Sorry it took so long to update, I'm rarely home nowadays... Very short chapter, but hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
"There were dragons when I was a boy…
Oh, there were great, grim sky dragons that nested on the clifftops like gigantic, scary birds. Little brown scuttly dragons that hunted down the mice and rats in well-organized packs.
Preposterous huge sea dragons that were 20 times as big as the big blue whale!
Some say they crawled back into the sea, leaving not a bone nor a fang for men to remember them by...
Others say they were nothing but folktales, to begin with."
"But that's crazy!" exclaimed Zephyr, looking up at her father from when she sat by the fire pit with her brother and mother while Hiccup told them the story of the dragons like he'd done so many times. "Dragons are amazing and Toothless is so beautiful! The world needs to know how amazing he is!"
Hiccup chuckled. "I don't know," he said, shrugging. As much as he missed the dragons, he'd grown to enjoy this way of life; in a world where dragons and people fought no more. "I'm okay with that."
"But whyyy?" she said insistently.
Astrid chuckled her amusement, meeting Hiccup's gaze lovingly.
"Well, like you said, Zephyr," said Hiccup, his mind racing back to the years of his youth and flooding his brain with memories; memories he shared passionately. He sat down on the floor with them, facing the crackling fire. Zephyr escaped her mother's embrace and crawled to her father while he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer in his embrace. "Dragons are amazing. But our world doesn't deserve them yet. Yes, the world believes that the dragons are gone, if they ever existed at all." Hiccup raised his gaze to meet Astrid's, unable to help the strings pulling on the corners of his mouth. "But we Berkians, we know otherwise. And we'll guard the secret until the time comes; when dragons can return in peace."
"Whoa…" said Nuffink in awe, resting in his mother's cuddle while she rested her chin on top of his head, listening as attentively to Hiccup's grand tales.
"But that doesn't make sense," protested Zephyr, staring at the glow of the flames, perplexed; fascinated and inquisitive. She looked up at her father, eyes bright. "Why not? We know dragons are kind. Why not bring Toothless back on New Berk where he can live with us?"
Hiccup turned to meet Astrid's gaze, knowing it wouldn't be easy to make a child understand the honest reasons why dragons needed to remain in hiding.
"It's not his home, Zephyr..." said Hiccup, hugging her tight while his mind wandered. "Toothless has his own family now. He needs to be with his own kind, where he's safe."
"But safe from what?" she asked, staring blankly into the flames.
Hiccup sighed quietly and smiled.
"One day, when you're old enough, I'll tell you everything," he said, grabbing her attention. Zephyr turned around, looking up at him. "But for now, it's getting late for you, young lady. Better get to bed."
"Aww but I want to know now!" she insisted when he released her.
"Yeah, Dad, tell us more about the dragons!" said Nuffink excitedly, escaping Astrid's hold like a slippery Terrible Terror. She chuckled as Zephyr and Nuffink play-fought him.
"Alright, kiddos," said Astrid, pushing herself up to her feet. "It's getting late for both of you. Come on, bedtime."
"But mom!" whined Nuffink, but Astrid didn't hear it and herded them up the stairs to put them down.
Hiccup watched them go, the indescribable warm feeling overwhelming him. He let the glare of the flames from the fire pit hypnotize him as he reflected back on his years with the dragons.
He'd done it.
He'd saved them like he'd promised.
And now he had a family of his own to look after. A new mission; a new purpose.
"Funny how we couldn't convince them that dragons were good and now they want them to live in our house," said Astrid as she came back down the stairs, pulling Hiccup out of his state of mind.
"Yeah," chuckled Hiccup, turning to her as she sat down next to him, leaning against him affectionately. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer.
"You were always very persuasive," teased Astrid, reaching to stroke his face, absently tracing her delicate pale hand over his bearded jawline.
"Ha," said Hiccup, rolling his eyes at her humour.
"First your father," she said, straightening up to look at him. "Stubborn and impassive as he was."
"He wasn't named Stoick for no reason," reminded Hiccup, the memory of his father ever so present in his soul.
"Yeah," said Astrid, leaning back comfortably against him, allowing herself to be swallowed up by the warm glow of the fire as well, spellbound by the grace with which the flames danced. "If you could change his mind, I knew there wasn't a single soul out there that couldn't change their perspective on dragons."
Hiccup tightened his lips at the bittersweet memories.
"At least it's no longer something I have to worry about," he said, stroking her shoulder, looking at the positive. "The dragons are safe; safer than they could ever be. It's not exactly the way I had imagined things would turn out to be but… it was the right thing to do." A grim expression washed over his face. "In a world full of villains, peace and security was never an option to begin… not the way I thought it to be."
Astrid cupped his face and pulled him in, pressing her lips tenderly against his. Hiccup let herself guide him, allowing her to bring him back down on Earth, in a world where everything was perfectly fine and war was nothing but a distant memory.
"I'm sure one day they'll return," reassured Astrid, brushing away his auburn locks, sensing the ever-so-present inner conflict within him. "They're just waiting for us to figure out how to get along."
"I just… never thought we'd have to say goodbye," he admitted. Despite having visited Toothless and his new family only a few weeks ago, Hiccup still felt torn to remain this long apart from his best friend.
"It's not goodbye, Hiccup," said Astrid, twirling her fingers in his hair. "It's 'see you later'."