A/N – Update! I'm on a roll this weekend. I haven't said so in a while, but y'all are great. Thank for reading! I appreciate you all.

X

Chapter 16: Home

The flickering hearth flames dried the chilly water from Astrid's skin, slowly drying out the clothes that Hiccup had helped her hang up beside it. Freckles dotted his bare back, gathered around his shoulders and speckled down his spine. More than a few times he caught her starting at him, and she only blushed. She didn't look away.

He wasn't unattractive. Skinny, yes, but ugly? No. The same auburn hair grew in fine strands on his chest, drew an arrow down his flat stomach to his hipbones. She spotted him with eyes on her several times, too, and he blushed deeper each time.

Mates. Her heart beat faster at the word. Her mate. His mate. Every hair on her body tingled at even the slightest touch.

Sitting on the floor with him, soaking in the fire's warmth, she could think of no place she would rather be.

"What are you thinking about?" Astrid asked.

"The alpha."

"What about it?"

"That dragon is the one controlling the others. Without him, I-I don't know. Maybe if I could relocate him, or something." His green eyes shuffled, flickering from flame to flame, never leaving the fire's light. It reflected in them, bright and dancing.

"Then go in there and show that dragon who's boss." Astrid tightened her fingers into fist. She punched the air, knocking out an invisible enemy.

"I don't know if it is that simple. Dragons are territorial. If I just go in there, that dragon might…freak out. If he attacks, I'm not sure if I'll be able to do anything about it." He spoke with his hands, each thought accompanied by a graceful motion of his long fingers, a roll of his thin shoulders.

Astrid released her fist. The only way she knew to fight a dragon was with steel, but that dragon looked tougher than a sword or axe. She would need an axe the size of a small island, and arms to wield it.

"I know I can't sit here and do nothing, not while dragons and Vikings are fighting, not while people and dragons are dying." Hiccup closed both of his fists on top of his knobby knees.

"You'll figure it out," Astrid said. She placed a hand over one of his fists. He loosened his grip and took her hand in his.

Hasty footsteps patted along the stone floor. Valka appeared in the doorway with an old basket in her hands. She heaved it onto a stone ledge. A sweet scent followed her inside.

"Berries?" Hiccup asked, leaning forward to spy the basket's contents.

"Yes," Valka said. She rummaged through the pots and pans until she pulled out a shallow square of dented metal. She dumped the berries from the basket into the pan, red, blue, and purple. "Hiccup, fetch some fresh, cool water to wash these."

Hiccup stood and grabbed his cloak. He pulled it around his near-naked self and set off down the corridor with a pan. Toothless bounced along at his side.

"You're still here, I see," Valka said once Hiccup left.

"Yes," Astrid said.

Valka huffed, but said nothing more.

Astrid watched her pick through the berries, tossed out small stems, leaves, and berries that didn't pass her inspection.

"Why did you leave Berk?"

Valka dropped the berry she'd been holding. Her pale green eyes shot to Astrid at once.

"He told you?"

"No," Astrid said. "He told me his name."

She sighed, closed her eyes, and mumbled, "Dear Odin, why."

"He is Stoick's son, isn't he?" Astrid leaned a bit forward. "Which would make you Valka."

"Yes, indeed, it is me. No witches to be found. Does that surprise you?" She spoke in a dry tone, exasperation.

"Not really, but I want to know why you're out here and not home. Why fake your kidnaping?"

"I didn't fake anything," Valka spat. "I left one day and Stoick chose to tell the village whatever he wanted. He chose the ridiculous. Obviously, my fondness of dragons wasn't my own decision but a curse put on me by someone vile and malicious. How could I find sympathy with those blood-thirsty beasts? He didn't understand. I couldn't live that that any longer, so I left. It was the unfortunate event that day that our son followed me. He started to cry and I couldn't leave him alone."

Astrid didn't hesitate. She might not get the chance to ask again. "Does he know about his father? About his home?"

"This is his home," Valka said. "The Vikings would hate him. They already curse him and want him dead. Even if they knew who he was they would want him dead for conspiring with dragons. They would never listen to reason."

"He deserves to know who he is," Astrid said.

"Be that as it may, I will not tell him and you most certainty will not." Valka pointed an accusatory finger at Astrid.

"Why keep it a secret?"

"Because he will want to walk right into the village and they will slaughter him on the spot. I will not send my son to his death." Valka set the pan of berries back down on the rocky ledge, with more force than she had to, rattling the metal against the stone and sending a vicious echo into the air. "I will not speak of it again."

Astrid averted her stare into the flames. How could Valka think of keeping something like that from Hiccup? He should know who he is and where he comes from, no matter how horrible his mother thinks Vikings are. He is the chief's son, the heir to Berk, the rightful future chief.

"What are your plans?" Valka asked.

"My plans?"

"When are you leaving?"

Astrid blinked. "I hadn't thought of it."

"You can't stay here forever," Valka said. "Your parents will send someone looking for you, undoubtedly scour the entire forest looking for you or your body if that is what they believe. You are not only putting yourself at a risk, but Hiccup and myself, too."

"I doubt that my reappearance with stop the witch hunts." Astrid crossed her arms. She felt exposed without Hiccup beside her.

"They might stub them for a while. They no doubt blame these nonexistence witches for your disappearance and will hunt them down at all costs. The hunters are already encroaching farther than they have even been. It will take time for them to arrive here, but if this keeps up they will be at the mountain by year's end."

"What about the dragons? They won't like their home being destroyed," Astrid said.

"No, they will not. They will attack if they have to, to protect themselves, their eggs, their roost, their mates. While docile, they will not be killed willingly. They will fight to the death." Valka looked up from her pan of berries to stare Astrid in the eye. "Is that what you want? For dragons to be slaughtered, homes destroyed, all for the sake of yourself?"

"No, but I-"

"Then I suggest you start thinking of going home where you belong."

Footsteps, both human and dragon, came back down the corridor. Hiccup reappeared in the doorway with a bucket of water, drops glistening down the sides in the firelight. Toothless stood in the doorway, too big to fit through, watching the three humans inside.

"Thank you, Son," Valka said. She took the bucket and poured the cool water over the berries. They began to float and she swished them around with her fingers, slopping water down the sides.

X

"It's not much," Hiccup said. The torch he held cast a warm, flickering light over the small, rocky-walled cavern that served as his bedroom.

"It's cozy," Astrid said.

Cozy, indeed. It wasn't much bigger than her own room back on Berk. A number of old blankets and pillows, which looked to have been stolen, scattered the bed, which was nothing more than a smooth part of the stone floor. Gadgets littered a small table similar to his workshop in his mountain hideaway. Other than those small things, the room held little else.

Toothless jumped onto his bed, a flat stone which he promptly heated with a bright blue-white jet of fire. Hiccup set his torch between two stalagmites and pulled Astrid to his bed. She sat down at once and snuggled underneath the several wool blankets. The multiple layers protected from the hard floor, giving the bed a squishy feel.

She had left her clothes in the hearth room; they were still a little damp. Hiccup had as well, leaving them both in their underwear. Hiccup hadn't minded. He said his bed would be warm enough that she wouldn't need the extra layers. He hadn't said those words with intent in mind, and after they had left his mouth a bright red flush replaced the color in his face.

Astrid scooted toward the wall and Hiccup joined her underneath he covers. He wrapped his arms around her. She settled into his embrace, head against his heart.

Valka's words had left a headache behind. Astrid hadn't let thoughts of the hunters bother her, but now they plagued. Would they search for her until they found her? If they reached the mountain in a year's time, what would happen? They would find all three of them, perhaps, and the secret would be up.

They might all be dead. If the hunters found them like they were now, they would only believe what they already assumed, that Astrid had been taken by the witches. She needed to tell them the truth, whether or not Valka wanted that truth exposed. Berk needed to know that they hunted humans, not witches.

Stoick needed to know that he hunted his own son, his not-evil son.

Astrid sighed into Hiccup's chest. His hand squeezed her shoulder.

What would Stoick say? If she told him, he might laugh. He might not, as well. He might demand evidence, proof that they lived. She doubted that she could find Valka's home by herself, coming from the village. Each time she had returned, Hiccup had been leading.

If she could just get someone on her side, like Stoick, or Gobber even, then maybe the village would listen to reason. It sounded better than waiting to be found. Valka was right about that. If the hunters found her first, there would be no talking. She would be dead before she reached the village, as would Hiccup and Toothless.

Stoick needed to know about the alpha, about Hiccup, and about Valka. Knowing that they yet lived would eradicate his hatred of the forest, of dragons, and of the witches that didn't exist.

But would he listen?

Stoick might, given his mood, whereas no one else would give her the time of day if she spoke of people in the woods, of dragons as friends. Her parents might, or they would lock her up at once.

Astrid lied awake into the night. The torch's light burned down slowly and at the last of its flickering light, Astrid crawled over Hiccup and to the edge of the bed. Hiccup stirred and rolled over onto his side. Astrid paused once her feet touched the cool floor. If Hiccup woke, she would have no better excuse than the bathroom, from which he would expect her return quickly.

Hiccup did not stir and Toothless slept soundly. Astrid tiptoed to the torch, dislodged it from its perch, and crept into the corridor. Her clothes hung exactly where she'd left them. After dressing as quietly as she could, Astrid took the torch and found her way back through the waterfall chamber and into the darkness of the forest.

Squawk!

Astrid jumped at the sound, but relaxed as Stormfly bounced forward.

"Hey, girl," Astrid said. She met the dragon with a warm hand on her snout, and hugged her horn close. The dragon breathed a deep sigh into her torso. "I knew it was you."

Squawk.

"You want to help me, girl?"

Squawk!

Astrid tossed the torch into the waterfall's puddling end. The flame didn't go out at once. Its yellow light struck through the watery world, disembodied by the shimmering waves, before going dark.

Astrid climbed onto Stormfly's bare back and settled herself on the ridge between her muscular wings. She took a deep breath, having never flown without Hiccup, and not flown on Stormfly that many times, her nerves rattled.

Stormfly chirped, turned her spiked head around and blinked at her rider.

Astrid held her breath. Was that concern in the dragon's eyes? Surely she imagined such an emotion. She stared harder into Stormfly's yellow eyes, but the concern she saw did not dissipate.

"I'm okay, Stormfly," Astrid said, patting the dragon's back.

She chirped in response and stretched her wings out, giving a little nudge toward the ground.

"Yeah, we're going for a flight."

Squaaawk!

Astrid held on to the wing joints, then readjusted her hands to thick spikes that jutted out of Stormfly's crown. The hold felt stronger on her fingers and better for her back.

Stormfly stretched out her wings and gave a mighty thrust toward the ground, swishing dirt, leaves, and twigs out of her way. She rose into the air and pushed forward; Astrid's grip on her spikes turned white-knuckled. The cold air whipped past and finally the dragon's ascent leveled. The treetops blurred together below into an uneven ground, lumps in the pale darkness of the moonless night. The stars peeked between the clouds here and there, but mostly remained hidden.

She took Stormfly around the forest, here and there, but never saw the blinking fires below. How could she with the sparse stars so bright? So close? She dared Stormfly closer, to breach the clouds, to fly on the other side of the world; they burst through the wet, chilly clouds into the far-side, the stars' side of the earth, twinkling and dazzling with a billion lights.

Astrid remembered her purpose. To inform, not to dally. She pushed Stormfly downward with a simple gesture of her spikes, and breached back through the clouds. They had gone farther that Astrid thought. Berk sparkled below with dotted red-yellow torches and windows.

The sight of her home caused an upsurge of gladness and a bout nerves. She had left on rather unseemly conditions, no doubt things had only ripened since then. She could turn back and let more time pass, more time to heal the wounds, to ease the torment. Astrid nudged Stormfly higher, out of the sentries' immediate sight, just underneath the clouds.

Stoick's house sat above the village, high and in charge, a stronghold of his command. She spotted her own house; a tiny light flickered in the upstairs window, her bedroom. Astrid caught her breath before it escaped.

"See that, girl? They do miss me," Astrid whispered to Stormfly, who gave a gentle nod of her head.

Astrid circled around the village once, eyes on her house, her home. Clouds thickened and moved, blocking what little starlight had come through. In the renewed darkness, Astrid saw only her home, the flickering light in the window.

Squawk! Stormfly jerked backward suddenly.

Astrid held tight to keep from lurching forward. "What is it, girl?"

Her answer came. A boulder flew into the air, barely missing them, capturing the empty space where they had been only moments before.

"Oh, no," Astrid gasped.

Down below, hunters and Vikings gathered, catapults ready. Stormfly rattled and chirped as another speeding rock came flying toward them. She dodged with a dangerous jolt to the side.

"Get us out of here!" Astrid shouted.

Stormfly dodged; a boulder blocked their escape. She lurched backward. Stormfly fought her way through the boulders and arrows, edging closer and closer to the ground. Astrid held on, knowing well their strategy. The closer a dragon was to the ground, the easier the prey.

"No, Stormfly! Up! Up!"

It was too late; a net flew into the air above them; a boulder blocked the way forward. The net crashed down on top of them, pushing Astrid against Stormfly's back. With her wings collapsed, Stormfly squawked as they tumbled to the ground.