No one could find the words to talk now, it was hushed whispers around the village with their eyes on Ryder and the Night Fury staying very close to him. Hiccup had his arms crossed over his chest staying completely still. "Y–you know...Hiccup?" Astrid finally managed to say in a shaky tone.

"Correction. I knew Hiccup some time ago. I should say maybe 5 years ago." Ryder replied to her. Astrid sighed, that was right. Hiccup was dead.

"How did you know him! He was carried off by a Night Fury and killed. I saw his clothes!" Stoick said angrily.

"How I know him is no concern of yours." Ryder snapped to him.

"He was my son! You tell me what you know!" Stoick yelled, the Night Fury snarled at him. Astrid looked at Ryder pleadingly now.

"Pl–please sir...W–what happened to him after he was taken...?" Astrid asked.

"Now how can I say no to a pretty face like that? Very well, I will tell you what I know. The rest have to leave." Ryder stated. Astrid felt heat rising to her cheeks now when Ryder said she had a pretty face.

"Why can't we know what happened to him!" Snotlout asked roughly now.

"Yeah, we were his friends! Astrid was jealous of him because he beat her in dragon training!" Ruffnut yelled out.

"I will tell her because she asked nicely and none of you deserve to know for how you treated her, or the boy. However...if she allows it. Then I will tell you all. What's say you, Astrid was it?" Ryder asked her.

"We are all part...of this tribe...So its only fair that everyone knows.." Astrid said calmly looking at him now.

"An honorable statement. You all treat her like garbage and she still considers you a tribe. Because she has said so, I will tell you all. After I get settled. My dragons are quite tired..." Ryder stated.

"We don't have a place for you and them." Stoick stated.

"I assure you my dragons will be returning to the nest for the day. Toothless and I are the ones staying." Ryder felt Toothless nudge against his hand crooning lightly.

"What are you doing! We can't stay here, Hiccup. They don't need to know about you..." Toothless stated to his rider now.

"Relax bud, they won't figure out it's me under the mask...Nothing about me currently rings the Hiccup they used to know. We flew all night, we need to rest." Hiccup said to him now.

"I just hope you know what you're doing. We're only down here because you want to protect that girl though I will never understand why." Toothless huffed out.

"We'll leave soon. I don't want to have to stay here longer than necessary. We'll go to the cove..." Hiccup replied gently. Toothless gave a nod as he sat down on his back legs looking around at everyone.

"You can...stay in my shack. Its...only me in there...The least I can do for you...saving me from them." Astrid offered quietly.

"I appreciate such. But Toothless and I are fine in the cove off Raven point. Give me a moment..." Ryder said as he cupped his hands over his mouth and let out a dragon call, the dragons responded and quickly flew off leaving on Ryder and Toothless in the village with a lot of confused and shocked looks at that he just did. Ryder rolled his eyes now, such simpletons. "It was a dragon call, me telling them to return home. Honestly, you claim to be at war with dragons but you know nothing about them." Ryder sneered.

"How do you know that place?..." Gobber asked.

"The cove? The boy told me. That is where I will be. 6 of you may come to hear the story. Anyone else and I will leave." Ryder stated as he climbed on Toothless's back then offered his hand to Astrid which confused her. "Are you coming?" He asked her now.

"M–me? I–I can walk there..." Astrid said quickly.

"It's a far walk and you're injured. I have things with me that can help. When we get there I will tend to your wounds." Ryder could see the bruises more clearly now, this hadn't been the first time she'd been hurt because of his choice to leave. She was blamed for him being taken by choice, and now it was his fault that she was hurt. He couldn't do nothing for her.

"A–are we...flying there?" Astrid asked eyeing Toothless cautiously now. Was Ryder implying she rode of the back of the Night Fury to get to the cove? She'd never been on the back of a dragon, it was against everything a Viking stood for. Would Stoick allow it? Or would she be hurt again for doing such a thing. Her eyes now fell on Stoick who was glaring at her, though she didn't understand why.

"Best way to travel. You can trust me, Astrid. I wouldn't hurt you." Ryder said to her. "And neither will they for you riding on the back of a dragon...Isn't that right, chief?" Ryder remarked looking over to Stoick now who quickly nodded his head. Ryder had done it again, protected her. How did he know she was worried about being hurt? Had he seen Stoick's glare on her? Astrid slowly took his hand as he pulled her up on to Toothless's back. "Hold on tight, we like to go fast." Ryder grinned beneath the mask, Astrid wrapped her arms around his stomach. "Lets go." Ryder called out as Toothless roared and spread his wings taking off in to the morning sky.

"Oh great Odin's ghost!" Astrid screamed holding tighter now with her eyes closed. Toothless leveled out and glided on the breeze.

"Hey, its okay. You're safe with me, I promise. Come on, open your eyes." Ryder said to her with a bit of a chuckle. Astrid slowly opened her eyes seeing how high up they were and gasped out, it was beautiful because the sun was just rising making the sky a pink and purple mix as it turned to light blue. Ryder steered Toothless in to the cove and set down. He got off and helped Astrid down. "Go lay down, Toothless." Ryder smiled at him patting his head. The Night Fury huffed a but and laid down in the grass after blasting it with his fire.

"This place is...beautiful. I can't believe I've never been here." Astrid said looking around with amazement.

"Hiccup was quite fond of it too from what he told me." Ryder said sitting down and going through Toothless's saddle bag to pull out some bottled ointments and pastes. Astrid looked at Ryder now as she sat down on a rock when Ryder motioned for her too.

"Y–you didn't have to save me back there...I–I would of been okay..." Astrid sighed looking away embarrassed now as Ryder began applying a gray paste on her visible bruises which were on her neck, face, and arms.

"No one should be treated that way. It doesn't matter what the reason behind their doing it was. As you said, this is supposed to be a tribe and members stick together." Hiccup said firmly still furious they treated her that way. "When did it start, some of these bruises are almost a week old." Ryder asked now looking up at her.

"I–it's happened everyday since Hiccup was taken...I–I'm used to it..." Astrid tried to smile, this got Ryder's attention now. They'd been abusing her, everyday since he left? He had to keep his temper in check, if he showed to much concern she may get suspicious.

"Here, you can keep that for any other bruises you have that I can't see." Ryder said handing her the bottle, she took it gently and set it beside her. Ryder stood up now and turned from her slightly with his arms crossed over his chest. "So were you two close?" He finally asked even though he knew the answer.

"What? Oh...no, well a little. We were best friends when we were little and everyone always use to beat on him...as we got older we started drifting apart because he was considering Hiccup the Useless...then when we started dragon training he got better than me and I got jealous...He became Berk's celebrity and I confronted him during a raid. He was distracted when the Night Fury grabbed him flying off, a month later Stoick found Hiccup's bloody, torn clothes and the village has hated me since...they've blamed me for it, for distracting Hiccup that day." Astrid sighed out closing her eyes. Ryder cracked his knuckles in a hidden fist, he felt like he should just take Astrid and let the village suffer by his dragons but he couldn't do that, it would just make everyone keep thinking dragons were bad creatures and that wasn't Ryder's aim to prove.

"It wasn't your fault, Astrid. He told me a lot about you, said he wasn't mad at you either." Ryder stated now as Astrid looked at him quickly with surprise in her blue eyes.

"H–he talked...about me?" Astrid asked, there was some leaves crunching as Toothless lifted his head and snorted to warn Ryder who now turned and looked back seeing 6 others enter the cove on foot.

"I will tell you later..." Ryder stated as Toothless came over growing a bit. Ryder put his hand up to calm him down, Toothless sat down but never took his black orbs off the group before he and Ryder. "So you came after all..." Ryder retorted angrily seeing him Stoick, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Gobber all enter the cove and approach Ryder and Toothless. Astrid got up slowly now, her eyes turning from them.

"We want to know about Hiccup." Fishlegs said calmly.

"We searched for him after he was taken, but no one heard anything or saw him...You're the only one who saw him before he died." Gobber gave a nod.

"And you said we could only know if she gave you permission to tell us...and that there was 6 of us." Stoick added.

"I'm rather shocked you followed my orders. Hiccup mentioned you lot had trouble listening to people who were different. Either way. Find a spot and sit down. I'll tell you once I've made the fire." Ryder mumbled as he turned his back to them and gave a whistle for Toothless to come over. Ryder found a few rocks as Toothless dug a small pit, Ryder lined the outside of the newly dug ring with rocks as Toothless came back with a bunch of small twigs and set them down. Ryder pointed to a large log and Toothless dragged it over to him. He unhooked something from a clip on his leg and pressed a button on it as a metal blade outline came out and encased in fire as Ryder sliced up the log into smaller pieces.

"Woah...what is that thing?..." Tuffnut said.

"This? It's Inferno." Ryder replied, then sighed seeing their confused faces, "One side coats the blade in monstrous nightmare saliva and sets it on fire. The other side sprays hideous zippleback gas and sparks it for a small explosion." Ryder explained as he put the weapon away.

"That's cool. How did you make it..." Astrid asked.

"I didn't. Hiccup did." Ryder stated calmly.

"Hiccup made THAT?" They all asked. Ryder nodded now.

"No way." Ruffnut snickered

"...One of his crazy inventions actually worked?" Gobber said now, Ryder walked over and showed Gobber the handle, carved into the metal was the initials HHH III. Hiccup's initials. "Yep that'd be the lad's work..." Gobber added after inspection of the weapon.

"You all sound so surprised that he made such an amazing weapon." Ryder scoffed.

"Well none of his inventions ever worked...They always caused trouble." Snotlout added, that comment got his anger to rise.

"And you all treated him horribly for it!" Ryder snapped now. "I know everything that happened when he was here. I had the pleasure to meet such an artistic, gifted young man. The only one who stood up for him from your abuse was her!" Ryder yelled pointing to Astrid now which shocked everyone, "You all picked on him, teased him for his inventions, then got mad and scolded him when they failed. And you, Stoick should be more ashamed than anyone because he was your son and you ignored him, never listened to him, and were more of a chief to this village than a father to that boy. Astrid was the only one up until dragon training that stood up for Hiccup, and that's why I refuse to let you hurt her because he asked me to keep her safe. Let me promise you this, if I had known 5 years ago you were hurting her like the way you were then I would of brought this village to its knees long ago." Ryder spat out. It had to be said, he'd been keeping calm until that moment and after 5 years, he wasn't holding back anymore.

"Hic—Hiccup...asked for...my safety?..." Astrid said in shock. Ryder nodded to her. "I–I was...so mean to him towards the end...Please Ryder...can you tell us...what happened to him?" Astrid asked now.

"Don't expect much from me. I can only tell you what I know from the one time I ran in to him 5 years ago." Ryder sighed as Toothless laid down and Ryder sat down resting against the dragon's mid-section with his arms behind his head.

"Anything at all...we found out he was dead a month after he was taken..." Stoick said calmer now.

"There isn't much I can tell you. He was brought to me by Toothless after a raid, he was sick and freezing. I apologized for Toothless taking him because he wasn't supposed too but he ended up thanking Toothless, then started telling me everything from Berk. I tried to nurse him back to health but he asked me to let him die, and to watch over Astrid for him. He asked me to leave him in a specific place and I did. Obviously you know what happened to him since you found his clothes a month later. He was only with me for about 2 weeks." Ryder explained calmly.

"H–he asked...you to let him...die?" Astrid said in a shaky tone.

"He said he was sick of how he was treated, only being cared about because he could defeat a dragon without killing it. He said he wasn't truly accepted and had no real friends. On days he wasn't feeling so weak he created Inferno by working with my dragons. He had a gift indeed." Ryder said holding Inferno in his hands again.

"You lie dragon rider! My son would never want to die! He had a good life." Stoick said firmly getting up now.

"Really? You think so? Well I guess I'll have to prove it to you then." Ryder stated as he got up and went through Toothless's saddle bag pulling out a notebook.

"That's Hiccup's notebook! The lad never let it out of his sight!" Gobber exclaimed quickly. Ryder tossed it to Stoick now without caring, Stoick caught it and looked at the Berk seal on the cover, running his fingers over the leather bound book.

"Check the last page. I think you'll find I am not lying." Ryder stated now. Stoick quickly flipped to the last page and read it over, he stumbled a bit and Gobber helped him to sit back down.

"W–what does it say chief?" Fishlegs asked now.

"It says, 'If you're reading this then I'm probably dead. I'm leaving Berk because I'm sick of being accepted over lies. No one ever listened to me except Astrid. She was there for me when everyone was beating on me. It hurts me to leave her behind but she'll get over me and move on. No one listened to me when I said I shot down a Night Fury, truth is that Night Fury was a good friend of mine and the reason he took me was because I asked him too. We made a plan for him to take me after he was healed. He took me to Ryder, the dragon master and I stayed with him for a few weeks. I asked him to give you this note if he ever ran in to you all. I am asking Ryder to take me to dragon island and leave me there to die or get eaten...And Astrid if you ever see this...I'm sorry I took your spotlight in dragon training. I never wanted to be in training and I told my dad that when I couldn't kill the Night Fury I shot down. I'm not a Viking, I'm not like any of you...And I never will be. Gobber, thanks for always listening to me and teaching me what you knew. And dad...or I guess, Stoick...since I'm sure you're gonna disown me for training a dragon, befriending it and running away...I'm sorry I couldn't be the son you wanted me to be. Goodbye forever. -Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. Better known as Hiccup the Useless by the village.'." Stoick read out loud as his arm dropped to his side.

"H–he asked the...He knew he'd be...Oh Gods!" Astrid cried out now.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way." Ryder said. He wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms and tell her it was okay but he couldn't. He had to keep his distance, he worked to hard to get away and cover everything.

"The day Hiccup was taken...was planned? That's why he never looked when the dragon roared out, Astrid didn't distract him. He knew it was going to happen...That's why he didn't yell for help or try and get away..." Gobber asked, but only to confirm it with himself. Ryder nodded to him.

"All he asked was that I take care of Astrid. I agreed and that was the last time we talked." Ryder stated still leaning against Toothless.

"You should of made him come home or had the devil bring him back to us! That was my only son you let die!" Stoick yelled now as Toothless began to growl at him.

"He asked for me to let him die, that's how much he hated his life on Berk. And after everything I heard he went through...I'd rather be dead too. By the way, my dragon has a name and it's not devil. It's Toothless." Ryder kept calm.

"What lies was he talking about?! He could...defeat a dragon without a weapon! We all saw it with our eyes." Snotlout said now.

"Tricks he learned from Toothless when Toothless was shot down and healing in this very cove. Hiccup earned Toothless's trust, and learned things from hanging with him. He used those tricks in dragon training, everyone called him a celebrity and he hated it because they were lies. Hiccup befriended a dragon and everything you saw was a lie. He knew if anyone found out he was friends with a Night Fury, he'd be shipped off the island or killed for treason so he felt it was better to die on his own terms." Ryder said relaxing still.

"How can you be so calm! Hiccup is dead because you let him die!" Astrid yelled getting up now.

"I let him die on his wishes but before we play the blame game...Who drove him to want to die so badly? Wasn't me, that's for sure." Ryder retorted. The group looked at one another now before lowering their heads. "Exactly. You all know what you did to that boy and you should be ashamed for it. He was only 15, and you made him want to die." Ryder then got up and faced them.

"I was...always there for him!" Astrid said quickly.

"Were you? Or did you maybe get a little jealous when he beat you in training? You threw away your friendship with him over killing dragons. Once he lost that, he didn't care anymore." Ryder snapped back making Astrid flinch, Ryder then took a breath to relax. "Look, you wanted the story and I gave it to you. Now leave. Toothless and I are resting for the day and then returning to our nest." He said pointing to the exit. They all silently moved away towards the exit, Astrid lagging behind sadly "By the way Astrid..." Hiccup began slowly.

"What?..." Astrid asked.

"He only stuck around dealing with the abuse for so long because he was in love with you. That was why he asked me to keep an eye on you. Now that they know Hiccup being taken was all part of his plan, they won't hurt you again." Ryder then turned to face Toothless.

"Hiccup...was in...love with me?" Astrid asked with wide eyes.

"His last words were. 'If you ever run in to Astrid Hofferson, tell her that I was madly in love with her but when she stopped being my friend I just couldn't stand the thought of living my life anymore on Berk, without her there. She was the one who made it manageable. Tell her I'm sorry for everything. Please keep her safe, Ryder.' To me it seems like he gave up once he lost you because he truly felt like he had no one else. So he planned an escape and then his own death by dragons." Ryder said coldly almost.

"I–I see..." Astrid lowered her head now crying lightly. He watched Astrid flinch now before she fell to her knees crying in to her hands. Ryder sighed, he was going to regret this so much. He knelt down and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, hugging her tightly. Astrid turned and cried into his chest, it killed Ryder to listen to her soft pleas for it to be a lie. He wanted nothing more than to tell her the truth but he couldn't bring himself to. She'd never be able to keep it a secret from everyone else. It wasn't long before her tears lessened and Ryder found she'd fallen asleep against him.

Toothless came over and laid down so Ryder could lay against him with Astrid still in his arms. After today, he was leaving again. He couldn't come back again, it'd get to suspicious. Ryder closed his eyes and fell asleep, having been up all night took a lot out of him and he'd need his strength for the trip back to the nest. If nothing else, this would be the last night he ever got to hold her in his arms and wish there was a way for it to work out but he knew that it couldn't unless he told her who he really was.