So here it is! The grand final!

I hope you'll enjoy the last chapter of this fanfiction.

Please review and tell me you thoughts! It's greatly appreciated!

Enjoy~

'Worst case, I die?' I thought bitterly. 'This is far worse...'

I had busied myself with gathering the material for Stoick's funeral, mainly because I wanted to distract myself, but also to mourn in private. The chief had always been like a father to me and losing him felt exactly like that. The loss of a family member. Tears ran across my cheeks and I compressed my lips in fear of sobbing out loud. I had to be strong for Hiccup, for whom this had to be even worse. That being another reason why I chose to prepare the funeral by myself.

I crossed the battlefield with wobbly knees, collecting intact bows and arrows. Fortunately I also managed to acquire some tar from one of the destroyed battleships. My arms were fully laden when I left the ship, still trying to block out everything around me. Suddenly I cannoned into something and fell down hard, sending the bows and arrows skywards. "Ouch! Watch it!" I shouted in frustration. "Watch out!" a familiar voice retorted. 'Hey, that's my line. Wait... watch out?' One of the airborne arrows came rushing towards my face. My body felt paralyzed, unable to dodge. I only managed to utter a short "Oh" before the arrow struck. Or did it? I couldn't feel any pain, nor any wound when I palpated my face. I opened my eyes and saw the arrow's tip, apparently hanging in mid-air, not even a hand's width from my face. The hand holding the the arrow belonged to...

"Hiccup."

"Astrid."

"Thanks, I guess...", I said while he helped me to my feet.

"You guess?"

"Well you crashed into me."

"What?! I just saved your life!"

"Oh please, no viking ever died from a single arrow to the face. That could have been a pretty cool scar."

"Fine, next time I won't interfere!"

"Fine!"

We turned our backs on each other and remained silent for brief moment.

"Astrid, what are we doing here?" he asked eventually.

"I don't know," I replied miserably.

Grief turns into anger quite easily, but venting my anger on Hiccup of all people...

I hated myself for it and turned around to apologize and thank him properly, but he beat me to it and put his arms around me. "I'm sorry, Astrid." I started sobbing, pressing my face against his chest.

"I-It's all my fault. I wasn't there to help you, just like back then."

"Astrid, neither my leg nor my father... could have been saved. Toothless sacrificed my leg to save me, and father did the same, by sacrificing himself," he said in tears.

"But why does it have to be you? Losing something or someone dear to you, to protect us."

"Father... Stoick was dear to all of us, wasn't he? And he protected me, all of us. I... caused his death..."

"Hiccup, that's not tru-"

"But it is!" he suddenly shouted, pushing me away.

"Why does it have to be me, you ask? That's what I would like to know, for Odin's sake! My father was a hero of Berk, the bravest and most powerful chieftain since my great grandfather. He could have done so much more for the whole tribe. Why? Why did he sacrifice himself for someone like me? I'm no good, I doomed Berk by going against my father's orders, thinking I could actually reason with Drago. My arrogance caused my father's death! I wish I had died in his stead..."

I slapped his face, carrying all kinds of emotion on my own.

He simply held his reddened cheek.

"Never, ever, say something like that again," I snapped at him. "Do you have the slightest idea how painful it is to hear such words from the person you love?!"

His eyes widened "You... love me?"

I firmly grasped his shoulders "I do. More than anything else in this world. And I need you, we need you. You're the next chief of Berk."

He sighed deeply "I'm... just doubting that I could ever replace my father."

"Truth be told, your impersonation could need a bit more work."

"Ha ha, I'm serious, Astrid."

"That's the point, you're too serious. You don't have to become like your father. Just be the best you can be. You're the chief we need now. And you're not alone. Your mother, your fellow dragon riders, all the Berkians, and I, all of us will stand by your side."

He pulled me into a tight embrace. "Thanks, Astrid," he whispered.

We picked up the bows and arrows and returned to the others, side by side.

"Oh, by the way, please don't mention the 'more than anything in world' part to Stormfly. She's jealous by nature."

"Gotcha," he replied and we shared a heartily laughter.

We stood in a line at the far side of the island, mist drifting all around us. Regrettably we were unable to give Stoick the funeral he'd have deserved. He was laid out on a pyre of wood on top of a small fishing boat. That was all we had managed to obtain on this now desolate island. I had distributed the bows, giving Gobber the bow to hand it over to Hiccup.

The little boat was slowly drifting towards the open sea while we coated our arrows with tar. Gobber delivered the eulogy.

"May the Valkyries welcome you and lead you through Odin's great battlefield. May they sing your name with love and fury so that we may hear it rise from the depths of Valhalla and know that you have taken your rightful place at the table of kings. For a great man has fallen, a warrior, a chieftain, a father, a friend."

After this eulogy, Hiccup ignited the tip of his arrow in the embers of our fire we had prepared beforehand. He pulled back the bowstring, took aim, and fired. My eyes followed the arrow, as did everyone elses, and we saw it struck directly into the pyre. Normally Snotlout would make a joke about that being a one in a million shot for Hiccup. Fortunately he didn't. The arrows ignited the pyre and soon the whole boat was ablaze.

Hiccup stepped forth, struggling for words. "I'm sorry, Dad."

I sighed slightly, holding back my tears for now. The others not so much.

"I'm not the chief that you wanted me to be, and I'm not the peace keeper I thought I was. I don't know…" He stopped.

I was about to step forward, but I refrained from doing so when I saw Valka approaching Hiccup.

She gently stroke his hair.

" You came early into this world, you were such a wee thing. So frail, so fragile, I feared you wouldn't make it. But your father, he never doubted." She now stood in front of him, her arms on his shoulders. "He always said you would become the strongest of them all, and he was right. You have the heart of a chief and the soul of a dragon. Only you can bring our worlds together. That is who you are, son."

Hiccup didn't reply, he simply took a few steps forward, facing a brightly burning pyre that grew ever so smaller on the horizon. He eventually raised his voice once more.

" I, ah... I was so afraid of becoming my dad mostly because I thought I never could. How do you become someone that great, that brave, that selfless? I guess you can only try."

With that said, he turned around, a bright fire of determination burning in his eyes.

"A chief protects his own. We're going back."

I smiled, happy and thankful to see Hiccup being his usual self.

The twins weren't quite so elated.

"Uh, with what?" Tuffnut asked.

"Uh, he took all the dragons," Ruffnut added.

This usually would've been the time for one of my witty retorts, but they had had a point.

But the usual Hiccup wouldn't be the usual Hiccup without a plan in mind. I suddenly remembered the talk I had had with Hiccup so many years ago.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"Eh, probably something stupid."

"Good. But you've already done that."

"Then something crazy!"

"That's more like it!"

This short remembrance made me smile and Hiccup's plan turned out to be stupid. Crazily so.

Scuttleclaws look like a cross breed between a Hideous Zippleback and Deadly Nadder. They aren't, of course. These dragons are the problem children amongst the dragons to say the least. They're hyperactive by nature and extremely difficult to control. Adult Scuttleclaws that is. The Babies are...

well, babies. Hiccups plan included riding those Scuttleclaw babies all the way back to Berk. How that's supposed to work with viking heavyweights like Gobber and Fishlegs? While Scuttleclaws may have difficulties to concentrate, when they actually do, they're quite the hardworking type. It also helps that the hyperactivity goes hand in hand with great stamina and speed.

"Gotcha!" Hiccup proclaimed, when he finally had caught the last of the Scuttleclaw babies we'd been chasing for the past hour.

"Easy as stealing pie from a baby," Tuffnut claimed

"But you never managed to actually do that," Ruffnut replied.

"Uh... well they're quite strong those weird little baby fingers."

"Easy, you say?!" Snotlout interjected. "They didn't bite you in the a-"

"ALRIGHT! Spare us, Snotlout!" I droned, silencing the lot of them. "Wait... 1...2...3... we're still short one dragon. There's only 8 of them."

"Leave that to me," Fishlegs said, starting to produce a unique purring noise, which kinda gave me the creeps. After a while another Scuttleclaw baby appeared from behind a rock and cautiously approached the chubby viking.

'Huh, he's knowledgeable, you gotta give him that. But that purring, gross... I know, right?'

"Do you really think we can still catch up to Drago with these?" Eret asked with a doubtful look on his face, while some of the Scuttleclaw babies chased Snotlout's behind and others chased Fishlegs, obviously thinking he was their mother.

I chuckled "Oh, we're used to deal with those id- ah, you mean the dragons. Hm, what do you think, chief?"

"No need to call me chief, Astrid. Especially not in that tone."

"Whatever you say, chief." What? I simply loved teasing him.

He sighed.

"We should be fine if we don't take any breaks. Remember, Drago moves with his whole fleet. They won't reach Berk before dawn."

Valka appeared next to Hiccup and put her arm on his shoulder "And I know a shortcut."

As is turned out, riding the Scuttleclaws was a lot harder than I'd imagined. The most proficient dragon riders amongst us, that being Hiccup, Valka and me, had a lot less trouble than the rest of our group, though.

"FLY STRAIGHT, WILL YA?!" Ruffnut shouted.

Fishlegs was even more desperate "I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

"We can't fly these things!" Tuffnut added.

"Yeah, no kidding!" Fishlegs agreed, while crashing through a snow pile.

'Serves them right,' I thought 'that's what you get for skipping my training.'

I think I did feel somewhat sorry for Eret, but he seemed to have fun even while barely holding onto his Scuttleclaw. And I honestly felt sorry for the babies that had to carry Gobber and Fishlegs. With their bulky builds they looked like flying meatballs. Valka's shortcut turned out to be an underground ice cave, created by the late alpha, for emergency escapes. By choosing this route we avoided battling against the wind above the sea. This would save us quite a bit of time and the Scuttleclaws could preserve their stamina. What no one really dared to ask was just how we were supposed to fight Drago. Certainly not on the back of baby dragons, right?

"Umm, Hiccup?"

"Don't worry, we'll be fine."

"But won't that Bewilderbeast just take control of these guys, too?"

Valka had named that species Bewilderbeast, because of their ability to bewilder and control other dragons, so we went with that name.

"They're babies! They don't listen to anyone!"

"Yeah, just like us!" Tuffnut interjected, causing me to sigh 'Duh.'

"This is very dangerous!" Gobber shouted, crashing into the ice more than once. "Some might suggest this is poorly conceived."

I giggled 'It's one of Hiccup's plans after all. What did you expect?'"

"Well it's a good thing that I never listen!" Hiccup replied.

"So..."

"what is your..."

"plan?" Gobber asked, interjecting while crossing another wall of ice.

"Get Toothless back and kick Drago's a-"

"Alright, that's the second time!" I quickly shouted.

"Heads up!" I heard Gobber warn, followed by a crunching noise that hurt just by hearing it.

When we reached Berk, dawn had already broken and an unwelcoming sight was greeting us. The village had taken heavy damage already, huge chunks of ice roughly covering one third of it. Drago's Bewilderbeast stood in the sea, leaning against the coast with its forelegs. Hundreds of dragons where flying circles above it head, obviously under his control.

"No..." Hiccup whispered, while Fishlegs stated the obvious "He took all the dragons!"

Our new chief gave orders for the first time.

"Distract the Alpha! Try to keep his focus off of Toothless!"

"Ah, how?" Tuffnut asked.

I sure didn't expect Eret to speak up, but he did.

"Have forgotten who you're riding with? There isn't a dragon alive that I can't wrangle!" Just in this moment his Scuttleclaw decided to take a dive. "Ahh! Except for this one!"

"Amateur," Snotlout said with a smug look on his face.

'Oh please, you're one to talk.'

We headed for the village center and quickly decided on different roles. Valka would observe Hiccup's fight and assist him if necessary. Fishlegs manned the giant horn we used during our dragon races and er... emergencies, of course. The twins, Snotlout and Eret headed for the sheep slingshot. And me? I took care of the wounded and old ones. 'I really hate flipping coins!'

I tried to keep at least one of my eyes on Hiccup. So far he was still hovering in mid air, close to Drago and apparently talking to Toothless. The Bewilderbeast didn't interfere, mostly because it got distracted by flying sheep and the sounding of a big horn, which it eventually destroyed., but also because Drago seemed to doubt Hiccup's abilities. 'You're so gonna regret that,' I thought while carrying a bunch of kids towards the great hall. "Ey! No biting!"

A few moments later I saw Hiccup rushing past us while riding Toothless. 'Great, he did it!'

"Take him down, babe!" 'Babe? Really? Shut up.'

What happened next was 100% Hiccup. He tricked Drago with his flying suit and used his unique sword to spread Zippleback gas on Drago and the Bewilderbeast. An explosion ensued that sent Drago flying, knocking him off the alpha. 'Serves him right!'

My gaze wandered and I gasped when I saw Hiccup heading directly towards the alpha's lashing tail 'Not again,' I thought, feeling a weird connection to Hiccup in that very moment.

They somehow managed to evade it with extremely fast and precise movements I didn't think Toothless was capable of. They landed near Drago, who was about to reach for his weapon. Hiccup threw his burning sword to prevent it and stepped forward, completely forgetting about the Bewilderbeast that stood directly behind him.

"Watch out!" I shouted, but he couldn't possibly hear me. I started to run towards him, but once again, I was too late.

The alpha had trapped Hiccup and Toothless in an icy prison. I watched Valka's futile attempt to break the ice with her bare hands, with a horrified look on my face. 'This can't be...'

Tears started welling up, but the disappeared immediately, replaced by astonishment. The big chunk of ice suddenly started glowing blue and exploded only seconds later. Toothless emerged, standing above Hiccup. The both seemed to be unharmed and Toothless was roaring furiously. The fins on his back were glowing blue and he jumped onto a pillar of ice, still roaring at the Bewilderbeast.

"He's challenging the Alpha!" Hiccup shouted.

Toothless fired a series of extremely powerful plasma blasts, knocking the Alpha's head from side to side. When his opponent replied with a swing of his tusks, the Night Fury simply dodged and continued his attack. Toothless eventually returned to Hiccup and Valka, protecting them with his body and roaring at... 'The other dragons?'

And the other dragons seemed to willingly obey, turning their backs on Drago's Bewilderbeast. 'Awesome. He just broke the Alpha's control!' I thought delighted.

Drago was panicking "No, no, no, no! NO! Fight back! Fight! Fight! What's the matter with you?!"

All of us, including our dragons, assembled behind Toothless and Hiccup. This was our home, and we would definitely protect it. Hiccup mounted Toothless and they climbed another pillar of ice.

"Now do you get it? This is what it is to earn a dragon's loyalty. Let this end. Now." Hiccup proposed in a calm and collected way. 'Geez, my yak boy became such a show-off,' I thought with an amused smile on my face.

Apparently Drago wasn't about to let it end yet, though. "Never! Come on!"

The Bewilderbeast readied itself for another attack, but Toothless was faster. He roared and fired a single plasma blast. All of the dragons followed suit, bombarding the Bewilderbeast and Drago with a fiery volley. 'Yeah, go get em!'

Toothless' last attack broke one of the Bewilderbeasts tusks. The huge dragon backed down, a mixture of fear and respect in his gaze. Toothless gave a series of roars and eventually the Alpha bowed, accepting defeat.

"The Alpha protects them all!" Hiccup said.

The Bewilderbeast dove into the sea, taking Drago Bludvist with it. He did not resurface that day. Nor on any other day since then. But back then I had a feeling that he didn't die.

In the aftermath of the battle, the dragons bowed to Toothless, their new Alpha, and roared in unison.

Hiccup hugged his scaly friend "You never cease to amaze me, bud. Thank you!". This earned him a slobbering from Toothless to everyone's amusement.

"Oh, Toothless, you know that doesn't wash out!"

I was preoccupied with hugging my own dragon "Stormfly!"

Dragons and riders reunited and I stepped towards Hiccup just as his mother said "And here I'll stay."

"See? I told you it was in here," I said, briefly putting my hand on his chest, before pushing the button on his suit to open the fin on his back. I laughed away all the sorrow and grief that had built up over the last few hours, elated that we had managed to get rid of Berk's biggest threat. For now at least. Hiccup wasn't amused

"Ah-ha, still doing that one. That's hilarious."

I gave him a "you bet it is" look, still laughing.

"Come here, you," he said, suddenly pulling me in for a kiss. Needless to say that was our best one so far.

The village eldest, Gothi, appeared behind Hiccup, gesturing him to kneel. Her hand crossed a burnt piece of wood and she used the ash to draw the Chieftain's symbol on Hiccup's forehead. Berk's new chief got up and briefly glanced at Gobber, who spread his arms wide and proclaimed

"The Chief has come home!"

All of us broke out in cheers and some of the vikings started chanting "Long live Chief Hiccup! Long live the Chief! Long live the Chief! Long live the Chief! Long live the Chief!"

Even the dragons joined in by firing into the sky.

"Long live the Chief," I said smiling and hugged him tightly.

The following weeks were busy ones. We repaired the village, trained the dragons Drago had brought under his control and even erected a monument. Stoick's legacy.

"This is Berk," I said in my best Hiccup impersonation. " A bit trampled, busted and covered in ice, but it's home. It's our home. Those who attacked us are relentless and crazy. But those who stopped them, oh, even more so! We may be small in numbers, but we stand for something bigger than anything the world can pit against us. We are the voice of peace, and bit by bit, we will change this world. You see, we have something they don't. Oh, sure, they have armies, and they have armadas... but we... we have... OUR DRAGONS!"

I chuckled and closed the book. When I leaned back on my chair, arms crossed behind my head, I looked right into Hiccup's face. I gave a shriek of surprise and toppled over.

"Ouch, damn it, Hiccup. Don't sneak up on me like that!"

He helped me to my feet, a stern look on his face. "Didn't you promise not toread in my diary?"

I grinned guiltily. "Whoops? But hey, you gotta admit your latest entry has..."

"Lemme guess," he interjected, "a dramatic flair?"

We laughed heartily, simply enjoying each others presence for a while.

"You know, I'm still waiting," I said eventually.

"What for?" he asked, sounding completely serious, which earned him a punch on the shoulder.

"Ow! I'm kidding, I'm kidding..."

"You better be!" I retorted.

"Truth is, I did, do and will always love you, Astrid."

"Th-That's unfair..." I half laughed, half sobbed, "why do you always get all the cool lines?"

We both leaned in for a kiss, but before our lips could met Toothless barged into the room, cleanly knocking us down.

"Ugh, some things never change!" Hiccup said.

"Thank the gods!" I laughed, climbed over Toothless, who was lying between us, and pounced on Hiccup, covering him with kisses.

"Oh, Astrid, you know that doesn't wash out!"

And that's it. I'd like to thank everyone who supported me during this past year by reading, reviewing, following and favoring this fanfiction. I wouldn't have managed to finish it without you guys :) Thank you very much!

I also would like you for another favor. Please review or message me and tell me your answers to the following questions.

1. Did you enjoy reading HTTYD 2: Starring Astrid Hofferson ?

2. Would you like to read a whole epilogue chapter for this fanfic, set after the end of the movie?

3. Would you be interested in further installments of "Starring Astrid Hofferson"? e.g. TV series, short films

Thanks a whole lot in advance!

P.S. Also make sure to check out my new fanfic "Two Of A Kind" ;)