And one more dedicated to Kathryn Elwin; many thanks for your excellent suggestions.
Disclaimer: How to Train Your Dragon and all related characters and events belong to Cressida Cowell and DreamWorks Animation.
From Defenders of Berk, Episode 6: Fright of Passage
"Come on, Hiccup! Don't tell me you haven't been dreaming about the Flightmare. Going after it, learning about it, training it."
"Well, you know, Astrid, uh...training dragons isn't the only thing I think about."
"Are you actually saying that to me with a straight face?"
Yeah, I am, actually. There are a lot of things I think about. Like flying dragons...and teaching the village about dragons...and discovering new dragons, even if said new dragons are Changewings who'll try to kill you at every available opportunity. The point is, we train the dragons so we can live with them, so we don't have to fight them or drive them away, so we'll never have to go back to the way things used to be.
Because if you think about it, the way things used to be was pretty bad. It's really easy for you and the others to look back on the war and call it 'the good old days when we fought dragons, and the chief yelled a lot, and Hiccup wasn't a hero, just a talking fish-bone'; I think about those days too, often. But they weren't good times.
We were dying. Slowly, bit by bit, but surely. We put everything we had into fighting the dragons, but we lost more ground than we gained.
And yes, my dad yelled a lot.
Things are different now, aren't they? Most things, at least. I'm not used to having a voice, to having people listening to me; it's annoying that the twins still don't listen to me, but it feels normal. And Snotlout...well, he hasn't changed at all. He probably never will. But everything else changed. My dad doesn't really yell any more, now when he's mad he expects me to help solve the problem. The grown-ups look at me differently: your parents, Gothi, Bucket and Mulch and silent Sven and Mildew and the others. Even Gobber. Even you. Especially you.
And I know what you're thinking, Astrid: you're thinking about how much you think I think about you. Okay, that didn't come out the way I imagined it, but still, that's what this is all about, isn't it? Because you're right. You're in my thoughts every day, Astrid; and then I feel guilty, because Toothless is my best friend, and my dad...well, he's my dad. And everybody at the Academy is my responsibility. I think about them a lot, especially Toothless. But I think about you more than anything else. Is that wrong? And do you think of me as much as I think of you?
I wouldn't mind it if you did; really, I wouldn't.