Quick shout out: TNT from the chapter before decided to write their story! I recommend it! It can be found here, for those who are interested- s/10564343/1/A-Red-Death-Tragedy-Story

On to the story. Enjoy!

Weighing just barely 5 pounds, their baby girl was the tiniest little human either parent had ever seen. Even at birth their girl had a short mop of curly brown hair, frizzed up and wild, twisting around her ears and eyes. Fingers stretched and curled, even as the baby slept, and tiny yawns escaped her mouth like bubbles from water.

After timeless minutes spent in thoughtless wonder, the father's tentative hand reached over to stroke his baby's cheek. As Hiccup brushed his child's soft skin, the girl gave a gentle whine and his breathe caught in his throat.

"Wow," he said, his voice a faint whisper. "Just... Wow. She's real. I can't believe she's real."

His eyes flickered up to his wife, and he watched as Astrid gazed down at their girl, tears brimming in her eyes and a smile plastered on her face. The mother had no words.

They named her Eira Abigail Haddock.

Her name was powerful and rich in tradition, preparing the girl to carve a path into history. Her first name was a sign of honor to Eir, goddess of healing and mercy, while her middle name had once belonged to Astrid's mother, one of the strongest, fiercest warriors Berk had ever seen.

While the parents had been dumbstruck with their newborn, Camille had snuck from the room. No one had noticed the assistant's departure, but the tired, giddy laugh that came from Valka when Camille led her in signaled her return. The new mother and grandmother locked eyes from across the room, and then their gazes shifted to each other's cradled arms. While Valka's eyes never moved from her infant granddaughter, Astrid's flicked from the Night Fury egg to Valka to her husband and finally back to the egg.

"Oh Gods," the girl groaned, though she was smiling. "Is that what I think it is?" The chieftess's head fell back in exhaustion, but she couldn't hide the laughter escaping from her chest. "Oh Gods," she repeated. "Two babies. Two!"

And so their family grew.

Astrid spent the next few months of her life hardwired, letting the slightest sound of discontent from her baby send her spiraling into a fit of stress. The smallest whimper had her on her toes, and should Eira start to cry, Gods help her, she would move mountains to make the tears stop.

Hiccup was a hair-brained mess from overwork in his new double position as chief and father. The combined weight of his new responsibilities left him sleepless and mindless most days.

But through the worries and the work, the new parents had no complaints. Because seeing their girl learn and grow was the greatest gift the Gods had ever given them.

The first few month, Eira spent most of her time sleeping and eating, curled up tight into her mother's chest for warmth. Astrid would have had it no other way- she was rarely willing to set the girl down, and when she did, she would only let the baby leave her sight if she knew that Hiccup or Valka was holding her.

That time passed in a blur, and soon Eira had seen 3 months of life. Her crying came less frequently and, much to her parents' relief, and she began to favor high pitched giggles instead, warm like fire and bright like the moon. Her eyes, blue and knowing, were awake now, interested and learning, rather than a sleepy blur.

At six months, Eira was a quiet but intelligent child, with a mess of thick brown curls that fell to the length of her shoulders. When her parents or grandmother were in the room, the girl would give a content smile, as if she knew she was safe. She would babble occasionally, in soft gentle bursts, but seemed more intent on exploring than talking. Words were of no priority when there was such a large world to be seen! With swift bursts of energy, the girl would twist off and crawl away to explore the manor without a sound.

This habit was, of course, terrifying. On three separate occasions, both parents had flown into a frantic search to find their child, only to have Toothless carry her into the room with her clothes gripped gently into the room in his teeth. Eira would laugh and laugh as she dangled like a kitten from her father's best friend's mouth, her tiny fists waving in joy. The fourth escape attempt came when Eira was 8 months old, and it had been her farthest adventure yet. Eira had managed to wander outside this time, past the front yard.

Astrid was at her wits ends. Once again she took the chubby cheeked bundle of giggles from Toothless's mouth and collapsed into one of the couches in their main hall. Even as they had just begun to sit, Eira was squirming, trying to wriggle free of her mother's arms.

"Why are you doing this to me, girl?" Astrid muttered, frowning down at the struggling child. "How do you keep getting out? You're driving me crazy!" At the sound of her mother's voice, Eira stopped struggling and turned to look at her. The baby gave a happy coo and reached up to brush her mother's face with a tiny hand. Astrid smiled down at her and gripped her into a hug. She wasn't mad, of course. She could never really be mad at Eira. But sometimes she just got so scared and worried at she didn't know what to do with herself.

"What's the matter?" Hiccup asked as he entered the room. His eyes were blurry from sleep loss, and his face was troubled. In his arms he cradled the Night Fury egg- still unchanged, unhatched. The egg had been another mystery in their lives- it hadn't changed and they didn't know what to do. Toothless was young and male- he had no inherent knowledge on how to care for an egg. Hiccup had been leaving it with other mother dragons, to see if their presence would have an effect, but nothing seemed to work. It remained unchanged- as lifeless as a rock.

However, the weariness in Astrid's eyes told him they had another problem to deal with. "Eira crawled away. Again." Hiccup's shoulder's slumped. "She got outside the house this time."

"What?" A frantic light sparked into his eyes. "How?"

Astrid shook her head slowly. "I don't know. She was in the main hall. The doors were all closed, and I only turned away for a second. And when I turned around, she was gone! I just don't understand how she keeps getting out."

A tired breath escaped the young chief as he collapsed tiredly onto the couch beside his small family. "Odin help us," he said with a tired shrug. "She's certainly a handful."

And as he spoke these words, Eira began to wriggle again, trying to free her self from her mother's arms. "Eira, please," Astrid cooed downward, her voice airy like a breeze through the ocean waves. "Just be still for a few minutes."

"Here," Hiccup said, taking pity on his over-stressed wife. "I can take her."

But as he reached out his arms to grab her, his lap became unstable, and suddenly the egg rocked and wobbled onto the floor, landing with a solid thud.

Both parents stared at it in shock.

Astrid pulled Eira back into her arms, and Hiccup reached down to look at the egg. His chest was heavy and when he picked it up to look at it, his heart sank.

"Gods be damned," he muttered, his voice a lost whisper, edged with quiet despair.

"It's cracked."

Near the beginning of the story, I had a reader ask me to name the child Abigail, after her close friend who was a huge fan, and then shortly after a reader named Abbey kept writing reviews (the same, infamous friend?!). Regardless, I had already picked Eira as a first name, but didn't have a middle name decided. And Abigail seemed fitting. So here we are!

This story is drawing near an end (two or so more chapters, I believe) and when it's finished, I'll probably have a few questions for you guys, so I can get some feedback to improve my writing.

But for now: let me know what you thought of this chapter!