"Stoick!" Gobber burst in the chief's house. "Stoick, look, you have to see this, just have to, look what I found!" He shoved a sheaf of papers under the chief's nose. He shook them.

Stoick took them from Gobber and flipped through them. They all showed the same dragon, and in one, Hiccup was even riding the creature. Stoick's face first went white, then red.

It stayed on red. "Find the boy," Stoick told Gobber. "We have to find him. Send out ships, search the whole of Berk again. I…I don't see why he would even do this."

And Gobber, who knew Hiccup better than anyone, understood. He understood why Hiccup ran away, he understood now hearing the boy mutter in his backroom in the smithy. He understood the boy looking for a dragon.

He understood it, even if he didn't particularly like it.

The boy was lonely.

That's why he'd run with the dragon.

The boy was upset.

That's why he'd run in the first place.

But the part Gobber didn't understand was the feeling he was still waiting to crop up in Hiccup. Anger.

Shouldn't Hiccup be feeling nothing short of rage at Berk?

The villagers had caused him nothing but pain and yet…was he still just upset?

Had he realized it wasn't him that brought on the teasing and name-calling? Hadn't he realized it was the village's fault, not his?

Wasn't he furious?

When Gobber left the house, he found Astrid waiting for him at the forge.

She was spinning her axe in one small, long-fingered hand and when she saw him, she set it down. "Can I…can I get my axe sharpened?"

Gobber saw through her very transparent excuse and knew she just wanted to talk. "What happened?"

"I…Hiccup. He came back."

"What?" The axe tumbled from Gobber's hand and he quickly snatched it up before it scuffed the floor. "What are you talking about?"

"Hiccup. He came back, Gobber, and…and…" Astrid put a hand on her forehead, over her blonde bangs. "He was talking to me about how dragons aren't so bad, and…and…" And suddenly Astrid trailed off again. Because she wasn't going to betray his secret. Throughout it all, she realized there was still a small dollop of loyalty left between them, and she couldn't bring herself to break it.

She couldn't tell Gobber about the dragon. She could tell him about how the boy had had claims of dragons being okay, really, but did she have to tell him the sort of company Hiccup was choosing to keep at this moment?

"What he was spewing was all lies or fairy tales, of course, but I couldn't help but just let him lie, you know?"

Gobber nodded. "I know, Astrid."

There was silence.

"Where is he now?"

"He left," she explained. "There's no chance of finding him…he left in a different way." The only ways Vikings knew how to travel were on foot and by sea.

"Astrid." Gobber handed her back her metal blade. "You can cut the crap. I know about the dragon. I know Hiccup ran away with one." He was holding her gaze, and she sensed he'd only said this because he was waiting for her to confirm it for them.

She shook out her hair. "You do?"

"Yeah," Gobber replied. "I was hoping it was a lie, a lie made up by a paranoid old man, but…it wasn't. Apparently."

His mouth dragged down at the corners.

Astrid shoved her hair away from her face. "I know."

There was a few minutes of silence between the two, and Astrid finally broke the ice. "Does Stoick know?"

"About Hiccup being on the run with a dragon? Definitely not for sure. I'll have to tell him."

"Wait!" Astrid said. "No, you can't."

"Why not?"

"Because…because—Astrid struggled to think of a reason, but came up empty. The best she could think of was, what if Stoick kills the thing?

Why would she care?

A/N: What do you think? Is Astrid OOC? I think she is :(

But Gobber, I think, is well IC :D

Well, I definitely know where this story is going now and it's heavy. It's going to be VERY sad, the ending is, so please don't continue if you don't like getting depressed :P