How To Train Your Dragon: A Loss That Shouldn't Be
Chapter 6: A Choice To Condemn

The figure that spoke to them stood mere meters away from Hiccup and Toothless, an aura of light shining around them as if they were some sort of deity. It was a woman, clad in the most glorious silver armor that any Viking would lay their eyes upon. Gobber would probably salivate at the craftsmanship. The way it shone even in this dead world, fastened together with belts and clips, made it seem nearly seamless as if was a part of her body. In fact, it almost resembled Hiccup's own complicated flight suit in a way when he looked at it. Boots of darker metal went up to her thighs, a skirt of leather straps on one side of her waist. A cape that appeared to be made of feathers hung from the pointed shoulders on her armor, gently billowing in the wind that Hiccup still couldn't feel. She carried no weapons except for the spikes on her metal gloves and didn't show any sign of threatening behavior. Her features were almost as light and airy as the aura that surrounded her, her lightly colored hair hung loosely over one of her shoulders. Her expression was stern, almost intimidating to stare at. It was her eyes that were the most striking thing however, a brilliant golden hue that almost seemed to glow the more Hiccup stared. The woman remained still, as if waiting for him to respond to her previous statement. Toothless was just as curious as to who this person was. She wasn't trying to threaten them like the other creatures from before, yet he had an almost automatic reaction to distrust anyone who could just appear out of thin air like that. It had happened too much today, causing the dragon to hunch down in case he needed to attack. Hiccup cleared his throat, gesturing one of his hands to his side as if to keep Toothless calm. He didn't want his friend to be too jumpy around the stranger yet. Silver armor, appearing before the dead. She couldn't be one of them, could she?
"Who... are you?" Hiccup finally managed to ask once his thoughts came back to him.
"We're known by many names among your kind," the woman said plainly, almost as if the answer were obvious. Her accent was unlike any Hiccup had heard before, neither the rough brogue of a Viking or one of Drago's men. It was like she was from a land they had never come across before. "I suppose to you, I am but one of many who decide which of the fallen will join my master in his domain until the End of Days and who does not."
"You're a valkyrie?"
The woman nodded her head. So the valkyries and their purpose were real after all. Hiccup should've felt relief, but inside he wasn't sure about the answer. If a valkyrie was finally here at last, then that meant there was a way out for him. He'd be in Valhalla where he was destined to be but... that meant leaving Toothless alone. Again. He couldn't just leave his dragon, not after he had come all this way to reunite. He decided to brave getting more answers, determined to resist whatever she would try to make him come with her. He assumed that was the reason she was here, after all. Valkyrie or not, he needed to know the truth behind her delay. The valkyrie seemed to sense it, speaking before he had a chance to.
"I will answer anything you wish to know. You must have some questions."
"Bit of an understatement if you ask me," Hiccup said. "I mean, it figures that I'd only manage to make some sense of all this right at the end."
"There is a lot to explain," she said, waiting patiently for his questioning. Hiccup soon gave it to her.

"OK... if you're really one of the valkyries, then tell me. Why did it take so long for you to show up?" Hiccup asked, his tone bluntly showing his annoyance. "Valkyries are supposed to take those struck down to Valhalla, aren't they? Why just leave me trapped in this hellhole if you're supposed to take me there?"
"It's as I said," the valkyrie replied. "You were not meant to die. And yet you still did."
"What's that supposed to mean? I mean, I know it may not look it right now despite the whole bleeding stomach thing, but I am totally dead. How am I not meant to be dead?"
The valkyrie glanced off to the side, her expression faltering for a moment. Toothless picked up on it immediately, his head tilting in curiosity. Was that... guilt she was showing?
"We... did not know what to do."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"You have to understand, Hiccup. We needed time. We never anticipated that events could transpire as they did," she explained. Hiccup was having none of it, cutting her off before she could finish explaining what she meant.
"Answer me!"
The valkyrie seemed to scowl at his insistent questioning.
"Everything has an ordained time when they must pass from your world into ours. Someone was supposed to die that day on the Sanctuary shores, but it wasn't supposed to be you. Your death changed events in ways we couldn't anticipate. Time was altered, will be altered." Hiccup's inner anger started to boil over as his teeth clenched.
"I've already seen what happened after I'm gone," he grunted. "I broke my family, I broke Astrid's heart, I let my best friend live thinking he'd never see me again..." Hiccup's harsh expression faltered as he exhaled. Toothless nuzzled into his palm with a soft croon, trying to be as supportive as he could manage.

"It wasn't your fault, Hiccup."

The valkyrie looked to her opposite side now as she appeared to admit her failing.
"I'm sorry."
"So I simply wasn't a part of your plan, huh? Is that it?" Hiccup continued to fume, his emotions breaking down any kind of restraint he had left. Otherworldy guardian or not, this valkyrie wasn't going to be spared his words.
"It is a difficult situati-" she started.
"So you just left me here?!"
"It was the safest choice we had!" the valkyrie snapped back with a fierce yell, trying to retain her own composure. The cove almost seemed to darken in tandem with the volume of her voice as she cried out, forcing Hiccup to fall silent. Maybe getting on the bad side of a creature such as her wasn't the smartest idea. The valkyrie took in a deep breath as the light returned, just before she spoke again. She shouldn't get angry. The Viking had every right to be, she didn't.
"You are an anomaly, Hiccup. You are not supposed to be here and yet somehow you are. Because of that, my master cannot take you. Only those who fall at their destined time have the chance enter his domain. But neither can you be simply sent back to the human world, knowing what you do about what lies beyond the mortal realm. We are in a difficult position and only now have we found but one solution."
"Is that why you made those things come after us?" Hiccup queried. "Those monsters that kept trying to kill my dragon?"
"They are not part of our design," the valkyrie replied. "The dísir are simply the protectors of the realm of the dead. We do not control them." Hiccup had heard that name before. According to legend, the dísir were spirits that protected those of fallen Vikings and their clans. They were terribly hostile to any living man who came across them and were sometimes associated with the appearance of the valkyries.
'That explains why they went after Toothless...' Hiccup thought to himself. 'They saw him as something that didn't belong in this world... which means that he has to be alive!' Breathing a metal sigh of relief at confirmation his dragon hadn't followed him to the afterlife in that way, Hiccup reached toward Toothless' head and gave it a gentle stroke in thanks for his friend trying to help. The Night Fury responded with a gentle vibration, moving closer to his human's side as they continued to stare at the valkyrie. She didn't seem puzzled or offended by their relationship, so that at least confirmed Hiccup wasn't trapped here because of what he had done with the dragons. The thought of his dragon brought another question to the Viking's mind.
"How did Toothless manage to get here...?" Hiccup asked.
"He broke the boundaries," the valkyrie said, staring Toothless in the eye. "After you were gone, your dragon remained connected with you. Even in death, he refused to believe that you would not meet again. That belief was so strong, it created a gate from your world to this one because you weren't in where you call Valhalla. That is how he saw you. And that is how he is here with you now."
Hiccup was stunned. Toothless had let go of his sadness, but he never let go of the idea of meeting again. He knelt down to look at his dragon.
"Is that right, bud...? You still wanted to find me?" Toothless nodded with a gentle whine, nudging his head towards Hiccup's chest as if it were a silly question to ask. The Night Fury seemed satisfied that he finally had an answer to that strange hole. His will, coupled with being close to an area associated with death like the burial mounds, was enough to create a path here. That almost made him feel a little proud at having done that by himself, all to rescue his Hiccup. Hiccup himself felt a similar sense of satisfaction that his friend had never stopped hoping and smiled with a rub around Toothless' ear plates. However, that still didn't answer the biggest question he had regarding all this.

"OK... so you say I'm not supposed to be dead. I guess that's a relief. Kind of," Hiccup mumbled aloud. "But...you said that someone was supposed to die at that battle. If not me, then who? Was it... Drago Bludvist?" His voice almost sounded hopeful that maybe justice would've been served and Drago would have gotten what was coming to him if this hadn't have happened. Toothless nodded his head in agreement with his rider, a low growl shaking in his chest as the thought of that maniac crossed his thoughts.

"He did all this... he's supposed to be here, not my Hiccup."

The valkyrie shook her head, her eyes shimmering as she stared at the young Viking. Hiccup rolled his shoulders with a huff.
"I knew I wouldn't be that lucky..."
"It is not a pleasant answer," the valkyrie said, catching Hiccup's attention again. "As I said, only now do we have a solution to fix everything. My master wills it be done, hence why I have appeared to you now. But it is something that we can only do with your help."
"Help you?" Hiccup pondered with a raised brow. "With what?"
"We can send you home, Hiccup. You can be with your people again and fulfill the role you were supposed to as the leader of your island. Your father would be proud of you for doing that, wouldn't he?" Toothless instantly crooned, almost getting giddy as he nudged into Hiccup's side with an energetic jump.

"See? You can come home! You can be with me again, Hiccup, everyone will be so happy to see you!"

Hiccup didn't seem to share his dragon's enthusiasm. The valkyrie's answer had seemed evasive, just as like before. Why mention Stoick? There was a catch. There was always a catch. She had said they couldn't just send him home as simple as that, she was trying to make the deal sound sweeter than it was. Toothless's smile faded when Hiccup didn't return it to him, whining softly as he flicked his vision between his rider and the mysterious woman. Why was his human not happy? Did he not want to come home...?
"It's not that simple, is it?" Hiccup said after some moments of silence. The valkyrie shook her head.
"Even if you're not supposed to be dead, someone else needs to be in your place."
"So... what? You'll have me change what happened?"
"It is the only way to make it right again. We would take you back to the moment of your death..."
"...and change it so that they die instead of me. Right." Hiccup chewed the scenario over in his mind. Was he really capable of doing that? Sacrificing someone for the sake of himself? It seemed absurdly selfish to even consider the possibility. He couldn't doom someone to this fate just because some supernatural creature said so. He couldn't live with himself if he knew he was responsible for their demise. And if someone else died instead of him at that moment, that meant that Toothless would also still be responsible for the death of whoever would replace him. He would not put his Night Fury through that heartbreak and regret again, he would never. And yet... the valkyrie had said it's what should have happened in the first place. Hiccup had always been one to go against the rules at times, but how could he go against the will of the universe? If his presence here caused enough problems for the gods' servants to intervene personally, then maybe it really was the only choice they had.
"...who is it? Who's supposed to be dead instead of me?" The fact he didn't get anything but silence as an answer straight away only made the real answer worse.
"Your father."

Hiccup turned away immediately with a furious grimace. Toothless watched in alarm as the Viking tried to pack up their things, double checking the prosthetic tail fin as if to distance himself from what he was hearing.
"Come on, bud, we need to go." His answer to the valkyrie's request was simple and to the point. She did not take kindly to this, finally taking a few steps forward from where stood.
"Hiccup, there is no other way. If you don't do this, then you risk upsetting the entire course of the future."
"I don't care," he fired back, kneeling down to check the tail's controlling rods. "You think I'm gonna help you off my dad after what you've put me through? You're a funny one, lady."
"This isn't a joke!" the valkyrie insisted, her presence making Toothless flinch as she stamped into the ground with one foot. "You'll doom your home and everyone you know if you don't help us set things right."
"And why should I trust you, huh?" Hiccup exclaimed, rising to his feet again. "How do I know you're not just saying all this to make me do what you want? Berk is surviving without me just fine. If Dad wasn't there to be the chief, then..."
Hiccup's sentence trailed off as he suddenly saw something flash across his eyes. Like a vision or a memory, but near instantaneous. He didn't know where it came from and he didn't recognize anything that he saw in it.

"NO! Get away from him!"
Toothless flinched like he has just been punched, his entire body hunching down to the ground like a scared forest animal. He tried to say he was sorry, pushing his snout slightly forward with a desperate whine for forgiveness. Even if he didn't know what he was being sorry for. Hiccup refused to listen.
"Go on, get out of here!" he screamed, his voice cracking as tears welled in his eyes. Toothless' chest ached at his human yelled at him to leave. Hiccup would never truly want him gone... would he? He took a shaky step forward, his own sounds inconsistent from the lump in his throat. Hiccup thrust his hands forward, threatening to push at Toothless' head enough to inflict bruises.
"GET AWAY!"

The valkyrie sighed as Hiccup shook his head back to reality. He was beginning to see the overlap of possibility. The future that should have happened instead of this. She had anticipated it wouldn't take long. Being in the presence of a being like herself who's entire existence was based around choice and possibility made it inevitable he would see the true passage of time.
"You need to trust your own abilities more, Hiccup," the valkyrie continued. "You are destined to be the leader of that island, no matter what comes your way." Hiccup ignored what he had just seen. No, it was some sort of trick, he would never ever say anything like that to Toothless. She was trying to trick him... somehow. He huffed with a dismissive gesture of both his hands, turning away from her.
"Yeah, well, a little thing called dying seemed to get in the way of that, so..." Toothless whined in frustration at his human's behavior. Hiccup always had moments of trying to use humor to deflect conversations and situations he didn't want to hear, but this was ridiculous. The dragon growled and pushed into his human's side, almost knocking him off balance.
"H-Hey, Toothless! Be careful, bud..." Hiccup mumbled, once again checking the prosthetic as if the dragon hadn't meant anything by it. Toothless growled again, shoving his snout forward. Hiccup got the message quickly and frowned at his Night Fury.
"I'm sorry, Toothless, but I can't do it," he said firmly, seeming to have made up his mind. "Now, come on. We need to find a way to get you home." The dragon's eyes went wide with shock at how Hiccup casually disregarded his insistence to follow the valkyrie's words. No, he couldn't go home, not without his Hiccup!

"...n-no! You can't! We came all this way, I-I need you to come home with me! Please!"

Hiccup's nose scrunched up as he tried to focus on his dragon's tail even as the creature it was attached to make noises of distress.
"I'm sorry, bud... but you can't stay here. There's no food for you to eat and nowhere for us to go to find any. You'll starve if we don't get you back, I'm not going to let you..."
Once again, the young man was seized by another vision, holding onto his head with one of his palms as it almost hurt. Like some sort of repressed experience was forcing its way out of the depths of his brain.

"I'm... sorry, Dad."
The horizon glowed a faint orange as the ocean mist began to obscure the burning ship drifting off into the distance. Hiccup had been on the verge of tears constantly ever since he had managed to stop the first time. Speaking like this again, as a formal act of saying goodbye to his father, almost broke his resolve.
"I'm not the chief that you... wanted me to be. And I'm not the peacekeeper I thought I was. I... don't know..."

Toothless' whimpering stabbed at Hiccup's heart almost as harshly as the vision he was forced to endure. No, it was just another trick! And his dragon wasn't making it easy to deal with. It wasn't like he didn't want to go home with Toothless. He wanted nothing more than to be home with everyone he loved, to feel his mother's embrace and his father's protective strength. He knew he was being blunt about the nature of the situation and he hated himself for upsetting the Night Fury. But he had to for Toothless' own good. Hiccup was not doing to doom anyone to this world in his place, he just couldn't. The valkyrie spoke again, uttering Hiccup's name once aloud before he whirled around to shut her up.
"I said, no! I don't care about your little tricks or your weird vision powers, I'm not going to kill my dad to save my own skin! It's not right!" he cried.
"You have no idea what your actions will cause if you don't," the valkyrie said simply. Her tone almost seemed sad that the young man couldn't see the damage he would bring. And not even for her own reasons of trying to obey her master's orders, but the damage he would bring to his own home and people.
"Then why don't you tell me?!" Hiccup shouted. "Just tell me why it's so bad that I'm not going to be a monster 'cause you tell me to!"

The valkyrie simply nodded her head to grant his request. She stretched out one of her arms, fingers spread apart to thrust her palm towards him just as her eyes seemed to glow even more brilliantly that they had done before. In a matter of moments, Hiccup felt like his senses were being hijacked. He stumbled to the ground, clutching at his head with a grunt. Toothless yelped in a panic, unsure of what to do as his rider was overcome with a weird seizure of sensation as if the feeling of his visions before had been amplified a thousand times over.
"W-What...are you doing...?" he managed to blurt out.
"We are creatures of choice. We decide who enters my master's domain and who doesn't. Therefore, we are able to see the possibilities of a soul. You've already seen parts of what should've happened that day. But now you leave me no choice but to show you what will happen if you do not allow the true events to come to pass. It is more dire than you can imagine."
Hiccup was barely able to make sense of the images flashing across his vision. Unlike before, they were like single frames of information rapidly scrolling over his eyes. He saw fires burning hot enough to make it feel like they were in front of his face, he saw great ships raging across the sea towards him, he heard the painful roars of dragons overhead, he heard cries of people in terror whose voices he recognized. And he saw an all too familiar black shape plummeting from the sky into the ocean. He gasped when he was suddenly set free and the valkyrie lowered her hand, the Viking panting for breath as he glared at her in shock at what he'd seen.
"Without you as the leader of your people, that man will come back to finish what he started. Berk will be caught unaware, unprepared without your guidance. The Alpha will fall, your people will die and the dragons will face an extinction unlike the world has ever seen. If you are not there to protect them, it is inevitable."
"N-No!" Hiccup stammered. "I don't believe you!"
"You saw so yourself," the valkyrie answered. "Your father may be many things, but he is not the connection between human and dragon like you are. Your past experiences should say that more than enough times to prove it."
"So he has to die instead?!"
"It's not a matter of him dying instead. It's a matter of him dying as he should have done. Everything has their time, Hiccup. It is his, not yours."
Hiccup clenched his fists, smacking them into the ground. With those visions acting as pretty damning evidence, he couldn't be... actually considering this madness, right? He felt sick with himself. His old habit of self-deprecation from over five years ago began to return at the idea he would willingly send his father to his death. It wasn't a nice feeling. It wasn't fair.
'Oh gods, what would I be if I did that...? Making someone else take the fall for my mistakes? I'd be just the same talking fish bone all over again, forcing everyone else to clean up the mess I make and... '
Hiccup's thought was broken when he felt something brush his cheek. Toothless had leaned in, the dragon's warmth against his still freezing skin comforting. A wave of regret coursed through the Viking's chest as he wrapped his arms around the Night Fury's neck in another tight hug. He was stupid. Toothless would never stop being loyal to him no matter what happened, realizing he shouldn't have tried to be so dismissive of his friend's attempts to help. His voice remained low, almost a whisper.
"... is there really no other way?"
"No."
"Would I remember any of it? Any of this...?"
"No."

Hiccup needed space. He stumbled to his feet, Toothless' head supporting his hands as he sniffed and tried to focus on the situation. He couldn't manage it.
"I... I don't know what to... what to do... " he mumbled, running his fingers through his hair as he started to wander away from the valkyrie. Toothless cooed to him to try and get his attention, to which Hiccup didn't respond. The dragon turned to go after him, briefly looking over his shoulder back at the strange woman. She simply bowed her head, appearing to understand this was not an easy thing to digest. Toothless immediately disregarded her and jumped in front of Hiccup, stopping him in his tracks. His human looked like he was in a daze, stumbling over himself and onto his friend's forehead. He slumped down to his knees and simply hugged the dragon's head against his body, his hands like vices.
"I'm sorry, bud, I just... wasn't expecting to be told to take out Stoick the Vast today..." The Night Fury hummed sadly. It was so like Hiccup to still try and make a joke out of the worst. He gently licked against his other half's face. Still cold.

"I'm here for you, no matter what you have to do. You know that, don't you?"

As if he read the dragon's mind, Hiccup nodded his head and closed his eyes with a gentle stroke around the Night Fury's plates.
"Then again... I wasn't expecting to see you again today either." By the gods, if he didn't have Toothless right now, he may have caved. "I don't have a choice, do I?" The Night Fury couldn't give him an answer even if he could speak. What sort of thing could you even say to something like this? He could only keep himself pressed against the human's body as literal support. Hiccup's eyes opened when he felt the presence of something stood behind him. He saw a white feather drift over his shoulder, fluttering over the nonexistent air currents of this world when a voice sounded out.
"We will make sure he reaches Valhalla," the valkyrie assured him, using the Viking's own terms for her master's realm to try and ease the young man's burden. "He will be honored properly and you can lead your people safe in that knowledge. He will watch over you." Hiccup didn't turn to look at her, his gaze lost in his daydreaming. Maybe it would be a case of ignorance is bliss. Maybe the fact he wouldn't remember his choice meant he'd never know it would be his fault. But at the same time, what Stoick had said to him before any of this had happened came flooding back to him. If Stoick were in his shoes, Hiccup knew his father would do what was right for everyone. Regardless of what hardships he would have to overcome, he would do anything to keep his home safe.
'Dad... you told me that a chief always protects his own. That sometimes it's not about making the choice that makes you or anyone else happy. It's about choosing what is best for the whole village. Would I be doing the right thing to come home? Would I be the chief you want me to be? Even if it means you...wouldn't be here to see me?"
He didn't finish the thought because he knew what the answer would be. In that loud, obnoxious and booming voice, Stoick would declare he would do anything to protect Berk and his loved ones from danger, even if it meant losing his own life. In fact, he had been in danger of being struck down if he had reached his son a few mere seconds before the fire did. It almost made Hiccup smile at how headstrong his dad would be. He slowly rose to his feet, keeping his back turned to the valkyrie. He would have to persevere. No task was ever too big when it came to serving your people. He knew his dad would say just that if he were here.
"...what do I have to do?"

Before he even got an answer, Hiccup and Toothless found their world starting to spin around them, the details of the cove and the mist blurring into nothingness. The colors of their surroundings seemed to stretch and distort into a sickening shade of grey as the very ground beneath them seemed to lose its physical presence. The pair felt like they were floating, being spirited away to another realm entirely. Toothless roared as dizziness sent his eyes rolling into the back of his head, his wings and tail flailing about in a useless attempt to remain steady. Hiccup wasn't faring much better, losing his balance and suddenly floating off his feet. At the same time, he felt an intense searing pain in stomach, crying out in agony as he felt like the scorched tissue was being burned all over again. His body curled in on itself as he managed to look down to where his permanent wound was. Or, now, had been. Despite the deep pool of red still stained into his clothing, the singed and branded flesh that used to show mangled bone and organ protruding into the open was slowly becoming as good as new, as though nothing had ever touched it in the first place. Disgusting noises of skin sewing itself back together only added to his nausea as he even noticed the blood stains starting to fade with time. The young Viking suddenly felt extremely hot. He felt like his blood had been set on fire as sensations of heat flooded his extremities and his insides all at once. He couldn't make sense of what was going on, even as he saw his dragon trying to reach him with stretched out claws. He pushed out one of his arms as well, calling out Toothless' name to keep them together. From all the activity, it was like they were in a storm, threatened with separation if they didn't stay close.

And then, as quickly as it began, it all stopped. Hiccup fell and landed harshly on the ground face first, rolling onto his back as both of his hands clasped themselves around his stomach. The pain was starting to fade, his palms raising up away from it as the last bit of blackened skin faded away from view. He gently brushed his fingers over the spot. Not even tender to touch. This wasn't a simply quick healing, this was like it had been completely reversed. In his haze staring up at the sky, Hiccup heard footsteps hurry towards him, just as Toothless' face filled his vision. The dragon hummed in worry, sniffing over his human and gentle nuzzling his face. The Night Fury suddenly recoiled as he did that. Hiccup... didn't feel cold anymore. He felt warm, warm and comforting and lovely yo be near just as he always used to do. Toothless couldn't hide his ecstasy as he jumped around on the spot, grabbing Hiccup's arm with a gummy mouth and hoisting his rider upright with a tug.
"I-I...wha-?" Hiccup stammered, trying to make sense of what had happened. The way his dragon was bouncing around giddily and trying to nuzzle his hands showed what Toothless thought at least.

"You're OK! You're all warm again, you're alive! Hiccup, you're alive!"

Hiccup himself could scarcely believe his luck, pushing himself onto shaky feet as he looked himself over. Was he really alive again? Had the valkyrie honored her deal? It wasn't until he finally noticed his surroundings that it became clear he wasn't out of the woods yet.
"This is..."

Icy ground lay beneath his and Toothless' feet, shards of ice littering themselves everywhere. Ruins of boats and artillery stood smoldering, the plumes of smoke rising into the air un-moving as if someone had simply paused the flow of time. The Bewilderbeast, the former Alpha, stood towering over them all with a swarm of frozen dragons circling over its head. Drago Bludvist wasn't too far away, his expression grim and maniacal as ever with his bullhook pointing towards an empty spot in front of him. Just like everything else, he remained completely still. Hiccup darted his eyes around and eventually rested them on Stoick, his father seeming to have been stopped in the middle of running as he desperately rushed to reach a small alcove of ice. An alcove that Hiccup remembered he had been cornered in before.
"It's the Sanctuary... right at the moment I died, just like she said..." Hiccup concluded. The valkyrie had done what she had said she would. They had been returned to the moment where everything went wrong with a chance to make it right again. But it would come with a terrible price. Toothless picked up on his rider's worry as they took cautious steps through this frozen wasteland. The entire thing seemed surreal, like they were walking through some sort of living portrait of a moment in time. Hiccup stopped just as another flurry of feathers slowly drifted over his shoulder to the ground from behind him. He spun around and was faced with the same valkyrie from before. She stood staring up at the Bewilderbeast as she spoke.
"This is where time was twisted and the possibility of the destined future was broken. In this very moment, someone who was meant to come home did not survive. The only thing left is to ask whether you're prepared to make it right."
The valkyrie turned her gaze towards Hiccup at those last few words, her golden eyes seeming to stare right through him. The young Viking winced at their power before turning to Toothless. His dragon seemed concerned, his giant emerald orbs showing all the love and support they could muster in what could very well be one of the most difficult moments of his human's life. Hiccup adored him for that, kneeling down to hold onto the dragon's lower jaw. Those eyes were a welcome distraction from what he was going to have to do. His father, mere feet away from him, was frozen in time. If they changed the events of this day, Stoick would end up running straight to his death. Hiccup could convince himself of logical reasoning and planning all day long if he wanted to. He knew this was the right thing to do for the sake of everyone and he knew that Stoick would tell him he'd be glad to lay down his life for Berk.

But even despite everything he had been shown, everything he had seen and felt thanks to the valkyrie's powers, Hiccup couldn't shake the feeling he was about to make a terrible mistake.

Did he really have the strength to kill his own father?