𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘

Chapter-1

     "Hey, Astrid?" Fishlegs says asking his friend who is sitting on a cliff edge that overlooks the cove that falls past Raven Point. The fur in her goat-skin hood flowing in the cold winter's breeze. She sits on a rock that she has previously cleared of snow. "Astrid? Are you okay?" He inquires feeling very worried, now noticing the tears threatening to escape her eyes as she flips through an old book on her lap.

     "It's nothing, Fishlegs. I promise." She tells him sending him a reassuring smile in hopes of helping him to relax his thoughts. "So, what did you come here for?" She asks watching him sit down next to her with a brittle flower in his hand while he sketches it with his other and writing notes on it. He is presumably doing this for their village elder as she needs herbs and other various assortments of plants and fungi. He is holding a common sage, though not very common on the island, he has it still.

     "Oh, right. I came to ask you if you were going with Gobber on tonight's border patrol. And if so, may I join?" He asks sounding happy and hopeful. Still sketching and noting but slowing down in expectation for Astrid's answer. He drops the flower down in the crease of the notebook before turning to her.

     "Uh. Yeah, just pass it by with Gobber, I'm sure that he'll say yes though." Her warm eyes showing hints of tears again as she grabs her friend's arm while she gave her answer, needing support while looking into the cove again. Minutes went by quietly, both of them relaxing in what could be the last clear day of winter. Fishlegs sketching in his book, pulling out other flowers as he did so in order to keep everything organized. Astrid stares at his work, his attention to detail still reminding her of a former enemy in training. "I can't believe it's been six years..." She thinks aloud.

     She didn't mean to say it out loud but is glad she did. There they were, sitting on a cliff staring down into the last place she saw Hiccup Haddock, and the last person to see him. It is still fresh to her, she sees how it impacts Fishlegs, it hurt Snotlout dearly for losing his cousin, but he soon found a good way to cope, and Gobber almost quit training the teens as he felt he had been responsible for not preparing Hiccup enough. Stoick. The poor chief, twenty years ago it was his wife being carried off by a dragon, and that still has its effects but only a quarter of that time has passed for Hiccup's disappearance and declared dead.

     It hurts the chief, he has no idea of what to do. What keeps him grounded is the constant threats of the Berserker tribe which only recently have stopped without explanation, not even communication. Any Berkian that is tasked with sending to them is for whatever reason returning without a reason from the Berserkers. Then there is the lack of dragon raids, that hurts because there are so few or none and so many feel the need to avenge the chief's son. All Stoick can do is focus on the village, and now they have room to grow because of a steady income of trade and food.

     "What do you think he would be doing right now if he were still here?" Fishlegs asks, really hoping for an answer that spurs up hope, or at the very least lightening the mood an octave higher.

     "I think he would be spanking all of our sorry selves in training," Astrid replies with a chuckle and a smirk. "Probably beating Snoutlout in bow accuracy." Fishlegs smiles at that, finding it humorous because of Snoutlout's poor aim, although he bests all of them in sword combat. And Astrid, the best with her battleax, the last thing Hiccup crafted for her, given to her by Gobber when he put the head and the shaft together.

     "Well, I think he'd be up in the forge, making some new invention." Is Fishleg's theory. "Possibly crafting some ridiculous sword that the twins would scoff at." They are both happy at this point, knowing that whatever Hiccup is doing in Valhalla that it will make him happy to be where he is. Possibly working with the dwarves in their forge. That is if the gods weren't hostile towards his sarcasm.