Beyond the Clouds of Time (HTTYD FANFIC)

Chapter 1: A rough landing

Hiccup's POV

By the time I woke in the morning, my bed was freezing aside from the small circle of body warmth I had created around myself. It was still a strange feeling, waking up cold. Toothless' body warmth had always spread from his bed to mine, providing enough heat for both of us during the colder months. But now... now things were different.

I sat up... taking a deep breath and closing my eyes. I could almost imagine Toothless sitting there eagerly waiting to take me on a flight. But I knew when I opened my eyes he wouldn't be there.

Instead my (new rebuilt) house was empty. And it had been empty for 3 months now. 3 months to the day.

I got out of bed and walked over to the table in the middle of the room ear the crackling fire which was no reduced to a few burning embers. I stoked the fire and was just about to sit down next to it when someone knocked at my door.

"Hello?" I called out.

"Hiccup?" A familiar voice called back, and the door opened.

"Astrid." I sighed, smiling faintly and walking over to her.

She sighed in relief as I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly. We stayed like that for a moment. She fiddled with the braids in my hair and I rested my head on her shoulder.

"I had an idea." She said finally, drawing back from me.

"An idea?" I asked.

"Yeah..."

"Why does that sound like it's a dangerous idea," I laughed, "We have the wedding in a couple of weeks and I think I would be killed by multiple people if I got the bride to be in trouble before the big day."

"Oh stop." She said punching my shoulder.

"So everyone is driving me a bit crazy because of the wedding, I actually ran away from some people on the way here because I didn't want to hear them talk about what sort of flowers I want. And it's also the three-month anniversary so I thought maybe we could take a little trip?" She said sheepishly grabbing my hands.

"A trip?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah..."

"Like to..."

"Well... yes." She said confirming my suspicions.

"Do you think that's a good idea? We might not even be able to find the hidden world again, it'll be difficult by boat." I said thinking the idea over.

"Can't we just try? Just so we know for the future." I nodded at the idea, still somewhat sceptical. Saying goodbye to Toothless the first time had been difficult enough and I hoped that I would have the strength to do it a second time. I turned around and walked over to where my flight suit was hanging against the wall, I hadn't had many reasons to use it lately and I missed the feeling of the tight-fitting leather around my body and the feeling of flying that came with it.

"Well I suppose I'd like to see if we can find them, I'd like our kids to meet them one day." I said trying not to laugh at Astrid's choked laughter. "But if we want to do this, we need some sort of excuse."

"Early honeymoon?" Astrid said shrugging and I grinned happily. Even amidst the sorrow and absence of the dragons, she was the light of my life. I just wanted to get married already.

As experienced navigators Astrid and I were, our sailing skills were pretty rusty. Especially mine. With the help of my map and some wind we made it to where I thought the hidden world had last been. It had taken us three days, but it had been the most carefree three days of my life in what felt like the last five years. There was nothing to be stressed about and once I had gotten over the feeling of being stranded without a dragon I had settled in nicely.

Now finally, I believed we had made it.

"So, we're here," Astrid said indicating a spot on the map, "that means the hidden world should be just up ahead." She said Trying and failing to keep the excitement out of her voice.

"Hopefully." I said grinning.

In my head I prayed to the gods. Please... please let this work. I repeated over and over until finally I heard the rush of water up ahead and fog began to close around us.

"Should we put the anchor in." Astrid said slowly as the boat started to get pulled towards the edge at an alarming rate.

"Yep!" I yelled, running for the anchor all too late.

"Hiccup." Astrid yelled as the ship began to tilt.

"Astrid!" I shouted, unhooking my wings from my suit and jumping to her as the boat paused for a moment before turning vertical. I managed to reach her just in time before we began to fall. I clung to her with all my might, waiting to hit the hard deck of the boat, or worse, the ground far below.

Everything went dark for a moment and all I could feel was Astrid against me and then suddenly light came back to the world. There were... birds chirping? And a slight breeze wafted through my hair. I blinked my eyes blearily at the afternoon sunlight we were now in. Instead of falling through the air, we were sitting on warm, grassy ground.

"What in Odin's name..." Astrid began extracting herself from my arms as we slowly got to our feet.

"Where in Thor's name are we." I whispered, winding up my flight suit.

"I don't know..." Astrid said slowly as we looked forward through the trees. There were plants I had never seen before and beyond the sounds of nature there was a faint humming in the wind that I didn't recognise.

"Who the hell are you?" Someone yelled from behind us and I spun around, my sword out.

"Hang on." Astrid said grabbing my hand. "We come in peace, we don't mean any harm." Following her lead, I sheathed my sword.

We turned around slowly and came face to face with something I can't really describe. The house was different to anything I had ever seen. Firstly, it had been painted, which seemed like a waste to me and there were what looked like large panels of glass where the open windows should be. At home we had never managed to isolate that much sea glass to make a panel that big. But I tried to stop thinking about the architecture and start thinking about the six people standing before me.

They stood in a line, looking suspiciously at us and wearing the strangest of clothes. The first one was a short boy with shoulder length dark hair, a grim expression on his face and eyes that reminded me of Snotlout. Next was a girl and a boy who I took to be twins, both with light blond hair. Next to them stood a tall dark skinned boy, with a pocket knife held firmly in his hand. Then there was... I didn't know. Some parts of her looked female but she also had an undeniable masculine part to her appearance. In her arms were a couple of books and glasses were resting on her nose. Finally, there was a girl whose blond hair resembled that of the woman standing right next to me. I ran my eyes over the group again struggling to pin point why they were feeling so familiar.

I turned slowly to Astrid... "What's going on." I whispered.

"I don't know." Astrid whispered back. "But for some reason they all seem really familiar."

Then suddenly, from behind the legs of the girl whose hair was startlingly like Astrid's, came a baby dragon...

A Razorwip to be specific. 

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Well that's the first chapter! 

I'm really curious to see people's reaction to this story so if you have any feedback or questions please let me know in the comments! 

Happy reading, 

ToothlessLover777