Sorry for the delay of this update, I've had a lot of stuff to do but always planned to update so here it is- boom!

Chapter 23 -

The stars shined brighter and the moon grew larger on that night, as two people stood on a cliff edge together, arms around each other not letting the other go as if they would fall off the edge if they did.

"Astrid, I love you, and I will fight till my last breathe to keep you safe, and unfortunately that may mean you'll have to see more of me " Hiccup grinned as his confidence rose, "That may not be as bad as it sounds" Astrid replied rubbing her nose against his. Hiccup leaned in to kiss her again, then he heard a familiar roar.

"Ok Toothless you can come out now" He Yelled and suddenly the Night Fury bounded towards the couple. Toothless instantly went for Astrid, he nuzzled her with affection, "Hey Toothless, I missed you to" She said rubbing the dragon on his head which gained a purr from Toothless.

"Hey bud I'm starting to get jealous, I think you like Astrid more than me" Hiccup joked, "Well that's understandable I'm a more likeable person that you" Astrid joked back, lying her head on the head of Toothless, winking at Hiccup, "Well if Toothless wants to be your dragon, I'll take Stormfly as she wants a rider and I need a dragon" Hiccup teased which received a stare that just said "really" from Astrid.

"Hiccup, I need to know, is there any part of you that feels different, I mean what I've seen these last few days are not what I remember the old Hiccup to be" Astrid commented, "I guess 2 years can change a person, I mean it was just me and Toothless for a while and well we went from Island to Island just to find food and shelter, till we came across this place, it was an abandoned village when I can here, well I say abandoned there was someone living in the great hall... My mother"

(I'm going to put a * when I switch between conversations)

"So you see I was all alone, well I had Cloudjumper with me, until a young man walked through that door there" Stinger explained, sitting in the great hall pointed at the entrance, "And who was that man?" Stoick asked, "It was someone I have not seen in a long time ... My son, he walked in with a dragon and I instantly recognised him even though it had been many years, he did not know who I am, so did not trust me..."

"Then she started explaining her story as to how she was taken by a dragon who later turned out to be her best friend, anyway we knew that we would stay here, but we didn't want to live in solitude so we went village to village recruiting people many of whom were more than happy to join our village. As the population grew so did the village until we have what we have now" Hiccup explained, "Where did you find the riders though?" Astrid asked,

"Grim, I found in a Berserkers prison for attempting to free trapped dragons and he was more than happy to join us. Doom, washed up on our shores as his ship was attacked by Berserkers and he again was happy to join. Clash took some convincing though, I found him at the top of the volcano, he was thinking of jumping till I talked him around and got him to join." Hiccup explained.

"But how did you convince them to ride dragons?" Astrid asked,

"Simple by showing them and training them, they found flying breathtaking and wanted dragons of their own and well we found each of them on this island and they trained them"

"But what about that dragon we found in the nest?" She almost demanded to know, "Well you see once we were all fully trained me and the riders went to the island and got into a fight with what we call the Red Death, anyway to cut a long story short, we killed the dragon but at a cost, I was knocked off Toothless as the dragon crashed to the side of the island and blew up, we hit it's tail club and I was knocked out, I then woke up to find my leg was gone and replaced with a stump which I replace with what I have now... After that all was good until..."

Stinger had finished explaining about Dyer's and Liza's story of the fire, "After that something changed in him, he was no longer the adventurous, caring soul, now he was a violent, cunning, vindictive almost remorseless fighter, thus he changed his name to match who this new person is to Shadow" Stinger explained with sadness in her voice.

"And since that day I've seen the world differently, it can be cruel and heartless and I thought that's what I needed to be, until I saw you and suddenly I felt like Hiccup again and all I wanted to do was hug and kiss you, but that would endanger you so I tried to keep you safe" Hiccup explained slightly saddened.

"Well now I know it's you so you can hug and kiss me all you want and besides ..." She ran a finger around his stomach seductively and played with the two braids at the back of his hair, she leaned into his ear and whispered, "... I like dangerous" she moved her head back brushing his cheek with her own, Hiccup blinked multiple time before shrugging his shoulders. Hiccup then lifted Astrid up and she the wrapped her legs around his waist, pushing her body up to his, his hands laid on her lower back as hers were in his hair, they brought their lips together and their love was now locked together.

The moonlight still shined on the couple seemingly even brighter.

Ok I'm answering questions before their asked

- No this is not the end

- No they did not do it

- No Stoick does not know who Stinger is

Please review

peace out guys