By the way, the quote about a Phoenix is originally this:

"I'm like a phoenix. I rise from the ashes." – Bess Myerson

Saying Goodbye

Astrid hadn't been home for long, but since she didn't know what time her husband would be home, she had decided to sit at his desk in their bedroom, wearing just one of his shirts and her undergarments, she was reading a book. Yes, that was unusual for Vikings, but she had found herself to be enjoying it, it was one that Caverna had gotten from Trader Johan a while ago, and her sister-in-law had leant it to her out of interest. It was about a mythical creature called a Phoenix, a bird that was reborn in fire, no wonder Caverna had become interested in it. However, Astrid soon stopped reading as she heard the front door open and close and the familiar thud and squeak of her husband's uneven footsteps as he made his way up the stairs and into their bedroom. At seeing him, she put the book down and stood up.

"How is she?" She asked him immediately.

"Grieving...Terribly..." Hiccup sighed. "I don't know what to do Astrid; she wasn't this bad when she killed Brock and his family."

"She cared more about Stoick and Sapphire than she did them." Astrid reminded him, moving to sit behind him as he sat on the edge of their bed and she slid her arms around him from behind, allowing Hiccup to lean back into her.

"I know." He sighed. "But mom won't even go near her, and this is making her more and more upset."

Astrid sighed; before she glanced over at the book she had been reading suddenly having an idea.

"Hiccup, I think I have an idea." She told him.

"Whatever it is, let's do it." Hiccup told her instantly. "But just so I know, what is your idea?"

Astrid spent most of the night talking about the phoenix and her idea, which was too make a bonfire in the square, and burn the things that Stoick had, such as the shield he had been made by Hiccup and the hammer that Caverna had made him. That way it could symbolize a time of healing for not only Hiccup and Caverna, but for Gobber and Valka and the rest of the town too. After going through it, Hiccup agreed and after making plans about how to do it, the couple went to bed early, in order to get an early start in the morning. The next morning, Astrid was up before her husband and she made him some breakfast, before she went out to feed the dragons. When she came back, she found Hiccup sitting at the table, eating the breakfast that she had made as he worked on the plans for their bonfire.

"How's it looking?" She asked as she joined him.

"It's looking pretty well; we should have it done for tonight, now we just need to spread the word." Hiccup told her as he finished both his breakfast and the plans.

"Excellent, well why don't we call a town meeting this morning?" Astrid suggested.

"Good idea, but for the bonfire, instead of it just being about dad, why don't we do it for everybody who's died, like your uncle Finn." Hiccup asked, looking at her.

Astrid thought about it, before she nodded. "Alright, that's a good idea."

Hiccup smiled, kissing her cheek as he took his bowl to the sink and washed it, before he went back to the plans and he put them into his saddlebag looking at his wife. "What else are you planning on doing today?" He asked.

"Nothing really, Caverna and I were going to fly our Deadly Nadders for a bit, but that's about it."Astrid told him with a shrug.

"Alright, then you bring her to where the bonfire is?" Hiccup suggested.

Astrid nodded. "Alright, now let's go and get this town meeting over with."

At his nod, both of them left their house and finding their dragons outside, they climbed into their saddle and flew off telling everyone about the village meeting in the Great Hall that morning.

However, someone forgot to tell Caverna and Eret as they were out over the sea, with Caverna training Eret how to do some tricks whilst on the back of Skullcrusher.

"Okay Eret, keep your feet a good distance apart..." She instructed as she stood perfectly on Snowcap's back. "Whoa, whoa, too much!" She shouted as Eret soon fell from the saddle. "Snowcap, catch."

At the command, Snowcap flew down and caught the falling Eret before allowing him to land on the floor safely before she landed beside him and Caverna dismounted, calling Skullcrusher down. As he landed beside Snowcap, the two began to play fight, and whilst the dragons were occupied, Caverna brought Eret over to an unsteady pile of rocks.

"Stand on the top." She told him.

"Why?" He asked looking at her.

"It's going to act as the saddles on a dragon, if you can stand on top of them for a long period of time, then you're going to be able to stand on the back of your dragon." Caverna explained.

Eret nodded and with Snowcap's help, he managed to climb to the top and he got into the position that Caverna had shown him for standing on his saddle, and after a while and a few near attempts of falling over; Eret was standing tall on top of rock pile.

"There you go, see it wasn't that hard." Caverna laughed as she sat cross-legged on Snowcap's back. "Now let's try it on a dragon."

"Are you kidding me?" Eret asked. "I've only just got this."

"No I'm not kidding." She told him, watching Eret jump off and then climbed onto his saddle on Skullcrusher's back.

Meanwhile, in the Great Hall, Hiccup had gathered all of the Vikings as he stood at the front of the group, his wife at his side, he was scanning the room for Caverna, but no one had seen her. In the end, he had to make the speech without her.

"Thank you for all coming here this morning, and I'm sorry that it's such short notice." He told them. "But it's been almost a month since my dad was killed in battle, and Astrid and I have come up with an idea, well it was more Astrid's idea. Since we're all missing people who we've lost over the years, she thought that we should have a bonfire in the square, something to remember them with, and to celebrate them, as well as to bring about a new chapter."

"Like something I read in one of Caverna's books: We are like a phoenix, we will rise from the ashes." Astrid told them. "It means that after something old has died, something new is reborn."

"What could that involve?" One o the villagers suddenly asked.

"A good harvest, someone in the village could get married or have a baby, you know, stuff like that." Was Astrid's reply with a shrug.

"But we put it to you, the villagers, to see if you agree with us and want to do it." Hiccup told them.

"And when would this bonfire be lit, lad?" Gobber spoke up.

"Later on tonight if possible." Hiccup told him. "Or tomorrow night if it's not finished, and we will carry this on each year."

The villagers seemed to talk about themselves for a few minutes, before they all agreed, and for the next few hours, Hiccup had assigned groups to certain jobs, and the villagers departed to do them said jobs. Hiccup went to join in the preparations, but not before he and Toothless shared a look, wondering where their two females had gone.

Caverna however was still sitting on the edge of a cliff watching Eret trying to stand up in his saddle, and once he had done that with Skullcrusher happily sitting on the ground, Caverna got him to try it from the air –which proved to be the most difficult.

"Trust your dragon." Caverna told him as he kept falling back down.

"I am, it's just hard." Eret told her.

"Eret, the whole point of a dragon rider is the establishment of a bond of trust between dragon and rider, like what Snowcap and I have." She told him before she patted her dragons head and pointed up and Snowcap flew higher and higher. When they got high enough, Eret watched as Caverna simply fell from the saddle and she fell towards the ground, but she wasn't worried, before just as she hit the floor, Snowcap had hold of her in her paws and she gently rested her rider on her feet.

"See, trust." She told him. "I trusted Snowcap not to let me get hurt."

"Okay, but there's no way that I'm doing that." Eret told her as he tried to stand in his saddle again, and fall back down for a fifteenth time.

Caverna simply rolled her eyes before they continued, and they didn't stop practice until Eret was finally standing on top of the saddle for a complete total of ten seconds – it was a start. When this had been accomplished, Caverna headed up to the Great Hall, but as soon as she got into the village square, she saw all the hustle and bustle with the preparations for the bonfire. After a few minutes of searching, she managed to find Valka and Gobber.

"Ah, there you are lass." Gobber told her as she joined them.

"Hey, what's going on?" Caverna asked looking around.

"We're having a bonfire tonight; it was your brother and Astrid's idea, to help everyone deal with loss." Valka told her. "Pretty smart idea if you ask me."

"Cool, speaking of my brother and my sister-in-law, do you know where they are?" She asked.

"Um, no lass, we haven't seen them since the meeting." Gobber told her. "You might want to check the Great Hall though."

Caverna nodded and after bidding them thanks, she climbed onto her dragon's back and they flew off towards the Great Hall.

They got to the Great Hall just as Hiccup was walking out and Caverna jumped from her dragon's back, landing in front of him.

"Hey, what did I miss?"

"Where were you?" Hiccup suddenly asked.

"I was teaching Eret how to ride a dragon, like I always do of a morning." She reminded him.

"Well you missed a town meeting." He deadpanned.

"Well, what happened in that meeting?" She asked as they walked down the steps towards the village, and Hiccup filled her in, whilst checking on preparations for the bonfire.

Caverna followed him throughout the day, and eventually they were joined by Astrid and Snotlout, and then Fishlegs and Tuffnut, and then eventually Ruffnut and Eret. When they were all together, Hiccup and Astrid walked with their arms around each other and Fishlegs and Caverna walking together holding hands, though Caverna noticed that Fishlegs kept an eye on Eret a lot of the time. Eventually, everyone headed up to the Great Hall to eat and Caverna sat with her friends, just as her brother and Astrid did and as they ate, they all heard different conversations, but there was one that Caverna hung on to for the longest time.

"He won't banish her, if Stoick couldn't do it, then Hiccup certainly won't." A woman whispered, or at least tried to whisper, and Caverna recognised it to be Astrid's mother.

"But she's going to do no good here, the Hofferson girl was a better warrior than her and that Night Fury of hers is too small to see a real battle." Another 'whispered'.

"I can't believe Astrid is still going to involve her whenever she gets pregnant...Or if she gets pregnant." The first woman whispered.

That was when Caverna suddenly slammed her mug of ale down and she stood up, spinning round to face the women.

"You two have a fucking nerve, its one thing to talk about me behind my back, but it's another to talk about my dragon ad my sister-in-law when I am able to hear every word." Caverna suddenly shouted. "So why don't you do us all a favour and shut the fuck up, especially when you're talking about your own daughter!" She shouted, before she sat back down and picked up her mug of ale.

"It was your fault that she lost her child in the first place, you're a curse Caverna Haddock, and you have doomed us all." Astrid's mother sneered, causing Caverna to turn around and suddenly punch her in the face, sending her to the floor before Caverna left the Great Hall.

Caverna walked from the Great Hall muttering and cursing under her breath and she sighed to herself as what Mrs Hofferson had said sunk in and she then started to question herself. Had she caused Astrid to lose the baby? Was that the reason, was she really a curse? So many things were going through her head that she didn't see the rock in her path, until she tripped over it and landed on the ground, and only then did she realise that she was being followed.

"You know, you must be thinking pretty hard if someone like you missed the rock as big as my hammer."

The voice came from someone she hadn't expected to be following her, her cousin – Snotlout. And Caverna turned to face him.

"Yeah, well, I do think contrary to what many believe." She told him, getting to her feet after he held out a hand to her.

"What's on your mind?" He asked his younger cousin.

Caverna sighed. "Nothing."

"That's not an answer." He reminded her. "Especially not when I can see that something is bothering you."

"I just keep thinking of what Mrs Hofferson said, what if Astrid did lose the baby because I bring bad luck, what if she and Hiccup will never have a baby if I'm still here, or what if something worse happens?"

Snotlout looked down at his younger cousin who stood in front of him but was a few inches shorter than him and he saw the fear in her eyes. He took pity on her, she had been badly hurt and now no one was letting her get better and even put it behind her, she was right, she was stuck unable to move on.

"Caverna, you're not bad luck, Astrid and Hiccup's first child just wasn't meant to be, they weren't meant to be parents yet." Snotlout told her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Now what else is bothering you?"

"Everything, dad is dead, Sapphire' is dead, mum is ignoring me or doing her best to avoid conversation, I can't commit myself fully to my boyfriend because of what happened to me, and I'm on the verge of giving up." She told him. "I'm a murdering failure, not a warrior woman like I wanted to be." She sighed, unsheathing one of her swords. "I don't deserve these swords, or the title of Leather Warrior, I don't deserve anything but to crawl into a hole and die."

Snotlout looked at his cousin and in truth, he was shocked, he never thought that all of these feelings went on behind the invisible mask that was his cousin's face. He looked how miserable she looked and he suddenly pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her, letting his cousin's head rest on his shoulder.

"None of what happened was your fault, you done all you could." Snotlout told her as he held her. "And so what if you can't commit yourself to Fishlegs, if he doesn't stay with you because of that, then he wasn't for you and I'll beat the hell out of him, but don't you dare give up." He told her as he pulled away from the embrace and grabbed her by her shoulders. "Because if you give up, then what hope is there for the rest of us?" He asked.

Caverna sighed. "I just don't know what to do." She told him.

"Come to the bonfire that would be a start." Snotlout told her, causing her to nod and they walked down to where they saw a crowd gathering in the village square.

Snotlout stood beside his cousin as Hiccup stood next to the still unlit bonfire ad he smiled slightly seeing his sister join them.

"Now that we're all gathered here, I think that it's right to allow Caverna Haddock the opportunity to light the bonfire that we are holding in memory of those that we've lost."

Everyone looked over at Caverna and everyone seemed happy with the choice, after all, they all saw what happened during the fight for Berk. At hearing the approval, Snotlout pushed his cousin forward to her brother who had been handed a lit torch by Astrid. Caverna looked up at her cousin as she took the torch and she walked over to the bonfire.

"We've all lost someone, someone close, someone we love, a friend, a father, a mother, a son or a daughter, a husband and a wife. But there was always a reason for their death and whatever that reason was; we need to be sure that the Allfather had some form of plan." She told them. "But one thing I've been taught is that this wasn't the last time we'll see them..." As she spoke she threw the torch into the bonfire, setting it alight. "One day we will all meet again, whether it is in the halls of our fathers or at the table of Odin himself, we will meet our loved ones again."

When she was finished, the Vikings around her applauded, before they lapsed into silence as they watched the flames, occasionally someone would tell a story about a loved one that had passed on and it made them all smile. Eventually the fire died down to mere embers and the people started to go back to their homes, all but Caverna, Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout and Fishlegs.

"Well, we'd all best head home, it's late." Astrid told them.

"Yeah..." Hiccup sighed looking towards his sister. "Are you going to be okay on your own tonight?"

Caverna looked at him before her eyes quickly flashed to her cousin and then back to her brother. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

Hiccup nodded and he and Astrid left hand in hand to go home, whilst Snotlout left to go home as well, leaving Fishlegs and Caverna.

"Come on, I'll walk you home." Fishlegs told her as he slid a comforting arm around her.

At Caverna's nod, he started to walk her home, his arms remaining around her for the entirety of the walk. When they reached the front door of her house, Fishlegs looked at her, before he pulled her into a hug.

"I'm so proud of you today." He told her in a quiet whisper.

"Thank you." She told him. "But I don't know why you're proud of me." Caverna told him as she pulled out of the hug.

"Because you're you." He told her, kissing her lips gently. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay the night with you?"

"I'm sure." She nodded. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." She promised. "Snowcap and Lightning are still around, so I'm well protected."

Fishlegs nodded. "Alright, well, I'll see you later." He told her, kissing her one last time, and this one was much more passionate. When they eventually broke apart, they were both gasping for breathe before Caverna gave him a soft smile and kissed his cheek.

"Good night Fishlegs." She told him before she headed inside her hut, letting the door close behind her.

As he watched her leave, Fishlegs couldn't help by smile, she was his girl, his stunt at the Dragon Race seemed to have made her fall even more in love with him, and that made him smile. But what Fishlegs didn't know, was that his actions had caused him a rival, and Eret watched as Fishlegs walked away from Caverna's house, tomorrow his own plan to win her heart would be put into action and Fishlegs, didn't stand a chance. Meanwhile, inside the hut, Caverna had shed her swords and the rest of her weapons as well as her armour, and she was only in her leggings and jumper and she was looking around her dad's old room, she also had a smile on her face.

"Goodbye dad, we'll join you soon." She whispered, before she went into her own room and found Snowcap lying on her rock bed and she assumed that her dragon was fast asleep. But as Caverna blew out the candle and fell asleep in her bed, Snowcap opened her eyes and she smiled seeing her rider home and how content she looked and Snowcap silently blessed her mate's rider for his idea of the bonfire, it had obviously been a weird idea, but it had done some good. But how much good still remained to be seen.