Chapter 3

Hello everyone!

It's been a while hasn't it. I can't believe how many views and follows these two short chapters have gotten. Thank you for all the reviews too! I had no idea this Astrid led storyline would be so well received?

Here's a slightly longer chapter to make up for the long wait!

"Well. We're here. Now what?" Tuffnut put his hands on his hips, looking around the empty beach of the Melody Island. Hiccup brought them to the beach the closest to the spot where the time tornado took Astrid from last time.

"Now, we unpack." Said Hiccup, setting up their camp site with Toothless while Ruffnut went to get some fire wood with Barf and Belch.

"What I mean is, how are we gonna find them?" He clarified.

"I don't know." Hiccup replied casually.

"Wait. You don't know?" Tuffnut turned to Toothless. "Did he just say he doesn't know?" He asked, but the dragon just blinked at him. Hiccup sighted and stopped what he was doing to walk over to Tuffnut.

"This is where the portal opened – right over there, look." Hiccup used his hand to pinpoint a direction where the time gliders disappeared from last time. "My best guess is that the rest of them will come here to this exact spot to follow their pack. Fishlegs has a theory that this is how they are able to travel to the exact same time as the others did. They might pass here in few hours, or in few days, so how about you go catch us some dinner?" Hiccup suggested.

"Sure. Leave it to me Chief." Tuffnut saluted and ran off to hunt down some dinner. Hiccup watched him disappear.

"Come on bud, let's finish unpacking before they come back." He said to his dragon.

Calm down Astrid, it's all fine Astrid, you can handle this…

Now that Drago and his dragons were gone, Astrid had a chance to note how different this Berk looked in comparison to the Berk from her time. It was hard to believe how much has changed in five years. The dragons were absent, all the new buildings too. The people looked different too. They were younger for one, but their clothes were just fabric and leather, no dragon scales.

The entire village was looking at her. Being around Hiccup, Astrid was used to being on display all the time, surrounded by his fans, but this was different. These weren't Hiccup's fans or hers, and Hiccup wasn't here.

Astrid was alone, with Stormfly, on Berk full of dragon fighting Vikings.

"They're not real." Gobber came out from the crowd and moved to stand next to Stoic. Nobody has ever seen a Time Glider, there was no records of them either.

"They are real, and Drago caught some. That's how he and I are here. He's very dangerous, more than you know. He's Drago from 5 years in the future, from my time." She explained.

"And we're supposed to believe that?"

"Look, you have no time to question me right now. You're all in danger. Drago will be back; he is not the type to let things go easily… And he's very angry with Hiccup." Astrid added reluctantly. She shouldn't tell them about the future but this was Drago, and he was after revenge.

"Where is my son?" Stoic asked in a vexed tone of voice that could almost be mistaken for concern. But Astrid knew better than to think Stoic didn't care for Hiccup, no matter how disorienting it was to witness this side of Stoic, who for the past few years became much more relaxed and more open about his real emotions. Especially regarding his son. Suddenly five years began to feel like a lifetime.

"He's safe." Said Astrid simply, and turned around looking up into the sky. She whistled and a few seconds later the Deadly Nadder came flying back with a terrified Hiccup.

"Stormly, drop!" She commanded and Hiccup fell on the ground with a thud. The crowd took a united step forward as the dragon dropped the boy and landed almost on top of him, pinning him to the ground and covering him in the sticky saliva from its tongue.

Astrid immediately ran over to the dragon before anyone could react on impulse of seeing a potentially dangerous dragon in such close proximity to the most untalented killer of the village.

"Stormfly no, leave him! He's not our Hiccup!" She shouted to the dragon, who looked up to look at her and moved to get off the smaller version of the Hiccup she was familiar with. She nudged him with her head and pulled him up onto his feet.

"Hiccup! Are you alright?" Stoic grabbed his son, as soon as the beast was off and with its owner. Astrid somehow gesture-held him back for the past couple of seconds.

"Good girl!" Astrid embraced her dragon and began to scratch her chin. The priority crisis of the day was dealt with, now they needed to face the rest of them.

"Yeah, I'm - I'm fine, dad." Hiccup replied trying to get the sticky substance off of his clothes and hair.

"Sorry Hiccup, it doesn't wash off." Astrid and her dragon came closer. "Stormfly was just happy to see you, she can't tell you apart from my Hiccup. To her you smell the same." She explained. It was hard to miss the odd look that crossed Stoic's eyes when she said 'my Hiccup'.

"You trained this beast?" Gobber asked in wonder, looking over at the dragon. It wasn't trying to kill or steal anything, but it wasn't flying off either. Vikings didn't know how to deal with such enigma.

"Let's just say a lot has changed in 5 years. Or will change." She looked at Stormfly fondly, thinking about the exciting future the oblivious village of hot-headed Vikings would soon face.

Snotlaut has had enough.

'The mill is on fire, Snotlaut, we can't extinguish it.'

'There are mice in the crops we harvested for the winter. A lot of mice! We can't catch them all.'

'The entire complex of houses on the west side has collapsed. Gobber isn't here to lead the reparations, dragons have nowhere to stay.'

'When is Hiccup coming back Snotlaut?'

'Terrible terrors stole all the fishing nets, how are we supposed to catch fish without nets?'

It was like the entire village was in chaos, only why did it have to happen when Snotlaut was in charge? Just this one time when he had a chance to prove himself to Hiccup, to impress him so much Hiccup would promote him to his second in command in an instant, the minute he was back.

This is not what Snotlaut has planned.

Hiccup was supposed to be gobsmacked at how swiftly the village was running with Snotlaut in charge. Now, instead, he will never have time to be gobsmacked because he will be too busy flying around, fixing things and tending to the Vikings' problems, which Snotlaut had no idea how to solve.

It never looked this difficult when Hiccup did it.

"My dragon ate my dining table and three chairs, will he be alright? – How am I supposed to know that? Do I look like a dragon doctor to you? Go and ask Gothi!" Snotlaut was saying to himself as he was on his way to the library.

He needed to check on Fishlegs, in case something important came up and he needed to be elsewhere. Anywhere other than the bloody problematic, end-of-the-yakking-world village.

When was Hiccup coming back?!

"Silence!" Stoic banged his fist on the table. The meeting went on and on, but there was a lot of disagreement on how to deal with Drago, when he comes back. The entire village was present, including the kids.

And Hiccup.

Small, little, innocent Hiccup.

Astrid couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He was leaning against the wall, standing behind the shouting crowd. It was so odd, watching all this, seeing how different Hiccup was treated in the past in comparison to the future.

Everyone loved and respected the 20-year-old Hiccup, but the same people didn't care for the 15-year-old Hiccup at all.

"I say let's give him Hiccup, and he will leave us alone." Someone suggested, and some others agreed. Gobber was about to make a point but Astrid was faster. She hit the table with her axe, making everyone shut up instantly.

"Hiccup is the only reason most of you are still alive in the future. You hand him over, and we all die." She said calmly.

"I'm not sure if that's how…" Spitelout began to say but Astrid never let him finished.

"Well I say it is!" Astrid shouted. "Hiccup that I know would never give up on any of you, and you would just hand him over to Drago?"

"Well, what else can we do? We can't defeat him. Dragons listen to him." Said a member of the council.

"We have to try! We can't just give up." Said Gobber. "We're Vikings for Odin's sake!"

"Astrid can fight him! She defeated him before!" Someone shouted from the crowd.

"Yeah! Astrid can do it! Let's listen to what she has to say."

"She has a dragon you fool! She's just like him!"

"How dare you suggest Astrid is anything like that monster!" Astrid's father threw himself at the other man, raging at the insult to his family name. His daughter was his greatest treasure, no matter if she was a completely different person from the future.

"Enough!" Stoic stood up and had the two Vikings separated. "Now is not the time for this." He said.

"Winter is coming and the little food we had collected for the toughest months was all lost to Drago's beasts. This Drago is 5 years smarted than us. Our options are limited and he knows this. Astrid." Stoic sighted and turned to the woman from the future. "How did you defeat him, in the future?"

"In the future, when we ran into him for the first time, Drago had control of a Dragon King. A Dragon King or Queen has the ability to control all the dragons using hypnosis. We fought him, but Drago stole Hiccup's dragon and came after the rest of our dragons we kept on Berk.

Hiccup managed to shake Toothless out of the hypnosis, Drago was trying to kill Hiccup, so Toothless challenged the Dragon King, and defeated him becoming the alpha, freeing all the dragons from Drago's control. Until recently we believed Drago died that day."

"You're saying you keep those beasts on Berk?" Stoic furrowed his brows dangerously, but Astrid was not intimidated at all.

"Five years is a long time. We don't kill dragons anymore. We train with them, ride on them, we live with them in peace." Astrid explained to the crowd, evoking quite a few gasps and displeased groans.

"And whose idea was this?" Chief asked dangerously, while the crowd was watching the two with stony or concerned faced.

"Technically, it was yours." Astrid said after thinking about it for a minute. It was Hiccup who was responsible for the peace, but ultimately it was Stoic who let the dragons stay on Berk. Hiccup was still unconscious at the time, after nearly dying. "But that's not important right now. We have to defend the village, and protect Hiccup. If Drago kills him, he will change the future, my future will cease to exist, and you will all live in the future Drago will create."

"A future dictated by Drago doesn't sound very appealing." Said Gobber, watching Stoic's grim expression.

Stoic's mind was still stuck on the idea of evil beasts roaming Berk freely. Was his son another Drago? A crazy warlord? Perhaps it would have been best to work with Astrid for now, strategically remove the threat Drago was posing to his village for now. His future son could be taken care of once Drago was dealt with.

"I don't get it. Why on earth is Drago after someone like Hiccup? Why not Stoic who's the Chief?" One of the Vikings asked.

"Because in the future Hiccup is the Chief. He is also responsible for Drago losing his army of dragons and everything he has worked on for years. Drago wants revenge. He has no chance against the experienced, 20-year-old Hiccup so he went after the 15-year-old one who's never even sat on a dragon." Astrid explained.

Hiccup the Chief…

There was only one way his son could become a Chief… And in 5 years' time? Stoic couldn't see himself retiring so soon.

"What is he like? In the future?" asked Stoic, choosing not to ask the question everyone had on their minds.

"Hiccup, is not your ordinary Viking. He has a Night Fury; he can fly with a suit made of yak hides. He has a sword that ignites on command and he's the current Chief of Berk."

Astrid looked where Hiccup was standing just a few minutes ago, wondering how he was taking all this. He must have not taken it all too well, because he seemed to have done what he always did in difficult situations he didn't want to face.

He disappeared.

Thank you for reading x

I have no idea when I will post next as I have quite a few deadlines to hit and it's killing me. lol

Stay safe!