(Warning: Blood.)

ASTRIDS POV.

Almost all noise had ceased after what she had said. Her fellow Vikings were silent. Only the sound of trickling water from a stream near by could be heard. All eye's where on her after what she had said. Astrid looked at Stoick and Stoick back at Astrid. "Why would you say such a thing?" He said pain filling his voice.

"Stoick it's Hiccup." She said to her chief. "No its not!" He replied moving his axe blade closer down to Hiccups throat. "Stoick please you have to believe me it is him." She pleased with him trying to get him to stop moving the axe towards his sons throat. "Why would you try and taint the memory of my son?" He asked her looking down at the unconscious man with anger.

"Stoick please you have to believe me were waisting time we have to get him to Goathy." She pleaded with the chief. "It's not him!" He yelled furiously letting a single tear slip from his eye and land on Hiccups helmet. "And I'll prove it to you after a chop off his head." He said angrily lifting his axe above his head.

"No!" She yelled jumping through the air and grabbing the axe mid swing ripping it from Stoick's hands. "Astrid it's not him!" The chief yelled turning to her with his fists balled in anger. "Yes it is!" She replied sliding away the axe. "Let me show you." She told her chief beginning to approach Hiccup almost mirroring how he had approached the Titan Wing Monstrous Nightmare during the raid.

As Astrid neared Hiccup she slowed in speed, it was as if with every step she took her feet weighed more. Around Hiccup there was now a large pool of blood that expanded with every rise and fall of his chest. She stopped for a moment hovering her foot over the pool of blood when she reached it. She slowly placed her foot on the ground and continued through the blood.

It made her feel sick. She had been in countless raids and have walked through dozens of pools of blood, some that had belonged to dragons and some that had belonged to her fellow Berkians but for some reason walking through this one felt different. Maybe because it was Hiccup. Maybe because she was being watched by countless of her fellow tribe members including the chief or maybe it was because another reason she didn't quite know.

When she reached his side she knelt down beside him ignoring the fact that his blood was now soaking through her pants and onto her skin. The thought of his blood touching her skin made her feel like she was going to hurl. Astrid placed one hand on his chest plate and with the other she grabbed onto the underside of his helmet. "I'm sorry I have to reveal your secret." She whispered to him and then pulled the helmet off his head.

Every Viking in the crowd gasped at the sight of there dead heir. From the left side of his mouth there was a thin stream of bright red blood that ran down his cheek and into the pool on the ground. His eye's were closed but his nostrils flared with the pace of his rapid breathing. "Why does he wear my son's face?" Asked the chief in a confused voice as he looking down at his unmasked enemy.

Astrid could only imagine what was going through Stoick's mind as he looked down at Hiccup. His son was alive, but who knows for how long due to him. Hiccups previous words from about only an hour ago echoed through her mind. 'If my father saw me, he'd just as easily kill me as he'd kill the Night Rider.'

She studied Stoick's expression. If Hiccup survived this wound would Stoick still kill Hiccup now that he knows that he is the Night Rider. Astrid rose from the ground to get as close to eye level with Stoick as possible. "He doesn't wear your son's face, he is your son." She said and it made tears well up in Stoick's eyes. "Bu-bu-but my so-son is dead." He just barely chocked out letting a few tears escape from his eyes.

"No he's not dead. But he will be if we don't help him." Stoick looked down at his son for a few more moments and then cleared his throat. "We have to get him to Goathy." He said kneeling down and picking his unconscious son up bridal style. As Stoick picked him up a large wave of blood rushed out from the gash in his armor covering the front of Stoick's clothing.

He and Astrid started to run towards the exit of the cove but a Viking stopped him. "And what of the dragon?" The pair turned there attention to the unconscious Toothless that still laid on his side. "I know what we do with it." Said a cocky Viking walking up to Toothless's neck and aligning his sword with it. "I'm going to mount this dragons head on my wall." He finished raising his sword.

"Sheath that sword or I'll use it on you!" Stoick commanded and the Viking was taken aback. Astrid watched as Stoick glanced down at his unconscious sons face and then back to the Night Fury. "Take the dragon back to the arena and lock it up. If anyone gives it so much as a scratch I'll mount there head on my wall!" He commanded directing his final few words at the cocky Viking. "And no one speak a word of Hiccup to anyone." She instructed all of them. She had already told enough people of his presence. The entire village did not need to know.

And with that they turned away from the group and started to run back to Berk. Astrid had seen Stoick run during raids before but she had never seen him run at the speeds he did now. He moved through the forest towards Berk with ease without any fear that he might trip on a root or rock. It was clear that he only had a single goal in mind. Getting Hiccup to Goathy.

The run only took the two about fifteen minutes but it felt like an eternity before they could hear the talking from Berk's citizens. "Wait." She said grabbing Stoick's arm and stopping them. When the two stopped Astrid placed Hiccups helmet back on. "He doesn't want people to know who he is." He said to Stoick who nodded in return.

The two resumed there run and they broke through the tree line and into one of the many crowded streets of Berk. Vikings all around them were confused as there eye's landed on there chief who was splattered in blood and Astrid who panted beside him. But then there eye's landed on who was cradled in their chiefs arms.

"What is he doing here?" A Viking called out but Stoick ignored his subjects and all there questions pushing through the crowd that quickly formed, he even knocking some to the ground as he tried to make his way to Goathy. "Move! Move right now." He commanded in a fierce tone as he pushed through the ever growing crowd. As the two worked there way through the crowded streets Astrid was finally able to get a look at Berk after the dragon attack.

It was a mess. Many houses on the street they rushed through where completely gone with only charcoal in there place and others where only scorched wooden frames held together by melted nails. The road beneath her feet was covered in scorch marks from fire or magnesium blasts and other parts had small creators in them from groncel blasts. There was even a part with a large dried blood stain in it.

"We need help!" Stoick yelled as he finally broke through the crowd at Goathy's hut. Or at least where it once was. Goathy's hut had entirely burnt to the ground and in its place was medical center packed with a few tents and dozens of boxes filled with medical supplies. "We need help!" Stoick repeated rushing towards Goathy who was writing instructions in the ground for other healers.

When Stoick got to the old healer she rushed them inside the largest tent and shut the curtain behind them. She tapped a wooden table with her staff twice and Stoick placed his son there. The old healer walked over to her patient and with a small knife severed the straps to Hiccups chest plate and pulled it off revealing his numerous scars to his father.

Astrid heard the deep inhale from Stoick as he saw the scars that littered his sons chest and she felt an intense pity for the man. She turned her attention away from Stoick and back to the new wound. The wound was deep and jagged and it ran along his side oozing blood onto the table.

Goathy walked over to a small box of sand that was in the corner of the tent and wrote a short message in it. *How did this happen?* There was silence as Astrid waited for Stoick to respond but he didn't. She turned around to him and found a horrible sight.

Stoick's face was pale and his breath came in short and rapid breaths. He had his hands out in front of him and was looking at them in terror as they were covered in thick layer of blood that began to leak down his forearms. He looked down at his clothes in horror that were also stained in his sons blood and his face turned to an even paler shade.

"I did this." He said quietly. "You didn't want this Stoick." She said gesturing to Hiccup. "Yes I did." He said looking away from his hands and to her. "This is exactly what I wanted." He looking away from her and to his dying son. "I wanted him dead." And with those final words she could see him disappear into his own mind.

Goathy yanked Astrid towards her with the hook on her staff and wrote something new into the sand box. *I need your assistance Astrid, I can't save him alone!* Astrid turned to the healer and nodded. If there was a chance Hiccup could survive this Astrid was going to make sure he did!

(Authors Note) Hello everyone I just wanted to thank you all again for all your comments as they really inspired me to write this chapter and get it out to you all quickly and for that I thank you. Or course like always if you find any spelling/grammar issues please let me know and I'll do my best to fix them. Also on my account if there's anything you'd like included in the book there will be a post called "anything you want included in the first book?" And there you can leave comments about anything you want in the book and I'll try my best to put at least one in. Well that's all from me.-Samuel Scutter.