Where I Belong

Author: Nightstar Fury

Rating: M

Pairing: Hiccup/Astrid

Disclaimer: I don't own the HTTYD movies, or any of the HTTYD series such as Riders of Berk, Defenders of Berk, or Race To The Edge.

Something Is Wrong

-Hiccup's POV-

Part of me really didn't want to do this at all, travel six days to my mother's dragon nest just to get answers. It was self explanatory, she cared about dragons more than she did her own son but maybe my dad was right, maybe she did have her reasons whatever ones they were so what would it hurt to go find out and if turned out to be she really just didn't care than I really wasn't losing all that much to begin with. It dawned on me the next morning that it would take double time to get there if my dad had to ride with me the entire trip to the nest on Toothless so we delayed by a day so I could teach my father to ride his own dragon. Hadn't been easy either when you pair a stubborn Viking with a just as equally stubborn dragon. This lucky dragon ended up being a Thunder Drum that my father named Thornado, a medium blue dragon with white spots along his back and a white belly. Dad was a fast learner so we planned to leave the next morning but I still was dreading every bit of this trip. But at least when I got back, my father was announcing my becoming chief of Berk and then the ceremony to follow right after.

That was something I had to think about too. Who I was choosing as my second in command, my council members, and emissaries for my time as chief then when I retired I'd pass the torch to my own Heir whenever I had him, or her. According to my father, chiefhood went to the first born child whether they were male or female. I had time for all this of course but my father did tell me that generally when a man became chief then he had up to three years to produce an Heir of his own. This was to give time for the new chief to find a woman suitable to become his wife, then contract negotiations, the wedding itself and finally some time to settle before giving an Heir but sometimes the night of the wedding was all it took to conceive a child if it happened to fall during the week of a woman's fertility. This was not a problem for me, I'd already picked my suitable wife, Astrid of course. However a lot more went into the process than just me asking her and getting married.

Tradition stated that my parents, or in this case...my father would start a marriage contract for Astrid and I with her parents. In this certain things would be agreed upon, decided for the wedding from date, to more as far as I understood, then after the contract was settled I could finally ask Astrid to marry me. Generally after that happened, the wedding was held one to two months later on. Us Vikings apparently didn't waste anytime with these types of things. But before all that, I had to become the chief first and that was hopefully just a few weeks away when all this was settled with my mother. I groaned tiredly, I wanted it over before it even began. Knowing her and I, we'd probably get into another heated argument and if that happened...I was just going to leave and never forgive her. I closed my eyes and fell to sleep, tomorrow my father, Astrid, and myself would be leaving for the nest. What fun for me, going back to a place I never wanted too nor did I ever belong.

(The Next Morning)

As I anticipated, as soon as I woke up and realized that today I was returning to the ice nest my mood altered to one of extreme discontent. We were leaving early, as in before the sun rose so to make it easier...Astrid slept over in my room while I took the floor against Toothless. I was up first as I yawned and sat up stretching, then Astrid was up after me when she heard I was awake. I greeted her with a light kiss as we gathered what we needed and headed to the main area with Toothless following, I saw my father coming down the stairs tiredly. "Morning you two." Stoick said to me and Astrid.

"Hey, Dad." I greeted him. Astrid only yawned leaning on me a bit.

"Are we ready?" Stoick asked.

"As ready as I can be..." I mumbled as I grabbed the bag of clothes and slung it over my shoulder before opening the door and walking outside quietly with Toothless. I got on his back as Astrid came out with her bag and Stormfly walked over with a small squawk, then finally Thornado. They got on their dragons as I faced North-East with a heavy sigh.

"You sure you're ready, Hiccup...We can put it off a little longer." Astrid offered.

"No...She's put me off for 16 years...and I'm done waiting for answers about everything." I replied, Astrid nodded to me as Toothless spread his wings and took to the sky then right after me was Astrid on Stormfly and my father on Thornado.

(5 Days Later)

It turned out that the winds were with us most of the trip, and thankfully we didn't hit any storms either. It was smooth flying as I put it, we stayed above the clouds for most of it to avoid being seeing by other Vikings. I knew that much of my mother's stories were true, that not every Viking would see dragons as me and Berk did and there would always be some who were not capable of change so we still had to be cautious. When other Tribes had come to speak to Stoick, we hid the dragons in the cove or forest so it looked more natural and it was good to know that none of the other chief's tried to kill them. I knew we couldn't hide it forever and eventually I would try to get others to see dragons as myself and Berk did but for now it was best to keep it on the down low.

We traveled by day and some into the night. We would stop for dinner around 6pm, make a campfire on a quiet, dragon inhabited island before going to sleep around 9-10pm. In the morning we'd eat breakfast, generally fish and possibly berries before heading out again. We did stop maybe an hour midday to give the dragons a little break and eat lunch. It was the best way to travel, Stoick and Astrid trusted my word when it came to making this trip seeing as I'd done it before. "How much longer babe?" Astrid called to me, we were currently flying in a arrow head formation meaning I was the point. Astrid on my right, my father to my left.

"Should be arriving within the hour, Astrid." I replied to her calmly. Sure enough, an hour passed by as they felt it was a bit colder then saw the massive mountain made of rocks and green ice spikes from the water and rising high. "There it is. The ice nest." I said slowly pointing to it.

"THAT is the ice nest?" Stoick said in shock, I nodded.

"Yep. The dragon sanctuary as mom calls it, and home to the great Bewilderbeast. The alpha species, his icy breath built this place for all dragons." I explained as my mother had many years before. As we were getting closer, it hadn't dawned on me that it was becoming nighttime. Mom might not even be there right now which meant we were here longer but who knew, maybe I was wrong and she took what I said to heart about life not always being about rescuing dragons. Chances were slim but it was worth a shot to at least hope right?

"So...How do we get in, that ice looks pretty thick." Astrid asked.

"Follow me." I instructed as I navigated Toothless to the back opening as we landed in a darkened area only lit by torches. I got off Toothless as they got off their dragons and looked around.

"Wow..." Stoick and Astrid blinked.

"This isn't all of it..." I smiled a bit as I led them through a series of rock formations that had to be squeezed through and climbed over before entering the heart of the nest where all the dragon were and laying in the water was the large white alpha known as the Bewilderbeast who I called Iceshot. "Welcome to the heart of the island." I stated as I stood on the ledge as Iceshot adjusted his head and looked up at me, I offered him a bow of respect, even Toothless did. "Hey Iceshot...Been a while huh?" I smiled at him. The dragon blew a cold frost at me as I chuckled, "I've missed you too." I continued walking while my father and Astrid followed.

"So where is your mother?" Stoick asked.

"No clue, it's nightfall...She could be out rescuing. If that's the case, she won't be back until morning..." I responded.

"So what do we do while we wait?" Astrid questioned.

"I could give you a tour to pass the time." I offered, they nodded as I began to take them around the nest showing them everything I could. The rooms, the maps, the different types of dragons they'd never seen and finally my room or...old room. We sat around for hours after I whipped something up to eat for us but mom never showed up, we ended up staying awake until morning too but nothing. "Something isn't right here..." I stated getting up as I went to my mother's office and peeked over her map of locations she went for normal rescues. Stoick and Astrid followed as I trailed my finger over her path.

"What is it son?" Stoick asked.

"Idiot...She knows that place is dangerous, even with two of us its damn near impossible to escape..." I huffed as I whistled for Toothless now who bounded in. "Mount up. If she isn't back by now then something happened...We're going due West of here..." I ordered, without argument they mounted their dragons and we darted off out of the nest and headed in the direction of West.