A/N:

Ehm... Hi? I think that you've gotten used to my ultra-late updates by now, since they aren't really that surprising anymore... Heh... Sorry?
This week I've got a break, but I'm afraid most of the time will be dedicated to studying, since I've got my last of exams next week, and they will be 50% of the grades which will make me graduate of not, so... After that, I guess I could push myself into writing more and updating more often :).

I really want to thank you all for bearing with me this long! Also, thanks to those who have reviewed/favored/followed/read this story so far!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Als er nooit meer een morgen zou zijn

En de zon viel in slaap met de maan

Heb je enig idee wat het met je zou doen

Als je nog maar een dag zou bestaan

(If there won't ever be a tomorrow anymore

And the sun fell asleep alongside the moon

Do you have any idea what it would do to you

If you would exist for only one more day)

- Marco Borsato, Wat zou je doen

Do you ever have the feeling that if you put a little bit more effort in it, you could've had one more friend. If you only spoke up sooner, if you only let him or her know you were there, just one minute earlier, but you didn't, and that person was gone before you knew it? In all the years that I have been immortal, it happened a few times, but I would never forget the first time.

It was somewhere during the 1700's. I was somewhere in America, where I had been for three days now. It was winter, but the villagers chased the increasing cold away with happiness, stories around campfires and more, it seemed. I actually felt attracted to the little village; maybe because it reminded me of Berk when I lived there.

Night fell, and while I listened from a tree to the stories one of the teens of the village told to the children, I watched the sky. The stars shone brightly, not a single cloud was to be seen, except for the ones that appeared when I exhaled. The moon shimmered, as if someone was putting a dimmer on it now and then, and sometimes I thought I saw a woman flying through the sky, followed by two or three other people.

"Tell us another story, Jackson!" one of the kids beneath me said, and I looked down to see the teen that was telling a story chuckle.

"Okay, okay, one more then," the brown-haired boy said, after getting approval of one of the mothers that were listening from the sidelines. He looked somewhat familiar to me, but I couldn't remember from where. "Have I ever told you the story of the big, lost reindeer?" The children all shook their head, and Jack took two sticks and held them like antlers to the side of his head.

"This story is about a reindeer called Bob-"

"That's not a name for a reindeer!" one of the children said.

The boy, Jackson chuckled again. "Yes, but this is not a normal reindeer, either." He looked around the group of gathered children before he continued. "Bob had very big antlers, bigger than all the other reindeers," he said, and he held the sticks to the side of his head again. "It was because of those antlers that he got lost, you see. He was just walking with the other reindeers - like this," Jackson said, and he made a few goofy, wide steps, causing the children to giggle. I chuckled as well. That Jackson was really great with the children, and everyone loved him. I found myself listening to the whole story, and I actually felt sad that the children were ushered to bed by their parents when the sky started to show signs of a thunderstorm. Flashes of light appeared every now and then, but no thunder was heard yet.

Jackson went with a brown haired woman and girl, and walked towards the woods that lay next to the small village. I followed them, and soon saw their house. It was a humble house made of wood, laying next to the frozen-over pond.

"Jack! Do you think we could go skating tomorrow?" the girl asked, and pointed towards the lake. She jumped a bit in excitement, and Jack ruffled her hair.

"I think we can, kiddo." The girl squealed in delight when Jackson picked her up and swung her mother smiled at the scene before she suggested to go inside before it would start raining. Jackson nodded, and together they entered the small house.

I stayed a little longer, watching the lights go out. When I was sure they were all asleep, I jumped up and let my wings carry me towards a big tree, looking for a comfortable spot to sleep. Once I was settled, I closed my eyes and let my consciousness drift away.

"Come on, Jack!" I was startled awake, and barely managed to keep myself from falling from the tree I slept in. Looking down, I saw the source of my wake-up call. The girl from the day before - Jackson's little sister - was tugging said boy towards the lake, both holding a set of skates.

"Relax, relax! The ice won't melt..."

"I know, but I want to skate!" the girl tugged a little harder, causing her to almost slip, but she held her balance. Jackson chuckled, and let himself be led towards the frozen lake.

He and his sister talked and laughed while they put on their skates, and soon they were skating figures all over the ice. I felt like I shouldn't be intruding on their little moment, so I wished myself to be invisible for everyone, and went a little further in the woods, not knowing that that would be a wrong decision.

I had been wandering in the woods next to the lake for a while when I heard the girl scream.

"JACK!" My head snapped up, and I looked towards where the lake was. Something was terribly wrong. I jumped up and wished for my wings to appear. They did, and the next moment I was flying at an extremely fast speed towards the lake.

When I arrived at the lake, the scene caused my breath to stuck in my throat. The girl was softly weeping next to a hole in the ice. Jackson's skates were lying a few feet away, but their owner was nowhere to be seen. At first I didn't realize what was wrong, but it only took a moment for the situation to sink in. Jackson had fallen through the ice.

Without thinking, I let my wings disappear and ran towards the hole, not caring that I was slipping with each step I took. I needed to get to the hole, I needed to save Jackson. I jumped straight through the hole, and in an instant there was darkness all around me. The cold water pressed against my body, making it impossible to think straight, and the cold paralyzed me for a few moments. Focus. You need to focus. Ignore the cold, ignore the darkness. You need to find Jackson. I closed my eyes - not that it changed much - and took a few imaginary breaths. It's a good thing immortals could go longer without oxygen than mortals, otherwise I would be already dead.

I looked around frantically, hoping with everything I got that I would see Jackson somewhere. But it was too dark, and how much I wished for it, my mind was too much in a shock from the cold to make some light appear. It only took around ten seconds for my body to be completely mobile again, and I swam around. My mind had calmed down a bit, and within a radius of two metres from me, the darkness was a bit lighter. Light enough for me to navigate around the lake, but not enough to find Jackson in time, I was afraid. But that didn't stop me. I kept swimming, and I kept looking.

When I knew that it had been too long, I reluctantly swam towards the surface. The girl was gone, and other people were walking cautiously on the ice, breaking it little by little, probably looking for Jackson's body. All in vain, though. It hurt to think like that, but it was the truth. There was no way that he could survive staying in the cold water for so long.

I walked away, not wanting to look back to that dreadful lake, hoping that I would never have to return, and that I would forget what happened. But deep down I knew that I couldn't and wouldn't do that.

It kept me thinking, Jackson's death. Did my family grieve as much as his did? Had the village I lived in looked for my body if I had died the same way Jackson did? I couldn't remember. It had been too long ago. But since that day, I tried to. I really did. But I just couldn't.

I knew that I had died, and that the Man in the Moon made me how I was now. But he never told me the reason. Did he like to torment me? Because he was succeeding. It was awful not to know where I was from. Not knowing if I had had a family, if I had had a good life. For all I knew, I could've been a really evil guy, ravaging villages and cities alike, showing no mercy when I would rampage their house, bringing them to the ground like they were made of glass.

Sometimes, when I was really tired, I would dream of a creature as big as a mountain, crushing ships beneath it's gigantic feet, while people were running in every direction, trying to avoid the monster's wrath. Every time I dreamt about that, I would feel very hot, like I was being divulged in flames or something, and my left leg would ache. But then the dream would stop, and I would be surrounded in darkness. But it was a comforting darkness, where I would feel safe.

And then I would wake up.

I never understood that dream. I was fairly sure that it had to be from my life before I became the Spirit of Fantasy, but then I would question myself. What kind of life would I have had, if that really was from my life? No normal human ever experienced something like that, I was sure about that.

Every time I think about the time I'd had the chance to meet Jackson Overland, I wondered what he would've done if he knew he was going to die. Because every time someone died, it was so unexpected. Of course, there were cases where somebody would be ill before they died, but they wouldn't be the same during that period. The illness would disable them in one way or another.

So what would Jackson have done, if he knew what was going to happen? I liked to think that he would've done nothing. Just live the day like he did every other. Because Jackson looked like the kind of guy that wanted everything to be normal, act like nothing was wrong, because then you wouldn't feel like something was amiss. He would make sure his family would be okay without him, of course, and he would give them the best day of their lives, but nothing more.

That's what I liked to believe.

It was January, 2002. I can't explain it, only that I had really used my powers for the first time then, not just for changing my appearance.

It was early in the morning, and I was somewhere in Canada. I don't know where exactly, only that it was the southern part of the country. I was flying over some fields, a bit lost in my thoughts, when something caught my eyes. It was a red car, driving at a regular speed over a lone road between the fields. It looked a bit funny, in the otherwise deserted area. The bright red clashed with the soft green, and a cloud of dust followed it directly behind. I lowered myself, flying closer to the car. When I was near enough, I could see a man, a woman and an infant child, a girl by the looks of it. The adults were conversing softly, not wanting to wake their sleeping child on the back seat. It was something I longed for every now and then. Just to have a family. A blonde wife with fierce blue eyes, a woman no one should mess with, but who also cared a lot about those she love. And with her one or more children. That was what I imagined my family to be like. Why I wanted my wife to be blonde and have blue eyes, I didn't know, but what I did know was that I liked it.

Lost in thoughts, I didn't see the car swerve. I did hear a woman's scream, and I was thrown into reality. I looked at the car, and saw the man hunched over the wheel, the woman trying to grab the wheel and get the car under control, and the baby crying, having been woken by the sudden noise. I flew down, and willed my powers to stop the car, but I was too late. The car veered to the right, and before I could blink crashed into a tree.

The silence was eerie. I couldn't breathe for a moment, but then I heard the cries of the baby again, only now they were really quiet and subdued. I landed on the ground and ran to the car.

One look at the parents was enough to tell me they didn't make it. The baby was bleeding, but I couldn't see more. But I knew that she was close to death as well, something inside of me just told me.

I tried to open the back door, but it wouldn't stir. I tugged with all my might before I realized I was a Spirit and had powers to make the door open. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, the door was gone. The baby had stopped crying while I tried to open the door, and I feared I was once again too late. The feeling of an ice-cold hand squeezing my heart wouldn't leave, and the dread I felt made it all worse.

I sighed in relief when I saw that the baby was breathing, but only barely. Not knowing what else to do, I closed my eyes and raised my hands so that my palms were facing the baby.

I want her to live, I thought desperately. I opened my eyes. Nothing happened. I closed my eyes again and willed my powers to work. Again nothing happened. I ground my teeth.

"Come on Hiccup," I encouraged myself. I closed my eyes, and concentrated on the power from inside me. Between my heart and stomach I could feel something fluttering, softly pulsating, spreading a warm sensation through my body. I knew that was the source of my powers, so I concentrated with all my might on the feeling. It spread to my limbs, and then to my toes and fingertips. Before I knew it, the feeling was over and I was panting from exhaustion. I opened my eyes and looked at the baby. It didn't move, didn't breathe, didn't do anything.

A sob escaped me. And then another one. Before I knew it, I was crying. I didn't understand. I was sure that the feeling was helping. I was convinced that I would succeed.

I didn't know how much time had passed, but I knew that staying there was useless, I couldn't do anything anymore. I stood up and after one more look, turned around and walked away, not wanting to fly for now. I never noticed the door reappearing in the car, nor did I notice the hand of the baby twitch a little.