This is where I belong ||httyd fanfic||

43. The meet up with the berkians

.

.

.

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Astrid had raced back through the dense forest as quick as she could in order to reach the beach where the others were waiting. Her usual grace and finesse was lost to her once more as she stumbled and tripped multiple times on small rocks or extended roots along the way. Though she was lucky enough with her footwork to avoid most of the larger obstacles such as the logs and fallen trees, she still managed to receive multiple new tears in her clothes with fresh cuts formed underneath from passing the sharp tips of the lower branches. Every minute or so she ran or after each of the few times she managed to trip and fall flat on her face, she kept looking back at the village that had just now come under Hiccup's dominion as chief. She had every intention to tell Stoick what had happened, but what she was going to say to him exactly was completely lost to her. Though he would be happy to hear that his son was alive and well, between Hiccup's being the Dragon Conqueror and now chief of this unknown tribe, she wasn't really sure how he would react. There wasn't really any one way this whole situation could be explained that didn't lead to things ending badly for either side. Where would she even begin to tell the chief so that those old feelings of anger and shame that drove him away to begin with would not be invoked?

She found she had less time to think it over than she would have liked once she found herself on the beach, where everyone else was waiting. Once Stoick had caught sight of her, he narrowed his eyes with a hard glare, the others only looking at her bedraggled state in confusion and slight amusement, aware at how Astrid liked to carry herself so pristinely. The chief demanded an explanation as to why she had kept him and the others waiting when he gave explicit instructions. At that point, she had gotten so anxious over the matter that she forgot about whatever delicacy she had attempted to muster, Vikings not really known for it anyway, and just blurted out everything in a single breath. As she talked she had noticed Stoick's expression go from anger about the dragons to joy over his son's being alive, to pure confusion at the end. A long period of stunned silence came at the end of her tale, with a sense of awkwardness so strong it was practically visible around the gaping mouths of the young Vikings. But the silence was quickly broken by a sound that Astrid in all her frantic worrying was not expecting.

They laughed, all of them, they chortled and guffawed so loudly and so hardly their lungs were fit to burst from the strain. The twins had even fallen down and were rolling around in their fits while flailing and kicking out while the others were holding in their guts to save themselves at least some air. Snotlout was the first to break the laughter with conversation, though his voice was still riddled with amused sniggering and chuckles in the midst of taking in air.

"Okay... so let me get this straight... you're telling us that Useless is the Dragon Conqueror? And on top of that, he's... he's now chief of a village!?"

"From village runt to the Dragon Conqueror, talk about an upgrade!" Tuffnut still cackled.

"I know, can you imagine that, Hiccup being the Dragon Conqueror!?" Ruffnut laughed, before standing up and slouching while doing her best impression of Hiccup's nasally voice. "Hello, nice dragons! Hey... can we be friends, y-you know, if you don't feel like chewing me to bits? I can climb on your back and we can go flying and you can not try to kill me. Come on... let me give you a nice tasty fishy and you can do everything I say and we can be best buddies..." She dropped down again and continued laughing along with her brother.