Second Epilogue. Please enjoy.

Berkian Eddur - 1

Becoming Lífþrasir

Present

She hadn't laughed this hard in a long time, Dogsbreath heard the female half of the crazy twins say, and he turned back to look at the female blonde Hooligan warrior again.

She had slipped on a patch of snow and ended up legs upwards, which had thrown her nadder into a series of worried squeaks and gargles as the turnips and cabbages she had been carrying flew everywhere.

Dogsbreath and the female twin had rushed to help her, though the helping had all been taken care of by the other woman and her dragon, while Dogsbreath found himself holding a wiggling little girl. Upon seeing the warrior's pained and embarrassed face, however, Dogsbreath had taken pity on her, and wishing to make his good friend Hiccup's chosen girl feel slightly better, he'd tried to alleviate the mood, to mixed results.

"Don't worry," he'd said, "Hiccup likes his vegetables tossed."

Astrid, as that was her name, was still laughing her head off, bent over to pick up the dropped wares as she re-dropped more than she gathered, Ruffnut looking at her fondly and shaking her head as she called her a stupid clumsy fart, picking up all her spillings, the nadder and zippleback head helping to put them back in the sack.

"Oh, he's completely rubbed off on you," Astrid finally gasped. "That was so totally a joke he would make."

"Yeah, but he'd make it during a council meeting," Ruffnut said, cackling, Dogsbreath offered her the child in exchange for the heavy sack of food, but she looked at him like he was mental and hoisted the sack with one arm as if it were full of feathers. The child gargled at the nadder, who gave her a sniff and then turned to cackle and chirp at the zippleback. Dogsbreath, feeling out of his depth, simply followed the women as they moved towards the chief's house, hoping that someone would relieve him of the wiggly little human eventually.

He had caught up to the two women as he had been going to visit Catt- Hiccup, one last time before he returned to his own island. There was a lot to report back to his father, and a lot of work to do; the Thing would be next Snoggletog, and by the looks of it, the Hooligans would not be able to sail anywhere any time soon, not with their fleet reduced and their Hero in his conditions.

It would be good to come to Berk again, with the happier occasion of the Thing and Snoggletog to keep the rowdier members of all the tribes busy and happy singing Snoggletog songs and drinking a collection of everyone's best ales, which were traditionally brought to Things to help keep things happily just slightly to the left of sober.

As soon as they entered the hut, the women went around depositing the food and readying the pot, the dragons grumbling only minimally to be left outside as they knew they were entering the night fury's inner territory. Toothless immediately ambled up to Astrid, rubbing his head almost aggressively against the girl who laughed again, throwing her arms around the large black head and asking him to light the fire for her.

Dogsbreath finally spotted Hiccup, sitting next to the fire on a comfortable looking chair, bad leg up to the new-born flames and a bemused expression on his face.

"Please tell me those aren't Mildew's cabbages," he said with a laugh when Ruffnut put them down on the table where Astrid usually prepared the meals, judging by the knives and kitchen implements on it. The blonde warrior laughed.

"Oh, no, don't worry. His cabbages may be good, but I don't think I'd buy them off him if he were the last cabbage seller on Berk. They're from Svensen's fields, and finer ones you'll never see!"

"Or smell," Hiccup quipped back, and Dogsbreath sat down next to him with a chuckle, dragging a stool and allowing the night fury to curl up around them both. Hiccup's metal leg was tapping against the stone of the firepit in a jaunty rhythm only he could hear, and this seemed to put an extra shine in Astrid's eyes.

"They don't smell of mould and old people's socks, you mean?" she replied, already having made short work of the vegetables as she made sure to keep the fish she was beginning to clean away from the dragon. Toothless' eyes followed her every movement from his seat, and she finally rolled her eyes and threw him a small salmon, which he growled gratefully for, and which made Hiccup look at her fondly as she laughed and continued. "I know not to buy anything from Mildew. Lord knows what he rubs against those cabbages to make sure the slugs don't get into them."

"Just his armpits, probably," Ruffnut interjected, resolutely ignoring Dogsbreath's entreating eyes as her daughter wiggled to try to sit up, Dogsbreath's fingers firmly in her mouth as she munched on them resolutely. He had to admit, though, the little bundle of blonde hair had a sweet little evil cackle that warmed your heart, even if she WAS biting down on his hand rather hard with her gums.

"Or his socks," Hiccup went on.

"You're both terrible," Astrid admonished with a scrunched up face. "You're going to make me ill just thinking about it."

"Then don't think about it!" Hiccup and Ruffnut said together, looking at one another in astonishment before bursting into uproarious, surprised laughter. The baby gurgled, as if joining in without knowing why, the dragon huffed in amusement, while Astrid kept cleaning the fish, shaking her head with a wry but lighthearted smile on her face at being laughed at.

She was instantly alert when Hiccup sat up, using the chair's handles, and grimaced. Wiping her hand on a rag and dipping them into what looked like ale, she was instantly at his side.

Dogsbreath frowned at the expression that was suddenly on his friend's face as she worried looked at his leg, and then managed to convince him to move with her behind the area they had curtained off for his bed. Ruffnut made a lewd comment, which was only answered with a stilted laugh from Astrid, and some of the happiness had drained from her face as she closed the room off from the bed.

"You have an interesting daughter," he turned to tell the blonde twin, trying to remind her that she did, in fact, have a daughter, who had decided that sucking his thumb was an adequate substitute to sucking her own. Toothless sniggered at him; the smart-arse dragon was too much like his master in that regard.

"She takes after her father," shrugged the woman. "Always looking at things and trying to figure out if she can eat them or not. My ma says it's the same of all babies, but I don't think so. There's just too much of my Fishlegs in her."

"What's her name?" he asked. The woman in front of him went an interesting shade of purple, and looked about to chuck a knife in his direction before Astrid's voice rose from behind the curtain.

"Don't kill the heir of the UglyThugs!"

"HE ASKED!"

"He doesn't know, ok? Take it out on Fishlegs later."

Dogsbreath, confused, blinked between the curtain and the still-angry Hooligan mother, confused relief flashing in him that he had apparently dodged his own demise. Note to self; it was not a good idea to spend too much time with Hooligan mothers, not if one wanted to leave with all limbs still attached.

He was beginning to think that he should perhaps try to marry one.

He would not speak with anyone about this. Thuggory would never let him live it down.

There was a giggle from behind the curtain, and Ruffnut gave it an evil look as she took up Astrid's task to put the vegetables and the chopped fish into a small cauldron and lifting it onto the hook above the fire, tipping water into it from the drinking box. A small murmur, with a tone of wry amusement and rather snarky assuredness that was a mark of Hiccup's humour followed, which then produce more snorting and chortling. When the curtain was opened and the two returned to the fire, Astrid was holding him up, a spark in her eye, while Hiccup was looking down at her with longing, as if she was standing on the other side of a crowded mead hall, instead of right beside him and seemingly unable to take her hands away from him, even after she had helped him into the chair and tried to return to the cooking. Dogsbreath smirked as she needlessly smoothed his hair out of his eyes and straightened already straight clothing, and then he looked at his friend's flushed face.

It would be interesting to see where his friend was going to be next Snoggletog. Dogsbreath was getting a rather good education just looking at him handling various different sorts of ladies; the ones he didn't want on Bog and the other islands, and the one he rather obviously wanted here.

He had to remember to bring some parchment next time. Though he didn't need them for a while, he had to take notes.

=0=

Penultimate chapter, everyone. A quiet, domestic scene that holds many clues for … the future.

A lot of you have been asking about the sequel. Yes, one would, technically, be in the works. No, there is no prospective date. Please be patient and know I'll do my best. Meanwhile just sit back, relax, and enjoy Foxy's 'Braced' next Monday.

This is also your last chance to ask questions: As I said, I have forgotten a few of the things I put in as it's been almost four months for me. Either way, I have a short list up already.

The last epilogue will be up tomorrow, 30th March 2014. Cheers, all.