"…and by this point things had gotten kind of out of hand, I guess I can be the first person to admit that. But you've gotta remember that there was still that one small chance that things could work out. And, going by my history, usually that one chance kind of turns out to be the thing that's going to happen, right? So, keeping this in mind, I remember I stepped over and walked a little bit closer to my father, and thankfully Nightflight got what I was trying to do and walked right along with me. And before anybody could say anything else – because history showed that if that happened, it wouldn't turn out very well – I went on to say—"

"What in the world!?"

The angry shriek shattered right through the man's words, and the person speaking jerked, spasming in surprise as his eyes widened. The audience seated in front of him broke into a fit of rampant giggles at his reaction, and he huffed, tinging red with embarrassment. Shooting the pair a silly look, he turned in his chair to face the door with a roll of his eyes. A mistake if he ever knew one as the person standing in the entryway immediately put her hands on her hips. Blue eyes flashed and she arched her eyebrows in a sense of mock disbelief.

"Well excuse me for intruding." the woman huffed. "I've been looking for you guys for ages!" She turned and fixed the two on the floor with a stern look, walking into the house and closing the door behind her. "I've been looking for all of you." she reinstated. Turning over to the man, the woman walked over until she was a mere few feet from him, reaching over and planting an accusing finger in the center of his chest. "Snotlout's been asking for you every six seconds. He needs to know who's going to hunting tonight and who's just doing patrols around the island. Now I haven't the faintest idea, but you know who should? Our wonderful Chief who has been missing all day long!"

"I've been doing nothing but productive things." the man huffed playfully, reaching up and taking both of the woman's hands as he intertwined their fingers. "You know me, Astrid— if I'm not saving the island, I'm simply just bored out of my mind."

"Mhm." Astrid mused, looking him up and down. "Well maybe you can save the island by actually managing to get us something to eat for dinner, then, Hiccup?"

Hiccup coughed. "I think that's more along the lines of what you should put Toothless in charge of." he whispered, giving her a playful wink as he pulled her a little bit closer.

Astrid only raised her eyebrows again. "Do not tell me that that's what you've been doing all day long!" she laughed, turning and eyeing the two kids that were peering owlishly up from the floor. The fire was raging in the hearth beside them, and it casted flickering shadows over their small forms. Yet as soon as Astrid looked over at the pair, they sprang into action, tumbling over one another in the effort to beat the other. They began to talk over one another, their voices high-pitched and rambling as words and coherency was lost entirely. The two children, who had been sitting so quietly moments before, were now pushing and shoving like there was no tomorrow. And Astrid turned to look at Hiccup with a sense of exasperation. "You know how telling them that story always riles them up." she chastised.

Hiccup was watching the two intently. He didn't even look over at Astrid as he replied. "You know— not two seconds ago they were perfect little angels." And limply, he pointed at the spectacle taking place. "Therefore, this can be nothing but your own fault entirely. You know— if you really stop to think about it."

Astrid threw him a withering look, but it was a thinly veiled one as affection was glimmering right underneath the surface of the expression. She rolled her eyes, and, feeling another burst of affection, Hiccup leaned over and planted a small kiss on the blonde's cheek. "And if you're still upset with me and marvelous storytelling skills," he continued in a cheeky way. "then have I told you in the course of this beautiful day how much I love you?"

"No, you haven't." Astrid said, her tone just as cheekily. "That might be because I haven't seen you all day, though."

Hiccup blew out a short huff of air. "Ah, yes, that's right. You didn't remind me in the span of five seconds so I forgot." He paused, shooting her a large smile. "I told them the full story this time— I guess time gets away from you when you're busy retelling the amazing past. Plus, I did not feel like talking to Fishlegs today. He will not stop trying to get my permission to make a propeller for Meatlug. I don't care how much her 'ankles are hurting her'; if I have to sit through another five-minute long explanation on how her wing balance is thrown off, I'm going to explode. You recreate the wings of one dragon, and suddenly you have all the time in the world to busy yourself with projects. I have a lot of things to do."

"Things?" Astrid repeated skeptically. "Like telling our kids a story for ten hours straight?"

"You know, when I was fixing Stormfly's wings for you, you never ranted about how awful of a Chief I was." Hiccup remarked. Raising his voice to include the others, Hiccup looked down at the two children with an imploring look. "Children, your mother is just using me for my talents. And now that I've told you that, I fully expect the entire village to be swamped in rumors by the time the sun goes down. Do we understand each other?"

"Dad! Dad!" The older of the two piped up, shoving his sister away as the little girl let out a sharp yelp. Hiccup winced a little bit at this, but turned and looked expectantly down at the boy with an expectant expression. The pair of them, though separated by a few sparse years in age, always seemed to be climbing over the other. It was impossible to separate them, for he had tried numerous times. So he held his tongue and only raised his eyebrows as the little boy with blonde hair hopped his way forward. "Dad!" he repeated. "Grandpa Stoick told us that story in a different way!"

Hiccup nodded, crouching down so he was eye-level with the little boy. And gingerly, he reached over and ruffled his son's hair. "Well, Aaric, your grandfather also told you to hit your head against a rock last Tuesday, so I wouldn't really take what he has to say with anything but a grain of salt. What I told you was exactly what happened, hmm? No exaggerations. Although I did leave off the time that your mother accidentally—"

"Hiccup." Astrid said warningly, cutting him off.

Aaric giggled and Hiccup offered him a sly wink. "That's for another time." he reassured the little one.

"Daddy! Daddy!" The younger of the two piped up, and Hiccup turned to meet two of the biggest, bluest eyes he could ever see. Taking after her mother, and she was just as precious even at such a young age. His daughter shuffled her feet back and forth, looking at him earnestly as she mumbled. "Uhm…uhm…uh…" Hiccup's eyes shone as he looked at the tiny girl, and he waited patiently for her to land on what she had to say. "Uhm…is…did Mistyeyes get all better?"

Aaric scoffed loudly. "That's a stupid question, Kari!" he yelped.

Hiccup raised an index finger, flashing the older boy a stern look. "Now Aaric, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. There's no such thing a stupid question— all questions are good to say." He turned and reached over to poke Kari's nose affectionately. "Even the sillier ones." he added on. "Though, I think if you use that big brain of yours, sweetie, you'll be able to figure out the answer to it yourself, hmm?" He reached over and scooped up the tinier girl, swinging her up so that she was perched on his left shoulder. "There ya go." he chirped. And then he turned to look presently to Astrid, blinking as he offered her a small grin. "Let's see if I can't get anything done today before the sun goes down, then, I guess."

"Look at me! Look at me!" the toddler chortled, swinging her legs cutely. "I'm just like Ludi!"

"How come Ludi doesn't do anything fun like that anymore?" Aaric complained, trailing after his mother and father as they started out the door.

"What!?" Hiccup chuffed, imitating shock. "Ludi's the best. She's the best cat you could ever have in the entire world!"

"She's lazy." Aaric drawled.

"She is not!" Kari whined, turning and peering down at her older brother with a sour look. "Yesterday she played fetch with me for five whole minutes!" Kari looked down and patted her father's should in an impatient fashion. "Daddy, where's Ludi? I wanna play with her while you go do stuff."

"Hm. I don't really know where she is." Hiccup mused, Astrid holding open the door as Hiccup crouched through it, careful not to knock his daughter against the frame. "She usually wanders around during the day; maybe some of the others know where she's gotten off to. Or maybe you could go out and try to find her with your brother." If they could keep from tussling for that long and knock the other person off a cliff, that was. They didn't need a repeat of last Snoggletog.

It was yet another cloudy day in Berk, but it was a busy one as well. Which was normal too. Hiccup squinted, a small smile playing on the edges of his lips as he surveyed the scenery around him. It was always a sight he stepped back to watch unfurl at least once each and every day. Pride was a vice, yet he could not keep himself back from experiencing just the smallest touch of it. And he could tell in Astrid's face that she was thinking along the same lines.

Snotlout had apparently taken charge when he grew tired of waiting for Hiccup— normally the Chief would get irritated by such a detail, but he had to admit to even himself that he was taking too long in the first place. And if it ended up getting done, then he didn't really care who gave the order in the first place. Snotlout was divvying up the hunting arrangements between humans and dragons, as was customary. From where he stood, Hiccup could see Stormfly wriggle her way forward, going on to chatter something as she busied her wings, making sure that they were fine. Hiccup had set to work shortly after everything had calmed down, assuring her that he would be able to fix her ailment as he had Toothless' years and years ago.

And he had succeeded in the short sense. Stormfly wasn't able to fly nearly as fast as she normally had, and she was to take it slow when gaining high altitudes, but the dragon was able to fly as well as…well, she flew better than Meatlug. He had patched up her wings with expertise and skill. Though most of the work was done with leather and the other hard materials. In effect the wings looked a little awkward— not as smooth or coordinated as the others did when they were folded and tucked away. But skill was taken over beauty it seemed, when Stormfly was nothing but grateful to Hiccup's help. And Astrid had been beside herself with glee when Hiccup surprised her with the outcome— almost as surprised as she had been when he had asked her to be his wife. Though to be fair, through a series of seemingly-unrelated events, he had somehow ended up going from proposing to Astrid to getting knocked into the ocean and almost getting swept out to sea. He would have been pretty surprised too.

Yet that wasn't what caused his heart to swell. No— he was focusing on the hunting party. He could see Ruffnut doubling back to the small band of people, Meatlug and Fireworm already waiting nearer to the trees. They seemed impatient to leave, snapping out quick, snippety calls every once and a while. And from the west, Brightsky and Talon raced up the hill, looking frazzled as they tried to reach the hunting party in a quick enough span of time. Excuses were already spilling out of their mouths, but there wasn't much harm done. From off to the other side, the last of the hunting party was going over to make the group a whole. Amber, much more grown now than the tiny scrap that had fallen into the ocean, was trotting along neatly, keeping up what seemed to be a polite conversation with Spitelout.

Hiccup sighed and rolled his eyes. His father had retired from Chief long ago. You'd think that Gobber, Spitelout, and the others might catch the drift that maybe it was getting to be their time as well. Hiccup had sworn that he'd dropped nearly a million hints to Spitelout that he was getting a little aged to be running around the forest. He was Gothi's new 'Regular', going up to her hut day in and day out when he threw out his back or mistimed a somersault dive. But it was like talking to a brick wall. Which Hiccup didn't understand at all. If he would have been given the chance to drop out and do nothing…well, he'd take it in a heartbeat. Who wants to be busy?

"Dad!" Aaric yelped, Hiccup roused from his thoughts as he looked back down. Aaric was looking in the same direction as Hiccup had, and at first the man was preparing himself to answer another question about the Night Furies. Aaric took after him— he was very interested in them. However his son's inquiry instead caused him to stiffen and go rigid. "How come you let Great Uncle Spitelout stay? How come you didn't banish him?"

"Aaric!" Kari squealed in a high-pitched voice. "Daddy's not mean like that! That's why! Daddy's nice!"

"But—?" Aaric still seemed confused.

Astrid spoke up this time, turning and looking over at Hiccup with a snide look. "Because, sweetie. Great Uncle Spitelout is a very persistent person when it comes to apologizing. And your father can't handle this thing called 'guilt' very well."

"I handle guilt very well, thank you." Hiccup retorted.

"Remember the time that I—?"

"Okay, well, you're my wife." Hiccup scoffed, turning and plucking Kari off so that he could hold her in his arms instead. He turned and shot Astrid a soft glare, though amusement played behind his eyes very clearly. "Forgive me if I didn't want to end up alone because I wouldn't forgive the only person that would put up with me." Astrid stuck her tongue out at the man, and he rolled his eyes in response. Turning to glance back at the hunting party, he blinked as Amber turned around and caught his eye from where she stood near the ring of trees. And, lighting up, the Night Fury grinned and raised her tail up in a signal of greeting. She looked bright and cheery— eager to be off on her hunting expedition. Hiccup grinned softly to himself. "Who knew Amber's the same little thing I scooped out of the water." he hummed.

"Who knew any of this would happen?" Astrid sighed in response. Hiccup turned back and smiled at the peaceful look the girl was wearing on her face. Catching the glance, the blonde warmed significantly before sidling over, wrapping her arms around her husband and reaching up to give him a loving peck. Kari giggled at the sign of affection, yet Aaric just turned away with a muffled: 'Blech.' Astrid ignored the kids though, drawing back and patting Hiccup's shoulder warmly. "...You did very good, have I told you that?" she prompted.

Hiccup grinned. "We all did." he answered.

"Yeah, but it was mostly you." Astrid leaned over and planted another kiss on his cheek. "So thank you." And with a flash of her old humor, she added: "Even though you're the worst Chief Berk has ever seen— staying inside and playing with your kids rather than running the island."

"I know." Hiccup sighed airily. "I'm a despicable human being."

"Well I'm glad I walked into a conversation I could agree on." Hiccup and Astrid turned quickly at the arrival of a new voice, and Kari immediately shrieked, wriggling to get out of her father's grasp. Toothless and Mistyeyes were looping their way over, Toothless' eyes bright with mischief as he had been the one to speak. Laughing, Hiccup stooped down and let go of his daughter, watching her flyaway brown curls bounce up and down as she rushed for her father's dragon. Aaric followed, much slower, though his eyes gleamed upon seeing his favorite dragon. "There you are!" Toothless exclaimed, looking over at Hiccup as Kari latched onto his right leg. "Where have you been!?"

"Daddy was telling us the story again!" Kari chirped, trying to climb up onto Toothless' back, though she was much too tiny to accomplish such a feat. Unfortunately, she seemed to take after her father when it came to height. She wasn't the tallest toddler in all of Berk. She was more along the lines of a runt if anything. Yet she didn't seem bothered, or hindered by her lack of progress. She just kept trying to climb up to sit down on his back, little puffs of effort coming out from her every now and then. Toothless looked down at her and grinned, his eyes soft as he leaned down to prod the little girl's head with his nose.

"I see." Toothless nodded. "Well— did you like it? Did you have fun?"

"It was cool!" Aaric chimed in quickly.

Mistyeyes rolled her eyes, looking at the pair with a grin. "You two have heard that story how many times now?" she questioned fairly. Though neither of the kids knew the exact number, it was more than clear that this hadn't been their first time. Really, every child in Berk knew the story of how the Night Furies got here as soon as they were born, almost. Just like they knew the story of how the Red Death was defeated and all of the other dragons got here. Yet Hiccup's two children were always pestering for the story to be retold and retold over and over again. "You think you would get tired of it pretty soon."

"I like the part when Mommy punches Daddy!" Kari piped up, still trying to get up to Toothless' back.

Toothless chuffed. "I think you'll have to be more specific with that one. It happened quite a lot."

This caused Kari to giggle shrilly, and finally Toothless leaned down, flattening himself out so that the little girl could swing her leg over his back and sit down. And in seeing this, Aaric rushed over and climbed up on Toothless as well, his eyes bright as he looked over at his father. "Dad! Can Toothless take us out flying! I promise we won't go too fast!"

Kari clapped her hands together. "I wanna fly on a Night Fury! They're the fastest! They always win when there are dragon races!"

"Maybe in a little bit." Hiccup answered vaguely. Ignoring his kids' slightly-crestfallen looks, he turned, looking around with a slightly concerned look. "Where's Moonflower?" he asked, not seeing hide or scale of the little dragon anywhere. Usually she never wandered far from her parents at all, yet now she was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't like the reserved youngling to take off.

"She went off with Petal." Mistyeyes answered, her eyes glimmering with amusement. "They were trying to fly again. It was mostly Petal's idea. Honestly, that pair will plop straight into the ocean if they keep going at this rate. They can never get two feet into the air every time, but it never stops them. Anyway, the other are watching them I think. Or at least they'd better be." Aware of Kari's wide eyes fixated on her, the dragon turned and looked kindly at the toddler. "Yes, little one?" she cooed, always partial when it came to Hiccup's daughter.

Kari pointed at the Night Fury eagerly. "What happened to your boo-boo?" she asked bluntly.

Mistyeyes' ears flickered back and forth with surprise. Though she reminded herself that with as little as the girl was, she was probably too young to be able to remember the last time that they had told the story. That was back when they had all been together— it was raining too much for them to go out and make themselves useful, and they had all gathered inside of Hiccup's home instead to spin old tales, the memory of the time brought up by the rain storming down outside. That was when Kari had just been a little bit over a year old. Now she was nearing six. Mistyeyes glanced over at Hiccup questioningly. "You didn't finish it?" she questioned.

Hiccup grinned sheepishly. "Hey— I tried to be as in-depth as possible! Last time we kind of just skimmed over things. It took a much longer time than I thought it would." He turned and looked with a comical look over at Astrid. "And if my lovely wife hadn't intruded, maybe I could have actually gotten it finished."

Astrid rolled her eyes, but Mistyeyes only turned pleasantly back to the little girl. She offered her a smile. "Well, honey, I did have a very big boo-boo. But with Nightflight and Hiccup talking to Stoick and Spitelout, and with all the Night Furies being very brave and showing how much they loved your father and mother, I was able to get help before it could get any worse. Gothi made sure to patch me up, and then I got all better one bit at a time. It took quite a while before I could fly again."

"Not as long as it took Hiccup!" Toothless quipped from where he stood. Exaggerating his footsteps to the delight of the children shrieking on his back, the Night Fury plodded over to Hiccup, jumping forward and poking his friend's stomach with his snout. Hiccup threw him a look, stumbling backwards as he was forced to right himself. Despite the fact that he had grown since everything, he was still able to be keeled over with just the slightest tap from his dragon. "Your father was in Gothi's house for ages! He had visitors every day— she had a fit trying to keep out the whole of the Night Furies from squeezing into the house all at once!"

Aaric wriggled where he sat on top of Toothless. He looked up at Hiccup with a pursed look of indignation, and in looking at the expression, Hiccup had to admit that their likeness wasn't too deniable. "Dad, if you could do all that, why did you get mad at me last week for staying out in the rain?"

Hiccup snorted. "If you got into half the amount of trouble I got into when I was younger, then I would have a heart attack."

"I guess that means you have a little bit more sympathy for Stoick then?" Astrid teased lightly.

"Let's not be too hasty." Toothless quipped.

Mistyeyes straightened, brightening as a smile spread over her face. "Here they come!"

Kari immediately shrieked, slipping off of Toothless and scrambling down to the ground a little unsteadily. Toothless grimaced, helping her regain her balance as he muttered something about how she was just as graceful as her father. Hiccup ignored the comment, instead watching with a fond look as Kari rushed over to the group of dragons that were making their way over the rise, her hands outstretched as she hollered repeatedly. "Nightflight! Nightflight! Nightflight!" Upon hearing her name, the female in the lead perked, recognition of the voice causing the female to grin widely. And Hiccup's daughter rammed hard into the dragoness, catching her by surprise as she flung her tiny arms as far around her leg as they could go. "Nightflight!" Kari gushed.

"Hello." Nightflight smiled, affectionate as she tried to nudge the little one off as gently as possible.

"How's the prey running out there?" Toothless asked, padding up to meet them.

Nightflight flicked her ears dismissively. "Eh. Fine, I guess. The others are having a little bit harder of time getting catches though. Clearsky and I already brought in some things so we left a little early. We were starting to wonder what Petal was getting up to."

Clearsky sniffed. "You can't let that little scrap out of your sight."

"Hey!" A wail rose up from the ground, and Clearsky looked down with a grin as a small youngling shoved her way forward. A smoky black-and-gray Night Fury, no bigger than the cushion of a chair, bumbled her way forward, her bright green eyes rampant in anger. She blew out her cheeks and huffed, stomping her little legs on the ground as she looked from her mother to her father. "That's no fair! I can totally be let out of your sight! Look— today I flew a whole lap around the well!"

Shadowclaw chuckled where he stood beside Leafdapple, the grown dragon's eyes flashing with mischief. "Well— sort of." Leafdapple looked over at him with a hurt look, leaning over and nudging his shoulder imploringly. And as her green eyes flashed at him warningly, he coughed, sitting straighter as he backtracked. "I mean, she's getting better! I just helped. A lot."

"You're gonna need to get more tactical before you decide to have younglings." Mistyeyes cautioned dryly.

Leafdapple shuffled her feet at this, seeming embarrassed as she looked off to the side. Shadowclaw however just seemed to fluff up in defense. "Alright then; next time your daughters want to take up all of my free time, then I'll just let them do whatever they'd like. Would that be a little bit better for you, then, Mistyeyes?"

This caused the dragoness to sigh shortly, her wings fluttering at her sides as she walked a little bit closer. "Moonflower, come here!" she called gently.

Sure enough, from behind Petal, another small youngling skittered forward, intelligent blue eyes wide and earnest as she bounced along. "Momma! Momma! I walked all the way around the island with Shadowclaw and Leafdapple! They showed me all the places to have fun! I wanna go there with you!" Her small wings fluttered rapidly, and she got a few inches off the ground in her fit of excitement. Blinking, Mistyeyes observed her daughter for a few moments before giving a small nod.

"Maybe some other time." she remarked gently. "But you look tired, honey. Maybe you can just tell us about it. It's almost time for dinner— are you hungry?"

Moonflower gave a hop, turning and looking over to Petal eagerly. "I wanna eat dinner with Petal!"

"You always eat dinner with Petal." Toothless chided his daughter gently. He walked over and brushed his tail over the girl's head softly. "I don't see why that should change at all."

Hiccup glanced over his shoulder. "The Great Hall should be ready. If you all want to go together, that is."

Astrid leaned down, beckoning over to her two children. "Kari, Aaric, you'll come with me, okay? Maybe we can find Grandpa Stoick and ask if he can finish the story for you guys— you know how much he loves spending time with you guys." Throwing a look in Hiccup's direction, she added: "And I'll make sure that he's got every fact straight."

"I'll catch up with you." Hiccup offered, watching as Kari bounced into her mother's arms and Aaric slid off of Toothless to plod next to her as well. At the boy's disappointed look, Hiccup added: "Aaric, Toothless will take you out flying after you eat all of your dinner, okay?" This caused him to brighten, and he gave a vigorous nod in response. Astrid grinned and, juggling Kari, leaned over to give her husband another kiss and a mumble of agreement before she turned and started for the Great Hall. Hiccup's gaze was warm as he watched them retreat.

Leafdapple straightened suddenly, her eyes lighting up. "Oh no!" she exclaimed, looking down at Petal, who seemed surprised by the sudden ejaculation. "I forgot that I promised Gobber I would help him with his forging this afternoon! We were so wrapped up in our walk that it slipped my mind!" She turned over to Shadowclaw, who looked concerned, and leaned over to touch her nose briefly to his. "I'll meet you in the Great Hall later, but I've got to run, I guess. I'm sorry!" Pausing, she glanced over at Hiccup and prodded him in the side. "It was good to see you out and about for five seconds today!"

Hiccup laughed. "Always a pleasure, Leafdapple." he returned graciously.

Leafdapple chuckled and looped away quickly, leaving the group behind as she charged down towards the forgery. Mistyeyes blinked, tracking her exit for a heartbeat before looking down at Moonflower, tilting her head to the side. "Are you hungry?" she asked. "You must be after all that flying you did today! I'm very proud of you!"

"I didn't fly very much." Moonflower replied solemnly. "I mostly just walked."

Toothless hummed. "But walking takes a lot of effort too." he pointed out. "So we should go along with Astrid and get some food in your tummy."

"Here— I can take her." Mistyeyes offered, flashing Toothless a look as she spoke. "I could go for something to eat too. I led a patrol out into the woods this morning before the sun came up— some food and a good sleep sounds good right about now. But I think you're scheduled to go out with Bucket, Mulch, and Clearsky once the moon comes out. Or at least that's what Snotlout said when he couldn't find Hiccup." Clearsky and Toothless straightened— the sun was already starting its descent. And by the way that their expressions panned out, it seemed like they were unaware of their assignments.

Hiccup sighed, feeling a touch of guilt that he had neglected his duties to rather stay inside and tell a story. But he shook it off. There was no harm to it when you had someone annoying like Snotlout to cover your back when you weren't paying attention. "That sounds fair enough." Hiccup decided aloud. "I mean— unless you guys are doing something else." Toothless shrugged, and Clearsky looked down at Petal, blinking. It was clear by the expression on the male's face that he had probably been planning on spending some time with his daughter. But he shook it off after a second and mimicked Toothless' sign of indifference.

Hiccup paused for a second, thinking. But then he brightened. "I can go along with you guys." he decided. "I haven't done much else today, I might as well try and salvage my reputation."

"That's the spirit." Toothless chirped.

"Come along, then, sweetie." Mistyeyes encouraged. Moonflower, ever the most willing to spend time with her parents, hopped eagerly and gave a nod. She looked a bit disconcerted as she glanced back at Petal, yet she called a goodbye to her friend all the same. Petal blinked, grinning as she raised her tail in farewell. Mistyeyes leaned down and ushered along her daughter, following the way that Astrid and the others had gone as her small youngling fell into step behind her.

Toothless watched, blinking. And after a moment, a grin crawled over his features. "You know, if you had asked me years ago what life on Berk would have looked like in the future…I would never have said this." he commented, his voice warm as his eyes fixated on Moonflower. "…Heck, if you had asked me that question while we were running around with the Night Furies, I still wouldn't have said this."

Clearsky spoke up where he sat, flashing Nightflight a loving look. "Things turned out better than expected, I suppose."

Shadowclaw snorted. "That's an understatement if I've ever heard one. I thought we were toast."

"I always knew we'd get it eventually." Nightflight remarked comically.

"Well Hiccup likes to live by the motto: 'If it doesn't work at first, then try, try, again.'" Clearsky mused.

"It worked out, didn't it?" Hiccup asked, his voice slightly indignant. He was about to go on, but broke off suddenly, his attention drawn to the side. His gaze immediately softened, and he smiled gently as he leaned down closer to the ground. He reached out and held out his arms, his voice changing significantly to a soft coo. "Hey, there." he greeted, the others turning to see a small, skinny cat loop her way slowly over to where Hiccup was crouched. The brunet grinned, lifting up the feline gently with a smile. "Hey, Ludi." he said sweetly. "You're lively today."

Toothless watched Hiccup handle the older cat with much more care than he had before. He stroked her head gently, his expression fond, yet the cat only gave out an impatient mew. She turned, hoisting herself up to try and wedge herself on the man's shoulder like she had done when she was no bigger than a small parcel. Hiccup sighed through his nose, but didn't try and shove her back down, only tilting his head awkwardly to try and make more room for her.

"You're such a push-over, Hiccup." Shadowclaw teased.

Hiccup rolled his eyes, yet Ludi just gave a loud meow in response. He reached up and patted the cat affectionately. "Hey— you might as well have some respect." he chided the dragon. "Without Ludi, none of this would have happened. So please excuse me if I want to still baby her for a little bit."

"I'd just like to put in the fact that without Ludi, I might be able to actually see two feet in front of my face." Nightflight announced. Ludi, effectively nestled down into Hiccup's shoulder, narrowed her eyes into sits, resting her head down in a position that couldn't have been very comfortable.

Hiccup sighed. "Ludi— Kari was looking for you earlier." he announced.

Ludi didn't reply.

"Aaric called you lazy." he added.

She only replied with a yawn.

Hiccup nodded. "Seems about right." he decided. Turning over to Clearsky and Toothless, he blinked expectantly. "You guys wanna get going? If we leave now, by the time we do a lap around the island, then we could still make it in time for dinner."

Toothless' wings flashed out at his sides. "I only need about five minutes." he bragged.

Clearsky's eyes flashed, and he smirked. "I bet I can go faster than you."

Toothless straightened, lighting up. "You're on!"

Petal giggled shrilly, bouncing up and down. "Show him who's boss, Daddy! Make him eat your dust!" she cheered, turning and weaving around her mother's legs as Nightflight blinked in surprise. The youngling's green eyes were sparkling at the prospect of a challenge, and she turned and rushed at her father in earnest. "Daddy can I come?" she pleaded. "I wanna fly fast with you! Please, oh please, oh please? I promise that I can keep up!"

Clearsky warmed, chuckling. "No sweetie, I'm sorry." he said gently, nosing her back down with a kind expression as he tried to look past her downcast look. "You've just started flying, honey! You've got to wait a little bit before you can fly with us." When Petal deflated, he added quickly as he straightened: "But I promise you that as soon as possible, I'll go out and fly all around with you. Does that sound good?"

Nightflight nodded eagerly, adding her own input. "I'll go out along with you too!" she assured. "It'll be a lot of fun. But you've got to wait a little bit for that, don't you?"

Petal huffed, falling back down with a disgruntled expression.

Hiccup grinned. "It's okay, Petal." he said. "Maybe you can catch up with Moonflower and you can eat together! Or you could try to find Kari; I'm sure she would be more than happy to see how high you could flutter!"

Petal still looked frustrated, but upon being addressed by Hiccup, as sense of respect seemed to dawn over her. Though disappointed, she looked down and shuffled her feet, ducking her head down low. "Yes, Hiccup." she mumbled, wrapping her tail over her feet neatly.

"You know what?" Nightflight asked suddenly, turning and looking over at Shadowclaw imploringly. "Do you think you could watch Petal? I might like to go along with them." She turned to Clearsky with a questioning stare. "If you could guide me along that is."

Clearsky purred, leaning over and nudging her cheek with his nose. "Always." he assured.

Petal looked frustrated, and Nightflight gave her comforting lick, as if sensing the fact. "We'll be back soon. And after you eat I can take you out to try flying, okay? Your father and I can both do that. It'll be fun."

Banding together, Hiccup, Toothless, Clearsky, and Nightflight, along with a hitchhiking cat, turned and started to make for the woods. Hiccup boarded Toothless, and, after Clearsky draped his tail gently around Nightflight's neck, they lifted out into the air and took flight. They were gone in less than an instant— even Nightflight, who had now grown used to trailing closely behind after her mate. Petal watched with a downcast expression, looking forlorn almost as she frowned.

Shadowclaw blinked, realizing somehow they had gotten to be alone. He turned and reaching over to poke the youngling encouragingly. "Don't worry, Petal!" he said gently. "When I was younger they had a tendency to exclude me too— it's just what they do." Waiting for her to smile and seeing that she didn't, Shadowclaw changed tactics. "How about we go out and see where Moonflower got to? I'm sure that she'll be happy to eat with you."

Petal whirled around, her green eyes wide. "Please take me out flying, Shadowclaw!" she begged, bouncing from one foot to another. "Please? I wanna practice my flying!"

Shadowclaw blinked rapidly, caught off-guard. But quickly, he grinned, and shook his head. "Sorry, Petal." he said sincerely. "But I can't really help you. Your mom wanted you to go eat dinner I think. So why don't we just go and try to find where everyone else went? We can just make one big group again; it'll be fine."

"I want to go flying." Petal whined.

"Your mother said no." Shadowclaw sighed.

Petal huffed, rearing up on her hind legs and planting her feet on Shadowclaw's chest as she stood up as tall as she could. Shadowclaw started, looking down at her with a shocked expression. Yet Petal just met his perplexed gaze with her own desperate one. "Pleeeeease?" she whined. "I wanna go flying! You can take me flying! Just for like…a ten minutes!" When Shadowclaw didn't reply, just staring down at her a little blankly, she pressed further, her green eyes blazing. "I wanna go flying! Take me flying!"

Shadowclaw didn't reply, only staring down at her. Petal blew out her cheeks, frustrated as she was given the silent treatment. Pushing off of the older dragon, she plopped back down on the ground, her ears flattened as she fumed for a moment. But before she could get up and finally relent – to start walking back down the path that led to the Great Hall – the older of the two spoke up. "Okay." he said, blinking as he tilted his head to the side.

Petal jerked, surprise flaring in her gaze as she snapped back up to peer at him. "Wait, what?" she asked.

Shadowclaw grinned, suddenly eager. "Let's go flying! Sure! I'll take you out to fly!" He stood up, beckoning the girl with his tail as he turned and started off to the side. His steps were light and bouncing, yet Petal only blinked, confused as she remained motionless. Shadowclaw turned back, glancing back at her. "What's wrong?" he asked. "You said to take you flying…right?"

"Yeah." Petal said, unsure. She blinked and looked around her a few ways. Then back to the other. "…I guess I did."

Shadowclaw beamed. "Well then, come on, slowpoke! You wanna fly, or don't you?"

He turned and looped away.

Petal blinked, watching him go. Still confused.

After a second she blinked, looking down at herself oddly.

Then she brightened, a smile spreading over her face as she rocketed to her feet. And, without wasting another second over the situation, Petal raced after the dragon eagerly.

(~**~) (~**~) (~**~) (~**~)

A/N: I would like to thank everybody that's still reading and stuck with me to the end. I know that recently with what occurred in my family that I haven't been the best author in terms of updates and I apologize. But I really do appreciate those who stuck fast! I started this story in freshman year just wanting to write a story where Toothless meets a female Night Fury, and it just grew into something much more than what I initially thought it would. I love the fact that so many of you enjoyed it, and I hope that this ending, albeit untraditional, will be a satisfying ending throughout to wrap up the entire story.

I've enjoyed writing this for you all, and I've very glad that I didn't abandon it as I tried to do when writing Illusion. Thank you once again if you've read this entire thing, and I hope that if I ever decide to do another HTTYD story sometime in the future, then I'll hear from you again :)