AUTHOR'S NOTES:

• Third installment in the Lost series. Takes part directly after Lost Faith.

• Oddly enough, my RP buddy found a way to write her own response to all of these. She's discussed the idea with me, but to my knowledge she's yet to start on it. But, since I refuse to post anything that isn't mine and she doesn't have an account here, this will likely be the last chapter of this mini-series to be posted on this site. Sorry.

• I do not own How To Train Your Dragon or Kingdom Hearts. HTTYD belongs to Dreamworks and Cressida Cowell. KH is copyrighted to Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix.

Winter was here. It was a fact of life. There was no escaping it. It blanketed the world in a sea of white. So much so that it was blinding. And more of it was pouring down from the heavens in a torrential downpour, coating everything in the unforgivably cold, fluffy substance. The only things that gave the eyes even a fleeting break from the absence of color were either dead or were never alive in the first place. Most of the wildlife had retreated for the winter, moved on to warmer places, or had been picked clean by other animals seeking to continue in the struggle for survival. What little was left was on its last leg.

However, there was someone pounding through the thick expanse of white as if her life depended on it.

And, in a sense, it was.

She ran down hill, cutting through the thick layers of steadily falling snow as if they were only figments of her imagination. A short wood pile she jumped over went unnoticed as the snow continued to hide it from the line of sight. She was nothing more than a blur of turquoise, yellow, and other faded colors against a blank canvas. She ran as if she were a living embodiment of Njörðr. She ignored all looks received; whether from her fellow villagers, the wildlife, or the many faces from her past. No one could stop her no matter how badly they wished for her to cease on the potentially fatal strain on her worn and ragged body.

Her breath came in short, sharp, rapid gasps that stung at her lungs like millions of little frozen needles. But still she did not stop. She blazed through the village gateway, barely passing a glance at the guard on duty despite his demands for her to stop. She run up and over what her fatigued bones considered mountains without bothering to slow upon decent. Her body, which felt like a burden on her weary soul, knew the way far better than her mind ever could. Her heart ached from strain, but still it pressed her onward. The cold bit at her bare face and sank its icy fingers into her very skin and bones and still she would not back down. Her meager reserves of energy was already running low and even that could not stop her relentless sprint. She was almost literally running on nothing more than her own stubborn willpower.

You can't stop time. You can only accept it and go with the flow. To stubbornly fight against it was futile. For three years Astrid had resigned herself to her fate. But now, with a spark of hope in her glacier eyes, her feet were as swift as a rabbit's and her body felt as light as a feather. So she continued to run. Astrid had already run halfway across the aisle and yet here she was making a complete u-turn and going straight back to where she'd come.

Astrid knew it was damn near suicidal to continue this foolhardy excursion given her physical condition, but that alone couldn't stop her. The blond continued to sprint as if she were in a marathon race against eternity. Time had an unfair advantage over her though; an advantage that had a three year head start. But still she pressed onward, subconsciously seeking refuge in a time and place that had long since slipped through her bony fingers.

She plowed through the snow when it reached her thighs. She resorted to pushing the white flurry aside with her arms as she continued in her wild sprint when it began to reach her waist. Astrid knew if she stopped she would drop dead. She knew if she only paused to catch breath she would never move again. She would be lost to the blizzard and would rejoin her mother and Birdbrain up in Valhalla. But she couldn't. Astrid was not willing to accept Freyja's loving embrace nor could she sit at Odin's table to feast for all eternity alongside her comrades in arms knowing there was still work to be done on this plain of existence.

Her pace finally began to slow when she neared her first stop. The blond only offered a passing glance before she poured on the speed again, blazing past the massive hole in the ground. From the looks of things, it hadn't been occupied in while. There were no indents in the snow to indicate a set path from something passing through. The ground was buried under mounds of snow far deeper than the cliffs overlooking it. Njörðr could not reach the abysmal grotto no matter how hard he pressed against the bare trees to dig his bitter winds into the cove's abandoned expanses. The top of the lake was frozen over, likely killing some - if not all - of the fish that called it home. Nobody had dared tread down there to fish in over a year for fear of not being able to climb back out again over the slippery boulders due to thick layers of ice. A fall down into the cove would likely claim your life with how frozen the ground was, so sliding down the rocks was out of the question.

Just glimpsing down into the cove made Astrid double her already insane pace. The place held many memories for the young Viking. Most of them were pleasant. With the exception of her first encounter to the only Night Fury anybody had ever laid eyes on in broad daylight, Astrid held no ill qualms toward its odd-ball pair of former occupants.

The blond's momentum never seemed to cease. She jumped over fallen tree trunks and ducked down to avoid being smacked in the face with low-hanging branches. Astrid climbed near vertical mounds of rock and earth using her hands and feet without pausing to think of how reckless her actions were becoming. Her fingers were cut by sharp rocks and her palms were smeared with mud and snow. Her knees were slammed against boulders as she attempted to climb over or squeeze between them. Twice Astrid nearly lost her only memento to Birdbrain when the nasal horn had been caught on something.

She had considered turning around. She did at practically every turn. Why was she stupid enough to leave the first sign of hope she'd had in years in the hands of a kid she hardly trusted? Even after all these years, Astrid was still wary of Sora. But there was far more trust between them then there had been way back when. By Thor's hammer, if Astrid was being perfectly honest, she would have to admit that the only reason she first even started to get along with Sora was because Hiccup had specifically asked her to give the other brunette a chance. And, even then, Astrid was wary. It was when she took into retrospect what was being asked of her way back when that she finally gave the foreigner a chance. Hiccup, the (former) village outcast, was asking her to accept another human being who they knew was going to be shunned by Berk for his abnormalities. In that sense, Hiccup was asking her to not only accept Sora, but himself in some twisted sense. Though Astrid doubted that was Hiccup's true intentions at the time, that was how she saw the situation and, try and she might, she couldn't shake the realization from her mind.

So she gave in and played Hiccup's little game.

Astrid didn't regret it so much as she questioned her faith in both of the scrawny boys.

She'd hated Hiccup for upstaging her in dragon training. Every time he succeeded at subduing a dragon in the training arena, he'd smile like the clumsy oaf that he was before beating a hasty retreat. Astrid had - at least at first - taken it as him rubbing his victories in her face. Yet when she later learned the truth and when she was given the privilege of getting to see other sides of the boy nobody else had ever witnessed, Astrid found that she liked Hiccup on levels she didn't quite understand. His goofy little smiles weren't because he was gloating, but because he was genuinely nervous about the attention and was probably trying to convey some sort of apology to her. The change Hiccup brought into her life was hard at times to accept, but she found she was able to get through it so long as she kept him close. Some memories still plagued her mind, but so long as he was around, her guilt was held at bay. So when the scrawny brunette turned up missing, Astrid felt Hiccup had turned her life upside down again. Her guilt was free to eat her alive from the inside out. The blond could only cling to what little sanity she had and pray to the gods it was all a dream that would end soon.

And then there was Sora to consider.

Astrid hated Sora for just existing, for being so openly expressive, and for daring to be happy despite the fighting and destruction going on around him. His innocence was border lining irritating at best and downright ticked her off at worst. He was about as bright as a rock at the bottom of the ocean and as social as a small child wanting to know the ins and outs of everything around him. There was nothing about him to like. But Astrid had, at one point in her life, thought the same thing about Hiccup. She thought he was always in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was almost always more of a nuisance than an advantage. But when Hiccup had gone missing, she needed something to fall back onto. Toothless had done a wonderful job of that, but Sora acted as a link to reality that spoke her language and was far more pacifistic in his ways than the Night Fury was. Astrid was still cautious around the foreign boy, but he was far more tolerable compared to almost every other human being in existence.

In the time that she had spent with either boy, they had become important to her. Hiccup had become the keeper of her heart and, in a twisted sense, her therapist all while acting as a foil to her raging death threats. He could usually calm her down as long as her infamous wrath wasn't directed towards him. Sora had fallen into the role of her annoying kid brother (despite being older than her) and had acted as a moral support when things buckled down to the bare nitty-gritty. He was willing to back her up on just about anything short of murdering Tuffnut. If she was being completely honest with herself, she might have called them HER boys. And Astrid be damned if she let any harm fall upon them on her watch!

Time goes by so fast and people come and go from your life.

You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you.

It was a cruel lesson in life that was often learned a bit too late to actually make a difference.

Even if she'd been paying attention to where she was going, there was no way she could have seen the overgrown tree root buried in the snow.

It took her by complete surprise. Astrid couldn't resist the yelp that escaped her as gravity ensnared her in its unforgiving net. The blond lay there on her side, gasping for air despite how much it stung at her lungs. Her chest ached with some unseen physical force, as if a heavy weight was pressing down on her ribs and threatened to break them. The white walls surrounding her were at least three or four feet tall and steadily rising. It was like they were there to trap her and steal the very breath from her chest to give her broken body back to Fjorgyn. It was, at best, a pathetic offering to a god.

She wanted to get up. She wanted to fight against the bitter cold. Her mind was all but screaming at her weary body to get up. Astrid bit down on her cracked lips and attempted to will her body into motion. But it was futile. Her muscles were aching. Her bones felt like they were breaking in half. What could she do? Dying was not an option, yet her body seemed to have thrown in the towel despite the adamant threats of her mind and the pounding pleas of her rapid heart.

So she laid there.

Time heals all wounds, but it cannot bring back the dead.

Astrid wasn't ready to welcome oblivion, but she was completely spent. There was nothing to fight with. Some would even argue there wasn't anything left to fight for anyway. But she still wanted to get up and continue running through the blizzard. The blond could have cried out in frustration and maybe even a little bit in sadness if she had the energy to do so. Her chest heaved in anguish. With every breath it felt like her world was getting darker.

Maybe she had finally lost her mind. And maybe the gods were seeing fit to mercy kill her.

Maybe . . .

Maybe she'd get to see Hiccup and Birdbrain again.

Fatigue makes even the sharpest of minds delusional.

Time doesn't stop for the world, but merely for those who leave it.

A soft croon barely reached her ears. It did not register in her mind as she simply ignored it while her body began to shut down. It wasn't until she felt something cold gently press against her torso to push her against something warm that she realized she was still clinging to life. Astrid blinked slowly as her spine was met with an almost overwhelming wave of heat. All she saw was a world of black. So . . . This was what death felt like? And here she was expecting something grander. Or maybe this was the fate she was being given thanks to her fall from grace and non-heroic death. Astrid wanted to fight against it, but she just couldn't bring any of her aching muscles to obey her. It would seem all of those years of endless training amounted to nothing in the end. Astrid could have laughed at the irony. Hiccup had once made her think the same thing when he outdid her in dragon training without so much as doing a single push-up and look where that had gotten her?

Astrid allowed her icy-blue eyes to slip closed.

And she waited for Hel's cold embrace.

Time moved on.

Blinking slowly, Astrid could have sworn she felt the source of heat move in and out against her stiffened spine. Confusion crept into her exhausted mind. Her body was feeling a little better thanks to the therapeutic warmth slowly making its way into her debilitated muscles. The snow that had previously fallen on her was melting and soaking into her clothes. Astrid raised her hand at a sluggish rate. She was expecting to find an endless abyss. So when her frozen fingers were met with something leathery that moved a fraction of an inch from the touch, it was nothing sort of a miracle that a gasp didn't escape her cracked lips. Her disoriented mind could not grasp what was going on and her body was still too tired to try and push whatever was covering her away.

Though her mind was clouded, she pushed against the haze, using the strange source of warmth and black substance as a mental anchor. There was a faint feeling of movement against her spine. Astrid's body was so desperate for rest that her instincts had been dulled to the point that she did not react to the shift in position at first. She inhaled sharply before forcing her gaze above her head. The movement took such a great deal of effort that Astrid felt like her shoulder was going to snap in half. Her eyes traveled upward even though her vision was still overtaken by a wide expanse of endless darkness.

There was a glimmer of light that caught Astrid's attention. It looked crooked for some reason from her point of view, but the sight of the floating emeralds entranced her. Her hand moved away from the leather-like substance covering her to reach out toward her only source of colored light. Her frostbitten fingers came into contact with something solid when the slithers of jade moved away from her. Curiosity gripped her remaining senses as her fingertips fought against the numbness. Her fingers curled so she could dig her nails into whatever it was she was coming into contact with. She wasn't expecting to hear a deep rumble that vibrated against her back as her nails scraped against something solid. The green slits that hovered in mid-air became smaller and further apart.

Instinct screamed at her to back off, but the rolling thunder sounded far more pleasant than the shrill howls of the wind. Perplexed and undeterred, Astrid continued to force her arm up and down at the shoulder to rake her nails against the camouflaged floating mass. She vaguely felt it press against her hand. But her energy had long been spent. Not three minutes had passed before her arm fell back down to her side with a limb thud. The emerald returned to her line of vision, only this time the slits were wider than before. Slowly her world ceased to be black as a blinding expanse of white came into view. It took her mind far too long to realize that it was still snowing. Astrid squinted her eyes against the colorless sea. A small shuffle brought her attention away from what lay before her to witness what was pressed against her back.

Astrid gave a weak smile as a swell of emotion engulfed her aching chest.

A gentle twitter reached her ears that conveyed a sense of confusion and concern.

For the first time that day, time seemed to be standing still for the living.

"Hey . . . "

A pair of inky circles, each set in between two crescent emeralds, widened into dinner saucers in a matter of seconds. An obsidian, wedge - shaped mass that held the green spheres in place tilted to the side. Two elongated ebony flaps shot up at the sound of her cracking voice. A prick of feeling crept into Astrid's fingers as she slowly began to recognize the impression of smooth scales. She'd missed the texture without even realizing how much she longed for the sensation of little warm plates pressed against her open palm.

She didn't know how. She didn't know why. All Astrid did know was that she'd found what she had set out to look for in the first place.

Time seemed to resume its course as if nothing had ever happened.

With utmost care and at a painstakingly slow pace, Astrid forced herself to sit upright. Her joints popped in protest and bones attempted to realign themselves comfortably. Her back arched forward as she tried to stop using him as a crutch, but it would seem he was not going to tolerate such bravado today. He kept close just in case she needed something to support herself against. It was an old habit that was rarely put to use anymore. The pair had never been extremely close, but they had a common attraction. They were far too stubborn and prideful for their good too. Not a healthy combination, but they'd managed to survive this long.

A loud chuff drew Astrid's attention away from the snow falling from the sky. A black mass began to come up and over her head, but it stopped short of completely overtaking her line of vision this time. It merely hung above her head to shield her from the falling elements. Under normal circumstances, she might have scoffed and shoved the wing aside. But Astrid was exhausted beyond anything she could ever recall experiencing. She didn't want to submit, so when she leaned back against his side, Astrid tried to play it off as if it had been her intention the whole time. "You're being oddly cuddly today. What changed your mind all of the sudden?" The floating mass of black - his head - came closer toward hers. Astrid couldn't stop herself from tilting her own noggin back a little bit to look him in the eyes. He didn't look very amused, but her uncharacteristic use of sarcasm caused an odd chuckle to escape him not even five seconds into their staring contest. Neither were fluent in the play on words, but both of them had at one point been so used to hearing it that to have someone form the phrases so easily was almost music to their ears. In any case, it was better than listening to the bitter winds or their empty stomachs.

Astrid reached over and gently ran the very tips of her fingers against the scales that formed the upper ridge over his left eye, almost like an eyebrow. The dragon emitted a quiet purr before he deliberately put his head down. Astrid understood why. While he loved the attention, Toothless would not tolerate anyone touching his head for very long. That prerogative had been reserved long ago for someone else. No one else had the right to touch his face; especially the end of his acute nose. He would permit Astrid the privilege to scratch the lining of his jaw or rub his brow, but his nose was completely off limits. She respected the dragon's wishes and did not attempt to break that unspoken promise of boundaries. Astrid did sometimes wonder if the Night Fury's nose felt like velvet though. Under certain light, one could see the small patch of skin at the very tip of the dragon's muzzle that was a lighter shade than the rest of his head. Astrid was curious to know if it was covered in fewer scales to allow it to be more sensitive than the rest of the dragon's body.

Putting those thoughts aside for a more appropriate time, Astrid turned herself around to face the ebony mass of scales and teeth. She made sure to keep the wing above her head.

Though time was unkind to almost everyone else, it seemed to have taken a liking toward the onyx beast.

There were a few more battle scars that had been earned over the years. By far the most prominent - and the most deserved - was the jagged line running down his right wing; the wing currently hovering above her noggin. It started just under the "thumb" in the second to last sail section and ran down the middle of it until it reached the very end. Astrid hadn't actually seen the event, but Toothless had been in a fight with an adolescent Changewing that had decided humans might make a good supplement to its usual diet. She was present in the fight, but her back was turned when the younger dragon raked its claw through the Night Fury's wing webbing. It had been a pain to heal, but it was as good as it was going to get. Everyone had been really lucky to avoid any acid burns during the whole fiasco.

Surprisingly, Toothless hadn't gotten much bigger over the years. Either from his diet or because Night Furies weren't very big in the first place was anyone's guess. He had always been a bit of a glutton, so trying to attain the dragon's normal diet on a daily basis had been given up ages ago. He was fully capable of hunting without the use of flight anyway. The dragon still had all of his teeth and he'd shed a few scales. The best news was that he hadn't lost his remaining tail fin. There were a few nicks and scraps that were shown as a lighter gray on his scales to resemble scars, but Toothless had a few of those before the madness had settled into the isle. The shredded remains of what had once been a leather saddle had been removed due to the metal rusting over and irritating his skin. Toothless hadn't been too pleased with the decision, but he accepted it with time. His health mattered. If the dragon became infected due to the rusting parts tearing his scales and underlying flesh away, there would be nothing anyone could do for him other than to put him out of his misery. The metal clasps that had once held his prosthetic had likewise been removed for the same reason. All of his old equipment was housed back at Astrid's lodge for safekeeping.

Another problem for the Night Fury to face was that his world had been gradually going dark over the past year or so. And not in a figurative sense either. For whatever reason, the gods had seen fit the slowly rob Toothless of his sight. He wasn't walking into trees - yet - but the outer edges of his vision were gradually becoming blurry. As a result, his emerald eyes were usually narrowed a bit to heighten his line of sight as much as possible. Astrid only noticed the visionary issue a few months back when Toothless mistook a plank of wood from an Icelandic Cod. She'd previously thought he had a permanent thorn up his rear with how often he was glaring and didn't hesitate to accuse him of this on a daily basis. By the time she'd discovered the truth, Astrid took it upon herself to not leave the Night Fury alone for extended periods of time. But Toothless could still take care of himself. It was just a matter of time before he completely lost his vision at this rate.

There was, however, an injury going on that hardly anyone could see.

Like Astrid, Toothless was suffering the long term illness of a broken heart.

It wasn't hard to guess the Night Fury suffered such a fate, but he did a marvelous job of harboring his suffering behind closed doors.

After all, you can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future.

Toothless gave a gentle warble in confusion. Astrid had to fight through her mind's haze in order to remember why she had risked her life to run through a blizzard like the crazy woman the Night Fury most likely thought she was. The blond quickly removed her Nadder ornament from her head. She fumbled with her between her frostbitten fingers to flip it upside down. It was then held it out toward Toothless. She was careful not to jam it up against his nose. Toothless clearly wished to question her further, but he obliged and inhaled through his flaring nostrils.

Once again, time seemed to have stopped in order to watch the dragon's reaction.

Toothless's pupils dilated to a size Astrid had never seen before. His head jerked forward to shove his nose completely into the garment made from dragon hide. He keened in the most heartbreaking note she had ever heard. The Night Fury's reaction all but finalized everything for her. It was like the last pieces of a puzzle were being discovered after being lost in the couch for years. A wet laugh escaped her lips and she tried her damn best not to burst into a fit of tears like the girl she truly was. Toothless pulled his head back when he heard the sound, trapped somewhere between trying to figure everything out and comforting her. Astrid shook her head before she eased the Nadder adornment back into its rightful place.

She took a slow, shaky breath.

"He came home . . ."

Astrid forced her eyes to close so the torrential downpour didn't start.

Her anesthetized hands wound into tight fists that shook from suppressed emotion.

She'd gone this long without crying and she'd be damned if she started now.

And time finally began to move again.

Toothless's reaction was immediate. He all but jumped onto all fours, his head jerking in the direction he knew Berk resided. A few of his joints popped and his tail flicked snow up into the air. Astrid opened her eyes to the sight and nearly caved. The blond leaned forward, sat up on her knees, and pressed her palms against his thick neck and pushed on it as hard as she could. He was clearly confused by the pressure, but he obliged and allowed her to adjust his direction. Astrid barely moved his head thirty degrees before she lost the strength to continue. But Toothless had gotten the message. He continued to move his head until it was pointed in the direction of Ullac. Satisfied, Astrid sat back on her legs. Toothless blinked several times, his nostrils flaring at a torpid rate, before he looked back toward the blond sitting on the cold ground next to him.

Unsure of where to go from here, Astrid gently pat her hand against the dragon's shoulder. "What are you waiting for? Get going," she said in a hushed whisper that was all too quickly silenced by a gust of wind. Toothless had heard her though judging by the way his right ear perked forward. "He's gonna need you when he comes back around." Astrid knew that the ebony dragon was going to be needed just like the last time something like this had transpired. That was the main reason she had sought out Toothless in the middle of a blizzard.

Toothless continued to just stare at her. "Move it." Giving an exasperated sigh, Astrid shoved with all her remaining strength against the dragon's shoulder. "Just go already!" Still Toothless refused to budge. The dragon watched her like he was expecting something. Something Astrid didn't understand.

Sensing the confusion, Toothless crouched back down again and slunk his head and neck beneath Astrid's arm. Understanding swam into her consciousness. Astrid felt a soft grin coming on as she began the slow process of hauling her tired body on the dragon's back.

It took fifteen or so minutes before she was finally comfortable. She was situated so that she was sitting on the Night Fury's shoulders, each leg hanging off of their corresponding sides. She leaned forward, pressing herself against the back of the dragon's neck and did her best to get her arms around his wide throat. It was unsuccessful, but Astrid was fairly confident she'd be able to hang on for the entire ride so long as Toothless avoided any major dips or near vertical climbs. The blond pressed her left cheek against the cool ebony scales with her face toward the side to avoid the icy winds. Her grip with her thighs tightened in preparation. Astrid's back curled and her muscles tensed despite how ragged her body felt.

"I'm ready."

Taking the initiative, Toothless folded his wings as close to his body as he could as he rose up from the frozen earth. The wind had died down, but the snow was still coming down. He squared his shoulders, flattened his ears, wiggled around, and inhaled a deep drag of oxygen.

"Go."

With that one softly uttered syllable, the mass of black, yellow, and blue was lost to the white winds of winter and swallowed by the dying woods.