Hey y'all! So I finally finished my revisions and will be posting the chapters to this revised version weekly. Chapter-wise it seems a little shorter, but during my revision process the story likely got longer, but definitely not shorter.

A couple things before we start:
- Any comments or suggestions on how to make the story better are greatly appreciated, I love getting feedback!
- The story starts during the RTTE timeline and will be continued possibly all the way until past HTTYD 3.
- The story is also posted on AO3, if you would rather read it on there.
- A sequel is coming at some point, I am currently working on it.
- Hiccup's story is also posted, and will be being finished and completely updated. Two parts of it are in this work, but they are slightly expanded upon as only what is needed for this story is posted here. I would highly recommend reading it.
- A couple of the characters do change in appearance as a result of the changes I made to the story. My friend and I are working together to draw up what they look like. If I get enough requests for it, I will post pictures of what the characters actually look like.

Anyways, that's all I've got for you guys, so...

Let's get on with the story!

Daystrid

The first thing I felt was pain. Not the wee bit of pain you get from a headache, but the stabbing kind you get from being severely hurt. But, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here. You don't even know who I am. Let's back up the story to when I became a Dragon Rider…

Two Months Prior

My name is Daystrid Hofferson, and I've wanted to be a Dragon Rider like my sister, Astrid, for the past 3 years. It's been about a month since Astrid and the other Riders left for the Great Beyond. They haven't been back from their base, Dragon's Edge, yet.

Today started out like any other. I got up, went for a morning flight on my dragon, a teal Monstrous Nightmare named Firewing, and got back just as Gobber was starting his day in the forge.

I went to see if he needed any help. I'm not exactly his apprentice, Hiccup still is, even though he's barely here. Gobber, though still occasionally needed help, and I was willing to help, so he'd taught me the basics.

"Hey, Gobber," I called, as I walked up to the forge. "Need any help today?"

"If ya want, there's a few swords in the back that need straight'nin' and sharpenin'," Gobber replied. "But I can eas'ly do them later."

"Don't worry about it, I'll get it done." I smiled as I walked into the shop and found the swords he was talking about. I had set straight to work, knowing that this was likely to take me quite a bit of time, as my skills weren't as sharp as Gobber's, or even Hiccup's.

A Few Hours Later

Around midday, Gobber turned to me and said, "Ya look'n tired there, lass. Why don' ya go get some rest?"

"I'm not tired…" I responded as I took the sword I was sharpening off the stone to check its sharpness. It was the last one in the pile he'd pointed out before, so after I was finished with it, I was done for the time being anyway. Gobber came walking over to me as I put the sword back on the stone to sharpen it some more. I yawned extremely big, causing my hands to slip on the sword and accidentally cutting the palm of my hand.

"Ah…" I bit my lip while trying not to drop the sword and keep an eye on my injured hand.

Gobber pulled the sword out of my hand and put it on the table behind him, before grabbing my wrist so he could look at my hand. He wrapped a clean rag around it before looking at me, a concerned look in his eyes.

"Daystri', lass, when was the las' time you slept decent?"

"Last night." I responded sharply and pulled my hand away from him. The rag was beginning to become pretty red, but I wasn't feeling any different. I made a move to grab the sword to finish sharpening it, but Gobber stepped between me and the table where it sat.

"Oh no ya don't. Ya look exhausted." Gobber motioned to the slumped-over way I knew I was carrying myself, and was most likely talking about the dark circles I'd seen under my eyes when I'd caught my reflection in the water during my flight that morning. "I've seen a kid work himself into a state like this before, and didn't do anythin'. I'm not lettin' you get the same way."

I sighed, feeling my tiredness actually catch up to me for the first time that day. "Okay, fine, it's been a couple weeks since I slept decently. But honestly, who ever slept decent during the war with dragons, right?" I laughed. "And it-"

"People did sleep; you look like you ain't slept in days.

"Go home Daystri'. Get some rest, I can finish wha' ya were workin' on." And with that, Gobber put his hook on my back and pushed me out of the shop, towards where Firewing was curled up in front.

I turned back around, "Fine. I, uh, I guess I'll see ya later then." I sighed and trudged away, towards my house. I knew I hadn't been sleeping well, scared that my sister might not return, but that was normal, right? I probably wasn't going to get any rest now, even though Gobber apparently thought I was.

I walked into my house, leaving Firewing outside, as he was too big to fit in the house. Without realizing they weren't home, I called for my parents. When no one answered, I remembered that they had gone to the yak races today.

I sighed, I guess I could actually take Gobber's advice and get some rest. I stalked up the stairs towards my room, pushing the door closed as I fell backwards onto my bed in my pitch black room. It had been an afterthought addition to the house, as my parents hadn't planned to have any more kids after Astrid. But then I came along, and while I know Astrid cares about me, I'm not sure my parents do.

I had actually slept a little, realizing it only after I woke up to the smell of wood burning, which hadn't happened since we made peace with the dragons three years before. I got up from my bed and ran to my door, opening it, thinking if we were being attacked or something, I could at least help a little, only to be met with flames on the other side of the door.

I stumbled backwards, and frantically looked around. Because of the way my room had been added to the house, the door was the only way out of it. Running through the fire would definitely be dangerous, but it'd get me out of here, unlike my other option: staying put where I was.

The air was becoming thick with smoke, making it increasingly difficult to breathe the longer I just stood there. Deciding that my best option was to attempt to get myself out of the house, I stumbled towards the door, feeling like I was coughing and choking on more air than I was getting. After barely making it out of my room, I stumbled towards the top of the stairs, only to lose my balance at the top and fall down the stairs. Everything went black before I even reached the bottom.

Astrid

Berk had just come into view, and it was not a pretty sight. Many houses were on fire or smoking, and a few were burned completely to the ground.

"Son, I'm glad you're here."

I looked up from Berk, only to see the chief flying towards us.

"What happened here, Dad? Dagur?" Hiccup quickly asked.

"It was a strange attack, son. A hit and run. Catapults and volleys of arrows mostly. Hit a couple buildings in town."

"That's not Dagur's style," Hiccup commented, more to himself than to anyone in particular.

"Astrid," Stoick continued. "Your parents' house was one of the ones that was hit." I was past him and speeding towards the village before he was done with the sentence.

Stormfly and I landed right in front of my house or where it had been. Gobber came walking towards me, soot covering his face and clothes.

"Don' worry, lass. Yer parents are fine, they were out at the yak races when it happened," he assured me.

"What about Daystrid?" I was panicking. Daystrid should have been helping put out fires. She always did. But I hadn't seen her or Firewing anywhere and Gobber hadn't mentioned her. "Do you know if she's okay?"

"I don', sorry, lass,'' Gobber started. "Bu' when the house was hit, tha' dragon o' hers musta been near, cause he flew off spooked."

Those few sentences made me panic even more. Daystrid was nowhere to be found, her dragon had been spooked and had flown away, something wasn't right.

"Astrid!"

I spun around to see my parents walking towards me. Well, my mom was running, but Dad was walking. Mom wrapped her arms around me the second I was in arms reach. I accepted the hug, happy to see that my parents were fine, but my worry about my sister was too much to ignore and push to the side. The minute mom let go, I asked, "Do either of you know where Days is?"

"Sorry, Astrid, we haven't seen her since last night. We're worried about her too," Dad tried, putting a hand on my shoulder. I turned away, towards where our house had been, hoping my sister hadn't been inside…

A Couple Hours Later - Hiccup

After we'd landed, I'd sent the twins to help with repairs on some of the damaged houses, Meatlug and Fishlegs to help with any heavy lifting, and Snotlout to patrol around Berk, in case Dagur came back. I went looking for Dagur myself, thinking he couldn't have gotten far.

When I got back to the Academy, where the rest of the riders were except Astrid. Meatlug was standing in buckets of water. I walked up to Fishlegs who was standing next to her, and asked, "Is Meatlug okay?"

"Of course," Fishlegs responded. "All that taking off and landing was hard on her insoles."

"Oh, okay. I couldn't find any sign of Dagur, but he did have a full day's head start on me." I turned to the twins who seemed to be basking in the glory of a lot of food and furniture. "How'd you two do on the repairs?"

"Awesome," Tuffnut responded. "We fixed so many houses."

"Yeah, but everybody was so grateful, they gave us all this food," Ruffnut added.

"They also gave us all of this furniture," Tuffnut continued, "they just left if piled up in front of their houses."

I sighed and shook my head, Those two are complete muttonheads. Just then, Sven came running into the Academy.

"Hiccup, its a terrible tragedy!" he exclaimed. "Someone's been looting all the burned houses, taking all the food, furniture… anything valuable they can get their hands on."

I glanced at the twins who seemed to be trying to hide everything with guilty looks on their faces.

"That's horrible, what kind of world do we live in?" Ruffnut asked, attempting to cover up their own deed.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head, "Don't worry, Sven. I'm pretty sure it'll reappear," I reassured him, pushing him out of the Academy. "...very quickly," I added, giving the twins a look. They reluctantly started moving to take everything back to where they'd gotten it.

The squawk of a Nadder alerted me to Astrid's arrival. She looked very down.

"Astrid! Is your family alright?" I asked, running up to her.

"My parents are alright, but," her voice broke, and I could tell that she was holding back tears. She took a deep breath to steady her voice, "Daystrid is nowhere to be found."

Daystrid is her sister, they'd been extremely close before we left for the Edge and most likely still were. She'd wanted to be a Dragon Rider three years ago, but Astrid had said no before I could even say anything. Astrid did anything to keep her younger sister safe; I could only imagine how this felt for her.

"I'm sure she's fine, Ast," I tried reassuring her.

"But what if she had been in the house when Dagur attacked?!" Astrid cried. It was strange seeing her like this, she was always the strong one. "What if she didn't get out fast enough?"

"Y'know, Astrid, if you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm always here," Snotlout came over while holding his hand out. Astrid grabbed his arm and threw him across the arena.

"Thanks, Snotlout, I really needed that. But that still doesn't change the fact that my sister is missing."

"You wanna go for a flight, clear your mind? It might help you think of where she might be," I suggested.

"Y-yeah, that'd be great," she replied. She was obviously still worrying about her sister, although I didn't blame her.

Astrid

If I'm being honest, I'd been surprised when Hiccup asked if I wanted to go for a flight. It was better than standing around worrying about Days, so I agreed to go. I didn't know where we were going and for once, I didn't care. As we went over the village, neither of us said a word , until something seemed to catch Hiccup's eye.

"What is it?" I asked. When he didn't respond, I tried again, "Hiccup." This time I caught his attention, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, but, uhhhh, look," he said, pointing towards the embers of what used to be my parents' house. There was an aqua colored Monstrous Nightmare there, and he seemed to be digging in the embers and ashes.