So here's the next chapter! I can honestly say that I got caught up in reading some extremely well written stories recently and forgot to write myself! _ Sorry for that! I hope that this chapter can help things along, though. Enjoy!

Hiccup was extremely happy to see the stars after he finally broke through the ground. Fresh air rushed into his lungs and drove out the putrid and rotten smell that the haugbui seemed to permeate the air with. Although slightly confused at the unusually fast response time of his fellow villagers, he didn't question it too much. After helping Toothless out of the hole in the ground, he finally turned to see the ring of Vikings carrying torches and digging tools in equal measure. His father burst through the crowd, a frantic and worried look upon his face.

"Son!" Was all that was said before he rushed towards Hiccup and inspected him from head to toe. Hiccup didn't really understand what Stoic was looking for, but waited for his father's scrutiny to pass. After a couple of seconds, a relieved sigh escaped Stoic's mouth before he turned to the villagers. "He's alive! Put down your weapons."

Toothless perked his ears up at that particular phrase and Hiccup picked up on it as well. "Dad? What do you mean put down your weapons? Did I collapse a tunnel and bury another house?" Hiccup remembered THAT particular stunt. He still felt bad for the Jorgensons. Come to think of it, that might be why Snotlout didn't like him that much…go figure.

"No, son. You came out from the ground like a draugr escaping his grave! What did you think was going to happen? I TOLD you to wait and we'd get you out of there. WHY did you have to go and pull these kind of things RIGHT before something important? I thought you outgrew that!" Stoic rattled off while doing another once over Hiccup. "But, at least you didn't hurt yourself. Can't have you getting hurt right before your wedding!" Stoic smiled happily, but it looked forced.

"Yeah, can't lose the other leg until that night. Looking forward to it, actually." Sarcasm dripped from his comment like water from a leaky bucket.

"Oh son, every man looks forward to their wedding night." Stoic winked at him conspiratorially. "But let's save THAT advice for the baths the day after tomorrow." Stoic smiled and smacked his overly large hand across Hiccup's back.

With a resounding THUD, Hiccup barely managed to get away with taking a forced step forward instead of falling down. "NO! UGH! DAD! I didn't mean-…" Hiccup immediately tried to correct his obviously sarcasm impaired father.

"No need to be bashful, son. Every man thinks of his first time. You're a Viking! I'd be worried if you didn't." And with that short few sentences, Hiccup felt like crawling back into the grave and lying down with Hrothgar to die. His face lit up the brightest of reds and his head swam in disgust. He was NOT about to have this conversation with his father. Fortunately for him, Stoic's tact and attention span had always been a little short.

Stoic looked back at Toothless and saw the overly large sword strapped to him. "By Odin's beard! I know that sword!" Stoic reverently lifted the mighty weapon with practiced grace that immediately made Hiccup envious. He could barely lift the thing and his father had enough strength to use it like a stoker for a fire…genetics were so unfair. "How did you find Hrothgar the Bold's sword? This is the first of our lineage to be buried on this island! Hiccup!" Stoic had appraised the blade over and over while he spoke in awe. Pride welled in his eyes and Hiccup felt his chest swell. It wasn't very often that he got any sort of praise from his father, so it was extra special to see it in person, even if he could barely make out his facial features in the torchlight.

"Trust me, dad. You wouldn't believe me if I told you…" Hiccup took a deep breath and saw Toothless nodding his head sagely, like he definitely agreed.

Stoic looked back at the blade and noticed that it was indeed old…and decrepit. "We need to have Gobber renew it a tad." Stoic said absently, as if trying to work out a course of action. Hiccup silently agreed with Stoic. He had no chance of working with something that heavy.

"That's uhh… a great plan, dad. So let's..uhh… try to talk to him about it tomorrow maybe?" Hiccup felt incredibly awkward and just wanted to get home. It had been a rough day and his bed sounded like Valhalla at the moment.

"Alright, it can wait until the morning. I'll get everyone to go home. You go and rest. You have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow." And with that, Stoic walked back towards the group of Vikings standing over the hole that Hiccup came out of. "Get out of there! Show some respect! Look what my son got!"

Hiccup sighed, but patted toothless on the head absently. "Let's go home, bud." Toothless huffed an affirmative and they both took off to their home.

Hiccup woke up to the sound of a series of knocks coming from his bedroom door. Groggily, he got out of bed and stumbled across to it, doing his best to avoid falling over in the process. After opening the door, the sight of Angnir standing in his doorway both confused him and slightly shocked him. Hiccup did a quick look at Angnir, rubbed his eyes, looked again, shut the door, opened the door, looked again, then woke up. "S-s-sir! Wha-what are you doing here? I mean, err…that is… why are you here?" Hiccup was tripping over his own words, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Good morning, Hiccup! I told you that I'd teach you a thing or two about combat, didn't I? So let's go! Get dressed and meet me downstairs! Angnir winked at him and smiled energetically. Hiccup could feel the bruises that he was going to have before the day was over…

Angnir left and Hiccup took the opportunity to hurriedly get ready before throwing his covers over Toothless on accident. The still slumbering reptile didn't even acknowledge the extra layer of warmth and continued napping happily. "Lucky little…" Hiccup didn't even finish the thoughts before he went downstairs to see his father proudly showing off the sword that he had gotten from Hrothgar.

"And then he pops out of the ground like a draugr and about scares Snotlout near to tears! Hefting this thing with him! Only my boy! Only my boy could do something like this!" Stoic had his chest puffed out and a smile on his face when Hiccup finally reached the bottom. "Speaking of which, have fun, son! Work extra hard!" and with that, he walked out the door, carrying the massive weapon over his shoulder. No doubt to brag some more and get Gobber to fix it.

"Sounds like you're really trying hard, Hiccup. Let's take a walk." Angnir motioned for him to follow and then walked outside. "I'd really like to hear what happened while you were down there! We got a little piece to walk before we get to the place I picked out." Angnir supplied, chipper.

"Sir, I don't think you'd believe me if I told you." Hiccup was getting used to using that particular phrase now. But he was a little surprised when Angnir burst out with a booming laugh.

"I wouldn't have believed that you'd be the one to end the war between us and the dragons either, but here we are! The way I see it, you deserve a little more belief than the average Viking."

Nodding his head, Hiccup couldn't argue with anything that Angnir said. "Well, it all started when dad insisted that we go break into a burial mound right as it turned into nightfall. Who does that?" Hiccup then proceeded to explain exactly what happened while they walked together. With the casual look of astonishment and laughter at some of his reactions, Angnir surprisingly didn't question Hiccup's honesty.

After he was finished, Angnir just nodded a thank you to Hiccup for sharing, then stopped in front of a single tree with a few swords leaned up against it. Hiccup really appreciated how Angnir didn't question him and didn't make a huge deal out of it like his father did. It helped keep him humbled. "Alright Hiccup, you've got a knack for accomplishing the impossible, so why don't we try something easily achieved. I want you to grab the smallest of those swords and bring it over here to me." Angnir stood over about ten steps away from the tree in question.

Hiccup didn't ask questions, he went and found the smallest of the three and picked it up. It was still a tad heavy for him, but not unbearably so. However, in Hiccup fashion, when he turned to go toward Angnir, he knocked the other two swords over onto the ground. "Sorry! I'll pick them up!"

"Don't worry about them. Get over here first." Angnir waited. Hiccup stood in front of him, holding the sword with both hands. "Now, I don't have that much time right now, so we are going to focus on the most important thing that I can think of for you right now." Hiccup nodded in understanding. It was always best to start with how to hold a sword before you swing it. Made sense. "I want you to throw that sword into that tree."

"Ok, I'll…what!?" Hiccup had turned around and already gotten ready to throw before his brain finally caught up to his motions. "I thought you were going to teach me how to hold it or something. This seems like something only an expert would do." Hiccup was confused and it showed easily on his face.

"Well, you are not wrong. However, it is extremely important that you get as good as you can at this before I teach you anything else. Trust in me and you'll understand in time." Angnir sounded wholly serious, so Hiccup nodded his head, not wanting to cross the man again.

The first time he threw the sword, it landed hilt first on the ground and fell over. Hiccup sighed and retrieved it, only to repeat the process for the next few hours…

Finally, after his arms felt like they would fall off and his muscles screamed at him so loudly that he was pretty sure that all of Berk could hear them, Angnir told him to take a break. He had worked his way up to the last sword and it was far heavier than the one he started with.

"You've been doing well, lad. You finally hit the tree and managed to get the first sword kind of stuck in it!" He left out the part where the blade had somehow found the only squirrel hole near the ground and lodged itself into it so much so that Angnir had to wiggle it out.

"Yeah, that's great. All the squirrels will fear my blade when I walk in the woods." Hiccup knew he was being sarcastic and rude, but his mood had soured a lot since they began. He continually wanted to ask Angnir why he was throwing full blown swords into a tree. He did not see ANY of the Vikings in Berk using that particular technique, even on flying dragons when they were still being raided. Hammers and axes, yes, but never swords.

Angnir continued to nurse a mead horn at his side while he sat across from Hiccup, obviously thinking about something. Hiccup shook his head and tried his best to rid himself of those thoughts. Angnir was doing this because he wanted to help him. So he shouldn't be so snide and rude to him. So, shifting gears, Hiccup wracked his brain for another problem to solve.

He didn't know a lot about weddings, but everything that he'd been doing recently had been about nothing but tradition. It didn't have enough meaning behind it. He hated that. He felt like he was just going through the motions. So he made up his mind right there. He wanted to make it personal, something that would mean something important to him and Astrid. He had tried to stop it from happening earlier, but failed. Now he felt that he had to make it up to her somehow…or he'd have to fight her like he did earlier every day for the rest of his married life with her.

Doing something like that for her was hard to accomplish. He wracked his brain but just couldn't get past the obvious gifts that one Viking would give to another. Like an axe or a sword or a yak. Taking a glance at Angnir, he knew that her father would probably know, but asking him was kind of like cheating…

That's when it hit him. Astrid's father. Hiccup grabbed the notebook he always kept in his jacket and pulled out his charcoal pencil.

"Sir, uhh… I kind of need your help. You see, I want to give Astrid a gift, but I can't do it alone. Would you mind helping me out a bit?" Hiccup scooted over toward Angnir and sat down next to him.

"What do you need, lad?" Angnir glanced at him, extremely interested.

"Well, I was too young, so I don't remember much, but I could use your memory to help me out. So let me show you."

Gobber was putting the finishing touches on the great sword that Stoic brought over when he finally had enough. "Alright, Stoic! I know that you're proud of him and all, but even I can get tired of hearing a good story after listening to it seven times in a row! Now, I've finished the sword for Hiccup. I used the last of the good iron that we had to make it as sturdy and light as I can. What do you think?"

Stoic finally shut up for a bit and took the sword while looking at its new appearance. Just as Gobber said, it was a lot lighter and didn't have any signs of decay anywhere on it. A truly worthy weapon of any Viking. "You did well, old friend. Thank you. Now, I have only one more thing to ask before I have to go to the great hall. Hiccup has to make the wedding rings and I want you to help him."

"Aye, I thought that was a given. After all, I've made plenty in my day." Gobber started buffing his nonexistent fingernails on his beard.

"I know, but this is special." Stoic solemnly reached into his armor and pulled something out of one of the pockets. Once in hand, he showed it to Gobber.

Gobber sucked in a breath and looked from the pair of silver rings and then back to Stoic. "Those are your rings! How do you have both of them? I thought Valka's was lost when she-"

"We didn't wear them into battle. Her ring was in our room with mine when our house collapsed. They survived the fire and I've carried them with me ever since. I don't have a use for them anymore, but I know that this is what she'd want." Stoic was whispering towards the end. "It's something that the both of us can give our son even though….yeah." Stoic's voice trailed off as he looked down sadly.

Gobber nodded in mute approval. He took the rings in his hand and put them on a bench. "I'll melt them down and get the lad to work on them. He still has to work on them, but I'll make sure that he's extra careful." Stoic nodded once, then turned to leave, sword on his shoulder once again. "Now get out of here! I can't concentrate with you drooling all over my tools! Go tell the fishwives! You might get a free meal out of it!" Stoic chuckled a bit, then raised his hand in farewell and left through the door.

Silence filled the forge after the chieftan left. Gobber sighed once, then went about readying the forge for more delicate work. Not too long after he had finished, Hiccup came walking in the door, nose in his book. "Well, it's nice to see you up so early in the morning!" Gobber tried his best to sound chipper and more or less succeeded. It took quite a bit to keep him down.

Hiccup put his book in his jacket pocket and sighed. "You have no idea."

"Well, no time for that. We have work to do! It's about time that we get those wedding leashes…err… bands, wedding bands made! I've already got the metal all heated up and almost melted down. I just need to go run a quick errand and then we'll start. So watch after the forge until I get back." Gobber turned around and walked out the door, not waiting for a reply. He silently prayed to Odin that Hiccup didn't set fire to anything while he was gone. Still, he had to do this.

Gobber went around to the Hofferson house and knocked on the door. Finally, after a few repetitions and a groan that he was certain came from a dragon, the door opened up to a very sleepy Astrid Hofferson. "Morning, lass! I need to do something real quick." Again, not waiting for a reply, Gobber took a leather strip from his belt and grabbed Astrid's hand. After messing around with her fingers for a bit, he released her. "Alright, that'll do it. Go back to bed, lass. You sound like a gronckle!" Gobber turned back around and walked off, not even glancing back at the thoroughly confused girl.

A quick few minutes later, he was back in the forge with a certain length of leather. He measured out the length and set it aside for later, then turned to the still thinking Hiccup and playfully kicked him in the rear. "You planning on staying there all day looking at nothing? Or are you going to help me make your collar ..err… rings?"

Hiccup smirked and then grabbed a couple of gloves. "Sure. The quicker I get out of here, the quicker I get back to bed." Gobber noticed that he was distracted. There wasn't a sarcastic remark or quip that he was expecting to come from the boy. Still, he smiled. Nerves got to everybody when their wedding day came…except him. After all, nobody could make Gobber the Belch sweat! So with a hardy laugh and a smile, he went about helping his apprentice with the rings.

Unfortunately for Gobber, the making of the rings did not go as fast as he had hoped. Hiccup had insisted on making intricate patterns on the band. That meant that a couple of simple metal rings that took at maximum a couple of hours turned into a couple works of art that would take all day. Still, he had promised Stoic that he'd help Hiccup and he kept the promises he made with his battle brother. That didn't mean that he wouldn't get Stoic to pay for it with a few pints later, but for now, he suffered through it.

Finally after the rings were finished to Hiccup's outrageous standards, he looked outside and saw that it was late afternoon. There was maybe another couple hours of sunlight left. "Well, Hiccup, I think you've gone and wasted your last day of freedom … err… preparation."

Hiccup grunted, but didn't reply. He was too absorbed in the rings and something else in his notebook. Gobber had tried to find out what it was when they waited for the rings to cool down earlier, but Hiccup had diligently kept him from it. So far into thought, Gobber barely caught the tail end of Hiccup's sentence before he left. Something about throwing swords for a while…. Oh well. Stoic owed him a few pints. His muscles were sore and he had to tell him how great the rings looked.

Hiccup trudged back towards the village after finally getting that extra practice in that he promised Angnir. He finally got the biggest sword to stick in the tree and he felt happy with himself about it. Still, he didn't exactly know what it was all for at the moment. Sure, he trusted Angnir, but he just did not see the appeal to throwing your weapon at someone. Sighing, his tired mind decided to quit thinking about it.

He was still happy and he felt that he accomplished something. Mustering up all the willpower and strength he had left, he made a quick decision to go and see Astrid real quick. Yes, it was late and yes, technically he wasn't supposed to be in a girl's house after a certain time, but he had to do it. Tomorrow was a day full of traditions and expectations, so for tonight, it was Hiccup's night.

When her house came into view, he walked up and knocked on the door quietly, hoping that it wouldn't be noticed by her neighbors. Luckily, the door opened fairly quickly and Angnir showed up. "Ah, there you are lad. I was worried that something happened to you. How did the training go?"

Hiccup gulped and answered shakily "It went o-ok. I did like I promised and got the last sword to stick into the tree. S-sorry to bother you this late, but I was hoping to see Astrid before tomorrow." Hiccup's voice sounded shaky. Wasn't puberty supposed to fix that?

"Aye lad, I know why you're here. She's up in her room. She's a mite confused, though. Had her talking with the other wives today about what's expected of her tomorrow. So keep your head down. I'll be down here if things get too… uhh… you know… drastic. Go on up!" Angnir waved him towards the stairs.

Hiccup nodded and for the second time that day, was extremely glad he talked his plan over with Angnir. He absolutely could not have done this without his help. So, taking a deep breath, he walked up towards her room and knocked on her door.

A squawk came from inside first, letting him know that Stormfly was in there and then Astrid herself opened up the door and a quick shocked expression showed on her face before she regained control of herself. "Hiccup? What are you doing here?" She looked behind him to see if anyone was with him before she opened the door a bit and walked back into her room and stood next to Stormfly, arms crossed.

Hiccup walked into her room and held out his hand to her dragon, giving her a good scratch. Stormfly appreciated it and settled back down in her corner for the moment. "Wha-well, we're getting married tomorrow."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Oh really? I haven't noticed."

Hiccup tried to continue anyway. He had something to say and it was important. Astrid needed to fight him to get her point across and he understood that. It was something she knew and felt comfortable doing all her life. Talking to slightly angry and confused hostile beings sort of fell into his category, though. "Well, there are a couple things that I wanted to tell you before everything became so..well..final." Hiccup took a deep breath.

Astrid relaxed a little at that. She let her hands fall to her sides and sat on the bed, still looking at Hiccup. "Alright. I'm listening, Hiccup."

"Ok, here goes." Hiccup sighed as if collecting his thoughts. "I know I promised that I would stop this from happening, Astrid. But after everything that happened, I can't. But I just can't stand the thought of getting you involved in a life that makes you unhappy. Out of everyone on this island, you were the first person who tried to understand me and gave me the chance to show you something different. You didn't scream traitor at my face and try to throw me off the island. I want you to be happy, Astrid. And I feel horrible for being the one to tie you down to a life you never wanted." Hiccup turned towards Stormfly and started rubbing her jaw. It helped soothe his mind and calm his shaking body.

He was about to continue when he heard a voice from behind him. "You stopped a war that had been going on since Vikings first landed here, killed the biggest dragon anyone has ever seen, and brought dragons to live with all of us as friends in our homes. You've done amazing things, Hiccup, but you have NEVER made me unhappy." Hiccup turned around to see that she was standing up now, almost two steps away from him.

"But the way you reacted to everything, I just thought that you…well, hated me for not stopping the wedding." Hiccup was a tad confused, but seeing a calm Astrid sort of threw him off a little bit. Especially since it wasn't the reaction he had expected.

"Hiccup, I'm not a fool. I know what you can and can't do regarding Viking laws. Your dad is the chief! I don't hold that against you. Besides, if I was marrying anyone other than you, I just wouldn't go through with it. Become a shield maiden and force them to give up the whole idea." Astrid moved one step closer and looked into his eyes.

To say that he was surprised was an understatement. He'd expected tons of anger, throwing projectiles and maybe even a few poisonous nadder spikes thrown in the mix, but this was something he just didn't believe would happen. "Wha-What!?" Hiccup just looked into her eyes, their color capturing his attention wholly. Unfortunately, a soft croon from Stormfly uprooted his thoughts and made him jump back a bit. "Well, I…uhh.. that's… relieving." Hiccup fumbled around and regained his footing.

A small smirk made its way across Astrid's face. "Well, that and since you're going to be chief, I can help keep you from blowing up our entire village." She turned and walked over to her bed again, then sat back down, smirk still firmly in place.

Hiccup smiled a bit at her attitude. He recognized this. This was what they were before all this marriage stuff happened. "Yeah, I feel sorry for you. Tough job." Astrid smiled a bit more, then looked at Hiccup as if expecting him to keep talking. "Truth is, tomorrow is all about tradition and ceremony. You of all people know how great I am at following THAT. So I wanted to at least show you that even if we are both forced into this thing, I still want to show you…show you that this means more to me than just following traditions." Hiccup reached into his vest and pulled out his notebook.

"I know that I'm supposed to give you a morning after present and all, and I still will, but I wanted to make sure that you got this from me, you know, before everything changes." He held out the notebook and waited for her to take it.

Astrid looked at him a little weirdly. Hiccup had never seen that expression on her face before. Like she was in awe, yet uncertain about something. Still, he handed her the notebook and she started to open it, only to realize that it was only containing a folded piece of paper inside of it, a quite large piece of folded paper. Hiccup explained himself a bit while she tried to carefully unwrap it. "I had to ask your dad for a little help. I don't remember much since it happened so long ago, but I was able to figure out how to draw that with his help." Hiccup waited patiently for her to finally fold out the last half.

There, in Astrid's lap was a charcoal drawing of her mother smiling down at a drawing of her while she flew on Stormfly below her, as if watching over her from Valhalla.

And there you have it folks! The next chapter in POL! I hope it wasn't too disappointing. Next chapter is the wedding…sorta. I'll let you think about what might happen, but if you feel like sharing, please hit that review button down there! I love hearing from you guys! Plus, it really helps inspire me when people tell me their favorite parts or things that need worked on. I am doing my best to write a good story and I hope I live up to your expectations!