Chapter 7 – Family

23 years later

Astrid and Hiccup are still happily married back on Berk with two fully grown children. The oldest was born during a thunderstorm that had been raging for a couple of days. Lightning struck wildly all across the sky and island. Toothless had taken refuge in the great hall, still scared from the time he was struck by lightning while chasing that skrill when they were younger. Astrid went into labor around what seemed to be noon in the middle of the storm. Later that evening when the child finally came into the world and started crying for the first time, the storm ceased. That moment of silence gave the happy couple their first child's name Thorsen Haddock. Five years later they had their second child. They named their new daughter Kaiya Haddock.

Both of their children were a mixture of their parents in both their personalities and the build of their bodies. Thorsen is slightly taller than his father with more muscles making him larger than his father but still not as burly as the normal Viking. He has blonde hair like his mother but it was short like Hiccup's and had a darker green to his eyes like the forest. (Imagine a Hiccup with blonde hair, darker eyes, and slightly more muscles) Thorsen is considered to be one of the best warriors on Berk second only to Astrid, whom over the years didn't stop training and refining her already deadly skills. Thorsen is as smart as Hiccup and clever and resourceful as Astrid but lacked his father's creative mind for new inventions.

Kaiya is amazingly similar to Hiccup in personality, sarcasm included, but her appearance was a nearly perfect clone of Astrid's. Kaiya has long hair that flowed freely behind her and was the same color as Hiccup's. Kaiya's eyes shone a brilliant blue just as bright as Astrid's. Kaiya was clumsy in most physical activities, but was not as bad as Hiccup was when he was her age, and was smart as Hiccup with a similar sense of humor. She would often make sarcastic remarks, which only a member of her family would catch, earning herself a smirk from Hiccup and a slight slap on the back of her head by Astrid. Ever since she was little she had an amazing affinity with dragons that surpassed even her father's. She would occasionally sit at the top of the hill near her house and sing a song that just drew dragons towards her. One time she got so absorbed in her song that she didn't realize that nearly all of the dragons on Berk were surrounding her most of them falling asleep to her pleasant melody.

Hiccup retired from being chief two years ago around the same time his grandson Ronan Haddock, son of Thorsen Haddock and his wife Elise, turned three years old (Ronan is currently 5 for those of you who aren't good at math). Elise is the youngest daughter of another village's chief. Hiccup took his 8 year old son with him on one of his trips to an ally village to help them with their dragon relationships, and him and Elise quickly hit it off and became the best of friends. Over the years after their visit Thorsen and Elise would send message to each other via terrible terrors and would spend a lot of time with each other whenever either one of them were visiting the other's village because of their parents. Six years ago Thorsen had proposed to Elise and they were married a few weeks later near the end of spring. Hiccup and Astrid were really surprised when Thorsen came to them asking them to set up a marriage contract for him and Elise while they were still so young, compared to when they got married.

Since the Haddock household grew to include Valka, Hiccup, Astrid, Thorsen, Elise, Ronan, Kaiya; and soon to include Thorsen's and Elise's next child which will be here in a few weeks and Kaiya's fiancé whom decided to join the Haddock household instead of having Kaiya joining his family. Hiccup had the traditional Haddock house torn down and then rebuilt and expanded to accommodate all of the people he thought would being living there along with their dragons. Hiccup and Astrid have the master bedroom next to the stairs being the heads of the family and all. Next to theirs is the smallest bedroom which Valka took for herself saying she would take the least amount of space out of everyone and then at the very end is Kaiya's room. Downstairs below the master bedroom is Thorsen's and Elise's room and next to theirs is the last bedroom that has been split in two to allow space for Ronan and the soon to be addition.

When Hiccup retired as chief he obviously left the position to his son. Thorsen fell into the role of leadership perfectly. Hiccup would often comment on how his son got his sense of leadership from his mother. Thorsen quickly became one of the best leaders Berk has ever had right along with his father and grandfather. Hiccup would help his son every now and then, giving him advice when needed but he would spend most of his newly acquired free time with Toothless exploring and mapping the world together, spending much needed quality time with his amazing and beautiful wife Astrid that he has not been able to spend since he was so preoccupied with chiefly duties and raising a family, and just plain out enjoying being a grandfather and playing with Ronan.

A few miles out from Berk a black creature speeds by just a few inches above the ocean causing the water below to part slightly.

"THIS IS AWESOME!" Ronan shouted throwing his arms in the air as the wind blows his hair in every direction possible.

Today was the day that Ronan was to spend with his grandparents while his father focused on being chief and giving his mother a break from watching over him while she is still pregnant. Right now it was just Hiccup and Ronan on the back of Toothless flying just inches above the ocean. Hiccup decided to take his grandson with him to go explore an island he recently discovered north of Berk. Normally Hiccup would start mapping the island as soon as he found it but a thought crossed his mind. "I bet Ronan would be excited to go exploring with me." So Hiccup decided to hold off on mapping the island and instead made a quick search of the island to make sure that it was safe enough to bring his grandson. After Thorsen dropped off Ronan with Hiccup and Astrid in the morning they had breakfast and then took off to the island and spent the rest of the morning exploring. They had recently finished mapping the island and were one their way back to Berk just a little past midday.

Hiccup chuckles and sits up straight while keeping his right arm wrapped around Ronan keeping him steady. "Enjoying your first real ride I see."

Ronan looks up and see his grandfather looking down back at him with his mask still covering his face. Ronan smiles brightly back at Hiccup and says, "Yep!" This is the first real flight that Ronan has experienced that didn't include just flying a few feet off the ground through the village. Above them Hiccup notices a group of dragons flying together.

"Can you identify each of those dragons?" Hiccup quizzes his grandson.

Ronan looks in the same direction as Hiccup. Ronan stares at the flock of dragons for a few seconds with a face scrunched in concentration. Hiccup had taken it upon himself to teach Ronan how to read using the same method he taught Thorsen and Kaiya, which was by sitting him in his lap with the new and improved book of dragons in front of them. Ronan starts pointing to each dragon as he speaks "That one is a nadder. That's a timberjack. Oh! That one is a boneknapper. The last one is a…uh…" Hiccup waits a few second before answering.

"That's a sand wraith. It's a rare tidal class dragon that likes to bury itself in the sand to takes its prey by surprise."

Ronan shivers a little. "That's scary. Don't want to go to the beach with one of those around."

Hiccup chuckles. "Yeah, no kidding; but you have no need to wary your parents and I will always be here to protect you kiddo." He then looks up at the sun. "It's about that time Ronan. Astrid should be about done with training the older kids in combat techniques. Let's head home bud." Hiccup pats Toothless's head and he warbles back.

A few minutes later Hiccup, Ronan and Toothless approach Berk. They fly over the village waving to the villagers below that stopped their tasks to wave at their retired chief. As they near the Haddock house they see a blonde head with a large braid walking up the steps with a large basket. They land at the top of the stairs near the front of the house. "Good afternoon, milady. Need any help with that?"

Ronan hops off of Toothless and runs over to Astrid and hugs her leg. Astrid smiles at Ronan and ruffles his hair. "Hey there little one; and no Hiccup I don't need help. You would think that you would have learned that I can take care of myself." Astrid smiles and hauls the basket full of fish onto her shoulder to make her point clear. Hiccup just shrugs back.

"Yeah I know but still thought I should offer." Astrid finishes climbing the stairs and sets the basket down. She walks over to Hiccup and takes off his helmet and gives him a quick yet deep kiss on the lips. She pulls away and sees Hiccup dazed with that goofy smile of his. She smirks and rolls her eyes as she hits him in the chest with his helmet.

"So how was your day so far little one?"

"It was great! We went around this island exploring and finding all kinds of secrets and then we went flying for a while. We even did some tricks! Although gramps wouldn't do any those awesome stunts he normally does." Astrid bends down and picks up Ronan cradling him in her arms.

"Sounds like you had an exciting day so far." Astrid kisses Ronan's forehead. "Now let's go inside and start getting dinner ready; everyone is going to be home for dinner for once. Toothless can you take the basket around to the stables?" Toothless purrs and then bites on one of the straps of the basket and starts dragging it around the house. Astrid, Hiccup and Ronan spend the next few hours in the Haddock house talking about their days and getting supper ready. Ronan excitedly told Astrid all about their trip to the new island. He told her about the nest of terrible terrors they found and the hidden waterfall on the far side of the island that flowed into what was similar to the cove on Berk. Ronan starts to draw a picture of the cove on the island as best as he can. While Ronan is distracted by his drawing Hiccup carries a plate of venison over to Astrid. He places the plate down next to her and wraps an arm around her waist.

"You would have loved it there, it was absolutely gorgeous. Although nowhere near as gorgeous as you milady." He leans in close to her and pecks her temple and in a quiet and seductive voice whispers. "Maybe we can go there ourselves, just you and me." Hiccup then moves his hand on her waist lower and squeezes her ass. Astrid whirls around and points the knife that she was using to cut some vegetables at Hiccup.

"Careful mister, I'm armed." Astrid says with as stone cold face she could but couldn't help but let her smile show. Hiccup puts his hands up in mock surrender and smirks "Aren't you always?"

They hear the front door open and turn around to see Kaiya and her fiancé Finn enter the house. They all greet each other and Ronan runs over to his aunt and starts telling her about his trip and shows her his nearly finished drawing. Hiccup turns to Finn "So how was dragon training class today?"

"It went well, still weird being the only adult in the class."

"Well you are in the beginner class most adults on this island already have their own dragons and know how to take care of them." Ever since Finn decided to move to Berk he has been taking classes at the dragon training academy which is currently being taught by Kaiya and Valka. Although Finn won't admit it he is glad to be taking the classes since he gets to spend pretty much all day with his fiancé.

"Kaiya go get Elise from the Ingerman house it won't be too much longer till dinner is ready." Astrid says.

"Alright, I'll be back in a bit." Kaiya waves and then heads out the door. A few minutes later Kaiya walks through the door with Elise and Thorsen. Hiccup and Finn were just about done getting the table ready when they walked in. "Son? Aren't you supposed to still be in a meeting getting next week's celebration preparations set?"

"That was the plan father, but I decided to speed things along so I can make it to dinner on time for once. On my way home I saw Kaiya and Elise on their way back and decided to join them." Thorsen says to Kaiya and Finn, "I'm sure you two will be happy to know that your wedding preparations are going smoothly. You two will be married by this time next week." Kaiya and Finn smile at each other and kiss, overjoyed that they will be together forever soon. Thorsen looks around the room and all of the people in it. "Where's grandmother at?"

"Valka is out with Cloudjumper and won't be back till later tonight." Astrid says placing the last bit of food on the table. "Now everyone sit down so we can celebrate the soon to be new Haddocks." Hiccup sits down at the head of the table with Astrid to his right and Thorsen to his left. Kaiya and her fiancée Finn sit to Astrid's right. Ronan sits between his father and mother. The Haddocks spend their night happily talking and eating. They were all looking forward to the wedding next week and Elise's newborn that should be arriving sometime this month.

The Haddock family spends the rest of their evening jovially talking amongst themselves. Everyone talks about their day's sharing any new information they have like the latest village gossip. When Thorsen begins to talk about his day he mentions his conversation with a few of the residents of Berk.

"Oh yeah mom, dad I talked to Ruffnut earlier today."

"How is she doing? I hardly get to see her anymore these days." Astrid says.

"She's good, she was complaining about how old she is getting and how much her appearance has changed over the years." Astrid laughs a little underneath her hand. "She was complaining at how unfair life is, how even after all of these years you two still look so young."

"Well it sounds like she is still as lively as ever." Hiccup and Astrid smile fondly while thinking about their old friend. What Ruffnut had said about how Hiccup and Astrid still looked young was true. Neither of them understood how they still looked like the way they did when they were in their twenties but they weren't complaining about it. There have always been stories about how some people seemed to have managed to age slower than others and they had just assumed that they were just some of the lucky few that were in the same boat.

The rest of the evening went by without much of anything special happening. They finished eating and cleaning up their mess. The Haddocks gathered around the hearth in the center of their house and just sat around talking. Thorsen sat in his chair reviewing some documents that were given to him by the village elders. Hiccup and Astrid were lying down on the floor near the fire on a bear pelt. Hiccup is laying on his back with his left arm behind his head and his other arm wrapped around Astrid whom is resting her head on his chest. Elise is sitting on the other side of the hearth reading a book to Ronan. Kaiya and Finn had decided to go to bed early tonight.

A few hours later when the moon was high in the sky the rest of the Haddocks begin to head off to bed. Elise carries the sleeping Ronan up to his room while Thorsen went to get ready for bed and Hiccup and Astrid clean up the house a little. Hiccup and Astrid go up to their room get undressed and put on their night gowns. Hiccup and Astrid snuggle up to each other with Astrid's back press up against Hiccup's chest and his arm around her waist.

Hiccup kisses the back of Astrid's neck "The end of yet another perfect day milady." Astrid hums her agreement to Hiccup's statement before the both of them gradually drift off to sleep.

The next morning with the sun high in the sky Astrid and Hiccup are still sleeping in their bed together. Today is one of their rare days off and they decided to treat themselves a little and sleep in until the late morning. Hiccup is the first to wake between the two of them and his vision is clouded by a veil of yellow. He smiles and pulls Astrid even closer to him. He closes his eyes yet again letting himself to fall back into his slumber. Then a thunderous sounds rings throughout the village shaking their entire house. Astrid and Hiccup bolt up in bed and stare wide eyed at each other. They both are well aware what that sound means, though they haven't heard it in several years. That sound meant only one thing on Berk, an enemy was spotted nearby and was heading straight for them.

Hiccup and Astrid jump out of bed and quickly get dressed. Hiccup finishes clasping the last buckle on his flight suit just as Astrid was grabbing her treasured axe from next to their bed. The both of them run out of their house with Toothless close behind them and headed to the lookout where Thorsen and several of the village elders were sure to be to see what is happening. When they get up there they find their son and their friends staring off out to sea completely white in the face. Hiccup turns to look at what is making his son and friends look like they were staring Death in the face. On the horizon and fast approaching Berk was a fleet of ships completely covering the horizon.

AN/ Can anyone guess yet what the concept this story focuses on? I think it is pretty obvious, leave a review with your guess and what you think of the story so far. Just a heads up the release of chapters may start slowing down drastically.