AW#6

To my reviewers: Thank you so much for the words of encouragement! I am working to improve my writing, so I welcome concrit and encouragement.

Guest- if you would like to ask questions, please login, as I can't answer anonymous reviews.

To those wondering, after watching Stoic and Gobber, they are going to piece it all together. Neither one of these men is stupid. Stubborn, prone to anger and jumping to conclusions, yes, but not stupid. Both of these men love Hiccup even if they don't understand him. They are both fully aware that Hiccup and Astrid let the training ring dragons loose and then left, (in fear of their lives) so they have a step up from a lot of the Hiccup leaves AU's to figure things out. Hiccup was obviously the type of person who wrote things down, he was a bit panicked in his decision to leave and limited on what he could take, so there are a lot of clues to be pieced together by someone willing to do the piecing.

On another note, I am just realizing that not all my page breaks are showing the way I intended on upload, I will be attempting to remedy that.
*

Hiccup and Astrid, went about their day setting up a camp as best they could, and realizing the limitations of the island they were on. It was too small, while it had both fresh water and vegetation, it didn't appear to have any significant animal life certainly not enough to feed 2 people and 2 dragons for any length of time. They would have to move on, and soon.

"Well, we aren't going to be able to stay here." Hiccup voiced before I had a chance to.

"I know, we need more food and shelter than this island can give us right now." I agreed.

"It's also too close to Berk. I don't know how they are going to handle us, and I am not sure that I want to know. I certainly don't want to experience it." Hiccup closed his eyes and looked a little sick, swallowed thickly and continued. "Dad would brand and exile us at least, if not just out right execute us."

"Seriously?" They didn't still brand people, did they?

"Yes, very seriously. They are going to be sending out letters to the allied tribes as well, so we can't go to them for help either. The unallied tribes are tricky as well, because if they find out who we are they may just kill or torture us dispite our leaving. I'm the heir, and you are the daughter of one of our generals, whats the likely hood they will believe that we have actually left or that we don't know anything?! And that's without the dragons!" Hiccup continued to get more and more wound up as he spoke, rather wildly gesturing. "I have the tribe tattoo! The thing is too big to burn off, and even if I did it would be obvious I had done something of the sort!"

"Tattoo?! What tattoo are you talking about?" I didn't know about tribe tattoos, it would complicate things immensely, if this was the case.

Hiccup sighed "The chief and his heirs are marked as part of the training process." He pulled the collar of his tunic aside to show me part of it on his shoulder. The bluish black ink wound in complicated patterns over his collarbone and looked like it extended well beyond what I could see. "It is meant to mark the ruling family, so not everyone has them. It's pretty unmistakable though, and any chief or general of the neighboring tribes would know I belong to Berk's ruling family on the first washday." Toothless began nuzzling his rider, attempting to comfort him. He looked at me as if he really wanted to blame me for Hiccup's upset, but knew he really couldn't.

"Ok… let's not panic. We can't just go join another tribe, it would be unlikely that we would have been able to anyway, even without that." I tried to comfort him, while at the same time my mind was spinning.

"So… Our options are try to eke out something on an uninhabited island, find the outcasts and hope they don't kill us on sight or demand a ransom, or try to go fight that thing and hope that if we survive that it solves the 'dragon problem'." Hiccup ticked our options off on his fingers, adding his own sarcastic twist to the last statement. "Last, I can take you back." Hiccup looked up at me from his finger ticking, "you can claim I made you or threatened you or something."

I snorted and my biting comeback died on my tongue as I looked at his face. He was serious, and he was trying to do what was best for me. The nadder that I hadn't named yet seemed to sense my consternation and began cooing at me and attempting to groom my hair.

"No, I doubt just one of us can go back. Too many people saw me, and saw that I went willingly." I told him. "I think that we need to find a bigger uninhabited island, see if we can train some more dragons to help us out and then go from there. Maybe if we can get them all working together we can take down that thing on their island."

"Getting more dragons?" Hiccup asked "if only they could all see them like you do, maybe they would if they took the chance." He gave a wry smile. "I don't see it happening while raids are still happening though, and I think they are only raiding because of the queen."

"So we plan, and see if we can train more dragons to work together. Right now though we need to figure out how we are going to survive, winter is coming."

"And we need shelter clothing and food." Hiccup was ticking on his fingers again.

"Some good old fashioned Viking raiding might be in order," I grinned at him.

He looked a little startled and then grinned back. "it just might! So where should we go? South? East? West? I don't think North is a great option."

I nodded in agreement. "South or east seem the best options, that queen is to the west and we know it colder further north."

"So maybe we should head south and see what we find."(1) Hiccup brightened at the prospect "I've always wanted to see what else is out there! There must be other people, like some of the ones Trader Johann is always talking about, the ones that paint their faces and wear dresses?"

"Hmm…" I mused as we went about gathering all the supplies that Hiccup had brought, we couldn't afford to leave any, and doing our best to kick dirt over the fire to smoother it. The nadder very helpfully started digging, sending dirt everywhere, then Toothless thought it looked like fun and joined in the madness. I gave an undignified shriek when a large clump of dirt came flying at my face and decided it was best to get out of the way. Leaving Hiccup and the dragons to it, it wasn't long till the fire was not just out, but buried under a pile of dirt as high as my knee. The nadder came over to me acting like she was asking for approval, so I scratched her chin while telling her "You are a very good overenthusiastic girl, thank you for helping with the fire." She began preening with the praise, obviously very proud of herself, I patted her nose and stroked her horn.

Hiccup was laughing at the dragons antics. "Well, south it is. Shall we go?"

I nodded "Yes, lets." I gave a last pat to the pretty nadder and followed Hiccup to Toothless and began to climb into the saddle.

"Okay bud let's go." And up Toothless went with his strong muscles beating steadily under my thighs.

The nadder gave an indignant squawk and jumped into the air to follow us, Toothless went at an easy pace to let her follow close behind.

"I think that you have yourself a friend." Hiccup said, smiling over his shoulder. "Next time we land we ought to see if she'll let you ride her, it would help Toothless not get as tired."

I nodded against his back as I watched the nadder follow us, a bright blue beacon against the dark ocean below us.

#

#

#

Stoic continued to pour through Hiccups journals, and all the papers that Gobber had brought over from the forge. He knew it wouldn't be long before the exhaustion caught up and he would have to sleep, but for now every new paper he look at held some new piece of the puzzle that was Hiccup.

"I always knew the boy was different, Gobber, I suppose I never quite realized just how different." Stoic finally admitted to his friend.

"Oh, Aye. Different is a good term for it, but have you really looked at some of these plans? He wasn't just designing those crazy weapons of his he was designing new rigging for the sails, a mill that could be either water or wind driven, this pedal driven turner for wood working… at least that's what I think its for. It makes some of the things he has stashed about the forge make more sense."

Stoic nodded and if possible looked more depressed. "Why did he have to leave?"

"He did say he would be back." Gobber told Stoic, placing what he hoped was a comforting hand on his friends shoulder. "We just need to be ready when he does."

"Yes, I should go talk to the Hoffersons. That should be fun. I'm sorry but my son just ran away on a dragon and took your daughter with him, I hope that doesn't offend you."

Gobber looked at Stoic in surprise, sniggered, and then outright laughed, holding his belly and leaning his head on the table. The reaction prompted a small smile out of Stoic, even if it didn't reach his eyes, it was still there and that gave Gobber hope that his friend would be okay. "Well at least we know where the boy gets his sarcasm!" Gobber got one last good jab in as he got up from the table and began stretching his stiff back. "Get some sleep before you go talk to the girls parents at least, you'll do them or yourself no good as you are."

"Alright." Stoic agreed "Yes, sleep would be good."

Gobber got to the door and turned back towards Stoic "If they give you any trouble you could always offer a contract. It would allay any squawking about honor and all that, and the kids are of age."

Stoic looked as if he would fall over contemplating that subject, then shook himself. "Let's cross that bridge when we get there. See you later Gobber."

Gobber gave a little salute and left shutting the door behind him softly, then shook his head and muttered to himself. "He may not want to see that the boy is growing up, but it may be the only way to keep his head on his shoulders if he does come back."(2) Gobber heaved a sigh and started down the hill for his own bed.

I am envisioning that the archipelago that Berk and the Vikings of HTTYD are on the Faroe Islands, and by heading south Hiccup and Astrid are going to end up on the small islands just north of present day Scotland.

Under Icelandic law, which many Vikings seemed to have followed, a girl's family had the right to kill a man if it was deemed he had damaged her virtue. Hence why most marriages were known to take place quickly, less chances of illegitimate children and better chances of men staying alive.