Berk - Astrid's POV

The mood of the village was in the least...happy you could say. All of them were happy that Hiccup the Useless had left, along with Ripper, who, and this cannot be put nicely, betrayed our tribe, betrayed our past...by siding with dragons. I was extremely shocked, angry, furious, confused when I saw Hiccup with that...that...beast, and I just had to tell Stoick. I had to warn him about his son and the treason he committed.

The dragons are our mortal enemies and will continue to be our enemies, and that's something I learned to live with. But Hiccup...oh he was a different case. He thought he could change the ways that people thought...make us turn on our pasts...forgetting the hundreds of lives that were lost trying to protect Berk from those creatures. But...no matter how much I tried to believe it, there was this strange feeling...this new emotion that was nagging at my brain.

"Did you ever hear him cry his heart out...did you ever hear him wish he was Dead!" I kept hearing. What Ripper told me about Hiccup, how he felt every single day of his life...what the people of Berk did to him...it made me feel...sorry for him. "What?! No Astrid...you don't feel sorry for anyone...especially that twig. I'm glad he's gone" I convinced myself. And I should look around me just to prove it. People were happy. There were no explosions, no angry shouting, no mistakes!. Everything had took a turn for the better ever since Hiccup left...except the chief. He was never the same after Hiccup left.

He kept blaming himself for Hiccup's betrayal. He said if he had seen the signs early on, he could have stopped his son from turning against his people. He could have trained him into a Viking, granted Oden knows how long that'll take but...eventually he could become a Viking.

But the chief was not himself. He barely showed up to his duties, he didn't talk to anyone...Gobber tried so hard to get his friend to talk to him but was met with only silence every time he tried. We all became worried for him. Some of the villagers tried to say that it was for the better that Hiccup had left. But Stoick's mood still didn't budge. I suspect that he would be like this for a while.

The teens thought even less of Hiccup. Snotlout said he was a traitor and deserved to be picked on...if not more. The twins didn't even like it one bit and refused to talk about Hiccup, or Ripper. Fishlegs didn't know what to say...or think for the matter ever since he saw what Ripper had done in the ring, who claimed that Hiccup was the one who taught him. They both were traitors now in the minds and hearts of the villagers. They wanted nothing to do with them anymore and would even forget the event even happened in the first place. But that would not be easy for me.

Ripper told me everything and I couldn't help but think...what if we had treated Hiccup better. I mean how was it our fault that he made mistakes, burned down a few buildings, was the cause of so much damage in the village and made dragon raids even worse. In all honesty, it was a blessing that he left, but with a blessing, there are consequences.

The teens felt something in their life was missing, and they didn't even know what it was. I bet I was the only one who knew that it was Hiccup. It seemed like people even tried to forget the name, and they were accomplishing that well. And I probably forgot to mention, but it has been one month since the...event in the ring. Even though there seems to be less trouble, there were still the continuous raids on Berk at night, and a growing number of times in the day as well. I had accelerated to the top of my class in dragon training, where I had always been, and I'm proud to say that I did kill a dragon...not in the ring but in one of the raids, and I was praised for being the first teen to do so. Life was good on Berk...but today was different.

It's as if today was marking a page turning in the books, something was coming and whatever it was...it wouldn't be good.

Sharkslane Village - Hiccup's POV

It's been a month since we arrived here and things couldn't be going more perfectly. When we brought the Whispering Death to the village, all of them were at first terrified of how big and dangerous it looked but since Ripper and Heather were walking right in front of it, and it wasn't attacking them, they stayed their distance, but they welcomed it by giving it large amounts of fish showing the dragon that they can be trusted and they don't want to be enemies. The dragon gladly accepted the fish and Ripper gave him its name...Bladewing. The dragon seemed to nod at the name, understanding that that what was what it was going to be called on from now on. It always followed Ripper around, seeing that he was the person that he first trusted, but it also took a liking to Heather since she was the second person and that they both did.

Toothless Bladewing both got along well...well since they were the only two dragons for miles I guess you have no choice but to make friends. When we came though I found that the chief was searching for his daughter and was none too happy when he found out she had sneaked away to join us in the search for the dragon. She received a week's worth of cleaning the stables which she hated...but you have to pay for any consequences right. She didn't do it alone because Ripper came each day to help her, and since Bladewing came with him, the work was cut dramatically in half.

Ripper and Heather had bonded dramatically over the last month. The village rumours were that they were...well 'dating'...you could say, and in a way they were. They always used to go for walks in the forest, with Bladewing after them. The dragon had developed a protective instinct over the two of them...which was intriguing. Fishlegs would have loved to have written that down in the Book of Dragons.

It's been a month since we left Berk and I couldn't have been more glad...except for one part of me...when I say part I mean extremely small part, can't help but feel I left something behind in Berk...Astrid. I could see the hurt in her eyes when I came back to get Ripper, and on our way here he told me that he told them about how I had felt all these years. He said that Astrid was the last one left when he was talking and that she ran out with what he believed were tears in her eyes. That was a first...Astrid crying?...And over Hiccup the Useless? Actually she would have been crying over how badly I was treated...but I'll never know and I don't want to know. I left that life behind me and I've embraced my new life here on Sharkslane Village.

Treeroot was very grateful at the deed my and Ripper did for him on our first day here and asked if we wanted anything in return. I asked if he had a forge in the village. He said that the village smith lived on the outskirts of the village in his forge and that he had passed away a few months ago. He had no family so there was no one there to take over the forge. I told him I used to be an apprentice back at my old home, and that I could possibly take over. He was glad that there was another smith now in town and he gave us the keys to the forge and soon me and Ripper were on our way there, with our dragons carrying some of the stuff we'll need to make it a home for us.

"Wow" I said as we saw the building. It was old, the boards looked like they were rotting, some boards were out of place and cracked, or broken. Thankfully the inside was much better. We'd just need dust the place and do an exterior job of the house. The work took us about a week to do but once it was done, the building looked as good as new. The exterior looked better, we added a new smelter, new fireplace, new workbenches, a new grindstone and now it looked like a smithy's.

Life couldn't get better...but I knew that someday, that was about to change.