I have two weeks off, not because I wanted but sorta forced. I quit my previous job (sorta, talked with the boss that it didn't feel like the right place for me) and I found a new one already buuuut I start that on the first of June. So plenty of time for me to work on the story. Not sure I will be able to get another one done before I start, but who knows.

Also if you spot any spelling mistakes here, let me know. I kinda just finished it, read it over and went to upload. Normally I leave it a day or to so I can spot my mistakes. (Stupid dyslexia)

Chapter 11 An old man returns home

It was a few hours before supper when Astrid sauntered home after a day full of chores. That morning Hiccup had still been asleep when she left the house. Her mother saying she do something instead of waiting for him to wake up. Perhaps it was for the best to leave him with his thoughts for a day. They had been trying to get Hiccup to remember and a lot has pretty much thrown at him. So she did as her mother suggested and went into the forest to chop wood so they wouldn't have to that during winter.

Before reaching her home, she saw Hiccup sitting near the edge of the cliff. His dragon friend next to him, which he petted.

"Hey," she said, walking up to him.

He looked around shocked and stared at her for a moment before looking away from her again, letting out an almost inaudible 'hi' as he did so.

She let her cart filled with would be and sat down beside him.

"About yesterday," she started, knowing there was no point in avoiding what had to be said.

"I don't want to remember any of that," he replied, his facial expression turning into annoyance and anger.

"I know, but it's not the years you were here I care about for you to remember."

Surprised he looked at her, Toothless too hadn't seen that coming. Astrid sighed and looked at the village.

"I somewhat knew you weren't treated the best way when we were kids, but never realized to what extent and really didn't care about it either back then. But what happened here is just part of your memories. It's the part that happened after you left Berk that is important, but I cannot help you with remembering that, I wasn't there."

She turned to look at him again, he looked sad but somewhat understanding and nodded.

"But you also shouldn't forget that even though you don't like any of the things that happened here on Berk, it shaped you who you are. No matter what you think or want, it will always be part of who you are."

He rolled his eyes, "I don't want it to be part of me. Everyone can do without a walking disaster even me."

Astrid glared at him for that and even Toothless huffed at him as he gave the boy a stern look. He sighed.

"It's just… when I first got here… walked around town… I thought that the reason they glared at me, avoided me or whispered about me was because of either me befriending a dragon or escaping death in that trial. That journal just made me realize everyone just wanted me gone. No-one, but Gobber I guess, seemed happy with me walking around."

He sighed again and wrapped his arms around his legs, with a miserable look on his face. Astrid didn't know what to say to that, mostly because what he said was the undeniable truth. She watched how Toothless attempted to cheer up his rider by licking his face, but all he got was a small smile that quickly disappeared. While Astrid tried to think of something to say, feeling absolutely useless at that moment for not being able to cheer him up even if it was just a bit, he turned his attention to the vast ocean.

"Astrid?"

Surprised he suddenly said her name she looked up and saw him frowning as he looked into the distance.

"Who's ship is that with your father's ship?"

Immediately she got on guard and looked into the distance. Far away, but not too far, she saw her father's ship with Stormfly circling it, still helping out with the fishing. Next to it was another ship she did not recognise. It certainly didn't look like any Viking ship either. As time passed more and more details of the ship became visible and she finally could come to the conclusion that it looked like a pirate ship from somewhere far south. But why was it here? It also seemed no threat at all. When it was even closer she jumped to her feet, pulled Hiccup up and dragged him along to the harbour. Toothless tailing them.

"Astrid? What's going on? Who's ship is it?"

"I don't know yet, but if he's any threat Toothless could help out."

She let go of his arm when he almost fell because of her pulling him along. Arriving at the docks she met Stormfly who squawked happily and nudged her. Astrid couldn't help but laugh at the nadder's friendly nudging and pet her, which gained a lot of unapproved looks from the other people there.

Her father's ship docked, as did the pirate ship. Astrid watched as an older man jumped off the pirate ship and walked over to her dad.

"Never seen a ship filled with this much fish," he laughed.

Her father laughed along.

"All thanks to my daughter's pet," he said with a grin.

The old man then walked over to her. Stormfly looked alerted as did Toothless, but neither saw the man as a real threat it seemed. The two simply kept their distance. Hiccup just stood there, trying not to gain any attention from anyone.

"Interesting pet you got there, Astrid."

Surprised Astrid stared at the old man, wondering how he knew her name, but then recognized him.

"Old Wrinkly! Sir!" she blurted feeling embarrassed, "sorry, I didn't recognize you."

The man laughed and shook his head, "no worries, lass. It's been a while."

"Get those damn dragons off the docks, before they eat our fish!" it suddenly sounded, making Hiccup jump and Astrid look around glaring at her chief.

"Now now, Stoick. I just heard from Felman the nadder helped out with fishing, so it deserves at least some fish for her hard work," Old Wrinkly said back with a frown on his face.

Stoick huffed as he came closer. Toothless started growling and wrapped himself around Hiccup to protect him. Stormfly joined with the growling. It made Old Wrinkly laugh.

"They don't seem to like you very much," he said with a grin.

"Well the feeling is mutual. Now got those pests away from here," Stoick ordered.

"They're not harming anyone!" Hiccup said back, surprising not only his father, but Astrid as well.

"Not yet, you mean," Stoick huffed when he recovered from the initial surprise, "Now take them away, or I'll make them leave."

Astrid noticed the twitching fist of the chief going for the axe. She wasn't going to take any chances and pushed Hiccup forward. The two dragons followed, hissing at the chief all the while.

"And even now he doesn't seem to care one bit," Hiccup huffed as he dropped in the grass in front of Astrid's house.

Sighing Astrid sat down next to him.

"He wants to show us dragon's cannot be trusted. He's waiting for the moment they would attack and then rub into our faces," she muttered, as she picked up a stick to play around with.

"Well that is stupid," Hiccup muttered.

Toothless roared some words, which put a smile on his face. It may be small, but at least he was smiling again.

"What did he say?" Astrid asked curiously as she watched Stormfly and Toothless talk with each other, seeming to have fun with whatever was said.

Hiccup let out a chuckle, "Just that my dad is an idiot and they're basically making fun of him."

The smile on his face however quickly disappeared and made place for a frown.

"What I don't understand is how he first seems okay with… this and now he's all… well you saw that," he said as he gestured towards the docks and then let himself fall backwards in the grass, "then again even in the journal it said he was sending mixed messages so I shouldn't be surprised."

Astrid had been thinking about that too, for it made no sense at all. At points Stoick seemed truly happy his son was still alive, but that would only last for a fraction of a second. During the trial he also seemed more than happy to exile them both, what had happened? It took Astrid a few minutes before she realized it; Valka. Valka had been there to change Stoick's opinion. The woman may have been neglected towards her son for the longest time, she did care, she saved them both. Perhaps they should go talk to her, though Astrid hadn't got the slightest clue on where the woman may be. She hadn't been there yesterday, when they were at the chief's place.

Astrid was taken out of her thoughts by the sounds of talking. When looking up she found not only her father, who was dragging a basket of fish, but also Old Wrinkly, Bucket and Mulch. Especially the last two surprised her. When they saw she noticed them, they fell quiet. Mulch stepped forward, looking at her with a guilty face.

"We want to apologize, Astrid. We shouldn't have ignored you like that a few days ago," he said, "that dragon of yours has been really helpful. We never caught this much fish before, we wouldn't even have been able to without her."

Astrid could only smile, "It's alright, but I wish more people would understand dragons aren't a threat."

Hiccup was glad at least some people appreciated the dragons and their help. Stormfly sure looked glad about it. However his attention was somewhere else completely. From the moment he had arrived, this old man that came from the pirate ship had been looking at him. Studying him in fact, with a deep frown on his face and at points looking like he didn't believe his own thoughts.

"The dragon conquer of Rome," he eventually said, gaining everyone's attention.

"You mean that story you told the last time you came back to Berk," Felman asked, looking rather confused.

"Yes, yes that story of which many of you people did not believe it was true. Yet… does any of you realize he's standing amongst you."

The man then pointed at Hiccup, who stepped back a bit, really not liking all this sudden attention.

"Oh I feel so stupid now, why didn't I think of that before," he heard Astrid mutter as he tried to follow the conversation. He hated the feeling of continues being lost in what was being said and really wondered what the dragon conquer had anything to do with him as astounded eyes were staring at him.

"I'm not sure…" Hiccup started to mumble as he looked over to Toothless.

The dragon sat down looking thoughtful.

"I know we have been to Rome, wasn't pleasant. I'm not sure but I think they called you that when you left. The daughter of the alpha didn't seem too thrilled you were leaving, I think she wanted to mate with you."

"You just had to add that last part didn't you," Hiccup growled back flushed.

It was then it hit him what Astrid's father had told him days ago. Understanding the word sex now made him blush even more. Sex was the human equivalent of mating, why hadn't he realized that back then. By Thor he now understood why Astrid had been blushing badly. Hiccup jumped when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see Astrid looking worried, which did not exactly improve his current predicament.

"Are you alright? What did Toothless say?"

"Y-yes!... I was in Rome… don't remember, according to Toothless it wasn't great," he quickly blurted.

He felt very uncomfortable under her stare, knowing she was wondering why in the world he was suddenly this jumpy again.

Strangely though the old man started to smile and then simply stated, "Hiccup."

Still immensely uncomfortable about his situation he looked at the old man, silently asking him who he was. Of course since he didn't say the words out loud he got no answer.

"You've finally gotten your growth spurt I see."

Some snorted a little. Astrid couldn't help to smile, but soon stopped when she noticed Hiccup starting to feel even more humiliated.

"I'm afraid he has amnesia," she told the old man.

"That explains his confused expression," the old man nodded.

Hiccup's mind finally made a connection. Astrid had called this man Old Wrinkly. It was a name only mentioned once in his journal. This man was his grandfather.

"Why don't we go inside?" Felman suggested, "Ingrid probably has supper ready by now. Would you like to join us, Old Wrinkly sir?"

"If that is alright with you, yes please. Ingrid's meals are always delightful."

"The same can't be said about my daughter," Felman laughed to which Astrid loudly protested she wasn't a housewife but a warrior.

Hiccup saw Astrid blush, something he noticed, didn't happen often. They were then told to bring the dragons inside and feed them. Bucket and Mulch said their goodbyes and Astrid and Hiccup dragged two baskets of fish inside the barn, followed by their scaled friends.

"That man… he's my grandfather, right?" Hiccup asked as he knocked over the basket so Toothless could eat.

"You remember?" she asked hopeful.

Hiccup shook his head, "he was mentioned as grandpa Old Wrinkly in the journal once and you called him that at the docks…"

"Oh… uh ya he is," she answered sounding somewhat disappointed.

Hiccup watched Toothless eat as he tried to remember the few paragraphs his grandfather was mentioned. The thing was, Old Wrinkly had left even before he had started writing that journal. All that was written down about the man was that he missed him and wished he was back, because he at least would listen, tend his wounds, teach him…

He was startled out of his thoughts, saw who it was, jumped a little, had to rebalance himself, but stumbled over the almost empty basket of fish and fell right on over Toothless who had his head stuck in it. Astrid gave him a weird look as he tried to get back to his feet, however with Toothless moving around as he did, he simply planted his face in the straw on the floor. Rolling over, feeling pathetic once again, he brushed of the pieces of straw that were stuck on his face, thinking it might be best to just stay there on the floor. Astrid kneeled down, her head hovering above his. He looked away.

"I know you acted like this in the past. You were rather clumsy, yes, that I do know, but why would you be like all that now?"

Hiccup grumbled as he felt her pick the straw from his hair.

"Are you going to be like this all the time? Jumpy whenever I'm close?"

"Thor, I hope not," he muttered and found it save to at least sit up.

Astrid looked at him expectantly and he sighed, avoiding her eyes as he played around with the straw.

"When Toothless said we had been in Rome, he just had to add… something…"

"What did he add?"

Hiccup felt his face burn and he made sure to look down.

"Apparently some daughter of an a-alpha wasn't pleased with me l-leaving. Toothless said he thought sh-she w-wanted to m-mate with m-me. I know what that m-means and then u-understood what your f-father meant," the last of his words were nothing but a whisper.

For a while it was silent and after a moment Hiccup dared to look up just ever so slightly to find her blushing as well.

"O-oh," she eventually stated.

Hiccup broke another awkward silence by standing up and stating they should get back inside, otherwise they might miss out on supper. Astrid followed him without a word.

The dinner party had been just as awkward as his conversation with Astrid and at the end it had been decided that Old Wrinkly might be able to help him remember a thing or two. So now Hiccup and Toothless were following the old man, listening to the stories about Hiccup's younger years. They were in the woods, away from all the annoying and unapprovingly stares of others. Old Wrinkly had glared back each time he noticed, which was basically every person. Hiccup couldn't help to grin a little as he saw people quickly walk away.

"It's good to see you alive, Hiccup."

Hiccup looked at the man for a moment before he nodded. From everything he had heard so far, combined with what little was in his old journal, this man was one of the few who had cared.

"And I'm sorry I left," he muttered, quilt leaking his voice.

"Don't be. I might not remember any of the stories you told me or anyone else for that matter, but the way things turned out to be isn't your fault. A father is supposed to look after his child, not the grandfather," Hiccup answered as he sat down against a tree, "and I really don't know what to do with that father of mine. One moment he seemed fine with the dragons, then he threatens to hurt them."

He let out a sigh and Toothless nudged him before licking his face in an attempt to cheer him up. Old Wrinkly sat down on a stone and watched his grandson interact with his dragon, before he spoke again.

"He is trying to please everyone. He wants to be the perfect chief, but by doing so he loses sight of what is most important. Your mother was the only person who was able to remind him of just that."

Old wrinkly looked into the distance where the village was.

"Your father doesn't realize how lucky he is. Not only are you alive, but your mother as well, but she is only the shadow of who she once was. From what I have heard she only once managed to really let her true self surface in order to get you and Astrid out of trouble. If she had been who she was all those years ago…" Old Wrinkly sighed.

Hiccup played around with a twig as he was drawing random lines in the sand. His thoughts with the behaviour of his parents. His father was shouting at him or ignoring him, something that apparently happened a lot in the past as he had read in his journal. His mother… well she had been avoiding him it seemed. He hadn't seen her at all since he had arrived, it was as if she wasn't even there at all. It made him really wonder if either of them really cared about him, but he figured, based on everything he heard and read, the answer had to be no. Which was probably why he ran away in the first place, because no-one cared… that and the fact that apparently he was to be banished.

"Hiccup."

The voice of his grandpa made him look up.

"You still don't remember anything, do you?"

Hiccup shook his head, "No, still nothing."

"Give it some time, lad," he said and then let Hiccup alone with Toothless.

With a sigh the auburn haired got to his feet as he wandered around the forest some more, lost in his thoughts. He still didn't want to remember his past, but he would be lying if he said he didn't want to remember the parts his grandpa had talked about.

"Look we have here," I voice said mockingly.

It put him on high alert and he quickly looked around to find three guys of which two had a sinister grin on their faces, the third one he knew was his cousin but he looked mostly annoyed.

"Hiccup the Useless," one of the two he didn't know said.

"More like traitor," the other snickered.

His cousin stepped forward as Hiccup remembered reading about something like this in his journal more than he wished he had. He was certain these other two guys were Dogsbreath and Wartihog, though he couldn't tell which was which.

"Guys, he has a nightfury right next to him, so cool it," his cousin said.

"Pfft, as if Stoick would believe we attacked him first. He's more willing to believe we defended ourselves against a nightfury attack then his story."

Hiccup stepped back, Toothless right next to him, growling all the while to the three to back off. Both knew all too well that if they were to attack them, that would be it. They would be executed or exiled and with them Astrid and Stormfly. There was no way the rider nor his dragon would let that happen. Though Hiccup really wished for Astrid to be here right now, which in turn made him feel terrible helpless, useless and downright awful. Why did he have to depend on others so much? Why couldn't he just defend himself? He was sure he had done it before. Astrid had told him he had killed people… quite frankly he had to say these three deserved death based on what they had done to him. Stupid human idiots, thinking they could mess with him… wait… what was that?

Hiccup back away some more, but mostly he was confused by his own train of thoughts. Before he knew it, Dogsbreath and Wartihog had launched themselves on him and forced him down. Toothless wanted to get rid of the two attackers, but wasn't sure if he should for he knew the consequences if he were to attack.

Hiccup trashed trying to free himself as he felt this whole scene to be way too familiar. A flashback, short but long enough for his taste sent him back several years where the same three people had downed him, kicked him, punched him and then kicked him some while calling him all sort of names and laughing how pathetic he was.

No, he did not want to remember! He hated to be tormented once more. If this is what is was like to be human he rather be…

Toothless jumped backwards as Hiccup's two attackers were suddenly launched backwards. Of course the dragon was surprised, for his friend had been reverted back to the one he was when he first left this tiny piece of land… well mostly. His two attackers were stunned as well as they crawled to their feet. They grinned however, as if they liked Hiccup to struggle. Toothless turned to look at Hiccup, who was now standing on his feet again, but looked nowhere near the hesitant and confused boy had been. In fact he looked more like the way he had when the queen had taken control over him, but how? Toothless stared at his friend, who simply waited for his attackers to come at him. With the smooth movements he had, but simply had forgotten about with his memories it seemed, he avoided the fists and planted his own into the stomach of the bigger of the two. The second one then pulled out a sword, but before he could even do something with it, he was knocked out by a hit to the head. Hiccup then picked up the sword and looked over to the third person there.

Toothless panicked. This third person, while he didn't trust him at all, had not attacked Hiccup. In fact had warned the others not to do so for a nightfury, him, was there. So when Hiccup made his way to the stunned figure, he intervened.

"Enough!" he roared at his rider, who then lowered the sword.

"And once again you are siding with those vile humans," Hiccup roared back.

Toothless growled lowly as he tried to understand the situation. How had Hiccup slipped back into this state while there wasn't even a call from the queen?

"Fine, have your human. They will kill you, so have fun with that," Hiccup spat at him and walked off.

Toothless looked over to the human he had defended. His eyes were wide and his expression a mixture between disbelieve and tiny bit of fear. He huffed at the boy and ran back towards the village in search of Astrid.

Astrid was moping as she rubbed a tunic over the washboard. When Hiccup left with Old Wrinkly that morning, she was dragged along by her mother to help with the laundry. Not only did she hate the chore in itself, she also hated the chatting of the people around her. They weren't even being subtle or whisper, no they sometimes even shouted their disagreement about Hiccup still being alive and on the island as well as the dragons. At points they would throw glares in Astrid way, who simply gave a glare back and at points would let her hand slip to her axe when she found it necessary to shut them up. The only good thing was Ruffnut being right next to her, hating this as much as she was and every so often getting a sneer from her mother not the rub it too hard or a hole would form and then she had to mend the clothing. Laundry was terrible, but Ruffnut hated sewing even more.

The group of woman suddenly cried out in fear and backed away from the river as many shouted nightfury attack. Astrid looked up and saw Toothless coming to a stop. He looked panicked and worried.

"Something is wrong with Hiccup," Astrid could only whisper.

Ignoring the commotion created by clueless idiots around her, she dropped her work, crossed the river and jumped on Toothless back, who immediately started running. They rushed through the village and she called out to Stormfly, who then followed them through the air. There was shouting and cursing as they passed several villagers, but then Toothless came to a halt in front of Snotlout. Astrid had no-idea why and wondered if he had anything to do with Hiccup being in trouble. Snotlout looked out of breath and when he noticed Toothless with Astrid on top of, fear crossed his face. Toothless charged right at him, nudged his nose underneath the bulky boy and threw him in the air. He landed behind Astrid and immediately grabbed hold on her. Then the dragon darted of into the forest.

"What happened?!" Astrid demanded to know, "what did you do to Hiccup?"

"Me personally nothing! I swear! I'm not going to attack someone who has an overprotective dragon around! I'm not that stupid!"

Astrid glared over her shoulders, but Snotlout seemed to be focusing on not falling of Toothless.

"Snotlout!"

"I swear! I did nothing. The same can't be said about Dogsbreath and Wartihog, though. And when they downed Hiccup, he all of a sudden attacked them and knocked them out like it was nothing. Next thing I know he stole Wartihog's sword and came after me, but the nightfury jumped in between and chased him away."

"He has a sword?!" Astrid shouted at him in disbelieve.

She bit her lip as Toothless carried them through the forest. From what she heard from Snotlout, Hiccup was under the control of the queen once more. But the sound of him carrying a sword wasn't to her liking. Last time she had fought him he at least carried no weapons. At some point Stormfly seemed to have found Hiccup and showed Toothless the way. During one of the turns, Snotlout rolled of Toothless back, but the dragon didn't stop to pick him up. Astrid wasn't really complaining, though some help fighting Hiccup would have been nice, yet she doubted Snotlout would have been useful… aside from perhaps being a target.

To Astrid's surprise they arrived at the dragon arena, Hiccup was just walking in, but rapidly turned around as they entered. Stormfly landed on top looking inside. Astrid looked at the boy in the middle of the arena, he was probably going to steal a dragon and fly off. A scowl covered his face as he held the stolen sword in front of him. Astrid really had no desire to fight him, but it seemed she had no choice, so she grabbed her axe from her back as she slid off of Toothless who let out a warning growl. The moment she stepped away from the black creature, Hiccup charged right at her and she was just in time to block, though she had to admit he was using immense force as he pushed her down to the ground. Not willing to lose this battle, she used his own force against him and quickly rolled aside, making him loose his balance. Unfortunately he quickly recovered and came right after her again. She countered and pushed him back as she realized he was using his left hand to fight her. This threw her off a little, since she had always been taught that the left hand was for the shield and the right hand to fight with. Then she recalled Hiccup was left handed with writing and drawing, so it seemed only logical his dominant hand with combat would be left too. As time passed and her axe met with his sword, it became quite obvious that one, she still could handle close combat with this new axe and was really glad about and two, even though she could still fight in a close combat, she was utterly losing this. Reason being, he was going all out on her while she had no intention of hurting him. Yet this seemed to be her only option if she were to win this fight and although she didn't like that, she grabbed her knife and stabbed his left hand.

Hiccup cried out in pain, let go of the sword, glared at her and pulled out the knife as Astrid realized that she should have pulled out the knife herself. Now he had another weapon. She duck away just in time as he lashed out at her with his right hand that was holding the dagger.

Toothless circled the battle. He wanted to help, but he did not know how. He really didn't want to hurt his friend, but he also didn't want his friend to hurt Astrid who had proven to really want to help him. It was obvious to the dragon she was losing this fight, so if he were to do something, he should think of what and fast. The moment Hiccup got hold of a dagger and was about to strike her with the intent of killing, he no longer thought, but acted. He launched his body forward and used his tail to slam Hiccup away from Astrid. Hiccup landed against a wall, fell forward and crawled back to his feet. The dagger came down with a couple of clangs before laying still between the two Vikings. Again Toothless used his tail, this time to floor Hiccup before he dropped his entire body on his friend.

"This isn't you, stop it!" he pleaded, but it was as if he was talking to a wall.

Hiccup tried to push him off, smearing blood all over his scales. Toothless looked at Astrid who kneeled down in front of them. Her face full of worry and as she wrapped a rope around one of Hiccup's arms Toothless could see she really didn't like this.

Astrid made sure the knots were tight and the weapons, including her own was far away. Toothless moved away a little once Hiccup was secured. Hiccup struggled, trying to free himself, but with a dragon still on top of his lower body half, that was futile. Astrid tore of a piece of his tunic which she then wound around his left hand. It made him stop struggling as she felt him stare at her.

"Why help an enemy?" he asked with a snarl.

She looked at him, saw those same green eyes full of anger as she had seen them when she found him in the cove. However, she now knew he was still human, that he was simply controlled and was doing things he normally would not do. So she shook her head.

"You're not an enemy, Hiccup," she said, wondering what to do to make him remember who he was. Not just that he was a human, but that he was Hiccup, the one that ran away, saw maybe the whole world and flew on the back of a dragon. That he had somehow gained the name dragon conquer in Rome. His saddlebag that was filled with stories he should remember again. She wanted him to remember everything.

He was glaring at her, saying he was not Hiccup which was probably to be followed up that he was a dragon, but those words never left his lips as they were suddenly connected to hers.

Astrid did not know what else to do, last time kissing him brought him back to his senses, she only hoped it would work this time as well. When she retreated, a whole lot quicker than the last time, she found fear in his eyes. Toothless lifted himself up and the moment he did so, Hiccup used his legs to push himself away from her.

"Throw me in jail," he then shouted at her with a trembling voice.

Astrid stood up and walked over to him, "I'm not."

"You have to! I can't let that happen again!"

She raised an eyebrow at this, last time he had no idea what had happened. She kneeled down next to him, looking at him with a questioning face. He looked back with utter fear.

"I… I did that… this my-myself. Sh-she didn't take over. I let myself be taken over by some dragon side of me. Seriously Astrid, throw me in jail. Better yet, just kill me on the spot!" he panicked as tears rolled down his face.

"I'm not going to kill you," she told him calmly and cut the rope around his wrists.

"But!" he started to protest, but Astrid cut him short by placing a hand on his mouth.

"You were attacked, this side of you, the one you are right now has no knowledge of how to fight, so you let a side of you that does take over. To protect yourself."

Astrid could see he was thinking her words over as he calmed a little.

"That's why it is important you remember who you are again. You are both those sides together, Hiccup."

Hiccup grabbed the hand that was placed on his mouth and pushed it down a little.

"But I attacked people."

"Who attacked you first."

"That's not how others will see it," he then mumbled as he stared down.

Astrid sighed, knowing this was true. Although, if she could Snotlout to actually tell the truth perhaps then things wouldn't be so bad. Who was she kidding, of course he was going to side with his two stupid friends. Her parents might know what to do, she then thought and got to her feet.

"Come on," she said as she offered Hiccup a hand to get up.

He took it and she helped him to his feet as Toothless walked to him looking worried. Above them Stormfly let out a squawk as if to ask if everything was alright now. Hiccup gave the dragon a nod before looking at Astrid once again.

"Let's go home," she said and turned around.

The girl was greeted by Snotlout who walked up to her with a look on his face as if he was debating what to say. Eventually he opened his mouth.

"Sooo is he going to attack us?"

Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Don't attack him and he won't attack you. Same goes for the dragons," she snarled at him as she passed him.

Stormfly flew over to her and she gave the dragon a scratch under her chin as she thanked her for finding Hiccup.

Hiccup felt terrible. Of course Astrid's words made perfect sense, but that didn't take away his feeling of guilt. No matter if those guys he attacked, teased him and beat him up in the past and yes perhaps they deserved it, but that didn't mean Hiccup felt good for beating them up. Even if had only been one strike really.

Toothless pushed him forward in the direction of the exit of what the Vikings called the kill ring. Hiccup sighed, petted his friend and walked forward. Toothless quickly passing him and telling him to hurry up. Outside the kill ring, Hiccup jumped in surprise when he saw his cousin who was studying him from top to bottom. Not trusting himself just yet, especially around people who wronged him a lot in the past, Hiccup did a few steps away from his cousin, until he noticed that he could go no further, unless he was willing to fall to his death that was. Keeping an eye on his cousin he quickly gave Astrid, Stormfly and Toothless a glance. They were up ahead, near the bridge. He rushed towards them and slowed when near the bridge. Astrid, Stormfly and Toothless had already crossed it. Then without warning, he felt a push in his back, stumbled and fell forward right over the edge next to the bridge. As if instinct took over he managed to turn his body around so his head was up and grabbed hold of a rock. A stinging pain traveled through his hand and quickly he grabbed hold on to some rock with his right hand as well.

The sound of falling rock had not gone unnoticed and as Hiccup looked up he saw Astrid run back onto the bridge.

"Snotlout," she shouted on a dangerous tone, making Hiccup wince and reminded himself to never piss her off. Especially not after he heard the guy getting a beating.

"It's not my fault," Hiccup heard him say, though barely audible.

"You pushed me!" he shouted back in anger as he tried to make his way up, already planning to give his cousin a beating himself as well.

The rocks fell from under his feet whenever he put his weight on them, so he decided to trust in the strength of his arms. Gulping he let go of the rock with his left hand and got hold onto one higher up. Encouraged this went right, he let go of the rock, but the weight put on left hand, hurt terrible and made him loose grip.

He fell down a few feet, trying to get hold onto something again, which to his luck worked. But now both his hands were bruised and rocks and dust were rolling down from him trying to get hold on to something.

Toothless was looking down, eager to jump, however knowing that would make the whole thing worse. The only thing that would work in this situation was Hiccup pushing himself faraway enough from the cliff side and him jumping in to catching him. Problem there was, Toothless was missing his tailfin.

Stormfly was in a state of panic and therefor didn't seem to know what to do.

Astrid looked down the cliff side, seeing that Hiccup was way too far down for her to reach. She gave Snotlout another glare as she tried to think of something to get Hiccup back up. Then the rock Hiccup was holding onto broke off, making him fall down a third time. Not only that, rocks were falling down more and one landed right on top of Hiccups head knocking him unconscious, before falling into the water. Astrid had jumped to her feet the moment she saw the rock break, commanded Stormfly to come to her. The panicked dragon did as ordered, hoping her rider would know what to do. Astrid jumped on Stormfly's back and ordered the nadder to get Hiccup. Right after he landed in the water, Stormfly fished him out of the sea. They then quickly flew back to the village, Toothless running after them, but not before Astrid gave Snotlout a warning that she was going to make him pay for that.