ASTRIDS POV.

Astrid hurled the contents of her bucket onto the frame of a smoldering house quenching the last of the flickering flames on that one building. "Ugh why are we even putting out these bonfires?" Exclaimed Snotlout carrying an oversized water bucket, probably trying to impress Astrid with his strength. "There more charcoal then they are house! Might as well let them burn to the ground so we can rebuild from there." He said hurling the contents of his buckets at another flaming building but missing entirely which would usually make Astrid laugh but right now... she doubt she could even do it if she wanted to.

"Astrid are you alright?" Asked Fishlegs shuffling into line behind her waiting to refill their buckets at the closest well. "I'm fine Fishlegs, why wouldn't I be?" She asked but she wasn't actually asking. She didn't care about anything he had to say. She just kept thinking about what Stoick had told her. Her chiefs words played on a loop in her mind over, and over, and over again. "Well I heard what happened and I wanted to sa-." He tried saying but she cut him off by twisting around and grabbing his wrist pulling it in a strenuous way making him scream like a lamb in the slaughter.

"I said I'm fine! What is there to not understand?" She yelled. "Ahhh I'm sorry." He said his voice clogged with pain. "Please let me go!" He begged and she obliged letting go of his wrist. Astrid looked around after she noticed everyone in the surrounding crowds looking at her. They had probably all heard what had happened as well. "I don't need you sympathy!" She yelled at them all and when she looked at Snotlout it looked as if his features might actually be sympathetic towards her.

Astrid rolled her eyes and stormed away from the crowd and started walking down the street trying to ignore the countless eyes that watched her. "Ahhhh!" Yelled a man from somewhere behind a building to Astrids left. She approached it carefully, weapon drawn. There was the whistling of an arrow and the sound of it breaking against something on impact but then... then there was the screech. The sound of a dragon building up a blast deep in their throat. But it wasn't just any dragon...

"Night Fury!" Astrid warned turning away from the building and diving for the floor covering her head with her hands. "Get down!" Another Viking yelled and then all other sound was blotted out by the overwhelming sound and force of the dragons blast. As Astrid hit the floor the building that had been in one piece behind her seconds earlier was in splinters sending wooden shrapnel hurling through the air propelled by a purple shockwave that pushed anyone straight onto the ground that hadn't already taken cover.

Seconds past and there was silence except for the sound of wood hitting the ground. It was almost serene in a way after all the yelling and fighting she had heard recently. Astrid slowly lifted her head coughing one or twice form the dust that loomed in the air. The building was gone, reduced to nothing but small particles of ash laying upon a pattern of scorch marks that had been burned into the ground form the Night Fury's blast. Next she noticed the Vikings. Fifteen in total all sprawled out in the alley that had been behind the house their weapons on the ground bent and broken.

But all alive as their stomaches heaved up and down. And then she saw him. His pupils among the emerald in his eyes were slits his mouth open letting smoke waft out from his throat also revealing a top and a bottom row of dangerous teeth. "Your a beast." Said one Viking wiping blood away from his chin at the same time crawling back a few feet but Toothless followed slowly his eyes trained on the man. It took Astrid a moment to realize who he was and where she had seen him before. It had been the day she had found out who the Night Rider was. This Viking had tried to kill Toothless after Stoick had almost fatally wounded Hiccup.

"Nothing but a beast!" He yelled into Toothless's face as he placed one of his paws on the defenseless man after a quick leap. Toothless pulled back his gums slowly revealing his teeth to the man their eyes still locked. "A beast!" He repeated taking a swing with his fist at Toothless but the dragon quickly pinned his arm. The Night Fury opened its mouth a purple glow beginning to illuminate the inside of his mouth and the cocky Vikings face. "Do it!" He yelled, encouraging Toothless to end his life. "Show everyone what we already know!" He yelled releasing a wave of hysterical laughter blood running from his mouth and down his chin and cheeks.

"Don't do it!" Astrid yelled but it was to late and Toothless emitted not a blast but a ground breaking, earth shattering, ear splitting scream that lasted almost twenty seconds. When it was over Toothless dismounted the man leaving him scared and shaken the crowd of Vikings surrounding almost as much. Toothless walked a few steps away from the man and eyed the crowd closely his pupils slowly returning to there normal size his teeth retracting into his gums seconds later. The grey hammer and it's wielder moved through the air so quickly that it only happened in split second.

Stoick moved past Toothless in a second striking the dragon in the skull with a stone hammer shattering its stone head into dozens of smaller pieces. Toothless fell down to the right stumbling over his own feet his eyelids shutting as he crashed towards the ground with a thud making Astrid gasp surprised at what Stoick had done. 'Didn't he know that was Hiccups dragon?' Astird wondered. "Good job Stoick." Said the cocky Viking standing up from the ground pulling a Bowie knife from a sheath on the back of his waist and holding it up above Toothless with a grin spreading from one side of his face to another.

"No, Hemorick." Stoick said addressing the cocky Viking. "All of you drop what your doing!" Stoick yelled drawing the crowds attention. "The boats are being loaded at the docks. All of you head down there." He said before Fishlegs voice piped up from in the crowd. "Umm why? Don't we have to finish putting out the fires?" He asked. "We're going to raid the dragon nest." Murmurs ran through the crowd and Astrid looked at Stoick curiously, almost like her expression was asking 'how did you find it?' "But what about the fires?" Asked Fishlegs again and an annoyed look crossed Stoicks face. "You and your friends will be staying behind and putting them out." He said gesturing to the twins, Snotlout, and Astrid.

"What! Ugh common you can't bench me!" Snotlout complained throwing his arms up not the air in objection but when Stoick gave him a cold and unforgiving look he excepted his job. "Now everyone to the boats!" He yelled and everyone followed his order not just because he was their chief but because they were all scared of this authoritarian version of him. "But you." Stoick said pointing towards a group of around five or six men. "Load this dragon onto my flagship. And it is not to be harmed." He said looking down onto Toothless with an devious grin. "Your going to lead us to your nest dragon, wether you want to or not..."

When Stoick began to walk away in the direction of the boats Astrid confronted him. "Stoick." She said but he mostly ignored her. "Stoick." She persisted planting herself in front of him so he was forced to talk to her. "That's Toothless." She said but he still stared at her blankly. Astrid looked around before saying her next words. "Hiccups dragon." But still no change in his facial expression. "Stoick are you okay?" She asked but then a thought crossed her mind. "Is Hiccup okay?" She asked gulping standing on pins and needles until he answered. "Have you not seen what they've done Astrid?" Stoick said skipping her second question and answering her first.

"After what they did to my village, your home... your family. Why do you care about this one?" He asked pointing to a still unconscious Toothless that was being muzzled and secured to a cart. "I care because that's Hiccups dragon." She said again but he stared at her blankly again making her ask again. "Is Hiccup okay." And this time he answered. "My son is dead." And continued walking disappearing quickly into the sea of Vikings. Astrid was running seconds later as fast as she could through the weaving streets of Berk until after what seemed like hours arriving at Hiccups home, or at least where it used to be.

All that was there now was ash and wooden beams almost completely disintegrated. "Hiccup?" She called out running into the rubble of the house feeling the heat of the hot ash throat her shoes. "Hiccup?" She said frantically tricking herself into believing that he was still alive, that maybe Hiccups house had had a cellar that she never knew about and she'd find it under a beam and in the cellar would be Hiccup. Tears welled up in her eyes and she blinker trying to keep them away but whenever she closed her eyelids all that did was allow her tears free range of motion down her cheeks.

"Hiccup." She said dolefully her tears sliding off her face and down onto the ash and embers. Astrid tilted her head back and shut her eyes telling herself that she didn't cry for what Stoick had told her earlier, so she wouldn't allow herself to now but for some reason that made her cry even stronger. But that's when she saw him, a man standing on the side of a nearby cliff barely in view dressed in an dragon scale pants but a charred cloth shirt, his face obscured by a scaled mask. Hiccup...

Astrid started running again, through the rubble of houses and streets until she reached him. "Hiccup!" She exclaimed bringing herself to a walk and the man turned around looking her in the eyes. "Astrid." He said and through the slits in his helmet Astrid could see his happiness, but something else was also present... sadness. Astrid thought about hugging him maybe something more but because of that other emotion showing in his eyes it felt wrong. "Your father said you were dead." She said approaching him by the edge of the cliff. "I think he wishes I was." Hiccup replied looking away from her.

"You don't know what." Astrid said which seemed to only worsen Hiccups mood more than it already was. "He told me I wasn't his son." He said his voice begging to slightly quiver about halfway through his sentence. Hiccup removed his helmet and looked down at it in his hands. "That I was just some poor imitation of him." Astrid placed her hand on Hiccups back comforting him as much as she could. "I-I." He started to say. "I should have just killed that dragon when I found him in the woods." He said tears dripping down from his eyes onto his helmet. "If I did none of this would have ever happened." He said gesturing to something off the cliff and that's when she noticed it for the first time.

The view, it was breathtaking. But... not even close to in a good way. You could see every inch of Berk from here. Or more like every inch of we're Berk used to be. Now most of it was gone, burned to the ground and she couldn't help herself wonder how many people where buried under that destruction. "But think about how many dragons you have saved since then?" Astrid said, she couldn't believe what he was saying but he ignored her. "Why didn't you," she asked "the rest of us would have done it?" She asked and he looked at her like he hadn't heard her right.

"Why didn't you?" She asked him making him walk away a few paces. "I don't know, I couldn't." He said. "That's not an answer." She said making him respond in a huff. "Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?" He questioned her. "Because I want to remember what you say, right now." She explained walking closer to him. "Ugh, for the love of" he said turning back around back towards her "I was a coward, I was weak, I wouldn't kill a dragon!" He exclaimed but she responded quickly. "You said wouldn't that time." She said. "W-w- whatever I- I wouldn't! 300 years and I'm the first Viking that wouldn't kill a dragon!" He said as a momentary silence fell between them, all that made sound was the wind blowing by.

Hiccup turned away from her again. "First to ride one though." She said and his head moved up slightly but she couldn't tell what emotion was registering on his face. "So..." she said. "I wouldn't kill him because he looked as frightened as I was." He turned back around. "I looked at him, and I saw myself." He said raising his eyes up to meet hers. "I bet he's really frightened now." Astrid said gesturing out to the docks down below where dozens of ships had just departed and were sailing off into the distance. "What are you gonna do about it?" She asked and he turned to look out at the departing ships before turning back to her. "Ugh, probably something stupid." He said looking like a plan was forming in his head. "Good, but you've already done that." She said and a look dawned on his face as he put back on his helmet. "Then something crazy." He said turning away and starting to run. "That's more like it..."

(Authors Note) This chapter is far to long, and I am far to lazy to read it all so if you find any grammar or spelling mistakes please tell me and I will fix them. Hope you enjoyed. -Samuel Scutter