Final Epilogue. Please enjoy.

Berkian Eddur - 1

Becoming Lífþrasir

Future

It was the first sunny day in two weeks.

Well, sunny was relative. It wasn't galing and the hail had let up. The snow hadn't visited them again for now, and the sun had peeked out once from between the clouds that morning.

For five minutes, but who was counting?

Astrid smiled as she ducked her head in through the door, where all the tribe was gathered.

"Is this really necessary," came the whispered complaint from behind her. Hiccup was sitting on Toothless, who had carried him up the stairs. She bit her lip, unable to stop smiling as she looked back at him. He looked fantastic even though she would never admit that she was looking (her mother, of course, had noticed without needing to be told), dressed in a crisp, fresh, newly sewn tunic, lined in deer fur on the inside and covered in the best embroidery she could make, a bear-skin cloak borrowed from his father clasped to his shoulders, suede trousers brushed and metal bits polished to a shine.

His face was a study in pouting, however, and it almost made her chuckle. She held her mirth in by a hair, but his dragon wasn't that nice, openly chortling at his petulant rider.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll see about that," Hiccup answered what was, quite obviously, an open challenge from dragon to man. Rolling his shoulders and sitting up straight (and doing rather strange things to Astrid's insides in the process), he unhooked his metal foot from the clip in his equally metallic and mechanised stirrup and slid off, standing carefully. He finally put weight on his dominant leg, now more used to the metal part of itself, even if the wound at its apex hadn't quite closed yet.

Astrid was there instantly, and like always, Hiccup couldn't look at her when he let her help while he adjusted, shrugging her touch off as soon as his dragon got into position. Her heart twinged, and some of the day's lightness dimmed, but then he gave her a shy look with tinged cheeks and she smiled back for him. She had never pegged Hiccup as a proud man, but she supposed everyone had an amount of it, and tiny or large, Hiccup's pride seemed to find a limit in being helped to stand.

She hoped it wasn't just being helped by a woman. She really hoped it wasn't. The last five years couldn't have changed him that far, could they?

There was of course also the possibility that he didn't want to feel the touch of another woman save her, but she wasn't going to think about it today.

"Ready?" she asked him, the bubble of excitement superseding anything else as she moved back to the doors of the Great Hall.

"Yeah, ok," he replied. She pushed them open, and then took her place on his other side as Toothless helped him walk in with a straight back, one of his hands spread out on the dragon's broad back, and Astrid clasped the other, looking up at him happily when he didn't stiffen, and only looked at her with a return of colour to his face.

The whole of the tribe was in the Hall, and all of them cheered when they saw him walk in, almost under his own steam after two weeks of recovery. Summer had left them behind, but Autumn and the winter coming were carrying on the warmth as all the people of Berk closed in around them, the Hall's doors banging shut against the chill air and the warm fires and braziers inside, as well as the people's smiling faces and raised mead kegs, made the room brighter where the sun could not.

They were slow to get to the front, between Hiccup's sedate pace and the people making a path around him in their own time as everyone enjoyed exchanging a word or a touch with Berk's hero. Snotlout, who had had a lengthy talk with his cousin in private, came up to slap him on the back - forcefully, but with a smirk on his face - to which Toothless answered with a healthy whack of a tail as soon as they passed by, which knocked the Viking off his feet. Catcalls of having two girlfriends - both equally as violent - went up in the Hall, and Astrid found herself colouring slightly and looking up at him hopefully. But as always, Hiccup only blushed, chuckled and didn't respond in any way.

They arrived at the front, finally, and Fishlegs was waiting there with his clan and Ruffnut, holding their little girl in his arms swaddled in as many warm blankets as could be practical while still allowing her to be held by human arms. Her tiny eyes peeked out, entertained and entranced by all that was happening outside of her blanket nest, and she instantly held up tiny arms for Toothless as she spotted him. Astrid watching the dragon's body go stiff with eagerness, but he still kept his friend's pace, and only reached up a nose to be chuckled and patted at by the child when they arrived on the raised platform, Astrid restraining herself with difficulty from helping him climb up. The look of satisfaction when he managed to mount the dais on his own however was worth the worry gnawing at the pit of her stomach.

"I'm sure you know why we're all here!" His father's voice boomed as soon as Hiccup was standing behind him. There was a call and cheers from the crowd. "This is the first day of Autumn Harvest, and this next Winter is upon us, with all its sacrifices and its hardships. But the granaries were almost filled, the hens and the yaks secured. The ale is plentiful and the bread is fresh, so we will face it all as we do every year; with filled stomachs and each other's merry company!"

A cheer rose to this, with many and 'aye' and raised keg.

"But no Winter will be as special as this one," he went on. He turned towards Hiccup, a smile on his face that Astrid had never seen before. If there had ever been open love and pride and happiness on Stoick's face, it was at that moment as he looked at Hiccup, who answered Stoick's hand extended back towards him with a step forward without thinking, falling against the larger man with little show as the chief held him up. "Because this Winter will mark the new start in the history of our tribe. No longer will we have to fear hunger and pain, raids, homes and fields on fire. Now, those dragons that we fought and fought us back are our loyal friends, and this in no small part to my son," he looked down at Hiccup with shining eyes, "who has returned to Berk older, wiser, and braver than we could have hoped for."

"Hear hear!" Gobber yelled, and another cheer went up. Astrid bit her lip, cheeks hurting from smiling so much as she watched Hiccup's face flush as his father's chest puffed out and he held him closer to his side. Hiccup was now almost as tall as Stoick, though the older man still retained a few inches on his son, and his meaty arm went around Hiccup's wide back comfortably. Astrid smiled at them, so glad for their reconciliation that she could burst. Both men looked so much happier for it.

"And now, to add to our happiness, a new little one of our tribe has gone unnoticed long enough in the tumultuous happenings of the last few weeks. And it is with great pleasure and with the blessing of Odin and Frigga, that I introduce…" He leaned down as Fishlegs strode up, holding his playful little girl, who was still trying to reach for Toothless and Fireworm, (who had cautiously nosied up to hide behind Stoick, the large nightmare still slightly wary of large crowds, but unwilling to leave her rider out of her sight for more than necessary) "… Woodnut Ingermann!"

A call rose up from the Ingermann clan on the dais and the Thorston clan in the Hall, and the rest of the tribe in the Hall answered, kegs being raised and liquid being sloshed sufficiently to entertain the young baby after the noise startled her. Secure as she was in Stoick's hands, all the blankets and wiggling caused her to slip, only to be caught by an attentive Fireworm, and delivered to her grandmother's arms (as the grandfather was rather too occupied holding Ruffnut back from murdering Stoick). Astrid almost choked with laughter at the identically sheepish look on Hiccup and Stoick's face and body language. Fishlegs, still standing beside Stoick, cleared his throat and whispered something else, which made Stoick beam at him. With a hand wave towards his wife, Ruff came forward (and could not resisting elbowing Stoick as Fishlegs' mother gave her Woodnut to hold), and Stoick cleared his throat again over the cheering.

"Our good master Ingermann has told me that he has decided on a godparents for his daughter, and since she is being presented so late, we will announce the godparents together with the name."

"Might as well make it wholesale!" Ruffnut's mother called from the crowd. "Next time you might actually manage to drop her!"

A laugh rose, to which Stoick replied with a good natured wave before he joined in himself. Hiccup chuckled at his father's expense, getting his hair ruffled for his trouble.

"The child's godmother is you, Gerda, you old fool!" Stoick called to Ruff's mother, who laughed and rose up to the dais to hug her son-in-law. "And of course, her godfather, with both families' consent, is my son Hiccup."

Hiccup looked utterly stunned, receiving the giggling Woodnut only with automatic movements, and Stoick's arm around him keeping him steady. Toothless began wiggling in excitement as he wound his body tightly around his rider, making Astrid wonder if he thought the child was being given to Hiccup to keep.

Hiccup looked down at the child with awe, and then a look of utter adoration came over his face as she reached up and giggled. The strange feeling in Astrid chest that had nested there and only grown since 'Cattongue' had flown into her life rose to the surface, swelling larger and larger as it pushed the walls of her chest, and then burst, leaving her breathless and full of a plethora of new emotions that were buzzing inside her too quickly and too warmly for her think on. All in all, the feeling she was left with was one of heart-racing excitement at simply looking at Hiccup, holding a child and smiling, standing on his own as his father's arm came away and the dragon turned to nose the child's tiny bottom gently in play. Her heart beat almost painfully in her chest as she watched Hiccup surrounded by all of Fishlegs' family, and the Hall beyond the dais swelling in contented cheering and drinking songs and the first strains of the Berkian Edda, which despite Hiccup's blushing protests, was becoming a prominent pass-time of drunken evenings and was even being transcribed into writing to join the works in the hall which spoke of Hamish and Grimbeard.

More than anything, she wished that she could step forward and join that family closing in around Hiccup. But for now, the emotions in her chest, all large and throbbing, rooted her to the ground as she watched it all, happiness washing over her to see him smile again; and laugh again; amongst his people again.

He was home. Hiccup was home. It was going to be a beautiful Winter.

ENDIR

This is the end – but perhaps not completely. Also, as promised, here are the plot points you may have missed:

I'm going by character. Hiccup … woooh, so many for him. To start off, Hiccup gives himself away several times during the story:

1) They are not yet on Berk before he says that the walk from Troll Peak only adds half an hour to the journey. He then proceeds to say a number of familiar things, and Astrid also recognises Cattongue's 'coldness' from the one time she got him angry; in the Arena, when she said his father was ashamed of him.

2) Fishlegs noticed early on, but I left the signs there: After a day of watching her brother train, and then gathering information from Cami, Ruff takes it all home to her husband, who has come from the Peak with all the plans for the contraptions in mind. He realises who's behind the mask while eating his wife's gull stew, and confirms it to himself throughout the rest of the story.

3) In the smithy, he hands Gobber his hand without realising it, but that is a double hint. Yes, he gave himself away by anticipating Gobber's request, but he also does it the rest of the time by knowing where everything is. Gobber doesn't openly state it, but Brunhilda noticed this in other areas while she was speaking with Astrid.

4) As Brunhilda said, he was always extra polite to the important people; you can see this in the way he treats the Generals and Stoick during the meetings, but even before that, on the dragon Island before he knew, conceivably, who the chief of that tribe was. Brunhilda also notices that he doesn't know the younger children, and in the scene with Dartfoot, a hint that Astrid only gets partially is that he realises immediately where Dartfoot lives as soon as she says her elder sister's name. Dartbolt is eight years old, and Hiccup has been gone for five, so he knows her and knows where she lives, while Dartfoot was born during his absence. While Astrid got the surface hint that he knew where everything was, the real hint was that he knew who Dartbolt was and where she lived. Astrid missed it completely.

5) There are, of course, the obvious hints, where he laughs, or he makes stupid mistakes, which a lot of you giggled or a waved a fist at. I purposefully had Hiccup make stupid mistakes, because he's Hiccup. He learned to be independent and street-smart. Unfortunately, no amount of time will make you unlearn how to be yourself.

6) I used familiar quotes from the film on several occasion, sometimes as an ironic echo, but almost every time as a way to tip people off as to what his identity is. An example: Hiccup is leaving the Goethi's hut, and says his very familiar 'pain' quote in front of Astrid, who almost manages to figure him out there-and-then.

7) According to the Viking Answer Lady website, before the event of Christianity, there was no stigma in the Viking society regarding Left Handedness. Hiccup is left-handed both in the book and (subtly) in the film. He is similarly left handed here, with the largest hint being during the raid chapter, where Hiccup transfers his sword to his right hand to deliver a punch.

Dragons:

In chapter 8, the nadder is said to have become a bit of an escape artist, getting caught and escaping again, and taking other dragons with her. This was a double hint; the dragon herself is Stormfly, and the 'one of the other dragons' she helped escape was Meatlug. None of the other cast dragons have appeared in my narrative, and I am assuming that they are dead. I have been wrong before, but this time I don't think so. An additional hint to the nadder's identity was the fact that the first time Astrid flies her, it's during a downpour.

Snotlout:

I don't believe in character bashing. His characteristics here and their unfortunate epilogue was a result of some thought on my part about Snotlout in the books and Snotlout in the film. He seems to be a much more benign and feeling character in the film than in the books – I utterly detested him when I read them first. However, he does have an ego problem which is not altogether unjustified. Even if Astrid is the next in line, technically, his reasoning regarding her future is pretty solid; had Hiccup NOT come back, taking the post of heir or not, she would either have had to marry and perpetuate the line, or chose an heir herself. Snotlout is at least related to Stoick – if not by blood, as I am assuming the different surname means that Spitelout is Val's brother – so he would have been a good choice. Had Astrid remained unmarried, the next heir would probably have been Snotlout's children, as they were next of kin to the Haddock clan.

Then I added a dash of real Viking politics and it all went to Hel in Loki's hand-basket. Snotlout is the first son of this father, who is the head of his household, and is therefore next in line to be the head of household. Taking Spitelout's attitude from the little we've seen of him towards his son, there was a relative amount of disdain which turned Snotlout into a glory hog in order to keep his dad happy. I gave that disdain a reason here; I hinted slightly that his sisters' husbands were living in the Jorgensen hall with them, and that this is a highly irregular occurrence. It is; women joined their husband's clan like Ruff and Astrid did. Snotlout is utterly justified in thinking that they are trying to win his father's favour and steal the right of head-of-house from him. This is tied to the fact that Snotlout has refused every single time his father tried to talk to him about offering a marriage contract to other women. Snotlout's duty is to get married and make little Louts to carry on the line. Due to this, his father is constantly on his case and losing trust in him fast. His reaction, therefore, to seeing Astrid with another man, if not justified (one can never justify violence, Viking culture or not), is at least understandable. He's losing his place in his own home holding out for her, and she threw herself (in his perspective) at the first nobody who came along.

Stoick:

Most of you got it, while some of you still want to see him in that pit with the Red Death. I understand this; to be honest, the birth of this whole story was that moment in time in the film, where if you look close enough, Hiccup's heart breaks on-screen the moment Stoick utters his 'worst Viking' line. It made me very, very angry at Stoick, but it also made me re-watch the movie with a focus on Hiccup's dad, and the results were astounding. First off; Props to the digital artist who was focussing on Stoick. Serious Props. Secondly, I noticed that from the very start, Stoick's angry face is seen only when he's dealing with dragons. Even when he's chastising Hiccup at the end of the raid, there is more exasperation and worry there than real ire. His scene with Gobber is very telling; the look of utter PRIDE on his face when Goethi chooses him is there for a split second, but if you pause in that moment. Oh boy. The pride is fierce, and loving.

So it led me to see Stoick as a misguided, impossibly lost father, who can't communicate with his son if you gave him flash cards to do it, but is trying his best to juggle both a village AND being a father, which he is hopeless at. The notion of 'later' was born from the scene where, after the raid, Stoick tells Gobber to take Hiccup home – a sort of 'we'll talk about this later' veiled threat – while the rest of Stoick's emotions are intrinsically tied to the scenes where Stoick's shell cracks; being the ones where he denounces his son – Gerard Butler's voice breaking there is fantastic, but then the animator had Stoick balk, and it just breaks your heart – as well as the end, with 'I did this'. Then Foxy and I found out that he is so old in the second film, meaning that he had Hiccup very late, especially when you think the life expectancy here is about … 35? 40? It takes on a whole new level of horrible conditions for two equally stubborn, equally emotionally-retentive characters to communicate in their day-to-day lives. Hiccup has his share of guilt, in that during his quest to prove himself, he REALLY did make his father's job so much more difficult. He knows this, and it is part of why he cannot really deny the fact that he deserves part of the stigma he receives. Hiccup is … a better person than I am.

In the scene where Stoick needs to go to the healer, it is not the fact that he is concussed that enables him to recognise Hiccup's voice. The fact that he is dizzy, on the other hand, allows him to suspend his prejudices, which are keeping him blind, and the fact that Hiccup's face is literally at his shoulder makes it possible for him to hear his voice well, despite the muffling of the helmet.

This feeds into Stoick's 'blindness' conceit which I've worked into the story. Stoick has been looking at Cattongue throughout 'Becoming' with clear view in all the times where he has been suspecting him, but the one time where he actually is blind is the time where he sees. I was being a presumptuous little cunt, and took this from King Lear's famous quote 'I stumbled when I saw'. Thankfully, I'm not as horrid to my characters' happy endings as Shakey-boy is.

Law and Politics:

From research I have done on medieval literature and medieval England, (hi there Chaucer, you trollop –chasing skank) there was one thing that was essential, unbreakable, and horrible to lose in the time's society. The value of your word.

A word given, and an oath made, were considered to be sacred and protected by the Christian God, but the notion of honour and word-value was something that was universally accepted as almost a currency. This makes Stoick's 'later' transgressions above with his son a little heavier, but also serves their purpose to put a spotlight on words given and words kept. Stoick needed some work, but he came through with his son in the end. I am taking some liberties in assuming that the same rules count for the Viking culture, however from what I have read about their laws and norms and values, it seems to be equally important. Not to mention that the rules regarding debts that seem to indicate that it is a rather educated guess.

Something else that is definitely important and that is a debt incurred. In a documentary I watched about Viking culture, this was such serious business that people killed each other over it. As I've said in the relevant chapter, settling a debt was very, very important, and asking for things by the person who is owed the debt is very normal. The part where Berk did not owe Hiccup a debt because he was a Hooligan was slightly stretched; technically, people could still owe debts to each other when they belonged to the same tribe, or even the same clan. Debts can be owed when people owe each other money, or when a life is saved. In actuality, Berk still owed Hiccup a debt. But in reality, what Gobber is saying is that Hiccup would probably not see it as a debt at all – he did not, as Stoick pointed out, and just used it as a means to help Berk. Hiccup himself says several times while he's still Cattongue that Berk owes him nothing.

Astrid:

There was a lot of interaction with Astrid, and most of the hints were resolved within the story itself, as they pertained with Hiccup's identity. Astrid was realising who Hiccup was slowly, between his kindness, his mannerisms, and especially the moments where he lost his temper. Astrid in my head has a backstory of a childhood friendship with Hiccup – which would be more explored in the sequel if/when it gets done – and his loss of patience in the arena when she called him out on his behaviour was something that remained impressed on her mind because of its rarity. Therefore, every time Cattongue loses his patience, Astrid's memory is tickled severely.

Women's hair: In many cultures even today, women's hair, or hair in general, is considered to be a sensual, private part of her or him. The website for the Viking Answer Lady states that after marriage women had their hair gathered into a particular knotted style. I have not been able to find evidence of a veil covering the hair too – a number of documentaries actually dismiss it because there was not enough archaeological evidence. However, the VAL website has enough evidence to show that married women, definitely, tied their hair back in a knot after marriage. This leads to the educated assumption therefore that women's hair has a romantic/sexual significance in this culture. All the women in the film have gathered hair. Granted, it's daft to have it down in battle anyway. However, I'm going down the path of adding two and two to make four and – considering the admitted research that went on in HTTYD (Stoick and Hiccup's clothes, armour, and Astrid's tunic and kransen) – I feel safe in doing so. Astrid's hair being down, therefore, in the scene with Snotlout, has all of this added cultural significance to it where Astrid was wilfully being more intimate than she should ever have been with a 'stranger'. Had that not been Hiccup, it may have been grounds to dismiss her engagement into the leading family of the village.

The Title:

I agonised for a while about what to call this story, until I remembered the legend of the end of earth in the Norse Mythos. 'Becoming' – the original working title – became 'Becoming Lífþrasir'. A lot of readers have asked about the title's meaning, so here it is:

In the original legend, a long Winter wipes out most of life on earth, with famine and war, while the world serpent Jörmungandr fights with Thor and the rest of the gods. At the end of this battle, there are only two humans left; Líf and Lífþrasir. Líf is the female of the pair, while Lífþrasir is the male. According to what I have found, Líf means 'life', and Lífþrasir has dual meaning. It is 'Líf's lover', having the obvious implication that they would repopulate earth, but it also means 'lover of life'.

Both meanings are important here. The first one is reference to Hiccup's relationship with Astrid – he is quite in love with her, and their current political arrangement foreshadows a relation that will, eventually, lead to the wedding bed. The second meaning, though, is tied to Hiccup alone. He has spent the last five years roaming the world and believing that he was very much unloved and unwanted by the people he cared for most. And while he had more than his share of happy moments, that is a belief that would weigh anyone down. As one of my great, sharp readers has pointed out, 'Becoming Lífþrasir' is not about grand adventures, romps, fights, seeking revenge or keeping grudges. It's about redemption, forgiveness and reconciliation.

The meaning of 'Lífþrasir', therefore, takes on the aspect of a hope; Hiccup, with his bridges mended, can now once again begin to enjoy and love his life. He can become a 'lover of life' once more.

Thing – or 'Þing'

The Thing is a nod towards the original books, where it is a meeting of the allied tribes from all the archipelago; but also on the VAL website, a Þing is described as a semi-religious activity that took care of legal affairs within the community. Obviously, the author of the books did her research and I have to admit; calling it 'The Thing' is just so ridiculous to our modern diction even if it was its real original name that it fits the 'devil-may-care' attitude the Vikings have in books.

So what do Dogsbreath's thoughts mean? Oh, I don't know, maybe it's a clue. And isn't this where I talk about clues? Yup – but I won't talk about this one, because … well, look down.

Other, unresolved issues:

Mainly, the Þing, Snoggletog, Snotlout and Josepha. But of course, my dearies… there must be some things left over for sequels, savvy? As well as the bent and dented relationship with Astrid. Hiccup and Astrid have a lot to work out between them, because they are both projecting their own insecurities on the other. The final hint is the very last word of this story; it has a lot of significance.

Anything else?

Yes, lots of other things. Some things I may have admittedly forgotten – I'm not super human – but there are other things I do not want to dictate on. The relationship of respect between reader and writer is something I believe in greatly, and the reader contributes as much as the author to a story, living it, each reader in their own unique and great way. Whether a story is liked or disliked, it is lived, and therefore you all, as readers, have the right to understand what you like with this story.

So finally, thank you all for reading. May you enjoy a thousand good narratives, and a tip of the cap to all my sharp, honest and polite reviewers, who made this a learning experience as well as an intensely beautiful one; and my gratitude to have been on this romp with me.