"As Beautiful"

The air was cold in the ice-filled cavern where his mother had called home. She stood before the three Vikings, Gobber and Stoic in awe of seeing her for the first time in 20 years.

Hiccup felt the tension in the room, the underlying silence that came with his father's shock. He listened as his mother gave her reasons and her excuses, trying to pry some forgiveness from her husband's heart. Hiccup found it hard to watch, seeing his father speechless for the first time. He started walking toward her, and Valka had started to retreat backwards.

Hiccup felt his fist tighten with each step his father took towards his mother. He could see the budding tears in her eyes as he stepped closer and closer. Then his father stopped walking and placed his hand on her soft cheek. "You're as beautiful as the day I lost you." He said as his wife began to cry.

Hiccup looked at his mother, seeing her face filled with emotion for the first time. It was strange to him, having a mother he barely knew. How could one even accept someone as his mother when he had only met them a few hours ago? He knew what he was supposed to feel, happy and excited, but somewhere deep inside him, he felt a certain different feeling that he could not quite identify. It could not have been jealousy, whom would he have been jealous of? Hiccup did not understand his emotions, but he did understand one thing, he loved seeing his mother smile. "Beautiful" Hiccup whispered under his breath, "So incredibly beautiful."

Hiccup woke up to the northern cold wrapping their arms around his naked torso. To his right was his girlfriend, hogging the covers as usual. She had snuck in last night, hoping to catch Hiccup in the right mood, sadly his duties as Chief had kept him from fulfilling his duties as a lover.

It had been a few months since Drago's defeat and Stoic's untimely sacrifice. Life in Berk had started to return to normal, well at least as normal as things could get in a place filled with dragons. Since his father's death, Hiccup had started to take over the role of Chief, slowly but steadily. It had been easier than he anticipated, seeing as how the common folk had loved him almost as much as they had for their previous chief. The citizens of Berk had mourned Stoic's death greatly, as did Hiccup, so he had assumed that the pressure from succeeding him would be immense. The townsfolk had been nothing but supportive, especially in dealing with the learning curve that a new chief would need to hurdle.

It had also been a great help that Hiccup had his friends. Gobber, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, the Twins and even Eret, the latest addition to their gang, had all been exceptional in keeping the running the day to day functions of Burk smooth. It was not all perfect however, seeing as how his chiefly duties made free time much less prevalent for Hiccup. He had spent less time exploring the islands with his best friend Toothless, and even spent less time with his dear love Astrid.

He felt guilty of course, seeing how his girlfriend had been making such an effort to reignite their relationship through sex and romance. Yet, ever since his father's death, Hiccup had no longer felt the feelings of intense love and romance that he had once felt for Astrid. He knew he loved her, he would never stop loving her. Yet somehow the fires of his passion had somewhat been extinguished.

Hiccup stood up off the bed and put on his cloth shirt. Sleep had no longer been a possibility, not without waking up his sleeping girlfriend. He grabbed his coat and headed outside, into the widow's walk of the chief's tower. He felt the harsh winds and the freezing cold on his cheeks, yet somehow he had felt more comfortable here than inside his chambers. The wind had reminded him of the countless hours he spent riding through the northern islands with Toothless. He looked up at the stars, staring in awe of how beautiful they were, and how they seemed to have no end. Hiccup sometimes wished that Dragons could fly that far, so he would one day be among the stars in the sky.

"Enjoying the night's sky are we?" A familiar voice says.

Hiccup turns to the voice to see his mother, Valka, covered in furs and toward him.

"I guess I am, mom. What are you doing here at this hour?"

Valka smiled and gazed up at the sky. "I always loved seeing the stars at night, just when everyone else had fallen asleep." She put her hand up in the sky, almost as if she wanted to touch the stars and bring one to earth. "They're beautiful aren't they? Running through the sky like dragons." She looked at her son and smiled. Hiccup smiled back.

"Well I guess dragons and stars aren't so different. They're both giant balls of fire and they both cover the sky." Valka smiled at that, and reached for her son's hand. "You know, on days when I felt the loneliest, I would look at the sky and think about you." She placed her hand on her son's cold cheek. "I used to look up and think that, since you and I were looking at the same set of stars, we couldn't be so distant." Valka looked at her son deeply, sighing as she lamented on the years she missed out on with her son.

"I want you to know that I am sorry Hiccup. I am sorry for not being a true mother to you." Tears welled up in Valka's eyes as she stared her son eye to eye. Hiccup held his mother's hand in his and wiped away her tears. "You don't need to apologize for anything mom, I understand why you needed to go… And, I love you for it."

His words hung around the air for what seemed like hours. Valka's frown had turned into a smile, wrapped her arms around her son and whispered in his ear, "I love you so much Hiccup, strong, brave chief." Hiccup brought himself to hug his mom back and lose himself in the moment.

The night sky light up with the flames of stars millions of miles away. The sounds of a sleeping society and the intensity of the freezing wind filled the air. Yet in that moment, it had seemed to Hiccup that nothing else existed in the universe. Nothing but he and the woman in his arms. And with that, for the first time since he had lost his father, he had felt true passion.