A/N: Hey guys. I know all of you must hate me for NOT UPDATING! I hate myself right now for not being able to update on a regular basis. I can give reasons as to why but what's the point. There are other people here who are more likely time consumed than I am. I CANNOT STRESS HOW SORRY I AM, but I hope this chapter can right my wrong for not updating. SO ENJOY!
Hiccup's POV
The week went by relatively quickly. Astrid was ecstatic that I had said yes to returning back to Berk to help them end this war with the dragons. She said that that would change the course of Viking history...I sure hope she was right. Her foot healed quickly...the only trouble was making sure she stayed in bed. Me or Toothless would be on watch 24/7 making sure she didn't sneak away, and whenever she did try she wouldn't get far because there was always some point where she would grint from the pain which Toothless and I would hear.
We did venture out to show her the valley...well my side of the valley and not Armedis'. She had one word for it, magnificent. She said that she would love to live here and I didn't even show her the best part. One day at sunset, I told Toothless to carefully bring her to the roof of the house for her to see something that I wouldn't dare to miss. We stayed there on the roof, passing the time with conversation...until I stopped and looked off into the distance. At first she thought I was ignoring her, but when she turned in the direction I was looking at, a gasp escaped her mouth. The sun was setting, but we only saw half of it, right in between the trees, in the middle of the mountains and setting over the horizon, basking the entire valley in a multitude of red, yellow, orange and purple shades. I remember the look on her face and what she said, "It's...it's beautiful...nothing like I've ever seen" were her exact words.
We stayed on the roof for a few hours, creating small talk; most of it was about life back on Berk. She told me that people were better-off without me, and I wasn't surprised, I mean, they were hoping to get rid of me some way. Betraying them was the best excuse for them to get rid of me. She told me how she even thought it was better I was gone, but she couldn't forget what Ripper told her, about my feelings that I had back then. She said that in a weird way, there was something missing in the village. Without me, the village seemed quiet and serene, how life should have been. No one was on edge, there were no surprises, people loved it, and she said she did for a time. But things started getting bored, without me, the excitement was gone. But for some of the old-fashioned Vikings liked it that way, saying that I was a curse and it was good I left.
I noticed her views were changing drastically; her views of dragons...and me, and I bet she noticed that too. After watching the sun set, we went back down inside and called it a night. She slept on the bed, and I slept near Toothless.
Today was the day where we would be heading back to Sharkslane and then back to Berk. I'd be lying if I said I was excited. I was only doing this so that their war with the dragons would be over and that they'll stop bothering me once all of this is done...at least, that's what I keep telling myself. I can't explain it, but...there's this feeling in me that I've never felt before, or something I've never felt in a long time.
"You ready to go?" Astrid called behind me. I turned around to see her walking, slightly limping, towards me with a satchel and with a cloak hanging from her shoulders.
"As I'll ever be" I replied. She could sense the anxiety in my voice and sat beside me.
"Hiccup...I know we've never treated with the respect and dignity you deserved...but please...just come back and help us and leave, and we'll never bother you again. And if there's any trouble back on Berk, I'll vouch for you" she said placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Really? You'll go against village traditions and help a screw-up?" I asked. "Ow!" I yelled as she punched me in the arm.
"You're not a screw-up Hiccup...well I know now that you're not a screw-up. You're much more than that, and it might take time...but the rest of the village will eventually see it as I do" she said. I looked into her eyes and saw that she meant every word she said.
"Key word in that phrase is 'eventually'. You might see things differently, but that doesn't change what happened in the past, and some people aren't too willing to forget their past" I said as I got up and called Toothless over.
"That is why I am working on redeeming myself...to you, to show you at least that one person can change, and I know you're still thinking that I'm doing this for the good of the village, thinking that I'm just using you...I'm not doing this for me...I'm doing it for my people, your people" she said and I snapped when she said that.
"My people? Really? As soon as I'm done, I'm leaving and you're never going to come after me again...besides, people would treat me with respect I deserved and in that village, I had no people...I was on my own ever since the day my mother died, my own father didn't even care what happened to me after that...he never understood me, no has and no one will" I said looking at her.
"I know you're sorry for what you did...but that doesn't mean the other teens are or the rest of Berk for that matter" I finished. I began tightening the harness on Toothless, going over final checks before we took off.
"I think we both know they won't be happy to see you...but unlike the times before I'll have your back...it's about time I started" she said coming up behind me.
"You're really going to take in all the possibly hurtful comments, lookdowns and be ignored just for me?" I asked, a small grin crossing my face. She smiled back.
"I didn't like being made fun of for ten minutes, while you suffered for ten years...I think my debt is due" she said. I couldn't believe my ears, here was the great and mighty Astrid Hofferson pledging to stand by my side, and I know that since she was a shield-maiden she would keep her word.
"Well then, we don't want to keep Berk waiting do we?" I asked as I hopped on Toothless and offered to help her get on. She gladly accepted my gesture and climbed onto Toothless.
"Tell the girl to hang on tight...we have to make the Dragon Highway" he said as he spread on out his wings. I felt Astrid tighten her hold around my waist, telling me she was a bit nervous.
"Don't worry...if you fall I'll catch you" I said and received a playful eye-roll from her.
Toothless shot up into the air with incredible speed, and it was something I lived for. Having the wind beat against your face, watching the ground get smaller and smaller as you flew high into the sky, as if leaving the world and initiating a pilgrimage to join the Gods in Asgard. You'd be thinking that I would have gotten used to it by now...but no...it's a rush every time I do it. I feel at home when flying on Toothless...its like all my problems are left on the ground and it's my own world up here. Except this time I had a passenger with me.
Astrid held on tightly at my waist when we took off as I suspected. The flight on the Deadly Nadder would be tough for any beginner, but to immediately switch to a Night Fury, and on your second flight, that would be tough to adjust to. "Doesn't it get your adrenaline running!" I exclaimed as Toothless flew higher and higher. Astrid looked behind her and saw the ground getting ever so farther away and even the clouds were getting smaller.
"You could say that" she yelled but clutching me ever so tighter. She looked back down and noticed this was much, much higher than the Nadder took her. "Why are we flying so high!" she yelled. I could sense the fear in her voice.
"We have to get to a certain point where the wind will quicken journey. Good thing you brought your cloak, it gets pretty cold up here" I said and soon Toothless broke through the final layer of clouds and levelled off, not before feeling a great push from behind us, and we were on our way.
"Well here we are on the Dragon Highway" I introduced to her.
"Dragon Highway?" she asked, raising a brow.
"Yeah, Toothless showed me this when we were flying to look for a place to call home. It quickens flying time because there's always a constant wind pushing in either direction. That huge push we got goes in a westerly direction, there's one that goes east as well" I said.
"How much does it quicken?" she asked.
"Well you know how it took you four to five days to reach that village from Sharkslane, we'll be able to get to Sharkslane in ten hours" I said, and laughed at the expression Astrid had on her face.
"That fast! That's incredible!" she exclaimed. "Yeah, Toothless told me about it and I didn't believe him at first; I had the same expression as you when he told me" I said. "It helps dragons get around faster, but it can be dangerous, because when you leave the wind stream, you're travelling extremely fast and you have to slow down fast as well" I explained.
"So..." I said un hooking my foot from the pedal, I turned around facing Astrid, "...what's new?" I asked, and nearly fell off after seeing Astrid's shocked expression.
"Shouldn't you be flying him!?" she said grabbing tightly onto the sides of the saddle.
"No, the wind pushes us so Toothless can just spread his wings and glide...he doesn't need to flap his wings...it's just smooth flying from here" I explained. "Are you sure?" she asked again.
"Yes Astrid, I trust Toothless with my life... I have his back, and he has mine...we're best friends" I said patting his side.
"Right back at yah" he said.
The Striker - 1 Hour from Berk (Normal POV - 9 hours after Hiccup and Astrid left for Sharkslane)
The Striker, Berk's flagship, was almost back home after leaving Sharkslane. The mood was mixed among the crew while everyone was having dinner on the deck. Treeroot said that they should leave because Stoick couldn't be gone for long and that he would send Astrid back if she did return without Hiccup. Stoick didn't want to leave Sharkslane just yet, he wanted to wait for Astrid...who would possibly have Hiccup in tow with her, but he realized he had been neglecting his duties as chief and had been away from Berk for far too long.
"Give me back my fish!" Tuffnut yelled as he dived over the table, tackling his sister to the ground and another fight broke aboard the deck.
"Can't wait to see who wins this time" Snotlout said, getting a good view of the fight and diving into the chicken leg he had with him.
Stoick rubbed his temple as he couldn't understand why he had brought the twins along in the first place. "Alright you two, break it up" Gobber said coming up, hooking up Tuff's shirt and pulling Ruffnut away with his good hand.
"Uh...sir?" Fishlegs asked.
"Yes Fishlegs, what is it?" Stoick turned his attention to the husky young man.
"If Hiccup does come back...what are we going to do?" he asked.
"Well...we're going to treat him well as he is returning home and he'll be the key to finally ending this war with the dragons" he said. Honestly, he didn't know how to respond if Hiccup did return. He disowned him as a son, in front of everyone at that, and branded him as a traitor and enemy to Berk. He knew he would be lucky if Hiccup even acknowledged him.
"So what if Hiccup is able to fix this dragon war, what then?" Tuff asked sitting down.
"Well...we'll have peace and we won't have to worry about dragons again" he responded. The rest of the night went on and soon Berk was in sight, the lanterns along the docks and cliffs lighting up the village, however there were even more brighter lights...what looked like flames?
"Berk's under attack!" Stoick yelled and soon saw ships with catapults hauling hay alight with fire and boulders at the village. He took one look at one of the seven ships that were attacking Berk and one word crossed his mind.
"Alvin" he gritted under his teeth.
Sharkslane - Same Time (Normal POV)
"See told you it wasn't that bad" Hiccup said as Toothless landed and Astrid frozen with fear and not letting go of Hiccup. They had to get out of the Dragon Highway and that was the easy part, but slowing down was the hard part. Toothless did extend his wings and the force of them slowing down was extremely intense, and even that wasn't enough that Toothless had to angle his body sideways and expand his wings as much as he could to catch as much as he could. At one point he almost lost control and nearly went into a dive where the possibility of recovery was very slim given the speed they were travelling.
"Really? Cause I thought we were about to lose control, dive and die!" she exclaimed.
"You'll get used to it if you fly more with me" Hiccup said, laughing a bit to which Astrid punched him in the arm. "Yeah, I prefer to live past the age of twenty-five" she said as Hiccup slowly helped her off. Her ankle was good, but he played it safe.
"Hiccup!" they heard someone yell and Hiccup smiled when he saw Ripper, Heather and Bladewing land near them. The two of them hopped off the massive head and ran to Hiccup.
"Hey Heather!" Hiccup said as she enveloped him into a hug. "You know, with the place we built that house, I thought she'd never find you" Ripper said coming up to the trio.
"What? You knew where he was and never told me!?" Astrid yelled coming beside Hiccup, staring daggers at Ripper.
"Well yeah, that house was a two dragon and two person job, besides I didn't tell him you were coming" he said, unfazed by Astrid's glare.
"I should kill you right here and now for making me spend five days on a boat and nearly being killed by a dragon!" she yelled at him.
"Wait, you saw Armedis...and you survived?!" Ripper said, not believing it.
"Yeah, after a fight, she went wandering into the forest and she came face to face with Armedis, luckily me and Toothless intervened just before he was about to finish her" Hiccup explained. "Enough about me, tell me about you guys...how's it going?" he asked.
"Good, you just missed the guys...they left about nine hours ago" Heather said.
"They left without me?" Astrid asked, not believing that they would just forget her like that.
"No...uh, my father told Stoick that he shouldn't be away from Berk for too long as it's a chief's job to lead a village so he decided to go back and my father told him that he'd bring you back personally if you did return with Hiccup or not" Heather explained, sitting down on a log, but Astrid noticed something that was off.
"So I guess you'll be carrying on your trip to Berk, or will you be staying for the night?" Ripper asked.
"Well, I haven't see Treeroot in a while, so I guess we're staying" Hiccup said walking to the village.
"Coming Heather?" Ripper asked, before he ran to Hiccup.
"Oh yes...go on, I'll catch up" she said. If it wasn't night Ripper would notice the sickly look on her face, but Astrid did. Once the boys were out of ear range, she went up to Heather.
"Are you alright?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"No...sometimes, in the past couple of days, my stomach feels like its completed ten loops and in less than five seconds" she said, placing a hand over her stomach.
"Did you eat any rotten food or something weird in the past few days?" Astrid asked, to which Heather replied no with a shake of her head. But a few seconds later, Astrid saw a look develop on Heather's face...one of shock.
"I think I might know why I'm feeling like this" she said, and when Astrid put two and two together, the realization also hit her.
"I think I'm pregnant" Heather said.