A/N I made an offer on my DeviantArt account to do story fills of at least 1500 words. This was a request from Shimy (Bintavivi at DA): I'd like to see what you'd make of the journey back to Berk after the battle against the Green Death. I know, lots and lots of people have written about that already, but here is where I suggest slight modifications. She then forwarded an outline of plot points to use. I may do a second part later, so that it completely bridges the two scenes.

Warning: rating is for some graphic descriptions of Hiccup's leg and the amputation as well as one swear word.

Ash and smoke and silence covered the volcanic island. Humans and dragons alike stood by anxiously watching their chief and the broken dragon that had brought them here. Stoick knelt before the Night Fury but he was only thinking of his son and the many mistakes he had made in regards to him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered not knowing if he'd ever even find a body to set sail to Valhalla.

The dragon – Toothless the boy had called him – heaved a pained sigh and shifted onto his side. Large eyes watched Stoick and the Viking had an eerie sense of being weighed and measured. Then with a slow rumble the great wings spread open and Stoick could hardly trust his own eyes: Hiccup lay inside cradled by the dragon's legs, pulled against its chest like a baby.

"Hiccup!" Stoick cried in great relief and reached for the boy. Toothless relaxed his hold almost immediately and Stoick scooped his limp son into his arms, almost afraid to hope. Pulling his helmet aside, he placed his ear to Hiccup's chest. An eternity seemed to pass before he was certain he heard the faint slow beat of a heart. "He's alive!" Stoick exclaimed and the Vikings behind him erupted into enthusiastic cheers. A small whine escaped from the dragon. Stoick placed his hand on Toothless' head. "Thank you for saving my son," he said solemnly. At that moment Stoick knew: now matter what had happened in the past, no dragon would be harmed by him or anyone in his tribe. This was a debt to be paid and repaid into eternity.

"Well, most of him." Stoick frowned at Gobber and then looked back down at Hiccup, letting his eyes take in the whole boy. His breath caught painfully in his chest as he saw the mangled remains of his son's left leg: the fabric of his trousers was frayed and charred; the flesh beneath was shredded and caked with blood; and the now visible bone was shattered beyond repair. Even as the boy lay in his arms, blood was seeping out onto the ground.

Footfalls sounded behind him, which were without doubt the other children that had come to their aide. Those children who had tormented Hiccup his whole life had rallied behind him in this crazy mission. "Keep them back, Gobber. They can't see this."

"All right, back the lot of you!" Gobber hollered. "Nothing to see here."

"But how's Hiccup?" one of them asked. Stoick thought it was the male Thorston twin. Gobber herded the small group away barking orders while the kids fired question after question at him.

Stoick pulled off his great cloak and laid it on the ground before gently setting Hiccup on top of it. He prayed to the gods that Hiccup's eyes stayed closed; he couldn't bear having Hiccup deal with the pain of the upcoming ordeal. Stoick unbuckled the harness that the boy wore over his tunic. Though Stoick couldn't take much time to appreciate the craftsmanship, a small sliver of pride shot through him knowing Hiccup had created it himself. Using his knife he cut a long portion of the harness and slipped it around the top of Hiccup's leg, pulling it as taut as possible to staunch the precious blood draining out of it.

Toothless moaned softly and poked his nose at Hiccup sniffing and making small crooning sounds. Stoick's heart clenched. How was this beast showing more compassion for his son than he ever had? "It'll be all right," he heard himself saying, unsure which of them he was trying to comfort.

"Well I set them kids on a task to keep them occupied – they're making a litter to carry the boy on…you know after we're done."

Stoick closed his eyes. He had been in enough battles to be hardened to such realities; after all, he himself had tended to both of Gobber's wounds. But his son was a different story. Fears raced through him unbidden, of all the horrors he had seen, the wounds that eventually proved fatal. This was his son, the last reminder of his beloved wife, how could he take a knife to his young flesh?

"Stoick," Gobber said gravely, placing a hand on the bigger man's shoulder. "We need to do this now. I'll do the cuttin' if you can't."

"No. It'll be me. It has to be me."

Gobber nodded and handed him a sword. "I've already set it in the fire to purify it."

The sword wasn't the largest Stoick had ever held, but he could have sworn it was the heaviest. He stood up and Gobber took his place to hold the boy's shoulders. Stoick moved to the left side, now standing right next to Toothless who watched him intently. "I have to do this," he said to the dragon. "If I don't, we can't stop the bleeding and he will die." Gobber watched him thoughtfully but stayed uncharacteristically silent as he communed with Toothless. For his part, the dragon made a small resigned noise and laid his chin on Hiccup's chest. "Okay, then," Stoick said and gripped the sword's handle, which was already feeling slick from his sweat.

Gobber shifted the right leg to the side to give him space. He glanced at Hiccup's face, a few cuts and singes, but otherwise unmarred, almost peaceful in its deceptive sleep. I'm sorry, he thought again. Clasping both hands on the sword's hilt, he set it on the leg just below the knee marking the strike point, and then raised it over his head. With a grunt filled with anguish and regret, he sliced the sword down with his might. It did its job well, cleaving the flesh and bone easily. The jolt of impact reverberated up Stoick's beefy arms and deep into his chest as the sound echoed louder in the eerie aftermath than would be normally expected. He loosed his grip and the sword fell with a clatter to the ground.

Gobber immediately set to work in bandaging the wound and Stoick knew that the worst was yet to come.

"We need to get him off this island, or all of this will have been for nothing."

With a nod, Gobber said, "Aye, I know that. Spitelout's seeing about getting at least one of the ships seaworthy again, but it'll take most of the night."

Stoick sighed heavily as he watched the dragon affectionately lick at the small cuts on his boy's face.

)))(((

Astrid jumped at the loud sound behind her, eyes immediately going to the spot Toothless had landed. For a heart-stopping moment she thought that the chief had done the unthinkable, but as she looked on she could see that the dragon was very much alive, if weakened and possibly injured from the fall. She stood with her arms folded across her chest, frowning, as she watched Gobber and Stoick continue to tend to Hiccup, though she couldn't see the boy at all. Stoick had pronounced him alive, but that's all they knew. She could only imagine the horrible injuries he may have received, each one worse than the last. Why the secrecy? The truth couldn't be any worse than these dark thoughts. Mostly she just wanted to see with her own two eyes that he was still in Midgard, though she knew she had no right to such a liberty. Not yet at least.

Crunching footsteps approached as Snotlout came along side her. Behind them the other three were still attempting to create a usable cot with remnants of a sail, some rope, and whatever wooden debris they had managed to scrounge, though it mostly consisted of Ruffnut and Tuffnut trying to strangle each other while Fishlegs attempted unsuccessfully to keep the endeavor organized.

From the corner of her eye she could see Snotlout watching her, but didn't bother to acknowledge him until he finally spoke. "So…you're pretty worried about him."

"Aren't you?" she countered icily.

One beefy shoulder shrugged. "I mean, sure, 'cause, like, he's my cousin and all."

Astrid blew an irritated breath into her bangs and remained silent.

"But you," he continued, "I've never seen you this interested in anyone."

"What are you saying?" she asked quietly.

"I thought…we sort of had something."

"We didn't."

"But before, when I was on the dragon's head, you said, 'You're the Viking,' like, like you were into me."

Astrid groaned. "I was just being supportive. Of everyone."

He huffed in frustration. "So now you and Hiccup…?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"That's what I said."

"Astrid," he said sharply, gripping her arm and forcing her to turn to face him. "What the Hel happened? Just yesterday you wanted to slaughter the guy for beating you in Dragon Training, then today you're his biggest cheerleader and rounding us all up to fly to the rescue on his say so, and now you're all ready to weep over his broken corpse?"

"He's not dead!" she shouted, pulling her arm from his grasp. The other three teens turned towards her outburst, and then seeing her angry scowl, quickly returned to their work. "I don't need to explain anything to you, 'Lout. When we get off this gods' forsaken island - when he wakes up - then…I don't know what's going to happen. But you and I," she gestured between them, "have nothing between us except your spilled blood. And unless you want some more, you'll take this as my last warning: leave me alone."

"It's the dragon, isn't it? He gets a Night Fury and suddenly he's Mr. Cool?"

Rage flooded through her in an instant and her fist started moving before he'd even finished speaking, catching him cleanly across the jaw. Snotlout's head shot back but he retained his feet. With a snarl she leaped forward burying her hands in his vest and pushing him back onto the ground. She dropped her knee into his stomach and began shaking him. "You son of a bitch! Don't you ever say that again!" she screamed into his face. "You don't know anything!"

She continued yelling incoherently as she found herself lifted into the air, Fishlegs' arms wrapped around her waist and carrying her a safe distance away from the other boy.

"Put me down!"

"Only if you promise to calm down," Fishlegs responded.

"I swear by Thor if you don't put me down right now I'll chop your legs off!"

Fishlegs sighed and lowered her to the ground. She whirled around and slapped his chest, though with little force behind it. Behind him Snotlout had pushed himself to his feet and glared at her as he made a show of wiping the dust from his clothes. She made a lunge for him and Fishlegs caught her easily, holding her back.

"This isn't doing any good, Astrid," Fishlegs told her mildly. "We know you're upset, but just ignore him and think about helping Hiccup."

"Snotlout's got a point though," Ruffnut said with a raised eyebrow.

"So, like, you're in love with Hiccup now?" Tuffnut asked scratching his head. "Did I miss something?"

"You'd miss your own nose if it wasn't attached to your face," his sister replied elbowing him in the nose for emphasis.

"Ow!"

"I'm not…in love…with anyone!" Astrid seethed through gritted teeth. How was she supposed to explain these sudden emotions to them when she couldn't explain them to herself?

"Okay, let's just all take a moment to breathe," Fishlegs said and took in an exaggerated breath in an attempt to be helpful. Unfortunately no one was paying attention to him.

"Look, he just saved the entire tribe from being dragon food! That's got to mean something, right?" Astrid said to them.

"With our help," Snotloud, holding his hands on his hips.

"Yes! Our help on dragons that we would never have known to ride if it weren't for him. He figured all this out by himself, and then risked his life trying to show everyone…and what does he get in return? Banished and disowned. But he still came out here and saved everyone. I for one just want to thank him for what he did." She pointed her finger at each of the other teens. "And I suggest you all do the same as well."

Fishlegs nodded eagerly; Ruffnut and Tuffnut shrugged with a curt nod of agreement; only Snotlout's face remained impassive as he continued to glare at Astrid. She sighed and looked off to the side. That was when she noticed Gobber walking towards one of the bonfires that had been set up on the beach and started running towards him, the rest of the teens following along in curiosity.

"How is he?" Astrid asked as she came up alongside the old blacksmith. He gave her a strange look as he dumped something into the fire. "Gobber?"

"Eh, there's really no hiding it now, I suppose," he mumbled. "We had to take off part of a leg."

Behind her the other teens murmured solemnly at the news. "His leg? Really?" Astrid asked, feeling sick in the pit of her stomach.

"Aye. But the worse is yet to come if we don't get home soon. Stoick and I need to work on getting a ship floating. Can you lot watch over him?"

"Of course," Astrid replied immediate. "Fishlegs, go grab the litter." Fishlegs nodded and trotted back to grab the makeshift cot as the rest walked over to Hiccup's body. Stoick was kneeling, holding Hiccup's hand tenderly. She smiled at him as she came up. "We'll take care of him, sir," she said quietly. Next to him Toothless murmured at her and she risked holding a hand out to give him a quick pat on the nose. "How's he doing?"

"The dragon?" Stoick asked as he stood up. "Won't leave the boy's side, but otherwise seems fine. Hiccup hasn't woken yet. I don't know if I should curse or thank the gods for that." Fishlegs set down the litter and Stoick gently lifted Hiccup onto it. "Take him close to the fire," Stoick instructed the group. "Keep watch over him, and make sure the leg doesn't start bleeding. With luck we'll be able to set sail at sunup."

"We have to stay all night?" Snotlout groused. "I mean we've got rides home." He pointed over his shoulder at the four dragons that were milling around aimlessly, seemingly confused after so long in captivity.

"If you want to leave, then leave," Astrid said to him in a cold voice. "Make sure to say goodbye to your dad first." Snotlout's shoulders slumped at the implied insult. Then she looked at Stoick. "Sir, what is going to happen to the dragons?"

Stoick looked in the distance for a few moments and then turned his head to Toothless. "Any dragon willing to live peacefully is welcome in the village from here on out."

Astrid smiled in relief and he gave her a curt nod before walking towards the shore where the other Vikings were hard at work at repairing a ship. Then she looked down at Hiccup, half covered in his father's large fur cloak, his chest rising and falling with a semblance of regularity. She resisted the urge to sweep his tangled bangs aside and kiss his forehead.

"Okay," she said instead clapping her hands. "Let's move him, carefully. It's going to be a long night."