I Own Nothing
All Rights Reserved
Chapter 12
Night
The Dragon Riders set up camp in the chamber they had first met Valka in. They had not seen Valka since Hiccup asked them to leave, and Snotlout was relieved, for he was rather keen to avoid her. He feared she might start asking about Hiccup's childhood, and that was a subject that did him no credit. He had done little more than torment his cousin throughout those years. In fact, as he joined the others in dividing up their dinner portions he got the sense none of them wanted to talk about that time. Possibly Hiccup himself did not want Valka to know about it either, though there was no way of knowing, for he and Toothless were still absent. Astrid kept looking back to the tunnel entrance to see if they were coming to join them, and the longer she waited the more concern she felt.
Not that there was nothing to talk about at dinner. On the contrary, each topic had an entire ocean of possibilities opened for discussion. Namely, how were they going to behave around Valka and what were they going to do about the Dragon Eye?
"Assuming Valka did steal the Dragon Eye—and keep in mind we don't know if she has or not—"
"Fishlegs, the Rider rode a Stormcutter. I saw it. Who else could it have been?" Heather said in exasperation.
"Yes, but didn't you ask the same thing when you said Hiccup had stolen the Eye? As I was saying, assuming Valka did steal it, how are we going to get it back?"
Snotlout shrugged. "She's his mom, isn't she? He can just ask her to give it to us."
"And if she refuses?" Astrid asked.
"Why would she? She's his mom!"
How could someone be fairly smart in some matters and an idiot in others, Astrid had to wonder. "That hasn't mattered much to her before, why should it matter to her now?" she retorted.
Fishlegs piped up. "And she stole this Eye for a reason. Some reasons can exceed all loyalty to friends and blood ties, and Hiccup's family hasn't really…well…"
"He chose Toothless over his village and father, his father chose his village and duties over his son, and his mother chose dragons over her family and village," Tuffnut finished for him. Sometimes he could be dense, but other times he could hit the nail right on the head. Or hit his own head, which, according to some people, amounted to the same thing.
Heather spoke again. "This is one seriously messed up family, you know that?"
"Concerning how we're going to find the Dragon Eye, I suggest we discuss this with Hiccup first." Astrid said, taking another look back. "Where is he?"
"Knowing Hiccup, he probably already has an idea," Fishlegs said.
"You really think so?" Ruffnut said, "He just found out his mother's alive, I highly doubt he's thinking of anything else. I certainly wouldn't be if it was me."
"Yeah, I'd wanna know if she approved of explosions," Tuffnut added fretfully.
The others scowled at him and Fishlegs resumed the discussion. "Snotlout may be right: she might help us for Hiccup's sake. But if she doesn't…"
"We can worry about that if it comes to it. But Queen Mala sent me to find the Eye and that's what I'm going to do, alone if I have to."
The word 'alone' made Astrid decide that Hiccup had been gone for too long, and she departed on Stormfly to find him.
Night had fallen over Greenland. The white snow and ice now looked dark blue. A million stars were in the sky, each one a bright white pearl surrounded by a faint and lovely aura. The hills and the wall of the nest were giant, half visible objects of seemingly menacing attributes. The air was cold and growing colder, but neither Astrid nor Stormfly minded it much.
They circled around for a while before spotting Toothless perched on a small cliff and looking down on the icy plains below like a giant vulture. Stormfly hailed him.
"He's up here," Toothless called to them.
Sure enough, Hiccup was sitting next to him, his feet dangling off the edge of the small cliff. He was staring up at the sky, seemingly oblivious to the cold that was settling in. Stormfly and Astrid landed nearby and made their way over to him. As they got closer, however, Astrid was uncertain of what to say to him. How was she to talk to him about this? Was he even in the mood to talk about it?
"I know you're there, you know," Hiccup said without turning around.
"Am I disturbing you?"
"On the contrary,"
She took this as permission to join him, and sat down next to him.
"Toothless, you said you wanted to talk to the Bewilderbeast. Now's as good a time as any,"
Toothless looked carefully from him to Astrid and back again. Finally he nodded, albeit reluctantly, opened his wings, and glided off the edge to the ground below. Stormfly also flew a little ways away to let them have some privacy.
"Have you been out here this whole time?"
"Pretty much,"
He was speaking way too calmly and detachedly, so much that it was unnerving. "Hiccup, talk to me, please," she pleaded. "I know you've been thinking about your mother, so please, will you let me know your thoughts?"
It was a while before he responded. "She abandoned me, Astrid," he said at last, "she was taken by Cloudjumper and decided to stay where she was. She thought I was better off. And I really want to hate her for thinking this way, but I can't entirely, because I did the exact same thing myself when I was 15. And I hate the fact that I want to hate her and yet a part of me doesn't want to hate her, it wants to get to know her more, because I think I'd really like to have her for a parent. Does this make any sense? And then I recall she intentionally stayed away from me and I feel like I did when we were kids." Tears were starting to come into his eyes but he wiped them away quickly. "I used to dream about her, you know. On those days when I'd disappointed Dad too much, or when Snotlout or Dogsbreath beat me up, I'd crawl into bed and imagine my mom had survived the dragon attack and was coming back to take me away to some place where I would be loved and respected. And then the next day I'd wake up knowing it was not gonna happen."
He suddenly pushed Astrid's hand off his arm, stood up, whipped out Inferno, and, with a loud yell, slammed his sword into the rock wall behind them. "My father ignored me, my cousin and uncle hated me, my friends deserted me and bullied me, and now I find even my mother didn't want to be with me! NOBODY EXCEPT GOBBER EVER CARED ABOUT ME UNTIL TOOTHLESS CAME ALONG! WHY? WHY DID EVERYONE HATE ME SO MUCH? WHAT DID I EVER DO TO ANYONE? WHY ME? WHY ME?"
Astrid grabbed him. "Hiccup, stop this! Stop it!"
At first he pushed her away. There was a feral look in his eyes. But it vanished and he grabbed her arm, pulled her towards him, and started sobbing uncontrollably on her shoulder.
"It's all right, Hiccup, it's all right," she said gently as she lowered them to the ground, "it's all right,"
"What did I do to deserve all of this? Even the Gods don't like me! What is it that makes everyone instantly dislike me?"
"Nothing!" Astrid shouted at him, "I know we weren't on good terms for a long time, but I never hated you and I certainly don't now! Stop it, it's all right, you're all right, you're just upset, it's not as bad as you think it is, it's all right," she kept repeating soothingly. It took a while before Hiccup started taking deep breaths and calming down. And when he did, the very first thing he did was to grab Astrid and kiss her on the lips.
"What would I do without you and Toothless? I'd be like a broken bottle!" He sniffed and laughed at the same time, "How's this for leadership material? The next Chief of Berk is upset because he wants to be loved. I can hear Mildew sneering at me already."
"He'd sneer at you no matter what you did and you know it." Astrid said, relieved that he was in a better mood and rather thrilled by the kiss. It had been a bit more vigorous than usual.
"Yeah…well, I don't need him to be on my list of people who love me."
"I noticed you only included Toothless and Gobber on that list!" She said rather indignantly.
"You mean in that outburst? I was only talking about my life before I ran away with Toothless." He pulled her into a tight hug. "I wasn't talking about the way things are now,"
"Is this your way of saying you love me?" Astrid asked with a smile, "You could stand to say it more often."
He kissed her a second time. "Anytime you want, Milady—within reason of course. Don't take my words too literally,"
"Do you think I'm Ruffnut or something?" Astrid laughed.
"If you were Ruffnut we would not be having this conversation." His smile was fleeting. "Oh, Astrid, what am I going to do? We've still got that Dragon Eye to find, and now I've got to choose how things are going to be with my mother, and I can't decide on it."
"Do you like her?"
"That's just the thing. She seems an awful lot like me. This nest, her and the dragons, even her reasons for choosing them over Berk, it all sounds like what I might have done! Heck, she even wears a mask like I sometimes do! I already feel I've got more in common with her than my Dad! But what do I do about it? Get to know her? Just forget and forgive the past and—?" he looked at her helplessly, at a loss for what to say next.
Astrid considered as he spoke. What would her father have said to this? He would have told her to do the honorable thing. And the honorable thing to do was: "I'd say yes,"
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. Hiccup, you know my father's dead. If by some miracle I found out he was still alive, I would do everything I could to be with him again. I'd consider this a wasted chance if you avoided your mother now that you've found her. Although," she added with a growl, "I'm not very happy about her actions either."
"I could point out some flaws in your argument, but it's well intended, so I won't.
"Well what else can we do?"
Hiccup sighed and buried his head in his hands.
"Improvise and hope this works out somehow," he grumbled.
"Pretty much. You wanna head back now? The others might be getting worried."
"Can we just stay here for a while? I've missed being alone with you." He pointed at the sky, "Look. It's going to be a starry night tonight: a beautiful and cold night full of stars of all kinds and planets. You know, I've sometimes wondered how long it took astronomers to work out the courses stars follow each year. They must've been practically nocturnal."
"You're trying to change the subject, aren't you?"
"You know me too well," he sighed once again. "I no sooner make peace with one parent than I find I've got the other one to worry about. Oh gods, what's Dad gonna say when he learns about this?" he gingerly rubbed his shoulder.
Astrid curled next to him. "We'll worry about that when we return to Berk, all right? Who knows? Maybe she'll come back with us. Would you object to that?"
He wrapped an arm over her shoulder. "I don't know."
They sat and looked at the stars for a while.
"Say, Hiccup, where's Toothless gone anyway? I didn't really hear," She could not imagine he would leave Hiccup if he was upset.
"He wanted to talk to the Bewilderbeast," He had suggested the Night Fury leave at that time because he had not wanted Toothless to see him have a meltdown again. He had already seen enough of those.
Suddenly Astrid punched him in the shoulder.
"OW!"
"That's for thinking nobody loves you," she growled. Then she kissed him on the cheek. "And that's for everything else."
"Punches and kisses. The story of our relationship."
Toothless eyed the Bewilderbeast. It was sitting in a giant burrow dug from the snow, yet even though the burrow was large, only the dragon's tail and hindquarters were able to fit in it. Being this close to it made Toothless feel intimidated, and that was a rarity for him. Even the Red Death's size had not scarred the Night Fury much, just her behavior.
It took a while but eventually the massive white dragon realized it had a visitor. He shifted his giant head to look at Toothless directly.
"Yes, Night Fury?"
"I'd like a word, if you don't mind."
"Well then?"
"You're not the Alpha,"
"I beg your pardon?"
"You're not the Alpha,"
"Who told you I was?" The Bewilderbeast looked at first stern, but then lowered his great head in understanding. "Did Valka or Cloudjumper call me that? It was a force of habit, if they did. They probably did not even realize what they had said. But no, I am not the Alpha. Was it the fact that I have no mind control over you what tipped you off?"
"Yes. If you really were the Alpha you could control me, but I've felt nothing in my mind to suggest your presence there. I can only conclude you're a Beta like me. So why did they call you the Alpha?"
"As I said, it was a force of habit. I've always been a large and imposing dragon, as you can see, and I was quite a fighter in my younger days. I became a Beta after defeating another dragon, and I took over his tiny nest. I made it larger and greater. As it happened, some of the earliest members of my nest took to calling me 'Alpha' and the name stuck. Rather like your human and his 'Dragon King' title, I imagine. "
"So they were only using a nickname?" Toothless exclaimed.
"Yes. I am sorry for the confusion, but I am no more the Alpha than a snowflake is."
"About the true Alpha—do you know anything?"
"Not really. The Alpha vanished at least a century before I was born. It's been nearly four hundred years I think."
"And nobody has heard about him—or her—since then?"
"Not to my knowledge."
Toothless stamped the ground in frustration. "The Alpha's starting to sound something like the Holy Grail or Atlantis to me,"
"What are those?"
"Things which humans have searched for and have never found, probably because they don't actually exist. Do you know why the Alpha vanished? Do you even know what species they were?"
"As to the first, no. I do not believe anyone knows now. But as to the second, I thought you of all dragons would have known that. The last Alpha I knew of was a Night Fury."
Toothless was not expecting such information. "A Night Fury?"
"Yes. Of course, I might be thinking of the wrong one, but I believe at some point not long before the Alpha vanished, it was a Night Fury."
"Interesting," Toothless mused. "So if I tell my friends you're not the real Alpha, will it cause you any trouble?"
"Not at all. My dragons know perfectly well that I am not. At least, not officially." the Bewilderbeast could not really smile, but he seemed pleased by whatever he was thinking about. "But I have always tried to measure up to the standards expected of an Alpha. I did want to fight with the Red Death—oh yes, I know about that tyrant—but everyone pleaded with me to wait a bit and learn more first, and then Drago Bludvist arrived on the scene and I had to worry about the safety of my own nest."
Toothless nodded. "That's what Beta's are supposed to do. So why didn't you ever let Valka return home? You could've ordered Cloudjumper to bring her back."
"Back to that island of dragon slaughterers? Could you have ordered such a thing?"
Toothless frowned. "I'd now say 'yes' for Hiccup's sake, but if I had only taken her and didn't care at all about the rest of her family…perhaps not. But couldn't you have ordered someone to kidnap her son and bring him to her?"
"I understand why you're asking this, but why would I have wanted a human hatchling in my nest? I didn't know what Cloudjumper saw in Valka and I don't know what your nest sees in humans, but Cloudjumper insisted she was different and would not be a hazard to our nest, so I let him look after her. At that time, I had no desire to let just any human into my nest. Besides, how could any of us have taken care of a human hatchling? It was troublesome enough at times looking after Valka's needs."
"Well, I had to ask. I don't like the reasons, but I imagine I would have done the same, before I met Hiccup."
"Perhaps,"
"Well, I should head back. Thank you for your time,"
"Thank you for talking to me," The Bewilderbeast said. He sighed and snowflakes were blown out of his mouth. "I do have one major dislike about being a Beta and an aspiring Alpha. Everybody treats me like a superior first and a friend afterwards. It's nice sometimes to be spoken to more as an equal,"
"That's what happens when you're in command," Toothless smiled bitterly. He walked away silently. Now that he knew the truth he wanted solitude.
He wandered up the banks of snow and stared out over the nest, deep in thought. First he thought of Hiccup's mother, but the part about the Bewilderbeast not being the Alpha kept coming back into his mind.
So the true Alpha was still missing, assuming they were even still alive, and at one point the Alpha had been a Night Fury. It was very interesting and yet at the same time seemed pointless to dwell on. The Alpha had been gone for centuries, so why speculate now? And yet he could not help but do so. He was especially interested in the Alpha's possible connection to Night Furies, and he wondered if the Alpha's disappearance was related to the disappearance of his own species.
Toothless and Hiccup had sometimes discussed why they had never seen another Night Fury. Hiccup had always hoped there was a massive colony somewhere in the world that they just hadn't found yet. They had sometimes heard stories of an island of Night Furies, but had never found it or any clue of where it was, if it existed at all. Toothless honestly doubted it had, and he also doubted there were a lot of Night Furies, wherever they might be hiding. He had always felt he was unquestionably a rare species. But was he indeed the very last of his kind, as Valka had suggested?
The problem was there was so little to go on. Dragons could not read or write, so any stories or traditions were either instinctive or passed down orally. But Toothless had never had anyone to receive any special knowledge from. He had just broken out of his egg one day and there was nobody around and no eggs besides his, so he had been on his own from that moment on. He could not even say if it was normal Night Fury behavior to abandon their eggs or not. For all he knew both his parents could have been killed, following natural instincts, or were so disappointed with the egg color they abandoned it.
Normally he did not mind being the only member of his species no matter where he went. He had been forced to grow used to it, and being with Hiccup had made it much more bearable. But having seen his brother reunited with his long lost mother, he could not help but wonder about his own mother, and why he had hatched where he had, what had happened to his parents, and why were there no other Night Furies no matter where he looked? And he could not answer any of this.
"Heather, there's something I've been meaning to ask you," Fishlegs said some time after Astrid had left. "You said one of the Dragon Eye lenses was still hidden? What would happen if it was found and included with the rest?"
Heather considered her answer, not because she did not trust Fishlegs with the information but because she was trying to remember what the information actually was. "For one thing, all of its knowledge would be available to whoever had it. But there's one other matter too, which I only know about by accident. I overheard Queen Mala mention that if all the lenses were together and a Night Fury breathed into the Eye, the image created—according to a long standing story, anyway—would be a map to the Isle of Night."
"What's the Isle of Night?" Tuffnut asked.
"You mean to tell me that the Dragon Eye shows the location of the island where Night Furies are believed to have originated?" Fishlegs exclaimed. "The island stories say once held a nest of thousands? The legendary island no one has seen in centuries? The Defenders of the Wing had a map to it all along?"
"Stuff and nonsense," Snotlout snorted, "That's just a children's tale, Fish. There's no such place."
"Yeah," Heather said in response to Fishlegs, "or so her Highness was told and believes, anyway."
Fishlegs cried "Why didn't you tell Hiccup sooner? He's been searching for Night Furies for years! If you had told him this before he would have agreed at once to come on this trip!"
"That was Queen Mala's decision, not mine. Besides, as Hiccup keeps reminding me, we need to be careful with whom we tell these things to,"
"Well we've got to tell him now! Once he knows nothing will stop him from finding the Dragon Eye, not even his own mother!"
"Fish, we still need the last lens in order to see that map, and I have no idea where that is. And I doubt Queen Mala will let us locate it."
"Maybe as a reward for bringing the Eye back—"
"Which we haven't done yet," Ruffnut interrupted, "we don't even know where it is, and we've got no idea how Hiccup's mom will react when she finds out we're looking for it. C'mon guys, one thing mystery at a time from now on, ok?"
Hiccup and Astrid had hardly moved at all. Instead they stayed put and looked at the night sky. Twice they had seen shooting stars, and a real shock took place when a section of the sky turned green and began to move around like a ribbon.
"It's Aurvindil's Fire!" Astrid exclaimed. "But that's not due for at least another year!"
"Evidently it comes at different times in different places," Hiccup said lightly.
"So where's the Flightmare?" she looked around quickly. On Berk, whenever Aurvindil's Fire came a Flightmare came with it. It had been a Flightmare that had killed her beloved Uncle Finn and they were probably the one species of dragon Astrid was unwilling to think well of. She reached for her axe and stood up, taking a fighting stance from force of habit.
"Astrid, sit down," Hiccup said, "there's a Flightmare's down by the lake, but I highly doubt he's going to come up here." Sure enough, a dragon that looked like a ghost was down at the lake drinking.
Slowly she resumed her spot, but she kept her axe at the ready.
"Hmm," Hiccup said thoughtfully, "I thought they preferred water filled with algae. That's what gives them their color, after all. But maybe there isn't any around here, or maybe this one's just thirsty and doesn't care what the water's got in it."
"One more observation for the new Dragon manual?" Astrid rolled her eyes. "That's going to become one very thick book when we get back."
"Fishlegs and I will take care of that, don't worry."
"Fishlegs mostly, I imagine, given how you'll be too busy with being a Chief."
Hiccup groaned. "Did you really need to bring that up now?"
"And why not? You're going to be the most powerful man on Berk! The highest position a Viking can aspire to is about to be yours! Why can't I be happy for you? If it was me Stoick had chosen you'd be just as happy!"
"It was you at one time and I was happy for you,"
Astrid hit him in the shoulder again. "Oh don't go talking about that again! We've gone over it enough times already! You're the Heir and that's that."
"I know," Hiccup said heavily. For a moment he wondered idly who was going to be his heir? He quickly put the thought out of his mind and went back to looking at the sky. The green lights were moving around like rivers. The upper sections stretched into the sky like thin candles on large candelabras. They flickered and vanished, reappeared, and vanished again, over and over in random places. The colors changed from shades of green to yellow and even took on a slight red tinge. It was so beautiful he could not help but feel a sense of calm, even after all that had happened today.
He glanced at Astrid, who smiled back. Hiccup's breath hitched as how beautiful she looked with Aurvindil's fire behind her. He sometimes found it hard to believe that the girl whom he had had a crush on for as long as he could remember was now a woman who returned his feelings. At times like this he wondered if he was just fantasizing. But he was not. Here he was not the Dragon King, or the reluctant heir of Berk, or some kid tormented by a loveless past. He was just a man with his arm around a woman's shoulder.
A mere hour ago he had not known when he would do this, but he suddenly made up his mind. He cleared his throat.
"Astrid?"
"Hmm?"
"You know I've had confused and mixed feelings about a lot of people. Well there's one person for whom my feelings are not confused at all."
"Toothless?" she asked lightly.
"That wasn't who I was thinking of, and as a matter of fact, I do feel a bit confused about him sometimes,"
"How so?"
"Well—I—" this was not what he had intended to talk about and he tried to figure out how to get back on the original subject. "Look, I just wonder sometimes what would happen if Toothless ever finds a mate, or if he'll find a mate at all. And sometimes I wonder about how much time we've got left. He's doesn't know himself how long Night Furies live for, and sometimes I wonder if he'll still be around centuries from now…and I wasn't talking about Gobber either, if that's what you're about to ask. He's getting a new apprentice and while, on the one hand, I understand entirely why he has to, I can't help but feel a bit like he's replacing me. No, the person I was talking about is you." He positioned himself so he was kneeling in front of her. "Astrid, I love you. I've loved you for as long as I can remember—"
"But you're breaking up with me because there's another woman?"
"Am I—WHAT?" Hiccup exclaimed.
"Kidding!" Astrid laughed, "You should've seen your face!"
"That's not funny!"
"Oh yes it is and you know it!"
Hiccup pinned her arms to her body so she stopped moving. "I was trying to be serious and you made me lose my train of thought!" His words were softened by a smile.
"Well you'll find it again!" she grinned, "you always do,"
"Yes I do." And now that he held her in his arms he could not wait any longer. "Astrid, I'm not confused about you at all. I was at one time, but not anymore. I love you and I want to share the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"
Astrid's grin vanished from her face. "What did you say?"
"Will you be my wife, Astrid?"
Astrid staggered out of his grip and turned away, breathing heavily and looking dazed. Then she turned around and punched Hiccup in the face.
"That's for taking so long to ask!" she shouted. Then she grabbed him, pulled him to his feet, and kissed him on the lips. It did not last very long because they both began to fall apart laughing.
"You never did answer!" Hiccup pointed out, his face bright red and not solely because it had just been punched.
"Of course I'll marry you! What did you think I was going to say?" she laughed.
"You could've said 'no'," he shuddered.
"If I said that I'd deserve to be married to Snotlout! Come here, you!" she hugged him so tightly they fell over into the snow again. They did not care, it just them laugh harder and cling to each other more tightly.
Suddenly Astrid looked worried. "Do you think my mother will approve? I mean, I can't imagine why she won't, but even so—"
"Oh don't worry about that," Hiccup grinned, "remember how I said I'd kept something from you?"
"You—" Astrid suddenly understood. She had suspected but had not had time to dwell on it much during the past few weeks. "You already asked her about this, didn't you?"
"She took even less time to agree to it than you did,"
"And your father?"
"He's been hounding me about it for months,"
"Who else knows?"
"Just Gobber and Camicazi—and anyone she's told. Oh, and Toothless, of course. But they only knew I was going to ask; they didn't know when."
"I was starting to think you'd never ask!" she said accusingly.
"Well how could I ask you after your father died? And then we got so busy with rebuilding Berk and integrating the dragons I felt nobody was ready for a wedding, and then this Dragon Eye stuff turned up…but I've waited long enough."
"So when should we have the wedding? As soon as we get back to Berk?"
"The minute we land! Send a letter telling them to get everything ready for our return!" Hiccup said theatrically. They both knew he was joking, but they also wanted to have the ceremony as soon as possible upon returning.
"I can't wait! Let's head back and tell the others!" she cried, "then we'll find this Eye and head for home!" She tried to get up but Hiccup held her arm.
"I'd rather be here with you a little longer before that, if you don't mind."
"And do we tell your mother?"
Hiccup looked down at the snow. At first he looked grim but suddenly he laughed. "Why not? It's not like she can complain about it! Let her know, let the whole world know, let—" he suddenly froze. "On second thought, maybe we oughta keep it quiet for a little while longer."
"What?" Astrid exclaimed, "Why?"
"Adoncia,"
Astrid frowned in disgust. "What's she got to do with anything?"
"She's chasing us. She might be bringing others after us, now that her other attempts have failed. If they found out we were engaged…"
"I see your point." Astrid said, "But we can't keep it secret forever! They'll find out sooner or later! And how would they find out? Do you think the others can't be trusted to keep quiet about it?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"Ok, bad question. But even so, nobody's stopped us yet! So what if all the Dragon Hunters in the world knew we were engaged? I can still lick a dozen of them, and so can you!"
"You were a bit more cautious and wary when Adoncia first attacked us,"
"That was my way of responding to an emergency. But I'm not going to let fear rule my life and deny me and my friends anything! I'm not letting fear or anything else get in the way of my wedding! Hiccup, we'll tell the others and if word somehow gets out and those Dragon Hunters try to take advantage of it, we'll teach them a lesson they'll never forget!"
Hiccup had felt himself giving in to her decision. "All right. One more kiss, and we'll call Toothless and Stormfly back and break the news."
"I'm looking forward to it," she said slyly.
"The kiss or calling Stormfly?"
"Which do you think, you muttonhead?"
"I don't know, you tell me!"
"How about I show you?" she grabbed him and kissed him again.
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. He was known as the Dragon King, the Dragon Sorcerer, the Heir of Berk, the Pride of Berk, the Useless, the Fishbone, and a great many other things. And soon he was going to be the husband of Astrid Hofferson.
Maybe the Gods did not hate him so much after all.