It's such a beautiful, wonderful day. And also I might be doing something tomorrow that could prevent me from uploading on time. So guess what that means? Tada! Update!

Honestly, what's the point of having a weekly schedule if I keep updating early. . . . Sorry guys. I'm predictably unpredictable.


Disclaimer: After listening to some of the books, I have even more respect for Cressida Cowell and for the DreamWorks staff. The movies and the books are so fun and unique. They most certainly don't belong to me.


Part 8:

Riding on a dragon was terrifying. It was also more incredible than Stoick could have ever dreamed it would be. For so many years, Vikings had been sequestered to the sea as their mode of travel, but the powerful beating wings of a dragon, along with its majestic prowess, demanded respect.

He imagined that his search for Valka might have gone a lot quicker if he'd had one of these creatures to help him. Then again, Stoick wondered if she would have stayed away so long if he'd had a change of heart. Valka had never been comfortable with killing the beasts. Maybe if he had listened to her back then, he never would have lost her.

Stoick's head shot up when he heard the screams.

Children. The high pitched voice of a young girl yelling "DragonDragonDragon!" over and over again. As Cloud Jumper landed, he jolted from the dragon's back, ready to attack.

From between the lengthening dusk shadows of the island's huts came galloping a sleek, black figure, pouncing from shadow to shadow in the fading light. The Night Fury let out a great bellow, his purple fire shining bright in his open maw. Stoick's brow creased and he tensed. He had been wrong to trust these dragons after all. Wrong to trust his son. Wrong to trust his wife.

And then Toothless careened into the open center of the village, small children giggling as they clutched at his scaly hide.

"Again!" called the blond little girl sitting atop the dragon's head, clutching at its ear flaps. "AgainAgain!"

The other children giggled and screamed with joy, two hugged the dragon's neck, one was cemented to his front left leg, one sprawled across the Night Fury's back, and two more held vice grips on the creature's gently flapping tail.

Toothless flopped to the ground in dramatic, playful indignation. He huffed in defeat, spreading his paws and tail across the ground and going limp.

"Up, dragon!" the little girl shouted with glee. "Up up up!"

"Toothless!"

The laughing voice of his human caused the dragon to raise his head and give a gummy smile. Stoick turned as well to see the Older Hiccup, standing outside the Hall as the rest of the Chiefs filed out into the early evening light. Some of them went to collect their children, approaching the Night Fury with absolutely no fear.

Stoick watched as Older Hiccup made his way to the dragon. Toothless warbled happily, his pupils wide and friendly. Stoick relaxed. He had seen the way this dragon looked at his son. This was not the type of control that Drago had induced through pain and torture; this was a bond of trust. Whether that trust was warranted, Stoick had yet to decide, but at least he know that his son wasn't an absolute monster. He was still so . . . Hiccup.

The young man knelt down and gently plucked the little girl off of his dragon's head, setting her on the ground. She hugged his right leg, and Hiccup ruffled her blond hair before detaching her again and pointing her in the direction of her parents. Stoick smiled. Despite his doubts, Hiccup was most certainly still Hiccup. The main difference, it seemed, was that this Hiccup wasn't afraid to be himself.

That was when Astrid sprinted into the middle of the village, hefting her axe and letting out a fierce, warrior's yell. The other teenagers trailed timidly behind her.

Astrid paused when she discovered that there was no danger. She glared at the Chiefs that stared at her. The Chiefs, in turn, averted their eyes somewhat nervously and went on with their lives. Somewhere to his left, Stoick could hear the maniacal laughter of a Berserker.

"We heard screaming." Astrid prompted, waiting for someone to point her in the direction of the danger. Stoick felt his heart swell with warmth. This was a fierce and fearless Viking, ready for battle at a moment's notice. She might have been a bit hasty with the axe at times, but at least she had the fighting spirit.

A little voice in the back of his head whispered That's your future daughter-in-law, and the warm feeling blossomed. Stoick still wasn't quite sure he believed it, but he was more than happy to have this bold-blooded spit-fire join his family line. And he was sure her parents would be glad to hear she hadn't married a Jorgenson.

Jorgensons and Hoffersons did not mix well.

And when Stoick thought about it, it was a surprisingly good match. With Astrid, Hiccup seemed to have found his confidence. And Astrid had found an enlightened sense of restraint.

A gentle fierceness. Not your average Viking pair, but perhaps more effective than Stoick had originally imagined. A good match, indeed.

This younger Astrid had not yet found that sense of restraint. She slammed her axe into the dirt, looking very much like she wanted to punch something. With no dragon attacks and little to do but sit in a hut, Stoick supposed that she'd been feeling cabin fever all day. He could sympathize with that. But he was also starting to sympathize with his son. Stoick wasn't yet sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The Older Hiccup had noticed them. Valka and Younger Hiccup slid smoothly off of Cloud Jumper's back, and the three of them faced the young Berkan Chief.

"You got dad to ride a dragon." Hiccup stared at his mother. "Do you know how long it took me to convince him to ride?" He waved his arms around in a very Hiccup way. "Ages! And that was after everything with the Red Death! He trusted me; he trusted Toothless; he just didn't trust us together with him in the air. And he wouldn't even think about riding a different dragon."

"To be fair, Hiccup," Valka smiled at him and ruffled his hair, much like Hiccup had done to the small blond girl, "you're not his wife."

Hiccup sighed a little, but Stoick could see his smile peaking through.

Hiccup turned to his father and his younger self. Stoick found himself shuffling nervously.

"Yes, well." Stoick tapped his fingers together anxiously. "I- I don't suppose we could get some dinner!"

It came out more vehemently than he intended it to. In fact, that wasn't what Stoick had intended to say at all. But food was the safest escape for Stoick the Vast, as long as he didn't have to talk about dragons and how much he had failed as a father.

"Right." Hiccup looked both relieved and disappointed, and Stoick could feel Valka staring at them with her worried-yet-disapproving motherly eyes.

"Right." Stoick repeated, shuffling in place.

Hiccup's eyes whirled with conflicting emotions, but he managed a strained smile. "Follow me, I guess."


Older Astrid was sitting, waiting for the Haddock family at a table in the Great Hall—the same one the Chiefs had vacated moments before in order to collect their own families. It was similar enough to the Great Hall back on Berk that Stoick felt a little less out of place, and the great meeting hall was lit far more vibrantly than it had been the night before, when Stoick and the other younger Vikings had first found themselves in this strange future. He though back to an image of his son, seated in the inky blackness of the hall, shrouded beneath the wings of a Nigh Fury as the creature broiled a purple fire in its maw.

Stoick shivered. Maybe he still wasn't quite used to the idea of living with dragons.

But then the little blond girl skipped past their table, shrieking with glee as her parents trailed behind. She had her arms tucked into her shirt, and she was flapping her elbows like little wings.

"Do you mind if we join you?"

Stoick looked up to see the blond haired woman from the night before—the one with all the ninja Vikings. With her was a man who looked suspiciously like-

"Dagur!" Older Hiccup smiled warmly. "Mala! Please. You're always welcome."

Beside Stoick, Younger Hiccup spluttered. For a moment the boy seemed unable to breathe.

"Great!" Dagur proclaimed excitedly. "Because I brought mead! Except for you, Hiccup." He set down a cup of yak milk in front of the teenager. "Can't have you drinking the strong stuff."

When he set down a mug in front of Astrid, she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Next to her, Older Hiccup spoke up.

"Dagur, um, Astrid can't. You know-"

"I'll just have yak milk, Dagur. Thanks." Astrid pushed the alcohol away and poked at the large leg of meat on her plate.

"Gah. Sorry! I should have remembered. Of course. Yeah. Right." The Berserker grabbed the mug of mead and made his way out into the crowd to find a more suitable drink.

Stoick turned to his wife, his eyes wide. His gaze flitted back between Hiccup, Astrid, and Valka. Valka smiled knowingly and winked, reaching behind smaller Hiccup to grab Stoick's left hand.

"Don't tell me you didn't expect this?" She asked her husband, the smirk apparent in her voice. "Can you imagine the Hel it's going to give us, though? As stubborn as Hiccup, as fierce as Astrid." Valka's joyous laugh bubbled from her throat. "The baby will probably be flying before it can walk."

Between the two of them, Younger Hiccup choked a bit on his yak milk. The boy turned bright red.

The Berkan Chief gaped at his Older son and Astrid. Hiccup looked slightly embarrassed, his ears dusted with color, but Astrid just smiled.

Stoick looked up. Another man had made his way over to the table and materialized next to Astrid, causing the woman's smile to morph into a frown. His face was scarred horribly on the left side, and his milky white eye stared at them blankly from its socket. He nodded to Stoick with what appeared to be respect before taking a seat and addressing Hiccup.

"Do you have a plan, then, for when Drago comes?"

Stoick's back stiffened immediately. He gripped his leg of yack meat so tightly that the bone nearly snapped.

"Business as always, Viggo?" Older Hiccup asked, somewhat tiredly.

"We could always stick him in a dragon cave somewhere and let the wildlife take care of him." Astrid muttered fiercely into her hunk of meat. "Stormfly and I could take him on a short flight, just for fun—dangle him over the edge of the earth."

"Where are your other Dragon Riders?" Viggo asked, pointedly ignoring Astrid. No one asked whether she was talking about Viggo or Drago. Stoick had a feeling that both men had a special place in Astrid's heart—the part specifically reserved for wrathful vengeance.

"At home." Hiccup told him. "Defending Berk."

Viggo hummed musingly. "Just as well, I suppose. If Drago thinks that I took your younger selves home, Berk will need someone to defend it. In any case, you should send one of your Terror Mails. Warn them of what might be coming."

"Terror Mail?" Younger Hiccup looked up at the strange man. Stoick noticed with a pang that his young son was holding the yack leg with his right hand, while Older Hiccup ate out of his left.

"Yes." Viggo smiled in amusement. "An idea of your own. I'm afraid it's not something I can take credit for, as ingenious as it is. Trained Terrible Terrors, used to deliver messages between islands. Much faster than boat travel, and it doesn't require a human messenger or a crew to deliver it."

"They instinctively return to familiar places." Older Hiccup continued excitedly, leaning across the table to better see his smaller self. Stoick could see Astrid's eyes light up with humor as she watched Hiccup ramble on. On top of the table she gripped his right hand in her own. She looked up and smiled at Stoick who sat across from her. The Hiccups didn't seem to notice. "They're easy to train. Once you learn the things that a dragon does naturally, it's easy to use it to make life easier. Not to mention, you're building trust and familiarity with the dragon by using it to sending messages."

"Terror Mail?" Dagur asked, sitting back down between Older Hiccup and Mala and passing a milk-filled mug to Astrid. "Are we sending something to Alvin?"

"Alvin." Hiccup groaned into his mug. "I knew I forgot something. I'm supposed to send him daily updates."

"Alvin." The name was hollow in Stoick's mouth.

"We offered him a seat at the meeting of the Chiefs, but he told us that he trusted Berk to make all the big decisions for both islands." Astrid informed them helpfully.

"Alvin." Stoick spoke in disbelief. "Alvin the Treacherous."

"Ha. Uh, yeah." Hiccup laughed guiltily. "He didn't feel comfortable leaving Outcast Island. He said that the last time he was gone for an extended period of time, Dagur escaped."

"Aw come on." Dagur smiled broadly and slung his arm around Older Hiccup's shoulders. "It wasn't all that bad, Brother! I mean, we're allies, aren't we? If I hadn't gotten out, that never would have happened."

This time Younger Hiccup actually did spit out his milk. Directly onto Viggo, who was sitting across from him, on Astrid's right side.

A slightly damp Viggo turned to look Older Hiccup in the eye. "I think, Hiccup Haddock," he spoke, surprisingly calmly, "there are some things you ought to explain to our charming new-old friends."

Astrid's gaze slid to Viggo, and finally she laughed.


Snotlout took another large bite out of his piece of meat as he joined the table of Viking teenagers. Astrid, he noticed, had chosen to sit between a little blond girl and Fishlegs, leaving no openings for him to take a seat. He followed her gaze to a table on the other side of the hall where the Haddocks had gathered—future and past.

"Hey." Snotlout frowned. "Isn't that that guy who attacked us with his dragon?"

"Yes!" Fishlegs whisper-yelled in excitement. "And future-Hiccup actually seems comfortable with him!"

"Yeah." Tuffnut laughed. "But Astrid looks like she wants to bite his head off and feed it to her dragon. You know, the blue one with the pointy spines."

"It's a Nadder, Tuffnut." Fishlegs frowned at him. "We were about to join Dragon Training before we were, you know. Didn't you prepare at all?"

Snotlout scoffed. "The Twins? Prepare for something? Ha. Don't make me laugh."

"But he did just make you laugh." Ruffnut pointed out.

"No. That was sarcastic." The Jorgenson frowned, then rolled his eyes. "Ugh, whatever. You know what? I'm not even going to try with you two."

Astrid was still staring with narrowed eyes at the Haddocks.

"Come on, Babe." Snotlout put his face in her way from across the table. "Don't you want to look at these beautiful brown eyes instead? Don't tell me you're actually interested in Hiccup."

"This is serious, Snotlout." Astrid glared at him. "If that woman is somehow manipulating Hiccup and Stoick, I'm going to find out, and I'm going to stop it."

"You mean half-woman." Ruffnut corrected.

"Yeah." Tuffnut laughed. "Hey, I wonder what lycanwings eat."

Ruffnut smiled. "Besides the tears of their enemies."

Tuffnut then burst into tears himself.

The rest of the table looked at the Twins strangely.

"He doesn't like the t-word." Ruffnut whispered conspiratorially. "You know, tears."

Tuffnut sobbed more loudly.

Ruffnut laughed maniacally and began chanting the word with reckless abandon.

"Ahg." Astrid groaned, staring up at the sky. She veered on them. "What is wrong with all of you?"

"Well," Tuffnut supplied, "Snotlout has an inferiority complex, Fishlegs is inflexible and can't apply his book brains to the real-world, she" Here he pointed at his sister. "is a vicious monster who loves to see me in pain, you're completely obsessed with Hiccup and his perfect future, and I can't say t- t- tttt-tt-"

"Tears." Ruffnut interjected gleefully, a wicked look on her face.

"I don't have an inferiority complex." Snotlout argued. "In fact, I'll bet you don't even know what an inferiority complex is."

"Do I really not have real-world knowledge?" Fishlegs asked, looking worriedly into empty space. He paused. "Did Tuffnut really notice that?"

"And I am not obsessed with Hiccup!" Astrid screamed. The Vikings closest to them quieted and stared for a moment before turning back to their own conversations. Some of them stood up and headed out of the great hall. Including Hiccup and his family.

"What's going on?" Snotlout asked.

"Stop. Listen." Astrid ordered.

From outside the Great Hall, music was playing. The sound of a pipe and assorted instruments, and deep, Viking voices singing. Clapping.

"I heard that one of the Tribes brought instruments." Fishlegs perked up in interest. "Apparently it's common to have a dance on the first night of the Chief Meetings. Something happened yesterday that delayed the tradition. We're lucky to be able to see it."

Snotlout watched as the Older Astrid smiled, tugging her husband's hand as they disappeared out the doors. Valka and Stoick had their fingers intertwined. Teenage Hiccup stared up at them in a daze of joy.

"Babe," Snotlout turned back to Astrid. "Want to dance with me?"

Astrid glared and punched him in the arm. She stood and followed the pack of Vikings out into the summer night.


To my Reviewers:

Thank all of you again for your amazing feedback. It's already causing me to alter future chapters (hopefully for the better). I love the requests and ideas that all of you are putting into your reviews. It helps to know what the audience wants, and most of the time it's something easily done that also helps to improve the story. The story's going to be longer as a result, but I don't mind as long as it's what all of you want. The scenes are fun to write. :) You've been such a fantastic audience, and I want to thank you over and over again for all of the fun we've been having together.

Again, if you have any critiques or corrections, I'm also open to those. I'm always looking to improve my writing. All of you have been so kind and supportive, and I love that you're so sweet to me, but I also don't want you to feel as though you have to treat me with kid gloves. I'm on this site, not only to share my love for existing stories, but also to learn and grow as a writer.

Ceo160:

They'll interact with each other along the way, but you may have to wait a bit longer for the characters to really sit down with each other and chat. They're all sort of dancing around the idea of actually talking with each other, giving the excuse that they'll talk later. But I do intend to have some real heart-to-hearts eventually, don't worry.

Wolf:

Haha. Yes, I know. It seems like everybody wants the Astrids to sit down and work their problems out. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. I'll do what I can about the Astrids. . . .

Guest:

I'm flattered that you think that the story is awesome. :) Thank you so much! Yes, the Hiccups need to talk with each other, and so do the Astrids. And Younger Astrid talking with Older Hiccup would be interesting. I'll put some more thought into that. Your review had many good ideas and thoughts. And I love the idea of Hiccup and Astrid having kids, too. That's one of the reasons that I wrote Astrid as pregnant. I was too nervous to give them actual children-mostly because then I would have to create Original Characters. I wanted to stick with the existing characters for the sake of this story.

S.H:

I agree that Viggo talking to Astrid would be hilarious. Viggo definitely has a different way of conducting himself. He's not your average run-of-the-mill Viking. . . . I am curious about the name Solveig. Is there some important meaning behind it, or was it a cool, fun name that you found? Thanks again for all of your amazing reviews. Hope you enjoy how it all turns out.