Many thanks to those that have read, reviewed, alerted, or added this story to their favorites. You guys are awesome! I actually finished this chapter a few days ago, but since my grandfather's place does not have wireless, I had to wait until I got home to post it. Anyway, enjoy!

Home Alone

I have no idea how long I slept, just that I slept like a rock. The next thing I knew, Halla was shaking me awake. I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes as she moved around the room. Sunlight shown through the gaps around the front door. The healer was by the cauldron over the fire, which was now out, pouring spoonfuls of something into a bowl. She then grabbed a spoon and walked over to where I sat in bed, holding the bowl out to me. "Here you go."

I hesitantly took the bowl from her, remembering her anger the night before. "Thanks."

I felt her eyes on me as I took a bite of what turned out to be a bland stew. I looked up at her after a couple bites to see her handling the Nadder spike that I had pulled out of my skirt. After a second she noticed me watching and set the spike down on the table.

"I have to go to the war council," she told me. I nodded. She opened her mouth and started to say something before closing it. After a few seconds of watching her consider her words, she said, "Just try to stay out of trouble."

I scoffed and looked down at the bowl of stew in my hands. "It's not like I planned on having a dragon firing spikes at me."

I heard her sigh and looked up. "I know, Kendra. Just…think before you do something like that again. It would be a shame if Mildew got his way."

"Who's Mildew?" I asked. That was the second time she had mentioned him, and both times the context of it was not good. "Is he like the village crank or something?"

Halla cracked a smile. "Something like that," she said before turning and heading toward the door. She paused at the door and looked back at me. "I'll be back in a few hours."

I nodded that I understood. She opened the door and walked out, pulling it closed behind her. I sighed and looked down at the cooling bowl of stew. Eh, might as well. I was hungry, and her stew was pretty good. I would have preferred it with a little more spice to it, but oh well.

Once I finished the stew, I sat with the bowl in my lap and stared around the house. Strangely quiet without the sound of the fire going. She said she would be back in a few hours. What the heck was I supposed to do during that amount of time? I sighed and got up off the bed, setting the empty bowl down on the table. It was no use staying in the house. I was not just going to sit there for who knows how long staring at the ceiling again.

I walked outside and took in the village as the door closed behind me. Several structures on this level were damaged, but it looked like most of it was down on the lower levels. I could see smoke rising from a few smoldering ruins. Stoick had looked grave when he had come for Halla the night before, but she had not mentioned that anyone died. Hopefully all those injured she tended to were recovering okay.

I looked toward the upper level. A few stragglers were running up the steps toward the hall for the meeting. Smoke also rose from one of the buildings up there. The smithy. I smiled and started heading in that direction. Halla would probably not be very happy, but I could not find it in me to care. Hiccup was a good kid and pretty easy to get along with. Why people could not see that yet was beyond me. They would see, someday. After he nearly loses his life to save them and years of them putting him down. That could not be good for his self-confidence.

As I headed up to the next level, I was not met by the usual stares and looks that I usually got while walking around. Evidently most people were up in the hall for the council. I reached the partly open aired building within a few minutes, the air ringing with the sound of a hammer hitting an anvil. I paused at the overhang and quickly spotted the person with the hammer. Hiccup was so focused on his work that he did not notice me. He hammered the metal a few more times before putting it into a barrel of water, sending up a large cloud of steam.

Once it began to clear, I raised my hand and knocked on the nearest beam. "Knock-knock."

He looked up from where he stood, pulling the metal from the barrel as he smiled. "Hey."

"Hey," I said, returning his smile. I moved further into the smithy until I stood across him. "Got the place to yourself today, huh?"

He nodded, glancing down at the metal on the anvil. Now that I looked at it, it looked almost like a sword. "Yeah. Gobber's up at the council meeting, so he asked me to repair some of the weapons that were damaged last night."

"Cool," I responded. "Mind if I keep you company? Halla's at the meeting too."

His smile turned into a grin. "Sure."

Over the next few hours, I helped him repair weapons. He hammered swords that were horribly misshapen, sharpened axes and knifes, and shaped spearheads and arrowheads. He would ask for something, tell me where it was, and I would go and retrieve it for him. Thankfully only a couple of times I grabbed the wrong tool, but Hiccup took it all in stride with a smile.

After finishing an axe, he set down his tools and looked over at where I stood leaning against a work table. "Let's take a break."

I gave a slight shrug. "Sure."

"Come on," he said with a smile, heading back behind a curtain that concealed the back room, gesturing for me to follow him. I stepped past the curtain and stopped. It was the small little workroom that Hiccup had spent a lot of time in during the movie. Light by a candle in the corner and above a workbench to the left of the door, tons of drawings. Plans for weapons, calculations, in a word; blueprints.

I stepped into the room and moved over to the bench to look at them closer, Hiccup standing back and watching me. "You drew all these?"

I glanced back at him and saw him nod. "Yeah."

I looked back at the drawings. "They're really good," I said. The glimpses of them we saw in the film did not do them justice. The detail in them was incredible.

"Eh," I heard him say. I glanced back at him in time to see the shrug. He had no idea how good they were. "They're just plans for projects."

I looked back at the drawings. "They're still amazing. Way better than anything I can do."

Out of the corner of my eye I watched him come up beside me and sit on the stool, his head turned toward me. "I'm sure yours are good."

I tore my eyes away from his drawings and looked at him with raised eyebrows. "I can draw stick people, and even they look pathetic."

He laughed, which made me to smile. He turned away and I heard him messing with something on the other side of the stool. A few seconds later, he turned around with two chucks of bread in his hand. He held one out to me. Still smiling, I took the offered bread. "Thanks."

The bread was a little stale, but not horribly so. My stomach happily accepted it, making me realize just how hungry I had been. I swallowed a bite before asking, "So, what's your next project?"

He stopped chewing for a second, looking genuinely stunned that someone was interested in what he was making. He shook his head after a moment and finished chewing a bite of bread. "I'm going to modify the net thrower so that setting it up doesn't take as long."

I nodded. "Yeah, it worked perfectly, just fired a few seconds too late."

Further conversation was cut off by the sound of someone moving out in the main area of the smithy. A few moments later a male voice called, "Hiccup?"

"Back here, Gobber," Hiccup called back as I turned around to face the door. A few moments later the curtain was pushed aside and the larger Viking stepped into the small room, instantly making it feel even smaller.

"Ah, there ye are," he said just as his eyes landed on me. "And ye got company."

I heard Hiccup get off the stool and move around to stand on my left. "Kendra, this is Gobber," he said, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him gesture to the large blacksmith.

Gobber gave me a toothy smile. "Nice to meet ye, lass."

I returned the smile. "Nice to meet you, too. I'm guessing the meeting is out now?"

"Aye," he nodded. "Three ships are to head to the dragon nest within the hour and Halla will be going as well, so ye best be getting back to her place."

"Right," I said with a nod. I turned to look at Hiccup beside me. "I'll see you later."

He smiled and nodded. "Yeah. And thanks for the help."

I raised the bread as Gobber moved away from the doorway so I could pass. "Thanks for the snack," I said before passing Gobber and stepping through the curtain. As I walked through the smithy, I heard Gobber start talking, though his words I could not understand.

I emerged from the smithy and all around the village I could hear people shouting and gathering things for the upcoming voyage to the dragon nest. I walked through the village, heading back down to the level Halla lived on, chewing on a piece of bread. The sun was high in the sky, so it was possibly around noon or the early afternoon. No wonder I was hungry.

I was chewing on the last bite when I arrived at Halla's. I pushed open the door and found the healer inside, hurrying about as she gathered things into a basket with a strap on it. She paused her work and looked toward the door as I closed it behind me. "There you are. Where have you been?"

I shrugged slightly. "Helping Hiccup repair weapons that got messed up in the attack last night."

She looked at me for a moment before turning and continuing her packing. "At least you were doing something useful. Can you get me the mortar from the table beside the bed?"

"Sure," I said as I crossed the room to the table beside the bed that I called mine. I grabbed what she asked for and took it to her.

She grabbed the mortar from my outstretched hand and placed it into the basket. She looked into the basket, her eyes scanning the contents. She then closed the lid and straightened. "I believe that's everything."

She looked at me for a moment before placing a hand on my shoulder. "Watch out for the place while I'm gone. You can take meals up in the hall. Stay safe and out of trouble, you hear?"

I gave her a small smile and nodded. "I'll do my best to."

She squeezed my shoulder gently before releasing me, grabbing the strap of the basket and slinging it up onto her shoulder. "That's all I can ask for. I'll be back in a few days."

I nodded. "Right."

She gave me a smile and then headed to the door. As it closed behind her, I thought back to the villager's first voyage to the island in the movie, the one after the attack during which Hiccup shot down Toothless. Three ships had gone, only one had returned. Though that had not been everyone from the village, unlike the attack at the end. But if something similar happened this time, I prayed that Halla was on the ship that returned.

The rest of the day was pretty boring. I straightened up things around Halla's, took a nap, paced the room several times. I thought about going back up to the smithy to see Hiccup, but I had no idea if he was still there. So I spent the afternoon pretty much bored out of my skull.

When evening finally arrived, I left Halla's and headed up toward the hall for dinner. People still worked on the ruins on lower levels, clearing and beginning the process of rebuilding. A few younger children ran around outside before being called in by their mothers. But the village was much quieter. I glanced toward the smithy as I passed it, but the fire was out and the place appeared to be empty.

I climbed the long staircase to the hall and entered to find it pretty empty. Only a few people sat at the tables around the room, eating their meals. Platters of cooked meat and bread sat around the edge of the massive fire pit. I grabbed a platter for myself as well as a cup and headed over to a table. I sat my things down on the table before sitting down myself.

The door to the hall creaked open and a group of familiar figures entered. Astrid looked about ready to kill Snotlout as the group headed over to the platters of food and grabbed some for themselves. I looked away from them as they moved to find a table and began to eat the leg of some bird that I had grabbed. I was chewing when I glanced up again, spotting them a few tables away. My attention was pulled away from them when someone sat down across from me, blocking the view.

"Evening, Kendra," Hiccup said with a smile. "Hope it's okay if I join you."

I grinned at him. "Of course it is."

He began to eat his own leg while I continued to work on mine. It was not bad, just a little bland. Though apparently something showed on my face, for Hiccup asked, "Is it okay?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah," I said, waving it off. "It's fine. Just a bit different from home."

He took another bite of his own and swallowed. "What's the food like where you come from?"

"It's a lot different from this," I replied. "We have a lot of spices that you don't seem to have here. And I usually take my food with a lot of spices. My parents think I'm nuts because I like it so spicy."

He smiled as he set down his drink. "So it's a little bland compared to where you're from?" he asked, gesturing to the food on my plate.

I shrugged slightly. "Pretty much."

He chuckled a little before he continued to eat his food. We continued to eat, Hiccup asking questions about the food at home every so often. When we were almost finished, I saw someone approach the table from the corner of my eye. I looked up to see Snotlout approaching.

He stopped at the end of the table and looked at me. "Kenny, isn't it?"

I frowned and looked over at Hiccup with a raised eyebrow, who fought down a smile. I looked toward Snotlout. "It's Kendra."

He blinked and then shrugged. "Anyway, what are you doing over here with my useless cousin?" he asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hiccup look down at his plate. "You should be over with us, and you can sit right beside me."

I looked him up and down before pushing myself off the bench. Standing, he was a little shorter than me, perhaps a little taller than Hiccup. "Okay, Snotty, listen up. Hiccup may not be as buff as you are, but brains usually beats brawn. He is not useless. He is smart and funny and I would rather be friends with him over you any day."

He looked at me blankly. "What's brawn?"

I groaned. Okay, where was the nearest wall? I wanted to bang my head against it.

"Exhibit 'A' of why I want to hang out with Hiccup over you," I said before turning and heading for the door. I was almost down with my food anyway. I heard Fishlegs explaining to the twins what 'brawn' meant, which caused Ruffnut to laugh. I turned around just before the doors at the sound of running footsteps approaching me. Hiccup stopped just a few steps away from me.

"Did you mean that?" he asked. It took me a minute to recognize the look in his eyes. Hope. He was hoping that I had meant what I had said.

My posture relaxed and a soft smile formed on my lips. "Of course I did. He got my name wrong for crying out loud."

Hiccup laughed. "Yeah, I can't believe he did that."

"He's really your cousin?" I asked. That had not been something mentioned in the movie, at least from what I remembered.

He nodded. "Yeah," he said before frowning. "How did you know his name?"

Oh crap. How to explain this one. "I heard one of the others say his name when they came in a little after me. They weren't sitting that far away."

Thankfully he accepted that with a nod. "If you're still hungry, I think there's some fish left at my house that we can cook."

I smiled. "I'd like that."