Ch. 13

It's been three months since Talon was born, and Hiccup and Astrid just couldn't be happier and more proud that they had a healthy, beautiful son. The two loved being parents, always spending time with their son, however, that time Hiccup spent with his son was about to cut short, as soon as Stoick walked into their house.

"Dad, what's going on?" Hiccup asked as he bounced Talon on his knee, and Stoick looked at Hiccup sadly.

"Son, I've just received word from one of our neighboring villages, Icethorn; they've found several ships sailed under the colors of the Knights, and they believe that an attack is imminent. Icethorn doesn't have the numbers to fight the Knights, and are asking us for additional help. Even with the volunteers, which are about a chunk of the village, I don't have enough to make an adequate change in Icethorn's odds against the Knights, so I'm having to pull Vikings into our numbers and…I'm sorry son, but you're needed to join us." Stoick said, and Hiccup looked down at his son and petted his head.

"Dad…I…I can't! I'm a father now, like you, and my place Hiccup said, and Talon yawned and laid his head against Hiccup's chest and went to sleep.

"I know how you feel son, believe me, but you have a duty as a Viking as well. I'm sorry son, but you have to join us." Stoick said, and Hiccup sighed, knowing that his father was right. Astrid soon walked into the room, and took Talon and began cooing him.

"Hello Stoick, can I get you anything?" Astrid asked.

"Astrid, I'm going to have to go with my dad and the other Vikings to Icethorn; it's believed that the Knights will be attacking the village soon, and they are asking for help from us." Hiccup said, and Astrid frowned and looked at her now sleeping son.

"But…we now have a family…I…I…" Astrid said, and Hiccup walked over and lifted Astrid's head.

"I know, it breaks my heart Astrid, it really does, but…" Hiccup said, and Astrid just continued looking at Hiccup sadly.

"You…you just come back alive…" Astrid said, and Hiccup gave his wife a long kiss on the lips, and Stoick took that as his cue to leave the couple alone.

Berk Docks

"Hiccup…please be careful…" Astrid said, and Hiccup kissed his wife one final time, and then kissed Talon's forehead.

"I will Astrid, and I'll be sure to send you a letter through a Terrible Terror letter carrier, and let you know how I'm doing every week." Hiccup said, and Astrid practically tackled her husband in a kiss, careful not to harm Talon.

"Hiccup…" Astrid said, and Hiccup lifted his wife's chin and kissed her forehead.

"Be strong Astrid; I won't be gone long." Hiccup said, and Astrid nodded and handed Hiccup his pack of extra clothes, his weapons, shield, and Viking helmet.

"Odin…please protect my husband; let him return home safely…" Astrid prayed as she watched Hiccup board the ship.

'Toothless, my love, please be safe, and take good care of Hiccup…I'd hate to see Astrid so depressed, she can't take care of darling, little Talon.' Raven said, and Toothless rubbed his head against Raven's neck, and licked the back of Firefin's head.

'Papa…' Firefin said, and Toothless purred to his son.

'Don't worry, my son, I will return, with your uncle Hiccup; we'll just be gone for a few months.' Toothless said, and Firefin sounded like he was going to cry. 'Don't cry Firefin, like I said, I will return.' Toothless said, and he walked onto the ship with Hiccup, who started petting Toothless' neck as the sails dropped and ships sailed away from Berk.

"Thanks for coming with me Toothless; it must be hard to leave your son behind…I know it's hard for me." Hiccup said, and his answer was a gentle nudge from his friend. "You're right, we'll be fine. Now, I bet you're hungry for some cod, right?" Hiccup said, and Toothless began jumping up and down, excited about the mention of fish, and Hiccup opened a basket and threw the dragon a couple of fish.

"Son, I'd like to thank you for coming with us." Stoick said, patting his son on the back.

"Like I had a choice?" Hiccup said, a bit angry at his father for forcing his son on the trip.

"Look, I know you're angry at me, but you'll understand when you see what good you'll be doing for our neighbors; these Knights would've eventually found Berk, and attacked us, putting Talon in danger. You don't want that, right?" Stoick said.

"No, I don't want that…" Hiccup said.

"Look son, no one knows what your feeling other than me; when you were born, I didn't want to be away from you, no matter what, but my duties as a Viking were important, and I knew that, in the long run, it would keep you alive." Stoick said, and Hiccup sighed, looked at his father, and nodded in understanding.

"I know dad…but it still feels like a dagger in my heart to be away from Astrid and Talon." Hiccup said.

"I know…now come on; we need to go fishing. And try to avoid going hunting for trolls." Stoick said, and Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"They exist! They still your socks…just the left ones, though…strange…" Hiccup said, and now Stoick rolled his eyes.

"You're just as bad as Gobber…" Stoick said. "Even if they do exist son, which they don't, why do you care; you don't need left socks anymore!" Stoick said, and Hiccup punched his fathers arm.

"Ow…" Hiccup said, clutching his hand, and both Stoick and Toothless laughed.

"Time will move faster than you expect son, just you wait." Stoick said.

Icethorn; one week later

"I can see why they call this place 'Icethorn'; this makes Berk like it's inside a volcano!" Hiccup said, shivering from the cold, and keeping in front on Toothless so the dragon's warm breath can keep him warm.

"You'll get use to it son." Stoick said, and Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"Well, you're the one wearing four layers of fur!" Hiccup said, and Stoick chuckled as the Viking's of Icethorn exited their homes to greet their visitors.

"Stoick the Vast! It's been far too long old friend!" A rather large Viking said, holding out his arm towards the chief, Stoick took it with a laugh.

"Blaze! You old kook! It's great to see you again." Stoick said, and the two Viking's laughed. "Blaze, I'd like you to meet my son, Hiccup." Stoick introduced, and Hiccup held out his hand, and Blaze took it and shook it excitedly, practically lifting Hiccup off the ground.

"I can't believe I'm face to face with the famous Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III; slayer of the Red Death Dragon!" Blaze said, and Hiccup shrugged.

"Toothless here did most of the fighting." Hiccup said, petting his best friend.

"Well, you tamed a Night Fury, and that's known all through out Viking country!" Blaze said, when a girl around Hiccup's age stepped out of a house, and walked over to blaze. "Ah, Stoick, this is my daughter, Camikaze."

"A daughter! You never told me you had a daughter!" Stoick said, and the girl smiled at the Viking visitor, and she looked at Hiccup and smiled even larger.

"Hello, I'm Camikaze." Camikaze said, and Hiccup smiled and held out his hand.

"I'm Hiccup. Nice to meet you." Hiccup said, and after talking for a bit, Hiccup, Camikaze, and Toothless left the two older Viking's.

"Hmm…it appears my daughter has taken an interest in your son, eh Stoick?" Blaze asked.

"I hope not…" Stoick said, and Blaze looked insulted.

"Why not?" Blaze asked, and Stoick just looked at his old friend.

"Well, Hiccup's got a wife and first born waiting for him back at Berk." Stoick explained, and now Blaze understood.

"Oh, well, I'll talk to Cami tonight, let her know about that." Blaze said. And the two Vikings went to the dining hall to drink and eat.

Center of Icethorn

"So Hiccup, what's Berk like?" Camikaze asked, getting closer and closer to Hiccup with each step, making him feel more and more uncomfortable.

"Well…it's a nice village…the houses aren't as new as they used to be…since there's no need to rebuild them. It became a lot more enjoyable now that the Dragon's are our friends, and not burning or eating us alive…" Hiccup said, and Camikaze chuckled.

"Yeah, it's nice to have dragons as pets now; keeps things interesting. Cami said, and the two continued to walk, occasionally stopping to speak to either an Icethorn or Berk Viking.

"So Camikaze…" Hiccup started, but Cami stopped him.

"Please, just call me Cami; I hate it when people say my full name." Cami said.

"Why?" Hiccup asked, but Cami just shrugged.

"Always did; when I told my mom, she just started to call me Cami, and it just stuck." Cami explained. "What about you? You gotta a name you preferred to be called rather than 'Hiccup'?" Cami asked.

"Not really; not many people talked to me growing up, so I never had any problems with my name." Hiccup said.

"Why didn't people talk to you?" Cami asked.

"Well, when I was a kid, I was kind of a…klutz." Hiccup said, and the Viking did a quick yawn, making him unaware of a large pile of crates holding sharp swords; Hiccup walked into the pile, making it wobble, and eventually fall over, and the surrounding Vikings run in fear as the swords fell in random places, potentially killing anyone who might have not moved in time. Once all the swords hit the ground and the dust cleared, Hiccup looked at the damage he had down, turned around, and started walking away quickly, Cami and Toothless right behind him. "Did I say 'was a klutz'? I meant 'am a klutz." Hiccup said frustrated, and Cami just started to laugh.

"You're funny." Cami said, and Hiccup chuckled uncomfortably, but kept walking with his new friend anyway.

"So Cami, what dragon do you ride?" Hiccup asked, and suddenly a Zippleback landed next to the two Viking's and Cami jumped on its back.

"Hiccup, meet Zig and Zag, my Zippleback." Cami introduced, and the two dragon heads looked at Hiccup, who started petting the dragon's noses.

"Cool." Hiccup said, and suddenly, Toothless stood next to Hiccup and looked at his best friend in a way Hiccup would always understand. "Hey Cami, how about a dragon race?" Hiccup offered, and Cami looked tempted.

"Sounds fun. What does the winner get?" Cami asked, and Hiccup just shrugged.

"We just race for bragging rights of having the fastest dragon in Berk." Hiccup said, and Cami scoffed.

"Come on, let's make it more interesting!" Cami said.

"How?" Hiccup asked, and Cami thought about it for a minute, and smiled.

"Loser has to take the others guard duty tonight." Cami said, and Hiccup smiled.

"You're on!" Hiccup said, and he held out his hand for Cami to take, and Cami spit in her hand, and the shook Hiccups, and Cami then hopped back on her dragon and took off into the sky, leaving Hiccup to wipe the girl's saliva off his hand with his vest. Once Hiccup was on Toothless, the Night Fury took off and quickly caught up with Cami.

"So, where to?" Cami asked, and Hiccup looked at his surroundings and saw a small island off in the distance.

"How about that island?" Hiccup asked, and Cami looked in the direction Hiccup was talking about, and smirked.

"Perfect!" Cami said, and the two got ready to race.

"Okay, on three; one, two…" Hiccup never got to three; before he could finish counting, Cami and her Zippleback had already started speeding towards the island. "HEY! THAT'S CHEATING!" Hiccup yelled, and Toothless took off towards the two, trying to catch up. After ten minutes, Hiccup and Toothless finally caught up to Cami, who was half way to the island. "Yeah, real fair, Cami!" Yelled, and Cami couldn't stop laughing.

"Oh come on, I'd say it's a fair advantage, considering that you're flying one of the fastest dragons in the world!" Cami said, and Hiccup just rolled his eyes, which were soon seeing nothing but green gas; Cami had her Zippleback create a smokescreen, making it impossible for Hiccup and Toothless to see. Meanwhile, Cami was laughing, knowing her trick would slow Hiccup down, and she turned around to see just how far behind Hiccup really was, but she couldn't see him, so she looked in front to see if Hiccup had passed her, but he wasn't there either. Getting worried, Cami stopped Zig and Zag to look around the area to see if she could find Hiccup, but it wasn't until she looked down, when she saw Hiccup and Toothless falling down to the ice cold ocean below them; the gas had knocked them unconscious. "No…no…no, no, no, no…" Cami said repeatedly, and she took off to try and find a way to save her friends. When she reached the dragon and Viking, they showed no signs of waking up. "Hiccup! You've got to wake up! Please! You'll freeze to death if you hit the water! Please! WAKE UP!" Cami said, and as they got closer to water, Cami got more and more worried. Suddenly, Toothless' eyes shot open and so did Hiccup's, who started laughing and Toothless straightened out and shot straight towards the island, leaving Cami shocked and confused; Hiccup had tricked her. Once she came back to reality, Cami made her way back to the island, but by the time she and her dragon got there, Hiccup was already lying on the beach, relaxing.

"What took you so long?" Hiccup asked with a smirk, and Cami just stomped on the beach, over to Hiccup, and then stomped on his stomach, making Hiccup groan in pain for a bit, but it was quickly replaced by laughter.

"YOU HAD ME SO FREAKING WORRIED!" Cami said, and Hiccup stood up.

"Well, that's pay back for cheating, twice." Hiccup said, and Cami just growled and punched Hiccup's shoulder. "Gods, you remind me of Astrid…" Hiccup said, rubbing his shoulder.

"Who's Astrid?" Cami asked.

"She's…" Hiccup said, but a horrifying sight interrupted him. Cami saw the look on his face and turned around, seeing the sight that left him speechless; dozens of Knights ships, making their way to the village.

A/N: I'm sorry about the long time gap between updates; things have just been hard to keep up with. I'm going to do my best to update regularly, but no promises. I've been working on three new stories, as well as two older stories I've been falling behind on as well. Please just bear with me as I get everything sorted out.