Far from the Nightfury, back upon the island of Berk where the first bond of dragon and Viking was truly forged, the Village had continued to struggle over the loss of Toothless. His brother, Hiccup, had drifted far from the village, far from his friends and family, locked away from concerned, worried eyes and frightened Vikings; the auburn male spent day after day, locked within his room, ignoring his duties, ignoring his friends, ignoring everyone. It didn't really take much to notice that Berk was slowly falling apart.

Hair a mess, unclean, and dull, lifeless eyes stared at the drawing he had etched of Toothless, the fabric stained with his tears. He barely ate, barely drank, and spent all of his time staring blankly, crying, and laying restless in bed. Valka had tried tirelessly with Astrid and Gobber, but all of them he had shut away; in anger some things had been said that only made Hiccup feel worse once he had exhausted his temper. Snotlout had been relieved of his Second in Command, Astrid taking on full control of the Village in Hiccup's name with Gobber at her side. The cousin, as terrible as he used to be, had served, well enough, but it became more and more apparent he was not the right choice.

Eventually, he had began causing more problems than he was fixing, and when he tried to fix those problems he had caused, he only caused another, all the while with good intents but lacking the necessary.. anything. He served well enough when there was Hiccup to keep a real close eye on him, even though he had basically done absolutely nothing himself, he gave off a good impression to the Vikings. Then it became apparent it was all because of Hiccup instead.

The statue of Toothless still stood tall and proud, the people finding an element of saftey from the monument. Even without Toothless, they still felt the saftey of his presence, even if it was little more than a symbol now. Many dragons, without a true Alpha, had left, only those with Rider's and few of Drago's enslaved ones still remained directly on Berk, under Cloudjumper's command.

For the third time that day, Astrid knocked at Hiccup's door, her voice desperate to see him. This all started a day or two after he saw the statue, and now, Astrid was beyond terrified for Hiccup. "Hiccup... please... open the door." Tears pricked at her eyes, refusing to fall. "Please... Hiccup... open the door."

"Astrid.. Go away." The monotonous voice of Hiccup responded; despite how lifeless it was, it actually calmed her if only slightly. Atleast he had acknowledged her this time, other times he never spoke a word. "Please, leave me alone."

Her head rested against the door, the shieldmaiden blinking away her tears, taking deep breaths. She wasn't even expecting him to say anything. "No, Hiccup.. You've been left alone for ages.. I need to see you. Please, open the door. It's just me, Valka's helping Gobber, Fishlegs, Snotlout and the Twins are at the Academy.. Please open the door for me." Never had her voice sounded so weak and fragile.

"Why?" He sounded closer, as if he was leaning against the door just like she was. "Astrid, just go away.. please." For once, instead of the defeated expression, she glared challengingly at the door blocking her from him.

"No, I'm not fucking walking off anymore.. You're either gonna open that door on I'm going to take it off." She wasn't going to waste anymore time waiting. Hiccup NEEDED to stop hiding away. "Five... Four... Three... Two... One." Just as she went to begin attempting to forcefully open the door, she heard it unlock from inside, opening to a small crack, she saw Hiccup's tired, pale face look through at her.

"What do you want?" So monotone. Instead of answeing, she simply pushed the door open and barged in, grabbing Hiccup and pulling him into a bone-crushing hug.

"I want my fucking boyfriend back!" She practically screamed, feeling salty tears slowly work their way down her cheeks. "I can't do it any longer Hiccup.. I can't just fucking wait for you, let you continue fucking hurting. I need you to talk to me... I NEED you to be you again. Atleast.. as much of you as you can be. I can't lose you Hiccup... I'd fight any amount of battles to keep you safe... I can't lose you."

He just stood there, trapped in her iron-grip hug, listening to her whimper's, feeling her fear, her distress and sadness weigh on his heart and the burden of grief from Toothless that already sat upon it. "I can't do this Hiccup.. I can't keep praying to the God's thing's will get better when I know they won't if you keep hiding away. I don't have a fucking clue what you're going through, and I can't even properly imagine how much pain it causes you." She crushed him even tighter in her grip.

"I can't bare the thought of feeling that much pain.. I don't know what to do Hiccup. I can't just leave you to suffer in silence, but I don't have a fucking clue how to help you. Not unless you talk to me." Finally, she turned her eyes to meet his own, the once dull emerald orbs had retained the glow they held before, albeit if slightly less mesmerising, but now there was life, emotion in them. Tears pricked at his eyes, the fields of green swimming with so much pain, grief and despair.

"I don't... I don't know what to do Astrid..." He finally spoke, no longer in the monotonous voice he had previously responded with, now, there was depth, there was guilt, fear, the voice of a broken man. "I miss him so much. I fucking miss him so fucking much." He refused to break down into tears infront of her, but the struggle of coping with the loss was obvious. "I feel like I'm nothing without him."

"Hiccup... I can't imagine how shit everything feels. I can't pretend to know what you're going through." She wiped away his falling tears with her finger, pulling him back into a bone-breaking hug, she buried her face into the crook of his neck. "Hiccup... you're worth so much... I can't imagine losing Stormfly. I don't know how I'd cope, but... think of Toothless... Hiccup he loved you more than anything, do you think he'd want to see you suffering like this?"

"N-no.."

"Hiccup... You can't blame yourself.. You can't isolate yourself. Valka loves you, Berk looks up to you. Gobber respects you... I love you.. We need OUR Hiccup back." She raised her head to meet his, eyes locking in a silent conversation. "I love you more than anything Hiccup... I can't bare to lose you." She began to feel weak, clutching to him like he was a life-line. "Please... Please... Don't keep doing this."

"I can't... I can't deal with it Astrid.. I can't believe I failed him."

"You never failed him Hiccup... There was nothing anyone could've done in that situation. Snotlout and the twins searched for hours that day. We've been searching for hours for the past few weeks. You can't, you shouldn't blame yourself for something you couldn't control. It's not fair. Please, please Hiccup... You don't have to face this alone..." She clasped his hands in her own, staring into his eyes, she shared a loving kiss with him. "You never have to face anything alone... Not while I'm by your side."

~...~

Laughter erupted as Eclipse tackled the unprepared form of Toothless, smirking triumphantly as she pinned the male down. "Got ya again.. This is too easy Tooth." She laughed, bouncing away from him.

"Oh please, I'm going easy on you Eclipse." He rebuttled, rising back to his feet, he sent a playful glare her way. "You want me to play rough?"

The female proceeded with the equivalent of raising an eyebrow; looking at him curiously, she teased. "Depends how you mean rough." She smiled innocently at him, much to his embarrassment.

"Not that kind of rough." His cheeks had darkened ever so slightly at her insinuation. "So, you want me to stop going easy on you or not?"

"Depends."

"Depends on what?"

"If it's still going to be as fun when I kick your tail again." A cocky smirk found itself shifting onto her face, instinctively lowering herself, ready to pounce on him instantly.

"You're not going to kick my ass again."

"I wouldn't put so much faith in yourself Toothless.." A new, but not unrecognized voice added itself to the conversation. "Eclipse is alot better at fighting than you think." Her brother stepped out from behind one of the rocks, walking into the open, flanked by Autumn and Falcon. Toothless couldn't help but gulp nervously at the sight of Lea, unsure of the brother's opinion of him.

"Hey.. You're not trying to rip Toothless' head off. I knew you had it in you to be nice." Falcon joked, walking around to Autumn.

"Only because you pair bugged me so much about it."

"About what?" Eclipse made a step closer to Toothless, as if she was testing him.

"About giving Toothless a chance. They wouldn't let the fact go that you're not as bad I think you are. To be honest, I really hope for your sake their not proven wrong."

"Don't worry about it. I don't plan to prove them wrong." He noticed out of the corner of his eye another Nightfury spying on them, a female who looked not that much younger than Lea, though he couldn't be sure from the distance. Lea and the others followed his focus, forcing the female to shrink back, almost sadly when Lea glared at her. "Who was that?"

Lea sighed, turning to face Toothless. "Harpy. She's never going to be friendly to you, she hates outsiders."

"What happened to her? Eclipse mentioned her."

"It's a long story, one you don't deserve to hear from me. I'm not saying anything out of respect for her... All I will say is this.. If you want to get to know her.. Just, be super careful what you say. Trust me Toothless, she won't hesistate to try and kill you." Lea shuddered as if recalling an unpleasent memory. Toothless nodded, then glared playfully at Eclipse.

"Now... I believe I was just about to kick you tail." She glared back in an equally challenging but playful way.

"You're on."

Lea lowered himself, sharing his own playful expression. "You're both going down." Then of course, Autumn and Falcon both jumped into the game, nodding at each other as if agreeing to an unspoken conversation.

"Let's go." They spoke in unison, and it quickly became apparent they were teaming up against the others. On an unspoken count of three, all the dragons began playing their game, each determined to emerge the victor.