Hiccup and Astrid, as well as their faithful dragons, walked into the village square to find red, gold, and yellow streamers hanging everywhere, as well as a huge banner saying "Stoickfest" in big, gold letters. Another banner with Stoick's picture on it was barely visible as it hung on the front door of the distant great hall, and several sheep were decorated with big red beards and some old viking helmets, making the couple giggle. The early morning sun shone bright in the sky, making the gold streamers sparkle. Astrid and Hiccup could do nothing but look around them with awe.

"They did a pretty good job without us," commented Astrid, looking at the decorated village approval

"They certainly did," added Hiccup, "I'd nearly forgotten about Stoickfest was today during our minor adventure."

Toothless and Stormfly nudged their owners, who turned back towards them to find they were breathing heavily. Exhausted.

"Go and rest Toothless, meet me later when the ceremony starts," said Hiccup

"Follow him Stormfly," said Astrid

As the 2 dragons left them, Hiccup tried to focus on the far away banner of his father. It was clearly made by children. It was coloured in sloppily, and the red beard was just scribbled in. But in Hiccup's eyes, he saw the picture he drew for his dad when he was 6 in his first notebook. Suddenly, his eyes started to water and tears were rolling down his cheeks. Astrid, who had noticed, put her arms around him gently.

"What's wrong?" asked Astrid gently.

"Its nothing," said Hiccup, sniffing, "I..I just miss my dad, that's all."

"Oh Hiccup," said Astrid, "Listen, if your father could see how well you were doing now. He would be so glad."

"I know," said Hiccup, trying to wipe away his tears, only to find them replaced by new ones. "But I wish we had spent more time together."

"Hiccup," said Astrid, "If you two spent more than an hour together, you would've started bickering." Hiccup smiled slightly at this, but only for a split second until it was overcome by a small frown.

"But.." started Hiccup

"Hiccup, you always put the blame on yourself. That's the thing about you." said Astrid. Hiccup opened his mouth to interrupt, but Astrid beat him to it.

"Hiccup, what's done is done. We can't go back and change our mistakes. But we can learn from them. We don't have time to dwell on mistakes and faults, because that's time taken away from us. Treasure the good memories, learn from the mistakes, but blame is not necessary. No matter who you blame, or what they did. They can't change the past. So move on, and try to make every second count, every choice a good one, and every sacrifice and mistake be worth it."

"Wow Astrid, since when have you been preaching this stuff," said Hiccup, who found that new tears had stopped rolling down his cheeks and he was grinning. Astrid responded by punching him in the arm. Hard

"What was that for.." started Hiccup. Only to be interrupted, "That, was for the cheeky comment." replied Astrid before pulling him towards her roughly

"That was for not saying 'thank you for the advice'," said Astrid. Then, Astrid moved forward and their lips met for a few moments. Moments that felt like hours. Well at least for the 2 lovebirds. Blissful moments that only stopped when Astrid pulled away from him.

"And that, was for everything else." said Astrid, before running off. Hiccup was about to run after her when he heard a familiar voice say, "Now where do you think you're going lad?"

"Gobber!" said Hiccup, "I must say, you and the other villagers did pretty well without us."

"It was mostly your mother," said Gobber with a shrug, "Got a gift of leadership, that one. Very much like you."

"Thanks Gobber," said Hiccup, making a mental note to thank his mother later

"Now where's that son of Eret?" asked Gobber

"Oh, well, we found Eret's old crew. They were lost, so Eret offered to bring them back here. They're still making their way here so they won't arrive for a couple of days." replied Hiccup. Gobber raised his eyebrows, and Hiccup quickly added, "But they promised they wouldn't capture any more dragons."

"You trust them?" said Gobber, raising his eyebrows up further still.

"Well, Eret's their leader. So they should listen to him," said Hiccup.

"Eret used to be their leader," reasoned Gobber, "Now that he's one of us, maybe they won't be so happy with him."

"I have faith in Eret," said Hiccup. Which Gobber understood was the cue to change the subject.

"You might want to go find your mother. You don't know what's the schedule today," said Gobber.

"Ya, thanks. Nice talking to you. See you later," said Hiccup, about to sprint off to his and his mother's house.

"See ya later lad," shouted Gobber after him as he pelted towards to the large cabin in the hearth of the village

Hiccup found his mother in the sitting room with a drink. Cloudjumper and Toothless were lying down in front of the fire. The latter under the larger's wing. Valka ran up towards him as soon as she noticed him. "Where were you? I was so worried about you," said Valka softly as she brought him into a hug."

"Sorry mom, we got into a bit of a predicament," said Hiccup

"What kind of predicament?" asked Valka. So Hiccup explain what had happened the past 2 days.

"Wow," said Valka, "You sure you trust Eret's old crewmates?"

"Yes, I'm sure," said Hiccup, "Oh, and thanks for taking care of everything while me and Astrid was gone. The village looks great."

Valka smiled, "Not a problem Hiccup."

"Welcome to the first annual Stoickfest!" announced Hiccup at exactly 10 o'clock in the morning.

Crowds of people were sitting on the benches in the arena as the Dragon Racers and their dragons entered the arena. Hiccup hurriedly ran into the arena with Toothless, putting on some last minute face paint before hopping on his Nightfury. The crowds around them cheered as Valka let loose the terrible terrors. Waving banners with the colors of the racer they supported.

"The Race will begin in 3.." the racers sat forward expectantly. Toothless was waving his hunches slightly.

"2.." the crowd became silent. Children were jumping up and down with excitement. Parents were enjoying themselves too much to care their children were acting as if they had a sugar rush.

"1!" The dragons took off. The crowds resumed their cheering and the still empty barrels seemed as if they were quivering expectantly.

Toothless and Hiccup were circling above, looking for sheep. Suddenly, Toothless spotted one and began to dive. Only to find that it swiped from them!

"Gotcha!" yelled Snotlout as he and his monstrous nightmare raced for the arena.

"HEY!" yelled Hiccup as he and Toothless swerved to chase after him.

After the pair had gone, 3 other sheep emerged from their hiding spaces only to be caught by the twins. The last one was picked up by a slower Meatlug and Fishlegs and then snatched by Astrid and Stormfly.

After several more minutes, the horn was blown. And the previously content black sheep was flung into the air.

"I got it!" yelled Astrid, only to be shoved out of the way by Snotlout, who caught the poor sheep in his arms.

"Caughtcha!" yelled Snotlout, not realizing the twins were upside down on top of him. Ruffnut snatched the poor creature out of his hands and off they flew.

"I got it!" cried Ruffnut happily as she held up the animal.

"Give it here," said Tuffnut.

"What! Why?" said Ruffnut.

"Because I want to put it in the basket!" said Tuffnut.

"I should be the one putting it in! I did all the work!" pouted Ruffnut, refusing to give the shivering animal to him.

"You did not!"

"Did too"

"Did not!"

"Did too,"

"Did not!"

"Fine," said Ruffnut, "Dunk it."

"Yay!" cheered Tuffnut, "Give it here."

"Ok, here's the… wait. What!" cried Ruffnut as she realised that all she was holding were a few scraps of black wool.

"We got it Toothless!" cheered Hiccup as they raced towards the arena. Toothless gurgled cheerfully back. As they approached the basket, Toothless tensed as he was about to drop the sheep in his grasps. Suddenly, a brown blur pushed Toothless away from his hoop. Toothless dropped the sheep in surprise, and it fell into Fishlegs and Meatlug's basket.

"Fishlegs!" cried Hiccup, annoyed.

"What? Is isn't as if you haven't won enough times," said Fishlegs, shrugging.

"Fishlegs! Meatlug! Fishlegs! Meatlug!" the cheering crowds shouted. Throwing flowers at the pair of them. Fishlegs was beaming happily and Meatlug was licking his feet.

"Fishlegs and Meatlug won with seven points, followed by Hiccup and Toothless as well as Astrid and Stormfly with 6 points. Snotlout and Hookfang come third with 5 points and the Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Barf, and Belch with 3 points." announced Valka. The crowds cheered as the racers congratulated each other on their successes

The day went on rather well after that. There was a huge lunch after the dragon race followed by a play made by the children and singing some songs. Including the song Stoick sang to Valka when they met again. Finally, Hiccup made a speech that was too boring to include in this chapter before a great feast for dinner.

By 11, Hiccup was about to send everyone back home when Astrid said, "Come, let us go to the docks for the final event!" Hiccup looked at her confused.

"What final event?" inquired Hiccup.

"The surprise that me and your mom made for you!" said Astrid.

"Oh yeah! That one!" said Hiccup as he and Astrid followed the crowds outside.

Astrid insisted on Hiccup closing his eyes when as they went to the docks. Hiccup refused a few times, but its effects were fruitless as Astrid made him close his eyes anyway.

"Can I open my eyes now?"

"Not yet"

"What about now?"

"No, not yet."

"Now?"

"Wait for it…Now!" said Astrid. Hiccup opened his eyes to see lit up boats being floated into the ocean

"Surprise!" said Astrid.

"How.."started Hiccup but Astrid cut him short, "Hiccup, you've been hinting about this for weeks! How could we have not noticed," said Astrid.

Well, I was planning to have burning ships, but close enough, thought Hiccup as the crowd Oohed, and Ahhed. Suddenly, as blur fell from the sky and one of the ships burst into flames. The shape then set another ship on fire, and another.

"This is amazing," said Hiccup as more ships burst into flames. He looked at Astrid, who had a worried and scared look on her face.

"What's wrong?" asked Hiccup.

"Hiccup...the ships burning...it wasn't part of the plan," whispered Astrid as the shape set fire to a house.

"That means…"murmured Hiccup.

"We're under attack!" yelled a villager as a nearby pole burst into flames and collapsed. Sending the whole village into panic.

Hello, it's me Dawn Lovix. The person that wrote this chapter.

If you want to read more of my work, enter this URL without spaces after Fanfiction to read my httyd story: s / 11555879 / 1 / Edge-of-the-World or go find it on my profile!

I hope you liked the chapter. I worked really hard on it.

Dawnbreaker notes:

Thank you Dawn Lovix for the chappie!

An attack! Could that be the 'Eren's crew that was supposed to be late'? Were they just gathering their weapons for the attack? Or is it perhaps just a distraction? To set the bomb they were talking about. And what kind of bomb? I suppose with compressed Zippleback gas you could make quite a blast. Or is there even a bomb? Maybe It's Dagur even? But hey, didn't dagur go to the location marked on Hiccup's map, to find the "treasure". Will they find it? And if yes, WHAT will they find? Hiccup's uncle even? Talking about that guy, it almost seems like everyone on Berk has forgotten him already, at least on the outside. Who knows what kind of mental trouble Hiccup is having. He didn't even explain it to Valka.
I'm guessing Stoickfest is going to get a whole lot interesting!

By the way, everyone here has probably already seen the new season of Dragons, but I'd just like to point out that I watched all of the new episodes in one go, enjoying them all greatly. I especially like the new villain, finally someone worthy to fight against!

- Dawnbreaker