Author's Note: Special thanks to DeadlyBagel, who looked over the last three chapters in this story at my request, and helped ensure that the end wasn't an anticlimactic letdown. This story was my attempt at self-editing without a beta reader, and for the most part I'm happy with my improvement in that department, but some things are too important to let slide, and the ending of a story is certainly one of those things.
"What now?"
The moment of indecision had passed. Stoick had decided that he could work with the person Astrid was now. The important question raised by this whole encounter with Thunderguts had been answered.
That did leave what Astrid had asked, one hand supporting Toothless, if only a little, and the other on her holstered ax. What now?
That question also applied to several things. Thunderguts, Chief of the Windy Isle tribe, which made up at least half of the Vikings at the nest, was dead, and he had not been killed in the battle. That would have consequences.
It also applied to the entire situation. The ice, miraculously enough, still had not set in, and the supply ship was coming. Would they stay here and rough it, as had been planned, or would they risk trying to get back to Berk while the freakishly lucky weather lasted?
Both of those questions would be answered by Stoick, which was why Astrid was asking him. He was in charge, and she also felt that asking him would reassure him that she really did still look to him for leadership.
Stoick looked down at Thunderguts' dead body. "We do what any Viking would do, and yell what Thunderguts planned to do across the whole island. After, of course, we get our forces together."
Another, even bloodier battle, fought in the midst of the destruction caused by the last one? Astrid could think of nothing worse than that. "Or you could forget about all of this and let me handle it." Stoick knew she would be able to do what he could not. She could hide the bodies and lie, pretending Thunderguts and his men had just disappeared.
"Or we could compromise," Stoick offered, wincing at her suggestion and what it entailed. "Announce the truth, but not until I have men in good positions, so good that there is no way Thunderguts' people will stand a chance. Whether they fight anyway or decide to live another day and return to their families will be their decision."
That would be good. At best, an uneasy truce, and at worst, Berk would not lose many more of its people. "Deal. After the smoke lifts?"
"Nobody will be able to find the bodies until then if we move them a little further inland," Stoick reasoned. "We can postpone everything until then."
Astrid nodded. "You'll be doing the dragging," she admitted. "Toothless is in no condition to help, and I'm not going to be able to either." These five Vikings, especially Thunderguts, were massive, and promised to be extremely heavy. Besides, she was battered and bruised.
"Aye, I know." Stoick gestured down the beach. "Go join the other injured. Keep the dragon close, and don't let down your guard. I'll handle the rest."
"Got it, Chief." Astrid slowly turned with Toothless, knowing her help was still minimal but offering it anyway, and they started down the beach. It was going to be a long walk, and a long day.
The rest of that day passed slowly. Astrid and Toothless lay on the desolate beach, sitting off to the side of the other injured, both for their peace of mind and hers. She could tolerate the pained groans and moans of the wounded, most of whom were burned, many severely, but she would rather not be right there among them.
She had checked the ranks of the injured when they arrived. Her mother was there, asleep with a small burn across her chest, but her father was not to be found. He was either uninjured, lost in the smoke, or dead, and she did not know which. She could only watch the hazy cloud of smoke and wait.
Said smoke was slowly drifting up and out to sea, but it was such a massive cloud that it was not gone by the time night fell, hastened by the ever-present fog that clouded over the entire maze.
That fog was still a mystery. Astrid leaned up against Toothless, staring up into the blank night sky. Did the sun ever shine on this place, or did the fog always block it, like it was blocking the stars right now? She didn't know, and given how Winter went in the archipelago, even a few months here might not really answer that question. They did not often see the sun in the Winter.
Eventually, Stoick came out of the smoke, following the coast. He began talking to certain, less injured Vikings, all from Berk. Each one showed no real sign of anticipating further battle, but they all cast around for and retrieved their weapons. As the night passed, the remnants of Berk's forces regrouped and then dispersed, mingling in the crowd of wounded.
An angry yell woke Astrid. She tried to sit up, only to find that Toothless's head was across her lap. He was still soundly asleep. She did not force him to wake, trying to make sense of what she had heard. If it was just some random person yelling as a broken bone was splinted or a burn was accidentally mishandled, she could go back to sleep.
"Our Chief was murdered!"
No, not just some random outburst. She reluctantly woke Toothless, scratching behind his ears and talking to him. "Up, things might be getting serious." She knew he was an alert predator, and even now that was enough. It would be enough to wake most human warriors, when they were sleeping in potentially unfriendly territory. She was pretty sure Toothless was fast enough to turn on and kill any attacker before they could get a second blow in, even if the first was taken while he was asleep.
Sure enough, his eyes slid open almost immediately. He shifted, letting her sit up.
She did, looking around. It was still night, or maybe early morning. The smoke cloud seemed to be more or less gone.
And there were three limping Windy Isle Vikings causing a commotion, shouting about how their Chief had been murdered.
Stoick stepped in almost as soon as Astrid located the ones spreading the news, literally stepping up beside them, clearly wary of their weapons, like he was expecting an attack from them. Which he very likely was.
"Yes, he is dead." Stoick was yelling at the top of his lungs. "After trying to kidnap one of our wounded warriors! They fought back, and he fell. I will not say who he attacked," and at that Stoick glared at the entire crowd, Berkians and Windy Isle Vikings alike, "and I will not tolerate fighting here. We came as allies, and that will not change here."
That was... an interesting way of looking at it, actually. By those words, Stoick was basically promising that he'd let the Windy Isle Vikings go home whenever that was an option, instead of taking advantage of their lack of leadership to take control.
Berkians all through the crowd of injured Vikings lifted weapons, caught the eyes of the Windy Isle Vikings around them, and then deliberately put them down, out of hand but not out of reach.
That was what Stoick had been setting up. A message, sent in a very Viking way. Fighting would not be allowed, but if it was, the Berkians were not going to lose.
But the Windy Isle Vikings were not pushovers. Angry, persistent muttering began to weave its way through the crowd, even as dawn, grey and cold though it was, began to arrive, the world slowly fading out of darkness.
Astrid was pretty sure nothing would come of the dissent she could hear. Thunderguts had been such a powerful leader, and he had no obvious second in command. From the very little she had heard from Helga on the subject, he had kept many advisors, some of which were likely dead, others still missing, and a few scattered throughout this crowd, injured or tending to injured. Nobody was going to lead some charge of vengeance anytime soon.
Another thing nobody was going to do soon was eat. Food was far too scarce. As for water… There was a small amount of water, purifying contraptions set up a bit further down the beach, large kettles of seawater being boiled by fires fueled from pieces of driftwood, the clean steam rising from the pot to be caught and condense in a tarp over the pots, and destined to drop down into various containers. It was nowhere near enough for all of them long-term, but it would be enough until the supply ship arrived, laden with, among other things, far more similar contraptions to increase water production, and stores of ready-to-drink well water from Berk. Ideally, they would also get around to digging wells here, too.
All assuming Stoick did not decide to ready the ships and test their luck to the utmost, betting on this uncommonly late first freeze to stay away for another week as they sailed home. That would be the risky move, for sure.
As the world became about as light as it was going to get, the sky as cloudy as it always was here, Stoick made another announcement. "All who are able, scour the area covered by smoke yesterday. We need to ensure there are no more survivors out there, waiting for help."
That was what those three Windy Isle Vikings had probably been doing, but now the search was rejoined in earnest.
Astrid felt a sudden desire to find her father, who was still missing. But she did not trust anyone enough to task them with guarding Toothless, and she definitely didn't trust the crowd around her to leave him alone while she was gone.
"I want to find my father," she whispered, "but I can't leave you. Feel like taking a walk?" She would not convey that in gestures, not even as a request. It was a half-thought-through desire, not a plan. If Toothless did not stir, or otherwise declined, she would not press it, even if that only meant he had not understood what she was asking.
But from the way he looked up at her, judging his options, she knew he understood. So, when he stood with a groan, still favoring his now heavily bandaged and immobilized leg, they both knew where they were going.
It was a long walk, though this time Toothless did not stop for breaks every so often, moving slowly but steadily. They joined the dozens of other searchers combing the chaotic section of beach.
Burned and broken stakes littered the area. There were a few cooled lava slicks, places where lava had spurted from the collapsing mountain. Abandoned weaponry and armor was everywhere... and there were bodies. Not so many, but enough that Astrid did not want to look too closely at any glint of metal that took the shape of armor or clothing, knowing that it might contain dead and burned flesh. She forced herself to look anyway, to discern that the one within was not still living.
Anyone out here would have spent the day and the night in the smoke, unable to find anything, or unable to move. They would be miserable, possibly dying or unconscious. Those few shouts of surprise when someone living was found in the rubble were all too rare.
And interspersed throughout all of it, the aspect making this truly difficult, were large chunks of scale, ranging from the size of a chestplate to the size of a Yak, scattered everywhere, the remnants of that powerful coat of natural armor the Green Death had possessed.
Astrid noted, with a grim feeling of satisfaction, that the scales, while differing in thickness, were all far too thick for one of those bolts from the ballista to even go all the way through. The eyes really had been the only good way to take it down.
The problem with those scales was that anything could be beneath them, and each one had to be shifted to check under. There was also no way to know if the scale she was checking at any given time had been checked before, meaning that for all she knew, she could just be wasting her effort, checking something someone else had already gone over.
This was going to be a long and draining task. Astrid stood on one of the larger scales, gaining a foot or so of height, and scanned the area. No large lumps, no dead dragons-
Odd, that. She looked down at Toothless, who looked back up at her questioningly.
Where were the Gronckle and Timberjack? All else aside, they were too big to be totally covered by any of these scales, unlike a human. They weren't here, but they also weren't loitering anywhere else that Astrid could see. Had they flown off to rejoin the other dragons at some point? And if so, what had happened to their riders?
She did not know enough to even guess at that. For all she knew, the Timberjack and Gronckle had dismembered Tuffnut and Fishlegs and thrown the remains into the ocean before fleeing the scene. That felt unlikely, but she couldn't even rule it out. It was possible.
Time passed. She grew thirsty, but she ignored it. Toothless was probably as parched as she was, but she did not want to go back for water yet, anticipating an argument over letting the dragon have any, given how scarce it was. As long as she did not drink either, she could fairly keep them both out. Later, when nobody was looking, she would sneak some for him, and get some for herself more publicly.
For now, she needed to-
All around her, other searchers began to look out to sea and point. She turned, wondering what they saw.
The answer was obvious. Two ships, floating low in the water, were emerging from the sea stack maze, headed their way. The supply ships, here early. They had to have only left a day after, not the two they had been told to wait.
The search seemed to be temporarily called off, searchers gravitating towards the approaching ships. Astrid didn't want to stop looking... But a brief break, and a quick check over the injured to be sure her father had not already been brought in would be nice. She turned back in the direction of the approaching ships, walking alongside Toothless, not wanting to leave him behind.
By the time Astrid and Toothless, moving as slowly as they were, made it to the shore, the ships were landing, running just aground enough to not float back out, but not so aground as to be difficult to push back out to sea when the time came. There were also crude anchors dropped, but any halfway-intelligent Viking knew to be very, very careful with landing or docking in the Winter. Storms could take any weakness and use it to devastating effect.
Once the ships were secured, people began disembarking, carrying sorely-needed supplies with them. These were the reserves, the older men and women who had been held back because they would not be that much use in a real battle, but they were still active and able to bring supplies. They all gaped at the nest, but practicality and Stoick's orders quickly set them to work, along with quite a few of the minorly injured and those who had been searching.
Astrid, unwilling to leave Toothless's side, did not join in. She was thus in the perfect position to see something of the conversation that was about to take place.
Gobber leaped off of one of the ships, and firmly landed with foot and peg on the nest. His first action was to grin and do a victory jig, kicking shells everywhere. Astrid was just glad he did not sing; Gobber's singing was the stuff of nightmares.
"Ye did it!" Gobber yelled to nobody in particular. "And I missed it!" Said equally gleefully, as if he had come to terms with that. "Oh, the stories I'll tell anyway!"
Stoick walked up to him, grinning despite himself. "We'll all call you out."
"Eh, you'll be too drunk to care, and besides." Gobber idly twirled his hook. "Give it a few years, and I'll have 'alf of Berk convinced I was there."
"You won't have much to tell either way, old friend," Stoick countered. "We didn't do anything."
"So... what am I lookin' at, then?" Gobber scratched at his beard stubble. "Ye all injured and burned yerself in the afterparty?"
"I'll explain later," Stoick decided. "Right now, we need to figure out whether we're sailing back or not."
"Not," Gobber said decisively. "We left when we did because Bucket started actin' up, and ye know how he can predict storms with his bucket. Ice was formin' around the sea stacks as we passed 'em, and we had to keep movin' through the night for the last two days, else we wouldn't 'ave made it. No sailin' anywhere. It'll hit here full-on by tomorrow."
Astrid noted just how bitterly cold it was, and did not feel inclined to disagree with that prediction. The weather was finally getting to where it should have been a week ago. There would be no more sailing for a long while.
But maybe there would be flying? She knew just how fast Toothless was, and was confident he could get back to Berk if a Gronckle with Fishlegs riding had somehow made it here. She would have to ask Fishlegs how they did it... and get Gobber to fix Toothless's rig... but it would be doable.
Not that she wanted to go anywhere, or knew where Fishlegs was, or knew for a fact that Gobber even could fix the broken parts of the prosthetic. It just wasn't impossible.
"So we settle in," Stoick decided. "Got everything?"
"Aye. Tools, tents, water, water-makin' supplies, and a lotta yak jerky, among other things," Gobber reported. "It'll be tight, but we can make it 'till spring if we ration carefully."
"Good. Anything else?" Stoick looked to the sky, as if checking for something. "Like, for instance, explaining why your new apprentice flew in and helped save the day yesterday, and is nowhere to be seen today?"
Gobber's jaw dropped. "Flew in? Did 'e grow wings?" He held out his hand and flapped his fingers, putting the hand to his own shoulder to illustrate what he meant.
"Only if he also grew the rest of the Gronckle," Stoick answered seriously. "And I don't know-"
"Eh... did a Timberjack also show up?" Gobber asked curiously. "But nothin' else?"
"Aye."
"We saw two now very coincidentally-shaped silhouettes on our way in, diving into and out o' the water by one of the sea stacks," Gobber explained thoughtfully. "Too far away, so we didn't mess with 'em. At least now I know what those odd shapes on their back and neck were."
"That sounds like them." Stoick frowned. "And no, I have no idea where the other dragons went. They hopefully won't be coming back."
At that... Astrid didn't know if the flocks of dragons the Green Death had temporarily scared away yesterday would come back. Maybe this place was a prison for them, one they had finally been set free of. The Gronckle and Timberjack certainly hadn't minded fighting the dragon who was supposed to be in charge.
"Well, the two ye mentioned will be back sooner or later," Gobber decided. "Oh, and Tuffnut was the other rider, right? That boy's full o' surprises recently."
"What do you mean?"
Gobber froze. When he answered, it was with great reluctance. "I got a story for ye, Stoick, and yer not gonna like it." With that, he led Stoick away, out of eavesdropping range, and away from the general crowd working to unload things.
What did Gobber have to say about Tuffnut? He had sounded pleasantly surprised about whatever Tuffnut had done, but at the same time unhappy with the story itself... and none of that involved dragons, because Gobber hadn't known about that.
Astrid wished Toothless's tail was fixed so that they could fly out there and question Tuffnut immediately. As it was, they had to wait until he and Fishlegs came back to the nest to do that.
But she did not have to wait to keep looking for her father. She led Toothless back to the now somewhat larger crowd of injured Vikings, looking around as she did. There were new faces, more gravely wounded Vikings only now found, and sweaty, tired people helping them however possible. A few of the more badly wounded were clearly dying, and nothing could be done for them.
None were her father. She left Toothless for just a few seconds, keeping him in her line of sight, and walked into the rows of injured Vikings, seeking her mother. Maybe Asa was awake, and maybe she could tell Astrid what had happened to her father, where to look.
She saw Asa, with a Viking bending over her, tending to her chest. Then the Viking looked up, and Astrid's worries melted away. Her father was already here, and well enough to tend to his wife.
"Dad." She came closer, entirely aware that she could not stay here long without leaving Toothless dangerously alone, though he was more alert today, and capable of at least fighting back if someone harassed or attacked him.
"Astrid," Sighvat sighed. "Where have you been?"
"Here," she replied. "Well, I've been helping look through the debris this morning, but I was here before that."
"I saw your dragon curled up around its saddle, but I did not see you," Sighvat explained.
Curled up around the saddle that had not yet left his back? Astrid smiled faintly. "That was me, not a saddle." An easy mistake to make when she and the saddle were both the same colors and general size.
"Oh." Sighvat cracked a similar smile. "So we just missed each other."
"How is she?" Astrid asked, looking down at her still sleeping mother.
"Moderately bad burns, and a few cuts you can't see because they're on her back," Sighvat explained. "She should be fine, though there will be scars. And you?"
"Bruises, nothing more. Toothless broke one of his legs pretty badly, but he's been seen to." She realized after she had spoken that her father had never heard that name before...
But he didn't comment on it. "Good. Any news on anyone else?"
"That's pretty vague." She wasn't sure what her father was asking.
"Do you happen to know if Speedifist is alive?" Sighvat clarified. "I would think you would have noticed, one way or another."
So that was it. She still did not understand her parents' determination to keep that marriage going, but it definitely wasn't happening now. "I don't know either way, and it doesn't matter." She lowered her voice. "You know Thunderguts is dead?" A quick glance back at Toothless reassured her that he was fine waiting on the outskirts a few moments longer. "He tried to kidnap me. Stoick will never let Windy Isle have me, under any circumstances." Or any other island, but the important thing was that the Chief would never allow the marriage.
"And... Stoick killed him?" Sighvat asked, sounding like he knew that was not the case.
"I did," Astrid freely admitted. "We can talk about this later. But for now, all that really matters is that it's over, and I'm not marrying Speedifist no matter what." That, at least, had worked out fairly well. "I have to go help with... something." Either the unloading or the continued search. Probably the latter, as Toothless could not do anything with the former.
Sighvat nodded reluctantly. "Come back to us tonight. We have things to discuss, and the healer said your mother should be up by then."
So this was not over. Astrid nodded in turn. "I will." And she would put an end to the idea of marrying her off, if at all possible. By the end of today, she wanted to not be worried about that part of her future.
For the next few hours, Astrid and Toothless continued to assist in searching the chaotic battlefield. Astrid was not so driven to search without rest now, knowing her father was safe, but she could still help, and Toothless seemed to almost prefer moving. Maybe walking distracted him from his very likely aching leg. She let him rest as much as he wanted, but he always chose to keep going, no matter how clear she made it that they could stop for good whenever he wanted. Maybe he understood that they might save a life if they kept looking.
They did not end up finding anyone still alive. Those cases were tapering off. Only one more survivor had been found in the last few hours, even with more searchers than before. By the end of today, they would be done looking for the living. There were simply no more to be found.
Astrid had no good way to know how many people they had lost, both in the frantic battle amid the maze of sea stacks, and later in the conflict with the Green Death. She just knew that everyone she cared about was still alive, and that Berk would not suffer too much from this fight in the long-term.
Eventually, night falling, she and Toothless began picking their way back to the makeshift camp that was being erected around the injured. Tents were pitched, fires started, and food shared among people. Later, when things got more organized, old rivalries and tensions might flare up, but under the mounting pressure of surviving the coming Winter, which people were clearly beginning to really take seriously, nobody wanted to fight. Even the Windy Isle Vikings pitched in where needed, likely as much to ensure they got their fair share of the supplies as to help. The result was the same.
But before Toothless and Astrid could truly make their way back to the camp, two dragons appeared from between the sea stacks, flapping heavily, or in the case of the Gronckle, barely flying in a straight line, with two tired riders on their backs.
Strangely enough, both dragons came to set down between them and camp, blocking their way. Tuffnut hailed her from the Timberjack's neck.
"Hey, long time no see!"
"Where were you?" She was a little amused by how nonchalant he was, but she hid it, letting her practical side show her annoyance. "You two should have been here, helping out. You're not injured."
"We had some technical difficulties," Fishlegs admitted.
"Basically, we spent the day trying not to be kidnapped and torn apart by wild dragons," Tuffnut added. "These guys," and at that he patted his Timberjack's long spiral horns, "wanted to go wherever the other dragons went. We didn't like the idea of being torn limb from limb by the other, less friendly dragons. It was a bit of a process."
"It took forever to figure out how to convince them not to," Fishlegs groaned. "But we managed it eventually."
She really couldn't fault them for that. "Well, I think the Chief wants to see you," she relayed. "But he's not going to be too hard on you." If he had accepted her, he would definitely accept what Fishlegs and Tuffnut had to offer. They were still Vikings at heart, if ones who bent what the term meant in one way or another.
"We're heros, why would he be tough on us?" Tuffnut asked defiantly.
"We rode in on dragons?" Fishlegs quavered.
"Mind explaining that?" Astrid requested. "And maybe coming down? Toothless and I have to walk anyway."
"Sure, my legs are killing me." Tuffnut slid off of his dragon's neck and dropped to the ground. "That's gonna bruise." Fishlegs followed suit. "As to how we did it?"
"Don't ask me," Fishlegs volunteered. "I just did what Tuffnut did."
"And I did what you told me," Tuffnut explained. "Well, kind of. You said the key was treating him like a person. I figured that made sense, because if there was one thing Vikings would never think to try, it would be that."
Mutual respect for the 'demons', the 'monsters', the 'filthy beasts.' Yeah, that would never cross any normal Viking's mind without a very strong push in the right direction.
"So," Tuffnut continued, "I got anyone who would listen, which was just Fishlegs, and tried it out. It worked. Took a few days to work the kinks out, and then we were off!"
"No testing, no safety, no backup," Fishlegs complained. "Flying most of the day on a Gronckle that tried to kill me a month ago, and then fighting a dragon that wasn't even in the book of dragons."
One day? That wasn't bad at all, and that was on a Gronckle. The world suddenly felt a lot smaller. That was seven times faster than a ship. But as for how they had done it... "So you just tried it and it worked." Surely it could not have been that easy. Something was different here, for that to have worked.
"Yup." Tuffnut rubbed his dragon's snout, and it hummed deeply. "We're cool."
Astrid took a long moment to look into the Timberjack's eyes, wondering what she would see.
She took more than a moment, in the end. Several. Long enough that she was obviously staring. With Toothless, emotions were close to the surface, obvious, at least to her. But here…
She shook her head, feeling tired and confused. Now was not the time to be wondering whether Toothless was different from other dragons, even if she couldn't see nearly the same understanding in this particular dragon's eyes. It was intelligent enough to put aside past mistreatment and fly Tuffnut out here, into battle, and anything past that wasn't important for the time being.
"Astrid. Midgard to Astrid," Tuffnut repeated, waving a hand in front of her face.
She batted his hand out of the air. "Here. Sorry, I got distracted."
"Did you take a hit to the head?" Fishlegs asked worriedly, looking at her more closely. "Are you dizzy? What's your name?"
"No, no, Astrid Hofferson," she replied in turn. "I'm fine, I just have a lot on my mind. Such as what happened back on Berk that has Gobber looking so solemn."
"We've been told not to talk about it," Fishlegs said apologetically.
"True that," Tuffnut agreed, sounding more than happy to drop it. "Say, Fishlegs," he continued, "think a Gronckle would be helpful over at the ships? Those pallets look heavy, and you were just talking about how much yours can lift."
Fishlegs looked over at his mount, and the stubby brown Gronckle looked back at him. "We can try… What about you?"
"I'll walk Astrid back, be a proper Viking gentleman, all of that," Tuffnut said neutrally. "Go."
"It might help get you and your dragon into Stoick's good graces," Astrid offered, suspecting she knew what Tuffnut was doing, and why.
"You think? In that case, I'm on it!" Fishlegs and his Gronckle buzzed off.
"That was too easy," Tuffnut complained, hopping back onto his dragon's sinuous neck and leaning back, putting his hands behind his head. "Anyway, want the story?"
"Hit me," she requested.
"Literally, or…" He lifted his hand in anticipation.
"Figuratively. What does Gobber not want you to talk about?" She hoped it wasn't anything too bad; Berk would be bereft of their Chieftain for the next few months.
"So," Tuffnut said quietly,sitting up and looking over his shoulder as if wary of someone sneaking up and overhearing him, though that was unlikely given he was sitting on a Timberjack, "as it turns out, Thunderguts isn't a good ally. He left some of his people behind, right?"
"The women and children…" And now that she thought about it, why had he brought any of those on what Stoick had definitely said would be a war trip?
"Yeah, them." Tuffnut shook his head. "Long story short, some of the same guys Snotlout was palling around with had orders directly from their Chief. All of the Elders were attacked the night after you all left. Spitelout is dead, and Mildew is happier than he's been in years."
"What?" Thunderguts had said something ominous about them discovering how little he valued their alliance if they ever returned home. It made sense, in a sick, twisted way, that he would try to destroy the island's leadership at a time when their Chieftain was gone.
"No joke," Tuffnut said. His Timberjack began walking forward, and Astrid helped Toothless walk alongside it, keeping pace with the exceedingly slow movement. "I helped Gobber and the others round them all up once we knew what was going on, and then Mildew got to interrogate them. Turns out, they had orders to kill as many Elders as possible, and then to just lay low. Like that ever would have worked. Things are really tense between the people who stayed behind and the Windy Isle Vikings who claimed they had nothing to do with it."
"Thunderguts planned to take me and and Toothless," Astrid revealed. "Tried to, anyway. I'm not sure what he meant to do with Stoick, but if he had succeeded, Berk would be crippled and the Windy Isle tribe stronger than ever." She was fairly certain there were flaws in that plan, but Thunderguts hadn't struck her as the careful planning type anyway.
"Where is he now?" Tuffnut asked.
"Dead," Astrid revealed. "So all's well that ends well?"
"Wish they'd got Snotlout instead of Spitelout," Tuffnut admitted. "He's head of the Jorgensons now. He wouldn't shut up about it, either."
"And no more impressive for it," Astrid retorted. She did not like that turn of events. Snotlout wouldn't have that much power, and wouldn't get to replace his father as an Elder, but he had definitely moved up in the world, and that was going to go to his head-
"Wait, he stayed behind?" He wasn't here at the nest at all? He had never gotten on the ships?
"Wondered when you'd notice that," Tuffnut said smugly. "You beat him so soundly he missed the ships. Worse, he didn't want to admit that, so everyone thinks he's a huge coward. Being the new head of the Jorgensons isn't even enough prestige for him to break even. It's driving him nuts."
"Great. Slightly more powerful, disrespected, and mad at me for humiliating him." Maybe staying on the nest for a few months wasn't such a bad idea.
"Astrid Hofferson, dreading a fight?" Tuffnut gasped. His Timberjack doubled back its sinuous neck to look at him, and he patted its thin face. "Don't worry, I'm just being stupid."
"It's hard not to dread fighting the same idiot over and over again because he just won't take a hint," Astrid retorted. "Especially when he'll blame me for missing the ships." He wouldn't be right to blame her, of course; any real Viking would have crawled their way aboard no matter how horribly wounded they were, and she hadn't hurt him that badly. He was just lazy and maybe as cowardly as he looked.
"I get that," Tuffnut agreed. "Anyway, anything else you want to ask me about things back on Berk before I go avoid the Chief for a while?"
"Just one thing," she replied. "What happened to the teens who tried to kill our Elders and did kill Spitelout?"
"Thrown in jail," Tuffnut reported neutrally. "If they survive the Winter, they can deal with another trial and a verdict from the Chief. It depends on how vindictive Mildew is."
"How do you figure that?" She couldn't see the connection.
"He was put in charge of the prison, since Spitelout is dead," Tuffnut explained. "If he's feeling lazy, he'll let them freeze to death in there. If he's feeling vindictive, he'll bring them blankets and then push for the bloodiest possible execution in the Spring."
"It's Mildew, so I'm betting on the second one," Astrid decided. That, at least, was one less thing to worry about.
Torches blazed merrily, and bonfires crackled; the mood was jubilant, though tempered by the many injured lying around the shore. Blankets, food, water, and far too much mead had been passed out, and even the Windy Isle Vikings seemed to be having a good time.
Astrid felt out of place simply because it felt like her problems were far from over, unlike virtually everyone else around her. She leaned back against Toothless' side, shrugging her shoulders under the blanket covering her up to her neck, and tried to clear her thoughts.
Thunderguts was dead, and so was the monstrosity, the dragon Fishlegs continued to call the Green Death for lack of a better name. To her, it would always have only one vague and terrifying name. The most life-threatening problems she faced were dealt with.
But unlike everyone else, she had plenty of other concerns. Speedifist, Snotlout, Stoick, her parents. How the village in general would treat Toothless, how life was going to go forward.
She felt like there was some way to play all of those things off on each other, and was already starting to see how it could all work, but there were far too many loose ends and gaps to be filled in, too many holes in the path to a satisfactory future, for her to feel content.
"Got your own bonfire?" her father asked, walking up to the flames and sitting down a healthy distance away from Toothless.
"Somehow," she said lightly, "once we sat down, everyone decided they'd rather be somewhere else. How's mom?"
"Resting easily," Sighvat replied with a smile. "I had to convince her I could handle this on my own, or else she'd be here too."
"We could go over to her," Astrid offered, hoping her father would decline. This talk would be easier with just him, though she had assumed it would involve both of her parents. Sighvat had put it off until now in the hopes that Asa would be awake to participate, after all.
"No, I think we can manage, and she is asleep," he said. "I have the final say, after all."
"Yes, you do." That was one of the things she didn't like, and she wanted to get her feelings out into the open. "And lately, you've been making that very clear."
His face fell, and he looked away, staring into the fire. "So you do resent it."
"Honestly, a little. What happened to not forcing me into anything?" she asked quietly. There had been an unspoken agreement between them in times past; she was honorable and would do as he asked, and he wouldn't order her around. He would listen to her. That had definitely fallen to the wayside in the last few weeks.
"Things started to fall apart," he said simply. "Letting you go your own way was easy when it was mostly the way I would have seen you go regardless. Even once you returned, I let you work with the dragon, I supported you-"
"Right up until it started affecting your life and the family's reputation," Astrid said, feeling a touch bitter. "Then you decided it would be easier to marry me off and use that to run away."
"And you like having a reputation worth nothing at all?" he asked, turning back to face her. "It was in our best interests."
"Compared to being married off?" She looked him in the eye. "Maybe. Yes, if it was anyone like Snotlout. I never intended to let that agreement you both forced me into come to pass."
"And now?" he asked. "I found Speedifist's mother today, and she says he's fine."
Astrid let a mirthless smile cross her face. "Did you? Doesn't matter."
Sighvat glanced behind her at Toothless, who was watching them both, his green eyes reflecting the firelight. "Having a dragon doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want."
"In this case, having a dragon means that the Chief isn't going to let me be married off to a known enemy tribe," Astrid said calmly. "And I definitely won't complain when he breaks the betrothal contract."
"We are moving anyway," Sighvat said slowly. "He doesn't have to know."
"He already does, Thunderguts gave it away when he tried to kidnap me," Astrid said bluntly. "But if he hadn't, I'd have told Stoick myself. Don't you get it? I don't want to marry Speedifist, or any other Windy Isle Viking, or anyone on Berk for that matter. Not right now, maybe not ever. I'm not going to let you decide my future like that, either. Right now it's Stoick, but if not him then I'll find some other way to get out of it."
Sighvat was staring at her now, his eyes narrowed. "I raised you with more respect than that."
"You also raised me thinking that you'd be fair and listen to me," she countered. "So listen, please."
He crossed his arms and nodded for her to go on.
"I don't want to leave Berk," she began. "It's home, even when the people don't like me. Our reputation was bad, but Toothless and I just helped take down the biggest dragon anyone has ever seen, and the Chief isn't going to shun me or Outcast me for what I am. It'll get better. So there's no reason to leave. And since you don't need to marry me off to recover our reputation, there's no reason to force me into another stupid marriage contract."
"So I just give in to you, let you flaunt my authority, and pretend it's fine?" he asked.
"You listen to your daughter and agree that you weren't in the right," Astrid said. "Is that really so hard?"
Toothless grumbled supportively, lifting his head enough to catch Sighvat's notice before letting it fall back.
"And the dragon?" he asked.
"We'll figure that out later," she offered. She didn't know exactly how Toothless was going to fit into the future of Berk yet, and couldn't plan for something she didn't know about.
"Fine," he decided, looking at the bonfire. "I feel like I don't know you as well as I thought."
"People change," she said, glad he had agreed. She felt she didn't know him as well as she had thought either, given how much of a surprise his actions had been these last few weeks, but that was probably because up until now, she had never had cause to do anything he disapproved of.
But that was one more thing taken care of, one more piece of the puzzle. She had used Stoick to neutralize Speedifist, or would soon, and her father had agreed not to make things worse.
Author's Note: There's a seeming incongruity here in this chapter, something I think one or two people might notice (you're all far too observant). Let me just reassure you on that count; no, it's not a mistake or an oversight, or even just 'plot convenience'. Feel free to speculate on what that means, but with one chapter and then an epilogue, we're almost out of time for that. Whatever's going to happen, it's going to happen next chapter.
