How to Train Your Dragon 1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: How to Start a Dragon Academy**

**_Astrid tries to keep the balance between the Vikings and the new addition of unruly dragons. But her good intentions are tested when local curmudgeon, Mildew, convinces the village that dragons are a nuisance._**

_This is Berk. For years it was Viking against dragon. The battles were ferocious...then, one day, everything changed._

A black shadow darted in and out of view above the waves before soaring towards the skies. It was a black dragon sporting a red left tail fin due to its old one having been torn off months, almost a year, prior to this day. On the dragon's back was a young Viking teenage girl with Nordic hair tied in a thick braid with her bangs held mostly out of the way by a leather headband with a few still falling over her storm blue eyes. Where her left leg should have been, there was a spring-loaded prosthetic leg. It was Astrid Hofferson enjoying a flight with her dragon and best friend in the whole world – Toothless.

_I met Toothless and together we've shown people that instead of fighting dragons we can ride them...live with them...even train them._

Astrid adjusted Toothless' tail-fin to fly upwards – the two were so completely in sync with each other it was as if one had read the other's mind moments before. The pair flew up to the top of a nearby rock pillar where four other dragons and five other teens were waiting. It was the Riders of Berk team – the six teenagers who had originally been training to kill dragons until the battle with the Red Death the previous month. On the team was the heir to the Hooligan Tribe of Berk, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III; Snotlout Jorgenson, his cousin; Fishlegs Ingerman; the Thorston twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut; and, of course, Astrid, the leader of the team. She landed Toothless and turned to the others.

"Okay, guys," she greeted. "Best Trick Competition." The team had been meeting up regularly for these contests for a while and it was one of the highlights of the week for them to just get away from the village for a while, particularly for Hiccup and Astrid. Hiccup because it allowed him to have a break from Chief-training and Astrid because...well...also Chief Training seeing as she had actually been engaged to Hiccup since they were small. "Who's first?"

"Uh..." Fishlegs began hesitantly atop his Gronkle, Meatlug.

"Me!" Snotlout cut in on his Monstrous Nightmare, Hookfang. Fishlegs cast an irritated glance at the boy.

"Actually, I think it's..." he started but Snotlout interrupted again. Before his cousin and friend could start an argument, Hiccup cut in.

"Oh, sweet Baby Thor in a thunderstorm!" he huffed. "Go!"

"Oh, we'll go," Snotlout smirked. "And when we do, Hookfang and I will set the sky on..." Hookfang quickly grew tired of his rider's boastings and took off. "...FIRE!" Snotlout screamed. Astrid couldn't help but snort at the boy's screaming and Hookfang practically torturing him in midair. She glanced over at Hiccup who was also close to stitches, not bothering to hold back his tears of laughter. The teens all just completely lost it when Hookfang took a dive underwater – somehow Snotlout was still screaming when they emerged.

"Remind me to organise these contests more often," Astrid muttered to Hiccup.

"Consider it done," Hiccup grinned back as Hookfang landed back at the top of the cliff.

"I'm alive?" Snotlout panted. "I'm alive!" he crowed with delight – all the teens just stared at him. He tried to make it look as if everything had been on purpose but no one was buying it. "I mean...of course I am!"

"It's our turn," Fishlegs piped up, patting Meatlug fondly. "Ready, Meatlug?" The Gronkle snorted happily in reply. "Here we go!" The pair lifted gently off the cliff top and circled the rest of the team for coming into land. Astrid could tell that a lot of the others were sceptic about this but she knew Fishlegs better than the rest of them – he wasn't one to go for extremely daring tricks like her and the others. Besides, he looked pleased with himself. "Yes!" Fishlegs exclaimed. "New personal best."

"My turn!" Ruffnut cut in, wanting to bring a little bit more excitement to the contest.

"No, my turn!" Tuffnut argued. The twins began arguing with each other and Hiccup facepalmed. Honest to the gods...

"Uh, guys?" Astrid interrupted dryly. "Same dragon," she pointed out in equal cynicism. It shut the twins up at least.

"Oh, right," Tuffnut snickered as the twins finally took off on their Zippleback, Barf-Belch. However, as soon as they were in the air... "Go left!" Tuffnut ordered. At the same time...

"Go right!" Ruffnut yelled. The result was a highly confused Barf-Belch so the twins tried to rectify the situation by shouting their sibling's previous instruction but that just served to make things worse.

"Oh, no!" Tuffnut yelped as they flew past an outcrop of rock. "THIS IS AWESOME AND SCARY!"

Astrid and Hiccup both snickered. Honestly, never mind the competition part of the meeting – seeing Snotlout and the twins having a hard time controlling their dragons was pretty much the highlight of the day. The pair of them barely got a chance to laugh like this back at home. Eventually the twins came in the land – Astrid was amazed that they'd made it out without tying Barf and Belch's necks together. In fact, the most they'd suffered were a couple of lopsided helmets.

"We almost died..." Ruffnut exhaled.

"I know..." Tuffnut agreed before perking up. "Go again?" he grinned. Hiccup shot him a glare.

"Hey! It's my turn!" he snapped before turning to face Astrid with a sly smirk on his face. "You might wanna take notes," he suggested smugly before nudging Stormfly in the flanks. "Let's go!"

Astrid grinned slightly as she and the others watched Hiccup almost vanish against the bright blue spring sky as Stormfly got faster and faster. Of the five dragons that made up the Riders of Berk team, Stormfly was the second fastest just behind Toothless and Astrid and Hiccup organised plenty of races between the pair of them – Astrid always won but Hiccup was so competitive he kept challenging her (Astrid's excuse was that he always beat her at Hand-to-Hand Combat so it was only fair that she won at Dragon Races).

"Okay, Stormfly – prepare to flip!" Hiccup ordered. Stormfly obeyed and the pair somersaulted through the air as they began a string of tricks. "Now twirl!" The Deadly Nadder obliged. Astrid smirked slightly – maybe she should work with Hiccup on his flying technique. Unlike with her and Toothless, Hiccup's bond with Stormfly, although close, was more command based that anything else. "Quick! Upward spiral!"

Hiccup and Stormfly finished their routine and came in to land next to Astrid and Toothless. Hiccup shot Astrid a smug look, daring her to do better, before he fondly patted his Deadly Nadder on the shoulder.

"Alright, Stormfly," he smiled, with barely a trace of a pant. Astrid hid a warm grin – ever since they'd begun training dragons instead of fighting them, Hiccup had been smiling a lot more than he used to. It was as if he was finally taking the chance to be a teenager instead of the son of a chief. Astrid had to admit that she felt the same way – after years of trying to be a more typical Viking, she'd started to catch up to acting her age at last. Snapping out of her daydream, Astrid snickered as Snotlout tried to best his cousin.

"Yeah, but can you do that _without_ the dragon?" the boy asked sarcastically. Hiccup's face darkened momentarily as he punched his cousin in the shoulder - the pair of them barely got along despite Snotlout's multiple attempts to swarm up to Hiccup – recently he'd even tried sucking up to Astrid on multiple occasions, even hitting on her from time to time much to her annoyance and Hiccup's frustration...yeesh, just because Astrid was, admittedly, the best looking girl on Berk it gave Snotlout no excuse to try to win her affections - she would've picked Hiccup any day even if she _wasn't_ engaged to him! However, when Hiccup turned back to face Astrid, his face had returned to the playful smirk which Astrid returned.

"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us there, boy," she grinned to Toothless who huffed happily in reply. Astrid smiled – she didn't need to understand Dragonese to know what Toothless was saying.

"_Then let's show them how it's done._"

Grinning until her cheeks began hurting, Astrid gave Toothless a small nudge and they shot into the sky using Toothless' unique vertical takeoff ability. As they spiralled through the rocky outcrops and caused the ocean waves beneath them to spray when they came out of a dive, the other teens watched in admiration from the cliff edge. Astrid spotted an upcoming outcrop that was worn away underneath like a bridge – now for the main event.

"Ready, boy?" she smirked. Toothless grunted happily in reply as Astrid locked the tail-fin in place, allowing him to glide before jumping onto the outcrop. Running as if she had two feet instead of the one, Astrid's smile never left her face as she left off the outcrop and straight back onto Toothless' back and slotted her prosthetic back into place. Perfect.

"They're still the best," Hiccup smiled softly to himself as the others cheered in amazement. No matter what they did, Astrid always found some way to top them all, and she knew it.

"Another win, boy," Astrid chuckled to herself, patting her best friend on the head in congratulations as she gave the signal to the others to head back to Berk. It was gone lunchtime and everyone was hungry.

_Yep...dragons. Most people on Berk would say life here is better since we made peace with them. Unfortunately Dragons are still, well, dragons._

Returning to Berk was never a return to a quiet village but it was easy to say now that things were a lot more hectic than they usually were on a Thor's Day afternoon. Astrid and Toothless headed over towards the food store to see if they could grab a sneaky fish or something before dinner but judging by how almost every dragon in sight was scoffing themselves on everything they could see, Astrid shot a look at Hiccup that said '_Something's telling me we're gonna have to wait_'.

"Let go of my food!" a Viking woman yelled from outside her house on the opposite side of the Plaza. Astrid winced as she saw the purple Deadly Nadder try to wrestle a loaf of bread from the woman. If there was one downside about now having dragons on Berk, it was that they now caused havoc on a _daily_ basis instead of a nightly basis. "Drop it, pesky dragon!"

"Aw...Thor, help us..." Hiccup muttered just loud enough for Astrid to hear. Secretly, the same thing was going through her head – she wasn't going to hear the end of this. It was due to her that the dragons were allowed to live on Berk in the first place now.

"Get off my roof, you pest!" a Viking man shouted at a Monstrous Nightmare who was taking an afternoon nap on his roof. Elsewhere, another Viking ran through the Plaza chasing a dragon that'd made off with his apples and another Viking lady shot past after a dragon who'd taken her washing out...quite literally. Astrid buried her head in her hands – as if the Boneknapper episode hadn't been embarrassing enough when it came to Vikings and their underwear.

"Incoming!" someone warned. Astrid and Hiccup glanced upwards and grimaced – dragons were flying overhead and green blobs were falling out of the sky...it was _that_ time of day again.

"Dragon poo!" a Viking yelped in disgust. Astrid spotted two Vikings with whom the Haddocks were close friends with – Mulch and his companion, Bucket – and upon seeing that they had two portable shield-roofs with them, dragged Hiccup over to them to take shelter from the poop-shower.

"Eww, gross, gross, gross..." she barfed, hopping over a green blob that landed in front of her boot. Luckily, her luck paid out this time and she missed it. "Oh, poop. Oh, that's disgusting..."

"Hey Mulch. Hey Bucket," Hiccup greeted awkwardly. "Sorry about the...uh..." he added, indicating the disgusting shower and grateful for the shelter the shields-on-sticks provided.

"Every day at three," Bucket remarked. Bucket was a fairly simple Viking who'd suffered a head-injury a while ago and since then he'd always worn a bucket on his head...hence his name, really. Despite his simple nature, he was kind-hearted and always there to listen if you wanted to talk. Before the whole 'dragons-are-friends' malarkey, he'd been one of the few Vikings Astrid could talk to about her issues, not that he could offer much helpful support in the matter. "They're regular at least. A tip of the cap."

"Better then the days when it was 'kill or be killed'," Mulch shrugged. Mulch acted as Bucket's conscious and it was rare to see one without the other. Whereas Bucket was naïve and cheery, Mulch was often cynical and to-the-point. Astrid and Hiccup smirked in agreement to his statement – compared to the nightly dragon raids, the toilet showers were bearable. "Hey, we've got some fish for that father of yours, Hiccup."

"Really?" Hiccup grinned slightly.

"It's about time," Astrid mumbled before yelping in pain as Hiccup slammed his heel onto her right foot.

"Bucket, give the kids the cod," Mulch instructed. Bucket turned to pick up a nearby barrel but both Hiccup and Astrid's faces fell as they saw that there was no fish inside. They turned to face each other with a look that clearly said '_Dragons_'.

"I ate it already?" Bucket blinked in surprise. As well as everything else, he had a very short-term memory. "Did I enjoy it?"

"Um, no, uh, actually Bucket...I'm afraid the, uh..." Astrid cut in as the dragons raided the food store. She spotted some flying over to the other side of the island – this wasn't going to end well. _Brace yourself for major complaints session from resident island Grumpy Man_, she thought to herself.

_Most of us here on Berk are willing to take the good with the bad. But there are those who will never accept the dragons and will do anything to drive them away._

On the other side of the island, a lone house stood by a large cabbage patch as three o'clock approached. The only human occupant was, as Astrid put it, the resident island Grumpy Man – Mildew. Even his name was miserable. Mildew's grumpy personality was matched only by his appearance – his grey beard was matted and his blue-grey eyes were dull with an irritable glare. Mildew was hardly the most popular Viking on Berk – in fact, they'd built his house on the other side of the island for the main reason that they didn't like him that much (these are Vikings we're talking about, okay?) – but even nowadays he usually didn't bother the rest of the village. Normally, he was having a nap at this time of the day but now he was woken up by a loud banging on his roof.

"Dragons, I should've known," he grumbled, grabbing his walking staff and storming outside to inspect the damage. It wasn't the first time Mildew had been having issues with the dragons invading his cabbage patch (not that anyone minded, especially the teens – they all thought the dragons were doing the village a favour there), nor was it the first time he'd had some damage done to the roof.

"Helps himself to my roof and my cabbage..." Mildew grunted as he grabbed his sheep, Fungus (also his only companion after the deaths of his three wives...people were still suspicious about that). Mildew froze as he took in the scale of the damage – a Gronkle and a Monstrous Nightmare were on his cabbage patch which was all but ruined.

"My whole field! Gone! That does it, Fungus," he grumbled angrily, snatching up his sheep and storming towards the main village.

Back in the main village, Stoick the Vast was overseeing the storing of the food. Winter was fast approaching and supplies were being restocked all over the place – it was always the village's top priority when the sea was due to freeze over in a few weeks at most (a few days if they were unlucky).

Store the rest of it in the back, the fishing boats just came in with a big catch" Stoick ordered to the Vikings filling the food house with the latest catch of fish. Astrid's stomach growled – gods, what she wouldn't give for a salmon right now (judging by Toothless' even louder stomach roar, she got the feeling he concurred).

"Stoick!" Mildew yelled. Astrid and Hiccup sagged next to each other at the sound of the guy – if there was one person Hiccup had hated more than Astrid before she'd trained Toothless and shown him what dragons were really like, it was Mildew. In fact, if there was anyone that _any of the village_ had hated more than Astrid before the whole 'dragon training' thing, it was Mildew. They still hated him more than anything.

"Ah, here's Mildew with the complaint of the day," Gobber huffed next to Stoick. Gobber was the teens' mentor when it came to fighting and had originally been training them to fight dragons – a cynical man who rarely had any good advice to give, although he was close to the Haddocks, being an old friend of the family.

"You picked a bad time, Mildew," Stoick sighed as the old man came storming over to the food house. "I'm in the middle of storing food. The freeze is coming." Astrid smirked dryly – yeah, like that was going to work when old Grissle-Grumps was involved. Mildew would _never_ shut up until he got his way – to be honest, Astrid was amazed he'd put up with the dragons for this long (they'd been living on Berk for about six months).

"It's those dragons again," Mildew hissed. "Those demons are not fit to live among civilized men."

"Neither are you, Mildew," Gobber cut in sarcastically.

"Yeah, why do you think we built his house so far outside of town?" Astrid muttered to Hiccup in an undertone. He covered up a snort of laughter with a cough – luckily it still worked when Mildew was involved given that the man had never heard Hiccup laugh anyway. Unfortunately, Mildew _had_ heard Astrid and he gave her a glare.

"Ah, very well, make your jokes," he sneered. Astrid gave him a blank stare in return. "Meanwhile these dragons are in our village's cod! Turning people's houses into piles of rubble!" he pointed out angrily. Astrid winced when the gathering crowd begun agreeing with him – well, this was a first.

"Mildew's right!" someone yelled. Hiccup bit his cheek – yeesh, he hadn't thought things were _this _bad.

"They even disturb an old man's rest!" Mildew complained, indicating dark circles under his dull eyes. Personally, Astrid couldn't see much difference – he had always looked like that for as long as she could remember and she had a _very_ good memory. "Can't you see these bags under mi' eyes?" he huffed.

"He's right," Hiccup whispered to Astrid. "He's hideous." Astrid coughed incredibly loudly to cover up her laughter.

"These are wild and unpredictable beasts!" Mildew growled. Astrid gulped as the village began shouting in agreement...oh, for the love of the gods, there was no pleasing these people. First they're angry because dragons are the enemies and make nightly raids (okay, that one was understandable) and _now_ they're angry because the dragons are just being themselves! Honestly, they were the ones who'd been worried after they'd flown off at Snoggletog a few months ago. "They even cracked this man's skull. Like an egg," Mildew added, pointing at Bucket. Hiccup glowered at the man – really? He had to stoop that low?

"Egg? I like eggs!" Bucket grinned. "Scrabbled! Over easy! Poached!" Astrid sagged slightly – okay, at least Bucket didn't mind.

"You need to put those dragons in cages," Mildew suggested angrily, meeting with shouts of agreement all over. Astrid was now incredibly confused as well as worried – gods! This village needed to make up its Thor-damn mind! "If you don't they'll eat us out of house and home and destroy the entire village!"

"They don't mean any harm," Astrid protested, her connection to the dragons speaking for her before she really knew what she was saying. "They're just dragons being...well...dragons." Not having anything to add, Hiccup nodded in agreement next to her, patting Stormfly on the head gently and Toothless nudged Astrid in his usual way to show that he was there for her.

"Look, Mildew, if there's a problem I'll deal with it," Stoick promised, trying to keep the peace. Astrid glanced to her side and noticed that Hiccup had that look on his face that he usually did when he was taking down mental notes on chief-ing methods.

"Oh, there is a problem Stoick," Mildew snarled. "And I think I speak for everyone when I say you better do something about it." With that, he stormed out of the village square and the rest of the crowd dispersed muttering angry insults mostly directed towards the dragons, much to Astrid's annoyance.

Later that evening, Stoick, Hiccup, Astrid and Gobber were back at the Haddock household after dinner. Gobber was carving a small duck for some of the smaller kids in the village and Stoick was pacing up and down the room whilst Hiccup and Astrid finished off their stew.

"We can't just let dragons run wild like they own the place," Stoick sighed. Despite not wanting to admit it, he knew that Mildew had a legitimate point this time. The dragons were causing a lot of trouble around town and as chief he knew he had to do something about it. "Hey, we could put up signs!" Even Hiccup facepalmed at that.

"Signs? For dragons?" Gobber quizzed incredulously.

"No! For the people," Stoick corrected. Astrid face-desk-ed on the table, barely missing her bowl of stew. That idea was just about as bad, if not worse, than the 'signs for dragons' and Gobber knew it.

"Signs? For Vikings?" Gobber groaned. "We're not big readers, Stoick." Well, unless you counted Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs who had all read the Book of Dragons until they'd almost memorised it.

"Then we'll build a huge net and stretch it around the plaza," Stoick suggested. This time it was Hiccup's forehead that hit the table.

"Nets? You do know they breathe fire, Dad?" he pointed out grimly, his nasally voice muffed by the wood.

"I know very well they breathe fire, Hiccup!" Stoick snapped. He thought for a while before saying what Astrid had never expected him to say. "Maybe Mildew was right? We have to figure something..."

"No, no, wait, Stoick!" Astrid cut across, getting up from the table and giving the rest of her stew as well as a basket of cod to Toothless. Hiccup also stood up to give Stormfly some dinner before Astrid continued. "What if I deal with the dragons?" she suggested.

"You?" Stoick blinked. Even Hiccup snapped his head around so quickly he got whiplash.

"Who else?" Astrid shrugged with a small smile playing across her face, her confidence slowly growing. "If anyone can control them, I can. I'm the best woman for the job," she added, patting Toothless on the head as he reassured her of her confidence in herself.

"You're not a woman yet, Astrid..." Stoick began but Astrid quickly cut across him.

"Not if you don't give me the chance to be!" she pointed out. Hiccup grimaced but given that Astrid had her back turned to him and his face was only partially lit by the fire, no one saw. Although, he did see that his girlfriend had a point – she was the most qualified when it came to training dragons, having the most intel on the subject given how much time she'd spent with Toothless before anyone knew about him. He couldn't help but be worried about her – despite having tolerated her at best for most of his life, Hiccup always felt that sense of worry when it came to Astrid. Even so, Stoick agreed.

"Fair enough, you'll have your chance...starting tomorrow," he nodded. Astrid grinned triumphantly – secretly she couldn't wait for the morning to come so she said a quick goodnight to Hiccup before running upstairs, throwing off her spiked shoulder pads and sliding under her blanket.

/\

The next morning, Astrid stood just outside the house with Toothless with a confident smile on her face – time to start getting the dragons under control.

"Okay gang," she grinned. "There's gonna be some changes around here." Her attention was instantly caught by a Viking woman nearby shouting at a dragon for trying to steal her bread. Astrid ran over to help and gently scratched the purple Deadly Nadder in question under the chin to make it drop the bread. The Nadder turned its attention to her but Astrid was able to keep it calm enough to place a hand on its nose. Smiling that she'd accomplished one thing already, her smile vanished when she spotted a pair of dragons fighting. She began heading over to break things up when a sheep got caught in the crossfire – quite literally.

**"**Toothless, stop that fight!" she instructed. Toothless nodded and shot off whilst Astrid grabbed the nearest bucket of water. "I'll put out the sheep." Astrid ran as fast as her metal leg would allow her as she chased the sheep, barely putting out the flames consuming its wool before it knocked her down a hill. She barely had time to get up before she noticed that things around her were just going from bad to worse – dragons were causing trouble left, right and centre and there was no way she could be fast enough to get everything under control. If anything, her reputation as 'village klutz' was coming back to haunt her.

Meanwhile on a hill overlooking the Plaza, the rest of the teens were observing the happenings below.

"What's she doing?" Snotlout frowned on top of Hookfang as they watched Astrid run around the village frantically. From Stormfly's back, Hiccup was regretting his decision to let Astrid have a chance of doing something by herself.

"Uh, I think she's helping the dragons break stuff?" Tuffnut suggested with a smirk.

"Cool," Ruffnut grinned. At that moment, Astrid just got knocked over by a wayward Gronkle. Hiccup winced – that looked like it hurt.

"Wow, she could really use our help," he grimaced.

"We'll get to it," Tuffnut shrugged.

"In a minute," Ruffnut snickered. In the Plaza below, Astrid continued to control the wild dragons but to little to no avail. For every dragon she calmed down, another three came along to give her even more trouble and the worst was yet to come as Hiccup spotted the familiar sight of dragons flying over the village. He groaned when he saw that the sun was just past its highest point in the sky.

"And...it's three o'clock," he groaned as the green blobs of dragon excrement began to fall. In the Plaza, Astrid hadn't noticed the dragons overhead and hadn't had time to find some shelter – instead, she resigned herself to what was going to happen.

"Oh, no," she moaned.

/\

"Oww..." Astrid moaned that evening as she relocated both shoulders and stretched out her legs. Toothless was by her side and had heated a pan of coal to warm her bed up – it had done little to ease her aching muscles. "Everything hurts..." she grumbled, removing her metal leg. "Even this," she huffed as what remained of her left leg hung uselessly below her knee whilst she let it recover from the higher than normal amount of prosthetic-leg-usage that day. Toothless cooed sympathetically and licked Astrid's face gently when a familiar nasal voice sounded from downstairs.

"Astrid! I'm home!" Hiccup called. Astrid started and quickly yanked her metal leg back on.

"Hiccup?!" she spluttered, jumping up from the bed and brushing herself down. "Perfect..." she muttered irritably. She made a nervous face at Toothless as she heard Hiccup coming up the stairs and across the house towards her room. "I don't look too beat up, do I?" she asked worriedly. Astrid wasn't one to usually worry about her appearance but given her still evident crush on Hiccup and the day she'd had, she wanted to look presentable.

In reply to his rider's question, Toothless grumbled a little bit and his eyes widened, his pupils taking up most of his bright green-yellow irises. Astrid huffed – she didn't have to speak Dragonese to understand what the Night Fury meant. She must look pretty bad.

"Oh, great," she groaned. "Dragon pity," she huffed just as her door opened and Hiccup walked in.

"Hey, Hiccup!" Astrid greeted awkwardly. "Did you...uh...have a good day?"

"It was decent," Hiccup shrugged. "Chief training this morning followed by a flight with Stormfly."

"Oh, right!" Astrid grinned nervously, praying that it hadn't come out as a grimace. "I...um...hope that went well."

"So, how was your day?" Hiccup asked, folding his arms.

"Oh, uneventful," Astrid laughed nervously. She hated it that she still got so flustered around Hiccup _especially _when she was lying...which she was...very badly...as usual. "Hung around the plaza...you know..." she added. Hiccup raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I do know," he grimaced. Astrid's nervous grin vanished to be replaced by an embarrassed expression. "We saw you out there." Well, that was just peachy. "It's hard to believe you're still standing." Giving up on the pretence, Astrid let out a massive groan before slumping back onto her bed, her right foot and left leg giving out entirely.

"I'm gonna be seeing flaming sheep in my dreams for the next month," she moaned in self-pity. The moment was interrupted by someone else shouting from downstairs.

"Astrid!" Stoick yelled. Astrid yelped and quickly scrambled to her feet again, wincing as she put too much pressure on her left leg – thankfully Hiccup and Toothless caught her before her face became best friends with the floor. Stoick stormed upstairs and entered Astrid's room just as she righted herself. "Astrid, what's going on out there?" he asked – Astrid gulped when she saw how angry he looked. There was a reason why she was terrified of the man. "The plaza looks like a war zone." No kidding.

"I know it looks bad..." Astrid stammered, holding her hands up defensively.

"Really bad," Hiccup corrected her in an undertone. Astrid hid a wince – she still wasn't confident enough to even shove the guy let alone elbow him in the ribs like she wanted to. Hiccup was _really_ helping her right now.

"Yeah," Astrid huffed before continuing. "But this is only 'phase one' of my master plan," she explained nervously.

"Oh," Stoick blinked. "So you _do_ have a plan?"

"I do...of course I do!" Astrid nodded insistently, although Hiccup wasn't convinced. "It's very complex. Lots of drawings...several moving parts," she continued. "Yeah, it's, uh, pretty wild." Dammit, now she only had a maximum of six hours to _actually_ come up with a plan...brilliant. Oh, well. She'd had less time before. Not that it had worked...

"Uh-huh," Stoick noted, clearly only half-convinced at most. "Well, this had better work because Mildew's stirred up the whole island."

"Oh, great!" Hiccup huffed. "That's just what we need."

"I know it's bad, son," Stoick sighed. "Listen, Astrid, if you don't get those dragons under control, they'll be calling for their heads," he warned before heading downstairs to go to bed. Toothless grumbled fearfully and nuzzled his head under Astrid's arm for reassurance. Astrid smiled gently and scratched him behind the ear.

"Don't worry, boy," she soothed. "Your head's not going anywhere."

"You do realize there are, like, a bazillion dragons out there and only one of you?" Hiccup pointed out worriedly. "I hope you really do have a plan."

Astrid's mind whirred for a few moments before she came up with something. Of course – why hadn't she thought of it before?

/\

"That's your plan?" Ruffnut questioned dumbfounded the next morning. "Train dragons?"

"Here?" Tuffnut added. "Where we used to kill them?"

Astrid had gathered the rest of the teenagers in the Arena where they had once had Dragon Training before the defeat of the Red Death. Since then, the place had gone out of use – to be honest, Astrid was amazed that wildlife hadn't started taking over yet – until today, when Astrid came up with the idea to use it to not learn how to _fight_ dragons but instead how to _train_ them. She figured she might as well make the term 'Dragon Training' literal.

"Right, because we don't do that anymore," she confirmed, placing her hand on her hip and using the other to gesture to the Arena (no doubt if the place had a mind it would be thinking '_you just gestured to all of me_' at that point). "That's why it's available," she explained. The dragons had all been gathered up as well but looked far from comfortable with the whole thing – they looked incredibly skittish, as if memories of the place were flooding back. Toothless was relatively calm, having not spent that much time here (he was only locked up for an afternoon or so after he came to rescue Astrid from being fried by Hookfang during the final exam).

"Actually, the dragons do seem a little nervous," Hiccup noted as he tried to keep Stormfly calm by smoothing down her tail spines and grooming her scales.

"That's because they're very sensitive," Fishlegs explained sadly, comforting Meatlug who looked terrified. Astrid couldn't help but think '_Well, now you know how I felt when you nearly blasted my face off on the first day of Dragon Training_' but she felt horrible for thinking it and so kept her mouth shut. "Meatlug especially," Fishlegs continued. "She lost a cousin here. We try not to talk about it."

Hiccup had to admit that he was impressed with Astrid's resourcefulness. He'd left her to think about what she was going to do about the dragons the previous night and then early that morning, just after Stoick had left the house, he was woken up not by Stormfly as he usually was, but Astrid shaking him awake and telling him her plan to use the Arena as a place to train the dragons as well as teaching the others how to control them. That way, she wouldn't have to deal with things alone – he was glad she'd realised that much.

"It's amazing that Dad just gave us the Arena," he remarked, a slight grin creeping onto his face. Astrid's confident smile was suddenly replaced by an awkward grimace.

"Well, it would be, if he did, yeah," she stuttered, fiddling with her plait and nervously brushing her bangs out of her face only to have them fall straight back in front of her left eye. "But, he didn't," she continued awkwardly. "So that's another thing we should try not to talk about." Through the stammering, Hiccup finally caught on with what the girl was saying.

"Wait, so we're going behind Dad's back?" he realised, his face switching to an irritated scowl as he raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"There you go!" Astrid exclaimed in a forced manner. She was trying to sound annoyed but it just came across as nervous. "Talking about it! Uh..." she paused for a moment as she got her words together. "Alright," she sighed before turning to address the team. "Everybody, here's the thing. The dragons are out of control," she explained. "We want them to live in our world without destroying it but they can't without our help. They've been blowing things up in the village...we've gotta do something about that."

"Got it!" Tuffnut snickered gleefully. "Help dragons blow things up. We can totally do that!" Astrid refrained from facepalming.

"No. I believe I said..." she tried to speak but Ruffnut cut straight across her.

"Here's how we're gonna do it," she grinned evilly. "First, we make them really, really angry..." she planned, looking at her brother who instantly agreed.

"No problem," Tuffnut laughed. "We anger everybody." Well, at least they were aware of _that_ much.

"No, you guys, this is serious!" Astrid protested. "Mildew wants all of our dragons caged," she explained. That shut the twins up. "And I don't know about you but that's _not_ okay with me."

"You're right," Tuffnut mumbled. "She's sorry," he added, indicating his sister who promptly whacked his shoulder.

"Okay, then. Next problem..." Astrid exhaled nervously before regaining her stride and fetching a loaf of bread from her satchel. "The dragons are eating everything in sight," she explained. "Now, when a dragon grabs something it's not supposed to have, you can get him to drop it by giving him a little scratch just below the chin," she demonstrated by giving the loaf of bread to Toothless before scratching him under the chin, just beside the pressure point so that she didn't end up with a Night Fury squashing her.

"Blah-blah-blah!" Snotlout snickered. "Maybe that works for you and Toothless... But Hookfang and me? We do things a little different," he smirked. Astrid refrained from scowling – okay, Snotlout _had_ admittedly been treating her a little nicer as of late but she still tolerated him at best. Of all the teens, he was the one she liked the least – heck, even the _twins_ were more use than him at times!

"When I want this big boy to do something I just get right in his face and..." Snotlout explained in his usual smug tone as he tossed Hookfang the loaf of bread Astrid had retrieved from Toothless before shouting at the top of his lungs (and trust me, he had large lungs)... "DROP THAT RIGHT NOW! YOU HEAR ME?" However, instead of dropping the bread like Toothless did, Hookfang grumbled a bit and instead grabbed Snotlout in his jaws before hoisting him off the ground.

"See?" Snotlout's muffled voice sounded in an attempt to sound like he'd done something mildly right. "He dropped it..." he pointed out meekly. Okay, admittedly, Hookfang _had_ dropped the bread – it just wasn't the approach Astrid had in mind. Hiccup was struggling not to laugh.

"Heh heh," Tuffnut chortled. "Should we help him?"

"Yeah," Hiccup smirked, his cheeks beginning to hurt as he tried to keep his laughter in. "In a minute," he shrugged, echoing Ruffnut's earlier statement when he'd asked them if they should help Astrid the previous day. Astrid couldn't keep the grin off her face but continued, grateful that Snotlout had shut up for a bit.

"Alright," she smiled confidently. "We've got a lot of training to do," she pointed out, referring to the teens as well as the dragons. "But together, we can keep these dragons under control!"

With that she gave the signal for the team to leave the Arena and head out to the village. The dragons ran on ahead as the others began walking back...at least, most of them.

"Uh...can somebody do that chin scratchy thing?" Snotlout pleaded, his head still inside Hookfang's mouth. "Hello? You guys still there?" he called when no answer came.

/\

Later that afternoon, the team began walking through the village when a sight that Astrid wasn't expecting greeted them.

"Huh," Fishlegs grunted in surprise. Astrid frowned and scanned the scene. "No dragons," Fishlegs added. It was true – there wasn't even a single Terrible Terror to be spotted and you could at least always see one of those nesting on a rooftop or something.

"That was easy," Ruffnut remarked. Too easy, Astrid thought.

"Lunch?" Snotlout suggested, now free from Hookfang's jaws and covered in dragon saliva – good luck washing _that_ out, Astrid thought to herself, knowing from experience how difficult it was to get dragon saliva off her top. Anyway, getting back on topic...

"That's weird," Astrid muttered, squinting against the late autumn sun. "If the dragons aren't here, where are they?" she wondered aloud. Hiccup grimaced next to her and pointed towards the food store.

"Something tells me that way..." he groaned. On cue, the teens pelted over to the food store where dragons of every shape, size and colour were helping themselves to fish, meats and bread.

"Ow! Stop it!" a Viking yelled, having a tug-of-war with a Nadder over a salmon. "Give me that – that's mine!" Hiccup suddenly recognised the Deadly Nadder involved. It was a female covered in blue, red and yellow scales.

"Stormfly?" he exclaimed in horror. Nearby, a distinguishable Monstrous Nightmare was helping itself to a barrel of cod.

"Hookfang!" Snotlout blurted out, running over to try and get his dragon back under control but to no avail. Astrid was frozen in horror at the scene and to make matters worse, Stoick was already there before she could do anything.

"They've eaten everything!" Stoick exclaimed angrily. "We've got nothing left for the freeze!" Then to make matters even _more_ worse...

"I warned you Stoick," Mildew hissed. Oh, great – he just _had_ to be there. "But did you listen to me? No," he scoffed. "You put a bunch of _teenagers_ in charge!" Astrid bristled almost visibly – at least this 'bunch of teenagers' knew more about dragons and how to put up with them than Mildew did. "Now look what the dragons have done! Caging is too good for those beasts." Astrid cut in before Mildew could say any more, although she was already scared that she could do little to change the situation. She had to try, though.

"Stoick, I swear I can fix this!" she promised. "We...we were just starting to..." she stammered.

"Enough, Astrid!" Stoick bellowed, so loudly that even Hiccup cringed. "How can I trust you to control all the dragons when you couldn't even control your own?" he snapped, pointing towards a cart of meat. Astrid slumped in despair as she recognised the only black-scaled dragon with a bright red prosthetic tail-fin on the island.

"Oh, Toothless..." she muttered as the Night Fury gave her an innocent look with his mouth full of a large ham. The look vanished when he saw how disappointed his rider was. Stoick was already getting ready to restock the store.

"Bucket! Mulch! Man the boats!" he ordered. "We need another catch!" Mulch grimaced next to Bucket.

"It's too late Stoick," he explained regrettably. "It took us six months to catch all that fish."

"Don't tell me it's too late!" Stoick growled. "We've got to try!"

"Of course we do!" Mulch nodded before turning to Bucket. If there was one thing that Astrid didn't quite agree with the way Mulch looked after Bucket, it was the way he would always pass the blame onto him and Bucket wouldn't even know he hadn't done anything wrong. "Uh, don't tell the chief it's too late. You're always so negative!" Mulch scolded.

"I don't know what it is with me..." Bucket mumbled. Astrid tried again.

"Stoick, please! You've gotta listen to me," she begged, her voice becoming more and more desperate. "I know dragons better than..."

"Not now, Astrid," Stoick snapped, ignoring the pleading looks coming not only from his foster-daughter's face but also his son's and the other teens'. "I have a village to feed." As always – the village came first. Astrid had felt the same frustration when she'd tried to tell Stoick that she'd shot down a Night Fury all those months ago and he'd simply said '_Can you not see I've got bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!_' as she did now. Honest to the gods! Stoick was a father as well as a chief...

"The dragons have done enough damage," Stoick huffed. "By tonight, I want every one of them caged. Understand?" Astrid and the others shared a simultaneous inhale of shock – they hadn't expected Stoick to _actually_ take Mildew's advice.

"Bah!" Mildew huffed. Oh, speak of the devil... "You can't just cage these dragons! You need to send them away now!" he demanded. Astrid's despair grew as the village behind her began roaring in agreement. Then, to her greatest surprise and shock, Stoick gave in.

"You're right, Mildew," he nodded before turning to head to the docks. "We'll cage them tonight, and in the morning, Astrid will send them off the island."

"What?!" Astrid exclaimed, a hand flying to her mouth before she stop it.

"Dad, please! No!" Hiccup protested as his father passed by. Stoick placed a hand on his son's shoulder – it was a forced gesture.

"I'm sorry, son," he sighed before walking away. Astrid stared after him, not bothering to keep the tears falling from her storm-blue eyes.

Later that evening, in the Great Hall, everyone was sitting down to a rather lousy meal of broth – the dragons had eaten everything else. Even so, the lack of food wasn't what was on everyone's mind, even Snotlout's.

"I can't believe we have to send them away," he muttered, not even touching his spoon.

"It's gonna be weird," Hiccup choked slightly, playing with his broth as he spooned up a small amount before letting it fall back into the bowl. "I got used to Stormfly's face being the first thing I see every morning," he sighed. It was true – apart from that morning when Astrid had woken Hiccup up at the crack of dawn, Stormfly always poked her head through Hiccup's bedroom window as a signal to say '_Morning flight, now!_' and he would always comply, throwing back the covers and jumping out the window onto her back, flying a few laps around the island before heading back home for chief-ing lessons with his father.

"Every night before I went to sleep, Meatlug would lick my feet," Fishlegs whimpered. Astrid, who like Hiccup was only playing with her food in her sadness, looked up and stared at Fishlegs incredulously. Okay, those two had a _weird_ relationship. "Who's gonna do that now?!" he wept.

"I volunteer Tuffnut!" Ruffnut piped up, trying to alleviate the tension but even her voice was half-hearted. Tuffnut wasn't even in the mood to fight or joke back.

"Whatever," he groaned. "What time should I be there?" Hiccup huffed and slammed his spoon down on the table, pushing his bowl away and kicking the bench away from the table as he stood up.

"Come on, guys," he sighed sadly. "Let's get this over with."

The teens gathered their dragons outside the hall and began walking over to the Arena. They had spent the afternoon gathering up most of the wild dragons on Berk and getting them shut away for the evening but this was the hardest part of everything...Astrid could feel her heart wrenching as she walked alongside Toothless and on more than one occasion she stopped to gulp back tears, unwilling to let anyone see her cry.

"This is the worst day of my life!" Fishlegs cried. Unlike Astrid, he had no problem letting the tears out. "We're never gonna see our dragons again!" he wailed.

"We can't let that happen!" Astrid protested, but she was already so far behind the rest of the group that no one heard her. She stopped in her tracks and hugged Toothless close as he nuzzled her gently in comfort. "Toothless is the best friend I've ever had," she whispered. Her moment was ruined by the arrival of a certain old man making his way back home.

"Oh! Toothless, I'm gonna miss you so much..." Mildew sneered in a high-pitched voice – Astrid glared at his stupid impression of her. The old man leant on his staff smugly before turning his steely gaze to the Nordic Blonde.

"You know what your mistake was?" he snickered. "Thinking dragons could be trained. A dragon's gonna do what a dragon's gonna do," he explained with a cruel shrug. "It's their nature. And nature always wins." With that he sauntered off into the darkness, Fungus trailing behind him like a dog. Astrid sighed – it was all thanks to that miserable old half-troll that she was losing her best friend...the first real friend she'd ever had. Nearby, a woman dropped a basket, sending the contents flying. Astrid blinked with surprise as Toothless stopped the contents flying too far by stopping them with his tail and making sure the woman could pick everything up.

"Oh! Thank you, Toothless," the woman smiled as she made her way home. Astrid suddenly had a brain wave and her face, previously forlorn, lit up like the moon above her.

"You know what?" she muttered to herself. "Mildew is absolutely right!" she exclaimed, running over to Toothless who looked at her excitedly as she leapt onto his back. "Come on, boy!" she urged as Toothless jumped into the skies and the pair shot towards the Arena. At the Arena, the teens were preparing to shut the dragons away. Hiccup held up a torch as Stormfly looked at him sadly – he forced himself not to look at her.

"Goodbye, Hookfang," Snotlout muttered, trying to keep the sadness from his voice as Hookfang gently nudged him before entering the Arena. Hiccup took a deep breath as he stood by the contraption to shut the gate.

"I'm sorry, Stormfly," he whispered hoarsely, pointing at the gate with his torch. "Now go." Reluctantly, Stormfly obeyed and walked slowly into the Arena. Hiccup got ready to close the gate as Snotlout slumped beside him.

"Ugh," he groaned. "Feels like big sharp teeth are tearing at this...thing inside my chest," he moaned. Hiccup was too depressed to feel amazed that his cousin actually had any feelings.

"That's what it feels like when your heart is breaking," he explained quietly, turning away so that Snotlout wouldn't start teasing him for having tears threatening to roll down his face.

"I don't have a heart!" Snotlout protested. "I'm not a girl." Hiccup ignored him and began turning to wheel to close the gate to the Arena when...

"Don't close it!" someone shrieked. Hiccup blinked with surprise as he saw Toothless and Astrid flying at breakneck sped towards the Arena before they skid to a halt merely metres in front of him. Astrid was panting on her friend's back but her eyes had an elated glean to them. "We are not locking them up," Astrid insisted, leaning forward onto Toothless' shoulders as she got her breath back.

"What happened?" Hiccup asked, curious as to what had made his fiancée so excited. "Did you change Dad's mind?" he question excitedly before wincing in suspicion. "Or are we going behind his back again?" he quizzed.

"Uh...one of those," Astrid shrugged in admittance. "Look. The dragons are gonna do what they're gonna do," she explained, a smile spreading across their face. "It's their nature. We just need to learn how to use it!" she pointed out. Hiccup thought for a moment before catching onto Astrid's plan – now _this_ was something that could work.

"Now _that's_ more like a Hofferson!" he grinned.

/\

The next morning, Mulch and Bucket were still out trying to catch another load of fish. Pulling the net up for what felt like the millionth time in the space of a few hours, Mulch sagged when he saw the state of them.

"Ah, the nets are empty again," he sighed.

"Did I eat them already? Did I enjoy it?" Bucket asked innocently, rubbing his forehead in thought as if trying to remember something he never did. "Oops...am I being too negative?" he questioned when a familiar screech came from above. It was Astrid and Toothless, closely followed by Snotlout and Hookfang.

"Snotlout, scare us up some dinner!" Astrid instructed with a large grin spread across her face, a rarity when it came to teaming up with Hiccup's egotistic cousin.

"Dragon attack!" Bucket yelped, ducking for cover as Snotlout led Hookfang into a dive under the water. The pair came across a shoal of cod not far away and scared it towards the boat where the fish swam straight into the net. As Mulch pulled it up, the net was as full as it had been in a three-day fishing trip and he shouted his thanks as Snotlout and Hookfang emerged from the sea.

"That's right! That just happened!" Snotlout cheered. Astrid's grin widened if that was even possible. This was working.

"Come on! Follow me!" she called gleefully, leading Toothless back towards Berk and to the other side of the island where a certain grumpy-grandpa was woken up from his afternoon nap again.

"Huh?" Mildew mumbled sleepily as he heard the dragons flying around outside. This time it was Hiccup and Fishlegs accompanying Astrid on the rounds.

"Afternoon, Mildew!" Hiccup greeted cheerfully. Astrid glanced up at the sun which had just passed its highest point in the sky. Perfect timing.

"Three o'clock!" she announced. "Time for the fertiliser!" On the ground, Mildew frowned in confusion before the teens called in the dragons to come over to the cabbage fields.

"Okay, Meatlug. Let 'er rip!" Fishlegs instructed as the green rain began falling onto the fields, much to Mildew's horror. As much as it was satisfying to see the man like this after what he'd forced the teens through the previous evening, Astrid knew that this should also be beneficial for the guy as well.

"Smile, Mildew!" she urged, flying past with a sly smirk on her face. "We just saved you three months of work!"

Once the 'fertilising' was complete, the group rendezvoused back at the village, all of them beaming from ear to ear.

"Woohoo! That was awesome!" Fishlegs grinned. Hiccup was panting with glee as he turned to face Astrid.

"How did you know that was gonna work?" he asked. Astrid grinned back in a way that was part sly, part relieved that the dragons' nature could be used to the village's advantage and part in happiness.

"Because they're dragons, and they're gonna do what dragons do," she replied simply. "We just have to work with them and not against them," she explained, dismounting Toothless and scratching him behind the ear fondly in congratulations as Hiccup and Fishlegs also dismounted their dragons. Brushing a stray bang out of her eye, only to have it fall straight back into place, she continued. "You know who we should actually be thanking...?" she began when a familiar voice piped up behind her.

"There they are, Stoick!" It was Mildew. Astrid winced when she spotted her foster-father with him – Stoick did _not_ look impressed. If anything, his face was darker than she'd seen it in a long time. "Those dragons don't look like they're in cages to me," Mildew growled.

"No," Stoick confirmed, glaring at Astrid and Hiccup. "This is not what I asked for."

Literally minutes later, the teens had been separated from the dragons and gathered up in the Arena. The entirety of the village had filled up the spectator stands to see what would happen to the team and Mildew had taken a front-row seat. Stoick was standing with Gobber in the Arena with the teens who were all bunched together in a nervous group.

"Oh, no!" Fishlegs whimpered, barely audible. "What's Stoick gonna do to us?" he wondered nervously.

"I'm too pretty for jail!" Ruffnut mumbled.

"Ha, where'd you hear that?" Tuffnut snickered next to her, earning nothing except a smacked jaw. Stoick glowered at them all.

"You all disobeyed my orders," he growled in a tone that set even Snotlout cowering. "And there will be consequences," he added. Hiccup shot a glance.

**"**I told you we were gonna get in trouble," he hissed.

"Actually, you...OW!" Astrid yelped as Hiccup's fist came into sharp contact with her shoulder.

"You never listen to me!" Hiccup huffed, rolling his eyes.

"Not true!" Astrid protested before wincing as Hiccup's heel became best friends with her toe. Still, she was able to compose herself. "Stoick, if anyone's going to get in trouble it should be me," she insisted, walking forward (albeit with a slight limp) but Stoick interrupted her.

"No," he cut across, silencing her with a stern look. "You all had a hand in this." From his seat in the stands, Mildew was enjoying the proceedings.

"Oh, this is going to be great, Fungus," he snickered quietly to his sheep. "It's about to get ugly," he added with an evil grin.

"You took over this place without asking," Stoick glared, causing all of the teens, especially Astrid, to break eye contact in shame. "You released the dragons against my wishes." Dammit, he wasn't done. "Things are going to change around here." This _really_ wasn't sounding good and the teens shrunk, waiting for the punishment to come. "That's why I..."

"You're getting a dragon training academy!" Gobber cut in cheerfully. Gasps of shock and amazement could have been heard from the Wild Zone.

"Wha...!?" Mildew spluttered

"Gobber!" Stoick huffed, almost whining. "I wanted to tell them!" Astrid glanced at Hiccup, her eyes widening with amazement. Hiccup's green irises were also flashing wildly in excitement.

"I'm sorry," Gobber apologised. "You're right. Go ahead."

"Well, you told most of it!" Stoick snapped jokingly. Gobber shrugged with a smile.

"You can tell Astrid the part about how proud you are of her!" he suggested although Stoick protested at that as well, flushing as red as his beard. Even so, he turned back to the teens who were too happy to care.

"Astrid...well...what he said," Stoick chuckled. Astrid could have sworn her cheeks went hot – she'd ask Hiccup later if she'd gone red (he said she was glowing, but not red-as-a-tomato red). "You've all made me proud," the chief continued, gesturing at the team before waving his hand around the arena. "This dragon training academy is for you all."

The village erupted into applause in the stands as the dragons were let into the arena to reunite with their riders, who all rushed over to greet the reptiles.

"Hookfang! My buddy!" Snotlout cheered, hugging Hookfang around the snout. The Monstrous Nightmare purred loudly and nuzzled Snotlout in a 'best-bud' kind of way. Hiccup's face broke into a delighted smile as he spotted his beloved Deadly Nadder.

"Hey, Stormfly!" he grinned gleefully, making sure he didn't accidently run into Stormfly's blind spot as he hugged her. "I missed you so much!" he smiled, stroking her beak gently as she cooed.

"Meatlug!" Fishlegs cried joyfully, crashing headlong into his Gronkle. "Oh, who's daddy's little baby? Oh, who's daddy's little fluffy..." he babbled. Astrid ignored him and ran straight over to her best friend who was bounding across the arena to meet her.

**"**Hey, boy!" she laughed, throwing her arms around Toothless' neck. In the stands, Mildew grumbled about how he would get the dragons someday before storming off with Fungus. Astrid could care less about him right now – the team had the dragons back.

"Now all you have to do is train them," Stoick smiled, placing a hand on Astrid's shoulder.

"Not a problem, Stoick," Astrid promised in return, standing up as straight as she could, flicking her hair off her face and smiling proudly. "After all, I've got him," she smiled, scratching Toothless behind the ear.

"Ah-hem!" Hiccup coughed by the rest of the team, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. Astrid shot him an apologetic glance and flushed bright pink.

"And...them, too," she admitted with a shy shrug.

_Dragons can't change who they are. But who would want them to? Dragons are powerful, amazing creatures._

Later that afternoon, the dragons helped to hoist a new sign over the gates of the arena. It was an old wooden shield that had been repainted to show the Strike Class insignia, edited to show the Night Fury in black with on red tail-fin, symbolising Toothless – the first dragon to have been trained on the Isle of Berk.

"Berk Dragon Academy," Hiccup smiled as he and Astrid watched the proceedings. "I like the sound of that," he noted, punching Astrid good-naturedly on the shoulder. She smiled in return, unable to wait to hold the Academy's first official classes. Now _this_ was something she was looking forward to being in charge of.

_And as long as it takes me I am going to learn everything there is to know about them. Wouldn't you?_

* * *

**AN: Here by popular request! Like I said in the description, this will be a one-episode per chapter thing but that doesn't mean that updates will be weekly! _A Viking for Hire_ is currently in the works, as is _Defenders of Berk_ (I'm trying to get as many out the way as I can) and _How a Hofferson Trains Her Dragon 2 _will be started once the film's out of cinemas.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Viking for Hire**

_**Gobber is having a hard time finding a new occupation since his dragon killing weapons aren't needed anymore, and it's up to Astrid to find him a new job. But the task proves to be harder than it sounds.**_

_Everybody needs a place in the world. Some people are born to theirs. Some people discover theirs. __And some people create theirs. But then the world around them changes, and the place they made is gone._

It was Odin's Day morning at the newly opened Berk Dragon Academy was holding one of its first sessions of classes. The arena, which was previously used to kill dragons back in the days when Berk was constantly at war with the flying reptiles, had been converted into a proper dragon training academy the a few weeks ago and was now occupied by the six teens on Berk who made up what was now known as the Riders of Berk team. Currently, the head of the Academy, Astrid Hofferson, was standing by a black board with tally marks on it (considerably more on one side than the other) and holding her notebook in her hand. It was the End of Week Pop Quiz, with Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III and Fishlegs Ingerman on one team and the Thorston Twins and Snotlout Jorgenson on the other.

"Every dragon has its own unique abilities that give it its own special place in the world," Astrid noted, adjusting her favourite leather metal-studded headband which was supposed to keep her fringe out of her eyes – it failed but she liked it. "Which dragon makes the best welding torch?" she asked. Hiccup instantly cut in with an answer.

"Oh! Deadly Nadder!" he spat out excitedly. This was his area of expertise by far – Hiccup owned a Deadly Nadder named Stormfly and had updated the entire section in the Book of Dragons on the species.

"Its magnesium flame burns with the heat of the sun," Fishlegs added to explain the reason behind the answer. Astrid smiled and added another set of tallies to the black board behind her.

"Correct! Point to Team Hiccup," she announced. The other team was slumped behind its desk, looking far from amused. "Score is now one hundred to ten," Astrid added, double-checking her notes. Hiccup crossed his arms and made a smirk at the other team.

"And you started with ten," he pointed out smugly.

"Oh, yeah?" Tuffnut glowered. "Well, the game's not over!" He paused for a moment. "Wait, what team am I on?" Astrid refrained from facepalming – she was used to this by now – and continued with the quiz.

"Next question," she cleared her throat. Hopefully the twins could get this one. "What is the shot limit of a Hideous Zippleback? Team Snotlout?" she asked. Hiccup snorted from his team's table.

"I don't think they can count that high," he snickered. Astrid covered a laugh with a cough – she had to agree there, the twins had never been able to count past nine for as long as she could remember.

"Oh, really?" Ruffnut jeered back. "Well, let's find out! Barf!" she called. One head of the Hideous Zippleback poked up behind the table.

"Belch!" Tuffnut called – the second head rose into view. The twins gave the signal for the Zippleback to fire which it did, burning six holes in the wall behind Team Hiccup.

"Looks like it's about three," Tuffnut smirked. Astrid rolled her eyes – yep, they _definitely_ couldn't count. Case closed.

"Told you we could count that high," Ruffnut poked her tongue out. Astrid stuck half the usual number of tally marks on the black board behind her.

"It's six," she corrected. "You're half right. Five points."

"Yes! We're up to thirty!" Ruffnut cheered. This time they were off by double the amount of points they had which was fifteen...wait, how did they know the number thirty existed when they couldn't count past the number of fingers they had? Hiccup pinched out a stray bang of hair that had been singed by Barf-Belch's shots and glared at the twins.

"All right, it's our turn," he glowered, whistling for Stormfly. "What happens when you shoot fire at the owner of a Deadly Nadder?" On cue, Stormfly set loose a wave of tail spikes that ended up pinning the twins to the wall opposite (Astrid had to duck as one spike narrowly missed her head). Hiccup grinned smugly as the pair looked at him bemused.

"No fair!" Tuffnut moaned. "He didn't give us time to answer!" Snotlout decided to try to up-one his cousin and bit back almost immediately.

"I've got a question," he sneered. "What happens when I set Hookfang on you?" Astrid saw that things were about to get ugly and considering she had an Academy to run she decided to step in before people started throwing punches (which, when Hiccup and Snotlout were involved, was never pretty – the twins could provide some entertainment, though).

"Okay, guys, that's enough training," she grimaced before any serious fights could break out. Luckily, Hiccup didn't appear to be in the mood for a fight either and stood up to help Astrid pack away. "So...we did some really good work here," she grinned. Unfortunately, Snotlout was still picking for a fight.

"Prepare to face some Monstrous Nightmare!" he shouted, jumping onto Hookfang's back. Instead of firing a shot of sticky flame at the others, however, the flame-red dragon roared loudly and began flaming up, sending Snotlout shooting off his back and running for the water trough.

"Ah! That's the third time this week!" Snotlout yelped, his trousers on fire. Astrid stifled a giggle as he leapt into the trough. "Ah. Sweet relief," he sighed happily as the water doused the flames with a hiss. Astrid shot a glance at Hookfang who was just about to calm down although it was slight – his pupils were still narrow and she'd learnt a long time ago to steer clear of him when they were like that.

"Hookfang never flames up when you're riding him," she frowned. "Is he okay?" she asked. Snotlout wasn't paying attention – he was too focused on making sure his backside wasn't burnt. Hiccup mentioned for Astrid to head back to the village with him as he walked over to Stormfly.

"Maybe he just realized who his owner is," he smirked. Astrid snickered back in reply as they walked past Snotlout.

"There's room in here for two," the boy smirked at Astrid who stared at him with disgust. Ever since she had defeated the Red Death, Snotlout had been treating Astrid a lot better than before but occasionally it drifted into him hitting on her, something that irritated both her and Hiccup greatly. In retaliation, Astrid grabbed his shoulder and shoved him under the water as she walked past.

"Nice one," Hiccup congratulated Astrid. She shrugged.

"Meh, I've been learning from the best," she pointed out – Hiccup had been giving her hand-to-hand-combat lessons.

/\

Back in the main Plaza of the village, just outside the forge, Gobber had set up a stand with most of the weapons he'd made over his years as a blacksmith. Astrid joined the gathering crowd in sad curiosity – ever since the village had made peace with the dragons, Gobber had been selling off his wares to little interest from the rest of the village. Astrid felt her heart sink as Gobber began his latest attempt to make a living from his main livelihood.

"Gather around! Come on, one and all!" Gobber called in his best salesman voice. "You may think these dragon-killing weapons have no more use, but think again!" he announced, holding up a long-sword. Even from the back of the crowd, Astrid recognised it. It was the one Gobber had made when showing her how to craft iron into weapons when she was small.

"This long sword is now a lovely butter knife!" Gobber continued, demonstrating using a piece of bread on a wooden plate. Embarrassingly enough, as soon as he took the sword away, the bread split into tiny pieces. "Eh... It's also good for making breadcrumbs," he chuckled nervously before the plate also crumbled. Astrid winced – she'd forgotten to tell him that she'd sharpened the weapons a few weeks previously, purely out of habit. "Moving on..." Gobber muttered, putting the sword down.

"Well, this is a dark day," a snarling voice piped up behind Astrid. The Nordic Blonde shivered and glowered at Mildew as he showed his face behind her. "A great dragon slayer peddling his weapons as kitchen utensils?" the old man scorned dryly. Astrid held in a hiss – she didn't need any more trouble with the half-troll.

"Up next, how about this handy fly swatter?" Gobber continued, bringing out a mace. Astrid was glad she couldn't be seen at the back of the crowd as she facepalmed. Okay, Gobber wasn't exactly known to be the sharpest sword in the armoury but come on! Seriously? It didn't help when a fly actually flew onto the table displaying the merchandise which Gobber promptly swatted...and destroyed aforementioned table. "Hehe... Also good for getting rid of unwanted tables," Gobber added worriedly.

Astrid could tell that the crowd was losing interest. It had already thinned out significantly from when she'd first arrived on the scene and Gobber was starting to lose his thread, not that it had been a very strong one to begin with. He moved on from the now wrecked table to a catapult which Astrid was half-certain hadn't been there before...then again, despite her being possibly the smartest teen on Berk, she wasn't known for _always_ being the most observant of Vikings herself. That prize went to Hiccup most of the time – he barely ever missed anything, much to Astrid's annoyance (you try hiding a Snoggletog or a birthday gift when your foster-brother/boyfriend/fiancé pretty much knows your every move anyway!).

"Now, for the lady of the house!" Gobber carried on, walking over to the catapult with pride. "When the hubby's off pillaging, how are you to protect yourself from home invaders? No problem when you have Big Bertha!" he smiled, patting the machine. A memory struck in Astrid's head – of course, she remembered 'Big Bertha' now. The catapult was Gobber's equivalent of Astrid's Mangler – his most sophisticated weapon...

_BANG!_

...and...also the one most likely to malfunction. The catapult fired as soon as Gobber patted it and the crowd finally dispersed entirely, ignoring Gobber's desperate shouts at them almost begging them to stay.

"Hey wait! There's more! Come back!" he shouted. "You haven't seen everything yet! I haven't cleared out my dungeon yet!" Too late. The crowd had already gone. The only ones remaining were Astrid and Mildew and they were hanging back by the houses where Gobber took no notice of them. "It's okay Bertha. We'll find a place for you," Gobber sighed, carting the weapons back to the storeroom at the back of the forge. Astrid felt her heart involuntarily wrench – she couldn't help but feel responsible.

"Ah, it's hard to watch," Mildew sighed sarcastically, leaning on his staff. "Especially for you, eh, Astrid?" he added cruelly, sneering at the almost-fifteen year old. "The feelings of guilt must be tearing at your insides." Astrid's forlorn face turned quickly into a scowl – the man was so lucky she hadn't perfected her punches yet. "I mean, you put him out of business with your little peace pact with the dragons. You ruined his life. Bravo!"

Astrid glared at the man as he sauntered off back to his house on the other side of the village but what he had said only served to make her feel worse – even worse, Mildew knew it. The afternoon was drawing in quickly so Astrid headed home – Hiccup would most likely be getting supper started soon and it wasn't just combat lessons he was giving her – she _really_ needed to brush up on her cooking skills.

/\

"Astrid, you okay?" Hiccup asked as Astrid finished off her stew in complete silence. He'd noticed her gaze drifting constantly to Toothless' tail as well as her left leg. After a small sigh, she looked up and swung around on her chair so that she was facing him.

"You know, Gobber made this for me?" she asked, removing her metal prosthetic leg to prove her point. Hiccup used to be grossed out by this but considering how many times Astrid took the thing off to give her leg a rest, he'd gotten used to it. He nodded.

"He taught you everything you needed to know to make Toothless' tail, too, right?" he noted. Astrid put her leg back on and nodded sadly.

"Not that he knew for a long time," she smirked half-heartedly before sighing again. "I've gotta find some way to help him..." she huffed when the door opened and Stoick walked into the house, clearly exhausted.

"Tough day at chiefdom, Dad?" Hiccup winced as Astrid headed out the back-door to the 'cold house' as she called it to get her foster-father an ice-block – no doubt he was having one of his usual headaches. She got back in just as Stoick was describing his day and Hiccup was dishing out a bowl of stew for him.

"I was all over the island," Stoick groaned. "I married the Svenson girl to the Odegard boy at dawn..." That would explain why he'd left the house before Astrid had gone for her usual morning flight with Toothless. "...then down to the fields where some kids were tipping over yaks..." That would be the twins again. "...then back up to the newlyweds to settle a domestic dispute..." Astrid winced – she couldn't help but secretly feel glad that she wouldn't be taking on most of these duties when she was older. As chief, Hiccup would take over the responsibilities his father had at the moment whereas Astrid would only take care of the 'lighter' matters as the chief's wife...gods, that sounded weird. Still, she had enough on her plate running the Academy anyway so it was probably a good thing.

"I thought Viking weddings were a bit abysmal if they lasted less than a week," Hiccup smirked dryly.

"That was the last day of it – it's been a quiet affair...until now," Stoick groaned.

"Sounds tough," Astrid grimaced, handing her foster-father the ice-block which Stoick gladly took. Hiccup placed the bowl of stew on the table and Stoick picked up a spoon with his spare hand.

"Thank you, kids," he sighed gratefully. Astrid and Hiccup nodded with a warm smile each to say 'You're welcome' before Hiccup picked up the new book Trader Johan had brought in the other week and sat down in his favourite chair (now repaired, for those who remembered what previously happened to it) and Astrid went to tend the fire. "Sometimes I wish there were two of me," Stoick added, half-jokingly. Astrid dropped a log into the crackling fire and her storm-blue eyes lit up but not from the light of the flames.

"Stoick, there are two of you!" she exclaimed. At this, Hiccup snorted in surprise and...

_CRASH!_

"EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!" the now-fifteen-year old cried out in exasperation as the seat of his chair fell in again. Stoick, meanwhile, had dropped the ice-block and risen to his feet whilst his son tried to get out of the chair again and made a mental note to fix it himself this time.

"Is that another crack about my weight?" he snapped. Astrid made a face and stood up, brushing the soot and ash off her skirt.

"In my defence, _Hiccup_ usually pulls those!" she protested, shooting a glare at Hiccup who returned it.

"Do not!" he argued. Astrid ignored him as he finally pulled himself out of the chair.

"And, no, Stoick – I mean Gobber," she explained calmly, her eyes still dancing with excitement. "He can be the other you!"

"Gobber?" Stoick frowned. "He's way too busy making all those dragon-killing..." he trailed off when Astrid made a face. "Well, used to be, until you..." he trailed off again when Astrid's cynical glare deepened. Despite Stoick's relationship between the two teens under his roof having improved greatly over the last year and a bit, conversations between them (especially Astrid) were still awkward. "Which is great, except for Gobber," he winced, rubbing the back of his head. Astrid's face lit up again.

"Exactly my point!" she pointed out, placing one hand on her hip and gesturing with another the way she always did. Hiccup brushed himself down and shrugged as he caught onto Astrid's plan – well, this was sorted a lot faster than he thought it would be.

"You know, that's actually not such a bad idea!" Stoick smiled, heading to bed. "I could use a right hand!" he added. Hiccup sighed with relief – _finally_ his father might stop asking him to tag along for boring chiefdom stuff and he could focus on the Dragon Academy.

"Which works out great, cos that's kind of the only one he has," Astrid mumbled to Hiccup once Stoick was out of earshot. Despite himself, Hiccup chortled before asking Astrid's help in clearing up.

/\

"I greatly appreciate your helping me out, Gobber," Stoick smiled the next day as he met up with his old friend outside the forge. Astrid had told Gobber about the whole 'helping Stoick out with being chief' thing once she'd returned from her morning flight with Toothless and, needless to say, he'd jumped at the chance to be of some use to the village again. Not that he'd ever let it on, though.

"I'm just glad I could find some time in my busy schedule, Stoick," he shrugged in reply, trying to sound as if it wasn't a big deal but there was no keeping that relieved grin off his face.

"I've got a busy day ahead of me," Stoick noted, glancing at the timetable he put together every single day (Hiccup used to do the same but had recently been slacking off that as well as most of his other chief training, much to Stoick's chagrin). "Here's your half," he added, tearing the parchment in half and handing on part to Gobber before tucking the other half into his belt for safekeeping.

"Oh, this'll be interesting," Gobber thought out loud as he looked at the items on the list. He hid a small frown when he saw what it included – he wasn't used to half the stuff that was on that list.

"Now, remember, some of these situations are delicate," Stoick explained patiently. Whilst he had admitted that having Gobber help him out would be nice, he was still worried about how the man would handle things. The two men might have been good friends but that didn't mean that they didn't have their differences. "They require diplomacy," he added cautiously.

"Ah, no problem," Gobber grinned reassuringly, snatching another glance at the list. "I'm great at...that," he added hesitantly. Okay, this may be harder than he first imagined but it gave him something to do at least.

"Really? You?" Stoick blinked in disbelief. "You can speak to people with tact and sensitivity?" he asked.

"Oh, I thought it meant clobbering people on the head and asking questions later," Gobber shrugged dryly. Yep, definitely harder than he first thought. "But I can give your thing a shot," he decided. Settling matters for the day, the men shook hands and went their separate ways. Secretly, Astrid was watching from a nearby rooftop with Toothless before setting off for her morning flight. Grinning in satisfaction, she patted her best friend on the head before leading him into the cloudless sky.

/\

"Whosoever brings this child forth into the Hooligan tribe, let he be known!" Gobber announced in the Great Hall later that morning. He was filling in for Stoick on a traditional naming ceremony for a newborn child – the family's second, their first being a boy named Gustav who'd recently taken to overshadowing the Riders of Berk, fascinated with Dragon Training (Astrid refused to let him join the Academy until he was older though). "As a representative of the chief, I welcome this baby into the Hooligan tribe," Gobber continued. "And pronounce the name to be..." he paused as the father of the child ran up and whispered the name into his ear. Gobber was a bit confused with the choice.

"Eh? Hildegard?" he repeated. "Doesn't seem like a Hildegard to me. Let's go with Magnus," he decided cheerily. The mother of the child wasn't best pleased.

"But she's a girl, Gobber!" she protested.

"Don't worry, she's not gonna look like one," Gobber noted cynically. "Magnus it is!" he announced, handing the baby back to her very frustrated family. "And please accept this teething toy on behalf of Stoick the Vast," he added, holding up a mace (he was still trying to get rid of the surplus weapons in the forge) but the Great Hall quickly cleared, much to Gobber's disappointment. Ah, well. It was one thing checked off the list at any rate.

Next...

/\

"Bucket says you never paid him for the sheep!" Gobber growled at Mulch after lunch. The note on the list had been 'Sort out dispute between Mulch and Bucket – confusion over sheep purchase'. However, Gobber hadn't exactly interpreted the note correctly.

"I never bought a sheep!" Mulch insisted angrily. Gobber wasn't listening.

"Who's that? A little woman?" he smirked dryly. Bucket looked distraught but Mulch still had an angry insistent look on his face.

"Oh, Mulch," Bucket moaned. "You're cheating me now?"

"Clearly there's only one way to settle this," Gobber huffed, handing both of the men bludgeons. A fight was instigated by Bucket and Mulch tried his best to calm the man down but they both simply ended up pummeling each other. Gobber was satisfied they would sort it out between themselves.

"Diplomacy? Check," he smiled to himself, ticking the item off the list. "All right, what's next?"

/\

That afternoon, Gobber was down at the docks with a fisherman who'd recently suffered a large hole in the side of his boat after it rammed into the rocks during a storm – luckily, he'd been onshore at the time. You would have thought that as a craftsman, this would one item on the list that Gobber could do correctly. Unfortunately...

"I know the conventional thinking when repairing a ship is wood," Gobber noted. "But if you ask me, there's nothing like a good old slab of iron!" he added happily, hammering a large rectangle of metal onto the side of the boat. Okay, everyone knew that his main trade was being a blacksmith but really? "Eh. Nothing's getting through this!" Gobber smiled as he stepped away to admire his work. His moment of pride was interrupted by the arrival of a very agitated chief.

"Gobber!" Stoick bellowed. "What do you think you're doing?" he demanded. Gobber was unfazed by the outburst – he was used to his friend being in a bad mood.

"Just checking another item off the list," he explained when the boat suddenly crashed through the fixing dock and into the water out of sight. The fisherman looked at the spot where his boat had been in horrified dismay and Gobber winced awkwardly. "And adding an item for later: _'Recover sunken ship'_," he muttered, scribbling a note down on his piece of parchment before turning to face Stoick, who was visibly fuming. "Same time tomorrow?"

Textbook definition of 'wishful thinking' right there.

/\

Hiccup grimaced and fetched yet another block of ice from the cold-house that evening. His father had barely spoken – more so than usual – so it was clear the day had been worse than the previous one.

"Here you go, Dad," Hiccup offered, handing the block over.

"Thank you, son," Stoick sighed. A crash sounded on the roof to inform the Haddocks that a certain one-legged-Nordic-Blonde had just returned home.

"Guys! I'm back!" Astrid called from upstairs as she and Toothless hopped through the window before heading downstairs. Astrid froze on the steps momentarily when she saw her adoptive family members half glaring at her from the fireplace. She grimaced and walked over – okay, _that_ look meant that one or both of them had it in for her. "Wow. A two-block headache?" she winced.

"Things were bad, if you hadn't guessed," Hiccup grunted, standing up to get some dinner (leftover stew, same as yesterday).

"How bad is 'bad'?" Astrid asked worriedly.

"Take a hazard guess, lass," Stoick huffed. Astrid grimaced and fiddled nervously with her plait.

"You know, Stoick, I think you're being a wee bit rough on Gobber," she muttered. "It was his first day. Tomorrow will be way better," she assured, a worried grimace creeping onto her face.

"Oh, it will be for me," Stoick snapped, putting the ice blocks down and going over to the fire to get his own bowl of stew. "Because it won't involve Gobber." Astrid did a double-take at that.

"What do you mean?" she stammered. Hiccup decided to step in on this one.

"Apparently he tried to fit a square peg in a round hole, sunk a ship and named a baby girl Magnus!" he explained irritably.

"Okay, note to self – try to not make Hiccup any angrier than he already is," Astrid mumbled to herself just out of earshot.

"Now I'm not saying she didn't look like a Magnus, but try telling that to her parents," Stoick added in exasperation. Astrid was still in disbelief about the whole situation – come on, it had been _one day_, for Thor's sake!

"I can't believe you let him go!" she cried. "Well, we've got to help him!" she decided. Stoick half-glared at her.

_"We_ don't have to do anything," he corrected. "_You_ on the other hand, are going to be very busy finding a job for Gobber," he explained bluntly. Astrid's eyes went wide in amazement, and not the good kind.

Brilliant. Now what?

/\

"You're bringing Gobber...here?" Fishlegs asked in disbelief the following morning. The teens were gathered at the Academy for another day's training after a day off yesterday and Astrid had figured she might as well bring in another teacher, or at least give things a go. She'd spoken to Hiccup about it the night before and whilst they'd both agreed that it was a risky move, they currently had no other way of sorting Gobber's situation.

"He's gonna be great," Astrid promised. Secretly, she was hoping this would be the case.

"It's true," Hiccup shrugged next to her. "Nobody knows dragons like old Gobber. He's spent a lifetime, you know, studying them," he explained.

"If we can tap into that, we'll all be better dragon trainers," Astrid added with a small smile. Right on cue...

"I'm back!" Gobber announced as he entered the Academy. He was dragging a large cart of weapons behind him. Astrid was starting to worry – this was already starting to look more like old-fashioned Dragon Training "Did you miss me?" Gobber asked as the dragons instantly scarpered behind their riders.

"First of all, welcome," Astrid greeted calmly. "And second...tiny question," she muttered worriedly. "Why did you bring your...you know...?" she trailed off, gesturing at the cart behind her mentor.

"Killing things?" Gobber finished for her, grabbing an axe. Astrid dodged out of the way before she ended up losing anymore limbs – one leg was more than enough. "I thought maybe we could train them by threatening to kill them," Gobber continued. "That's how my daddy taught me to swim." Astrid should've known. "School's in session!" Gobber cheered, swinging the axe forwards. The dragons instantly shot for the hole in the net ceiling still left behind after the Final Exam.

"Stormfly! Come back!" Hiccup yelped, racing through the gate, the other dragons following closely behind. Astrid winced next to Gobber and gave him one of her looks.

"Eh, I didn't like school either," Gobber shrugged.

Later that afternoon, Astrid was revising the Book of Dragons, making a few more corrections in a few places as well as updating the Night Fury page whilst Toothless purred happily beside her. Gobber had long since gone home after the other dragons had scarpered and Astrid hadn't seen the rest of the team all day. At least until they all came flying back simultaneously – Astrid grimaced when she saw how tired they looked. They were never like this after riding their dragons

"What's wrong with you guys?" she asked, standing up. Hiccup stretched his back out and stiffly dismounted Stormfly, slowly straightening his legs.

"Urgh..." he groaned. "We've been riding our dragons for four hours," he explained, patting Stormfly which was clearly a request to help him out. The beautiful dragon obliged by nudging her rider into an upright standing position. "It took forever to chase them down after Gobber scared them away," he explained.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," Astrid apologised, keeping her distance just in case Hiccup wanted to let out any frustration. Luckily for her, it appeared that he was too stiff to pull any punches. "I just don't know what to do with him," she sighed. Her musings were interrupted by a grunt coming from the twins – by the looks of things, Ruffnut had just socked her brother round the face again. "Do you guys always have to fight?" Astrid huffed.

"It's okay. I asked her to do that," Tuffnut explained. "Just trying to get the feeling back."

"You gonna return the favour, or what?" Ruffnut asked grumpily. Tuffnut obliged, relocating his sister's shoulder and kicking her in the shin. Astrid shrugged – well, everyone had their own way of doing things. Still, she was a bit confused.

"It's weird, though. I've flown for hours on Toothless and I've never had a problem," she pointed out, crossing her arms.

"That's because you have a saddle," Hiccup grunted, clicking his leg back into place with Stormfly's help. Astrid glanced around at the other teens and thought for a moment – it was true that in the year that the dragons had been living on Berk, she had never gotten round to doing saddles for the other dragons mainly because the other teens had never requested nor felt the need for them. As such, Hiccup, Fishlegs, Snotlout and the twins went everywhere on their dragons bareback. For short recreational flights, it wasn't much of an issue, but with long haul flights when they were sat down for ages...

"That's it! Saddles!" Astrid grinned joyously. Perfect.

/\

"Saddles? I love it!" Gobber exclaimed happily that evening as Astrid spoke to him about the project that evening. She'd headed to the forge for felt like the first time in ever (she had been spending less time there since bringing peace between Vikings and dragons) to talk to him about it and he was immediately interested. "I've got so many ideas!" the man continued. Astrid smiled and handed him a few sheaves of parchment with some saddle designs for each dragon. Gobber frowned. "But not like these. Good ones," he grunted.

"I'm glad you're excited," Astrid smiled, rubbing her neck a little nervously. She was a bit unsure about giving Gobber complete free reign over this – she didn't doubt his skills but it was his understanding of the dragons' requirements that she had her doubts on. "But I still think there are some things in my designs you could use," she continued, with more than a hint of worried hope in her voice. "I mean, you _did_ teach me everything I know," she finished, hoping to flatter Gobber into listening to her ideas. Not that it had ever worked in the past so she didn't really expect it to work now.

"Exactly," Gobber agreed. "That's why you should let Gobber do what Gobber does best," he insisted, putting the saddle designs down and patting Astrid briefly on the shoulder in his usual gruff way. She buckled slightly but given that he'd patted her right shoulder, as he normally did to avoid her stumbling onto her left leg suddenly, it wasn't so bad. It helped to have someone with a similar battle wound to your own when it came to being understood about the whole thing and Astrid had forever been grateful to Gobber for making her leg so she wanted to return the favour. "I've been making saddles since you were in diapers. In fact, I made your diapers," Gobber finished, heading into the shop to start work. Astrid grimaced slightly behind his back – was there anything _else_ she needed to know?

"I know you know what you're doing," she gulped, jogging over to try to give some last-minute bits of advice. "But keep in mind, every dragon is different," she explained. "So you need to adjust the..." she began, pointing at the measurements before Gobber brushed her off.

"Astrid," he cut across.

"But..." Astrid tried to speak but the man kept interrupting, as usual.

"Astrid."

"But I just think..." Astrid tried one more time but to no avail.

"Astrid," Gobber interrupted firmly, putting emphasis on each of the syllables in Astrid's name. "I may have taught you everything _you_ know. But I haven't taught you everything _I_ know."

Without another word, he sent Astrid out of the shop and set to work. Astrid watched from a distance for a while with Toothless and a small smile crept onto her face when she heard an out-of-tune melody coming from the depths of the forge.

"_I've got my axe and I've got my mace, and I love my wife with the ugly face! I'm a Viking through and through!_" Gobber sang. It was a popular song in Berk, one that most of the men knew, and Astrid often caught the sound of it during her walks through the village but Gobber only sang on rare occasions.

"You know, he doesn't sing that song unless he's actually very happy," she explained to Toothless as she leant against his shoulder. "I think we did a good thing," she smiled. Toothless purred happily and nudged his friend. It would take a while for the saddles to be done so Astrid decided to call of Dragon Training for a few days to give the others some time to recover before she and Toothless headed home where Hiccup was waiting.

"So?" he quizzed as she climbed through the window. "How'd it go?"

"Well, he was singing when I left him," Astrid shrugged.

"Wow, so he's in a really good mood, then?" Hiccup noted. Astrid nodded and stretched out.

"The saddles should be ready in a few days," she explained. "Give yourself a rest till then."

"Will do," Hiccup smiled in relief. "Everything still hurts," he grumbled as he walked back across the house to his room. "See ya tomorrow!"

"Night, Hiccup!" Astrid called back as she climbed into bed. Things were definitely takin a turn for the better.

/\

A few days later, Astrid had rounded up the rest of the gang back at the Academy. By now their aching muscles had subsided and they were ready to get back to flying.

"Alright, this is an exciting day for all of us," Astrid announced, clasping her hands together and smiling proudly. "Gobber has been working hard to..." she began when Gobber interrupted again as he dragged his cart into the Arena, this time with the new saddles.

"I think they might want to hear from the artist himself," the man chuckled. Astrid nodded and gestured for him to go ahead. "I've made a lot of saddles in my day," he explained proudly to the teens who were gathering around to see the new saddled. "Horse, Donkey and now, Dragon. But these saddles are special. They're like my children," Gobber continued before shrugging dryly. "That is if you strapped your child to a flaming reptile and rode it." Astrid rolled her eyes – her mentor and his weird sense of humour. "So without further ado..." he smiled, handing out some saddles for the teens to try.

The teens certainly looked excited enough but Astrid wasn't so sure – true, the saddles had been made to the measurements she'd given Gobber but she hadn't been expecting the weapons he'd attached to them.

"Wow, Gobber..." she grimaced. "This...this is certainly not what I imagined," she muttered worriedly. Gobber didn't seem to notice her unsure tone.

"How could it be? I'm Gobber!" he laughed. "Nobody knows what it's like to live in here," he added, tapping his head. Astrid spotted something on the back of one of the saddles.

"Is...is that...?" she stammered. On cue, Fishlegs, who was testing the saddle, made the contraption let off a stream of fire.

"Yep! Flamethrower," Gobber confirmed. "Didn't see that one coming, did ya?" he smirked. Astrid made a deadpan face.

"Uh, no, not for dragons," she replied sarcastically. "They come with one built in, actually," she pointed out dryly.

"I know, but can you ever really have too much firepower?" Gobber asked jokingly. Astrid glared at him cynically when a grunt came from the Zippleback.

"Ow!" Ruffnut yelped as an inbuilt catapult on her saddle backfired. An identical saddle did the same for Tuffnut.

"Uh, catapults? For the twins?" Astrid groaned, placing a hand to her forehead. "Not such a good idea," she grumbled. Neither was the idea of letting Gobber make the saddles, now that she thought about it. Brilliant. Meanwhile, Fishlegs was having trouble getting off the ground once the saddle he'd picked up was on Meatlug.

"You can do it girl! Think light," he urged.

"Oh, come on!" Gobber huffed. "You can't tell me my saddle is heavier than Fishlegs!"

"My mom says I'm just husky," Fishlegs protested meekly. Astrid couldn't help but roll her eyes – Fishlegs was the only one out of all the teens that had a build like the majority of the adult Vikings. Snotlout came close but he was more muscular than Fishlegs. Speaking of Snotlout...

"Come on, Hookfang!" Snotlout barked at his Nightmare. He was still having trouble getting the flame-red dragon to do anything he said, more so than normal. "What's wrong with you?" he snapped, tapping the side of the dragon's face only to have Hookfang roar angrily and throw him off his back. "That's it," he huffed. "Someone's trading with me."

"Yeah, sure," Tuffnut sneered. "I'll trade my perfect dragon for an angry oven." Meanwhile, Hiccup had just fitted a saddle onto Stormfly and looked decent from where Astrid was standing.

"This saddle's actually pretty good," he remarked, climbing onto his dragon's back. The saddle had a large horn fitted at the front which Astrid admitted could be useful as a signaller.

"Wait 'til you try the horn," Gobber suggested. Hiccup did...and scared Stormfly so much that she jolted, throwing Hiccup off her back and forcing him to duck as she set off a wave of spines which ended up pinning Snotlout to the wall.

"Really? Again?" the boy groaned in disbelief. Astrid decided to step in before things got out of hand, not that they already were.

"So anyway I...I think we're really gonna need to make a few..." she began, stammering terribly as she did so.

"Changes? I'm way ahead of you," Gobber reassured. "I've got so many ideas!" As far as Astrid was concerned, that wasn't really a good idea. "It's gettin' crowded up here," Gobber remarked as the teens tried to calm their dragons down.

Later that evening, Stoick came to inspect things at the Academy where Hiccup and Astrid were still tidying up after the fiasco earlier. Snotlout was still pinned to the wall – no one had been bothered to help him down yet.

"My Odin!" Stoick exclaimed as he walked in through the gate. "This place looked better when we were killing dragons here!"

"Uh...beg to differ there – I spent whole afternoons cleaning up after those sessions," Astrid contradicted sarcastically as she swept up the remains of a broken barrel.

"Yeah, well, we sort of got 'Gobbered'," Hiccup explained as he shoved another discarded saddle into a nearby cart before scratching a burn mark off the wall left behind by Hookfang.

"Well, you know Gobber," Stoick sighed, rubbing his forehead. "He means well, he just doesn't always do well."

"Think I didn't know that?" Astrid huffed, cleaning up a broken off catapult from the twins' saddle. "Besides, that what I was _trying_ to tell you about the whole let-Gobber-help-you-with-chiefdom thing," she added under her breath, just out of earshot.

"So what are you going to do about him?" Stoick asked. Astrid sighed as she dragged a bola cannon across the floor.

"I'm going to clean up his messes and re-do his work," she replied gloomily.

"Look, Astrid, you know Gobber's like family to us..." Stoick said carefully as Hiccup and Astrid finished throwing the last pieces of debris into the cart.

"I know he is! He's like family to me as well," Astrid cut across. Hiccup winced and rubbed his arm.

"More so than us until last year, I take it?" he guessed nervously. Astrid blinked a couple of times – wow, she'd never expected Hiccup to come out with something like that.

"Hiccup..." she started but this time, words failed her.

"I know it's true, I'm not gonna deny it," Hiccup shrugged regrettably. Astrid sighed – it _was_ true.

"Yeah," she confirmed. "That's why I can't say anything to him," she added sadly.

"No, lass, that's why you _have_ to," Stoick explained. Astrid looked stunned. "It's not fair to you and it's not fair to Gobber."

"Why do _I_ have to say something to him?" Astrid protested. "You didn't! You just passed him off to me!" she argued, her voice going up an octave as she did so and her hands making gestures as usual.

"That's what the chief does: he delegates," Stoick replied calmly. Astrid shot a glance at Hiccup.

"Don't ever do this to me when _you're_ chief," she grumbled.

"Don't push your luck," Hiccup muttered back.

"I hate you," Astrid muttered cynically. Hiccup smirked at her as his father continued talking.

"Look, I gave you this academy because it's the best thing for Berk," Stoick explained. "Now you have to do what's best for the Academy." Astrid sagged – she knew that much. The Academy was as much her responsibility as Berk was Stoick's.

"And, take it from me," Hiccup sighed next to Astrid, placing a hand on her shoulder. "But what's best is very rarely what's easy." Astrid looked at him with a slight expression of confusion in her face. True, Hiccup was learning a lot from Stoick about chiefdom and preparing for the day he would become chief but the way he'd said that to Astrid made it seem like he'd already had personal experience in the matter. Astrid decided to ask him about it later.

"Sure, you're right," she sighed. "I'd better talk to him then," she muttered as the trio began walking out of the Academy. As they went, they passed Snotlout who was now snoozing.

"What about him?" Stoick asked with a hint of a frown.

"Meh, leave him," Astrid shrugged. "He's going for a record."

"Enough said," Hiccup agreed, snickering at his cousin briefly as they passed by. Snotlout took no notice as he mumbled in his sleep.

/\

Astrid wasn't looking forward to talking to Gobber as she walked towards the forge after dinner. She was beginning to regret eating – everything was churning in her stomach and she felt sick. She noticed a light was on as usual in the forge and heard the familiar sound of Gobber hammering away at something.

"Hey, you never know, pal," Astrid grimaced hopefully at Toothless who was tagging along for moral support. "Maybe Gobber finally looked at my plans and is actually making the saddles better," Astrid added, wishing against hope until she heard something smash into a wall. "Or not," she groaned, bracing herself and heading into the forge.

"Gobber?" she called. Gobber turned around at the noise but Astrid shrunk away nervously when she saw he had a crossbow. "Don't shoot!" she squeaked. Luckily, Gobber recognised his old apprentice before he put a bolt through her head.

"I would never shoot you, Astrid," he chuckled, not lowering the crossbow. "Unless I absolutely had to," he added in his way of telling a joke. It didn't calm Astrid down in the slightest.

"Heh, heh, yeah," she laughed nervously though. "Still, if you could please put the crossbow down I know I'd feel better," she requested. Gobber nodded and put the crossbow down on a nearby work bench before turning back to whatever it was he was working on.

"You know, about the weapons," he noted. Astrid's ears pricked up. "Maybe the catapults were a bit much for some of the dragons yesterday," Gobber continued. Astrid's heart rose – maybe she wouldn't have to take him off the project at all! "So I've gone a different way. I've gotten rid of the two big ones," Gobber explained. Astrid's face broke into a smile – _finally_!

"Gobber, that's great!" she grinned.

"And replaced them with six little ones!" Gobber finished cheerily, revealing the new saddle which looked as dangerous if not more so than the last one. Astrid's heart sank. So much for that

"Yeah...um...Gobber we need to talk," she grimaced, fiddling with her plait and her side bangs. Gobber put the saddle down and got back to work, listening to her above the clash of metal on metal as he hammered something into place. "Uh...I think it might be time for you to take a little break," she suggested nervously.

"In case you hadn't noticed, the only time a Viking 'breaks' is to die," Gobber pointed out dryly. Astrid sniffed – sure, traditional Viking views. Spitelout , Snotlout's father and Hiccup's uncle, was the same.

"Maybe 'break' is the wrong word," she decided, her heart beating faster with guilt with each word that came out of her mouth. "What I mean is I'm not sure things are working out," she explained.

"Well, get back to me when you're sure," Gobber instructed. He'd always told Astrid to be absolutely sure of herself but that advice had never really sunk in given Astrid's confidence issues. Still, she knew it was the only way to get her point across. Blunt and to the point – it was the only way with Vikings, no matter what the emotional cost was.

"Okay, I'm sure," Astrid sighed. "Gobber, I'm gonna need to take you off the saddle project," she said plainly, steeling into what she hoped was an expressionless face but knowing her, something probably gave something away. Gobber finally turned around to look at the girl in the eye.

"Are you gettin' rid of me, Astrid?" he realised, also trying to look as if he didn't care but Astrid could see that he was hurt. This would be the second time he'd lost a job because of her and she hated herself for it. "Now I see why you had me put down the crossbow."

"It's just the saddles!" Astrid protested desperately. "We'll find something else for you," she promised but Gobber just turned away.

"I don't need your pity," he snapped. Astrid was glad that he couldn't see her face but she didn't need to see his – despite Gobber's best efforts, Astrid had learnt to pick up on the subtle differences in his vocal tone that depended on which emotion he was in and currently, she could tell that he was hurt. She knew her mentor a lot more than even he though. "I've lost an arm and a leg, I think I'll survive losing a job," Gobber sighed. Astrid slowly backed out of the forge.

"I'm really sorry, Gobber," she whispered, heading home. Hiccup was sitting on his window sill by the time she arrived, having clearly waited up to see how things had gone.

"I'm guessing that 'How'd it go?' would be a bad question right now," he grimaced, sliding down the roof.

"That was awful," Astrid groaned. "I don't know if I did the right thing..." she sighed, slumping down on Toothless' shoulder. Hiccup walked over and placed his hand on her shoulder again.

"It never feels that way, trust me," he explained sadly. Astrid straightened up and shook her boyfriend's hand off, looking at him curiously.

"Okay, what do you mean by that?" she asked. "That's the second time you've said something like that to me," she pointed out. Hiccup blinked a few times (and if it hadn't been so dark, Astrid might have noticed that he'd flushed pink). "At first I thought that maybe it was just the chief-training speaking," she continued. "But the way you said it makes it sound personal."

"That's...kinda because it is," Hiccup explained, rubbing the back of his neck. This time it was Astrid's turn to blink. "Back before you training Toothless, I...I know I treated you really badly..."

"Hmph," Astrid sniffed without thinking. Hiccup paid no attention to it and continued.

"But...I...I know it's not really an excuse...in fact, it's not an excuse," he stumbled over his words. "But I thought that if I was like that to you, it would discourage you from getting yourself into danger," he explained shamefully. "I didn't want you to get yourself killed."

"Even if I was trying to prove myself as a Viking?" Astrid quizzed, brushing a bang out of her face – it fell back immediately afterwards.

"You know what you were like," Hiccup pointed out bluntly – okay, he might be a dork sometimes but he was still a lot better at the blunt-voice-of-reason thing than Astrid. "I was always worried about you, even if I didn't let it show," he explained. Astrid was stunned silent. "It was never easy – you might not believe this but I _hated_ being like that to you – but I thought it was the best thing to do at the time," Hiccup explained, rubbing his arm. Astrid stayed silent for a while before showing the smallest of smiles.

"Thanks," she murmured. "Not for the being mean thing, but just...caring," she added nervously before sighing and looking back in the direction of the forge. "I'm just glad it's you who's becoming chief and not me," she admitted. "I don't know what could be worse than _that_," she added, referring to the talk she'd just had with Gobber. She ate her words almost instantly as a bright dragon-shaped flame tore through the plaza.

"Okay, it looks like we're about to find out," Hiccup grimaced as he, Astrid and Toothless pelted back into the village to check on the commotion. As they arrived at the plaza, they crashed head first into Snotlout who looked extremely panicked.

"Snotlout? What's going on?" Astrid asked.

"I never thought I'd say this," Snotlout panted, his blue eyes as wide as coins and filled with worry and fear, a combination Astrid never thought she'd see from the boy (ah, well, at least he wasn't hitting on her this time). "But, Astrid...HELP!" Snotlout screeched, turning back to the chaos occurring in the plaza. Astrid recognised the dragon in horror as Hookfang in a rampage like none she'd ever seen the likes of before – even when he'd lost his temper during her Final Exam he hadn't been like this. She ran forward to calm him down as Stoick shouted orders nearby.

"Everybody back away!" the chief barked. "The dragon's out of control! It's not safe here!"

"What happened?" Hiccup asked Snotlout.

"I don't know!" Snotlout protested as Astrid ducked and weaved around Hookfang to get close enough to calm him down. "I was just rubbing his head. He usually loves that!" Snotlout explained. "But this time he went crazy. My dragon hates me," he moaned. The other teens had just arrived on the scene and Fishlegs wasn't exactly helping the situation.

"They _do_ say a pet starts to take on the characteristics of its owner," he noted. "I think that's what's happening here."

"Hey!" Snotlout snapped angrily.

"Yep, I rest my case," Fishlegs said in satisfaction. Meanwhile, Astrid had just retreated from the angry Hookfang swatting a singed bang and skirt. She was a little breathless but not fazed.

"When was the last time he ate?" she asked, knowing how cranky dragons got when they didn't get enough food or the right food (Toothless himself was a _very_ picky eater – he hated pretty much anything with feathers or fur).

"Not for days," Snotlout replied. Astrid ran to the food store and retrieved a basket of mutton – Hookfang's favourite if Snotlout had anything to say about it.

"Are you hungry, big guy?" she murmured gently. Hookfang seemed to calm down slightly, allowing Astrid to approach before she accidentally bumped into Stoick. "Oh! Sorry, Stoick!" she apologised.

"We've got to bring this dragon under control," Stoick ordered.

"Don't worry," Astrid reassured. "I can do this." The others watched with bated breath as Astrid held out a piece of meat for the dragon. "There you go," she whispered soothingly, placing a gentle hand on Hookfang's chin. "It's gonna be okay..."

At least it might have been if Hookfang didn't rear up and start blazing again as soon as Astrid touched him. Astrid threw herself backwards to avoid being fried and scrambled to her feet.

"Astrid, run!" Hiccup yelled.

"Way ahead of you!" Astrid yelped as she ducked behind a cart to avoid a stream of sticky fire. Toothless began growling and running towards Hookfang – Astrid cut across him and stopped him in his tracks before they could have another incident like her Final Exam all those months ago. "Toothless! Stop!" she grunted. Meanwhile, as the teens struggled to bring Hookfang back under control, Stoick watched with a steeled glare.

"I've seen enough, Astrid," he growled. Astrid froze and stared at him in horror. "I'm sorry. We tried it your way." Astrid watched after the chief for a moment as he walked away before her attention was caught again by Hookfang.

/\

Stoick entered the forge to see Gobber slumped over a work bench.

"Gobber!" he called. "We need you."

"No, you don't," Gobber sniffed. Stoick was shocked to hear what sounded like a sob in his friend's voice. "Nobody needs me. Nobody needs any of us!" Gobber continued, glancing at his catapult and patting it fondly. "Not even you, Bertha," he sighed.

"Are you crying?" Stoick frowned.

"Course not," Gobber denied. "Just chopping onions." _Sure_.

"There are no onions," Stoick pointed out dryly.

"Not anymore!" Gobber protested. "Look what I used to chop them with," he snapped, holding up a mace. Stoick cut straight to the point.

"There's a dragon in the plaza that's out of control," he explained bluntly. Gobber sniffed in distaste.

"Then why don't you call Astrid?" he suggested snidely, turning away before Stoick placed a hand on his shoulder and turned him around to face him again.

"No, Gobber," he insisted. "We need you."

/\

Back in the plaza, Hookfang was still flared up like a signal torch and Astrid was frankly amazed that none of the houses had been burnt down – that was a record on her part when it came to an out-of-control Monstrous Nightmare. Even so, things were rapidly becoming even more out-of-hand.

"Come on, guys!" she cried in exasperation as she was thrown backwards again. "Hurry up! Think! What haven't we tried?" she begged. "Snotlout, you have an idea?" she tried in desperation but Snotlout had his attention on something else.

"Gobber!" Snotlout exclaimed. Astrid scrambled to her feet in horror as she saw Gobber walk past with a large sword in hand. He was headed straight for Hookfang.

"Stand back," Gobber ordered. "I came here to do what I do best." The teens froze in shock for a split moment before Snotlout spoke again.

"He's gonna kill my dragon!" he exclaimed in terror.

"No, he's not," Astrid growled, although she knew Gobber all too well to believe herself when she said that.

"Uh, yeah he is," Tuffnut pointed out worriedly.

"You don't use that stuff to butter toast," Ruffnut added dryly, pointing at the sword.

"Well, I mean, we would, but you don't," Tuffnut shrugged. Astrid ran forward to Stoick in protest – she couldn't believe what was happening.

"Stoick, you can't be serious?!" she cried. "Hookfang is Snotlout's dragon!" she protested desperately as Snotlout ran up beside her.

"I'm sorry, Astrid," Stoick apologised with a steely glare on his face. "But sometimes you have to fall back on the old ways." Astrid was staring to lose it, her connection with the dragons and her knack for being their advocate kicking in once again and speaking for her before she really thought about what she was saying.

"But he's a good dragon!" she argued.

"He's a good dragon," Snotlout nodded feverishly.

"There's probably just something wrong with him," Astrid added, refraining as much as she could from tearing her hair out.

"There's _definitely_ something wrong with him!" Snotlout snapped as Gobber continued to battle the raging Hookfang in front of them.

"We have to try to help him," Astrid pleaded. "We can't just get rid of him because he's having a bad day!"

"A bad day for a dragon can be a disaster for us," Stoick growled. Astrid's jaw clenched, as did her fists – once again, that gods-forsaken '_Village first_' thing Stoick insisted on using as an excuse for _every single thing he did_ regardless of what the teens felt! "That's not a risk I am willing to take."

"But what if it's not the right thing to do?" Astrid hissed. "Hookfang is not just a pet that..."

He's not just a pet! He's a friend!" Snotlout cut across. Stoick took no notice of them and instead gave Gobber the get-go. As he did so, Hookfang tried to set off a stream of his signature sticky fire but all that came out was a lousy trickle.

"Ha! You're all out of fire!" Gobber sneered, grabbing Hookfang by the muzzle. Astrid lost it and ran forward, ignoring all of the shouts of protest behind her (mostly from Hiccup – nothing new there).

"I can't let you do this!" she grunted as she tried to push Gobber away. However, given that she only weighed about 90 pounds at a rough estimate and Gobber was at least three times her size, her efforts were futile to say the least.

"There's no choice!" Gobber argued as Astrid dangled a few feet off the ground as Hookfang lifted his head in an attempt to get free. "It has to be done..." Gobber continued when Hookfang roared in both his and Astrid's faces. The dragon's jaw was lodged open and he continued to roar but Astrid caught a glimpse of something at the back of the dragon's mouth. Of course!

"Do you see that?" Gobber quizzed as Astrid's face lit up.

"I do," she nodded, giving Gobber a small nod and a wink before letting herself fall to the ground as Gobber continued to struggle with Hookfang. This was something for Gobber, not her. The other teens rushed forward in shock – it wasn't like Astrid to let a dragon fend for itself when up against an expert dragon slayer like Gobber.

"Time to put this beast out of its misery," Gobber grunted as he tackled Hookfang's head, pinning it to the ground. Hiccup tried to turn Astrid around in anger – what was with her? She was standing by as Gobber killed Hookfang!

"Astrid! What are you doing?" he hissed but Astrid remained calm, holding her hand up to silence the group. Seconds later, Gobber stood up again, stepping away from Hookfang...who also rose to his feet, completely unharmed and now calmed down.

"Ah!" Snotlout exclaimed in amazement. "You didn't kill him!" he realised, failing to stop the tears of happiness escape from his eyes. Hiccup snickered next to Astrid – wow, so his cousin _did_ have feelings. Gobber smirked and held up what he and Astrid had seen in Hookfang's mouth – the reason behind the dragon's rage.

"For a toothache?" the man chuckled, holding up a blackened fang. "What kind of lunatic are you?" he joked.

"So he wasn't angry," Hiccup realised. "He was just in pain."

"Stop it...stop it," Snotlout choked, running over to his dragon and hugging his snout and wiping a tear from his eye. "Urgh, I don't know where that came from," he gulped, clearing his throat. "Say, Astrid," he called.

"What?" Astrid replied, cocking her head to one side in curiosity.

"You think you can train that out of him?" Snotlout asked, leaning against Hookfang's shoulder in what he thought was a cool and attractive way. Astrid groaned great. Backing to being hit on by your fiancé's cousin – just what she needed. "You know, maybe you could give me some pointers in a one-to..."

_CLANG!_

"OWW!" Snotlout yelped as a small cannon became best friends with his forehead. Astrid blinked in surprise for a bit before turning around to see Hiccup holding Gobber's saddle with the six small catapults on it – she smirked at him slyly and he shrugged back with a small wink and a smirk of his own as she mouthed a '_Thank you_' before she turned towards Gobber.

"Thank you, Gobber," Astrid smiled, patting her mentor's arm. "A bad tooth; I can't believe I didn't think of that," she added. Gobber patted her on the back, making sure that she didn't buckle onto her left leg as he usually did.

"That's because you're not Gobber!" he explained cheerily. "I've forgotten more about dragons than most men will ever know," he chuckled and Astrid laughed with him. This time, the laugh wasn't nervous – it was genuine. "Well, better go put the girls away," he sighed, picking up the sword and starting to head back to the forge but Astrid grabbed his arm and grinned at him.

"Gobber! Not so fast!" she winked, pulling him back to the shop herself.

By the next morning, the forge had been split into two. It was still a blacksmiths and weapons shop, but it had been extended to suit Gobber's new job. After what had happened with Hookfang, Astrid knew that dragons would need as much taking care of as the Vikings would if they were to stay out of trouble and so she and Gobber had set up a new Dragon Dentist in the village where dragons of every kind could be taken for Gobber to check them over if they were having any dental problems.

"He really is the best man for the job," Hiccup remarked as he and Astrid flew over the village that afternoon whilst Gobber tended to a Nadder with a cavity (don't ask how it got one – too much bread, maybe?).

"Of course," Astrid smiled. "After all, no one knows dragons like Gobber," she pointed out, smiling as she heard Gobber singing his favourite song once again. Yep, he was definitely happy.

_When the world around you changes, the good men find a way to change with it. And Gobber is one of those good men. In fact, he's one of the best._

"_I've got my axe and I've got my mace, and I love my wife with the ugly face! I'm a Viking through and through!_" Gobber sang cheerily. He'd found his new place in Berk.

* * *

**AN: First Snotlout-hitting-on-Astrid moments of the series and they're only going to keep coming! Don't worry – I've got plans to tackle...most of them. Thor, help me...ah, well, at least I had an excuse to use the catapult-saddle (don't ask me how Hiccup managed to get his hands on it so quickly though). Also: (Jack Frost impression) _aww_, Hiccup **_**did**_** care for Astrid – he was just trying to be a tough cookie (then again, we knew that but I love combining his dorky self with a tough exterior). **

**Sorry this has taken so long – don't expect the next episode out for a while, just to give you guys a heads-up (just prepare for some serious Hiccstrid fluff). Side note here, I had someone request an Astrid-and-Hiccup-Swap-Roles for **_**Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon**_** and **_**Gift of the Night Fury**_** – if you would like to see this, let me know either in the reviews or via PM. Another side note – OH, MY ODIN! THE NEW HTTYD 2 TRAILER! Okay, fangirl heart-attack over.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I managed to stick to my deadline! So, if you've kept up with my other story, _How to Twist a Dragon's Tail_, you will know that it's on a temporary hiatus so that I can write some more material. However, I said in the last chapter that I would get something done for this Saturday and I managed it! Episode structure will start to go back to the original order now so Ep. 8 has been moved to Chapter 4 for now.**

* * *

**_The farm animals are too afraid of the dragons to produce milk and eggs for food storage and with the first dangerous storm of winter quickly approaching Berk, Astrid and the other teens must prove to the animals that the dragons aren't scary before it's too late._**

_Here on Berk we made peace with the dragons. We're finally living and working together...and it only took us three hundred years. There's one slight problem..._

_We forgot to tell the animals._

Bucket and Mulch were having problems on their farm for possibly the fifteenth time in two months. Dragons were flying about and the animals were running everywhere in a panic as was the norm now that the winged reptiles had moved in.

"Oh, not again," Mulch groaned as two dragons had an argument over something which sent a bunch of chickens fleeing to the other side of the yard in an attempt to get to safety. "You go on now...you get, get, shoo!" he snapped, flapping the dragons away. They flew off but judging by the continuous growling and screeching, their argument was far from over. "Now, you know you're not supposed to be in here," Mulch scolded, shooing the remaining dragons away. Once they were out of sight of the farm, he turned towards the animals themselves. "Alright everybody, time to earn your keep," he noted cheerily.

"It's chickens who lay eggs, right?" Bucket asked dimly. Mulch gave him a look. He'd forgotten how many times he'd gone over the same conversation with the guy.

"Do we really need to go over this again?" he groaned.

"No..." Bucket mumbled, walking over to a sheep but instead of shearing it for wool, he picked it up as if to check for eggs. Mulch pinched his eyebrows together and walked over to help.

"Apparently we do," he huffed. "Well, pay attention Bucket. Wool. Eggs. Milk," he explained, pointing at a sheep, chicken and yak respectively. "Wasn't so hard now, see?" he asked but Bucket still looked confused. Poor guy. Mulch huffed and walked over to a yak to mil it. "Observe," he instructed. Bucket watched his friend intently. "Just grab the udder, like so, and pull," Mulch explained, demonstrating but not even a single drop of creamy liquid fell into the pail. Mulch tried again. "Uh...pull?" he frowned. Still nothing. "Pull!" he grunted. The pail still sat dry under the yak who was still quivering.

"Uh-oh. I think we're empty," Mulch grimaced. "That's not good."

/\

Whilst the village was having trouble with the animals, up on Death Peak, it couldn't have been a more different story for the two top fliers on the island.

"Ya-hoo!" Astrid Hofferson hooted as she pelted down the mountainside on Toothless, her Night Fury. Not far behind was Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III with his Deadly Nadder, Stormfly.

"Yeah, baby!" Hiccup laughed gleefully as he chased after his girlfriend through the trees and leaping over snowdrifts. It was the middle of winter and the pair had taken to a new sport called Dragon-Boarding to get away from the village every now and then, holding races almost daily – gliding and sliding only, no flying. Despite the races being mainly friendly, the two teens were still fiercely competitive with each other and they weren't exactly known to fly fairly.

Hiccup had managed to gain a tiny lead ahead of Astrid. Glancing over his shoulder, he smirked and tapped Stormfly's shoulder so that she twirled her tail, setting off a couple of spikes in Astrid's direction.

"Whoa!" Astrid yelped and she and Toothless swerved to avoid the spines. "Hey, Hiccup!" she cried once she'd regained her composure. Hiccup smirked playfully at her over his shoulder.

"Whoops! Did I do that?" he chuckled. Astrid smirked and leant forward on Toothless to regain her lead and once she was just in front of Hiccup, she nudged Toothless – he took the signal to raise his wing, blocking Hiccup's view.

"Hey! Not fair!" Hiccup protested, struggling to see. Astrid laughed and served away just in time for Hiccup to see what was directly in front of him. "AH!" he exclaimed as his face became best friends with a branch. Wiping the snow out of his eyes furiously, he glared at Astrid who was now just alongside him. "Oh, so it's gonna be like that, huh!?" he growled. Astrid smiled at him innocently.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she shrugged with a coy smile. Hiccup looked further down the mountain and spotted an upcoming snowdrift before patting Stormfly's neck. She growled mischievously before setting off a blast of flame which caused the snowdrift to explode in Astrid's face and sending her spiralling out of control long enough for Hiccup to take the lead.

"Whoa!" Astrid shrieked as she struggled to re-establish Toothless's sense of direction. "Hey!" she hissed.

"It was her idea," Hiccup claimed, not very well but Astrid knew he was kidding around. "But I approved!" he laughed before turning his attention back to the race. Astrid smiled and shook her head – she loved these races with Hiccup. Maybe she should suggest them for the next Berk Winter Games...

_Rumble..._

Astrid's ears pricked at the noise – in her gut, she could tell something wasn't right. A few snowflakes flicked the back of her neck and that was what really got her worried. Glancing over her shoulder, Astrid froze in the saddle and her eyes widened in fear as she saw an incoming cloud of white heading down the mountain towards her. It was an avalanche.

"Uh oh..." she squeaked, clicked her left leg backwards to reopen Toothless' tail before pulling him upwards only to crash straight to the ground again. Toothless shrieked in shock as Astrid struggled to work the tail – looking back, Astrid let out a small cry when she saw that the tail-fin had frozen up. Bringing her gaze forward again, she realised that Hiccup still hadn't noticed the avalanche.

"Hiccup!" she screamed. Hiccup looked back to see what was making Astrid worried and gasped sharply when he saw the avalanche. He led Stormfly to an upcoming snow bank and quickly pulled her into the air. Astrid tried to follow suit but Toothless' tail wasn't budging and again they fell to the mountain slope again.

"Astrid!" Hiccup cried. Astrid climbed out of the saddle and crawled over to the end of Toothless' tail and tried to pull the prosthetic fin open but it was frozen solid – she couldn't budge it. Hiccup's forest-green eyes widened with fear as he saw the avalanche get closer and closer but even more so when he saw that Astrid and Toothless were headed straight for a canyon – if they fell down that, Toothless would almost certainly break a wing and then the snow would bury them both.

"Ah, hold on!" Hiccup yelled, leading Stormfly into a dive and reaching out from Astrid, wanting to pull her onto Stormfly's back before they could pick up Toothless and at least glide to safety. Astrid's fear-stricken eyes looked straight back at Hiccup as she tried to wave him away.

"No! Go back!" she begged. Hiccup's eyes narrowed and his arm remained stretched out. Astrid saw the avalanche getting closer and panicked, grabbing onto Hiccup's arm and holding it in a vice grip. Just as Hiccup was about to pull her up, though, the rushing snow caught Stormfly's tail and sent her down with a screech and moments later, both teens and dragons were sent falling into the canyon. Everything went black before they hit the ground.

/\

Astrid's eyes slowly fluttered open but it made no difference. She couldn't see an inch in front of her – all she could tell was that it was very cold but she could move. Slowly, she checked that her fingers were still functioning as well as her legs before she started trying to pick out anything in the darkness. She flinched as her hand brushed against something.

"Ah!" she squeaked softly, her voice failing her and her teeth chattering violently – okay, she was used to cold but not buried-in-snow cold.

"Astrid?" a weak nasally voice sounded. Astrid inhaled sharply – it hurt her chest to breathe, it was so cold.

"Hiccup?" she whispered. "Hiccup, where are you?" she chattered.

"Over here..." Hiccup replied, sounding equally freezing. Astrid fumbled in the dark before her hand found his again and this time, she held onto it so firmly she was amazed Hiccup didn't yelp in pain. Then again, they were both so numb it wasn't surprising.

"Hiccup...I'm freezing," Astrid muttered weakly. Hiccup's other hand landed on her shoulder and he pulled her close to him.

"Come here," he offered. Astrid instantly shuffled over and wrapped her arms around Hiccup, half to try to warm up and half in self-reassurance that he was there. Then a thought struck her.

"Where are the dragons?" she wondered aloud. As if in answer to her question, a bright blue flash lit up above her head, illuminating the underground hollow momentarily but just enough for Astrid to catch a glimpse of her best friend above her and Hiccup.

"Toothless?" Astrid blinked. Immediately afterwards, a yellow stream of light shone, revealing another winged reptile.

"Stormfly?" Hiccup realised. Both teens watched in amazement as the two dragons alternated setting off gentle blasts of fire, slowly thinning the mass of snow above them. As the snow began to thin out, light began to glow gently above them, letting the teens get a better grip of the situation and they realised that the main reason that they hadn't been completely buried by the snow was because the dragons had formed a protective dome above them using their wings.

"Whoa..." Astrid breathed in amazement, brushing a bang out of her eye (for once it actually stayed that way as the snow melt stuck it to the side of her head).

"Yeah..." Hiccup added breathlessly next to her, squinting as the fire finally melted through the mass of snow.

"I see daylight!" Astrid exclaimed, her face breaking into a smile.

"We're gonna get out of here!" Hiccup added in equal delight, rubbing Astrid's shoulders gently as both teens broke into relieved smiles.

"Look what they did..." Astrid pointed out, still gazing at the protective dome the dragons had made above them.

"They saved our lives..." Hiccup smiled. Astrid smiled back and subconsciously leant her head on Hiccup's shoulder.

"It's what they do," she explained, remembering Toothless racing all the way across the island to save her from being cooked by Hookfang. "They protect those who matter a lot to them," she added. For a moment, Astrid's storm-blue eyes met Hiccup's forest-green ones before both teens blushed furiously and broke their embrace awkwardly. "Uh...um...that was...so..." Astrid stammered, rubbing her arm.

"Yeah...that was..." Hiccup mumbled, suddenly finding an itch on the back of his neck to scratch.

"...So, we're good now?" Astrid asked embarrassingly.

"G...good as new..." Hiccup nodded before punching Astrid on the shoulder.

"Ow!" she yelped. Great, almost _every single time_ she and Hiccup found themselves getting awkwardly close together, he would _always_ punch her! Gods, she could _not_ wait for the day when she could summon up enough courage to get pay back.

/\

"Ah, uh...there it is," Gobber grunted as he examined another yak. Mulch and Bucket had called in Stoick the Vast and Gobber the Belch to see if they could help solve the issues happening with the animals and Gobber felt that he was onto something – this yak hadn't produced any milk either. "Mmhmm! Just what I thought," he grimaced, standing back up to face the chief. "She's not giving milk...none of them are," he confirmed. Stoick gave his friend a dry glare.

"We know that, Gobber," he huffed. "We want to know _why_."

"This reminds me of the time I moved my mother in with my goat," Gobber explained, seemingly starting to ramble. "She was mean, ornery, ate everything in sight!" he continued, using his usual dramatic gestures like he always did when he told an anecdote – Astrid was still trying to figure out which ones were true and which ones were made up. "The goat was so scared of her, she couldn't give milk."

"So, what are you saying, Gobber?" Stoick asked, wanting to get to the point of the matter. What did Gobber's mother and goat have to do with anything?

"Mothers and goats don't mix," Gobber replied bluntly. Okay? "Same with farm animals and dragons." Oh! Now it made sense. "We stopped fighting dragons, so now they're around all the time. The animals are spooked," Gobber added. Bucket suddenly yelped in pain, sending the sheep, yaks and chickens nearby scattering. "Like I said, spooked," Gobber confirmed in satisfaction. Mulch, on the other hand, was looking worried.

"Uh oh..." he grimaced, placing a hand on Bucket's shoulder as the man gripped the bucket on his head. "Your bucket's not tightening up on ya, is it?" he asked worriedly.

"No," Bucket denied although he was clearly lying through his teeth. "I'm just...fiiiiiiine!" he shrieked. Stoick glanced in confusion at Mulch.

"Well, whenever his bucket gets tight it means a storm is coming," Mulch explained.

"No storm, everything's fine!" Bucket squeaked in terror.

"Bucket..." Mulch began sternly but Bucket was almost inconsolable.

"I don't want there to be a storm!" he almost screamed. "If lighting strikes mi' bucket I could end up less intelligent," he stuttered. Gobber raised an eyebrow but luckily it went unnoticed. Mulch tugged the bucket on his friend's head – it didn't budge.

"Oh, ho, ho!" he exclaimed. "That's one tight bucket." He turned back to face the chief and Gobber. "And the tighter the bucket the bigger the storm," he explained seriously. Stoick frowned.

"But that's crazy," he insisted. "Storms don't hit this early in the season." Gobber clearly agreed with him.

"And besides, who ever heard of predicting the weather with a bucket?" he remarked cynically. "That's what chicken bones and goose feet are for," he claimed. Mulch narrowed his eyes.

"If you recall that bucket of his predicted the Blizzard of Olaf!" he pointed out. Stoick shuddered at the memory – the Blizzard of Olaf had been a particularly vicious storm that had happened about six years ago and both Hiccup and Astrid had come down with serious colds. It had been one of the rare occasions pre-peace-with-dragons that Hiccup had put up with being under the same roof as Astrid and also one of the few occasions where they'd actually comforted each other given how dangerously ill they both were – both were terrified they wouldn't last the winter, as had Stoick.

"That was a bad one!" Bucket gulped. "It took us a week just to dig Mildew out." Oh, yeah. And there was that, too.

"And the rest of our lives to wonder why we bothered," Mulch groaned. So true. "Trust the bucket, Stoick," he warned. Stoick resumed his cynical glare.

"_You_ trust the bucket," he huffed, turning away and heading out of the farm to the other side of the village. "I want a second opinion," he added. It took about five minutes to get there but Stoick and Gobber eventually arrived at the hut belonging to the village soothsayer, a mute, old and frail old woman named Gothi who had selected Astrid all those months ago to take part in the final exam over Hiccup. Astrid had often wondered Gothi's real reasons for choosing her, but she'd never had the courage to ask – Gothi secretly terrified her.

"Gothi, I've come for your counsel," Stoick greeted as he found Gothi on her balcony overlooking the ocean. She turned around and nodded courteously. "Is there going to be a storm?" Stoick asked. Gothi made a sarcastic glare and began drawing in a patch of dirt. Because she couldn't speak, this was her way of communication and Gobber was one of the few people on Berk who could translate her scribbles (Astrid could pick up bits and pieces but the only other person as fluent as Gobber in 'Gothi speak' was Fishlegs).

"What's she saying, Gobber?" Stoick muttered to his friend. Gobber squinted at the drawings.

"She says: 'what do you think?'..." he read. For a moment he frowned and glanced at Gothi who huffed before indicating the house behind her with her staff. "Huh?" Gobber blinked when he saw that all of the windows were boarded up, as if the old woman was getting ready for a massive storm.

"How can you be so sure?" Stoick asked quickly. "Was it the chicken bones? Or the goose feet?" he added in rapid succession. Gothi rubbed out her previous dirt-drawings and replaced them which Gobber quickly translated.

"She says she could hear Bucket screaming from way up here," he remarked dryly. Well, so much for not trusting the bucket...

/\

"...And then the dragons used their wings to block the snow," Astrid explained excitedly later that afternoon as she and Hiccup recounted their misadventure up on Death Peak. The gang (minus the twins, they were out probably wrecking stuff as usual) had met up by one of the old watchtowers which, after the amount of snow Berk had been getting over the past few weeks, was almost half-buried in the white stuff. Needless to say, Hiccup and Astrid were pleased that they were no longer in that situation.

"I've never heard of anything like that," Fishlegs remarked in amazement. Astrid refrained from frowning – uh, yeah, maybe not _heard_ but surely he saw Toothless coming to Astrid's rescue all those months ago, right? Never mind. "Not even in the Book of Dragons." Why was that _always _the go-to for Fishlegs?

"Remind me to update that..." Astrid mumbled to Hiccup.

_"_Astrid was saying how it's their instinct to protect those who matter a lot to them," Hiccup explained. "It was incredible...that protective instinct just kicked in for us!"

"Kind of shows how far we've come from fighting them to becoming so important to them," Astrid smiled eagerly, swinging her legs back and forth absent-mindedly as she spoke.

"If it weren't for them, we would've frozen to death," Hiccup shrugged with a slight shudder and a quick glance at Astrid – she gave him one as well, almost at the exact same time.

"You know what?" Fishlegs smirked slyly. "You could've used your own bodies to keep each other warm." Hiccup and Astrid shot another glance at each other and scooted as far along the bench from each other as possible. Okay, that sounded awkward and wrong on _so_ many levels for them! True, they liked each other, as in _like-_liked each other. True, they no longer had any issues with the whole engagement thing. But...really, Fishlegs?

"Um..." Hiccup flushed, rubbing his shoulder.

"We get that but...who would do that?" Astrid stammered, although she secretly admitted that she _had_ liked the embrace Hiccup had pulled her into once they'd regained consciousness under the snow.

"It's not like...you know..." Hiccup stuttered awkwardly. "I mean, yeah, we're..."

"We are..." Astrid added with an embarrassed shrug. "And...you guys know...and...well..."

"Can we just...?" Hiccup cut across until Snotlout cut in with a comment aimed at Astrid.

"Hey, Astrid," he said mockingly. Snotlout seemed _very_ confused as to whether he hated or liked Astrid and sometimes the two would mash. "You know, if you're still cold..." he smirked mockingly, patting the bench beside him. Astrid scowled with a grossed out look on her face whilst Hiccup glared at his cousin before elbowing the wooden pillar beside him, causing the catapult, which had been full of snow, to tip over, dumping aforementioned load of snow straight onto Snotlout, burying him. "Hey!" Snotlout's muffled voice moaned. Astrid giggled.

"Thanks," she grinned at Hiccup who smiled back with a confident shrug.

"No problem, mi' lady," he replied, tapping her lightly on the shoulder. Astrid laughed a little bit more and smiled warmly – she loved it when Hiccup called her that – when a shout caught her attention.

"Hey, Hiccup! Astrid!" Tuffnut yelled from Belch's head as the Hideous Zippleback came into land. "Stoick's looking for you guys." Both Hiccup and Astrid groaned and sagged...this could only be good.

"He looked angry," Ruffnut added gleefully from Barf's head. Astrid huffed as she and Hiccup headed over to Toothless and Stormfly.

"He's looked angry since the day I moved in..." she pointed out dryly. "But I'm sure there's no connection," she added in equal sarcasm as she slotted her prosthetic leg into the stirrup and nudged Toothless into the air heading towards the Haddock residence with Hiccup following closely behind her.

"What do you reckon the man wants this time?" Hiccup wondered out loud.

"Who knows?" Astrid shrugged. "Probably gonna have a go at the both of us for skipping chief or whatever-else training this morning," she supposed with a wry smile.

/\

"There's a bad storm comin'," Stoick informed the two teens once they'd arrived back at the Haddock residence. Well, so much for another 'Why did you skip training again?' rant. "We could be locked in. We might not be able to hunt or fish for months!" he added in a warning tone.

"But it's way too early for a storm," Hiccup frowned. "We're in the middle of winter!" he pointed out.

"Yeah, last time I checked, Devastating Winter isn't due for another month!" Astrid added in equal disbelief.

"Not according to Gothi," Stoick argued in a huff. Astrid sagged and threw her hands into the air in frustration. The guy wasn't making his point clear – he was telling her and Hiccup this _because_...why?

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" she asked irritably, her voice going up an octave. "I don't know about Hiccup but I can't control the weather!" she huffed dryly ("Neither can I!" Hiccup snapped under his breath).

"No...but you _can_ control dragons," Stoick pointed out. "If they don't stop scaring the animals we won't have any provisions to live on," he explained. Astrid shrugged – well, he could have mentioned that earlier.

"You know, he's got a point," Hiccup muttered to Astrid in an undertone. She refrained from rolling her eyes – she knew that! At that moment, Gobber, Mulch and Bucket walked into the room, startling everyone.

"Ah! Any luck?" Stoick greeted with a worried frown. Mulch made a face before replying whilst Bucket groaned in pain next to him.

"Not a drop," Mulch huffed. "And this is after yankin' on that poor yak for three hours!" he added in exasperation. Astrid winced – okay, the situation really _was_ bad by the sound of it.

"But it's not like the dragons are trying to be scary," she protested defensively. "I mean, they don't even eat farm animals that haven't been cooked."

"Concurring with Hofferson here," Hiccup nodded. "Last I checked, they'll only eat the _roasted_ stuff when it comes to anything with fur or feathers."

"The only _raw_ food they'll hunt and eat is fish!" Astrid added.

"True, but they're huge, they breathe fire, and now that we've made peace with them, they're _everywhere_," Gobber pointed out. Astrid grimaced – okay, she could see their point. Maybe she should stop always jumping to the dragons' side and actually _think_ things through every once in a while. "The animals are terrified of them," the one-handed man added with a dry look on his face.

"Here's where you jump in and say 'I'll fix this'," Stoick noted simply to Astrid who groaned in exasperation before giving in.

"Urgh...fine," she huffed. "But how long do I have before the storm hits?" she asked, gesturing with one hand and placing her other on her hip as she usually did when she was asking a question.

"About a week," Mulch replied as Bucket groaned painfully. Astrid grinned confidently.

"No problem," she decided. "More than enough time..." she began when Bucket shrieked like a banshee – seriously, it was so loud, even Toothless winced.

"Correction: three days, six hours," Mulch grimaced. Astrid winced and bit her lip – it was such a temptation to start biting her nails as well.

"Uh, okay...less time..." she gulped. "Might be more of a problem..."

And, Thor, did everybody under that roof know it.

/\

**"**Come on, big boy..." Hiccup grunted later that afternoon as the gang began rounding up the animals into the Academy. He was trying to persuade a sheep to approach Hookfang but wasn't exactly having much luck, neither were Fishlegs and Snotlout with the yaks nor Astrid and the twins with the chickens. "You can do it. Come on!" Hiccup huffed. He wasn't used to this. He cast a dry look at Astrid who had fetched back a hen from the gate for what felt like the hundredth time in ten minutes. This was going in circles and everyone knew it.

"You'll really like them if you get to know them," Astrid assured the hen in her arms, trying to avoid its pecking beak. She didn't particularly fancy any more scars (ones from the forge, she could deal with but there was hardly anything impressive about saying you got pecked half to death by a chicken!). "The dragons look scary but they're just big, scaly reptiles," she grimaced. Thinking back on that sentence it didn't exactly sound very reassuring.

"Just like Snotlout," Tuffnut snickered – he shut up when Snotlout grabbed the scruff of his tunic and raised his fist.

"You're the guy, right?" Snotlout frowned angrily. Tuffnut shook his head vehemently.

"No!" he squeaked. Fishlegs stepped forward and got down on all fours.

"Okay, what if we look at this from an animal's perspective?" he suggested. Astrid shrugged – it wasn't a bad idea. Maybe if they could get a better understanding as to what exactly was scaring the animals, they might be able to figure out how to fix it. "Oh, hello, Mr. Dragon!" Fishlegs greeted Hookfang who stared at him incredulously. "I'm just a little sheep here...walking...doing sheep things... Bah!" he bleated.

"I can barely tell the difference," Hiccup smirked sarcastically. "Ouch!" he winced as Astrid stamped on his foot with her prosthetic leg. He retaliated by elbowing her in the ribs ("Dammit, Hatchet!" Astrid hissed, using her new nickname for the boy).

"Bah!" Fishlegs continued. He glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the gang. "You know he doesn't really seem so big and..." he started when Hookfang suddenly roared in face as a chicken pecked at his foot. Fishlegs yelped and scrambled behind an old shield rack whilst Hiccup pushed Astrid to the ground, shielding her from a blast of sticky fire as Hookfang snapped – luckily Snotlout was able to calm him down quickly enough but Fishlegs was already terrified.

"Sorry! But I'm siding with the sheep on this one," he whimpered. Astrid thought for a little while...maybe...just maybe...

"Look, I've learned that once you have a positive experience with something you're afraid of..." she began, walking over to the sheep and calming them down gently. "It isn't so scary anymore," she finished with a smile, herding the sheep to the centre of the arena.

"Might I ask how you learned that, mi'lady?" Hiccup quizzed in interest, folding his arms and raising an eyebrow. Astrid smirked at him.

"That's for me to know and you to not concern yourself with, sweetheart," she replied teasingly.

"Urgh...get a room, already," Ruffnut groaned, leaning against the wall nearby. Hiccup glared at her but Astrid did her best to ignore her. Instead she turned her attention back to the sheep.

"Okay, here you go, boys...over here," she smiled. "Look, all I'm saying is that's what we'll have to do with these sheep," she explained as Snotlout gave her a weird look. "We gotta prove to them that they have nothing to fear..." she continued when a sheep accidentally strayed into Stormfly's blind spot and brushed against her nose. The Deadly Nadder freaked and set off a wave of spikes – again, Hiccup tackled Astrid to prevent her from being impaled whilst the twins scattered, Fishlegs ducked behind a shield and Snotlout got pinned against the wall again ("This is _really_ getting old...").

"Aaaaaaand at this rate we'll never get any milk or eggs..." Astrid groaned, blowing her fringe out of her face only to have it fall back over her eyes.

/\

On the other side of the island, Stoick was overlooking the storing of food into the house. As usual for this time of the year, vegetables were in short supply (no one was particularly fond of Mildew's cabbages anyway so no one had bothered collecting them) and bread was running low. Stoick's eyebrows knitted together at the sight of the less-than-satisfyingly-full store house.

"Just as I feared. We haven't had time to fully stock the food store house!" he huffed. "If this storm is as bad as I think it is, we're never going to survive!" he noted worriedly. It was true – on the supplies of vegetables and bread alone, there was nowhere near enough to supply the entire village. In fact, if the animals didn't start producing milk and eggs soon, Stoick feared that they might lose over half the villagers to starvation, but he didn't voice that concern aloud.

"Not with this inventory," Gobber remarked sullenly.

"We're going to need everything we can get from those chickens and yaks," Stoick sighed. Gobber raised an eyebrow at his friend cynically.

"I'm not really comfortable putting my fate in the hands of a brainless bird and a big woolly beast that sleeps in its own dung," he grunted dryly. Stoick gave his reply with a stern yet confident smile.

"Well, luckily our fate isn't in their hands," he pointed out. "It's in Astrid's."

Uh...about that...

/\

Back at the arena, the gang were still having trouble calming the animals down and the storm was fast approaching. Astrid was running out of ideas and fast but she still had something which she hoped would work.

"Another way for the animals to overcome their fear is to show them that dragons are afraid of things too," she explained, dropping a large basket into the middle of the Academy and stumbling about a bit to regain her balance. Hiccup was already aware of the plan and stepped in with his own input.

"Remember Magnus the Merciless?" he asked. The others nodded with a shudder – yep. They remembered the man. "He was a pretty scary guy," Hiccup pointed out, crossing his arms and shrugging with a small smirk – he wasn't ashamed to admit this now, particularly when it served as a decent example. Besides, Astrid had managed to persuade him that explaining that he could be afraid too humanised him, making him more relatable to the people he would one day watch over as chief of Berk. "I was afraid of him until I learned that he was afraid of the dark!" he grinned.

"So during the day: Merciless!" Tuffnut smirked dramatically.

"And during the night...Tuffnut!" Ruffnut snickered next to him – it earned her a punch to the shoulder from her twin brother. "Ow!" she grunted.

"Hey! That's a real problem," Tuffnut protested with a pout. Hiccup groaned and pinched his eyebrows together – he wasn't exactly known for his patience at the best of times, _especially_ when it came to the twins.

"I'm just saying," he sighed irritably. "Knowing he was afraid of something made him less scary to me," he explained. Astrid grinned and removed the lid of the basket, revealing that it was full of eels. The dragons instantly scattered to the farthest corners of the Academy they could reach upon smelling the vile things.

"Yes, Hiccup," Astrid smiled in thanks. Hiccup grinned bashfully back and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "So let's show the yaks that dragons are afraid of things too," she continued, holding an eel out towards Toothless who scrambling up the walls of the arena and clung to the iron net ceiling for dear life, whimpering like Fiddlesticks whenever Hiccup had scolded him for something (speaking of the darn cat, Astrid had been meaning to find a way to stop the blasted animal from tearing up her drawings and designs every other night – he was too used to Toothless to be scared of him now). Back to the session, the animals slowly began approaching the centre of the arena, seemingly encouraged by the sight of the dragons' terror of the eels.

"I think it's working!" Hiccup remarked when Barf-Belch set off an explosion, unable to stand the presence of the eels. The explosion sent all of the animals into a panic once again and Astrid clutched the side of her head desperately, her face twisting into an exasperated grimace.

"Don't worry..." Hiccup gulped, placing a nervous hand on his fiancée's shoulder. Astrid threw her hands around her in frustration and nerves. They had very little time left and she was almost out of ideas.

"Worried? I...I'm not worried! Do I look worried?" she stammered, her voice going up multiple octaves as she flapped her hands around.

/\

"Bring in everything you need!" Stoick ordered as the villagers began piling into the Great Hall. The storm was so close it could practically be seen on the horizon now and nerves in the village were running high. It looked to be a particularly bad one. "We don't know how long we'll need to be locked down!" A screaming caught Stoick's attention – Mulch was dragging Bucket through the village on a wheelbarrow and the bucket-headed man looked far from happy. Stoick sighed and ran over – yep, definitely a bad storm.

"How's Bucket doing?" he asked worriedly.

"Look at him!" Mulch cried as Bucket wailed, almost like a small child. "He usually loves a wheelbarrow ride." A thundering sound in the distance rumbled through the village. Stoick's brow narrowed as he looked in the direction of the Academy. The teens were still there – it didn't matter how they were progressing with the dragons and animals. They needed to get them back to the Great Hall to safety.

"Mulch, I'll take care of Bucket," Stoick offered, taking the wheelbarrow from Mulch and ignoring Bucket's wails. "You and Gobber go find the kids and bring them here."

/\

"Hey! Calm down!" Hiccup grunted as he tried to tackle a wayward chicken but face-planting in the process. "Get back over here!" Astrid wasn't faring much better.

"You know what I'm learning from all this?" she groaned, hardly bothering to even try getting to a standing position again. "Chicken are really, well, chicken." Fishlegs walked over and helped his friend to her feet whilst Hiccup brushed himself down.

"What if we showed them how much they have in common with the dragons?" Fishlegs suggested. Astrid narrowed her eyes in confusion. "They both lay eggs, right?" the boy pointed out. Astrid's eyes widened in realisation – it actually wasn't a bad idea. "A Terrible Terror laid one last week!"

Moments later, Astrid had retrieved the egg from said Terrible Terror and had placed it down in front of the chickens who only calmed down when the dragons retreated to the other side of the arena.

"Alright, see?" Astrid smiled as the chickens inspected the egg. Eventually, one of the hens worked up the courage to sit on it.

"An egg's an egg, right, ladies?" Hiccup smiled when..

_BANG!_

"AH!" Astrid yelped as she was thrown off-balance by the explosion. Hiccup caught her before she landed flat on her back but bad memories were already coming back to both of them.

"Until it explodes..." Hiccup groaned, his face turning bright red. That was _one_ Snoggletog event he did _not_ want to remember...and all the shame he'd felt then came rushing back to him. Astrid patted his arm gently as she grimaced nervously. Hiccup pulled her back to her feet and they tried to round up the chickens again when...

"Everybody out, the storm is here!" Gobber yelled from the gate. Astrid's eyes widened in horror.

"Ah, wha...wait!" she cried pleadingly. "We haven't made any progress with the animals!" she protested. Gobber ignored her yelled and turned to Hiccup.

"Your father wants everyone in the Great Hall!" he instructed. Hiccup's face set into his determined 'leader' look and began rounding up the dragons. Astrid, however, stayed put.

"Hiccup, take the others," she said.

"What?! What about you?" Hiccup exclaimed in shock.

"I need to stay and keep working with the animals," Astrid explained, her eyebrows knitted together in a nervous determination. "They're...still afraid."

"Yeh can't get eggs from a frozen chicken!" Gobber snapped. Okay...maybe there was that... "We've got to get the animals in the barn!"

_Moments later..._

Astrid winced at the sight of the barn. Snow had already started falling fast and the barn was inaccessible due to the large pile-up in front of the door.

"So much for the barn," Gobber huffed. Astrid clutched the struggling chickens as close to her as she possibly could whilst the others struggled to keep the yaks and sheep under control.

"There's no other place to hold them!" Mulch cried out in frustration. Astrid glanced to the far end of the village – actually, there was. It wasn't ideal, but there wasn't anywhere else.

"The Great Hall!" she pointed out. Mulch made a face at her.

"So, we're gonna have the dragons and the animals under the same roof?" he frowned. "We know that won't work." Astrid set her face into a determined glare.

"We have no choice," she argued. "Let's go!"

"Alright, keep 'em separate!" Mulch sighed.

Minutes later, the gang were trying to herd the reluctant animals into the Great Hall but the presence of dozens of dragons made it more difficult that it would have been otherwise. Each teen grunted and huffed as they tried to rein in the chickens, yaks and sheep but each failing as the chickens kept fleeing back outside upon seeing the dragons and the larger animals planting their feet into the ground. However, things went from bad to worse as Snotlout got on the receiving end of being trampled by spooked animals with fur and feathers.

"Ooooh... ow! Okay, everything hurts..." Snotlout groaned. Astrid stood at the top of the steps and stared miserably into the worsening storm. She clenched her jaw and whistled shrilly, taking off down the steps.

"Where are you going?" Gobber yelled. Toothless pelted past him and quickly caught up with his rider – Astrid swung herself onto his back as they were both still running.

"I'm going after them!" she shouted back in reply.

"Forget it, Astrid!" Gobber snapped, jogging after her. "We'll never get them rounded up in this storm!" Astrid gave him a determined look.

"With Toothless I can!" she protested. "I have to try. If I don't, we starve to death."

"No!" Gobber forbade. "Stoick will kill me if I left you out here...!"

"Sorry, Gobber!" Astrid yelled, kicking Toothless into the skies and disappearing into the swirling white mist.

"ASTRID!" Hiccup shouted into the snow. No response came so he quickly darted inside, muttering what sounded suspicious like "_Remind me why I'm engaged to her, again?_".

"Astrid! Come back here!" Gobber ordered. He turned around to face Hiccup, not realising he'd vanished inside the Hall. "Hiccup, will you talk some sense...?" he was interrupted as Stormfly burst out of the Hall, Hiccup bent double on her back. "Ah! No, no, not you too!" Gobber screamed. "Hiccup! You're not going with...!" He was interrupted again by the sound of all of the Riders' dragons flying out of the Great Hall. He ducked to avoid being knocked over but he was still frightened for the teens beyond frustration. "Ach! Get back here all of you!" he yelled but it would have been a miracle if anyone could have heard him over the sound of the storm.

Things grew more dire as Stoick walked up the steps to the hall with the remainder of the villagers.

"Move those tables against the doors!" the chief bellowed. Gobber ran over, knowing he had to tell his friend the news.

"Stoick! The barns been destroyed!" he panted, his face twisted into a worried grimace. "The animals have scattered!" Stoick frowned.

"Where's Astrid, Hiccup and the others?" he asked worriedly.

"I tried to stop them, Stoick," Gobber sighed regretfully. "They went after the animals." Stoick's eyes widened and he beckoned for Gobber to follow him as he took off down the steps again. Gobber hobbled after him just as Mulch was bringing in two yaks.

"I caught these two," the man smiled in relief. "I figured at least with these we'd be able to start a new herd." Gobber took a quick glance as he passed and winced.

"You might want to take another look, Mulch," he suggested cynically.

/\

In the frozen wild lands that made up Berk outside of the Wild Zone forest and the village, Astrid fought against the winds and tried to ignore the snow stinging her face and half-blinding her as it flew into her eyes like splinters. Squinting, she tried to spot anything that looked like a farm animal.

"You find as many as you can!" she shouted back to the others. "We'll herd them back to the Great Hall."

"Can we swing by my house?" Fishlegs called, his teeth chattering audibly. "I'd like to get my heavy coat."

"Well, it's your own fault for wearing a short-sleeved tunic!" Hiccup snapped irritably, although it was evident that even with his long sleeves he was still suffering from the cold. Astrid shivered and tried to keep herself moving – it was amazing she hadn't frozen to Toothless' saddle yet.

"Check this out!" Tuffnut shouted, slapping himself around the face. His skin was covered in a thin layer of snow, as was everyone else's, and his hair was freezing together. "I'm so cold I can't feel my face!" he grinned. Ruffnut decided to test this and punched her brother as hard as she could despite the cold. Tuffnut's head moved in response but other than that, he didn't flinch. "Didn't feel it!"

"That takes all the fun out of it!" Ruffnut groaned. Astrid ignored them and strained her eyes against the whiteout when she spotted them...the familiar silhouettes of yaks, sheep and chickens running blindly to find shelter from the storm.

"There they are! Come on!" she yelled, leading Toothless into a dive.

"Yaks to the left!" Fishlegs called out, leading Meatlug in the direction of the yaks and herding them the best he could. Snotlout, meanwhile, had spotted some of the wayward chickens.

"Chickens to the right!" he yelled. He nearly crashed into Fishlegs as they crossed paths and Hookfang was getting riled up very quickly. "Hey! I'm flying here!" he snapped before turning his attention back to the chickens. Eventually, both Snotlout and Fishlegs almost had a system in place but as soon as they'd round up the animals, they instantly scattered and the fact that Hookfang wasn't listening to his rider at all wasn't helping. Meanwhile, Hiccup had managed to track down some sheep.

"I got them!" he shouted into the storm. "Now!" he yelled, nudging Stormfly so that she set off a small stream of spikes which encased the sheep in a small enclosure. At least now they couldn't go anywhere. "Gotcha!" Hiccup grinned in triumph, his cheeks flushing red in the cold and making his freckles look like tiny black specks on his skin and causing his chin scar to shin bright white against the cold.

Then...

"Duuuhh! Gaaahhhh!" Snotlout shrieked as Hookfang spiralled out of control and into the enclosure Hiccup had created, sending the sheep running again. Hiccup glared at his cousin angrily.

"Snotlout, what are you doing?!" he snapped furiously. "You're all over the place!" Snotlout glared at his cousin in return.

"You try herding chickens with a dragon that doesn't listen to you!" he retorted. Sure. Nice excuse. Not. Hiccup forgot his frustration quickly as he spotted Astrid and Toothless through the snow.

"Hiccup! Three sheep!" he yelled. Astrid shot after the wayward animals and yelped in terror upon noticing that they were headed towards a cliff. Toothless fired a few plasma blasts to prevent two of them reaching the edge but one was a fair distance away from the others and slipped. Without prompt, Toothless shot after the sheep as it tumbled over the edge – moment s later the Night Fury flew back up with the sheep held in his paws before setting the fluffy creature gently on the ground again next to its peers. Astrid smiled gently and patted her friend's shoulder.

"Good job, pal," she congratulated quietly before flying off to find the others. She found them soon enough – they were all shivering and Hiccup was shielding his face against the stinging snow.

"Astrid, the storm is getting worse!" he yelled, his voice cracking from shouting so much. "I can't see anything!" Astrid grimaced and bent down on Toothless' back for extra security, trying to avoid being blown off by the wind.

"Come on, pal," she whispered. "Give us some light." On command, Toothless set off a fireball which lit up the area in front of the Riders. In the brief light they had, Astrid spotted two shadows against the snow. "Stray yaks twelve o'clock!" she shouted. The twins reacted immediately.

"I see them and they are huge!" Tuffnut yelled as Barf-Belch swooped down and snatched the two figures from the ground. "I got the yaks!" Tuffnut called but he was interrupted by a grunt of protest.

"Put me down right now!" Stoick snapped. The twins yelped and instantly obeyed, dropping Stoick and Gobber (as the other figure turned out to be) into the snow before landing with apologetic smirks on their faces. Astrid and the others landed quickly.

"Do I look like a yak to you?" Gobber growled. Stoick ran over to Astrid and Hiccup who'd landed side by side next to each other.

"You shouldn't be out here," he sighed although his face was plastered with a relieved smile upon finding his son and foster daughter. Hiccup dismounted quickly and ran over to his father, looking half-relieved and half-expecting-a-lecture but Astrid was more reluctant to get off Toothless' back.

"Dad, I'm sorry I let you down," she winced. Stoick walked over and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, the other arm keeping Hiccup close. Astrid felt her heart warm up at the sight – it was the first time she'd seen Stoick and Hiccup this close as father and son for years.

"It's not your fault, lass," Stoick reassured. "I'm taking you back," he said firmly. Gobber darted his gaze around.

"Which way?" he quizzed. Stoick turned to face his friend.

"Follow our tracks," he instructed but the snow had already covered any trace of footprints. Astrid gulped - bang goes that idea.

"So much for that idea," Gobber remarked (just said that). Fishlegs shivered both from nerves and the cold on Meatlug's back.

"Sir?" he chattered. "What do we do now?" Stoick thought for a while before spreading his arms out, inviting the others to come close. Astrid remembered – of course. They could use their own body heat to keep each other warm...for now at least.

"Everyone, come together," Stoick said simply, his beard starting to freeze. Hiccup took Astrid's hand as she dismounted Toothless and pulled her close – the Nordic Blonde tucked herself under her foster-father's arm and shivered as Hiccup placed his own arms around her, hugging her close as she returned the embrace, nesting her head on his shoulders as he rested his chin on hers (Astrid revelled in the fact that she was still slightly taller than the guy despite the situation). The twins huddled close together and even Snotlout and Fishlegs were willing to join the huddle.

Then something happened which startled most of the group. Toothless cooed to the other dragons and spread his wings, creating a protective barrier against the wind and snow. The other dragons followed suit, forming a dome around the Vikings before combining their fire to create a tiny pool of flames in the centre of the huddle. The warmth kept in by the dragons' wings, the group instantly felt themselves warming up and the snow crusting their hair and clothes melting away.

"What are they doing?" Stoick breathed in amazement. Astrid smiled and she wiped a damp strand of hair from her face.

"They're protecting us," she replied. "Like they always do to those who matter the most to them." Hiccup beamed warmly himself, his freckled face lit up by the little fire as he met Stormfly's gaze.

"It's their natural instinct," he remembered. Toothless suddenly heard a bleat – he turned his head and spotted the sheep, yaks and chickens all huddled together, trying to shield themselves from the cold. Cooing gently, he broke away from the protective dome the dragons had created and walked slowly over to the animals, pausing when they backed away nervously. He growled softly and the sheep he'd saved earlier approached him tentatively. Toothless indicated the dome and the warm fire the Vikings were huddled around – the sheep got the hint, bleated gratefully and walked over to the huddle, making sure its woolly fur didn't catch fire. The other animals slowly followed suit – Toothless waited until every last chicken was within the dome before he closed it again.

Astrid smiled in pride at her best friend – they were all going to make it through the storm.

"Your dragons are really something, lass," Stoick smiled warmly, squeezing Astrid's shoulder as a father would a daughter. Hiccup also grinned at his girlfriend and rubbed her shoulders affectionately as the girl beamed a reply.

"Yeah, they are," she murmured proudly.

/\

The doors of the Great Hall were still open ajar as the villagers took it in turns to watch out for the chief and the teens. Mulch and Bucket were currently on the lookout – a couple of shadows trudging up the steps was the sight they'd been waiting for since the storm had begun to worsen.

"They're back!" Mulch exclaimed joyfully. "And they're alright," he noted upon seeing everyone still walking and in one piece (well, Astrid and Gobber hadn't lost any more limbs so they were in as much of one-piece as they could be). Bucket beamed when a bunch of sheep, yaks and chickens began walking into the Hall.

"And the animals are alright too!" he cried happily. A growl sounded just behind the group nearing the Hall – upon hearing it, Mulch grimaced.

"Uh-oh. Here come the dragons," he gulped. However, much to his surprise, the animals didn't run in fear as the dragons came up behind them – rather they were huddled under their wings for extra protections against the cold, the snow and the wind. Toothless cooed like a pigeon as the sheep he'd saved earlier bleated a thank-you before running into the Hall, closely followed by its fellow farm animals. "Will you look at that?" Mulch remarked. As soon as everyone was inside, the doors were closed and everyone began relaxing, thankful to be out of the wind. There was a rather quiet murmur of talk for a while until...

"Hey, everyone!" Hiccup called, standing over by the chickens. He had his trademark crooked beam stretched across his face, showing off the gap between his two front teeth. Astrid was warming herself up by the fire nearby when she looked – as she did, her own face broke into a smile. One of the hens was sitting on top of a pale oval-shaped three-dimensional object, slightly speckled but unmistakable.

"The chickens are laying eggs again!" she exclaimed happily. Bucket tapped his head with a smile.

"I was right," he chuckled. "Chickens _do_ lay eggs."

_We made our peace with the dragons when we saw that we could trust them. Turns out they actually have instincts to protect us – all of us. Life on Berk just got a little warmer._

* * *

**Sorry this has taken so long, guys! I don't think I'll be doing every episode for this series but if there's a particular episode you would like to see, let me know. So far the ones I definitely want to write are:**

**-Breakneck Bog**

**-In Dragons We Trust &amp; Alvin and the Outcasts**

**-We Are Family pts. 1 &amp; 2**

**-How to Pick Your Dragon**

**I'll get to work on the next episode ASAP but let me know if there's one you'd like to see. I've had a request for ****_Thawfest_**** so I'll see what I can do with that - it's actually the one episode from****_ Riders of Berk_**** which I haven't seen but I'll do my best.**

**Anyway, see you guys tomorrow with the next ****_Ablaze_**** update, if you're keeping up with that. If not, then I'll see you when I see you.**


	4. EPISODE 8 - placeholder

**Yes, I'm doing an episode jump here but only because this one is finished and the next episode ****won't be completed for a while! I'll sort out the episode order as I go. Anyway, I loved writing this episode so I hope you guys enjoy it.**

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Young Man**

**_Believing his father is disappointed in his appearance, Hiccup sets off on a dangerous treasure hunt to prove his worth as the son of the chief. Astrid, although reluctant, understands her fiancée's situation and agrees to go with him._**

_Measuring up to a Viking father has never been easy for me and Hiccup, especially when that Viking father (or, in my case, foster-father) is also the chief of your village. So, when you get a chance to prove yourself, you jump on it. Especially if you're a certain someone who I just so happen to be engaged to..._

Astrid was watching in earnest as Stoick and Hiccup stood near the Chief's Chair in the Great Hall whilst Bucket worked feverishly putting paint on an old shield Astrid had dug out for him. The chief and his son were having their portrait done – it was tradition for this to happen when the son of the chief turned fifteen and given that Hiccup's birthday had been a few months ago now, Bucket had been commissioned to create the painting that would hang alongside the other chiefs and heirs in the Great Hall. It was about time, really but with everything that had been happening in the village, it had been difficult to find a time for the painting to be done.

"Shoulder's back, chin up, son!" Stoick smiled, giving Hiccup a gentle nudge. Hiccup was also beaming from ear to ear as he straightened his back and tried to make himself look as tall as possible. Grinning, he snatched a glance at Astrid who smiled back, giving a thumbs-up to show that everything was going well. "This portrait's gonna hang in this hall forever," Stoick added. Astrid winced when Bucket started having a break-down.

"No good, no good, no good...I can't do this!" he exclaimed in dismay. Hiccup grimaced and made a motion with his head to Astrid who nodded in understanding before she signalled at her Night Fury, Toothless, to whack Bucket around the head with his tail. Normally the force of Toothless' tail would make any Viking dizzy but in the case of Bucket, it actually calmed him down. "Okay, I'm good," the man blinked, getting back to his work.

"I've never seen Bucket like this," Hiccup remarked to his father.

"Well, when he lost half his brain he suddenly became...an artist," Stoick explained with a shrug, making reference to when Bucket had sustained a severe head injury during a dragon attack years ago. Astrid and Hiccup were both dubious as to whether or not Bucket had _actually_ lost half of his brain but they couldn't come up with any better explanation. Astrid took a seat close enough so that she could be part of the conversation but not distract Bucket from painting the pair.

"So Bucket can actually paint?" she blinked in surprise.

"Oh, he's the best!" Stoick chuckled, patting Hiccup on the shoulder. "He's going to do us proud, son." Hiccup laughed weakly but Astrid could see how happy he was – his forest-green eyes were glittering, not with their usual determined shine but with a proud glow. His happiness was contagious as Astrid felt her grin widen before she turned around to face the paintings of the other chiefs and their sons, hanging up on the wall behind her.

"This portrait is gonna take its place along all the other chiefs and their sons, right?" she asked, her gaze falling on the last portrait in the line. Stoick nodded.

"That is the only picture of my father and me," he explained. Hiccup also turned his head to look at the painting of his grandfather. He hadn't known the man given that he'd died before he was born but he knew that he was still part of the Haddock heritage. Hiccup had always felt the need to make his family proud, especially his father. Now it was as if he finally felt that he had. "It was a great day," Stoick added with a smile.

"And so is this!" Astrid pointed out with a grin before the pair turned their attention back to Bucket.

"Chest out, son!" Stoick muttered, giving Hiccup another nudge. Hiccup straightened up even further but Astrid couldn't hide a giggle at his attempts.

"Yeah, this is as 'out' as it goes, Dad," he whispered back. Astrid let out a snort of laughter and having heard her, Hiccup made a face that said '_Oh, shut up, you_' in a playful way – it only served to make Astrid laugh even more, although she mouthed a quick 'sorry'.

"Ah, very well then," Stoick chuckled.

Later that morning, whilst the painting was being finalised, the Riders of Berk hung back in the Great Hall looking at the portraits of Berk's previous chiefs and heirs.

"Look at all these great leaders," Astrid remarked breathlessly as they walked past each painting in turn. Hiccup, as usual, had reverted to his silent self but unlike other times when he wouldn't speak because he was angry or annoyed with something, he was quiet with a happy pride. "And tomorrow, your picture's going to be hanging right next to them!" Astrid added, giving her fiancé a small nudge on the shoulder.

"There goes the neighbourhood," Snotlout snickered snidely. Astrid glared at him and punched his face – Hiccup had been giving her lessons – and felt a surge of satisfaction when her fist connected with Snotlout's nose and she heard a satisfying crunch. The downside was that her technique was still slightly off and she came away with a bruised knuckle.

"You are part of an elite group now, my friend," Fishlegs grinned, patting Hiccup on the shoulder as Astrid nursed her fist. "And one of the few who wasn't killed by their successor," he added with a nervous smirk. Hiccup saw the joke behind it and laughed until Tuffnut cut in.

"So far," the male Thorston twin scoffed. This time it was Hiccup's fist that became best friends with the guy's nose. Hiccup calmed down quickly enough though.

"I guess it is a pretty big deal," he smiled, looking at the portraits as they came across one in which the chief and his son were standing on Thor's Beach on the other side of the village. "I mean, it's like...being a part of history, right?" he added, casting a smile at Astrid who grinned in agreement.

"History of goof-balls," Snotlout sniggered. Astrid gave him another glare – just because _he_ didn't get a portrait.

"Do you want another bloody nose?" she hissed.

"I'd leave that to me until you perfect your technique," Hiccup muttered smugly. Astrid gave him a weak shove – she might be confident enough to throw a punch or two at Snotlout but she still needed to watch her step around Hiccup. Luckily he was in too much of a good mood to retaliate.

"Heh-heh, what a clown," Snotlout continued, scoffing at the portrait in front of them and ignoring Astrid's threat.

"_That_ is Hamish the First," Fishlegs cut across defensively. "He was our richest and most revered leader," he explained before pointing at the boy next to the chief in the painting. "And his son; Hamish the Second." Snotlout was still feeling put out and did a rather stupid impression which only made everyone roll their eyes.

"_I'm Hamish the First_," he sneered. "_Bow down before me and kiss my pointy shoes_."

Hiccup couldn't help but hide a snort of laughter behind a cough as the twins used this to their advantage to trip Snotlout up. While Ruffnut and Tuffnut did get on everyone's nerves at times, their antics were a laugh sometimes and whenever the teens weren't out training the dragons or having one of their many competitions, they entertained themselves watching the twins wrestle or having a 'Hit-Your-Head-As-Hard-As-You-Can' contest. To Fishlegs' horror, Snotlout knocked the painting of the two Hamishes off the wall.

"Look what you did to the Hamishes!" he exclaimed, picking up the shield and placing it back on the wall. "Forgive us, please!" he begged. As he placed the painting back, something fell from the back of it – it looked like a piece of parchment.

"What's that?" Tuffnut asked. "It's probably mine!" Sure, like Tuffnut _ever_ carried a piece of parchment in his pockets. Snotlout picked it up and began examining it.

"Looks like some sort of map," he noticed. Astrid jogged over and peered over Snotlout's shoulder to get a closer look but considering that Snotlout was about twice her size she couldn't make out much. "With poetry," he added when the parchment was snatched from his hands.

"I'll take that." It was Gobber.

"Hey!" Snotlout exclaimed. "That's my poetry map!" he protested. Again, Astrid rolled her eyes – come on, they'd _just_ found the dratted thing! Gobber ignored the boy, though and gave the map a glance.

"All of these were supposed to be destroyed..." he muttered, just loud enough for Hiccup to hear.

"Why?" the dark-auburn haired teen quizzed. "What's so special about it?" Gobber only half-answered the question.

"Men lost their limbs, their lives, and their minds trying to find that treasure," he explained darkly, Looks of confusion went around the group until it came to Fishlegs.

"I've heard about this!" he exclaimed excitedly. "The treasure of Hamish the First." Astrid's curiosity was caught – this was the first times she'd ever heard of such a treasure. She wondered if Hiccup knew anything about it although, judging by his curious expression, it was the first he'd heard of it as well. "His son buried him with it and left this map. They say that the clues are so complicated that only a brilliant mind can decipher them," Fishlegs explained.

"Stoick and I even went after this treasure," Gobber said gravely, staring at the map in his hands with a dark look. "It lured us high into the mountains in a blinding snow storm. We fought like badgers over the meaning of the clues." Astrid gulped – okay, maybe it was a good thing that Gobber had come in and taken the map when he did. This sounded dangerous. "We were lucky to make it back with our lives...and our friendship...intact."

The teens were all gazing at Gobber intently – Astrid, Hiccup and Fishlegs with a look of awe and '_okay-let's-not-do-that_' on their faces and Snotlout and the twins with a look of mischievous glee on theirs.

"For your own good kids, forget you ever saw this," Gobber urged, tucking the map into his pocket and leaving the hall. Astrid and Hiccup shared a look – they had no plans of going after that treasure and so _intended_ to forget about the map.

/\

The next morning, the entire village had gathered in the Great Hall to witness the unveiling of Stoick and Hiccup's portrait. The Riders of Berk had managed to bag themselves front row seats and Astrid, being the chief's foster daughter, was standing up front with Stoick and Hiccup anyway. Bucket had been working overnight to finish the painting and now it was finally about to be revealed.

"Here it comes, son," Stoick smiled, placing one hand on Hiccup's shoulder and gesturing towards the shield with the other. Hiccup was visibly bursting with excitement and Astrid could tell that he was struggling to stop himself from fidgeting. "This is our legacy!" Stoick announced as Bucket grabbed hold of the cloth covering the shield and tore it away to reveal...

...a painting of Stoick and what looked like a cross between Hiccup and Snotlout.

Astrid's eyes widened with shock and Hiccup's face froze into an expression of horror as all excitement vanished from his eyes. The boy standing next to Stoick in the painting looked nothing like him!

"Whoa," Tuffnut remarked, his eyebrows rising in confusion. "What happened to Hiccup?"

"Who cares?" Ruffnut smirked. Astrid could see why Ruffnut didn't really care about it – Hiccup looked more like a Viking in the painting than he did in real life – but personally it horrified her as much as it did her boyfriend. Speaking of whom, Hiccup had broken away from his father angrily and had stormed over to Bucket.

"Hey, Bucket?" he snapped. "Why am I so...like that?" he asked, infuriated with the painting. Bucket didn't seem to notice the boy's angry tone.

"Why is the sky blue?" he asked back philosophically. "Why do I have a bucket on my head? We'll never know the answers," he shrugged. Hiccup's face darkened to a frustrated confusion as Stoick walked over with a look of satisfaction on his face as he patted Hiccup on the shoulder.

"Oh, you did a brilliant job, Bucket!" he congratulated Bucket in thanks. "Don't you think so, son?" he asked, glancing down at Hiccup and seemingly ignoring the look of pure hate and anger on his face.

"But it's not me!" Hiccup protested, throwing his father's hand off his shoulder. Stoick turned to face the painting.

"Sure it is!" he argued. Astrid didn't think so and clearly Hiccup didn't either. "It's you but...you know...bigger." At that, Hiccup let out a soft huff of anger and began storming out of the hall. Stoick took no notice. "Stronger," he added.

"Now _that's_ the son of a chief," Mulch nodded in agreement. Astrid inhaled in offence – now _that_ was pushing it one step too far. She glanced around and noticed that Hiccup was nowhere in the near vicinity.

"You see what I mean?" Stoick asked, turning around to look at his son only to see no one standing beside him. "Hiccup?" he called. Suddenly, Astrid let out a shriek and ducked as, in reply to the chief's call, a knife came flying through the air, spinning blade over hilt before it embedded itself in the shield that the portrait had been painted on. A gasp of shock went around the hall and all eyes fell on the fifteen-year-old, skinny son of the chief standing in the doorway, his face black as thunder.

"No! I don't!" Hiccup roared. "_That's_ what I think of your stupid painting!" Without another word, he stormed away into the village whilst Bucket and Mulch tried to remove the knife from the shield. Astrid threw a nervous look towards Stoick before following Hiccup – she had to talk to him about this.

It didn't take too long for Astrid to find Hiccup – he was out in the Plaza with his sword practising his fighting skills. Astrid frowned – it had been a long time since Hiccup had done this to let off steam. Nowadays if the boy was in a bad mood it was common to see him flying with Stormfly to cool off – Hiccup hadn't spent time killing inanimate object in weeks.

"Hey..." Astrid mumbled nervously, rubbing her arm and keeping her distance as Hiccup slashed another scarecrow in two. The boy was so good with a sword it scared her sometimes – she could barely handle an axe. "Uh..."

"I take it you're here to say that '_it's not that bad_'," Hiccup scoffed, putting on his scornful impression of Astrid. She winced – it had been a long time since he'd used that and he usually reserved it for when he was really ticked off. She took a cautious step backwards as Hiccup smashed an empty barrel to smithereens.

"Actually, I was here to say I don't blame you for throwing a knife at the portrait," she corrected with a gulp. Hiccup stopped in his tracks and blinked a couple of times, making sure he'd heard Astrid correctly. Astrid took his silence as a sign to say that she was in the clear to continue. "I probably would have reacted the same way...if I could throw a knife," she grimaced. Hiccup sighed and threw his sword onto a nearby cart before walking through the village, heading back to the house.

"Unbelievable," he growled. "My father likes that painting better than the real me!" he cried in frustration. "I mean, think about it," he huffed. Astrid knew where this was going. "Even my name! You know it's a Viking tradition to call the runt of the litter a 'Hiccup'." Astrid knew all too well – it was something she'd never told Hiccup before. Maybe she should tell him now? It had to wait for a moment as a local shepherd walked through with his flock. Trailing behind most of the sheep was a smaller than average lamb that came bounding into the shepherd's arms.

"Come on, little Hiccup!" the shepherd called before looking up and spotting the real Hiccup. "Oh! Hey, Hiccup!" he greeted cheerily, ignoring the boy's angry expression.

"See?" Hiccup grumbled. Astrid bit her lip, not knowing how to reply to that. "What do I have to do to get my father to accept me?" Hiccup wondered, more to himself than anything else. Astrid summoned the courage to place a gentle hand on Hiccup's shoulder – this was the thing he had struggled with his entire life: to be accepted for who he was. All Hiccup had ever wanted since his mother vanished was to make his father proud of him.

"He does accept you..." Astrid protested. Hiccup scowled and shrugged her hand away.

"Sure he does," he remarked cynically. "He just accepts the painting more." Astrid sighed.

"Hiccup, you're not the only one, okay?" she said carefully. Hiccup looked at her questioningly. "I mean, with the whole 'Hiccup' thing."

"How so?" Hiccup asked dubiously. "It's not like you've got some stupid name that automatically makes people think you're a loser just because you're small."

"Actually, I _would_ have done," Astrid snapped. Hiccup blinked a couple of times in surprise. "It might come as a shock to you, but my parents _were_ going to call me Hiccup," she explained, crossing her arms and a small scowl crossing her face. Hiccup made a disbelieving look.

"You're kidding, right?" he smirked. Astrid shook her head.

"You know how people aren't supposed to call their kid the same name as the chief's heir?" she reminded Hiccup, who nodded his head. "Well, it just so happened that you were born before me and your parents settled on a name the day _I_ was born."

"So 'Astrid' was a last-minute change?" Hiccup realised.

"Exactly," Astrid nodded with an embarrassed sigh. She lowered her head briefly before breaking out her full secret. She might have been young when her parents were killed, but she _had_ been old enough at the time to remember this. "My full name's Astrid Hiccup Hofferson the Sixth," she admitted. "You might as well know."

"Whoa..." Hiccup exhaled slowly. So Astrid was a 'Hiccup' as well? "Sorry, I...I didn't know," he apologised awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You wouldn't have done," Astrid sighed, her shoulders slumping as she shifted her weight to her right leg to give her left one a break. "It's not like my parents told anyone, especially after..." she trailed off, the reason for her family's loss of honour filling her thoughts for the first time in ages. "...you know," she grimaced. Luckily, Hiccup's attention was caught by Fishlegs who was standing awkwardly by the forge.

"What are you doing out here...?" Hiccup began to ask, walking over with Astrid following close behind him but Fishlegs cut across him suspiciously.

"Nothing!" he protested before making a noise that was clearly a signal of some kind. "Coocoo! Coocoo!" he called towards the back of the forge. Astrid sagged.

"Oh, gods..." she groaned. "Okay, where are they?" she asked, placing a hand on her hip.

"Who?" Fishlegs asked nervously before continuing the noises, although with a very slight variation. "Who-hoo! Who-hoo!" he hooted. Astrid rolled her eyes and stormed around to the back of the forge where Snotlout was emerging from the window, aided by the twins. He had a piece of parchment in his hands.

"What are you doing?!" she snapped angrily. Snotlout smirked at her.

"I've got the map," he snickered. "We're finding that treasure!" he exclaimed gleefully before glaring at Fishlegs who shrank ashamedly. "And you are a horrible look out," Snotlout huffed. Astrid made a snatch for the map but Snotlout whipped it out of reach.

"You heard what Gobber said," Hiccup groaned. "The bravest warriors in history have died trying to find that treasure," he reminded his cousin who didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

"Yeah. And I'm next," he smirked in reply. Astrid crossed her arms next to Hiccup.

"Well, I, personally, would like to live to see my next birthday," she muttered. "I've had _way_ too many close calls."

"Got that right," Hiccup muttered back cynically. Astrid elbowed him sharply in the ribs – it earned her nothing except another bruised shoulder.

"We'll be legends!" Fishlegs pointed out excitedly. Okay, since when was _he_ such a thrill seeker? "They'll sing songs about us."

"You'll be dead" Astrid argued sharply, rubbing her shoulder to ease the bruising. "Come on, guys, not even Stoick could find it," she pointed out, remembering what Gobber had told them the day before. Hiccup's eyes suddenly widened slightly.

"You're right," he whispered. "He couldn't..." For a moment, Hiccup trailed off as if in though before he strode over to Snotlout and snatched the map from his hands. "Give me that map!" he exclaimed. Astrid sighed with relief.

"Finally!" she exclaimed. "Someone is making sense," she smirked at the teens. What she heard next, though, threw her off kilter.

"Alright, where do we start?" Hiccup wondered, examining the map. If Astrid had been having a drink, she would have done a spit-take and the others would be covered in liquid.

"Are you serious?" she cried before wincing as she put too much weight on her left leg. "Ouch..." she mumbled. Hiccup wasn't done – his face was now lit up with his usual determined shine and his eyes were glittering again.

"Think about it, Astrid," he urged. "My father couldn't find that treasure." Yeah, what did that have to do with anything? "What would he say if I did something that even '_Stoick the Vast_' couldn't do?" Hiccup pointed out, putting on his own impression of his father. Astrid glared at him, partly because she thought he was being an idiot and partly because she was slightly jealous that his impression of Stoick was better than her own. "How great would that be?"

"You're gonna go after this no matter what I say, right?" Astrid groaned, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"Yep, pretty much," Hiccup shrugged smugly.

"So, yeah," Astrid admitted with a small smirk. "Pretty great."

"So you're not gonna give me a hard time about this?" Hiccup asked in the same smug tone. Astrid rolled her eyes and cross her arms.

"First off, I don't usually give you a hard time with anything," she pointed out. "_You're_ the one who gives me a hard time about my decisions." Hiccup made a face at her. Astrid's smirk grew. "This time, however, I am _so_ gonna give you a hard time. Every step of the way," she snickered slyly, poking Hiccup on the shoulder. She was gradually building confidence around the boy but a small poke was still pretty much the most she could get away with.

"So, you're game?" Hiccup chuckled slightly, his smirk turning into a genuine smile.

"You're not the only one with something to prove," Astrid reminded him. "Besides, I can't let you go with just _them_," she added, indicating her head to the twins who were having a 'Hit-My-Head-As-Hard-As-You-Can' contest.

"Harder!" Tuffnut encouraged as Ruffnut thwacked his head for the umpteenth time. "I said I want to see stars!" Ruffnut clobbered his jaw and Tuffnut spun around a few times before collapsing to the floor. Ignoring them, the others turned their attention back to the map.

"It looks like the map leads you to these spots," Hiccup noticed, pointing at a few points on the parchment.

"And the riddles are clues to what we're supposed to find!" Fishlegs added before Snotlout snatched the map back from his cousin.

"Blah, blah, blah!" he huffed. "Where's the treasure?" He began skimming over the map and the riddles written on it. "Hmm, clue number one: '_Where the land meets the sea, in the crook of the master's knee, that's where your search will be...gin_'," he recited, frowning as he read. Astrid also smirked in confusion – well, that clue could have been written a bit better.

"That doesn't sound so brilliant," Ruffnut scoffed as Tuffnut regained consciousness.

"Okay. Think, think, think, think, think..." Tuffnut muttered, pounding his fists against his helmet. Hiccup made a sarcastic face – yeah, Tuffnut and thinking never really went well together. "Think, think...I forgot what I was thinking about," the male Thorston twin groaned. Case closed on the thinking thing. Astrid took another look at the map and spotted the drawing next to the first riddle.

"The '_master's knee_'?" she repeated before suddenly recognised the drawing. "I've seen this before!" she exclaimed.

Grabbing the map from Snotlout she raced back to the Great Hall with the rest of the Riders hot on her heels. She instantly ran over to the paintings and straight over to the one of Hamish the First and Second. Glancing at the map again to make sure she had it right, she pointed out the outcrop painting by Hamish the First's knee.

"Look, right there," she pointed. "Where his knee bends." The spot was by Thor's beach so the team quickly called their dragons and set off. Astrid tucked the map into her belt pouch for safe keeping until they arrived. Once they were there, she couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction – they had already completed the first step of the hunt. After scanning the beach for any obvious signs of treasure and seeing none, she dug the map out again.

"Listen up, you guys," she called before reciting the next clue. "'_From here you will see the seed that's been sown. Look to where water turns to bone_'," she read. Hiccup began thinking about what it could mean – apart from Astrid his mind was the sharpest of any Viking.

"'_Water turns to bone_'?" Snotlout repeated in confusion. "Hamish isn't even trying to make sense!" he groaned from Hookfang's back. Hiccup's face was scrunched up in thought. It couldn't be the literal meaning...

"No, it..." he trailed off in thought. "'_Water turns to bone_'...'_water turns to bone_'..." Hiccup suddenly had a 'eureka' moment. "He must mean ice!" he realised, remembering how water turned hard and white when it froze, giving it similar characteristics to bone. Astrid caught on immediately as she turned her head around to the cliff.

"The glacier!" she exclaimed. The team had their next location.

Meanwhile, back in the village, the Riders' disappearance hadn't gone unnoticed. Stoick and Gobber were pacing up and down in the Great Hall, knowing what the teens had done.

"You had the map and you didn't destroy it?!" Stoick bellowed. "What were you thinking?"

"I know, I'm an idiot," Gobber huffed. "I thought you and I could take another crack at finding that treasure," he shrugged. Yeah, like that would justify anything.

"Gobber!" Stoick snapped.

"We turned back too early!" Gobber protested. "So we lost a couple of toes..."

"Argh!" Stoick huffed in exasperation. They had to find the teens. "Come on, Gobber," he growled, leading his friend out of the Great Hall and towards Thor's Beach. "We've got to find Hiccup and the others before they get themselves killed. Why would he do something like this?" he wondered aloud.

Behind him, unseen, Gobber glanced back at the painting of Stoick and the stockier Hiccup – the painting that still had a dagger dent right between the two people in the picture. Gobber sighed with annoyance – how could Stoick miss this?

/\

"There's something in there," Hiccup noticed once the team had arrived at the glacier. Astrid knelt down on the ice, making sure not to slip as she leant on Toothless' flank for support and examined the dark shape slightly embedded in the ice.

"I bet that guy saw it too," Fishlegs winced. Astrid glanced sideways and grimaced when she saw the frozen Viking in the ice beside her. That looked ugly...they had to make sure they got this one right.

"'_Call on Magni, you'll go astray..._'," she recited, fishing the map out again. "'_Loki, though, will show the way_'," she finished, standing up so that she could get a bit more light. Snotlout patted her on the shoulder in a way that was supposed to be affectionate but to Astrid it just came off as creepy – she _really_ wished that Snotlout would make up his mind as to whether he was _hitting_ on her or _hating_ on her and, if she honest, she'd rather it'd be the latter.

"I get it," he smirked, kneeling down in the ice and starting to ram his head into it, gradually chipping the ice above the object away. Astrid's attention was caught by a creaking noise above their heads – Hiccup had heard it too and spotted a spring-loaded crushing arm that was preparing to dislodge from its spot in the wall above them.

"No!" he yelled, diving at Snotlout and shoving him out of the way just at the spring-loaded club smashed into the ice – if Hiccup hadn't acted quickly enough, Snotlout would have been crushed and as much as Astrid didn't like him that much, she didn't want to see that happen. She glanced at the map again and had her own eureka moment.

"We can't break the ice," she realised. Hiccup's green eyes flashed in realisation as well.

"Of course! That's what Magni means," he remembered. "He's the God of strength." Astrid's face broke into a smile of epiphany.

"That's right! And Loki..." she began before Hiccup chimed in.

"Is the God of Fire!" they chorused.

"Whoa, mental sync?" Tuffnut smirked.

"You guys really _are_ meant for each other," Ruffnut teased. Astrid flushed bright red and Hiccup shot a glare at the twins.

"Oh...shut up!" he glowered although Astrid felt slightly happy when she saw his freckled cheeks turn pink.

"Anyway, fire's exactly what we're going to use," she cut in to save her boyfriend from any further embarrassment, whistling Toothless over. "Toothless, you know what to do," she smiled, tucking the map away into her belt pouch again. "Light 'em up, pal," she ordered.

Toothless obliged with a sustained stream of blue flame over the object concealed within the ice. It was slow going so Hiccup called Stormfly over – with her magnesium based flame being the hottest of all dragons, the ice was soon thawed. Hiccup knelt down and examined the object, gently picking it up but burning his finger slightly on the hot metal.

"Ow!" he winced. Astrid smirked next to him.

"Well, what did you _think_ was going to happen?" she pointed out before wincing in pain herself as Hiccup's fist came into contact with her arm – she wished that it would one day accidentally meet her shoulder pads by accident but given Hiccup's nigh-on immaculate aim, it really was wishful thinking.

"That's it?" Ruffnut frowned dryly. "This the treasure?" Astrid took the item from Hiccup as he nursed his fingers and examined it closely. It looked like a piece of a puzzle or something – the way it was formed made it look like there should be something else to it.

"No," she shook her head. "Can't be. But I bet this will lead us to it," she explained before Tuffnut snatched it from her.

"Take us to the treasure!" he ordered. Astrid sagged with irritation.

"Let me know if it answers," Hiccup requested sarcastically as Astrid snatched the item back.

"This is just the first piece..." she began when a resounding _CRACK_ sounded throughout the glacier's cavern. "Whoa...WHOA!" Astrid yelped. Hiccup let out a cry as he spotted the ice cracking beneath their feet and yelled for his dragon – the other teens followed suite, racing out of the glacier before they became trapped in a tomb of ice.

/\

Meanwhile, Gobber and Stoick had just arrived on Thor's Beach. They had been searching for the teens for most of the afternoon but still to no avail. However, Gobber had spotted faint marks in the wet sand.

"Night Fury prints," he realised, picking up a pinch of sand – apparently Gobber had been a decent tracker in his younger days and could tell how long ago someone or something had been in a certain place judging by the scent of their tracks. "They were here..." He took a small sniff. "...about an hour ago," he decided.

"I'll never understand how you do that," Stoick remarked, impressed. "What does an hour ago smell like, Gobber?"

"Not as strong as a half hour ago," Gobber replied dryly when a loud crashing noise from above them caught their attention. Stoick's pale green eyes widened with fear as he saw the glacier crashing down – he failed to notice a group of dragons flying out of the chaos.

"Look!" he exclaimed. "The kids must have found something up there."

"It _was_ in the glacier!" Gobber huffed, his memory of the time he spent looking for the treasure with Stoick coming back to him. "I knew it!" he exclaimed in frustration.

"Oh, you knew it, did you?" Stoick snapped cynically. Honestly – when he spoke like that it was no surprise as to where Hiccup got his dry comebacks from. "Then how come we spent a week digging in the sand?"

"That was your idea!" Gobber protested. Stoick frowned in realisation.

"Hiccup got further in one afternoon than we got in a month," he noted. Gobber's indignant protesting look switched to a sarcastic glare.

"Yeah. Looks like the little Hiccup's got the best of us," he pointed out dryly. "And we think we're the _big, strong_ Vikings," he added sarcastically.

"What are you saying, Gobber?" Stoick frowned. Gobber stopped dropping hints and spelt it out for the chief in plain runes.

"Stoick, it's the painting," he growled. Stoick suddenly realised what his son was doing

"Of course! He's trying to prove himself," he sighed before realising one more thing. "Astrid too..."

"Astrid?" Gobber repeated. "I thought she was the lad's voice of reason! Not that he listens to her..." Stoick remembered that Gobber didn't know about Astrid's other name.

"She's always wanted to prove herself as well," he explained sadly. "She's a 'Hiccup' herself."

/\

"_'At the edge of the world, amidst the raging sea, in the serpent's mouth, lies another key'_," Astrid recited as the team rested on an outcrop. The winds were picking up and a lot of the dragons were struggling to stay stable in the air if they weren't moving at high speeds.

"Serpents? I hate serpents," Tuffnut shuddered. "Those are reptiles, right?"

"You _do_ realise you're sitting on one?" Ruffnut pointed out. Tuffnut squirmed on top of his dragon's head (Astrid could never tell them apart...she guessed it was Belch).

"Hey!" Snotlout exclaimed from Hookfang's back, pointing at the sky.** "**That cloud looks like a snake!" he pointed out.

"Yeah, and in five minutes, it'll look like a bunny," Astrid snapped, folding her arms. She was sick of Snotlout's stupid inputs.

"Wait, wait, wait a minute!" Hiccup exclaimed, jumping off Stormfly's back and taking the map from Astrid for a moment. "He might be onto something," he pointed out. Astrid stared at him incredulously.

"Uh, this is _your_ _cousin_ we're talking about," she hissed, just out of Snotlout's hearing range.

"No, I'm serious," Hiccup insisted, reading the clue left on the map. "_'In the mouth... Lies the key'_!" he repeated with a tone of realisation, glancing at another outcrop in the distance that looked like one drawn on the map – it looked like a sea serpent. "Look! Right there!" he pointed.

"Alright!" Astrid congratulated, shifting forward in her saddle slightly for Hiccup to climb up. "Hop up!" Hiccup obliged. "Toothless, let's go!" she instructed, about to nudge the Night Fury into the air.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you crazy?" Fishlegs exclaimed. "You can't take a Night Fury with a wingspan of forty-eight feet and expect him to hover in winds like that!" he pointed out. Astrid winced – true, but how were they supposed to get to that key piece? "You'll be killed!" Hiccup's face lit up first.

"And...what's the wingspan of Meatlug?" he asked.

Later Fishlegs had flown Astrid and Hiccup over to the outcrop. The two skinny teens were dangling from a rope – they'd only brought a short one so Astrid had tied it around her waist and was dangling upside down, holding Hiccup's left arm in a vice-grip.

"Keep her steady!" she called up to Fishlegs and Meatlug as they got closer to the key piece which Hiccup could see glinting in the sun.

"Oh, Thor! Oh, Thor!" Fishlegs muttered fearfully. "Do we really need that treasure? Isn't our friendship treasure enough?" he asked, his voice squeaking with fear. Hiccup reached out with his free arm but the key piece was just out of his reach.

"I can't reach it!" he shouted above the winds.

"Okay, we tried," Fishlegs replied hastily. "'A' for effort!"

"Hold on!" Astrid yelled, reaching as far as she could for her metal left leg. With some difficultly, she removed it and handed it to Hiccup – although slightly grossed out, he knew what she meant for him to do with it and began using it as a hook.

"Okay..." he whispered, his face scrunched up in concentration and his trademark determined glint never leaving his eyes.

"Come on..." Astrid muttered as Hiccup finally managed to hook the metal foot of her prosthetic under the key piece.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. Hiccup realised that he had no free hands left – however, Astrid did. "Astrid! Catch!" he yelled, flipping the key piece up into the air. Astrid let her instincts take over and grabbed the piece of metal quickly before it fell into the ocean.

"Yes! Got it!" she exclaimed joyfully as she caught it. Fishlegs took that as the signal to head back to land, which he gratefully did. Once back on dry land, Hiccup handed Astrid her leg back and she handed him the key piece.

"How was _that_ for a couple of Hiccups?" Astrid grinned silently to her fiancé, who smiled back and they shared a small high five – not big enough to be noticed by the others, but enough for them to feel proud of themselves. Once Astrid's leg was back in place, Hiccup took out the key pieces and put them side by side.

"Look! They fit together!" he confirmed.

"We must be on the right track," Astrid grinned. Satisfied that they were headed in the right direction, the team mounted the dragons and set off to the next location on the map which was located on the other side of Berk. On the way, the teens began talking about what they were going to do once they'd found the treasure – this was mostly coming from Snotlout and the twins, though. Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs had varying degrees of disinterest in the treasure itself.

"Hiccup, what are you going to do with your part of the treasure?" Ruffnut asked coyly. It was no secret that Ruffnut, like Astrid, had a mega-crush on the young son of the chief but she was less forward about it than Snotlout's occasional attempts at woe-ing Astrid.

"I'm not really here for the treasure," Hiccup replied from Stormfly's back. Astrid was at the front of the formation again, scanning for the spot scribbled in the map – she concurred with Hiccup. As much as she wanted to help him show everyone that he wasn't just a 'Hiccup', she didn't care about the treasure at all.

"Great!" Snotlout grinned. "I get his share!"

"You can have mine too, if it means that much to you," Astrid offered dryly, not even looking at Snotlout as her attention was focused on the ground below.

"Alright!" Snotlout cheered. "Just let me know if there's something you _really_ like," he added in an attempt to sound suave. It failed and Astrid's grimaced in disgust. "Be sure to ask and I'll make sure it's yours."

"Engaged here, you moron!" Astrid snapped. Hiccup never mentioned it but he felt his heart flutter slightly at that – it was nice to see that despite their otherwise rocky relationship Astrid was still faithful to him. He'd get Snotlout later, he decided.

"You know..." Fishlegs stammered. "Y...you don't have to do this? Right?" he whimpered

"Yeah," Hiccup huffed, shooting at cynical glare at his friend. "Try telling that to my dad," he suggested when Astrid suddenly sat upright in her saddle on Toothless' back.

"There!" she called, leading them downwards. The team landed in a clearing where a large stone wall had been built. "This must be the spot," Astrid noted, shielding her eyes against the late afternoon sun. "Why else would anybody build a wall in the middle of the woods?"

"Uh, duh," Tuffnut snickered. "To keep out the other trees." Astrid rolled her eyes and pulled out the map again, smoothing it out so that she could read the next riddle.

"Uh, I got another one for you," she chuckled slightly. This one, the twins weren't likely to get...at all. "_'The world is right, when stars align; when not in sync, the danger you'll find_'," she recited before looking at the wall again, trying to search for clues.

"Stars!?" Snotlout exclaimed in distaste. "I'm not waiting around here for night!" he protested.

"I don't think he means actual stars," Astrid shrugged, gesturing at the map in her usual way. "I mean, the water didn't really turn to bone," she pointed out, reminding the boy of the first clue they'd solved earlier.

"Well, what do you think it means, Astrid?" Fishlegs asked curiously.

"Why are you asking her?" Snotlout cut in with a snicker. "Maybe I know," he added, crossing his arms. Astrid smirked slyly and rolled the map up, tucking it under her arm.

"Very well," she remarked. "Snotlout, what do _you_ think it means?" she asked in a dry sweet tone that was dripping with sarcasm. Snotlout's smirk vanished.

"I said '_Maybe_'," he pointed out. "Turns out, I don't."

"Well, then shut up unless you _do_ know something next time," Astrid huffed, taking the map out again. "It'd be a big help to everyone."

"Huh..." Hiccup frowned, examining the wall up close. His hand traced some scratches on the stones that made up the wall. "There are shapes carved into each one of these bricks," he noticed. Astrid figured it out instantly.

"Keep a lookout for anything that looks like a star!" she ordered, scanning the wall. Snotlout, however, got there first.

"Got one!" he called, beginning to pull out a brick. However, as he did so, the wall began shaking and bricks started falling loose.

"Put it back! Put it back! Put it back!" Fishlegs yelled in terror.

"Hookfang! Hookfang!" Snotlout yelped, backing at least twenty yards away from the wall as his dragon pushed the stone back into place. The shaking and rumbling stopped and everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Astrid glanced at the riddle again.

"Okay..." she panted. "It says, '_In sync_'," she repeated. "That means there must be another star!" she realised. Hiccup was quick off the mark to find it.

"Over here!" he called, pointing at the brick in question.

"I think we're supposed to pull them out at the same time," Astrid noted. Hiccup nodded and turned to the twins – their Zippleback would be perfect for this one.

"Ruff? Tuff?" he quizzed. The twins nodded and began using hand signals to guided their dragon to the stars. Barf and Belch then proceeded to carefully pull the bricks out, perfectly in time with each other. Once the stones were removed, an opening appeared in the wall leading into a dark cavern. Astrid broke some branches off a nearby pine tree and had Toothless light them so that they could roughly see where they were going. Once the team were inside, the door shut behind them.

"This is amazing," Ruffnut remarked in awe as they walked through the tunnel. Astrid suddenly felt a bead of sweat drip down her cheek – her leather headband suddenly felt uncomfortable and her shoulder pads were starting to warm up.

"Ugh...it's so hot..." Snotlout panted. "Is anybody else hot?" he asked, wiping his brow. "Cos I'm really hot," he noted. Astrid was starting to get worried as her torch burnt out. Her fur boot, usually comfortably warm especially in late autumn and early winter, suddenly felt unbearable to wear but the heat radiating off nearby rocks told her that she didn't want to take it off.

"I know," Tuffnut concurred with Snotlout, adjusting his helmet. "I'm sweating like a dragon in an eel party."

"Yeah...we can tell..." Ruffnut gasped for breath. Hiccup twitched worriedly next to Astrid.

"Uh, guys?" he frowned. "Is it just me or is the floor moving?" he asked nervously. Astrid glanced at the floor and saw a faint glow flitting about beneath her feet.

"Uh, Toothless can you give us some light?" she requested. Toothless obliged and shot a fireball at the ceiling rocks, causing them to glow with heat. That wasn't the only thing that started glowing – whatever was moving on the floor began glimmering orange.

"That's why it's so hot in here," Fishlegs realised. "Fireworm dragons." Astrid gulped – just perfect. Fireworm dragons were tiny reptiles even smaller than Terrible Terrors. They were rarely seen in daylight and could sometimes be found in inland caves – they hated the sea – and whilst their firepower was nothing spectacular, they made up for it with their typical-Stoke-Class-characteristic of burning hot skin, hotter even than a Monstrous Nightmare.

"Whoa," Tuffnut grinned, picking one up.

"Stop!" Astrid yelped, throwing her torch away as the Fireworms began glowing brighter. "Their skin burns hotter than the sun," she warned. Tuffnut ignored her and held the tiny dragon in the palm of his hand.

"Yeah, but how hot can the sun really be?" he shrugged when the Fireworm began shining bright orange, burning at full heat and searing Tuffnut's palm pink and causing him to yelp in pain and drop the darn thing. It was at that point that things really started heating up in the cavern – Astrid darted her gaze around for some kind of clue. The Fireworms began advancing on the team – the bigger dragons kept them at bay with streams of fire, taking over from one another whenever one ran out of gas but it wasn't helping on the heat front.

"Come on, there's gotta be something...Ahh!" Astrid yelped as a group of four pedestals rose from the ground in the centre of the room. On each one was what looked like pieces of the key but Astrid knew that they only needed one.

"Grab 'em and let's go!" Snotlout shouted, sweltering from the heat. Astrid and Hiccup walked into the middle of the pedestals.

"No, it's a choice," Astrid explained, pulling out the map again. "Listen to this, guys." She began to read the final clue written on the parchment. "_'Something pure and something strong; look first to yourself and you won't go wrong_'," she recited.

"Strong? That must be the one made of iron," Fishlegs suggested.

"But iron's not pure," Hiccup pointed out, beginning to walk over to another pedestal. "What about the gold?" he suggested.

"Not strong," Astrid pointed out. "Pure gold in malleable, remember?" she reminded her boyfriend – having spent most of her life in the forge as Gobber's apprentice, Astrid knew the properties of metal well and gold, whilst the purest metal she worked with, had to be strengthened using copper or some other metal which caused it to lose its purity. There had to be something else...

"It's getting really hard to breathe!" Ruffnut panted.

"That's what happens when you're getting roasted alive!" Fishlegs yelled fearfully. "You might wanna make a decision soon, guys!" he shouted to Astrid and Hiccup who were stilling thinking the clue over. "We don't have much time." Astrid's attention was caught by the firelight in the cavern reflecting off something – something shiny. Glancing over her shoulder, her eyes rested on the final piece of the key – the one made of reflective metal.

"_'Look to yourself..._'," she repeated, walking over to the piece and examining it. On the shiny surface of the metal object, her storm-blue eye stared straight back at her. Her hand drifted over it but she drew back as her skin came into contact with the hot metal. Hiccup spotted her and caught onto what she was thinking but was still cautious.

"Careful, it could be a trap," he warned. Astrid took a deep breath before snatching the object off the pedestal. Everything fell silent and the Fireworms began retreating – Astrid heaved a sigh of relief.

"We did it...WHOA!" she shrieked as the floor beneath her suddenly gave way, revealing a dark pit beneath her.

"Astrid!" Hiccup yelled, running forward to catch her but losing his footing as he did so. The other teens were still at the side and managed to escape the falling floor but now the entire cavern was starting to cave in. Before anyone could blink, Astrid and Hiccup had vanished into the pit and Toothless had jumped straight in after them.

"We've got to get out of here!" Tuffnut yelped, running for Barf-Belch. His sister followed suit. Snotlout shot his eyes around for an escape route – he found one.

"Through there!" he called. Fishlegs was reluctant to leave.

"We can't just leave them!" he protested. Snotlout shot him an insistent glare and said possibly the smartest thing he'd ever come up with in his entire life.

"If we don't go now we'll all be trapped," he pointed out. "There won't be anybody to help Hiccup _or_ Astrid!"

Reluctantly, Fishlegs hopped onto Meatlug's back and Stormfly roared mournfully before they followed the other three teens and dragons through the hole up top and bursting out into the sunlight just as the cavern caved in completely.

/\

"Oww..." a small moan came.

"Ouch...something's in my face..." another voice came, this one lower and more nasal.

"Hiccup? That you?" the first voice muttered.

"Astrid?"

"You okay?"

"Well, I'd be a lot better if I could actually see anything!"

_Growl_

"Toothless? Pal, can you give us some light?"

A blue fireball was shot into a nearby stalactite, revealing the pile that the Night Fury and two remaining teens had landed themselves in. Astrid flushed bright red when she saw she had landed right on top of Hiccup and that the both of them were being squashed by Toothless' tail. Well, this was possibly just as awkward as the avalanche incident, if not more so.

"Heh..." Astrid giggled nervously as Hiccup also blushed crimson and he swatted Astrid's plait out of his face. "At least I had a soft landing...OW!" she yelped as Hiccup whacked her chest and knocked her off onto the floor.

"Mention this to _no one_!" he hissed. Astrid nursed her stomach and nodded in agreement before looking around as she got to her feet. Helping Hiccup up and leaning on Toothless for support, she looked around the new set of tunnels they'd found themselves in.

"I wonder..." she muttered. Hiccup placed a hand on her shoulder and grinned his trademark lopsided smile.

"Well, we've come this far," he shrugged. Astrid grinned back.

/\

On the surface, the teens had started to dig frantically to find Astrid, Hiccup and Toothless. Stormfly was desperately tearing rocks away from the earth in her beak and tossing them away in an attempt to find and free her rider, Snotlout was throwing rocks over his shoulder, as were the twins and Fishlegs was tossing rocks into Meatlug's mouth behind him. The sun was setting quickly and they wanted to find the three before it got dark.

"Keep digging!" Snotlout ordered.

"We've gotta find them!" Fishlegs panted when he heard someone behind him

"Find who?" Stoick the Vast growled as he strode over to the three remaining teens. His glare turned into a face of pure terror when their faces told him everything he needed to know. "Son!" he yelled in anguish, rushing over to help move the rocks. But it wasn't just Hiccup who was missing. "Astrid!"

/\

Back in the caves, Astrid, Hiccup and Toothless were exploring using only the light given off by the rocks Toothless blasted with his fireballs.

"Do you think we'll ever find a way out of this place?" Hiccup wondered aloud. Astrid rubbed her arm nervously.

"There's gotta be some way to get out," she hoped. "I mean, how else would Hamish II have been able to leave all of his father's treasure down here and get out without having to set off that floor-caving-in-thing?" she pointed out.

"Well, you've got a point," Hiccup shrugged before slumping down on a nearby rock with a sigh. Astrid frowned – it wasn't like Hiccup to give out like this.

"You okay?" she asked gently, kneeling down beside him.

"Just wondering if this really _was_ worth anything," Hiccup admitted. "I mean, we've followed all of those clues," he pointed out. "And still nothing! Now we're trapped underground with no idea of how to get ourselves outta here..." he trailed off when Astrid placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You got a good few things right there, as usual," she smiled. "True – we are stuck underground. Yes – we don't know how to get out of here..."

"You're not exactly filling me with confidence, mi' lady," Hiccup smirked sarcastically.

"Well, let me finish then," Astrid smirked back, feeling her heart flutter when Hiccup called her 'mi' lady'. She secretly loved it when he did that, regardless of the situation. "You're also right that we've followed all the clues." Hiccup frowned. "_We_ figured them out," Astrid pointed out, knowing that her point wasn't getting across. A smile – a true, genuine smile – spread across Hiccup's freckled face as he hugged Astrid in thanks, taking her by surprise for a second.

"You're right...again," Hiccup muttered gently as Astrid hugged him back. As always, he was the one to instigate the embrace and was the one to break it. "We're gonna to find a way out of here..." Astrid hushed him when her attention was caught by something on the ground. It was a circular indent with some parts of the rock protruding upwards like spokes – spokes which would hold the three key pieces.

"This has gotta be it," she noted, fishing the piece of key she'd collected earlier from her belt pouch. Hiccup fetched the others from his pockets and the pair knelt down, placing them into the indent on the floor. Turning them a couple of times, a pedestal rose from the floor and a rock moved above them, sending light flooding into the cavern. Astrid was momentarily blinded when the light started to be reflected off something shiny – once her vision had adjusted, her jaw dropped when she spotted a pile of gold and silver.

Piled in a mound that went from the floor of the cave to the ceiling was more treasure than Astrid had ever seen or even could have imagined seeing. Everywhere she looked there was something – goblets, crowns, coins, statuettes, plates...you name it, it was there. Next to her, Hiccup's jaw had also hit the floor.

"I can't believe it..." he muttered. "We actually found it!" Astrid walked forward to the pedestal in front of her, atop of which lay a scroll. Squinting with curiosity, she picked it up and began to read it – what the runes read made her heart swell with pride.

"Hey, Hiccup," she nudged. "Look at this." She held the parchment in a small patch of dim light so that she could read it out loud. "_'This treasure was passed from father to son. I leave it to you the next worthy one_'," she recited.

"Wow – he left congratulations?" Hiccup smirked. Astrid gave him a weak shove before continuing.

"No, Hatchet-Head," she laughed slightly. "There's more. Look." She gave the scroll to Hiccup and he began to read the last part of the inscription.

"_'For only a Hiccup could get this far_'!" he read, his eyes widening in amazement. The way that 'Hiccup' had been written made Astrid imagine it being said with a capital 'H', the same way Hiccup's name was said. _"'From one to another, be proud of who you are!_'," the young teen finished, an astonished expression crossing his face as he flipped the parchment over – Astrid was stunned to see a sketch of Hamish I, who was standing in the same setting as the portrait back in the Great Hall. The main difference in the picture was Hamish II who was standing at his father's side, except it wasn't the buff teenaged son of the chief that the painting had shown.

"Whoa...Hamish II was a 'Hiccup'!" Astrid realised, glancing at her boyfriend with a joyous smile spreading across her face. "Just like you!" she added. Hiccup shook his head with a contented smile and looked at his girlfriend.

"No," he corrected. "Just like _us_," he pointed out. Astrid flushed red and was glad that the light was low enough for Hiccup not to notice. "He knew only another one of us could find this place," he realised, his gaze going back at the treasure. "Look at all this stuff!"

"I guess being a 'Hiccup' isn't such a bad thing after all," Astrid shrugged with a grin. Hiccup looked back at her with his trademark lopsided grin greeting her gaze when she turned to face him.

"Whoever said it was?" Hiccup asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "'Hiccup'?" he jokingly added. Astrid smirked and, for the first time in her life, punched Hiccup on the shoulder hard enough to send him recoiling slightly and bringing up a hand to nurse the bruise that would be forming under his sleeve. "Hey!" he chuckled. Astrid laughed as well, grateful that Hiccup didn't retaliate. The moment was cut short when another set of pedestals rose from the floor in front of them. The nearest one had another scroll resting on it, the back left one had a quill balanced on top of it and the back right one had a hammer atop of it.

"Wow, so Hamish II really loved pedestals," Astrid remarked sarcastically, picking up the parchment and unrolling it as she did so – she made a face when she saw what was written on it. "And apparently riddles," she added dryly. Hiccup and Toothless snorted behind her as Hiccup peered over her shoulder.

"What've we got this time?" he asked.

"'_Between body and mind, a choice must be made on what you find_'," Astrid read. "That's gotta mean the feather or the hammer."

"What's the next part say?" Hiccup quizzed.

"'_At this moment you must look to yourself, as only one path will give you true wealth_'," Astrid finished. She let out a sharp gasp as she heard a rumbling noise and it wasn't coming from Toothless' stomach (look, they hadn't eaten since lunch, okay? Give the reptile a break). "That...didn't sound good," she winced.

"You're telling me!" Hiccup exclaimed, pointing at the ceiling and shielding his head from a falling boulder – the rocks were caving in around the two teens, Toothless and the treasure of Hamish I. Astrid sagged.

"Oh, come on Hamish," she moaned. "You're killing us."

It was meant to be a joke but no one laughed – Astrid and Hiccup knew that they had one decision standing between them and getting out of the cave alive. Glancing at the last two remaining pedestals again, they looked at each other as they made the decision together before running towards their choice.

/\

Back on the surface, the rest of the team were still digging, now with Gobber and Stoick, desperately trying to find Astrid, Hiccup and Toothless. The sun was setting fast and they had still made little headway.

"Keep digging!" Stoick ordered, his voice cracking in desperation. "That's my son and foster daughter in there!" A rumbling noise behind the group caught their attention – Stoick was horrified to see the ground caving into a sink hole, pulling trees under the ground and falling into itself. "Hiccup...Astrid..." Stoick muttered in shock. Nearby, Gobber removed his helmet and held it to his chest, as did Fishlegs. Snotlout was too in shock to move, as were the twins. There was no way anyone could have survived that...

Except the two gangly teenagers and black reptile standing in the very centre of the sink hole, the boy clasping a pure white goose feather quill in his hand and the girl clutching a scroll of parchment to her chest as they held each other close for security under the dragon's protective wings. When they saw Stoick, Gobber and the rest of the gang, an identical grin showing a mixture of relief and pride spread across both of their faces.

"Son! Astrid!" Stoick exclaimed in joyous relief, running over as Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless climbed out of the sink hole

"Hey, Dad," Hiccup greeted, panting as he helped Astrid up the slope. The two teens ran over to Stoick who lifted them into a bear hug as though they weighed nothing at all (not surprising, they only weighed about 90 pounds each).

"Uh, Stoick...can't breathe..." Astrid gasped as Stoick nearly choked her. The chief flushed as red as his beard and set the teens down – Astrid stumbled a little bit as she regained her balance when she landed on her left leg slightly wrong but luckily Toothless was right behind her.

"Oh, by the gods!" Gobber exclaimed, maybe more joyfully than he'd wanted to sound. "You're okay!" he sighed in relief.

"Hiccup! Astrid! Thank Thor, you're alive!" Fishlegs spluttered happily, running over but giving the pair some space. "What happened?"

"We were actually starting to worry there," Snotlout smirked, trying to come across as his usual shrug-everything-that-happens-to-Astrid-and-Hiccup-off self but Hiccup smiled slightly when he heard the trace of care in his cousin's voice. The twins, however...

"Blah, blah, blah. Who cares?" Tuffnut groaned. "Where's the treasure?" Astrid didn't answer directly but instead unrolled the sketch of the two Hamishes – the reveal of the real Hamish II as a boy with a similar physique to Hiccup stunned the group into an amazed silence.

"This is Hamish's real son," she explained quietly. Ruffnut wasn't impressed.

"That's not treasure," the girl Thorston twin huffed from Barf's head.

"To a father it is," Stoick smiled, kneeling down so that he was at eye level with his son and foster-daughter. His light green eyes, while full of relief at the two teens coming out alive, were also swimming with apology. Astrid knew that he had realised what had upset his son so much. "I never meant to make you feel like you had to do something like this," he apologised.

"I know, Dad," Hiccup shrugged apologetically. "But I had to do it...for myself," he added sheepishly. Stoick's gaze shifted to Astrid.

"And Astrid...I've never wanted to make you feel like you've had to go this far either," he sighed. Astrid broke eye contact in embarrassment.

"I know," she replied. "But I couldn't let Hiccup go alone with just those guys," she joked, indicating the twins who let out a simultaneous 'Hey!' at her comment. Stoick and Hiccup laughed all the same.

The following morning, Hiccup and Stoick were back in the Great Hall in front of Bucket once again. Astrid had fished out another old shield from the forge for the man to use and this time was directing him on the painting, making sure he got every single detail right. Once the painting was complete and covered for the afternoon reveal, Hiccup pulled Astrid forward and gave Bucket yet another shield. Astrid was stunned – what was going on?

"Well, two 'Hiccups' besting the strongest Vikings in the greatest treasure hunt in the history of Berk?" he pointed out when she voiced the question out loud. "Dad figured we should get some recognition...for being us."

Astrid smiled as if she'd never smiled before. This was truly one of the best things that had ever happened to her within the Haddock family, second only to Hiccup finally returning her feelings for him.

That afternoon, after lunch, the two new paintings were revealed: the first being an accurate representation of Stoick the Vast and his son and heir, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III; and the second being the two village 'Hiccups' side by side, smiling proudly and standing triumphantly, having proven once again to everyone that just because you were born small and short on muscle, it didn't mean that they couldn't be a Viking in their own right.

Only took Berk three centuries to realise that.

_Hiccup spent most of his life trying to prove to his dad that he could be his kind of Viking. As it turns out, he already was. _

* * *

**AN: Yep, turns out that Astrid was a 'Hiccup' herself. Like I said, I loved writing this episode – it gave me a chance to develop Hiccup and Astrid's relationship further...I really wish they'd done more of that in the series. *Sigh* Anyway, side note: I did some research and, technically, there was no God or Goddess of Fire in Norse mythology and Freya had nothing to do with fire so I decided to change it. The closest thing to a God of Fire was Loki (interestingly enough), Logi (whose name meant 'wildfire') or Surtr, the Leader of the Fire-Giants. I stuck with Loki seeing as he's probably the most well known out of the three.**


End file.

How to Train Your Dragon, Adventure