The Greatest Treasure

A/N: (peeks nervously from behind a shield) Uh, hey there! So…yeah, I'm not dead, and I haven't abandoned this AU. I just…well, took a little (well, all right, a long) break from it to deal with some personal stuff and writer's block and life and etc. etc. etc. I'm trying to get back into this AU, and I hope this little story will help boost myself enough to resume writing Return to the Sea. We'll have to wait and see how that goes, I guess.

As for this particular story, it's a long-overdue request from The Story's Not Over Yet. If you've still stuck with me this long, waiting for me to finally get around to your request, then I sincerely hope you enjoy it! And the same goes to the rest of you too!

"Hiccup! Hiccup!"

The young chief looked up, startled, and saw a little Terrible Terror streak through the window. "Wodensfang?" he said as the dragon shot past him and collided with the opposite wall. He was so clumsy that Hiccup couldn't even bring himself to be surprised by the crash. "What is it?"

The Terror backed away from the wall and landed on the floor, shaking his head. "Who put that wall there?" he muttered to himself. Then he rose back into the air and returned to where Hiccup sat, his wife Astrid beside him with a wide-eyed expression of shock on her face. She wasn't as used to Wodensfang's klutziness as her husband was. On Hiccup's other side, Toothless grumbled irritably, resenting the interruption of his nap. "Hiccup! I have a message from your father the Sea King," Wodensfang announced, sitting on the kitchen table and puffing his chest out proudly.

Hiccup blinked. "A message?" he repeated. "From Dad? What did he say?"

"He said," Wodensfang began, but then his eyes fell on the fish that Astrid had been about to serve for lunch. "Ooh!" he cried, distracted. "Is that fresh cod? Yummy!"

"Wodensfang," Hiccup said sharply. "My father?"

"Oh yeah!" the little dragon said, tearing his eyes away from the fish. "He said to meet him down at the docks this afternoon. Astrid can come too if she wants. He wants to show you something."

"What kind of something?" Hiccup asked, feeling a prickle of fear. What could Stoick possibly want to show him? Was something wrong? Was there a threat on the seafloor that the king needed his son's help with in confronting?

"He didn't say," Wodensfang replied, eyes wandering longingly back to the fish. "He did seem kind of distracted, though. Mmm…" He inhaled deeply. "It smells so good!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. Speaking of distractions… "Here, Wodensfang," Astrid said, picking up a fish and tossing it to the Terror, who gobbled it up greedily. Toothless watched with wide, jealous eyes and growled faintly at the injustice. "Now did Stoick say anything else?"

"Nope," Wodensfang said, licking his lips. "Just that he wanted to show you something at the docks this afternoon."

Hiccup exchanged a mystified glance with Astrid, who shrugged as she almost mindlessly tossed Toothless a fish too. The Night Fury quieted, satisfied. "All right, Wodensfang, thank you. Please go back and tell him that Astrid and I will be down to meet him immediately."

"Heh, not wasting any time," Wodensfang remarked, and without another word he took off through the open window. By some small miracle he managed to get out of the house without colliding with anything else.

"What do you think?" Astrid asked as Hiccup stood up, setting aside the scroll he'd been reading.

"I don't know," Hiccup replied worriedly. "It might be nothing serious. But then again…" He trailed off uncertainly.

"Well, we'll soon find out," Astrid said, and she followed her husband out the door, Toothless trotting along behind them. They headed down to the docks together and stood at the edge of the pier, waiting for Stoick to arrive. And all the while Hiccup tried to figure out what kind of thing his father might want to show him. It might not be anything bad, he reasoned. It might just be…oh I don't know, a new coral growth? But why would Dad want to show me something like that?

What if it is something bad? What if there's some kind of threat coming and Dad wants to warn me about it?

And the more he thought about it, the more he thought it the most likely explanation for Stoick's visit.

They'd been waiting for only a few minutes when the calm waters erupted and the Sea King emerged, his big red beard dripping, hammer clasped in one hand as usual. His face seemed relaxed and unworried, though there was definitely an excited glow in his eyes. That was a good sign, right?

"Dad," Hiccup said at once, "is there anything wrong?"

Stoick blinked. "Wrong, son?" he repeated blankly. "Of course not. Why would you…oh," he added with a sigh of impatience, "did that dragon mess up my message? Did he say there was a problem?"

"Well, no," Hiccup said, feeling a little bit better but still mystified. "He just said you had something to show me and Astrid."

Stoick's eyes widened slightly. "Well, the little reptile actually got it right," he muttered, sounding impressed. "And you thought something might be wrong?"

"Well…" Hiccup was starting to feel kind of silly. He shrugged. "Guess I just assumed the worst. So what is it you wanted to show us?"

Stoick smiled. "You'll have to come under the sea to see it."

And so a few minutes later Hiccup and Astrid found themselves once more transformed into merpeople, their legs replaced with long, slender fish tails. Hiccup sighed as he was reunited with his natural element, doing a couple of flips in the water just because he could. Astrid watched him with a little smile on her face. It still amazed her that her husband had willingly given up his life under the waves in order to be with her, especially when she saw just how at home he was in the sea.

"Come along, come along," Stoick said eagerly, leading the merpeople and dragon toward Hyacinth, swimming so fast that Hiccup and Astrid had to put some extra effort into moving their fins in order to keep up. "Just wait till you see!"

"See what?" Hiccup asked, panting slightly.

Stoick glanced back at them, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "It's a surprise."

Hiccup and Astrid exchanged baffled, slightly amused looks and continued to follow the Sea King. But to their surprise, Stoick didn't take them into the kingdom, but rather took them into the outskirts. Soon their surroundings started to look familiar to Hiccup, his memories stirring in his head. "Wait a minute," he murmured to himself. "I know this place…we're heading for…" He trailed off and didn't finish, wondering why in all the seas his father would be bringing them to there of all places. Surely he must be mistaken…

He wasn't. They soon came to a cave whose mouth was blocked by a large stone slab. Hiccup exchanged bewildered looks with Toothless, who also recognized their location. "Dad, what is this all about?"

Stoick didn't answer. Instead, he gestured toward the stone slab with his hammer, which glowed faintly as the obstruction moved easily aside, opening the cave. He was smiling expectantly and perhaps a little nervously, as though he wasn't sure how his son would react to whatever surprise lay inside the dark cavern.

Hiccup hesitated. The last time he'd been in that cave hadn't exactly left him with warm and fuzzy feelings, and he wasn't sure he wanted to go back in again. But Astrid was looking quite befuddled and Stoick was still watching him expectantly, so he took a deep breath, took his wife's hand in his, and swam slowly through the entryway into the antechamber, which opened up into…

Hiccup's jaw dropped in utter shock.

It was like going back in time, as if the past several months had never happened. The grotto was exactly as Hiccup remembered it, the cave walls lined with stone shelves circling the chamber, light filtering in through an opening in the roof. But the last time Hiccup had been here, all his treasures, the human artifacts he'd collected over the years, had been smashed to pieces, destroyed by his father's fury.

Now, however, all the items in the cavern had been restored and repaired. Every book, boot, tunic, axe, sword, plate, spoon, spear, lantern, shield, chest, figurine, and scroll was sitting perfectly in place, pristine and unblemished. Hiccup saw the bowl and Viking helmet that had been his latest acquisitions, as well as the bag with the Night Fury emblem that he'd cherished so dearly because it reminded him of Toothless.

And sitting proudly in the middle of the stone slab on the floor was a round wooden shield with a lovely painting adorning its surface. The picture depicted a young woman with long golden hair, wearing the finery of a chieftainess and smiling demurely. Seeing it made Hiccup's heart lurch, a feeling of unreality sweeping over him and making him wonder if he was having a vivid dream.

"Oh my gods," Hiccup breathed, his eyes sweeping over the shelves, taking inventory of his collection. "I don't…what…"

"I decided to fix the place up," Stoick said airily, watching his son's expression carefully. "I was feeling lonely one day, missing you, so I came here and repaired it all. It…made me feel closer to you somehow, like you were still here with us."

Hiccup turned to look at his father, who was smiling sadly. He felt his heart swell with a strange mixture of sorrow and joy. Of course the human trinkets meant little to him now that he was a real human. He was around these items every day, after all. But Stoick's decision to repair the grotto he had once destroyed meant so much more than the simple material items on the shelves. It was his father's way of accepting his son's life choices, of telling his son that, though he missed him terribly, he was glad he was happy. It was a wordless gesture of fatherly love, and Hiccup was so overwhelmed that he didn't know what to say. "Oh Dad," he murmured, swimming over and giving him a hug.

"You like it then?" the king asked.

Hiccup smiled, drawing back from the embrace so Stoick could see him nod. "Yes, I love it. Thank you, Dad."

Hiccup turned to face Astrid, who was gazing around the cave with awe. "Wow," she remarked. "You had quite the collection, Hiccup. I mean you said you collected human stuff but I never imagined anything like this. It's amazing!"

Hiccup laughed. "Thank you, milady."

"Did you have a favorite?" Astrid asked, swimming over to the chest of jewels and eyeing its contents approvingly.

Hiccup considered for a moment. "Hmm…I had several favorites. I guess it just depended on the day. I really liked this one." He indicated a wooden figurine of a woman dancing. "I remember I used to hold it for hours, staring at her legs and wondering what it would be like to have feet instead of fins. Then there was this." He picked up a fine fur-lined boot, obviously the apparel of a wealthy man. "I used to try fitting it over my fins," he laughed. "Never worked very well, in fact."

Astrid giggled. "No, I can imagine not."

"And then," Hiccup went on, gazing toward the center of the cavern, "there was this."

Astrid followed his gaze, and her eyes landed on the shield. She stared at it in wondrous silence for several seconds. "I'd forgotten about this," she said quietly.

Hiccup swam over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Toothless found it and brought it here after your ship sank that night."

"Yes, I remember you telling me now." Astrid's eyes were still fixed on the painting. She smiled slightly. "I never really liked it, to be honest. I appreciated the thought that went into it, of course, but I thought it wasn't a great likeness."

"Really?" Hiccup asked, surprised. He studied the painting, frowning slightly. "I don't know…the face is flawless." He grinned and reached up to stroke his wife's cheek.

Astrid rolled her eyes but smiled at him. "Oh it looks like me, sure, but the…well, the attitude of it isn't right, you know? I mean…well come on, Hiccup, you know me. The clothes, the regality…none of that is really me. I'm much more comfortable with an axe."

Hiccup chuckled. "I know that, milady. Still, if I may say so, you do look lovely when you dress up for special occasions. Even lovelier than usual, and that's saying something." He winked playfully at her, and Astrid elbowed him lightly in the stomach, blushing and grinning. "You know," he went on thoughtfully, "this place meant so much to me when I was a merman. It was where I came when I was feeling particularly isolated, yearning for a world I couldn't reach. And when Toothless found your painting, it became my greatest treasure, the one item in my collection I prized above all others. Because after I saved you, you became my biggest motivation for leaving the sea. It might never have happened had I never met you. I loved you from the moment I first saw you, and now…" He reached out and wrapped his arms around her. She gazed speechlessly up at him, her eyes wide and shimmering. "…I love you more than ever. I love you more with every passing day. You are my greatest treasure, Astrid."

Astrid was so overcome with emotion that she couldn't say a word. So she expressed her joy and love another way: she leaned forward and kissed him. When they broke apart, she managed to murmur, "And you're mine."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it. :) Hopefully more stuff from the Sea Trilogy will be appearing soon. (Crosses fingers and holds breath.)