Excellinor raised an eyebrow as her grandson hummed, watching him sharpen his axe in the light of the hearth, a whistling sound leaving his throat as he lifted the blade to inspect it. Hiccup had been in an obnoxiously good mood since returning to the Outcast stronghold after the end of that meeting had gone sour, a strange thing indeed. She hadn't seen him this, well happy for the lack of a better term, since returning home three months ago with the bodies of his true father and his uncle. It was well past the evening and stars had started rising when he'd come in, a rather pleased look on his face.

"You seem pleased with the events of today, child," she cooed, shambling over in a shuffling little walk. When he looked up at her with his one eye, the witch paused, taking in the expression in it. Never before had she seen such light in what was usually a cold gaze, although there was still perhaps some degree of coldness to it. Excellinor tilted her head, a wicked smile crossing her face. "I take it things have gone to your liking?"

"In more ways than you could possibly imagine, grandmother." He shifted in his seat on the floor resting against Toothless, one final noise of stone crossing metal before he deemed his axe sharp enough. Standing and earning a noise of discontent from his dragon, Hiccup tossed the weapon into the air once before throwing it at an imaginary target, the blade cutting into the wood of one of the few tables in the room and startling the Outcast it landed near. As the axe was brought back to him and presented with a low bow before the mook scampered off, Hiccup tilted his head, smirking down at the shorter woman. "Why shouldn't I be pleased? This time tomorrow, my kingdom will be realized when the tribes sign the alliance agreement."

"And what if they refuse?" Her purred question was met with an obvious answer when Hiccup threw his axe at the longer table in the great hall, slicing into the remains of the meal that had been laid out for the Outcasts, while he'd seen to it that the other tribes had been given fish. Excellinor nodded her approval, turning to look at him as she reached up, cupping his face with long, gnarled fingers tipped with poisonous iron nails. "Ah, my child. So much more obedient and deadly than my own son."

"Please, grandmother, stop treating me like a boy." He snorted and tilted his head away from her hand, mindful of her claws before he walked over and took his weapon from the body, shaving off a piece of meat for himself and slipping it into his mouth to chew on the way back over, mouth curling wickedly. "In any case, Berk is mine, as is their little dragon conqueror. Once the Berserkers and the Uglithugs have been assimilated into my tribe and become part of my army, the entire Archipelago will be mine to rule."

"I have no idea why you want the Hooligans," Excellinor said with a small huff, gesturing him to follow her in case there was anyone listening in on their conversation. The two of them walked down a corridor, quickly followed by Toothless after the Night Fury got up and bounded after them. "They're weak, lacking the call of blood that many of the clans do. Why I'd be surprised if Stoick and his brother were even allowed in Valhalla." Out the corner of her eye, she saw Hiccup twitch at the mention of his real father, his grip tightening on his weapon. Good, good. He was still irritated whenever Stoick was mentioned. Not quite as bloodthirsty as before but it came in spades. She had so hated the way that Berk had softened her grandson.

"Because without them, we wouldn't have access to the dragon conqueror," he argued with a small shake of his head, mentally pushing back that she had agreed to be his Queen for now. "I've only been able to tame so many dragons for our tribe from what I learned during my time infiltrating the Hooligans. Having her on our side, having her trust, will prove to be more effective."

"She's dangerous is what she is," the witch said with a hiss, shifting so that she could look at her grandson out the corner of her eye. "She could upset the delicate balance that we've worked so hard to create! She is the chosen of Freyja, I keep telling you, just as much as you are the chosen of Loki, and she will destroy you, fool boy!" Before Excellinor could blink, she was pinned to the rocky wall of the hallway, the curve of Hiccup's axe pressing against her wrinkled throat. Blue eyes glanced down at the weapon before they darted back up to her adopted grandson.

"I will not allow you to speak ill of my Queen," he growled in her face, the same noise coming from his dragon before Hiccup pulled himself away from her, standing straight and keeping the blade to her throat. "She does not represent Freyja any more than what I represent Loki." Hiccup let his lips curl into a sneer. "Trust me when I say that if you dare speak like this about her again, I will be forced to do with you what I did with father and Stoick. Am I understood, grandmother?" When a mute nod was his answer, he pulled his axe away, releasing her from the wall pin. "I will not allow my actions to be undermined. I trust you know this."

"Of course, of course." Excellinor gave a small smile, though it was far from one of her usual ones. Hiccup eyed her before he turned away from her again, Toothless growling under his breath at her as he followed after his rider. Reaching up, she rubbed a hand over the part of her throat where the head of the axe had been pressing before she followed. Living in Berk had given her adopted grandson too much free will, too much knowledge on how to question things. She had seen it when the fight had broken out between Alvin and Hiccup - the boy had never questioned his father's decision to kill something he'd become attached to before, had never questioned what he was being trained to do before.

Her control was slipping.

Something would need to be done before she lost it entirely.

Astrid was running.

Stumbling through the dark, she felt claws tear at her, scratching deep marks into her sides and tearing clothing when they caught. Fire rushed past her and she ducked, covering her head with her hands as she ran. She panted needily for breath, narrowly avoiding being caught up in the green fire of a Hideous Zippleback, the impact instead sending her flying forward and into the ground several feet away.

Pushing herself up, she made to continue on before Nadder feet swooped down from the sky, landing in front of her. Astrid scrambled back and made to go another way before she ran smack bang into a Nightmare. The impact sent the viking girl sprawling onto her backside, scrambling back as the large red dragon seemed to chuckle at her distress.

No, wait. He was chuckling.

"Look at our little princess," the Nightmare purred out as a Gronckle and Zippleback joined the forming of the circle around her, the former nudging her with a small growl in its throat that sounded entirely too female for her taste. "I'm going to enjoy making her suffer as we have suffered."

"Hold, Hookfang." The namedrop made Astrid turn her head towards the Nadder before looking back at the Nightmare, realization dawning on her face as it came to her that these were their dragons. Hers and her friends's. Hookfang snapped his head back from where he was leaning it forward, upper lip curling into a snarl as Stormfly fluttered her wings, tilting her head back in a comically haughty look. For a moment Astrid, thought she was going to convince them to let her go, but it didn't appear to be so as Stormfly gave her a cold look compared to the warmth usually shown in her eyes. "We should give our Queen a chance to speak. After all, it was her actions that led us to our own."

"What do you mean?" she asked, feeling Meatlug push her to her feet as Barf and Belch wrapped their heads around her like a snake, the Zippleback sniggering. "Stormfly, what's going on?"

"She doesn't know, doesn't know," Barf sing-songed, Blech joining his twin head in the tune that seemed to hiss out nonsensical words, constricting themselves tighter and tighter before an order from Stormfly had them leave her alone, Astrid gulping down air.

It was the rattle of chains that got her attention and the dragon conqueror looked down to see thick heavyset chains wrapped around one of their legs, the same for each of the dragons. Her eyes widened in horror, glancing down at the shackles and back up to the dragons. After a minute, Astrid managed to get her voice to work, brow furrowing in worry. "Wh-what happened?" Scrambling forward, she reached Stormfly, reaching to try to undo the clamp around her ankle as her Nadder craned her head down to watch, twisting it in a way that allowed her to watch.

"It is nobody's fault but my own," she crooned, her voice sounding disgusted with herself even as she pulled back the leg that Astrid kept attempting to unlock. "I should have recognized the signs. Humans are, in the end, selfish creatures who would use us for warfare. The betrayal of the one I trusted most has proved this to me."

Astrid stiffened, looking over her shoulder at Stormfly as she looked her in the eyes. "I...I did this?"

"And you turned Meatlug into a mute." Hookfang inclined his head over to the female Gronckle, who promptly opened her mouth to show how tongueless she actually was. Astrid cringed, wrapping her arms around herself as she stood, turning around to look at them. "A mistake, really. You should have done that to Barf and Belch instead. They're far more irritating."

"Hey!"

"But...but why?" Astrid drew her hands up to her head, running her fingers through her hair before they dropped to her shoulders again. They hit something, which caused her to look down at her shoulders, twirling around in an attempt to look at herself when she saw spiked shoulder guards similar to what Outcasts wore. She swallowed deeply, reaching up to her head again and pulling a circlet off, lifting it down to look at it, at the thin ivory circlet embedded with a deep red stone. The resounding clatter as it hit the floor seemed to echo around them as she placed her hands to her head, eyes wide. "No..."

The floor turned to glass and the dragons disappeared, leaving Astrid to look down at herself in the glass, dragging her hands down her face as she cupped them over her mouth, falling to her knees as the glass slipped out from underneath her, forming a mirror in front of her as her reflection stood tall. She looked older, her hair longer and waist length, braids around her head from either side and clasped together, trailing down her back. She looked like a warrior queen in every sense of the word, a sword at her hip and an axe on her back. Unexpressive, cold eyes stared down at her from a face littered with scars. Behind her mirror self was a trail of bodies, dragon bodies, their blood forming a river, some older than the next. Astrid felt tears prick her eyes as she stood on wobbly knees, reaching her hand out before she flinched at the look on the mirror's face.

"What have I done?" she whispered, a small shiver running down her spine as she looked over the dragon corpses, her gaze glancing back to the other Astrid.

"What was expected of Us," was her answer as her copy cupped her hand over the hilt of her sword, tilting her head to the side. "Nothing more and nothing less. All who Our King met resistance with have fallen in His name."

"Our Ki...Hiccup?"

"The dragons turned on Us," Mirror Astrid said softly, stepping forward out of the glass and looking down at her counterpart. "They formed a resistance movement against the King. Even Stormfly and the others joined." At the look on the younger girl's face, her lips quirked a little sadly. "War will always be in Our future, Astrid. It's inevitable."

"No!" She shook her head, looking away before glancing back up at her older self. "That...that can't be true. I...Stormfly and I ended the war when we took care of the Red Death!"

"We may have ended that particular war, but there will always be others." A hand reached out, cupping her face fondly as a mother would her child, though there was no such warmth behind it. "Such is the fate of the one chosen by Freyja. For Our future only contains war and death as chosen by Our husband." Astrid swallowed deeply, bringing her arms up to wrap around herself as she pulled away, curling in on herself out of defense. It couldn't be true. "He said so Himself, did He not? You can't simply forget a way of living, and We are no different."

"No, there must...be some way to change this." Astrid stomped her foot to the ground, causing the glass underneath them to crack. "No future is set in stone! It can't be!"

"Challenge the fates and We shall see..." The glass continued to crack away from under Astrid's foot, spreading around them before it shattered, causing the viking girl to let out a scream as she plummeted into inky black nothingness. "Find the one who pulls the strings, find the knife to cut them free."

Astrid woke up gasping for air, sweat rolling down her face as she stared out unseeing into the dark of their room. Underneath her, Stormfly stirred, a worried trill coming from the dragon as she nuzzled her rider, only causing her to jump slightly before she realized who it was. She placed her hand on the Nadder's neck, wrapping both her arms around her as she collapsed against her chest, burying her face into her scales. Neither Fishlegs or Snotlout had woken, thankfully, and she felt Stormfly press her chin against her shoulder, causing her to shiver and pull back.

"It's okay, girl. It was just a bad dream." It was mostly said to calm herself down than to reassure Stormfly, but the Nadder gave a squawk of concern, causing Astrid to smile slightly. "I'm so glad you can't talk." A quizzical look was the only thing she got before she found herself being pulled into Stormfly's embrace, and she let it happen, curling up in the crook of her legs with her dragon's head resting against her back. Her brow furrowed as she thought back to the dream, wondering what it could have meant as she stared off into the darkness.

"It was just a dream."

Astrid hadn't fallen back to sleep.

She lay awake at Stormfly's side for hours, unable to get the dream out of her mind. Was it a dream? Or was it a vision of the future? She couldn't tell. She wasn't a soothsayer like Gothi, and if she was then this was a really bad time to discover that she was. Fishlegs's and Snotlout's snoring filled the room, followed by the soft rumbles of Hookfang and Meatlug, thankfully not mumbling under their breaths. Near three in the morning, Astrid stood from where she lay against her Nadder and gave Stormfly a fond pat to reassure her, before she slipped out the door of their room.

The guard to their room was sleeping, she noted with a wry smile and a roll of her eyes as she shut the door behind her, draping her winter shawl around her. Outcast Island was colder than Berk, if it could be believed, but with the way the village had burrowed itself under the rocky exterior of the island towards the dormant volcanic center, it kept them mostly warm. She froze a little when a couple of Outcast warriors came near her, but all they did was offer her smiles - although they were slightly menacing ones, she could tell they were trying to be polite. It was really weird. Nonetheless, she offered a slightly awkward smile back before continuing on her way.

She didn't know where she was going. They hadn't exactly been given a tour of the base, but she guessed that was in case they decided not to go through with the alliance. The Outcast village was like a maze, tunnel after tunnel leading into each other and dead ends. It didn't really matter to her where she was going, just that she kept her mind off of the strange dream.

"Lost, are you?" The hissed voice made Astrid jump, hand automatically going for her axe at her hip before she turned around, looking at the same hunchbacked, cloaked figure that had been at Hiccup's side before the start of the meeting. The light of the torch sitting on the nearby wall lit only part of the person's face, one brilliant green eye staring out at her, gleaming in the firelight.

"Just...taking a walk to clear my mind," she said, taking a step back just a little, hand coming up to the clasp of her shawl as she did so. "That's all. I didn't mean to disturb you."

The person chuckled, a sound that let Astrid realize that it was, in fact, a woman standing in front of her. Her brow furrowed a bit at that - Hiccup had told her that there were no women in the Outcast tribe. Why was there one in front of her? "Oh no, dear child, you didn't disturb me, don't worry your little head about that." She smiled in a way that sent a chill down Astrid's spine. "I'm afraid I just can't sleep, much like you perhaps."

Astrid paused, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, before she spoke. "Are you...Hiccup's grandmother?"

The way her smile changed confirmed Astrid's guess. "Quite a good guess, my dear. Yes, I am his grandmother Excellinor. I apologize for not introducing myself earlier when you were in the great hall. The boy was most impatient. And you must be Astrid, am I right?" When she nodded, Excellinor tapped the pads of her iron-tipped fningers together. "As I thought. He certainly didn't lie about what you looked like when he was waxing poetic about you."

The dragon conqueror felt herself flush, hoping that the torch flame was dim enough to hide it. "He...he talked about me?"

"I hardly see how it should be of a surprise to you, dear, especially when he just would not shut up." Excellinor made to shamble past her, gesturing for her to follow. Astrid turned around before she picked the torch from its hold on the wall, taking to walking just slightly behind her. "I don't suppose he offered you the same courtesy about dear old grandma?"

"Uh, no, actually." She held the torch high, keeping her free hand to the axe at her waist as she followed after her. "He said that the Outcasts didn't have any women among them, just in the slaves that they took from ships and other tribes."

"Ah, well. I suppose he would have been a bit embarrassed to talk about me," Excellinor offered, turning down a tunnel and listening for the footsteps of the young girl following her like a duckling. "I am known as a bit of a kook among the Outcasts. Soothsaying isn't exactly an...ah...appreciated art as far as cannibals are concerned."

"You're a soothsayer?" Astrid perked a little, relaxing her hand on the hilt of her axe a bit. An elderly soothsayer wasn't going to be much of a threat.

"I prefer the term witch." Excellinor looked over her shoulder, her smile displaying missing teeth. "Picked it up from my years in the central Highlands. Folk there are incredibly superstitious." Not that vikings were much better, but at least they didn't have the tendency to shriek witch whenever she walked past. She eyed Astrid curiously. "Why do you ask, child?"

Astrid toyed with the clasp of her shawl, biting her bottom lip before she tilted her head down, looking away from Excellinor. "I...I had a dream, earlier, and I couldn't go back to sleep because it seemed so real."

Excellinor's lips quirked as she arched an eyebrow, gesturing for Astrid to follow her as she turned down a corridor. "I have some tea that might help, dear. Come along and tell me everything."

Astrid kept note of where she was being led from as Excellinor headed down the hallway, taking notice of any landmarks that she could find. Unfortunately, like most of the underground passageways, many of the rocks that shaped the inner walls of the Outcast village looked the same. She ducked when the corridor seemed to lower in the ceiling, keeping her head lowered before they entered a round room. A small stone hearth sat in the middle, but it was different from what one might expect of a traditional hearth - this one wasn't lit, but rather filled with lava that bubbled on the surface. Not hot enough to boil, but enough to keep the room warm. As though sensing her thoughts, Excellinor chuckled.

"Lava tends to keep these old bones warmer than fire does," she explained, turning her head to look over her shoulder at the young woman as she undid the clasp to her winter shawl, taking it off her shoulders. Taking some water from where it was kept warm over another nearby lava pool, she placed a few herbs into two mugs and filled them with hot water, shambling back over to Astrid and handing her one after placing the cauldron back over the pool, handing one to her. "Take a seat, child, and tell dear old Excellinor about this dream you had."

"Thank you." Astrid took hold of the mug and looked around, watching the witch take a seat on a nearby rock and following her example. She tucked her legs underneath her, taking a sip of her tea and inhaling the scent, giving a small sigh as her shoulders relaxed. After taking a moment to gather her thoughts, she started speaking. "I was running from something, I couldn't tell what. It was so dark I couldn't see a thing. And then I was surrounded by mine and my friends's dragons, only they were shackled. They could talk too! They told me I was going to make a wrong choice. But then they disappeared and I saw myself, only older, wiser, a warrior queen, a shield-maiden in every sense of the word." She took another sip of her tea and looked up at Excellinor, noticing the old woman watching her with curious green eyes much like Hiccup's, the light of the lava pool shining on her face. "She told me that I was the chosen of Freyja, that war would always be in my future."

Excellinor listened intently, pretending to drink her own tea as she let the information roll over in her mind. "I see. I see." With a hum, the witch stood from her seat, scurrying over to the lava pool in the middle of the room, near where a brown pouch sat on the outer rim of her hearth. Taking a pinch of a few herbs, she scattered them into the lava, stroking her chin and nodding before she shambled back towards Astrid. The dragon conqueror leaned back a bit as the old woman took hold of her face with both her hands, tilting her head up and using the pads of her thumbs to draw the bottom of her eyes down. Taking a step back, Excellinor nodded, circling the young girl with her arms tucked behind her back. "I thought I sensed something about you, child. Yes. Yes, you are Freyja's chosen."

Astrid turned herself around in her seat, watching the way Excellinor circled her like a dragon stalking prey, hand tightening around the mug of tea in her grasp. "What do you mean? I...I can't possibly be Freyja's chosen..."

"Here." The tip of Excellinor's finger pressed to Astrid's right shoulder, her thumb peeling back the top of the girl's shirt as she felt her stiffen underneath. There was a mark there, a circlet with three crescent moons intertwined with each other. "Ahhhh I knew there was something special about you when I laid eyes on you, girl. Freyja's chosen, as I live and breathe."

She shuffled forward in her seat a bit, reaching up to pull her shirt away from the witch's grasp before she tilted her head to look at the mark on her shoulder before she glanced back towards Excellinor. "It's just a birthmark."

"It's the mark of Freyja, just as my grandson has the mark of Loki on his abdomen." Astrid was roughly shoved forward before Excellinor completed the circle around her, some of her tea spilling over the side of her mug in the process. She looked up, surprise written over her face as the older woman smiled down at her with a smile that bared her teeth, including the gaps where some had fallen out. "It was fate that the two of you met."

Astrid felt as though her head was swimming. She was dizzy all of a sudden, the warmth from the lava making her feel faint. Her eyes fluttered, mug of tea clattering to the floor as she caught sight of Excellinor pulling something from within her robes - a dagger. A familiar looking one too. One gnarled hand reached into her hair, roughly pulling her head to the side. "I know how to fix this," Excellinor purred into her ear, the knife coming up into a driving position. "Trust me, dear, I'm a witch."

Astrid blacked out, but not before the sound of her name being called reached her ears.