"You can yearn for life to be simple or,
You can learn from strife, let it build your core;
And refuse, refuse, refuse,
Don't you bow to the abuse..."
Epilogue: Dawn of the Night
The towering sentinels that watched over Berk's harbour were stone reflections of her people; rugged and weatherbeaten, they clung doggedly to the rocks despite generations of storms' effort to dislodge them.
As their rough-carved features peeked over the horizon, a large figure stepped up to the prow of the battered longship below Hiccup. He didn't need a Night Fury's eyes to recognise the red-haired giant shouting encouragement to the exhausted sailors.
A weary cheer came from the crew; they had spent most of the last week at sea, battling against the elements to return Berk's warriors before the ice set in. Now, home was in sight, and with their chieftain aboard, they knew they could finally rest - as, of course, Stoick the Vast had refused to set foot on a ship until he was the last Viking on the beach.
Hiccup let out a small sigh of relief; everyone had made it back okay. However, the moment was also tinged with sadness; his father's return meant he couldn't delay their plans any longer...
The whistle of air over a Night Fury's fins cut through his thoughts.
Muninn's wings opened with a taut snap. "Hey!" He called, glancing sideways; she flew straight and level, the air parting smoothly over her sinuous form. "You're flying a lot better today," he commented. "I take it your fin is fully healed?"
"Yes!" she replied, flexing her tail - and weaving back and forth in the air. "I feel like I could fly for days!"
Hiccup said nothing, staring down at his father. He wondered if Stoick even realised they were watching.
"So," Muninn broke the silence. She peered at the longship beneath them. "That's your sire?"
"Aye, Chief Stoick Haddock 'The Vast' of Berk; the only Viking chief in the world with a Night Fury as heir."
Officially, at least, he added; if his former people objected to being led by a Hiccup, he doubted they would accept a dragon much better.
"Which one's your dam?"
"She's dead."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I-"
"It's okay," he interrupted. "I don't really remember her; she was taken a few months after I was born."
"Taken?"
He sighed. "Yes. According to my dad, a dragon broke into our house one night and carried her off, screaming, in its claws." He looked to the Night Fury beside him. "Do you...?"
Muninn winced. "No," she replied eventually. "All the raids I remember, She never made us take any Humans alive." She met his gaze. "I'm sorry, Hiccup."
"It's fine," he told her. "If anything, I should be the one apologizing; I know it's not easy, thinking about... those things." Every night since the battle, his dreams had been full of blood and fire; be it Berk, Dökkhöfn, or the shores of the Nest; the screams were always the same.
He couldn't begin to imagine what it must be like having lived a lifetime of that.
He shook himself, focusing on the tiny ship far below them, judging the distance between them and the island.
"I'm heading back," he told Muninn, turning towards Berk. "It will be at least an hour before they land."
Hiccup increased his pace as he flew homewards. The wind roared in his ears. The air caressed his scales as it split over his body. He closed his eyes, luxuriating in the feeling. The days after the Queen's defeat hadn't been easy, and simply flying had become his escape.
When the memories threatened to drown out his thoughts, or he found himself staring longingly towards Gobber's forge, he could push off and leave it all behind for a few precious moments. The feeling of the wind rushing past him, and of power in his wings as they beat against the air; the sheer freedom of soaring a mile above the ocean, it reminded him that things could, and would, change for the better.
The view beneath him certainly helped.
When Stoick docked, he would barely recognise Berk as the same wet heap of rock he'd left behind. Hiccup dipped his wing slightly, banking in a wide arc over the village. When he, Muninn and the Riders - as Astrid and the other teens had come to be known - had left the nest, they hadn't been expecting the flock to follow them en masse.
Now, the roofs of the village were buried beneath a riot of different coloured dragons, with many more spread out over the nearby fields - much to the initial panic of the shepherds. Stormfly's initiative to feed the Vikings on the beach had taken on a life of its own amongst the flock, and the village had found itself so inundated with gifts of fish, that they'd taken to using the raid torches as communal feeding troughs.
Hiccup spotted the Nadder sitting on a patch of grass overlooking the docks, and spiralled down to join her. As he approached, his ear fins pricked and he heard her quietly chanting:
"High above the ground,
Beyond the thunderclouds,
A black shade is flying alone!
Once so feared among kin,
Now her legend is becoming too old..."
Stormfly looked up, then bowed to him and Muninn - who had caught up while he descended. "Greetings, Alphas."
Hiccup flared his wings and gently settled to the ground in front of her. "What was that you were singing?"
The Nadder looked away. "That was your song, Alpha."
"My song?"
Stormfly glanced at Muninn as she came in to land. "It's both of yours. The Songkeepers swore to remember the songs of the dragons of old. Now, thanks to the two of you, there are new stories to learn.
"Generations from now, hatchlings will look to their sires and their dams, and ask how the Queen was defeated; and then, in their darkest moments, when all hope seems lost, they will remember the story of how their kind was freed, and that as long as they are there to take it, there will always come a chance."
Stormfly inclined her head. "It is my duty and honour to add your song to my collection, Alphas."
Hiccup felt a flush of embarrassment. "I didn't do it to have songs written about me!" He objected. "It was the right thing to do! Anybody else would have done the same!"
Stormfly hummed softly, giving him a sympathetic look. "And that is why you will make a better Alpha than the Queen, Hiccup."
His ear-fins perked at the sound of footsteps. He looked up as Astrid crested the ramps leading from the harbour. "Hey, girl!" She called, walking over and holding her hand out to Stormfly, who eagerly nuzzled into it.
Astrid turned to face him. "Your dad just docked." Her expression became serious. "It's time."
"Are you ready?" he asked Muninn.
She nodded.
He turned back to Astrid and Stormfly.
'THANK YOU' he wrote in the dirt. "Both of you," he added, looking at Stormfly. 'FOR EVERYTHING.'
"And from me," Munin put in. "If you hadn't helped him... I wouldn't be here."
The Nadder mantled her wings and bowed formally. "It was an honour, my Alphas."
Astrid nervously held out her hand. Hiccup stepped forwards, touching his muzzle to her palm, as he had when they'd first trusted each other, which felt like so long ago.
"You're welcome," she whispered. Hiccup thought he saw a glimmer of moisture in the young Vikings eyes. "Hiccup, I..."
She trailed off, but Hiccup understood what she was trying to say; since he became a dragon, they'd discovered they had so much more in common than they thought possible. Perhaps, her eyes told him, in another world, where things had gone differently, they could have been more than friends.
Hiccup hummed deeply and stepped back.
Astrid blinked, and the steely warrior the rest of the village knew returned. "Come on," she said, "They're waiting for you in the square."
Fishlegs met them on the steps of the Mead Hall along with the Gronckle he rode in the battle. The large boy leapt to his feet as soon as he saw them approaching. "Hi Hiccup! Hi Muninn!"
Hiccup inclined his head in greeting.
"Guys! Uh... Ladies - what do you call female dragons? - and Hiccup, I finally came up with a name for him!" He gestured to the Gronckle. "Everyone, this is Meatlug."
"Meatlug?!" Astrid repeated.
"Yeah, uh..." Fishlegs rubbed the back of his neck. "I couldn't come up with a good name, so I, uh, shouted something in frustration, and it kind of stuck..."
Hiccup turned to the Gronckle in question. She twitched her wings in a shrug. "It's as good a name as any. What matters is the one who gave it to me."
Something occurred to him. "Wait a moment. Fishlegs called you 'him', aren't you...?"
Meatlug sighed. "Yes, I'm female. I've tried to tell him, but he doesn't understand."
As if just remembering he was there, Fishlegs spun towards him, pulling out a book and charcoal pencil. "Oh, Hiccup! There's so many things I wanted to ask you! How high can you fly? How fast? What's your shot limit?"
Astrid held out a hand. "Slow down, he can only answer one question at a time."
Fishlegs took a breath. "Okay, Have you felt any urges to hoard gold and jewels since becoming a dragon?"
Hiccup gave him a flat stare. He wrote three words in the dust.
'I'M A VIKING.'
Fishlegs stared at his reply for a moment. "Oh. You, uh, have a point..."
Hiccup glanced at Meatlug. 'FISH, THERE'S'
His runes were obscured by a cloud of dust as a Zippleback swooped low over their heads.
"Out of the way!" Ruffnut yelled.
"Barf and Belch coming through!" her twin finished.
The two-headed dragon backwinged at the last minute and landed heavily on the cobbles, nearly knocking over a group of villagers.
Hiccup sighed. The Thorstons had started calling the twin heads of the Zippleback 'Barf' and 'Belch' almost as soon as the battle was over, and nothing anyone said could change their minds.
That just left Orvar and the Nightmare. As if on cue, the crimson dragon touched down in an empty corner of square. He crouched down low - his belly scales nearly touching the cobbles.
The younger Hofferson child slid down from his neck. "Thanks, Hookfang," he said, patting the Nightmare's snout.
Hiccup addressed the three dragons. "You didn't have to come back - you don't owe these people anything." He inclined his head. "Thank you."
Hookfang stood up to his full height - the Nightmare seemed to have become the trio's unofficial mouthpiece. "Stormfly trusts these Vikings; we trust her."
Hiccup turned to the Nadder, she shuffled her wings uncomfortably. "Where Astrid goes, I go."
"And," Hookfang continued, looking over at Orvar. "These hatchlings flew with us against the Queen; whether they know it or not, we are wing-mates now."
Hiccup nodded. If his former people shared any values with the dragons, it was appreciation of the bonds forged in battle with a common foe.
Before he could say anything else, there was a commotion on the far side of the square, as Stoick arrived, with seemingly the entire village in tow. The Berkians crammed into the courtyard, forming a tight ring around him and the dragons.
Hiccup's wings twitched, and he growled low in his throat, barely suppressing the urge to leap into the air. Astrid shot him a concerned look.
He couldn't help it; the last time this many Vikings had been near him, they'd been pinning him against the wall of the cove.
"I'm okay," he said, "It's just bad memories." He wasn't sure if he was telling himself or Astrid.
Hiccup took a deep breath, and stepped forwards to meet his father. On the buildings around the square, the former flock raised their heads, watching the scene intently.
"Hiccup."
"Dad."
"You don't have to do this, son. We can't change overnight, but we're making progress..." His voice cracked, taking on a pleading, almost begging, tone. "Just tell me what I need to do to make you stay!"
Hiccup's heart ached. He almost caved; his father had been through enough, they didn't need to do this now - they could wait until things settled down, at least until the spring thaw...
He looked back at Muninn.
'IT WON'T WORK,' he wrote, with a heavy paw. 'YOU HURT ME.'
"Gods, son, I'm sorry..." Stoick murmured, so quiet he wasn't sure if he was meant to hear.
'AND,' Hiccup continued. The screams of the Meatheads echoed in his ears. 'I HURT ALL OF YOU.
'IT'S FOR THE BEST. FOR BOTH OF US.'
Hiccup saw the moment Stoick realised he wouldn't change his mind; his shoulders slumped, and his face took on a resigned expression.
"Where will you go?" he asked, hoarsely.
'WEST - TOWARDS GRŒNLAND, I THINK.'
"Why? All you'll find out there is ice and outcasts."
'MUNINN THINKS IT'S WHERE HER OLD HOME WAS. WE BOTH NEED TO LEARN ABOUT BEING FURIES - IT'S THE ONLY PLACE TO GO.
'AND,' he added, 'IT'S FAR ENOUGH THAT WE'LL HAVE TIME TO PROCESS WHAT HAPPENED TO US.'
Hiccup cleared the ground with a sweep of his tail. 'ALSO,' he hesitated, ear-fins burning; If he was still human, he would have been blushing furiously.
"What is it, son?"
'SHE'S THE LAST FEMALE FURY, AND I'M THE LAST MALE.' It went unspoken between them, but both he and Muninn knew what they'd have to do eventually if their species was to continue.
"Hah!" Gobber barked, elbowing Stoick in the ribs. "I always told you not to worry about him, Stoick; that he'd have no trouble with the ladies!"
Hiccup tried to look anywhere other than at Gobber or his father.
"Same old Hiccup!" sneered a voice he'd hoped to forget. Snotlout pushed his way to the front of the crowd. "You haven't changed, have you? As usual, you've screwed up everything!" He gestured wildly to the dragons surrounding them. "And now you're leaving us to clean up your mess!"
Stormfly's spines clattered behind Hiccup, an angry hiss issuing from the Nadder.
"You dare!" Astrid growled. "I ought to-!"
Spitelout stepped out of the crowd and rested a hand on his son's shoulder. "My boy has a point." He swiveled his gaze onto Hiccup. "Stoick said the beasts look to you and the other devil as chiefs. What happens after you leave? What's to stop them turning on us?"
A murmur of agreement came from the older members of the crowd.
Hiccup took a deep breath; he was worried something like this might happen. He turned to Astrid, and quickly scribbled 'WILL YOU READ WHAT I WRITE, SO EVERYONE CAN HEAR?'
She nodded.
Hiccup stepped forwards to face Spitelout and his son, Astrid beside him. He felt a momentary thrill as he raised his claw and Snotlout's eyes widened in fear.
'THE DRAGONS WANT PEACE' he wrote - and read aloud for the flock's benefit.
He looked around, trying to meet the eyes of as many Vikings as he could.
'HOW MANY OF YOU, HONESTLY, WANT TO KEEP FIGHTING?'
A few murmurs came from the crowd.
'EVEN IF THAT MEANS SEEING MORE OF YOUR FRIENDS BURNED?'
Nobody said a word.
'ALL OF US,' he continued. 'DRAGONS AND VIKINGS, SUFFERED IN THE QUEEN'S WAR.
'YOU HAVE A SECOND CHANCE; A FRESH START.
'YOU DON'T HAVE TO WELCOME THEM INTO YOUR HOMES AND NESTS OVERNIGHT, JUST TRUST THAT THEY WANT AN END TO THE BLOODSHED AS MUCH AS YOU.
'IS THAT SO HARD?'
Hiccup looked up at the former flock. 'MUNINN AND I HAVE TO GO, BUT YOU ARE NOT ALONE. WHEN YOU ARE READY TO MOVE FORWARDS, LOOK TO ASTRID AND STORMFLY,' The Viking's speech faltered as she read her name. 'THEY WILL SHOW YOU THE WAY.'
He looked back at Snotlout; he was staring at Astrid, his mouth flapping open and closed, but no sound coming out.
Hiccup stepped back and faced Stormfly. "Was that enough?" he asked softly. "Will they listen to me?"
Stormfly bowed her head. "You spoke like a true Alpha."
He turned to Astrid. 'I'M TRUSTING YOU TWO TO KEEP THE PEACE,' he wrote - still reading aloud for Stormfly's sake.
Stormfly spread her wings and bowed formally. "As you command, my Alpha."
Astrid laid a hand on her Nadder's shoulder. "We'll try our best, Hiccup."
He turned back to face his father.
"So, this is it," Stoick murmured.
'I'M NOT LEAVING FOREVER,' Hiccup wrote. 'MUNINN AND I JUST NEED TIME. WE WILL COME BACK WHEN WE'RE BOTH READY. I PROMISE.'
"Hiccup," Stoick began. "Every father hopes that one day their son will grow strong enough to leave them behind. I know I've not done anything to be worthy of it, but I'm proud -" His voice cracked. "I'm proud to call you my son."
Hiccup's eyes watered. He squinted through the tears as Stoick continued.
"I just wish it wasn't like... this."
'YOU JUST GESTURED TO ALL OF ME'
Stoick chuckled, tears sparkling at the corners of his eyes.
"Goodbye, my son."
'GOODBYE, DAD.'
An audible sob came from Gobber. Hiccup looked over at him.
"You know me," he said, wiping his eyes, "I hate goodbyes!" He took a steadying breath. "Good luck out there, and treat that lady dragon right, you hear me?" He brandished his hook in a vaguely threatening manner.
Hiccup felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. 'I'LL MISS YOU, GOBBER.'
He turned to Astrid.
"Goodbye, Hiccup," she whispered.
Stormfly bowed a final time. "Fly safe, my Alphas."
'GOOD LUCK,' he wished them.
Finally, he turned to face Muninn. "Is it time?" She asked.
"It's time."
The villagers backed off as Hiccup spread his pitch-black wings. He straightened his tail behind him, fanning out first his sub-wings, and then his tail fins. He crouched lower, feeling the strength in the bunched muscles lining his chest.
The breeze blowing through the village shifted. Hiccup felt the change on his sensitive flight surfaces and instinctively adjusted his fins to compensate.
He took one last look at the faces surrounding him. This is not the last time I see them, he told himself.
He launched himself into the air. A heartbeat later, his wings drove downwards, carrying him into the sky.
Hiccup circled his home a final time as Muninn rose up to join him. "Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked her. "You know what we're going to find."
"I am," she replied. "All my life, I've wondered what happened to my parents that day... I know we'll probably never find them, but..." she looked over at him. "I have to try."
"Then let's go!" Hiccup broke the circle, pointing his nose westward. His wings beat, and Berk shrank away behind him.
The wind whistled in the boy-turned-Night-Fury's ears. The salty tang of fresh, sea air filled his nostrils. The winter sun shone down, warming the scales on his spine, sparking off the ocean far below, and making the icebergs tossed upon the waves glow, as if lit from within by blue-green light.
A surge of excitement filled him. Ever since he'd first seen his father's sea charts as a boy, part of him had dreamed of escaping the confines of Berk and seeing all the world had to offer. Now, his eyes saw more than any human's and his muscles brimmed with energy to carry him further and faster than any Viking longship.
HIccup looked to the side. Muninn soared alongside him, comfortably keeping pace. He fixed his eyes forwards.
Yes, he was leaving his home and everyone he had ever known behind, and he knew that the pain the Queen had inflicted on both of them would linger long after the physical scars faded. But he refused to let the shadows of the past consume him.
After all, they were Night Furies - their true strength came from darkness.
"...And as the night falls blue,
Watching from a bird's eye view..."
Astrid shifted restlessly beneath her thin blanket. She opened her eyes. Above her, the Mead Hall's vaulted ceiling was shrouded in darkness; the faint glow cast by the banked fire not enough to pierce the gloom. The only sounds to meet her ears were the quiet murmurs of slumbering Vikings.
She sighed softly, resigning herself to another night of fitful sleep. She almost wished that they were back on Helheim's gate; despite the cold, and the damp, and the rocky ground, she had slept soundly; far better than she had the last week; warm, dry, and surrounded by her people.
As soon as she had laid down on the beach, Stormfly had extended her wing, sheltering her, like she had in the storm she was named for.
Astrid got to her feet; she couldn't face another interminable night staring up at the stone arches. Carrying her blanket, she carefully picked her way around the sleeping bodies; perhaps some fresh air would help.
She slipped into the kitchens attached to the hall, then out through a side door, into the faintly green-lit night.
The village was quiet and still, the only movement high above her; gossamer curtains of emerald light drifting on an ethereal breeze. She stood there, eyes wandering over the slopes and roofs surrounding the hall - every surface packed tight with mounds of resting dragons. Her ears picked up a gentle murmuring; an undercurrent of soft coos and quiet growls, a sound not too different from the sleeping humans mere feet away.
A spark of reflected light caught Astrid's eye. A dragon lay alone beside the Mead Hall steps, gazing up at the aurora, her eyes glimmering green. The Northern Lights painted everything below them in grassy shades, but she didn't need to see colour to recognise her Nadder.
Stormfly cooed softly as she approached.
"Couldn't sleep either, huh, girl?" Astrid asked, gently scratching the Nadder's neck.
Stormfly purred deeply, arching into her fingers.
Astrid tilted her neck back, gazing up at the shifting patterns of light.
A deep sense of calm washed over her. After all the stress and anxiety of the past few weeks, the simple serenity of watching the stars with a friend felt incredibly soothing, like slipping into a hot bath after a hard day's training.
Unfortunately, she couldn't ignore the chill of the night for long, and a shiver went through her frame.
Stormfly cooed; Astrid looked down as her dragon shifted so that she lay on her side - legs stretched out before her - and raised her right wing
"Are you sure, girl? I can go back-"
The Nadder interrupted with a chirp, bumping Astrid's hip with her muzzle - gently nudging the Viking towards her flank.
Astrid looked down at her blanket, almost forgotten in her left hand, she spread it out on the ground and then lay down, nestling close to her Nadder's side. Stormfly hummed in contentment, curling around her, so her head lay beside Astrid's own. Finally, she lowered her wing over the two of them.
Almost immediately, the chill vanished from the air trapped within the living tent.
Astrid closed her eyes and let out a long, slow breath, feeling all the tension and nervous energy trapped within her drain away. She lay there, in perfect darkness, listening as the gentle rhythm of air rushing in and out of Stormfly's lungs slowed and evened out.
Careful not to wake her Nadder, Astrid raised her hand and ghosted her fingers over the membrane covering them.
Her fingertips passed over a small ridge. Astrid followed it, tracing the scar left by her knife.
A few short weeks ago, she would have thought being this close to a dragon was a death sentence. Now though, being here, safe and sheltered beneath her Stormfly's wing, just felt... right.
Wait a moment. Her Stormfly?
How long had she been...?
She knew better than almost any Viking that dragons were thinking, feeling creatures, yet she knew, with that same sense of instinctive, unequivocal rightness that told her she was safe beneath her wing, that Stormfly was hers; and that the Nadder felt the same way about her.
Astrid looked over her memories of the time since they met with a critical eye, searching for when this possessive streak had started.
She kept coming back to her first trip to the nest; to the moment when Stormfly came back to her. In that instant, she had felt the Nadder's emotions so keenly they were like her own.
Through Hiccup, Stormfly had told her that she was one of a rare breed of 'normal' dragons who could also use the power of the Queen and the Night Furies, but she hadn't been aware of her heritage until that moment in the nest.
Astrid had been too focused on survival to notice it at the time, but something inexplicable had happened in their frantic flight from the nest. Before that moment she'd been a dead weight on Stormfly's back, then, suddenly, she was moving with her dragon like she'd ridden all her life. It hadn't just been terror and instinct guiding her motions, she'd felt it; then, and again as they wove through the chaos above the beach; an almost sixth sense, telling her how her Nadder was going to move.
As the realisation began to dawn on her, she felt it: a pinprick of light deep within her mind; alien, but also as intensely familiar as the Nadder curled around her. Instinctively, she reached for it.
Blue light flashed in the darkness.
Her eyes shot open. A familiar wisp of sapphire energy drifted up from her palm.
The faint glow illuminated an ugly pink scar slicing across her left hand - with all that had happened, she'd forgotten her little accident with the fish knife.
Astrid watched, breathless, as the scar rippled, then vanished before her eyes.
"... I won't lay down;
There's a darker shade of courage,
In the strength I've found,
And it's letting loose the savage side of me."
- Miracle of Sound, 'The Savage Side of Me'
Here ends the first song of the Age of Night
Grœnland - the old Norse name for Greenland. The first Norse settlement on the island was founded by Erik the Red in 986 CE after being exiled from Iceland for murder.
Author's Notes:
It is done.
It took two years, and fifty thousand words longer than expected, but Shadow of the Night is finally finished. Ideally, I'd make some grand reflection here about the product of my labour over the last three years, but I think it will be a while before I can look back on this story with any sense of perspective.
I'd like to think that my writing skills have improved somewhat over the years. Certainly, looking back over the early chapters now, there are things I would change, but down that way lies the trap of endlessly revising old material and madness. Maybe someday, I'll come back and rework the first half, but for now the story will stand as it is.
Moving on to this chapter, the lyrics of Stormfly's song are adapted from 'Deathbringer From The Sky' by Finnish heavy metal band Ensiferum. I know I did the "adapted" lyrics thing last time, and I also have the Miracle of Sound quote in this chapter, but I had to put the reference in, as so much of this story was written listening to Ensiferum's music, and also because Stormfly is supposedly a songkeeper, but she hadn't actually sung anything in the entire story.
I tried my best to deliver it as organically as possible, I found myself having to give a lot of exposition in this chapter about things that had happened in the previous week. While this does mirror the structure of the movie, perhaps, in hindsight, I could have had an extra chapter to show Hiccup and Muninn deciding that they needed to leave Berk, but as I've alluded to previously, I wanted this story finished ASAP, and didn't want to have to rework my outline again.
Hiccup's section was planned to be a lot more light-hearted than it ended up being, but, like with Muninn, I wanted my plot to have consequences for my characters. So, as I was writing it, Hiccup ended up in a darker place than I intended, although I still tried to leave him on a hopeful note.
I'm sure that no matter what I say, some of you are going to shout at me in the reviews for leaving on another cliffhanger. Maybe I've overused it a bit recently, but it is my role as author to make you want to come back for more, and, Hel, it's just plain fun. If it helps, think of this chapter like the end of a Marvel film: Hiccup's POV is the "true" ending of SotN (with appropriately pithy final line), and Astrid's POV is the post-credits teaser for the sequel.
That segues us nicely into what I'm doing next. Every time I finish one of these, I promise potential sequels and original fiction, so take what I'm about to say with a pinch of salt.
As I alluded to last time, yes there are plans for a sequel, and they are a lot more concrete than they have been for previous stories.
I have a fair amount of notes and ideas written down already, and, as you saw with the "twist" ending, I have been laying groundwork for it for some time. Don't get your hopes up, though, even if I started tomorrow, it would take a while to turn those scattered notes into a coherent outline, before I could even start on the first chapter.
There is also the problem that many of my notes for this story were written in the second half of 2015, just after the first season of RTTE aired, so a lot of my ideas for the sequel take plot cues from the old Cartoon Network show, and are a little "outdated" compared to what most of the fandom is writing these days.
I don't want to talk in too much detail, but I know I did promise 'Toothcup' in this story, and it is still my intention to pair Hiccup and Muninn together, but as her character and the story developed I realised I didn't have the space to give their relationship the proper treatment, and that it would be better served by a second story.
I also have some ideas for (hopefully!) shorter fanfic projects, both within and outside the HTTYD universe, which I may attempt as a "breather" before starting work on the sequel. Since it's been nearly nine months since I finished University, and I still need to find a job, there's also the question of what place I want my writing to take in my life: do I keep it as a hobby, or do I make an effort to try and turn it into something I can make money from? (Please don't send me advice; this a question I need to answer for myself)
For my last fanfic recommendation, I thought it appropriate that we come full-circle. So, my final recommendation is 'Echoed Songs' by Rift-Raft.
Echoed Songs is the sequel to I Hear Him Scream. Like you, I was surprised to see a true continuation of IHHS, so long after the original story finished. As IHHS was a big inspiration early in this story's creation, Echoed Songs' portrayal of Hiccup dealing with depression and PTSD after the events of the previous story helped inspire Muninn's struggle with her own trauma after her time under the Queen's control.
Fair warning: if you didn't guess from that description, much like it's predecessor, Echoed Songs is not always an easy read, and can be quite emotionally exhausting. If you're looking for a light-hearted adventure with a 'happily ever after' ending, this isn't the story for you, but if you can stomach it, it's a great read.
Last, but not least, I'd like to thank all of you, my loyal readers, for sticking with me through three years of procrastination and abysmal update schedules. I thought about calling out specific people here, but I could never do all of you justice. So, know this: although I rarely respond to reviews, I read and appreciate all your kind words, constructive criticism, and speculation about where the story was going (whether your predictions were right, or completely off the mark)!
Thank you.
Until we meet again, thank you so much for reading, and please leave your thoughts in a review!
Goodbye for now;
~Superbun