A/N: I am so sorry about the long wait! We've been redoing my room, so I had to unplug my computer for about a week, and we had to get it out of my room so we could paint. My room's not completely done, but I have been writing chapter 6 late at night in case I get side track by redecorating during the day.
Well, enough about my life, you guys have been waiting long enough for this chapter.
Later that day, Hiccup went back to the Hofferson house. Toothless followed his rider to the house that they were in front of. Hiccup knocked on the door then heard Asmund yelling for him to come in. Hiccup opened the door and saw Asmund sitting by the fire place. "Evening son, people still giving you trouble about…?" Asmund asked pointing to his own neck.
"Yeah, a few are." Hiccup answered letting Toothless in the house.
Asmund let out a light chuckle as he got out of his chair. "Oh don't worry, it'll die down soon. In a few years you might look back on this day, and get a good laugh out of it." He replied with a smile. Hiccup shrugged rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyway, let me get my things." He walked into his room and picked up a wooden box. He walked back in the front room holding the box in his hands, and told Hiccup to have a seat. The teen sat at the dining table as Asmund placed the box in front of him. Hiccup slid the box towards him and took off the lid setting it on the table.
He picked up a bronze amulet with the letter "H" carved in the center, and a dagger with some rust on the blade. "Those are the Hofferson family heirlooms. The tradition is to hand these down to the first born son on their sixteenth birthday. I obviously don't have a son, but you're the closest thing I've got to one. Also you're turning sixteen soon, so It seems appropriate to hand these down to you." He explained smiling while watching the boy's face looking at the objects in awe.
"Wow I….this is…" Hiccup put the amulet and dagger back in the box. "Thank you," he said smiling up at Asmund.
"You deserve it for all you've done for this village, and for my daughter." Asmund pulled out a chair and sat next to the teen. "She'll never admit it, but I haven't seen her smile like she does now since she was a little girl. After my brother died, she put it on herself to be the best warrior this tribe has ever seen. She grew up too soon, and I didn't try to stop her. Back then I thought it was best for her to fight; now I know different." He put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder before finishing his statement. "She may never say it, but I know she's grateful that you two became good friends."
Hiccup gave him a small smile and thanked him. Asmund walked him and the Night Fury out of the house. Asmund knew he had made the right choice for Hiccup to handle those heirlooms.
~oOo~
When Hiccup returned home with the wooden box in his hands, he saw his father looking at some papers. Stoick lifted his head up and noticed his son carrying the box. "What you got there son?"
"Oh, Mr. Hofferson gave me some heirlooms." He answered placing the box on the table. When Stoick looked to see what was inside, Hiccup fed Toothless some fish.
"Wow, Hiccup do you have any idea how old these are?" Stoick asked looking at the dagger and amulet in his hand. Hiccup shrugged and threw another fish at Toothless for him to catch. "Let's just say he must really trust you with these. I remember him wearing this amulet and carrying his dagger every day. He saw these as his children before he had Astrid."
"He didn't tell me about that. He just said that the first born son will get those on their sixteenth birthday." Hiccup replied as his father put the dagger and amulet back in the box. As his father put the lid back on the box, a thought wondered in his mind. "Do we have anything that belonged to mom?"
Stoick looked up at his son before shaking his head. "Nothing you'd be interested in, it's just clothes and jewelry."
"Can I see them?" Stoick was surprised that his son was interested. Stoick nodded and they walked into his room. Hiccup saw his dad open the chest that was at the foot of the bed. Hiccup watched his father pull out some clothes and place them on the bed. While looking at the clothes, he noticed his mother was small like him. He figured that he had gotten his build from his mother, but it was nice to know that she was small like him.
"Do you have a drawling or a painting of her?"
Stoick shook his head. "Sorry son, we never got to do a portrait of her. She wasn't known for staying still for a long time. She dreaded the idea of someone staring at her and not being able to move for a long time."
Hiccup smiled as he heard his father describing his mother. They hardly talked about her because it always brought back sad memories for his father. There was at least one thing he wanted to know and he hoped that his dad was okay to talk about. "How did you two meet anyway?"
Stoick smiled as the memory came to him. "You're mother and I always knew each other, but we hardly talked. We became friends after I saw her walking out of the killing area late at night. She was tired and sore, I thought she was going to faint from walking. She told me the trainer over worked her and she missed lunch and dinner. Well, I took pity on her and I cooked a meal for her. Ever since then, we just got closer each day."
"So mom wasn't the solider type uh?" Hiccup asked as they folded the clothes.
"No, but she was a fighter; the trainer just didn't like how she did things. So I decided to train her myself."
"I bet that went bad," Hiccup mumbled.
"What was that?" he asked raising a brow.
"Nothing," he replied as they continued folding the clothes.
~oOo~
A few days passed, and the two families were finishing up a few wedding preparations. Astrid dreaded the idea of wearing a large dress. When some of the women heard Astrid needed a dress, they wanted to take her out to find one. Astrid didn't want to get fitted for one, but they practically dragged her into it. When they were trying to help her decide what to wear, Astrid just wanted to hide. When two of the women that she was with were arguing about which dress was better, she snuck away to go home.
She was greeted by Stormfly who was waking up in her pen. Astrid fed her some fish before walking in the house. She called out for her father, and he walked out of his bedroom. "You're home early, did you find a dress?" he asked. Astrid let out a groan reliving the memory with the women. "I take it that it didn't go well."
"It was awful! I know they mean well, but they're acting crazy!" she shouted before sitting down at the dining table. "I just want something simple. I don't want something big, colorful, and heavy like these women wore."
Asmund gave her a weak smile then walked back in his room. Astrid heard her father shutting drawers before he walked back in the front room. She saw him holding a folded piece of brown clothing. "I don't know why I didn't think about this before, but I think you're about your mother's size when we got married." He unfolded the clothing to reveal a dress.
Astrid got up from her chair to get a closer look at the dress. It was the perfect dress. The dress was made out of light brown fur, it had a small V cut on the chest, the sleeves went down to the wrist, and it had a thick black leather belt around the waist. Astrid took the dress out of her father's hand to feel the soft fur. "I love it," she whispered looking down at the dress. "I'm going to try it on."
"Go ahead," her father replied with a smile. Astrid took the dress and walked into her bedroom shutting the door behind her. A few minutes later, Astrid walked out of her bedroom wearing her mother's dress. Asmund looked at his daughter in awe. He smiled as she took a few steps closer to him. "Wow, I never realized how much you look like your mother."
Astrid wrapped her arms around herself feeling her face getting warm. "Really?" she asked with a small grin.
"She was about your age when she married me. I remember how much she wanted to become a shield maiden just like you do."
"Mom wanted to be a shield maiden?"
"Oh yeah, in fact I met her when she was training. I was about fourteen years old, and I was walking in the woods one day. Your mother threw an axe at a tree almost talking my head off. She apologized, and the next thing I know it was getting dark and we were still talking. Ever since then, I walked her to training every day, and we ate together almost every night. You're a lot like her in many ways."
"I didn't know mom was a shield maiden." Astrid remarked, but her father shook his head.
"She never became a shield maiden, but she was about to be. Not long after her fifteenth birthday we got engaged, but while we were married I encouraged her to stay in training. After we found out you were coming along, your mother decided to quit training and put her focus on you." Asmund explained with a smile, but he noted his daughter looking down at the floor.
"So, I'm the reason why mom never became a shield maiden?" she asked.
"What? No, it wasn't like that," he got on his knees to look at his daughter. He rested his hand on her shoulder getting her attention. "Your mother loved you so much that you became more important than becoming a shield maiden. Sometimes parents need to sacrifice their own dreams to help their children get theirs. Your mother never regretted having you, or never becoming a shield maiden. That's how much she loved you." After finishing his statement, he saw a weak smile growing on her face.
She cleared her throat and took a step back away from her father. "I should get out of this dress; I got plans today with Ruff."
"Oh okay, um…then I suspect I'll see you later tonight." He said getting off of the floor looking down at Astrid. She nodded before walking into her bedroom and shutting the door behind her.
~oOo~
Later that night after Hiccup and Toothless flew around the island at sundown, they went to the cove. While Toothless was drinking out of the pond, Hiccup heard another dragon not far away from the cove. Hiccup turned around and saw the blue Deadly Nadder getting ready to land. He walked over to the Nadder watching her rider mounting off. "Are you stalking me?" he asked with a smirk.
"No, you're just really predictable." Astrid replied with a small smile.
"So, what brings you out here late at this hour?"
Astrid's smile faded giving him a glare. "Don't talk like that, it's weird."
"Sorry, I just always wanted to say something like that." He said before clearing his throat, "but really, what's going on?"
"I just want to talk about…stuff."
"Stuff? What kind of stuff?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest.
Astrid let out a sigh. "Let me ask you something. Have you ever wanted to hit someone so badly, but you couldn't?"
"What did Snotlout do?"
"It's not Snotlout; I would hit him in a heartbeat. The people I want to hit are these annoying adults that I can't touch because one of them is in the councilmen."
"A councilman? Who in the councilmen?"
"Spitelout, he's trying to convince the rest of the councilmen that we did something. Your dad and Gobber have been trying to convince him that we didn't. Once Snotlout told his dad what the twins said, he tried to get me out of any shield maiden practice."
"What? He can't do that!"
"He tried, I heard him talking to your dad about how 'I'm no longer a maiden after next month, so I should stop training', or 'if there's a chance that my purity has been ruined, then I should get married right away'. I just don't get why he's doing this!" she shouted making the dragons look at her. She let out a huff and sat in front of the pond crossing her arms and legs.
Hiccup let out a sigh and took a seat next to her. "What did my dad say?"
"He tried to tell him that this whole situation was a big misunderstanding, and that the date for the wedding stays the same. I'm just mad that these so called 'mature adults' are taking Spitelout's side over Stoick's."
"How many people are listening to Spitelout?" Hiccup asked fearing what he would hear.
"Oh not a lot, I'd say about ten, maybe twelve people, Mildew's been having a field day about it. There are just enough people talking to make me go crazy. Dad thinks he's mad because he chose you over Snotlout, but I don't know if that's it or not." Astrid replied throwing a pebble in the pond. Hiccup shrugged as he pulled his knees to his chest to rest his arms on them.
"Maybe it'll die down in a few days, like you said; it's just a small amount of people who are talking about it."
"Talking about what? Oh, you mean this?" she pushed her finger on his bruise making him gasp in pain.
He pulled her hand away and covered his bruise feeling the pain shoot out across his neck. He turned to glare at her, to only see her smiling. "Glad to see someone's feeling better, even though it's because of the pain in my neck!"
"Well you're a pain in mine." She said with a smirk.
Hiccup let out a light laugh before pulling his hand away. "Okay, okay, I should have seen that one coming." He got up from the ground and held out his hand to Astrid. She grabbed it and pulled herself up from the dirt ground. "I'm sorry that all of this happened." He stated watching her brush the dirt off of her skirt.
"You're sorry? I'm the one that landed on your neck." She said walking up to him.
"Yeah, but you know how clumsy I am. If I didn't fall-"Astrid put her hands on his shoulder and shook him a little.
"Hiccup, just stop, it's no one's fault, not mine, not yours, maybe the twins, but that's how it happened. I just wish that some of those people were smart enough to not believe the twins."
"Well like you said before, maybe Spitelout's just mad that Snotlout wasn't chosen, and this is just his way at getting back at your dad. I mean who knows why he's doing this; I don't understand Spitelout's logic. Heck, I don't understand Snotlout's logic. It must be a Jorgenson thing."
Astrid breathed out a laugh and walked over to Stormfly who was resting by Toothless. "I have to say, I do feel better after venting. You're an easy person to yell at."
Hiccup shrugged, "yeah I get that a lot." He grumbled walking up to Toothless who greeted him with a purr.
"You know what I mean." She mounted on Stormfly looking down at him. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said before she patted Stormfly's neck letting her know she was ready to head home.
Hiccup watched them fly off when he heard Toothless purring behind him. He turned around and scratched the top of his head. "This is going to be a long month."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next time.
Bye!
