AN: For the newcomers who find this story, please understand that it is the 'sequel' to my earlier work Room For One More and you should go read that first in case you don't want anything spoiled.

As for my returning readers, welcome back! I'm happy to present to you all the beginning of my new project: In The Next Life. I felt that I still had more of this story to tell, so here I am to tell it. Thank you to the reviewers on my previous story that encouraged me to give it a continuation. As long as I know that at least 1 person is looking forward to this then I'll try my best to deliver lol.

I'm going to try to keep the author's notes to a minimum this time around, but I thought an introduction was warranted. A lot of planning has gone into this over the past few months and I'm excited to actually start constructing it now.

So without further ado, I hope you enjoy "In The Next Life", a story by Triplestryke1

Chapter 1: After Arkyn

It was the morning after the funeral. Astrid lay flat on her bed, bloodshot eyes wide open, knuckles white as she gripped the sheets.

She'd had lots of trouble getting to sleep the previous night, and when the girl finally had nodded off, a rare nightmare cruelly jolted her awake once more. The bad dream depicted Arkyn holding out his hand to Astrid in slow motion, begging for her to take it and reassure him that she did in fact share his love in return. But when Astrid ran towards him and opened her mouth to scream her affections, the words became trapped in her throat and the boy dissolved into black smoke the moment their fingers should have met. It was excruciating. The last time Astrid had had a nightmare like this was the evening after the Red Death had been killed but Hiccup hadn't yet woken up from his injuries.

That was before Arkyn.

Astrid's life before Arkyn had never been enough for her. At the time she thought it was what she wanted and that everything was fine, but things had changed a lot since then. Before Arkyn, Astrid's spark hadn't yet been lit. She'd kissed Hiccup all that time ago because he'd done a lot for her and that's what girls her age were supposed to do- at least according to Ruff- but the fire had never truly been there because he was still just Hiccup, and try as she might to look past them, her memories of the old klutz remained. She remembered feeling annoyed at the world even after he'd expanded her horizons, and even though it wouldn't have been fair to Hiccup for Astrid to say she never liked him, what she should have been more aware of back then was that room for improvement still existed.

Improvements came during Arkyn.

They snuck up on her like a snake in the grass. Suddenly he was there one day, slowly but surely sweeping Astrid off her feet and out of her comfort zone without even trying. The girl discovered the ability to see somebody else in a completely different light than she was used to. Emotions visited her that she enjoyed having for once despite how confusing they were at first. She was powerless to it all, losing control of her rigid focus without even realizing it. Astrid assumed it would last forever once it started, only getting better with age and maturity as Arkyn healed and she herself grew up stronger alongside him, but she was wrong.

Fate had decided that Astrid now needed to cope with her life after Arkyn.

She should have seen it coming considering the way they were living, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Astrid thought there would always be a way out of whatever trouble they found themselves in, but evidently a multitude of Screaming Deaths is a lot of trouble, and the result was unfortunately Astrid's feelings of loneliness returning to her for the first time in a long time. It was enough to keep her right there in her bed. Even though she still had other friends, they couldn't help her right now, and to get to them she would have to leave her room and face the world again- something that was adamantly out of the question- so for now her bed would do just fine.

—

"I don't think she's coming." Fishlegs said sadly, noting the significant progress the sun had made across the sky since the other riders arrived in the arena earlier that same day.

"When Astrid said she'd think about it last night, I doubt it stayed at the front of her mind for very long." Tuff replied in a defeated tone. The overall mood of the group had been unbelievably dismal so far. It was as if they'd lost two people rather than one. "I still can't believe he's gone…"

Snotlout echoed him. "I still can't believe we're not."

A period of silence followed this as the teens tried to fully grasp exactly what had happened in the last week. It was ultimately ended when Hiccup spoke up in a timid voice.

"I should probably go check on her sometime later."

"You're kidding, right?" Ruff asked sharply. "Anybody but you."

"Oh come on! You can't seriously still hold what I did against me. I know she's your best friend, Ruffnut, but you'd be mourning her instead right now if I hadn't interfered."

The girl glared at him. "First of all, don't try and use my friendship with Astrid to your own advantage. And second, it's not that I'm necessarily angry with you for getting in the way of her motivations, it's that she is. It was her choice to try and take Arkyn's place, and as long as she stands behind her choices, seeing your face isn't going to help her at all, and I'm trying to help her."

"So what? I saved her and now you're sidelining me? I want to help her too!"

"You already have, Hiccup, she just doesn't look at it like that yet. Give it a few days…you'll get your chance to make amends with her, but that bandage over your nose should be a reminder that it's too soon." Ruff tried to sound reassuring, but in reality she had no idea when the dynamic between the riders would return to some semblance of normal, if it even could. There had just been so much division.

"Guys, we can't afford to be arguing like this." Fishlegs stepped in, and Tuff and Snotlout nodded with him. "I'm sure we all want to help Astrid, and even if it were Arkyn who was still with us at the moment, I hope we'd do the same for him. However, none of us should go and see her today unless she specifically asks us to. She needs her space more than she needs us right now."

This was reluctantly, but mutually agreed upon by the rest of the Vikings. None of them missed Arkyn quite like Astrid did, of course, because they hadn't been betrothed to the Nomanisan, but ever since his death things between the rest of the dragon riders had been so unbelievably messed up that they were all (save for Hiccup) left wishing he'd stayed with them for far longer. Many of them had lost a friend after Arkyn, and in his absence, more and more of the riders were increasingly becoming aware of Hiccup's role in their group's discourse. Though nobody yet realized it, subconsciously a wariness was forming aimed at the Chief's son- one they tried to denounce as they never would have expected it to exist back when Hiccup first taught them how to ride.

Eventually, with the discussion of Astrid resolved, the 5 Berkians still in the arena carefully guided a lonely Triplestryke out of its stable in preparation for a quick flight to allow Stinger to stretch his wings. The dragon seemed confused and on edge at what the group of teens before it were trying to get it to do, for it had been 5 long months since the creature had taken flight without either Astrid or Arkyn in sight, but finally after a short struggle and a small bout of stubbornness, Stinger was airborne once again. Nobody was able to shake the feeling, however, that things just weren't the same.

—

Riftan sat at his table alone, eating breakfast by himself in an eerily quiet house. His wife had departed not too long before that to help with the final Snoggletog preparations and his daughter had locked herself in her room since the funeral, presumably still asleep. The only residual sounds that met his ears were the occasional rustlings of the Nadder outside, who remained dormant with the lack of her rider.

This was the first moment in the last few days that the man found himself some time with his own thoughts, and after such a busy week, he appreciated it almost a little too much. He was of the opinion that his daughter was mourning her loss of Arkyn much too dramatically. It wasn't how he'd taught her to be. As Astrid had grown up over the years, Riftan always kept trying to explain to her that she needed to toughen up when things got difficult. He'd made it a point to ensure she understood that people- especially Vikings- died everyday, and that dwelling on such matters for too long would make her appear weak to her peers. The thing Riftan hadn't counted on though was exactly how much Arkyn had come to change his only child.

The way he saw it, Arkyn had led his daughter to become soft, and he resented the boy for doing so. It equally bothered him that Freya had supported all of these new emotions right from the very beginning, enabling the damaging relationship even more. But what was Riftan to do? He and Freya had agreed that Astrid would untraditionally be allowed to one day marry for love even before she'd said her first word. The man was too full of pride to deny his daughter that promise now, but for her to choose someone so overzealous in battle…someone so damaged by their past who arrived on Berk with nothing behind their name, he found himself reconsidering the luxury he'd given Astrid. What had she been expecting? A long, carefree life between two warriors, both inevitably to be forgotten in 2 generations time?

Riftan had always believed his daughter was destined to be so much more than that- perhaps even a Chieftess…at least if any part of Astrid even still fancied Hiccup.

After Arkyn, she now had all the time in the world to decide if she could love him again, and with this realization, her father's hope for her legacy was restored.