Interested in my release schedule (or lack thereof), then continue reading this note. If not, scroll down.

Alright, I'll try to make this short. In December I started a new job. Turns out it is really frustrating. I suddenly have headaches on Sunday, EVERY DAMN SUNDAY. Reason is mostly my boss who's the must uncreative person I have EVER met. My colleague and I came up with some major improvements for the interface of the product I help develop, but he would always come back with 'Do what google does, cause they thought about it it must be good'. Being educated in both development and a good interface that is user friendly (and actually having worked at a company that THINKS about every damn step they take) it's frustrating to hear every time. So works sucks my creativity by a lot.
The good news is that I am going to a 'write-in', basically a group of authors that discus stories and try helping others to improve. Back during the NaNoWriMo we decided we wanted to continue, but it started again in February. I got a little creativity back from that.

I'll try to keep this story updated as much as possible, but I cannot promise when the next chapter will be up, though part of it is written (mostly because it was supposed to be part of this chapter, but I decided to move it up to the next chapter).

Have fun reading and leave reviews (they also boost my creativity). At everyone who has done so so far, thank you!

Chapter 8 Unbalanced

It was early in the morning when the chief awoke, though he could swear he barely got any sleep at all. His current life was a mess, a huge mess and for once he had no idea how to properly deal with this. His wife and son were both alive, but it didn't bring him joy. All it had brought him so far was utter confusion and frustration and terrible decision making for he did not know what the right decision was.

With a heavy sigh he left his home, where he still lived alone. He knew his son was staying with the Hofferson family, as for his wife he wasn't entirely sure. All he knew was that she was mad at him and he was mad at her because in his opinion she had no right to be mad. She hadn't been here all these years, she hadn't helped bringing up Hiccup. She had turned into a coward and stayed away and didn't try to come back home.

It wasn't much later when he entered the mead hall, few people were there, but they all turned to look at him. Then they all looked at each other and walked over to their chief to once again complain about his decision and the risks that it was bringing.

Further away, in the residence of the Hofferson Family, Astrid tiptoed to her door so not to wake her new roommate. He needed some more sleep, since he fell asleep so late. Downstairs she greeted her parents, both already awake. Her father was preparing for another fishing trip as Astrid searched the baskets for some fish, catching his eye when she opened one.

"What are you planning with that fish?" he father asked and closed the basket before she could even take one out or even see what was in there in the first place.

"Stormfly and Toothless need something to eat, don't they," she rolled her eyes.

"Oh no, you are not giving those dragons any of our already little resources we have. Now go get Bucket and Mulch and tell them I'm good to go."

Astrid watched her father, cursing at his bad moods in the morning. She was pretty sure he really just got up and stuffed himself quickly.

"Now, Astrid," he said angrily, which made Ingrid glare at him, something he ignored.

With a sigh, knowing this mood would be over in about an hour, she rushed over to the mead hall. The door was half open, as it was more often in mornings, and slipped inside. For a few seconds she was scanning the place to find the two fisherman, but caught the voice of a frustrated chief booming above the voices of angry villagers. Astrid decided to stay in the shadows and listen in for a while, mostly because of the word 'dragons' and 'kill' she had caught.

"They are a danger!"

"Kill them!"

"At least lock those beasts up!"

"Silence!" Stoick shouted above everyone else, "You know very well I hate those beasts as much as you do. Sooner or later those creature will show their true nature, that is when we strike. Hopefully when they do, Hiccup has his memories back and see how stupid he has been. Same counts for Astrid. They're both blind to the true dangers these dragons can bring, so you all keep an eye out and like I said, NO provoking the dragons."

Astrid had a hard time keeping silent, she really wanted to barge in and shout at their stupidity. THEY were blind?! Seriously? The one who was blind here was the whole god damn town! With exception of her parents that is.

But the girl kept her frustration to herself and turned around, going back to the entrance of the mead hall and act like she just got in. During her short journey there, she decided she had to proof everyone wrong about their view on dragons or she was going to loose Stormfly. The patience of a Viking wasn't big, she knew one would eventually act out and say they hadn't done a thing to provoke the dragon.

Doing her very best to act like she just entered, Astrid walked aroun the mead hall, focusing on what she actually came to do here in the first place; finding Bucket and Mulch. Of course they were on the other side and with quick steps she walked to them. Arriving at the table the two men looked up and then looked back at the map again to see where they were going to fish, without saying a single word.

"Dad says he's ready," she told the two men, a little suspicious of their behavior.

Normally the two men would at least greet her. Now they ignored her completely and Bucket pointed at a place on the small map. Irritated Astrid grabbed her axe and planted it right in the map. Just an inch away from Bucket's finger. This time they did look at her, but mostly annoyed.

"As I said, my dad is ready to go, he's probably waiting for you guys on the ship by now."

Before the two could even say a thing, she turned around and marched away. Back home, her mother confirmed her father had already gone to the harbor. Astrid decided to go tell her father about the behavior of Bucket and Mulch, just so he knew what to expect. Not wanting to walk all the way down to the harbor and to sort of piss off Bucket and Mulch when they would get there, she mounted Stormfly.

"Dad!" she shouted to her father who was counting the baskets he had loaded to put the fish in.

The man looked up a little confused and watched how she walked up to him.

"Bucket and Mulch kinda ignored me, of course I have my ways of making them listen, but they aren't too pleased with the whole dragon thing. Just so you know."

Her father sighed, "And knowing that, you still came here on the back of one."

Astrid shrugged, turned around to walk back to her dragon and saw her stare at the sea with a hungry look.

"I guess we're gonna go fishing too," she muttered with a grin.

"You're coming along? With a dragon? Astrid are you out of your mind?" her dad complained.

"At least someone has some sense left in the Hofferson family it seems," said Mulch as he approached the boat, giving a glare to the dragon.

Astrid petted her to keep her calm, glaring back at Mulch.

"I'm not coming along. Stormfly needs to eat too," she informed the men.

Once again Astrid mounted Stormfly and let Stormfly jump into the sky. Not many minutes later they had left Berk behind as Stormfly was looking around to see where to fish and quickly found some. Not sure of what to do with Astrid on her back the dragon looked at the girl.

"Go ahead, Stormfly," Astrid told her dragon friend and held on tight to the spines on her head.

Stormfly squawked and dove down, straight into the water where she caught fish with her teeth and claws. Out of the water she threw the fish in the air and caught them in her mouth with ease. It continued like that for a while and soon Stormfly seemed to have satisfied her hunger. When noticing this, Astrid told Stormfly to fly back to Berk and the dragon did as she was told.

Astrid frowned as Stormfly obeyed every command Astrid had given her. Even considered what to do with her on the back. It told her once again how blind everyone else was when it came to dragons. If only they had known earlier. This last thought made her sigh, knowing Hiccup had this information, but ran. If she only had a way of showing people dragons weren't so bad?

Up ahead was a ship, Astrid quickly saw it was the ship her father, Bucket and Mulch were on. She stared at for a while as the slowly approached it. It seemed they weren't having much luck with the fishing so far. She could see one basket with some fish in it. Then again, they had been out on the sea for only about hour.

"Wait, Stormfly," she suddenly let out as they weren't far behind the ship anymore, "dive down and scare the fish into the nets."

A little confused about the command, Stormfly looked around to spot a school of fish and once again dove into the sea. Astrid was right on time with getting in some air, after having practiced a little earlier on and held on tight as Stormfly used her wings and tail to move around in the water. This last she hadn't done when she was fishing for herself. The fish got caught in the nets and Stormfly went out of the water.

The moment the three Hooligan tribe men saw the sea spew out a dragon, they started cursing at Astrid. They stopped after Astrid pointed at the nets, which were completely filled with fish. Baffled the three man used all their strength to pull in the catch. The deck was covered with fish.

"Throw the nets out again. Stormfly, go look for some more fish," Astrid said.

As Bucket was attempting to put the fish in the baskets they had brought along, Mulch and Felman quickly got the fish that got stuck in the nets out and threw it back in the water. The routine continued for another three times, that's when Astrid saw the boat itself was full. Grinning like an idiot she flew home, after shouting to see them there.

When Hiccup woke up he was a little disoriented, which was nothing new, because that was what he had felt like every time he woke up the last few days. The first time he found himself on a ship tied up, the second time in prison or more like being dragged out of, that really had been some rude wake up call. This time it was some room in which he was laying on the floor. It took a few minutes before it dawned on him he was in Astrid's room. The girl who sat next to him on that ship and was in the prison across his and now he was in her room. He started remembering what had happened and how he got here, up until he woke up on that ship where she seemed relieved about something. That is where the remembering stopped. He couldn't go back further.

Grunting he sat up as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Still a little confused about everything that had been going on these last few days. He was also wondering why he somehow seemed closely connected to this Astrid girl and where said girl was for he didn't find her in the bed. He stumbled to his feet and walked over to the door, only to once again walking into the top of the door post. Seriously?!

Angry at himself for not remembering that detail, he rubbed his head and bent forward to not hit himself again. He made sure to look at his surroundings this time and made it downstairs without hurting himself more. Once at the bottom of the stairs he found a woman staring at him with a questioning look. Astrid's mother, Ingrid if he recalled it right.

"What was that loud noise?" she asked him as he quickly stopped rubbing his forehead.

"Uh," Hiccup started at a loss of words, mostly because he didn't want to tell her.

However it was apparently visible on his forehead, or maybe she saw him rubbing his head as he came down, because her next few words made him look away in embarrassment.

"Don't tell me you hit your head again?"

His response, looking at his feet, was of course enough as an answer and he heard her laugh a little.

"What is it with you and hitting your head?" he could hear she tried hard not to laugh, but wasn't able to block it out completely. "Why don't you sit down, while I get something to eat for you?"

Without a word he did as she suggested and sat down at the table. A few minutes later he got a bowl of porridge, some bread and a mug of mead. It was quite a lot and he didn't feel that hungry, at least that was what he thought until he took the first bite. After stuffing himself with half of the meal he was given he looked up to the woman he give him the food.

"Where is Astrid?" he asked.

"She wanted to feed those two dragons some fish. Her father wouldn't have it, so I guess she went out fishing by herself or maybe she joined Felman… though he wouldn't really like that I think. They will probably be back soon, it's almost midday already."

As soon as Ingrid had said that, they heard Astrid and her father outside. Hiccup grabbed the bread he still had left, stood up and went outside. He found Astrid jumping of Stormfly's back, while her father put a basket full of fish in front of the dragon.

"Here ya go, you deserve it," the man said with a big smile to the dragon, who crooned and started digging in.

"Now that is a big difference," Hiccup heard Ingrid say softly, sounding surprised.

She walked around him to greet her daughter, who was asking Stormfly how she could be hungry again, and husband, while Hiccup took another bite of his bread. Ingrid didn't even have to ask what had happened, her husband started telling the tale as soon he saw his wife.

"You would never believe it," he began enthusiastic, much to Astrid amusement it seemed, "the boat was completely full with fish. Literally! We were standing in the fish! That dragon is amazing."

Hiccup crooked a smile when he heard Stormfly say 'Why thank you for appreciating my efforts', before continuing on her food. Astrid walked over to him.

"What are you smiling about? And why are you eating bread? Don't tell me you just woke up?"

His smile immediately became an uncomfortable one. Before he could utter an answer, Astrid rolled her eyes and dragged him to one of the baskets of fish that was still there.

"It's for Toothless," she stated, "go feed your dragon, we have more things to do."

"R-right," he mumbled and stuffed the last piece of bread in his mouth before picking up the basket filled with fish with ease.

He pushed the door to the barn open, but couldn't help but feel Astrid's eyes focused on him. She followed him inside, closing the door behind her so they didn't have to hear the story of the boat filled with fish from her father.

Hiccup placed the basked right in front of Toothless, who hungrily jumped to his feet and knocked it over. The fish spread over the floor and eagerly the dragon started on his meal.

"You have gotten stronger."

"Huh?"

Hiccup turned around seeing Astrid watching him. He had absolutely no idea what she was on about.

"Last time you couldn't even lift a half filled basket of fish. You would drag it."

"O-oh," he mumbled not recalling that at all.

His attention was suddenly brought to Toothless who started to curse colorfully in Dragonese, which made Astrid jump as she took it that the dragon was going to attack. Not that it didn't seem like that the way the black scaled dragon looked at the food in front of him

"How dare you pull such a prank! Take that vile creature away!" Toothless hissed angrily as he glared at the pile of fish.

"What's wrong?" Astrid asked, looking alerted.

Hiccup shrugged his shoulders and walked to the pile of fish to find out what the vile creature was his scaled friend was talking about. He moved the top layer of fish a bit and then found the culprit. Lifting it from the pile earned another session of colorful cursing from Toothless. Just to tease the dragon a little he held it in front of its snout.

"Oh, come on. It's just an eel Toothless," Hiccup snickered in his dragon tongue, "it's even dead."

"That you can even touch it! Get that devil thing away! Do you want me to get sick!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes and threw the eel away, whilst muttering hatchling, which made Toothless glare at him.

"There aren't any other of those devil creatures in there, are there?"

Hiccup shrugged and looked around the pile of fish, finding another two off them. Both were pulled out and thrown to the entrance of the barn.

"Is he a picky eater?" Astrid wanted to know as she picked up one of the eels.

"No, most dragons get sick from eating eels," Hiccup simply stated, getting the same look from her he got yesterday when he remembered something about dragon nip. It bothered him how he seemed to remember facts about dragons, but not the rest. She seemed to understand that he had no idea why he would remember this, for she didn't ask. Instead, she turned to the three eels on the floor.

"So dragon's don't like eels… actually that explains why some fish baskets were not taken, pretty sure they had eels in them," she muttered, probably mostly to herself, "Wait, Stormfly chased most of the fish… I guess this is one of the baskets they managed to fill before I started helping them… probably the only one though."

Hiccup moved over to Toothless tailfin and started loosening the buckles.

"Vhat are you voing?" Toothless asked him with a half filled muzzle.

He swallowed and turned around, moving his tail away from Hiccup, who tried to reach for it, almost losing his balance doing so.

"Sit still," Hiccup scolded a little a frustrated and reached out for the tailfin, only for Toothless to move his tail away.

"Not before you tell me what you are planning!" Toothless replied annoyed and kept on walking in circles.

Hiccup threw himself on top of the dragon, starting on the buckles of the saddle.

"Hey!" the dragon complained.

"I have to!"

"What for?!" Toothless shouted back as he tried to get Hiccup his back by jumping up and down like a scared yak.

It didn't work, however his next plan proved to be more fruitful. The dragon rolled around, laying on his back on top of his rider, who let out a grunt and tried to push the heavy creature away to no avail. It was the laughter of Astrid to stop their bickering.

"You two are ridiculous," she managed to say with a big grin on her face.

Hiccup and Toothless looked at each other with some shame. Toothless tried to roll around again, but found himself stuck, whilst Hiccup was still unable to get from underneath the dragon. Still snickering Astrid walked over and helped Toothless roll around so he could get off. The dragon sat down and looked at Hiccup, who sat up.

"Why take away the tailfin?" Toothless asked as he held up his tail, it was half loose, as was the saddle.

Hiccup sighed, "If I get back under the queen's control I can't leave."

Toothless looked thoughtful, as if he wanted to argue that, but dropped down with a sigh, moving his tail to Hiccup so he could continue to unbuckle it. The saddle was removed after that and both items were given to Astrid.

"I'll be right back," the girl said and left the barn.

Hiccup watched her and got to his feet. After giving Toothless a scratch under his chin he left the barn as well. Stopping at the door to pick up the three eels. The moment he stepped out, Stormfly, standing close to the barn, jumped away in fear. Startling Felman and Ingrid. Hiccup mumbled a sorry to the poor nadder who was glaring at the eels in his hands and explained to Astrid's parents why the nadder was acting the way it was. Felman then wanted the eels and brought them inside as Astrid came out of the house again. She grabbed Hiccup by his wrist and pulled him along.

"Let's see what we can do to trigger you memory," she stated as Hiccup tried to not fall over his own feet.

Right on their tail were Stormfly and Toothless. The black scaled dragon still had his mouth filled with fish and quickly swallowed it in one gulp. The group of two Vikings and two dragons got quite a bit of attention as they made their way through town. Not the good kind of attention, more like the 'drag your kid inside and curse whilst looking disapproving' kind.

"Where are we going?" Hiccup asked not liking the whole go straight through the village walk.

"The one place you probably spend most of your life… at least as far as I know."

At last they entered some building and Hiccup was surprised to see the man that had slapped him hard on his back the other day. He was singing as he was hammering away on a piece of metal, which was slowly turning into a sword. Both Toothless and Stormfly were on high alert as they carefully walked around. Which was easier said than done, especially for Storfmfly.

"I haven't seen you this cheerful in years," Astrid said, making the blacksmith look up from his work with a big smile covering his face.

"I was already wondering when ya would drag him here," he grinned and dropped his work completely.

He walked over to Hiccup, but Toothless jumped in between, angrily growling at him to stay away with that ridiculous weapon hand.

"Oh calm down ya overgrown lizard. I would never harm Hiccup."

Toothless mouth was hanging open as the blacksmith looked insulted at him.

"This is where you got your insults from?" the dragon asked and looked over to Hiccup, who shrugged as he had no idea what the dragon was talking about.

Gobber paid the dragons no further mind, surprising both Hiccup and Astrid as he didn't seem to be bothered by them like others. He simply passed Toothless and then Stormfly, who barely fit in the small area and felt highly uncomfortable being surrounded by deadly weapons. When he picked up a new weapon, a sword which was bent to the point it seemed unfixable, both dragons freaked out. Yet, again the blacksmith ignored them and walked back to the anvil, where he placed it down, before turning to look at Hiccup once more.

"Recognizing anything yet?" he asked him.

Hiccup shook his head, "should I?"

"Well ya were my apprentice. When ya weren't hanging around somewhere doing Thor knows what, ya would be here, helping me out. How 'bout ya give it a try, maybe it'll trigger ya memory," Gobber said and pointed to the sword on the anvil.

"Gobber, that sword looks beyond fixing," Astrid complained.

The words made Toothless perk up. He knew the name Gobber. Hiccup had told him a lot about the man. How he seemed the only one to really care about the boy. How he was willing to teach Hiccup and give him time to learn. How forgiving he was when Hiccup messed up badly, as in breaking things badly. He had always been there for Hiccup, Toothless knew. It was that knowledge that calmed the dragon. He turned his attention to his rider, pitying the boy. If only he could remember. Of all the people Hiccup left behind, Gobber was someone he had admitted to miss.

Hiccup simply stood there, staring at the anvil, not sure if he could do what Gobber wanted him to do. But Toothless knew this was something Hiccup could. In fact he was amazing at it, even if it was a weapon, Toothless had always thought it was amazing what Hiccup would make when forging.

When Hiccup kept on standing, looking indecisive, Toothless walked over to him and gave the boy a nudge.

"You can do this," he told the boy.

Even the words of Toothless didn't convince him as Hiccup studied the sword. It looked really beyond repairing, like Astrid just said.

"Alright, how about something simpler then," Gobber said as he looked around his forge to see find something simple for Hiccup to start with. It was Astrid who spoke up.

"How about sharpening my axe?" she said as she got the weapon from her back.

After Hiccup's words of calling the two dragons wimps, they didn't mind Astrid carrying around an axe she found out that morning. She had brought it along out of habit, but only once she had been in the air, helping her father locating and catching fish together with Stormfly, she had noticed it.

"That should be simple enough," Gobber needed agreeing and got the weapon from Astrid, pushing it in Hiccups hands.

For a moment the blacksmith looked surprised when Hiccup took it with ease and wasn't thrown out of balance or dropping it.

"Just be careful with it, it was my moms," Astrid said, sounding a little concerned about what could possibly happen to her axe.

Hiccup sighed and decided to just give it a try. He walked over to the whetstone, but before he started spinning it he studied the axe more detailed. To him something felt off and just to figure out he switched the axe from hand to hand, getting confused looks from the other Vikings in the room.

"It's unbalanced," he eventually said.

"Impossible, give me tha," Gobber said and did the same Hiccup had done, only he had to hook onto the axe, "well I… yur right."

"So I have been using an unbalanced axe for years?" Astrid asked a little baffled, "that explains why my aim is off with a different axe. I should tell mom."

"Should I still sharpen it?" Hiccup asked her and got a nod in return.

Just as Gobber had said, it was an easy task and one that really didn't take that long. In Hiccup's opinion anyone could do it. It was the fact that he could feel the axe was unbalanced that confirmed to him that was indeed skilled in this. He just didn't know how much. A few minutes later he handed the axe back to Astrid who studied it with care and seemed satisfied with what he had done. Gobber also seemed pleased, way too pleased for something so simple.

"It's good to have you back, Hiccup."

Hiccup had no idea what the man was talking about, so simply nodded as he was handed more weapons that needed sharpening. Not having something better to do, he did the task as he felt both Astrid and Gobber watching him. They were probably hoping this would trigger his memory and perhaps it should. Based on what Toothless said, forging was apparently something he often did, yet not a single memory surfaced. Aside from perhaps how to do this. How to feel if something is correct. When to stop with sharpening. It was his body that remembered things, just not him. The only memories that surfaced were the ones of what happened the past few days. How this man seemed happy when he saw him. How Astrid had dragged him to this Gobber person. It soon dawned on Hiccup that this blacksmith was probably the closest friend he had when he was living here.

After sharpening the fifth sword and handing it to Gobber, the man took it and placed it away without even looking at it.

"Follow me," Gobber said and walked to the back, disappearing through a small doorway that only had a piece of cloth covering it.

Hiccup followed him together with Astrid and found himself in a small backroom with a desk. A drawer was opened and Gobber pulled out a piece of paper, handing it over to him. He read and only understood why he had to read it once he had done so. It was he who wrote this short goodbye note, but again he could not remember this.

"This room was yurs," Gobber said, making Hiccup look up from the piece of paper, "it was filled with all sorts of drawings once. Things I never understood. You took them off right before you left. I found some burned paper in the fire later."

Once again he handed Hiccup a piece of paper. This time it didn't contain text, just drawings.

"This is Toothless," he said recognizing the details his dragon friend had.

"That's what I thought," Gobber smiled at him.

Hiccup's mortal enemy; Astrid's door post. I think he's just trying to get his memory back by hitting his head. Seems to have no effect though... I'll shut up now