Astrid rushed back to Berk with a feeling of dread. When she got there she would have to act like nothing had changed, when in fact a lot had changed. Hiccup was now back, her heart was now whole and she had a pet dragon, all of this she had to keep hidden until the right time and she had no idea how long that would be. She walked along the familiar trails of Berk listening to the sounds of nature before the sounds of the village would scare it all away. As she let her mind relax, her thoughts of course turned to Hiccup. She still couldn't believe he was back, he was really back, this wasn't a dream – She had pinched herself numerous times to make sure – and they were finally going to be together. But one thing stood in their way, Stoick. She had no idea how he would react when he finds out that Hiccups back. She knew he preferred to think that Hiccup never existed, but Astrid always thought it was a cover for his grief at pushing his son away. But she knew that no matter what happens she was going to stand by him.

As she carried on walking se could hear the faint sounds of the village in the distance. As she carried on walking, again her mind couldn't help but wonder, this time my thoughts turned to Etana. She was the most beautiful dragon Astrid had ever seen with her vibrant blue and yellow scales. She would never be able to look at a dragon the same way ever again. Ever since Hiccup showed her the true nature of dragons she had never harmed a dragon, no easy task when living with Vikings. Every time she saw one it made her think of Hiccup and she couldn't bring herself to hurt it. But now when she saw a dragon she will think of them as her dragon's kin and therefore as her own family. She wondered if that's a dragon rider thing or just her.

Astrid could not put off entering the village any longer. So she squared her shoulders, wiped are traces of emotion from her face and stomped past the last layer of trees into the village. At first she came across no one she was particularly close with. That was until she spied Ruffnut over by the well gathering water. Astrid made her way over to her and when she was about 10 feet away shouted her name. Ruffnut spun around dropping the bucket of water she was holding and stared at her. But before she could say anything Astrid's mother rushed up to her from out of nowhere.

"Where in the name of Odin have you been? Do you know how worried I've been? Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'm sorry mother I was…" In the entire time it took Astrid to get there she neglected to come up with an excuse as to where she'd been. She blamed Hiccup for making her think of him.

"I was…on a walk and lost track of time." Astrid winced at how lame her excuse was, but her mother seemed to buy it because she just gave her a stern look and said not to let it happen again and then went to do her jobs around the village. Astrid watched as she disappeared into the crowd before turning her attention back to Ruffnut. She turned round so that she was facing her and she engulfed me in a hug.

"Ruff what are you doing? I can't breathe." Astrid struggled to say.

"I'm sorry." She said when she pulled away, "it's just that when you didn't come back yesterday and when you weren't at the cliff this morning I thought you might have done something reckless because of you know," Ruffnut brought her head closer to Astrid's and made her voice barely above a whisper. "What Hiccup did? I mean I was really scared for you, your mother was in a panic when you didn't come home thinking that a dragon had got you and I thought because of what happened you might have….kind of…lost it. No offence."

"You thought I was going to kill myself?" Astrid asked in disbelief.

"Well it's just I know how much you missed him, then getting him back and then losing him again, I thought you might have been in a bit of a fragile state." Ruffnut said in a concerned voice.

Astrid couldn't help it and just started uncontrollably laughing. "I can honestly say Ruff," she said between fits of giggles "that, it never crossed my mind."

"Well good, and I must say you are handling everything remarkably well."

"No Ruff it's okay, he's…" Astrid trailed of thinking, should she tell Ruffnut about Hiccup. He he didn't say not to tell anyone about him, besides the obvious. Ruffnut would be so happy when she finds out, but it could put Hiccup in danger. Astrid couldn't take that risk; she wouldn't lose him again, "…in a better place."

Ruffnut smiled sadly at her, "It's okay, one day you will see him again. And don't worry I told Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Snotlout what happened so tonight were going up to the cliff to pay our last respects. It will be good to say goodbye. For closure, you know?" Astrid could see the tears pooling at the sides of her eyes and she so badly wanted to tell her the truth, but she just couldn't risk it.

"I'm going to go lie down for a bit before tonight; I'll let you get back to work." Astrid said and gave Ruffnut a smile before turning around and walking in the direction of her house. On her way down the hill she passed Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Snotlout all sitting under a tree near the edge of the village. They were sitting in silence and just staring at nothing. Even though they hadn't seen Hiccup in years it still must hurt to know that they will never see him again. She could so easily take away their grief, but that would put Hiccup and his friends in danger as well as the dragons. Ever since Hiccup left none of them had had the same drive to kill dragons and they hadn't gone out of their way to harm dragons. But they hadn't seen what she'd seen and so still fought them when they raided the village, so she had no idea how they would react to Toothless, Etana and the rest.

Astrid carried on walking to her house, trying to not let the looks on her friend's faces get to her. She knew she couldn't tell them but she still really wanted to. Just as she was nearing her house she heard her name being called and spun round to see who it was and what they wanted. She saw Laufiea making her way towards her and inwardly groaned.

"What do you want?" Astrid asked in an annoyed voice.

"Someone's in a mood today, what happened finally, realized you're going to die alone." She said.

"No I just fear that the God's will strike me down for interacting with someone that brings such shame to the tribe." Astrid replied, deliberately taking a step away from her.

"Whatever, Stoick sent me to fetch you; he wants to see you right away. So come on move it." Laufiea said, already turning her back before she'd even finished talking.

"Don't you dare order me about." Astrid said in a deathly calm voice before she started making her way back up towards the chief's house.

"Oh before you go," Lauifea shouted after her, "do you know where Snotlout is, I have an itch that needs scratching." She said with a smirk on her face.

"Go fuck yourself." Astrid replied trying to get away from her as fast as possible.

"No thanks it more fun when someone else does it." Astrid heard her say before she walked off. As Astrid got nearer to the Stoick's house and she couldn't help the feeling of dread that started to seep into the pit of her stomach. Did he know about the dragons? Did he know where she'd really been all night? Did he know about Hiccup? Astrid tried to calm herself down; it wouldn't look good to walk in with a guilty look on her face. She carefully knocked onto the door before entering. She hadn't been inside this house in years, it brought back memories to painful to remember. Stoick was not in the main living area, nor was he in the kitchen. She was about to go check his room, but thought better of it, he would not be happy if he came in and found her in his personal space. So she decided to sit and wait. She sat in the living area for about 2 minutes before she heard a noise from upstairs and as far as she knew there was only Hiccups room and a spare up there, wonder which one he's in? Astrid always thought the whole 'I have no son' thing was just a cover to mask how upset he was about Hiccup leaving. She wondered how he would react if he knew Hiccup was back.

She heard footsteps coming down the steps and saw Stoick's large frame as he climbed down into the living area. He stopped when he noticed her.

"What are you doing here?" Stoick asked.

"Laufiea told me that you wanted to talk to me." Astrid replied, suddenly scared that Lauifea was pulling a prank on her.

"Oh yes, I didn't think you would be here so fast." He looked up the stairs and then back at Astrid. "I was just moving some old junk into the spare room up there." He explained.

"Of course you were, sir." Astrid said, unsure if he picked up on the sarcasm in her voice. He started walking over towards the fire at the other end of the room. As he was doing Astrid took notice of how tired he looked, like he hadn't slept in weeks. There was also no life in his eyes, like he had lost his reason for living. She actually felt sorry for him; it can't have been easy losing your wife and then losing your only child. It must have put a great strain on him, but that's no excuse for what he's done. He stood facing the fire for a moment. While he was doing this Astrid looked out the window to see the sun just about to set. She was meant to be at the cliff soon. When he turned back around he had his emotionless stone face mask on again.

"Now Astrid I have asked you to come here for two reasons. The first is that you, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout and Fishlegs are all old enough now to accompany the rest of the tribe on dragon nest hunts. Now I know this must be exciting for you but I'm counting on you to be mature about this. You and your friends will travel on the next voyage which will be in a week. What do you have to say?"

"No…"

"Excuse me? What do you mean no?" Stoick asked in disbelief.

"I mean I'm not putting mine and my friend's lives on the line, just for you to ease your own guilt." Astrid said, standing up from her seat.

"How dare you speak to me like that! I am your Chief and you will show me respect." Stoick shouted.

"I will treat you like a chief when you start acting like one! Now if you'll excuse me I have to go." Astrid started walking towards the door.

"Don't you dare walk away from me!" But by the time he said it Astrid was already out the door and half way down the hill. As she was running she briefly wondered what the implications of what she had just done would be, probably exile. But that prospect didn't seem as daunting as it once had. She also wondered what the second thing he wanted to talk to her about was, but quickly shuck it off as unimportant.

She reached the cliff just after the sun had set. While everyone was waiting they had built a bonfire and were currently sitting around it. When Astrid walked up to them they all turned to her and smiled, she smiled back and tock a seat near Ruffnut.

"Well now every one is here we can get started." Fishlegs announced as he stood up. "We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of our friend Hiccup. In the time we knew him he was a great friend to all of us and he will be sadly missed. I would just like to say something else about mine and Hiccups personal friendship. Hiccup was my first ever true friend; we had known each all our lives and grew close through our mutual lack of vikingness." There was a small laugh from the group. "We used to dream about proving ourselves to the tribe and that we would go down in history as great Vikings. But now that no longer matters to me because I know that in my own special way, I already am a great Viking, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the same goes for Hiccup." There was a murmuring of agreement from the group, as Fishlegs sat down; Astrid could see he was doing his best not to cry. The next to speak was Snotlout; he stood up from his spot and cleared his throat.

"I don't have much to say about Hiccup except this. Hiccup was my cousin, and though many times I tried to deny it we shared the same blood. I sometimes wondered how two people that share the same blood could be so different. I always thought that I was a better person than Hiccup, I could throw better, I could hunt better and I could fight better. But then I realized how wrong I was. Everyday Hiccup would treat me with nothing but kindness, and maybe a little bit of sarcasm, and I would throw it back in his face. Every day he would ignore all the horrible things I said to him and still treat me as a friend. And now I know who the better person was and I can honestly say I've never been prouder of sharing blood with someone other than that of my cousin, Hiccup." Astrid had no idea Snotlout felt that way about Hiccup, but she supposed it made sense. Next to speak was Ruffnut and Tuffnut. In true twin fashion they did it together. "Although Hiccup was never a very good Viking…"

"He was always a hell of a comedian. Hiccup made us laugh like no one else…"

"Whether it be because of one of his crazy inventions or because of his latest accident…"

"It was almost guaranteed that when you ran into Hiccup you would end up nearly wetting yourself with laughter."

"We just wanted to say that Hiccup…"

"We will never forget you Hiccup, or any of the times you brought smiles to our faces." Tuffnut and Ruffnut sat down with smiles on their faces.

Finally, it was Astrid's turn to speak. She stood up and opened her mouth but nothing came out. She looked around at the faces of her friends, they all wore the same expression of sadness and loss, and it was literally killing her knowing that she could end their sadness. Astrid looked into each and every one of their eyes and saw unshed tears and she realized something. She was being selfish. She just wanted to keep Hiccup to herself and that wasn't fair on them. He was just as much their friend as he was hers and they should have the right to know that their friend isn't a coward and that he is very much alive.

"Guys, I need to show you something…"

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