I realized that the other riders haven't made an appearance since the first chapter, but then after I thought about it I realized that there hasn't been a need for them yet. They haven't been needed to further the plot. So I tried to work them in to this chapter, I think I sort of failed though. They just made a kind of cameo.

Also, in this chapter I mention Astrid's family. They (dreamworks) never mention them so I have no idea, aside from an uncle that was killed at a young age. I stemmed from that tidbit.

Chapter 10: Taking a Day

Hiccup rose the next morning stifling a great yawn. Astrid was curled around him, his shirt clutched in her fists. He hugged her close in attempts to wake her gently. Her eyes fluttered open, lips spread into a sleepy smile, a soft murmur in response.

"What do you think about a flight? I know a great spot of a picnic." Hiccup said.

"Oh?" Astrid stretched her arms out over her head, yawning as she did so.

"Yeah, it's a nice grassy outpost, secluded, with white sand beaches and a waterfall that runs off the mountain. Clear, clean water." Hiccup said. "It's one of Toothless's favorites."

"He told you that, did he?" Astrid smiled.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, he did." Hiccup said. He could really get used to waking up like this every morning.

"It sounds amazing." Astrid rested her arms around his neck, draping them over his shoulders.

Hiccup felt that magnetic tug, and wasted no time to act on it. He leaned down and kissed her sleep-dried lips.

"I'll be back with Toothless." Hiccup said as he reluctantly pulled himself away from her. Getting off the cot, he noticed where her hands had clutched at his shirt. She'd left wrinkles from her grip. Had she been holding on to him all night?

He flexed his shoulders, ebbing out what tiredness remained. He could hear Astrid moving behind him as he left the door to his workspace open. Stretching, by the sounds. He felt elated to be spending another day with her, just the two if them. All that time without her and now all this time together. It was like a reward.

That elation quickly evaporated as Hiccup turned into the smithy. Stoick was standing just inside the smithy. His broad face was beaming at his son, one of those looks of mixed fatherly disappointment, chiefly disapproval, and stiff anger. Hiccup hadn't seen that face in a while, not since before the Red Death and the dragon's. Still, it incited a fear inside Hiccup that he hadn't missed.

"Hey…Dad." Hiccup said, trying to ease the tension. He felt it heavy on his chest, boring into his eyes and worming its way into every part of him.

Stoick said nothing. His eyes were on fire. Hiccup swallowed hard.

"Where is she, son?" Stoick finally said in a low tone that matched his face.

"What?" Hiccup said. Could be possible know? No, Hiccup told himself. He had to roll with it. "Who are you talking about?"

"I know she's there." Stoick said, taking a step closer and lowering his voice. It sounded like thunder inside the smithy.

Hiccup felt a tightening in his chest, like a fist closing around his lungs. Stoick took another step closer. He was standing arm's length from Hiccup.

"Where's Astrid?" Stoick said in a whisper that was as much thunderous as his shouts, but much more terrifying.

Hiccup tried to speak but nothing came out of his mouth. Not that he could find the words even if he could speak. He choked on them, spit them out in mumblings and half-words.

"Stop. Stop. Stop, son." Stoick held up a hand to his son's ramblings. "I know. There's no need to hid her from me any longer. I heard you two speaking."

"Dad, I can explain." Hiccup began, throwing his arms out in beggar's fashion.

A strong hand on his shoulder pushed him aside. Stoick took another step to the door when it opened from the other side. Astrid must have heard the entire thing. How could she not have? She was standing in the doorway, tentative apprehension on her face.

Stoick staggered in his last step. His squinted eyes searched the girl before him, and after a long moment he sighed.

"Please, Dad it's not…" Hiccup started to say but was halted mid-sentence by his father hand.

"Meet me back at the house. It's time for a talk." Stoick said, to both Hiccup and Astrid. "And don't dally. This is serious."

"Yes, Dad." Hiccup said, defeated but relieved that the situation hadn't turned dire in that instant.

Stoick marched from the smithy and toward the house without another word. Hiccup let out a great sigh he didn't know he was holding in.

The village was gaining speed on the day and Astrid couldn't just walk through town. Stoick knew that. Hiccup sighed at the idea that his father wasn't going to throw Astrid out to the suspicious stone-throwers before talking it over first. Maybe Hiccup was rubbing off on his father.

"I guess that picnic will have to wait." Hiccup said. He knew they couldn't just fly off. Stoick would know and might come looking for them.

Astrid hid her face and hair back inside the short cloak and together they headed around the village to avoid unwanted attention. Hiccup had a feeling that they wouldn't have to worry about her being seen much longer.

"You know," Astrid whispered when the house was in sight. "We could just fly away. Like Esol."

"I couldn't do that to my dad." Hiccup shook his head. Although, the idea of just running away from his problems had its appeal. But where would they go? How would they survive? "Besides, this is home. We can't abandon it."

He said 'we' but meant that 'he' couldn't.

At the house Stoick was sitting in his chair by the fire. A small pot of stew simmered over it. He was staring into the fire and did not look up as the door opened and closed.

"Sit down." Stoick said at last.

Hiccup and Astrid sat across the fire from him on the warmed floor. They did not intertwine their fingers or arms as they would have done in the smithy. This was not the time for affections.

Stoick sighed, and glanced over the fire at Hiccup. Now that they were at home his chiefly disapproval had subsided and left his capacity for fatherly disappointment greater. He rubbed his face with his hands.

"Son, I want you to tell me what happened." Stoick said.

"I can't, exactly." Hiccup said. "I made a promise not to."

Stoick sighed, this time more exasperated.

"Honest, Dad, I…" Hiccup started but was silenced again.

"I know, Hiccup. I know what you've done." Stoick said. He shifted in his chair. "That devil woman approached me too, after it was decided that your mother was dead."

Hiccup felt something catch in his throat.

"Left me finish, son. This is a story you need to hear." Stoick said. "That woman came to me, and offered me a choice. I'm guessing she gave you the same option."

His fire-darkened eyes flickered on Astrid. She looked away.

"Yes." Hiccup said.

"I never thought this would have been a story you'd need to learn from." Stoick said, sighing again. "I assumed that you would make the right decision, as I did."

Hiccup opened his mouth to argue.

"The dead are dead and meant to stay that way. Such things aren't supposed to be messed with. The door is only meant to go one way and you've ripped it the other. Thor only knows what wicked horrors come slithering out from there. Now, I am happy to see your face again, Astrid, I didn't think Hiccup would ever be as happy without you. But I am disappointed that you would indulge in such sorcery, son."

Silence consumed. Hiccup glanced halfway at Astrid who was staring listlessly into the fire. What was she thinking?

"I have seen signs, Hiccup." Stoick said after the pause. "Signs that I've only heard about from my father, and my father's father."

"What signs?" Hiccup asked. He hadn't seen anything. Or he wasn't aware of them.

"Fire on the half-moon, ghost-howls from the sky carried on cold winds, black storm clouds that bring no thunder, no lightening, no rain." Stoick recalled.

"What do they mean?" Hiccup asked. He'd never heard of any of them.

"According to the legends black storm clouds that brought no storm were a reflection of the darkness gathering unchecked. Immortal horrors, my granddad called them. Things we mortal Vikings shouldn't see until we've gone to the other side. The ghost-howls were the dead trying to come through the gap between death and life, their cries echoing through the cold winds that blew through. Fire on the half-moon meant the gateway was opened, the underworld was swallowing us whole." Stoick said. "It was a few nights ago, the night I assume you came back to us."

Hiccup followed his father's gaze to Astrid. She was still staring into the fire. "I didn't see any of those."

"You weren't outside." Astrid added quietly.

"That's right." Hiccup said. He'd been in the cave with Astrid. Even if the sky had been black with clouds and the moon fire-red, he wouldn't have seen it. He was too preoccupied with Astrid. "Well, what do you want me to do now?"

"I don't know." Stoick shook his head. "This has never happened before. I wish I knew how to handle it. This is your problem, son. You made it, you must deal with it. If you are going to be chief one day you will need to take control of any situation. Consider it a lesson."

Hiccup sighed.

"You were going to take the day on an island, weren't you?" Stoick said to them as if it were any casual conversation. "Take it. Let Astrid be seen, and then take her away from the village to let the news settle."

"I thought you were going to let me handle it?" Hiccup shrugged, although grateful for the advice. That plan was better than anything he'd been able to drum up in the few moments.

Stoick sighed. Hiccup stood up and Astrid followed him. She took the cloak off her head, apprehension over both of their faces.

Outside the sun seemed too bright. The exposer of secrets. The village was brimming with daily activity. Hiccup and Astrid took the same out-of-the-way path around the village to the stables. It was in an effort to avoid the most attention however it was impossible to be invisible.

Astrid didn't need to look up to see the furrowed brows of confusion or the gapping mouths in wonder. Whispers flew with questions and fingers began to point in disbelief. She took a quick step to walk closer to Hiccup.

"Alright, there?" Hiccup asked as the stables come into view.

"I half-expected a rock to come flying at me." Astrid said in a spiteful tone. Although she wouldn't change being a Viking for anything she hated their suspicious and rash decision making qualities.

"I think that's more of a mob thing. They'll wait until there's a crowd before they start shouting and throwing things." Hiccup shrugged. His humor was well intended but received with a doubtful sigh. "Come on, there's Toothless."

He bounded out of the stables to Hiccup with such overwhelming joy it was hard not to smile. He wasn't use to spending this much time away from Hiccup. He nuzzled him, licked him to the ground, twitching with joy. Hiccup shouted in defense of himself. Toothless was not obstructed in the least and instead of Hiccup, nuzzled Astrid with the same affection.

"Hey, bud, let's go before the mob appears." Hiccup said to the dragon with pet-affection, however these words were not wasted on Astrid.

"That's not funny." she said as she climbed onto the dragon's saddle.

"I know." Hiccup said. "That is why we are forgoing packing a picnic and will worry about that when we get there."

Hiccup climbed up and Astrid fastened her arms around him. They fly into the air and the island of Berk grew smaller and smaller. Neither of them looked back to see if there was indeed an angry crowd growing. Hiccup knew that if there was they wouldn't come looking for them first. No, their first move would be to seek out the chief for answers to this anomaly.

"Do you think my dad wanted us to go so he could deal with it himself?" Hiccup asked.

"Why do you ask?" Astrid said in his ear.

"I just get the impression that even though he says that he wants me to learn my own lessons, you know, the 'you're going to be chief one day, son' lessons, that he can't stand by and watch me mess up." Hiccup said, using his impression of his father.

"He is still your father. He doesn't want to see you fail." Astrid said. "He's torn between being your chief and your father."

"Yeah." Hiccup said. He'd been torn since he was born.

Stoick drummed his fingers on his mug. The water inside rippled with each thump. It would be only a matter of time before there were Vikings at his door, begging for explanation, for plan of action.

There was a quick knock on the door, followed by Gobber run-limping his way inside and closing it quickly behind him.

"Stoick, we've got trouble." Gobber said, breathlessly.

"I know."

"You know?" Gobber asked.

"It's Astrid."

"Oh, you do know. Well then, what's the plan?" Gobber asked. "Vikings aren't the type to listen to reason when it's not theirs."

"Yes, I know."

"Oh, here they come. Ah, they look happy." said Gobber, looking wearily out the front door.

Stoick stood and with a leader's hand guided Gobber away from the doorway. Time to get this over with.

"Stoick!" "Stoick!" the crowd cried. There were a dozen murmurs going through it, each Vikings telling their version of the story.

"Quiet down," Stoick roared above the crowd. It silenced. "One at a time."

And as orderly as Vikings could they told Stoick their hasty stories with suspicious and fearful eyes, wide with what could happen, with rumors that surged between the hours and between the correlating stories, with inflated legends and child's tales. The other dragon riders made an appearance, looking through the crowd with as much confusion but with more curiosity.

The stories were all similar. They had seen Astrid Hofferson, but that was impossible because she was dead. With each mounting story the villagers were more fearful, more nervous, more ready to lynch the look-alike. The unknown was equal to danger, and danger was met with axes and shouts. The dead were dead, they all said. How could she suddenly not be dead anymore? Was she a ghost? What should they do? She must be a ghost, a demon, a wraith, impersonalizing the Hofferson girl, using her as a meat puppet to achieve its demonic means. They had to act on this demon before it attacks or does them harm.

"That monster is with your son, Stoick! Aren't you going to act?" Spitelout called from the crowd. There was a murmuring agreement around him. Tuffnut was shouting for blood, the imbecile.

There was a resounding worry over Hiccup's safety.

"My son is fine." Stoick said, hands extended to summon calm and quiet. "I assure you the girl is not a ghost. She is just as alive now as she was before she died."

"But how can that be?" a Viking woman cried out from the crowd. Stoick was about to speak again when he caught the eye of the speaker. Ingrid, Astrid's aunt. She was without the fearful and suspicious hate of those around her. She was weary, desperate for answers.

"That, I can't say." Stoick said. "But believe me, she is Astrid."

Ingrid was in disbelief and shock as the others around her murmured in discontent. Stoick didn't know the words to console the poor woman. After Astrid's parents had died Ingrid and Finn had taken her in as their own. Never having a child of their own, Astrid was theirs to raise. After Finn's untimely death Astrid was all the woman had.

"Do not harm the girl." Stoick warned the crowd. "Get back to your duties. Nothing has changed."

Stoick motioned with his hands to the crowd that reluctantly began to disperse. Gobber hung around, uneasy and commenting that the murmuring crowd would only separate into smaller murmuring crowds. Ingrid however did not leave with the rest.

"Is it her, honest?" She asked. "Why hasn't she come home?"

"I can't answer for her, Ingrid." Stoick said. She looked ten years older than she was. It had been one tragedy after another for her. First, Astrid's parents, who had been dear friends to her and a bother and sister-in-law to her husband, then her husband, and finally Astrid. And now those wounds were being ripped back open with all this talk.

"I saw her, just for a moment, and it did look like her." Ingrid said. "But she was dead, Stoick, I saw her myself. How can she be dead one day and not the next?"

"I truly don't understand." Stoick assured her. "But I have spoken with her. I have looked her in the eye, heard her speak. It is her, Ingrid. Hiccup has spent more time with her than I have and he is sure. If anyone could spot deception in her, then he could."

"He is sure?" Ingrid asked. She looked terrible, heartbroken.

"Yes." Stoick nodded. He held open his front door. "Ingrid, there is stew on the stove. Come inside. Gobber?"

"Oh, sounds fantastic. Smells even better." Gobber said, walking inside after Ingrid. "Hope it tastes as good."

Stoick inhaled deeply as he walked back into his own home. He'd had to explain to parents that their children were dead, never that they had come back to life. In a way it was worse. At least he knew how to handle grieving parents. What should Ingrid feel? Relief? Happiness? It looked as though she felt neither; grief shone on her face, confusion, fear, disbelief, heartbreak.

She felt it too. Someone coming back from the dead wasn't good news. It was strange and abnormal. Which meant other strange and abnormal things were just as possible. And that is what no one wanted to believe.

What was happening on Berk was half a day away from Hiccup and Astrid. They landed on the island, a quarter of Berk's size, built up in dense forests around a volcano. It was a mash of sea stacks that jutted up here and there in violet angles. The soil was rich and prime for life, so many strange green plants grew. Around the volcano a range of jagged mountains pointing upward, ponds and lakes gathering the rainwater that slid down in a curving trail that had been carved from the rocky mountainside. It fell downward in no less than a dozen waterfalls, some a few feet and some taller than a house.

Hiccup's white sandy beach was indeed a very ideal location. The white sand stretched on from a flat arc of land between two jutting cliff faces. On one of the cliff faces the waterfall thrust off its jagged edge and plunged two hundred feet into the ocean below. The sound the rushing water made was rhythmic and soothing, like laying in bed during a rainstorm, the pitter patter of a million drops strumming against the island, everything in a stupor.

They fished and picked a few handfuls of fruit from the island's lush greenery. They steered away from the fruit they didn't know. Hiccup had tried a few and knew which were guaranteed to be safe. They sat out on the beach, Toothless sunbathing and rolling on this back and swatting at the fish in the clear steely shallows.

They both knew that they'd have to go back but neither wanted to talk about it now. It would come eventually and then the worry could be begin. Although neither wanted to admit it, they were both worried. It was impossible not to be.

The sun was on its decent into the waters. Astrid was as comfortable as she could be, laying in Hiccup's arms on a beach. Toothless was snoozing away, dragon-dreams twitching his facial muscles, as if he were chasing something through the air in a daring and exciting race. The wind rustled and the waves pulled away from the sand and crash back, never reaching higher.

Astrid hadn't told Hiccup but she kept hearing the sounds from nothing and the voices from no one. She tried to convince herself that it was all just happenstance, a coincidence. But when do coincidences turn purposeful?

All around her shadows darted this way and that, always just out of her line of sight, always gone when she turned to look. It was like shadows underneath a torch, every where she tried to look they vanished. More and more, the voices and sounds and shadows were joining each other in a horrible performance.

Stoick had said that the dead were crawling through the door trying to get out. What if they had? Then it was all her fault.

But then why could no one else on Berk see them? Were these things happening only to her? regardless of who was with her or where she was or the amount of daylight? She thought she might get used to them but that fear, that terror, of hearing and almost-seeing was taking its toll on her nerves. She was looking over her shoulder, into the shadows, waiting, or else she was trying not to see anything and keeping her head down and her eyes fixed.

Eventually the sun was touching the water, leaking its orange-red golden light onto its surface, stretching from the world's end to the white sand beach. Hiccup sighed. They'd have to go home tonight. There was no getting around it. Sure, they could sleep here and go back tomorrow but that was only delaying their return. They couldn't stay away forever. Better to sneak in under the cover of night than return in broad daylight where everyone could and would see.

He nudged Astrid. She'd been acting strange since that morning, suspicious, like angry Vikings were going to sneak-attack from the shadows. She had her reasons for being weary, and Hiccup understood. He wouldn't press the matter. All he could do was hold her hand and hug her tight, wishing for the best. She was better at the comforting words than he was.

Reluctantly, they started the return trip. Astrid clung tight to him. He was looking ahead, urging Toothless to taking his time and not get there too fast. However, speed was his specialty.

"What's that?" Astrid said in his ear. She was looking down with her cheek resting against his shoulder. She removed her hand from his waist and pointed down.

He followed her pointing finger to a ship-shaped dot on the darkening water.

"A ship?" Hiccup asked. He was suddenly reminded of the last stray ship they'd investigated. "Maybe we should leave it alone."

"There's people moving on it." Astrid said. "I count two."

Hiccup sighed. He was curious just as she was. Besides, this delayed their return. He aimed the dragon for a closer look. It was a ship, alright, with two people on deck. A short man had been looking over the sides, another was at the helm. The man at the helm saw Hiccup first, and put a hand instinctively on the blade at his side.

"Oh, we're not pirates!" Hiccup said quickly.

"Oh, dragon riders." The man at the helm said. He laughed. "I just saw the dragon, and I was ready to fight for my own skin and ship."

Hiccup was relieved, a little. The other man laughed, hands on his hips.

"I heard about these kids that rode dragons but I never thought I'd see one." the short man said. "I'm glad to know it wasn't all legends and stories."

"That must make you from Berk." the man from the helm said.

"I am. How do you know about that?" Hiccup asked.

The men laughed. "Everyone knows about the son of Berk who conquered the mighty Red Death, or Green Death, depending on the storyteller, and trained a Night Fury, and brought peace to his people. It's quite the tavern tale, almost a legend the way some tell it."

"A legend?" Astrid said in Hiccup's ear. He could hear the smile on her lips.

A man came from below deck. His aged face was worn and leathery from a lifetime spent on the water. He walked on the breathing ship like it was standing still.

"Capt'n, this is the boy from Berk who fought the Red Death!" the man at the helm said with a boy's excitement.

The Captain looked at the man at the helm for a moment then turned his gray gaze to Hiccup and Toothless. There was no expression on his face that Hiccup could read. There was nothing of amazement or the slightest wonder, quite different from the two on deck.

"So he is." the Captain said, scanning Hiccup with this gray eyes. They looked over Hiccup's shoulder to Astrid sitting behind him. They squinted, his mouth drawing up into a scowl. He murmured something under his breath. His leather face turned white.

"Captain?" one of the crewmen asked.

"My, what are you still doing here?" the Captain asked, his gray eyes pinned on Astrid, a terrible raw fear spread across his winkled face.

"Excuse me?" Hiccup said, interrupted. But the Captain made gave no notice of him.

"You will bring damnation on us all." The Captain said bluntly, his voice roaring like a sea storm.

Hiccup steered Toothless away. They left the ship in the dark of the sea, the darkness swallowing it whole. He felt Astrid grip around him tighter. There was a shake in her hands that hadn't been there before. Her face was against his shoulder. He tried a few times to start a conversation but she made it clear she wasn't up for talking.

And there's chapter ten! Don't worry, I have a plan to where this story is going. I made an outline before I started writing so there's a plan, with an ending. I just wanted you to know that I'm not making this up as a I go. I'm bad at those stories.

Also, on a side note, the things that Astrid is experiencing are inspired from a game I was obsessed with for a good while, "Fatal Frame". It's a ghost-hunting series that came out a while ago where a heroine somehow gets thrown into the middle of this cursed and severely haunted location where your only weapons against the ghosts is this camera. It's the freakiest thing I've ever seen and that creepy atmosphere was what I was trying to mimic.

Also #2, that other story is being outlined. (Whoo!…?)