Disclaimer: Elementary, my dear readers, I don't own HTTYD.
AN: Fallen Angel: Hmm... Longer chapters huh... Challenge Accepted! Also, I already said from the previous story, there will definitely be a part three for this.
jornambre: Good question... I will now list all the things that kept me busy for the past six months... Youtube videos, Dota 2, Dota 2 videos, Skyrim, Skyrim videos, GTA 5, GTA 5 videos, and even more youtube videos...
Arc: The Traveling
Days Given: 20 days
"This Isn't a Dream"
"Astrid"
Huh?
"Astrid dear..."
That voice...
"ASTRID!"
"Waaaah!" Astrid jumped in place as she screamed and opened her eyes while frantically looking around.
"Glad you're awake my dear... I was beginning to think that you were deaf for some odd reason"
"Huh?" Astrid looked around to see where the voice came from but to her confusion everything around her there was... Nothing... Nothing but whiteness. No matter how far she looked, everything was white.
"No need to look so confused, my dear"
"Who are you?" Astrid asked, curiosity filled her when she somewhat recognized the voice
"All shall be answered, my dear. Now, please take a seat so we may start"
"Take a seat?" Astrid looked around once again and noticed the lack of chairs around her "But there's nothing to sit on, well, anywhere"
"Just look in front of you dear"
"In front of..." and to her surprise, there was a wooden chair in front of her that she swore wasn't there before "How did..."
The voice sighed "Can we please get this over with? We don't got all night" the feminine voice now sounded impatient
With nowhere to go, Astrid shrugged and sat down. Instantly, the whole place changed dramatically, gone was the whiteness and replaced with a room filled with trinkets, weapons, shelves, and other things found inside a house. What the place made Astrid even more surprised was the fact that the place looked exactly like hers only it looked older.
"Like it?" said the voice, only this time it was behind her.
Astrid turned her head quickly to the source and found a beautiful woman walking towards the other vacant seat in front of her. The first thing that Astrid noticed about the woman was her eyes, they were pitch black. Even though there was light coming through the window, none of it reflected on her eyes. The next thing Astrid noticed was her wavy black hair. If it wasn't moving around, it would've probably reached the woman's knees. The last thing she noticed though was the fact that the woman looked almost exactly like her albeit older.
"Hello dear... It's nice to see your beautiful face again" The woman said in a melodic voice
"Uhmm... Do I know you?" Astrid asked cautiously
The woman laughed quietly "I'd be surprised if you did. Allow me to introduce myself" she said with a dramatic sweep of her arm "I am Astrallinor Hofferson. You can call me Astral for short, or, you can call me mom. Which ever you are most comfortable with"
"M-mom?!" Astrid stuttered as she stood from her seat hastily and glared at the woman in front of her "You're not my mom!"
Astral didn't even bat an eye as she quickly replied "Correction, I am your mother. Grudge is just reluctant to accept it" she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose "I always worry for that man, thinking that he might do something stupid and or crazy that could cause harm to himself"
Astrid had to blink at that comment. How many times had she said something like that about Hiccup. Astrid shook her head, this woman was not her mother. She slowly sat down back at the chair while still maintaining her glare at Astral
Astral once again sighed as she observed Astrid "Believe it or not, my dear, but I truly am your mother. I mean, you obviously didn't inherit your looks from your father after all"
Astrid thought about it and snickered. It was hard to imagine herself looking like her father.
Astral coughed to get Astrid's attention "Anyways, if you have any questions, you can freely ask and I will answer them as honestly as I can"
"Ok..." Astrid said cautiously "Who are you? I mean, who are you really?"
Astral smiled simply while she once again waved her hand and their surroundings once again changed. Astral and Astrid were still sitting on chairs while they were now in a different place. They were now in what could be a village. Houses of different sizes were around them along with some shops in between. One thing Astrid noticed though was that all of the people around her were women. Not a single man was to be seen at all.
"This is where I was born, forty years ago to be exact. As you may have noticed, all of the villagers are women. All of us are shieldmaidens. Each and every one of us are capable of raiding a ship by ourselves. But like every child, we had our humble beginnings.
Astral smiled sadly when she pointed to a little girl, probably about five years old, holding wooden sword and a makeshift shield made out of wine barrel's bottom part. The girl had her back to Astrid and the only feature she could distinguish was her black hair.
"As you can see, children in our island is already learning how to use a sword and shield. It's not that the adults force them or anything but it's like something inside us. I can't explain it but it's that feeling where all you want to do is grab hold of something and use it as a weapon" Astral explained as best as she could based from her experience when she first held a wooden sword.
Astrid could only nod in agreement. Everything Astral said also happened to her. During her sixth birthday when Grudge decided that she should pick her birthday present. Of all the toys that she could've gotten, she picked a wooden axe, the same one where Hiccup found her training with in the woods when they were ten years old.
Thinking of Hiccup made Astrid think of their future as husband and wife which then made her frown when she thought of something.
"Wait... You said that all of the villagers are women, right?"
"That is correct, my dear"
"Then how do you have children?"
Astral sighed dramatically "That... Is one of our major problems. No matter how much research and experimentation we did, we needed men to reproduce."
"Why not just bring men to the island then? I mean, wouldn't it be easy to just convince some viking tribes to lend some of their men?" Astrid asked, curious
Astral shook her head "That is another problem we have. One of the main rules of the tribe is to never, and I mean never, bring a man to the village. Breaking this rule will cause you your life, along with the man you brought."
Astrid scoffed as she crossed her arms "Well, that's a stupid rule. Who made that up anyway?"
Astral furrowed her brows as she stared at the ground "The first elder, Excellinor, my mother"
Astrid's eyes widened while she waved her arms around "Woah, woah, woah... Wait a minute... Your mother is the first elder? How old is she?"
Astral smiled bitterly "She's so old that even she couldn't remember when she was born"
"How is that possible?" Astrid asked, flabbergasted
Astral shook her head "Even I don't know, my dear. But..."
"But...?"
Astral glared at nothing "This is just a theory but maybe it has something to do with her possessing someone every twenty years or so"
Astrid's eyes widened in alarm at that, remembering something like that happening just a few days ago "Wait a second, what does she look like now?"
Astral's eyes focused "Well... from what I can remember, she was a blonde viking with a freckled face, blue eyes, somewhat red lips. She also had a beautiful figure"
"No way..." Astrid whispered in shock
"What is it, dear?"
"Were you at the wedding?" Astrid asked
Astral furrowed her eyebrows in confusion "I don't what that has to do with any－" she cut herself short as she realized what Astrid meant "Wait, are you saying that that woman who interrupted your wedding was..."
Astrid nodded with conviction "Your mother"
"That explains everything then... I finally understand..."
"Understand what?" Astrid looked confusingly at Astral
Astral shook her head and looked at Astrid with a smile "That is a story for another time because we've lost track"
Astrid sighed "Fine..."
Astral nodded as she continued where she left off earlier "Anyways, where was I? Right, right... Mother was never know to forgive anyone who broke the rules so nobody broke them if it could be helped. So the elders decided that to reproduce, the tribe will send maidens to sea to search for some man worthy enough to help us bear our children"
Astrid rubbed her temples when she once again interrupted her mother "So let me get this straight, so instead of bringing a man to the island, what was it called again?"
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you the name. The island is called Mær island"
"Mær island? Anyways... So instead of bringing men to Mær island, you just go to where men reside and bear your children there? Why are you making things so complicated?"
Astral shrugged her shoulders and made an 'I don't know' noise
"So what happens when the baby is born?"
"Two things actually, when the child is a boy, the Mærian, that is what our tribeswoman is called, will be given another chance to bear a child and to make sure that it's a girl. Then the mother and child will then sail back to Mær island where they will reside for the rest of their lives."
"So that's it? You guys just leave the husband like that? Wait... If that's what supposed to happen then... what about me? Why were we still a family until ten years ago?"
Astral sighed and gazed sadly on the ground, avoiding Astrid's gaze "It's because when it was my turn to leave the island, something happened"
Astral once again waved her arm and the village in front of them vanished and was quickly replaced by a deck of a ship on the open sea. What Astrid immediately noticed was that there was a raging storm and there were huge waves crashing to the ship.
"Where are we?!" Astrid shouted because of the storm
"Don't need to shout dear" Astral said casually and Astrid could hear her clearly "It's just visions"
"But..." Astrid trailed off when she noticed that she could hear herself whisper "So where are we?"
"We are currently on my ship towards Berk. You see, mother was planning in having me having a baby with the current chief in Berk because news spread at Mær that the chief there was a prodigy."
Astrid's eyes widened "You mean..."
Astral nodded "Yes... Stoick the Vast. I was to travel to Berk and court the seduce the chief of Berk to have me as his wife"
"But..."
"But... just watch and you will understand"
Astrid did what she was told and turned her attention towards the only occupant of the ship, a eighteen year old Astral, struggling to keep the ship en route towards Berk during the storm. Just like the present Astral, the young Astral had jet black hair, and eyes as black as void. In fact, the only noticeable difference between the two were their faces since the older Astral had slight wrinkles on her face.
"This is bad..." young Astral muttered to herself "If this storm doesn't stop then I－" before she could finish the sentence, a wooden plank came soaring through the air and hit her right on the head. Before she lost consciousness, she muttered some words in old nordic language and her hair turned blonde while her eyes turned blue.
"Wait... Did you purposely do that incantation?"
Astral shook her head "Surprisingly, no"
Astrid once again turned her head towards where the young Astral laid on the deck of her ship, unconscious. Astrid noted how lucky she was that she didn't get swept away by the waves crashing on the ship.
"How did you know this happened?" Astrid wondered since the younger Astral was obviously unconscious during the whole storm so how did the older Astral knew what happened to herself.
Astral smiled, she obviously anticipated the question, much to Astrid's annoyance since it reminded her of her own actions. "Simple, I just watched the past"
Astral seemed to be full of surprises since Astrid's eyes widen once again. "Y-you could do th-that?!" Astrid asked in astonishment
Astral chuckled "With enough practice, my dear. Normally, it would take an alchemist about ten to fifteen years to be able to master that certain spell. Of course, with me around, we can cut that in quarter the time."
"What do you mean with you around? Are you saying that you're in the ship right now?"
Astral once again smiled knowingly while shaking her head "That I cannot answer as well, for selfish reasons of course. Don't worry my dear, in due time I will tell you all of my secrets. For now, let me continue with my story, ok?"
Astrid sighed as she once again relaxed on her seat "Fine... but I'm still gonna ask some questions"
"I'd be insulted if you didn't. Where was I? Oh, right" with another wave with her arm, the settings changed to a place Astrid was familiar with.
"Wait, this is..."
"Berk" Astral laughed as they watched her younger self washed ashore "I don't know whether I have the best, or worst luck ever considering this was the place I was supposed to go to but with a ship." Astral laughed once again when said ship also washed ashore, in bits and pieces "Behold, my ship. Sometimes, I wonder if I have the power to destroy everything I touch"
Astrid laughed as well. The more time she spent with Astral, the more she understood her personality. She could actually see herself in the woman. Maybe, just maybe, she's not lying after all...
"Ooh ooh!" Astral practically bounced on her seat "This is actually my favorite part"
"What do you me－"
"Sush!" Astral cut Astrid off as she pointed at the distance.
Astrid had to squint her eyes just to see what the woman was talking about. It was only a few moments later when Astrid finally was able to distinguish a person walking towards the area where the younger Astral was lying.
When the person was close enough, Astrid had to rub her eyes to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. He may look thinner and younger but he was definitely her father. With his thick beard, mustache, and eyebrows... For the nth time in her life, Astrid was thankful that she didn't inherit her father's looks. He still had that same glint in his eye that said 'I don't have any clue what I'm doing but I'm still gonna do it because I want to'. Astrid openly laughed when she realized what would probably happen in the next couple of minutes quickly followed by Astral as she also came to the same conclusion as her daughter.
Grudge was just trudging along the shore, looking for something to hit Stoick with, when he came across an unusual sight. The shoreline was full of wood, probably from a boat. But what really caught his attention was the girl lying on the beach. His eyes widened and immediately ran towards the girl. He knelt in front of her and started shaking her shoulder.
"Hey! Are you ok?!" Grudge lifted Astral's head and placed it on his lap. "Can you hear me?!" He then lifted her arm and pinched her bicep.
"Uhmm... What is he doing?" Astrid asked with a raised brow
Astral chuckled a little bit and replied "He was trying to check my pulse. The man might be initiative but I'll be damned to think that he knew what he was doing"
"Odin's ghost..." Grudge paled as he realized that the girl in his hand was in grave danger, in his own understanding that is. "I must take you back to the village quickly!" He then tossed the girl over his shoulder and ran for his dear life "Hold on tight!"
"And that's how I met your father" Astral finished with a sigh
"Woah, woah, woah! Is that it?" Astrid asked incredulously "What about the part where I was born? And why you didn't bring me back to Mær island? And so much more!"
Astral shook her head as she stood up and approached her daughter
"Patience, my dear child. I am upholding my promise that I will tell you everything. Just, not now"
"Why not?"
Astral smiled again as her hand glowed and she placed it on top of Astrid's head "Because it's time for you to wake up"
Astrid gasped as she jolted from her sleep. She turned her head left and right, trying to remember where she was at the moment before collapsing back and releasing a sigh.
Was that all a dream?
AN: Boom! Wow! That was a long arse chapter, now is it? I really had fun writing this chapter so I hope you guys enjoy reading this! Once again, enjoy and review!