Hiccup waited bright and early the next morning in front of the stables, ready to take off for Berk as soon as Camicazi had all her gear together. They'd agreed to both ride on Toothless in order to save time; Cami could simply come back here for her boat after the treaty negotiations were over. Hiccup thought that part of the reason Cami wanted to fly was that she'd refused to tell either him or the other Dragon Riders where she'd hidden her little vessel. He did know that the twins had spent several hours looking for it the previous day without success.

Toothless butted him in the hand affectionately. Hiccup smiled at the contact and gave his dragon a scratch. "Ready for a long flight, bud?" he asked. Toothless gave a single grunt, which Hiccup took to be the equivalent of, "Well duh!" He shook his head, laughing, and said, "You're right, I knew that."

"You mind a little company?" Hiccup jumped as Astrid's voice called out from overhead. He whirled around to see Stormfly land on the stables deck. Astrid hopped off with a fluid grace that no one else could ever hope to match. Remembering his conversation with Camicazi last night, he blushed slightly as she stepped towards him. Which admittedly, wasn't unusual. What was unusual was that when Astrid's eyes met his, she, unbelievably, turned an even deeper shade of red than he had. She seemed to forget why she had shown up in the first place, and instead just stared for a second as if she were embarrassed to be there. It was all so unlike Astrid that Hiccup had to scramble to remember what they'd been talking about a second before.

"Uh, company?" he asked, after a minute. Astrid seemed to shake herself free of some inner thought.

"Yeah, is it okay if I come with you back to Berk?" She took a few steps back until she could reach Stormfly's tack. "There was a big gust of wind on patrol last night that blew us off balance, and completely ripped through the cinch on Stormfly's saddle, look." She pointed to the long leather strap, which was indeed torn in a ragged line on one end and held together only by some loose stitches. "I can't fly like this for long. I was hoping Gobber could fix it."

Hiccup frowned. He'd planned on leaving Astrid in charge of the Edge while he and Cami were gone. But the strap would clearly have to be repaired before Astrid could do any serious flying, and Hiccup couldn't stay long enough to do it himself. He nodded. "Gobber can fix that in no time. Of course you can come with us. Do you think the saddle will last until we get to Berk?"

"It should," Astrid replied. She seemed oddly relieved for some reason. "As long as we don't meet any dragon hunters on the way. I doubt it will hold up in battle."

"I guess if we run into Viggo, we'll just tell him we'll catch him next time," he joked. Astrid smiled supportively but didn't seem to find it in her to actually laugh. Hiccup coughed in embarrassment and changed the subject. "That must have been some wind," he said, noting the thickness of the leather.

For some reason, this comment seemed to make Astrid nervous again. "Uh, yeah," she said, not meeting his eyes. "It about scared my girl here to death."

Hiccup was glad that Camicazi chose that moment to come around the corner before any of his other attempts at conversation could fall flat. "Cami!" he exclaimed. Then turning around to look at her, he stopped short. "Cami?" What he assumed was his friend appeared to be nothing more than a moving stack of luggage. She'd gone to retrieve all the gear she had left on her boat that she would need for the next few days. While it wasn't a lot, her tiny size made her quite disappear behind the pile. He heard Astrid choke back a snort.

"I'm ready!" the tower of parcels announced happily. Toothless cocked his head as the pile moved towards him. Hiccup moved to intercept it, trying valiantly not to laugh.

"Actually, Cami, hang on a second," he said. The pile stopped its approach. "You can tie some of those to Stormfly, that way Toothless doesn't have to carry so much weight."

"Stormfly?" The pile dropped abruptly to reveal Camicazi's wild-haired visage. She turned to the Nadder and scowled at the girl standing beside it.

"I'm coming with you," Astrid said sweetly. She smiled at Cami, but there was a quirk to her expression that Hiccup didn't quite understand. It almost seemed like triumph.

Cami didn't even try to pretend that she enjoyed this bit of news. She put her hands on her hips and scowled. "Why would you be coming with us?" she asked, derision in her tone. "You're not part of the treaty council."

Hiccup saw Astrid's eyes narrow and quickly stepped in to intervene. "Cami, be nice," he said, scolding. "Her saddle's broken, look." He gestured to the obviously torn strap.

"Well, isn't that convenient," Cami muttered. Hiccup rolled his eyes. He knew Cami disliked Astrid simply for the fact that he'd mentioned, years ago, that he liked her. Cami knew Astrid had been part of the gang which had always cast him aside, and for that reason she held that Astrid would never be good enough for Hiccup. Hiccup supposed the intention was nice, in its way, but for Thor's sake couldn't Cami give Astrid a chance? After all…

"Cami, you promised," he said, fixing her with a sharp look. He didn't want to directly bring up their previous night's conversation in front of Astrid, but he was sure Cami would pick up on what he meant. Sure enough, she held his gaze only a moment before sighing in defeat.

"Where would you like these packages, Astrid?" she asked, turning to address the other shieldmaiden. To Hiccup's relief, Astrid didn't comment on Cami's rudeness and simply helped fasten some of the boxes to Stormfly's saddle. Hiccup couldn't help the little leap in his heart at the thought of Astrid coming with them. Hopefully there would be more of a chance for them to get some time together if they were apart from most of the group.

"Uh, Hiccup? Hiccup!" a shrill voice from somewhere below him recalled his thoughts. He hadn't realized he'd been daydreaming. When he realized what he'd been daydreaming about, he blushed deeply.

"Wha- uh, yeah, Cami? Are we all ready?" He started checking the straps on Toothless's tack simply to give himself something to do.

"I was going to ask you that. Aren't your friends supposed to come see us off?" his small companion replied. The emphasis on the word "friends" sent a tiny sliver of pain through his chest. He trusted his friends, every one of them, with his life, and he knew they did in turn. But one of Cami's comments from last night had stuck with him like a prickly burr. I know they take your orders and fight with you, but is that really the same thing as friendship?

"Er, yeah, I told Fishlegs to meet us here at dawn…" he said, looking all around for the missing Riders. As he glanced at the sun poking over the horizon, a very small voice in his head said, They didn't come, because they don't really care enough about you. You're their heir, not their friend. He shook his head and firmly ignored the voice. He knew that wasn't true. But if that was so, where in Thor's name were th-

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs's and Heather's voices intermingled from above, as five sleepy dragon riders on four sleepy dragons appeared from behind the stables and landed. Tuffnut appeared to be fast asleep on Belch's neck, until his sister flicked him hard on the ear.

"Oww!" the male twin cried, bolting upright and clutching his head. "Wha-?" He noticed he was on his dragon. "Oh, yep, Hiccup, I'm good, all ready for that… thing…" He trailed off and looked sideways at Ruff, trying to get a clue from her as to what they were doing. She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"We're not going on this mission, bro," she said exasperatedly. "Hiccup and his heir pal are leaving for their big royal meeting."

"Oh, good," Tuff said, relaxing. "I thought I'd missed something." He tried to settle back on his dragon's neck, only to have his ear assaulted again. He shot up again in pain. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Hello?" Ruff asked, dragging the word out. "Hiccup is leaving." She jerked her head toward the young heir. "You know what that means."

Hiccup's eyes widened in surprise. Maybe they really did care. Maybe they wanted to wish him well on his journey.

Tuffnut's eyes brightened and he broke into a grin. "Oh yeah!" He locked eyes with his twin, and together they threw their arms in the air and yelled, "No rules!"

Abruptly, Hiccup felt a lump in his stomach as if it'd turned into a chunk of lead. He swallowed hard, almost not even hearing his own automatic, sarcastic reply, "Oh great, really feeling the love there guys." He paused for just a beat, hoping briefly that somebody would admonish the twins on his behalf, but not even Fishlegs spoke up. He shook his head and looked at Heather. "Make sure they don't burn the island down while we're gone."

Heather nodded automatically, then furrowed her brow. "Wait, what about Astrid?"

All eyes looked at the blonde dragon rider, and took in the packages strapped to Stormfly's saddle. "I'm coming with them. Look." She showed the spectacularly ripped cinch to the other riders. "You'll hold down the fort while we're gone?"

Heather gave Astrid a searching look, which Astrid refused to meet. Before Hiccup could really think about it though, Snotlout broke in. "Why does she get to be in charge?"

"Hiccup said so," Astrid replied. Snotlout sneered at that.

"Hiccup said so," he mocked, in a high nasally tone. "Who says Hiccup gets to pick who's in charge?"

Astrid crossed her arms with a glare. "Really?"

"Fine," Snotlout said grumpily, backing down. He prodded Hookfang toward the edge of the stable landing platform. "Go off on your little field trip with your little royal buddy, I'm out of here." He took off without even a backward glance.

The lump in Hiccup's stomach seemed to double. Don't read too much into it, it's Snotlout, he tried to remind himself. Niceness from Snotlout or the twins would have actually been unexpected. It didn't mean they didn't care, they just showed it… differently. He did hope for better from Fishlegs, who sleepily approached next.

"So Hiccup-," Fishlegs began, but he was cut off by a loud humph from Meatlug. He turned around to face his dragon instead. "What's the matter, girl?" Meatlug pawed at the ground with one foreleg, then held it out toward her rider. "Oh of course," Fishlegs exclaimed, eyes widening. "We got up so early that I forgot to give Meatlug her morning foot massage! Anything for my little princess," he explained to Camicazi, who'd frowned skeptically at this explanation. "Gotta go, sorry guys!" And without another word, he too clambered onto his dragon and left the porch.

Astrid rolled her eyes and looked at Heather, the only other rider still there. "Looks like you'll have your work cut out for you while we're gone."

"Guess so," Heather said, her eyes not leaving Astrid's. Hiccup realized that Heather had been staring at Astrid ever since she'd announced she was coming to Berk. Her tone had a hint of steel in it as she said, eyes still pinned on the other girl, "Take care of each other. Don't… forget what you're about." She turned Windshear around and flew off toward Astrid's hut.

An awkward silence followed this cryptic and unexpected exit. Hiccup barely noticed that Astrid stared off after Heather, an almost guilty look on her face. After a moment Cami let out a low whistle. "Wow, seems like those guys are real cut up that you're leaving, pal. Some friends." She put an emphasis on the final word that put a splinter of ice through Hiccup's heart. The lump in his stomach seemed to spread to the rest of him, leaving him numb. He didn't take in anything for a moment, until Toothless bumped his hand with his snout and trilled a worried note. He realized Cami had said something.

"Huh? Sorry Cami," he said, trying to shake the feeling away. She rolled her eyes.

" I said, shouldn't we get going? You said we had to leave at dawn if we wanted to get there by supper."

"Oh, yeah," he said. With a shake of his head, he mounted Toothless and held out a hand for Cami, only to find she'd somehow already materialized on the dragon's back behind him. She bounced slightly in the saddle, clearly eager for more flying. Seeing her excitement cheered Hiccup slightly, and he gave his exuberant friend a cockeyed grin. "Hold on tight," he told her, and she obediently wrapped her arms around his waist. He turned to their third companion. "Ready, Astrid?"

Astrid turned her gaze from where she'd followed Heather's dragon out of sight. She seemed a little troubled, Hiccup thought. He knew Astrid and Heather were close, so maybe Astrid was sad to be leaving her friend. Before he could ask about it, though, Astrid noticed Cami's hands on his waist and she quickly turned back to face Stormfly's head. "Let's head out!" she called, taking off. Toothless warbled and Hiccup automatically clicked the tailfin in place for his dragon to follow his friend, enjoying Cami's shriek of glee as they rose into the one place he always felt at home: the sky.

But just before it disappeared from sight, Hiccup allowed himself one look back at the Edge, where not one of his friends had told him goodbye.

A/N: Thank you all! I know there hasn't been a lot of action yet, but I promise the next chapter will have a lot more plot! This chapter was just so long that I had to cut it in half. As always, I take story suggestions by review or DM!