Sorry for the late update :(

But happy Halloween! :)

-Chapter 14-

Forever

Astrid had been lifeless that night.

She'd sat there silently as Eret cried and tried to console his now motherless daughter. Brenna had covered Heather's lifeless body and gone to inform Hiccup.

He was awaiting news, sat with Dustin before the hearth a cup of tea in hand. When he heard the last step on the stairs creek, he turned expecting his wife, and expecting bright smiles. What he received was complete opposite.

"How are they?" He asked, but his foot began tapping and his fingers twitching, he knew.

"Erika, the baby, she's healthy. But Heather..." Her eyes were watery, a replica of her daughters. "I need you to take Astrid home. She'll sit there all night if you don't." She sighed remorsefully.

Hiccup nodded, eying the stairs wearily, not sure how she was going to react when he took her away. He entered Astrid's room, as he had done a few times before. Only this time his breath faltered at the sight of a body hidden under linen sheets.

Heather...

He glimpsed Astrid, who had placed her hand over Heather's over top of the sheet. A cold stare in her eyes. He left her be for the moment, approaching Eret. Who paced and rocked his crying daughter, looking to be trying to collect his thoughts.

"Eret." Hiccup whispered placing his hand over Eret's shoulder, an action he had done for Hiccup so many times before. "Let me take her, for the night."

"It's your wedding night." Eret went to argue.

"Trust me, it's all right." He assured and Eret looked to Astrid understandingly. "Go home and get some rest. Valka will be around as well." Soothed, Eret placed the tiny infant into Hiccups arms.

It wasn't often that Hiccup held babies, but once he adjusted her he got the hang of it. He could already see the combination of Heather and Eret's ink black hair surfacing on her little head.

Eret slowly exited down the stairs, using the walls for support as he did. Brenna passed him on the stairs giving him a parting pat as he did. Dustin was waiting behind her.

To take care of her body, Hiccup realized.

"Astrid." He called softly placing a hand to her shoulder and rubbing gently.

She turned her head slightly to acknowledge him but didn't look up. She didn't need to be told what was happening, she knew. And she stood with all the strength and power of a warrior and a chieftess. When she stood and was eye level to the mostly soothed babe in his arms, she reached up with hesitant fingers to touch the little toes that peeked out from the blanket, causing the baby to flinch.

Hiccup smiled softly at the interaction and when Astrid wordlessly reached for the baby, Hiccup let her be taken from his arms. Eyes ahead, Astrid walked out of her room and down the stairs, passing her parents without even a glance. As Hiccup followed Brenna handed him a Leather flask filled with yak milk and a bottle.

When they arrived home Astrid stalked right up the stairs and into the bedroom while Hiccup stalled and watched her. Toothless, who had been awaiting their return, warbled for his attention.

"I know bud." He patted his head before following after the two of them.

Hiccup poured the milk into the bottle upon entering his room, placing the rest of the yak milk on his desk. Astrid was in the bed, baby Erika laid by her side sleeping fitfully, probably hungry.

"She should eat." Hiccup spoke as he sat on Erika's other side.

Astrid nodded and let him pick up the baby to be fed, watching intently all the while.

There were troubles at first, she didn't want to take the foreign object into her mouth, but surely she didn't know that it's contents would soothe her ailments. Eventually Hiccup got her to take the bottle and sighed in relief as she drank heartily.

Hiccup stood to rock and burp her and pretty soon she was fast asleep again. He'd set her on some furs that he laid out in a nice little pile for her to sleep on. Knowing he wouldn't be able to stay awake much longer.

"Hiccup." Came the soft call from back up on his bed.

He covered Erika up gently yet quickly and made it to Astrid's side.

She was crying now, silent tears streaming down her face. Hiccup was almost relieved, this was better than absolutely nothing.

"I'm here." He assured her and that's when she combust, curling in on herself and trying not to cry too loudly. Hiccup got into bed and pulled her back closer against his chest, wishing there was something he could do to make her feel better.

When Hiccup woke he was alone in the large bed, though the spot his arms hung loosely over where still warm from his bed partner. Sitting up groggily, Hiccup rubbed the sleep from his eyes and yawned. The sun shone brightly in his bedroom, so he knew he had slept through what was left of their night before, but it had certainly been too long for Erika to go without a bottle. He then noticed Astrid, seated with her back towards him, still in her wedding dress.

The sight made his heart thunder, but not so much as the sight of her leaning down to pepper a sweet kiss to Erika's plump little cheek.

Hiccup winced as he sat up, stiff, but he was expecting more pain from leaving his prosthetic on. It surprised him to see scared flesh instead of the metal device.

"I removed it early this morning." Astrid informed him.

"Thank you." He replied scooting over the side of the bed to reattach said prosthetic.

Once he could properly walk again he sat down beside her to coo at little baby Erika who had her little eyes squinted open to the best of her ability. They were dark, but he couldn't be sure exactly what color yet.

"How are you." He asked brushing her long fringe back behind her ear. She didn't look at him but he could see the dullness to her crystal blue eyes.

"Sad, obviously... but we could've lost them both." She reminded him and he silently agreed.

She finally raised her gaze to meet his.

"I'm sorry for... all of this." She gestured.

"You just gestured to everything." He teased and she rolled her eyes playfully, a lilt of a smile brought to her features.

"You know what I mean. It was our wedding night, if I had know everything was going to fall apart like that." Astrid's breath shuttered and her eyes fell again to the baby before them.

"Don't." Hiccup warned his calloused thumb rubbing a stray tear from under her eye. "None of it could be helped. We have forever."

She looked to Hiccup and visibly sighed closing her eyes and leaning forward to rest their foreheads together.

"It's so selfish." She shook her head rubbing their messy bangs together with the action. "I wanted you so much." She choked. "Not only for my own pleasure." She growled through her teeth and slapped a hand to her knee. "I wanted us to spend last night together in our house, like a proper well adjusted married couple." She laughed wetly and he stroked another tear from her face.

"It's not selfish, I wanted that too. So much." He assured her hoping she could feel how much he meant it. "Other things just became more important in that moment." They both looked to Erika who was watching them intently. He took her hand placing it over his heart. "We have forever." He said again, solidifying his belief in that.

She nodded, even if she didn't exactly believe it.

Later that same day they had prepared the funeral. The boat sat tied to the dock, Heather's body wrapped in linen atop the hay laden pedestal.

In the time between last night and this morning, a weary Fishlegs had traveled between Berserker Island and The Defender of the Wings tribe to personally inform them of the tragedy. Fishlegs would never understand how grateful he was for his trusted friend's quick thinking.

Dagur was a mess, limp against Mala's back as she rode in on Triple-Strike. The pain in his eyes was unimaginable as he dismounted and met Hiccup's eyes across the way. The way he collapsed as he spotted the boat, Mala catching Dagur and holding him to her.

Eret stepped forward with his newborn daughter nestled against his chest wrapped up in a sling to keep her there. The gathering silenced as he stepped forward with his bow and placed it in the fire. Bucket nodded at his signal and untied the boat from the dock, pushing it away from the island.

"There do I see my father, my mother, and my brothers and sisters." As he spoke Hiccup and Astrid stepped in sync to do the same, preparing their bows and readying to aim. "They bid me take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla, where the brave shall live forever..." As Eret spoke Dagur seemed to compose himself, as much as he could anyway, and took his stance alongside them Mala joining her king silently. "May the Valkyries welcome you and lead you through Odin's great battlefield. May they sing your name with love and fury, so we might hear it rise from the depths of Valhalla. For a great woman has fallen today: a warrior, a mother, a friend." Eret croaked and steeling himself he drew his arrow with the line of family and fiends, and fired upon the boat.