?

"Good Morning Einar" Stoick greeted in a formal manner looking around his household as if searching for something… or someone "Up and about, eh?" when he said that he wasn't talking about him, it was obviously directed at Astrid.

"Of course! Astrid was just about to take Erik to look for some berries in the forest, she is quite good with children!" so what if he was lying with all of his teeth? How many times does a sentry have the chance to forge an alliance with the village chief?

"Huh?" of course this was a bit too much to understand for his six year old son.

"Hurry and put your pants on Erik" His wife said while looking for their son's leggings before grabbing them in one hand, using the other to push him outside while Astrid, who understood what was going to happen, followed them still smiling nervously, Ingrid closed the door after their offsprings were outside, at this point being subtle was a lost concept for them, luckily judging Stoick's chuckle he found this amusing. It may have something to do with the fact that Ingrid still had Erik's leggings on her hand…

"Mom!"

Yeah, they were not expecting this when they woke up this morning.

0x0x0

Astrid was walking thru the forest to the location of some of the bushes that may have some mature berries, walking slightly behind her pouting was her little brother Erik, she loved him, but they don't exactly share the best siblings relationship… they are rather distant.

To Erik, their family and clan have always been the way they are now, he was born nearly a year after the uncle Finn's death, and to her that was a life changing event, she had admired Finn "Fearless" Hofferson, to her he was the example of how a warrior should live, always duty, honor and above all: Bravery, when her father started teaching her how to wield an axe, it was always a short affair, always showing her how to, making her repeat the technique and then he would lay to sleep after his night shifts watching out for dragons, then uncle Finn would come and show her one or two more tricks about what she was currently learning, she admired him but then he faced off with the Flightmare and his epitaph went from "Fearless" to "Frozen" and his death brought shame to the clan, previously her relatives bad luck regularly angered the gods for ridiculous reasons, before uncle Finn one of her aunts had to travel to the end of the world to pay tribute to Odin for reasons she's forgotten, but couldn't find it because she kept coming back from the opposite direction and before that Thor randomly got angry at another of her uncles and hit him with lightning… repeatedly,

For Erik, the little respect the rest of Berk pays to the Hofferson clan now is as much as it has always been… but she remembers a time when it was different, their tendencies to anger the Gods apart, the Hoffersons were recognized as great and fearless warriors instead of barely competent artisans and good guards.

Erik can't understand her determination to bring their clan back to prominence, it wasn't his fault either, but it created a rift between them, he would rather play with his friends than expend all of his time training like she often did. Maybe a little distance will bring them closer, because honestly… Hiccup got better at fighting dragons by befriending one so it is not so farfetched.

And speaking of the devil… he was right there next to the bushes! Wearing his everyday tunic, vest, pants and boots and he was holding a spear on his left hand.

"Is that Hiccup? If you didn't beat him up what was the chief in our house?" Astrid couldn't help but be amused by her little brother naivety, but she was more nervous than amused, way more nervous.

"Why don't we go and ask Hiccup?" she wasn't in the mood to explain the facts of life to Erik, it was their parents' job.

As they got closer and closer she noticed a rope tied up in a high limb of one of the trees nearby, and hanging low on it there was a metal ring about the size of a fist, by the looks of it Hiccup was training his accuracy with that spear but there was more to it, that was obvious.

Hiccup was holding the spear in what appeared to be the wrong way, pointing the butt of the pole towards the ring and the spearhead pointing towards him, but when he moved he rotated the pole and his body in a way that left him holding the spear the right way and then thrusting aiming for the ring… but he missed, at least he was kind of close to it… all thing considered, the thrust had some strength behind it but it was nothing impressive it actually may hurt a dragon but it wouldn't be enough for a killing blow.

She hoped he knew what he was doing "Hiccup!" she said rather loudly once he was in hearing range, he stopped in mid-motion looking directly at her, he opened his mouth but didn't say anything at first.

"Good Morning" he was being so formal it was weird, and it made her uncomfortable.

"How did you convince your dad?" that was the question in front of the queue in her mind, yesterday she thought it was impossible and Hiccup's crazy plan of courting her without the contract was the best way to go about this.

"It wasn't that hard" he said taking his starting position again "Sure he said 'No' once, but then I reminded him that you could have won Dragon Training and that was enough to convince him…" ok that was flattering, and kind of truth "Besides he knew I would need a wife soon anyway." He once more rotated the spear and his body before thrusting his weapon towards the metal ring, this time he managed to hit his target. Smiling he got back onto starting position.

"Are you getting married?" Erik asked as if what Hiccup just implied was something incompressible to him, truth to be told, she was mildly offended by how surprised he sounded as well.

"Why do you think the chief visited us?" she was a little angry with Erik right now, the way Hiccup was talking pretty much confirmed that: yes, she was getting married, much earlier than she planned, but it would be happening anyway, maybe some time after next winter… the Gothi needed time to prepare the mead and all.

"Why are you marrying her, she's always angry" Oh the little rat!

"Because she isn't always angry and she is a good Viking" Hiccup replied without missing a beat before thrusting his spear again but missing the target, sighting he got into his starting position again. She smiled at Hiccup but then scowled at Erik, she was angry at him right now…

"Are you sure? Because she looks angry right now" she calmed herself down, she won't be goaded by Erik into a fight, she had more important questions to ask.

One in particular "If you convinced your dad of doing this, are you sure you can't convince him of…" she glanced at her Erik, it wouldn't be good to talk so freely around him, he would without a doubt repeat anything he heard here if he thought it would get her in trouble, it was his way of retaliating against her for the times she spared with him, Meanwhile Hiccup thrust his spear again missing the ring "That other thing we talked last night?"

Hiccup didn't assumed his starting position and instead looked pensive, like considering how to say what he had on mind, she took advantage of that and took his spear to try the same move as him. Without the spear Hiccup suddenly looked a lot more worried, she assumed the same started position, rotated her body and the spear in roughly the same way, her thrust just missed the ring, it was probably the dress fault, the thing messed her balance and equilibrium.

"I'm sure I can't" she was hoping he would say yes, the prospect of having to face that dragon again without Stoick leading the tribe was scary, it was not that she doubted Hiccup would find a way to kill that thing, it was the fact that Stoick has been Berk's chief as far as she can remember, and now suddenly there was a problem Stoick cannot deal with… must not deal with.

"Why? How is that different from the contract?"

"Can we talk about that later?" Hiccup said while eying Erik who was becoming increasingly curious "Besides I need to get this down before the Fight" he took his spear back, she had to admit that discussing this in front of a witness was a terrible way to keep the nest a secret.

"If you and Hiccup marry you will live with him?" Erik asked a little too happy to get rid of her. She nodded and he smiled, the little rat will have the bed all to himself now! If she could take the bed as part of her dowry she would!

"Aren't you supposed to get berries?" officially that's why their parents kicked them out of the house after all.

Unable to keep talking about the matters they both wanted Astrid settled for helping Hiccup with his spear forms while he trained, he was able to hit his target three times out of five, when Astrid's mother came looking for her children, her hair ha the usual knot typical of all married woman in the village and some really elaborated braids to go with it.

Astrid couldn't help but notice the way she eyed Hiccup warningly, Erik approached Ingrid and showed her all the berries he had collected and accused her of not helping… Mama's boy.

Her mother crouched down and whispered something on Erik's ear and he was suddenly looking determined before running back home ahead of them, she and Hiccup knew that this was most likely one of the last times before the wedding they would be able to talk in a semi-private environment, from now on they would need chaperons, and their chaperons will most likely be older than six year old but at least that meant there would be a wedding.

"Hiccup lad, you are welcome to visit Astrid in our household whenever you want, but please avoid meeting like this until the wedding" she said good bye to Hiccup and all three Hofferson family member were on their way back home.

"I don't know what happened yesterday Astrid" her mom started "But I know you wanted to help to restore the clan honor slaying dragons. Had you won Dragon Training your father would have allowed you to stay single a few more years…" of course, he would have let her stay single and fighting dragons until she was eighteen or nineteen raising her bride pride price and then he would have marry her just before she could be considered an old maiden "I just wanted to tell you that I'm happy with how mature you are acting" she smiled to her "Now let's go back home, I have a month to prepare you to be the Heir's wife"

A month!?

A/N: Hope You guys/girls liked this chapter and yes, those two are getting married and soon!