My gods I feel like I fell into a blackhole but guess what, I'm alive! I've no idea why this has been sitting on my computer for ages and I've never posted it, but here's the Epilogue of The Night's Fury. I am genuinely confused as to why I have not posted it. I think I was planning on rewriting it but never got around to it. Also the computer that this was originally on (the one that has been giving me trouble this entire series) died a few months ago so I've been going through all my old writing (there's so much holy moly) and look what I found. So sorry for leaving this somewhat unfinished for almost a year (where did the time go?). This is short but it just ties everything together and it frustrates me that I didn't post it earlier.

Epilogue

Hiccup watched his breath turn into wisps of mist that were then snatched by the tendrils of wind and carried towards the setting sun. He heard foot steps behind him and he instantly matched them to a face.

"Evening, Astrid," he greeted softly. She made no reply but instead clasped his chilled hand in her own warm one, running her thumb along the back of it and leaning into him.

"Do you think you'll change tonight?" she asked.

"I don't know," he sighed. "I feel if it is going to happen, it will happen tonight."

"The curse is broken-" she began.

"-but I've still got these." He pointed to his eyes that were luminescent on his face despite the fading light.

She just shook her head. "We will just have to find out what it means."

"I just…," he shifted his weight restlessly as he tried to find the words, "I'm ready to be part of Berk again, and I'm not sure where I fit when I've got these."

She let go of his hand to turn to face him and cup his cheek. "Berk is changing. I had three separate people come to me today and ask if I could teach them how to ride a dragon. Yes, there are some people who won't welcome you here, but most people saw what you did and they want to be you. You've made your place here Hiccup. You didn't fit before, and now you've invented a position of your own. Dragon Master of Berk." She gave him a genuine smile.

He tilted his head and then grinned. "It does have a nice ring to it."

"It sounds perfectly grand," she agreed. She saw the orange strains of the last fingers of dusk clinging to the horizon reflected in his eyes and she saw it spark panic within them.

"You should step back," he directed. Her eyes shot back up to his face and she gave a soft growl. She grabbed his head and pulled it down to her own and melded his lips into hers. He flailed awkwardly for a moment, trying to step away as one eye caught the last ray of sun wave goodbye as it sunk into the sea. But she persisted and he could not help but relent, the sensation beyond pleasurable. He put his hand on her shoulders and then ran them down her arms, removing any chill that had settled in them. Eventually she let him go, giving him a huge grin.

"You still look human to me." He laughed, letting out any tension he had held.

"You didn't give me much choice."

She hugged him, and then whispered into his ear, "You know I would have loved you either way."

"Of course you would have," he replied, feeling relieved anyway.

()()()()()

It was a few days later when they discovered the full extent of Hiccup's newfound abilities. He and Astrid were working on further training the rest of their strange new gang when Snotlout's Monstrous Nightmare had yet another disagreement with Snotlout's proposals and lashed out at him, but in the process his tail came flying towards Astrid and himself. He did not know what he planned on doing, but he stepped forward and stretched out his two arms, adrenaline racing through him, slowing the moment down. There was a distressed yelp from Fishlegs as his hands came into contact with the tail, and with an unusual strength he managed to hold the tail from moving any further. He expected to need to remove his hands immediately but instead found the flames licked against his arms with an almost cool sensation. He dropped the tail instinctively and turned to Astrid with a shocked expression, arms held out in surprise, and she returned the expression.

"Your arms Hiccup," she pointed out. He looked down to find his arms coated in metallic bronzed copper scales, and his hands appearing more like claws than hands. Astrid also noted his eyes burnt with an unusual intensity. She stepped towards him and ran a thumb across his cheekbone where the metallic sheen of scales had also appeared and up to his left ear. "Dragon ears!" she exclaimed. Hiccup gave her a panicked look, before glancing around at the others' reaction. But instead of disgust and anger he was met with curious looks and exclamations of wonder.

"Cool!" Tuffnut even said.

He gave them a sheepish grin and felt a crawling sensation on his skin as it returned to its normal state.

"Do it again!" Ruffnut demanded. Hiccup sought out Astrid, asking her with a look what he should do next. She gave him a nod; give it a go.

He shut his eyes and focused, remembering what it felt like to turn into a Night Fury. His skin crawled and he felt his limbs shift, but this time it felt like second nature, like something his body was meant to do. He simply melted into his new, form. His dragon form stood on four legs, his scales appearing as thick round plates on his skin, the gaps between the larger circular scales filled with smaller scales. His legs were longer and spindlier than Toothless'. His tail too was long and thin, whisking about like a cats and his ears folded back against his skull like an angry horse. But he wasn't angry. Just a mixture of confusion and excitement. Astrid laughed at his bewildered expression and the others watched him with shining eyes, like that of a child that had their whole world recreated by the smallest piece of information. And then with another blink he melted back into his full human form.

"Well," he said, blinking in disbelief, "I guess that could come in handy." The arena was filled with chuckles, but the awkward silence was quickly filled by Fishlegs' gushing about what class dragon he might fit into and the fact he had never seen one like it. As he did so, Toothless gave him a comforting nuzzle, before he and Stormfly shoved him and Astrid together while the group argued about what they could get Hiccup to do now he had this new superpower. Astrid wrapped her arm around him and led him away.

"Let them decide your future on their own," she grinned wickedly to him. "We've got better things to do." She leapt up onto Stormfly and shot into the air. "Last one back has to clean the stables!" she called back to him.

He shot Toothless a look. "Here that bud? We've been challenged." And they too took off into the air in hot pursuit.

()()()()()

This is Berk. It's twelve days North of Hopeless and a few degrees South of Freezing to Death. It has fishing, hunting and a charming view of the sunsets. It also has dragons. No one outside of Berk knows exactly how it happened, but one day Berk became ten times more formidable. And the man that runs it all? Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, Dragon Master and the only known Dragon Soul. His name brought fear and respect alike. But those who knew better knew that Hiccup would be nothing without his formidable Dragon Heart, Astrid, and Dragon Blood, the Night Fury that rarely left his side and even his Dragon Riders that were famous throughout the archipelago- for different things depending on their success. And then there was the chief of Berk, who beamed with pride as he watched his son leap onto his Night Fury to once again save the world. Because he had been given a second chance with his son and gods know he would do it right this time.

There, done. I finished high school yesterday and now I have finally finished this fic. Thanks to those of you who are still around and sorry again for this weird little hiccup. (Hehe). Anyway, I'll probably be posting bits and pieces I found in my archives over the next few days but I don't think I have any HTTYD ones that are share worthy. I haven't been as active on 'cause I've been working on my fanart skills over on Tumblr. (I'm waveringshadow over there too). I'm not amazing but I'm a lot better than I used to be. I fell into the Voltron fandom so that's what most of my content is. Also, anime happened. Fell straight into that hole. Maybe that's where I've been all this time.

This has been my most successful fic yet and went way further than I expected it to, so thank you all for your support. I have exams in a few weeks and then I'm free to write as much fanfic as I want, but I'm also free to do a bunch of other things so who knows when writing will happen. Thanks again for reading this fic and I hope to see you around!