Chapter 8

Disclaimer : I Don't own HTTYD!

Thought / Dreams / Event from the past

[Voice from the past]

"Dialogue"

Letter

Emphasis

Dangerous Tone

"No." Stoick shook his head as his hands trembled, "Oh Odin." He closed his eyes as fear filled his heart, "Please protect my Son".

Astrid and Gobber, who also reading the letter with Stoick, also closed their eyes and prayed with all their heart.

Please be safe, Hiccup.

"Let's head out to the nest." Stoick said suddenly as he hastily folded the paper and put it inside his pocket, "We need to help him".

"Stoick, wait." Gobber called out as he placed a hand on the Chief's shoulder, "It's useless. We have never found the nest before, and even if we found it this time, the fight would already over by the time we got there".

Stoick glared at Gobber, "Are you saying that I should stay here and doing nothing while my son is risking his life out there?" He demanded angrily.

"No." Gobber shook his head, "But even if you go now, it would take days to go there".

Stoick wanted to protest but Astrid was faster, "Then I will go." She said with determined expression.

"What?" Stoick and Gobber asked at the same time.

"I will go." Astrid repeated, "I will go to the nest. If Hiccup still fighting this monster, then I will help him".

"Lass, didn't you hear me?" Gobber asked incredulously, "It would take days to go there! Not to mention that we have never found the nest before".

Astrid shook her head and pulled out a book, "I will go on a dragon, that way I will be there in a few hours and not days." She explained seriously as she motioned the book at them, "This is Hiccup's book, he wrote all he knows about dragons and how to train them, I already tried it and befriend the Nadder from the Arena, I can get her to help take me to the nest".

Their eyes widened in shock, they looked at each other before nodding at Astrid, "We are counting on you, Astrid." Stoick said seriously, "But promise me one thing." Astrid nodded at him to let him continue, "If the situation is too dangerous, come back here. As much as it would hurt me to lose Hiccup, I can't let you die too, your Mother would be devastated".

Astrid looked at him sadly, "I understand, Chief." She promised with a solemn nod.

"Let's get to the Arena then." Gobber suggested, "The Nadder?".

"Yes, Stormfly." Astrid answered as they walked as fast as they could without being seen as suspicious, "But can you let her go once I return? I don't want her to be caged anymore".

"Yes." Stoick said firmly, "As long as your dragon won't steal anything from the village or attack us, but you need to make sure no one else knows about it".

"Her." Astrid corrected, "Not it, but alright, I will hide her in the forest so no one would know".

They arrived at the Arena and Astrid immediately released her dragon while Stoick and Gobber made sure no one would see them, Stormfly greeted her with a happy croon. "Stormfly, I missed you too, girl." She said with a smile and gave her dragon a nice scratch for a bit, "I need your help, girl." That got Stormfly's attention, her dragon looked at her straight in the eyes with one of her eyes, "I need you to take me to the nest." Stormfly squawked in surprise and took a step back, "I know that there's a monster there, but my friend is there." She explained pleadingly, "I need to go there and see if we could help him fight this monster, or if the fight already over, I need to make sure he is alive".

Stormfly looked at her for a long time before nodding and motioned at her back, Astrid smiled, "Thank you, Stormfly." She said in relief. Astrid got a rope from a supply box and wrapped it around her dragon's neck so she could hold onto something while they were in the sky, then she led her out of the Arena and flew out to the nest.

It took Stormfly less than two hours to get to the nest, Astrid trusted her dragon completely to know where to go, and when they arrived, she immediately caught sight of something that caused her neck hair to stand up, there's a huge pile of ash and bones. From the size of the bones, she could only guess how big this monster Hiccup told them about, certainly bigger than their Great Hall.

"Let's circle around, girl." Astrid said to her dragon, "Alert me if you see a Night Fury, my friend would be with him".

Stormfly squawked and flew around the nest, but even after a few rounds, they didn't see any Night Fury in there. Just when she thought that she couldn't find anything, she caught a side of something. "Stormfly." She alerted her dragon and pointed to the direction she saw that something, she didn't dare to direct her dragon yet since Hiccup had wrote in the book to let her dragon lead the way before they could sync with each other, and so she let Stormfly to lead the way.

They landed near the thing that caught her attention and she climbed off of her dragon, she picked up the strange object and observed it. She was confused at first, but when she looked at it carefully, she could see that the object was once a prosthetic tail fin. She gasped in horror, earning a concerned croon from Stormfly, "It's a prosthetic tail fin, Hiccup's dragon's prosthetic tail fin." She looked at Stormfly with tear filled eyes, "Without this, Hiccup's Night Fury couldn't fly, they . . . it's a high chance that they are already dead by now." She threw her arms around Stormfly's neck and sobbed, "Oh, Hiccup".

She cried for a long time, she didn't want to believe that Hiccup had died. They were once best friends, but after Hiccup's mother and her father died, they had drifted apart. She had ignored Hiccup in order to be a Shield Maiden, and now she regretted it deeply. If only she stayed with Hiccup, maybe he would still be alive.

Time really flew by fast, Astrid thought as she lied on the grassy field in the cove, I really can't believe that a year had passed since then.

It broke Stoick's and Gobber's heart when she returned with the news, but they still held a small hope that Hiccup had somehow survived. They waited for some kind of news from Hiccup, the boy promised them to report to them in a month or two, but after three months had passed and still no news from Hiccup, they lost their hope.

Hiccup had told them through his letter that it would be safe to assume that he died in battle if they didn't hear a word from him in three months, and considering what she had seen in the nest, they assumed that Hiccup died after he killed the monster, they were mourning in their own ways since then. Stoick would busy himself with his duty, but everyone could see that he wasn't really giving his best, and no one but Astrid and Gobber knew why. Gobber would spend his time by himself in the forge, staring at the drawings on Hiccup's personal workspace, and he would go drinking at the Great hall every night. Astrid herself was no better, even though she would still helping Gobber in the forge and learning about how to make a good axe, she would spend most of her time in the cove, reading Hiccup's book while remembering the boy and sometimes would fly around with Stormfly and Rivera.

Now, a year after she returned from the nest, she found herself at the cove again, laying on the ground and staring at the rare clear sky, all the while thinking about Hiccup. She would think about everything that they had done together in the past, and every single moment where they would walk across each other, she was always secretly amused when Hiccup stuttered when talking to her.

Astrid sighed as she closed her eyes, her chest always felt so tight when she thought about Hiccup. She didn't know since when, but she was well aware that she had developed a crush towards the heir of Berk, she guessed that it happened around the time she learned about dragons from Hiccup's book. After she first learning that Hiccup went against Viking's tradition and befriended a Night Fury, she felt admiration towards the boy's courage, the boy was the bravest Viking among all of them. Then she spent her time thinking about what Hiccup experienced during the time of finding Toothless to when Hiccup self-exiled himself, her admiration grew into a crush without her knowing it. It hurt her now when she thought about Hiccup, her chest would tighten and she would feel like crying, all because she would never see the boy again and told him how she was crushing on him.

She opened her eyes when she felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder, Stormfly and Rivera came to her view before her two dragons licked her cheeks. "Stop it." She said with a chuckle as she sat up, she looked at the two dragonesses and smiled, "You are back." She stated as she stood up, "Finished with fishing?".

They warbled cheerfully before Stormfly motioned to her back, an invitation to fly together. Astrid smiled again and went to where she kept the saddle in the cove before saddling Stormfly. She had finished the saddle a few days after she returned from the nest, the long time was because she was bad at sewing, she need to remake the saddle a few times.

Astrid could fell herself relaxing as they flew among the clouds. She loved her time flying with Stormfly and Rivera, it always make her feel better and easier for her to cope with the fact that she would never see Hiccup again.

"Thank you, Stormfly, Rivera." Astrid said softly as she took in the beauty of the world from her current view, "The both of you are always there for me when I need you the most." Stormfly let out a soft croon while looking up at her with one of her eyes, while Rivera flew to her before landing on her shoulder and began nuzzling her cheek. She smiled and scratched Rivera before placing her Terror on the saddle, she then gripped the saddle with both hands and leaned forward a bit, a hint for Stormfly to fly faster.

She had learned to fly in synch with Stormfly in the last year, and she had grown closer and closer with her dragons. It thanks to Hiccup's book that it was all possible, and it's thanks to Hiccup himself for writing the book or she would never found the book at all.

Hiccup . . . Astrid's eyes saddened and regret filled her heart, she really wished that she treated Hiccup better in the past, she wished that she and Hiccup were best friends like in the past.

An alarmed squawked pulled her out of her thought and looked at Stormfly to see what had alarmed her dragon like that, she saw Stormfly and Rivera looking at something below and followed their gaze, her eyes widened when she saw 6 big ships heading towards Berk in a close formation. She pulled out a small telescope that she traded from Trader Johann and took a look, she gasped when she recognized the symbol on the ship's flags, those ships were Outcast's!

"Stormfly!" Astrid called out seriously as she put her telescope back into her small bag, "Come on, girl, we need to get back to Berk as soon as possible!".

Sensing Astrid's worry and anxiety, Stormfly flew back to the forest of Berk as fast as she could and landed near the village, it was a risky thing to do, but she thought that it would better if she dropped Astrid closer to the village than in the cove.

"Thanks, girl!" Astrid said in a hurry as she climbed down, "Stay close but hidden, I might need your help to fight them later." She then ran as fast as her feet could carry her to the Chief's house, where she know Stoick would be since there's nothing much the Chief need to do that day.

"Chief Stoick!" Astrid yelled as she barged in, who cares about manner when it concerning her village's safety?

"Astrid?" Stoick asked in surprise as he saw the worry on the girl's face, he immediately folded the letter in his hands before putting it inside his pocket. He had been reading Hiccup's first letter again and again when he got free time, it helped ease his pain, even if it's only for a tiny bit. "What's wrong? Is there a problem?" He asked as he approached the girl.

"Outcasts." Astrid reported as she regained her composure, "I was flying on Stormfly just a moment ago and I saw their ships heading for Berk, there's 6 of them and each carrying catapults".

Stoick's face turned serious, "How long do you think until arrive here?" He asked in Chief mode.

"Um, I don't know how long it is with a ship since I'm too used with flying on dragon's back, Chief." Astrid said nervously, afraid that Stoick would angry at her.

"It's alright." Stoick calmed her down and placed his right hand on her left shoulder, "How far from the village they are?".

Astrid thought for a moment, "When I saw them, I think it's about 3 miles* from here." She informed him.

(*AN : Sorry, but I don't know how far Outcast Island from Berk, so I just picked a number and get done with it)

"Good, we still get enough time to prepare ourselves." Stoick breathed softly before going to grab his axe, "Astrid, get your friends. Take all the children and Elder Gothi to the Great Hall and stay there, we need you to protect them in case the Outcasts break through our defense." He told firmly, which was answered with a nod by Astrid, before they ran out of the house to do what they need to do.

"Vikings of Berk!" Stoick's booming voice rang as strong as a thunder as he stood halfway from his house to the rest of the houses, he got the people's attention right away, "Astrid saw the Outcasts heading for us! Get yourselves ready for a war!" He commanded. He was grateful that his people would listen to his command without questioning, or he wouldn't be able to explain why Astrid could see the Outcasts coming before Mulch and Bucket, who were on watch duty, could see them first.

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"Come on, guys!" Astrid yelled as she found her friends, "Gather the children! We need to take them and Elder Gothi to the Great Hall!".

"Why must we do that?" Snotlout protested.

"I want to fight the Outcasts too!" Ruffnut complained.

"Yeah!" Tuffnut agreed, "I'm the most dangerous weapon in the world, I should be out there and fight the Outcasts!".

"Chief's order." Astrid answered shortly before walking away, "Let's go!" She snapped when the others, save for Fishlegs, didn't follow her lead.

They scrambled after her immediately.

What happened after that was kind of a blur, everything happened so fast and so chaotic that she couldn't remember how exactly it happened, but she was sure as hell was angered and scared at the same time.

The Outcast had arrived some time after she managed to get all the children inside the Great Hall, the battle cry that Stoick and the other Berkians let out was enough clue for her to know that. She and the other trainees were watching through the window, so they could be ready if the Outcasts found them while making sure the other children and the Elder wouldn't be seen from outside.

Astrid and the others then saw some of the Outcasts were heading their way, she and the others didn't know how they could passed the front row, but they were ready for battle. They would fight and protect the children and Elder Gothi since they were Vikings, and every Viking wouldn't back down from a battle to protect their people.

"Let's get out." Astrid took the role as the leader and ordered them, she then looked at the children inside, who were looking worried at them, "Children, lock the door as soon as we are out. Got it?".

"Okay, be careful, Big Sister." Elga, Astrid's 10 years old Little Sister, said determinedly to Astrid while gripping her own axe. She was a brave girl like Astrid and she also strong for her age, Astrid knew that her Sister would try to fight as well if needed.

"I will." Astrid promised before leading the others out, with Elga locking the door immediately, she then turned to the rest, "We need to make sure they won't get inside." She said seriously.

"They won't get pass us." Snotlout said boastfully, trying to impress Astrid again.

Astrid sighed and rolled her eyes, "Here they come." She growled as she gripped her axe as she saw the Outcasts within range, she then let out a battle cry and attacked them.

They fought against the Outcasts as fierce as an adult does, for a lot had happened in a year after Hiccup gone, they were trained to fight their enemies so they could protect their people, but even with their skill, they were still outnumbered. How the Outcasts could get so many people on their side and how they could get pass Stoick and the rest were beyond her, but she didn't care about it at the moment, what she did care about was that she might die any time soon.

It happened in the middle of the chaos, really. She was fighting against two Outcasts at the same time, she could hold her own better than the rest of the teens if she did say so herself, but then she found herself on her back and there were 4 Outcasts surrounding her.

"Astrid!" Snotlout cried out in panic before he grunted as he blocked an attack from one of the Outcasts.

"Heh, what do we have here?" One of them sneered.

"Should we take her with us?" Another man asked with an evil smirk, "We can find something useful for her to do".

"As if!" Astrid spat as she kicked the man nearest to her at the universal weakest point of men, causing the man to cry out in pain and collapse on his knee.

"You bitch!" They cursed at her and raised their axes to kill her.

That was when it happened.

Astrid was very sure that it would be her end, but a furious roar echoed in the air before a blast of fire hit two of them and thrown them backwards. Her eyes widened when Stormfly landed at the spot the two men stood before they got shot before turning around and knocked the other two away with her tail, "Stormfly . . ." She whispered as she stared at her dragon in disbelief, she would never thought that her dragon would come to her aid without being asked.

"Astrid!" Ruffnut got to her side and helped her up, "Are you okay?".

"Yeah." Astrid answered as she still looking at Stormfly, who went off to attack the rest of the Outcasts.

"Why would a Nadder helped you?" Ruffnut asked in confusion as she stared at Stormfly as well.

"Because she is a gentle dragon." Astrid said with a grin before her grin turned into an angry scowl when she saw one of the Outcasts sneak up on her dragon when she was occupied by another Outcast, "Oh no, you don't!" She cried out before running to her friend's aid and blocked the attack from the Outcast, "I won't let you harm her." She hissed dangerously as she glared at the Outcast, even though the man was taller than her, before she used all her strength and kicked the man away. Stormfly finished the job by shooting a fire blast at the man, who was lucky enough to block it with his shield, the man ran away immediately.

"Astrid?" Snotlout called her out as all of the Outcasts that attacked them either knocked out cold or ran away, "Why are you protecting that dragon?" He asked in confusion.

Astrid opened her mouth to answer before Stormfly's squawk caught her attention, she looked at her dragon to see her looking at the sky, she looked at the same direction and gasped in shock.

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Around the dock, Stoick and Gobber were fighting back to back against the Outcasts. They had managed to knock out many of the Outcasts and heavily injured many more of them, they were like a whirlwind that would attack the Outcasts mercilessly if any of them were stupid enough to attack them, and they would attack the nearby Outcasts to help the others when they could.

It was long after the battle began that Stoick got separated from Gobber and found himself face to face with Alvin The Treacherous, the Chief of the Outcasts.

"Just give up, Stoick." Alvin sneered at Stoick as they clashed their axes, "We outnumbered you".

"I don't know how you can gather so many men, but I won't be a Viking if I give up so easily." Stoick said in anger before crying out loud while forcing Alvin to back off using his brute strength.

"DRAGON RAID!" A sudden yell caught their attention.

Both Alvin and Stoick looked up at the sky, they saw that a huge group of dragons were heading towards Berk. "Impossible." Stoick breathed out in disbelief.

A whole year had passed after he received the letter from Hiccup, and a whole year after Astrid informed them of what she had seen in the dragon nest, there wasn't a single dragon raid since then, leading him, Gobber, and Astrid to believe that Hiccup had succeed in stopping the war even if his life was the cost. They were sad and heartbroken, but at least Hiccup's death wasn't for nothing. Now, as he looked at the approaching group of dragons, Stoick felt really confused.

Not just Stoick though, all of Berkians were confused. While Stoick, Astrid, and Gobber know that Hiccup had killed the monster he called as Red Death to stop the dragon raids, the people of Berk didn't, so they were confused why the dragons would stopped raiding them out of the sudden like that.

Their confusion didn't stop at that, unfortunately.

The first time they were confused was when Stoick changed the tradition so the teens wouldn't need to kill a dragon in front of the village after they won Dragon Training, they didn't question it since they thought that the man was thinking about Hiccup when he made that decision. Once again they were made confused when Stoick decided that he wouldn't hunt for the nest anymore, but again they didn't think much about it since Stoick said that he had lost interest with the nest, saying that he wanted to focus to protect the village more than going into a hunt that would be a complete waste of time, they could understand his reasons. Then, they were consumed by confusion once again when Astrid suddenly quit Dragon Training, they knew that Astrid was the best among the trainees, so they couldn't understand why Astrid would quit like that when the girl once said that she wanted to be the best Dragon Slayer to regain her family's honor.

Some time passed without much of an event after that, so they thought that everything had finally returned to normal, but fate had decided that they need to be drowned in confusion again. It happened out of a sudden, Stoick suddenly buried himself in his work, all of them could see that the Chief wasn't giving it his all even though they didn't know why. Gobber also confused them when he suddenly locked himself in the forge all day, his work was abandoned and the man would often be found staring off into thin air while having a drink on the Great Hall at night, and Astrid joined the two in confusing them all when the girl spent more of her time in the forest than with the other teens like usual.

Dragon raids, while it had stopped for a whole year, had never happened in the middle of the day, always at night. So now, a whole year after the raids had stopped, they were hit by confusion again when they saw the group of dragons heading for them, in the middle of the day too.

Stoick was beginning to get worried. He wanted to believe that his son's death wasn't for nothing, that Hiccup had managed to stop the war before he died, but the sight of dragons heading for Berk couldn't help but make him worried that Hiccup was wrong, that the dragons would keep attacking them even after the Red Death had died. Although, he knew that it didn't make sense, since if that was the case, the raids would keep going on in the last year, there's no reason for the dragons to stop coming.

Stoick was pulled from his thought when he heard Alvin's laugh.

"Looks like the Gods are smiling at me, Stoick." Alvin said confidently with a laugh, "Dragon raids at the same time as we attack you, today will be the day you are destroyed." He then laughed maniacally.

Stoick growled in anger and opened his mouth to retort when he heard it, a high pitched whistle that only one dragon could make during a raid.

"Night Fury!"

"Get down!"

BOOM!

The Night Fury had just dive bombed and shot one of the Outcast's ships, the one at the far left, destroying and burning it to ash in an instant. Three more dragons followed the Night Fury's lead and destroyed another three of the Outcast's ships, a Monstrous Nightmare shot at the one at the far right, a Deadly Nadder shot at the one next to the one destroyed by the Nightmare, and then a Skrill destroyed the ship next to the one the Night Fury destroyed by it's lightning.

It was a shock that a Skrill was among them, since Skrill was as rare and as legendary as a Night Fury – and it was the second most dangerous dragon in the whole archipelago right after the Night Fury – but the Skrill wasn't the one that caught Stoick's undivided attention. His eyes were locked on the Night Fury as the black dragon climbed up into the clouds as the other three dragons returned to the flock. It was only a split instant and he couldn't be sure since the dragon was far away, but Stoick was certain that he saw a person on the dragon's back.

Stoick's attention then drawn away from the Night Fury when a green Terrible Terror fly in front of his face, he blinked when the dragon dropped something before flying away. He looked down to see what was it that the Terror dropped and found that it was a medallion along with a piece of paper, he picked them up and turned them around to see that a Berk's crest was engraved on the medallion and a short message on the paper.

Leave the rest to me, Dad.

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To be continued . . .

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