Something New

Rating; M for Mature

Parings; HiccupXAstrid, FishlegsXHeather, RuffnutXSnotlout, TuffnutXCamicazi

Disclaimer; I do not own the HTTYD movies, series, or mini-shorts.

Chapter 25

~Normal POV~

Milla was turning five years old today! Hiccup and Astrid were excited, and more so because little Destin was two months old and the happiest little boy in the entire village. Two weeks after Destin's birth-Hiccup sent Spitelout, Buffnut, and Boarlegs out to send word to the other Tribes about it-they of course sent gift back with the emissaries for the child and their congratulations too. There was a party held to celebrate Destin's birth for the whole village in the Great Hall with tons of food and enjoyment for all. People getting to hold Destin, admire him-and even the other chieftains came out for a few days to see him too. That was a good day all over and now it was time for Milla's party, everyone was waiting to enjoy the party which was to be held later on around dinner time. Astrid, Anya, Sylvia, Stilsta, and Britta were all working with some of the guys on the party while Hiccup was working on still storing food.

The twins would be turning sixteen in two more months-about a week before Snoggletog, then Hiccup and Astrid turning twenty five three month later when harsh Winter would be ending. Hiccup had anyone not doing a specific 'prepare for Winter' job-working on the birthday party for Milla, it would be her first one on Berk and everything one excited to celebrate the first blood Heir's fifth birthday all together. It brought Hiccup a good feeling. They'd been on Berk for six months since he made his choice to take over as chief there-still one of the best decisions he'd ever made. Every choice he made since shooting down Toothless had been great and led to something more amazing than the moment before. Peace with dragons, married with kids, had his father in his life, was living on Berk with it all-nothing beat it.

The time of day was just after lunch, Hiccup working on storing all the things brought in the day before with a few others. There was a lot more work for him being chief of Berk but only because there were more people to handle and Berk was a little bigger than Cloud Rider Isle was. More to manage and take care of-it had it's fair share of frustrations and stresses, Hiccup had passed out once or twice due to it piling up and sadly what caused all that was just villagers fighting with one another and Hiccup made it clear if anyone else fought instead of coming to see him or sorting it civilly he would assign them to wild dragon wrangling in the forest. This was a task no one wanted because well, they were wild dragons and no one but Astrid, Eret, and Hiccup were trained for it.

Eret was still lead trainer but Hiccup was the head trainer and in charge of wrangling the dragons to the academy-which was the old kill ring. Hiccup and Eret would train them, and then both be present for bonding and flying-Eret would handle the flier classes after the bonding process. Eret continued to train the dragons when class wasn't in session, teaching them verbal commands that the student would know to give-but Hiccup wouldn't allow them to learn how to train the dragons. He didn't want the information getting out-not ever since Madguts admitted to eavesdropping on Gobber, Astrid, and Hiccup and learned who they really were. The truth he knew about dragons, how to train them, he trusted that with a few people. Not even the old Skywing members knew. Hiccup, Astrid, Eret, Viggo, Ryker, Tore, and Hagen knew. That was it. There wasn't a lot of training to be done because some were still hesitant to riding dragons-it was a lot to suddenly accept into an every day life.

Hiccup didn't blame them, he knew it would take time to adjust to having the dragons around-but also, there was another factor. The dragon raids. Unfortunately, as good as Hiccup was-he couldn't stop them all. Having Toothless now helped out but it still didn't stop them from coming back. Something else was going on, Hiccup was sure about it after watching the raids over and over again the last six months. He observed them, and helped out of course-it was his job as chief to protect the village. Hiccup would figure out the answer, he just needed a clue, something he could follow and investigate. That was his main focus right now-but there were still other duties he had to take care of, he couldn't shirk them over raids. One of today's biggest jobs was Milla's birthday party-he wouldn't ruin that.

It was odd-in this sense involving raids, Hiccup was like his father now. Wanting to find the source of the problem and end the raids but Hiccup didn't want to kill them. He wasn't a dragon killer-he knew he wasn't. He wouldn't worry about it right now, there was too many other things to worry about with bad Winter starting in two months. Honestly, today he was starting to feel sick but didn't know why. That was all he needed right now...Not. Hiccup bent over and moved another crate to the shelf, he panted a bit putting a hand to his forehead, he could tell he was running a fever or maybe that was because he'd been working in the underground store house for three hours by himself moving and organizing thing.

"Ugh...Gods, I hate this." he groaned to himself closing his eyes, Toothless was lying down there with him on the ground watching his rider do all this work. Toothless crooned softly to him, "I'm okay bud...just a little tired," Hiccup rubbed Toothless's head slowly. Hiccup went to move another box but stopped a moment, he put a hand over his stomach and forced back throwing up, it happened again as he found an empty bucket and threw up in that-coughing hard and gagging a bit. Toothless was beside him instantly, worried again. Hiccup wiped his mouth after ten minutes and just flopped back against the wall panting a bit. Toothless didn't like how sick his friend was so he took action.

Toothless growled a bit as he climbed up the ramp to the main store house above, he exited and looked around for anyone who could help-in a stroke of luck he saw Viggo and Ryker walking together and their dragons beside them. Toothless let out a roar to get their attention, the dragons stopped-consequently stopping the Grimborn brothers as well.

"Toothless?" Ryker asked, "Where's Hiccup?" Toothless gave a worried warble and motioned with his head inside the store house, they followed him down to where Hiccup was-seeing him against the wall holding his arms and shivering almost, trying to keep from throwing up it looked like.

"Chief, are ya alright?" Viggo asked.

"Yeah, I'm...fine..." he coughed out as Toothless smacked Hiccup in the head with his tail and huffed shaking his head so the brothers would know he wasn't okay.

"You're sick, chief. Come on, let's get you home. I can finish things in here for you-I'm done with my duties for the day," Viggo offered.

"No, it's...m-my job..." Hiccup argued.

"It's your job to be at your strongest and healthiest to protect us, it's our job to make sure you can do just that. You need to rest for awhile-you've been going nonstop for days," Ryker informed. "And you don't wanna be sick for Milla's party, do you?" Hiccup sighed, that was right. It was in just a few hours around dinner time, he did feel terrible and was tried. Maybe a little time sleeping would make him feel better. Finally, he just nodded to them as they helped him up slow and out of the store cave, then the store house and taking him to his house. Astrid wasn't home, no one was so it would give him time to rest up.

"Don't worry about a thing chief, we got it. You focus on you for once," Viggo told him, Hiccup nodded again as the two left him in the house alone with Toothless. Hiccup went upstairs to his room and took off his cloak, armor, and boots before lying on the bed and instantly falling asleep about two minutes after.

(Dinner Time)

Being the party was tonight, dinner was held as a Tribe in the Great Hall so that is where everyone was gathering right now. Astrid was already there with the kids, most of the Tribe was in there too-except for Hiccup. He was still at home sleeping or attempting to sleep off the sickness he seemed to of contracted from Thor only knew where. An hour after falling asleep, he threw up a few more times. He laid awake for a good twenty minutes before throwing up again, he was considering going to see Gothi or Eydis about it but couldn't really move without wanting to hurl so he stayed put in bed. In the hall, everyone had arrived there-last to enter was Viggo and Ryker where Astrid hurried over to them to ask if they knew where Hiccup was. After all, Viggo was Hiccup's second in command, he had to know where he was, right?

"Viggo, where's Hiccup?" Astrid inquired softly.

"Oh, he should still be at home my chieftess. We took him there shortly after lunch because he was sick." Ryker told her gently.

"Sick? How sick?" Stoick asked now coming beside Astrid.

"From what we saw, shivering, feverish, and throwing up. We don't know how bad it is, Toothless is the one who got our attention and brought us into the underground store house to find Hiccup sitting on the floor against the wall with his hands over his stomach. We took him home and told him to get some sleep," Viggo replied with the full explanation now.

"I'll go see how he's feeling," Astrid said as she adjusted Destin in her arms then left the hall and walked across to get to their house. Getting inside, she moved up the stairs and saw Hiccup in the bedroom lying down on the best. Of course when Hiccup heard the door open, he sat up slightly. "Hey...how are you feeling, babe?"

"Better than before. Haven't thrown up in two hours, got a little sleep..." he answered with a yawn.

"Feel up to joining the party?" Astrid asked softly.

"It's that time already?" Hiccup asked while putting his legs over the side of the bed and coughed a few times as Astrid nodded to him. "Well, I don't think I'd be a good father if I didn't show up for my own daughter's birthday party." he tried to chuckle some but his stomach still hurt. Finally he got to his feet and stretched some while heading to the washroom to splash his face and wake up a little more. After all that was done, he gave his wife a smile and they exited the room, then the house after going down the stairs together and going over to the hall where everyone was waiting.

"Son, how do you feel?" Stoick asked.

"Mind your distance so you don't get sick, Dad..." Hiccup told him and Stoick nodded. Milla rushed over to hug him, completely unaware he was sick too so she slammed into him hard and he fought throwing up again, he got lower and hugged her back. "Happy Birthday, princess." he said after catching his breath.

"Thank you, Daddy." Milla giggled lightly as she kissed his cheek, then pulled back and frowned some. "Your cheek is warm...are you sick, Daddy?"

"A little-but not too sick to miss my little's girl's party. Go run along and play now, I don't want you getting sick too." Hiccup smiled at her as she nodded and hurried off to keep playing with Signy-who was technically her half aunt and younger than Milla. Pretty comical concept in truth. Hiccup got to his feet and looked around, nothing could beat this for sure. Now that he had arrived, the party started with light music and people eating. The kids were all running around happily and stopping at their tables to eat bites in between. Hiccup took a few bites of his own food-then stopped when he felt like puking again. Of anything else he hated, being sick was one of them.

(Hour Later)

Everyone was having a good time in the hall for the party, Hiccup stayed pretty quiet and in his seat watching it all. He was tired and wanted to go back to sleep-but he wouldn't miss his daughter's party, he couldn't and wouldn't allow himself too. She'd gotten a lot of toys and clothes so far-but the night was far from over. Hiccup closed his eyes and took a deep breath, when he opened them again-Milla was beside him smiling wide.

"Hi princess, having fun?" Hiccup smiled at her.

"Yes, Daddy. I wanted to ask you something," she paused a moment as Hiccup leaned closer to her, "Can I dance with you?" Hiccup chuckled a bit and nodded as he got up slowly and took her hand and led her towards the somewhat center of the room. Hiccup bent a little and picked her up in his arms as they slowly started dancing. Astrid's heart just about melted watching the scene of Hiccup dancing with their only daughter. She was his princess, and definitely a Daddy's girl. Milla was almost the spitting image of Hiccup, even her eyes had more green than the blue and her personality was his: kind, caring, strong willed, inventive, curious. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, baby girl." Hiccup replied as she laid her head on his chest and he smiled. How could he get more blessed than this right here? He couldn't be. This was perfection in his eyes. Good home and Tribe. Amazing wife and children. He loved it all. The dance went on for about five minutes before they rubbed noses and hugged tightly-then he put her down and she ran to continue playing. Hiccup chuckled some as he went to go sit down again-but a noise stopped him and he looked towards the doors to listen closer, putting a hand up to make everyone be quiet. Hiccup moved to the door and opened it to see dragons flying around, raiding. "I so don't need this tonight. Everyone stay inside, Toothless, let's go bud." Toothless darted over to him as Hiccup climbed on his back.

"You're not gonna handle it alone are you?" Astrid asked with worry.

"I'm the only one who can, babe. Viggo, Eret, Ryker...grab your dragons-time to corral them and send them off." Hiccup ordered.

"Yes chief!" they replied as they stepped outside and gave a whistle to their dragons-who in turn rushed over at the call. With everyone mounted up, they too to the sky.

"Viggo, take North. Ryker-South. Eret-East. I got West. Circle formation," Hiccup called out. They nodded and headed to their respected spot beginning to do what they had to in order to group the dragons together and having them flying in a circle. When that was done half an hour later, Hiccup hovered in the center of the circle as Toothless began to glow blue and let out a massive roar, the dragons broke the circle and began flying towards the West-all of them did and it got Hiccup thinking about it. 'Why do they all go one place?...I wonder...' Making a decision last minute-he landed by the hall.

"Made quick work of that, son. Well done," Stoick smiled.

"Viggo, you're in charge until I get back." Hiccup suddenly said as it fell somewhat quiet wondering where he planning to go.

"Hiccup, where are you going?" Astrid asked him.

"I'm gonna take Toothless and follow the dragons-see what I can find. They all went that way, if I can follow them-maybe I figure out what's causing the raids. Toothless is the fastest and can blend in with the night sky, this is my chance to get to the bottom of why the raids happen-I'm taking it. I should be back by morning. Viggo is in charge until I return." Hiccup said.

"But you're sick, Dad..." Tore pointed out.

"My chiefing and protecting the village takes top priority boys-you'll understand that one day." Hiccup said firmly. Now he looked back to his wife and offered a smile, "This could be my chance to find out what's causing raids, Astrid. I have to take it. I promise I won't be gone long..."

"Alright, just...be safe. Please?" Astrid pleaded, Hiccup nodded as he kissed her cheek, then Destin's forehead. He kissed Milla's cheek, and following that was the top of Tore's and Hagen's heads.

"Love you," he told them as Astrid smiled.

"I love you too." she replied.

"Love you, Dad." Tore, Hagen, and Milla smiled to him. Hiccup patted Toothless's neck and the dragon crooned at him as he spread his wings and took to the sky-heading West and following the pack of thirty dragons.

(Flying With Toothless)

He had been flying close to two hours since leaving Berk, on Toothless it was easy because they really just glided on the wind rather than fly. They were staying about a mile behind the pack of dragons, and closing in on a lot of fog around them. Suddenly the dragons began to dive down-and Hiccup already noticed they were surrounded by others who hadn't been in the pack, some with kills or things they had taken when raiding other islands. Hiccup leaned forward to keep himself against Toothless in an attempt to blend in with him so the other dragons wouldn't notice him. Hiccup looked closely ahead of them to see a massive volcano island in front of them.

"It's the nest..." he whispered as Toothless crooned in response, giving an affirmative nod. Hiccup was confused a moment, did Toothless know about this? It would make sense, Hiccup shot him down during a raid-this must be the nest then. Toothless flew in following the dragons there, "Dad would never have found this place by ship, it's an air entrance..." he said to no one in particular. His father searched for the nest countless times, he never found it because of all the fog surrounding the island-it wasn't really fog, it was ash and smoke from the volcano. Something Hiccup did notice that seemed off was the amount of ships docked there, did human live here?

Toothless followed the dragons in through the narrow caves, and then they exited into what appeared to be the heart of the island-where the carona of the volcano rested. Hiccup saw a lot more than he expected to aside from dragons. He saw people, Vikings lived here. Toothless landed on a high point and the two of them looked down to observe what they could. There were...small caves-like what he had on Cloud Rider Isle. Looking farther down, there was something sitting in the lava but too much smoke to see it clearly. Hiccup noticed the dragons were dropping all the food down the hole.

"Satisfying to know everything is being dropping into a fiery pit..." he mumbled quietly. One of the final dragons to fly in was a Gronckle-it coughed up a single fish and dropped it down. A roar was heard as the other dragons seemed to wince in fear and back up out of sight. Toothless did too, something big was down there-Hiccup could feel it. The Gronckle looked down as a massive head emerged and bit over the Gronckle with it's massive jaws. Hiccup's eyes widened, right away he saw the head frill, the three eyes on each side of it's head. This thing was massive! The dragon just ate the Gronckle in one bite. Hiccup couldn't believe it.

"That's it, defeat those weaker..." came a deep voice, Hiccup looked quickly to see a man standing on a ledge by the dragon's head at it's level. "You and I will conquer this world, all Vikings will bow and fear us my pet. As long as I have you, they'll never laugh at Drago Bludvist again." the man laughed. Hiccup watched as the man lowered his hand and the dragon did as it was told. Now it made sense to him what was going on: the dragons raided because they were forced to by this what appeared to be an alpha dragon of the nest. And the dragon took orders from this man who called himself Drago Bludvist. He was the cause of everything, he wanted to conquer people-wanted revenge. This whole island was this man's base.

"We need to tell the others about this, Toothless..." Hiccup whispered, suddenly the dragon's eyes narrowed and it began to sniff around before rising and taking a snap at the ledge Hiccup and Toothless were sitting on. "Come on, we gotta get outta here!" he urged his dragon as it took to the sky. The other dragons got scared and began to take off and leave the nest. "Go bud, go!" he pleaded. Toothless shot out following the dragons and started back for Berk.

(Berk: An Hour Later)

Everyone was still in the Great Hall. The time was only 9pm, and the party ending very soon. Hiccup got to the hall and walked inside with Toothless following him.

"Hiccup, you're back!" Astrid said quickly rushing over to him but as she neared him she saw his displeased and concerned face. "What is it, what's wrong?"

"Did you find what you were looking for, chief?" asked Ryker.

"Oh, I did. I found the nest." everyone gasped-now all attention on him, "And I'm not lying when I say we have a colossal problem on our hands." Hiccup stated-still trying to recover from the shock of everything he had seen at the nest. There was a vengeful man commanding a colossal dragon who controlled the other dragons. The only way to stop the raids was to defeat this dragon and capture the man, Hiccup knew that right away-but his question remained as to if he could. This was going to take some serious planning.