Runaway Viking

Part 2: 5 years later

Astrid's POV

I haven't seen Hiccup for 5 years. That's five years or 60 months, or 1825 days, or 43 800 hours, or 2 628 000 minutes, or 157 680 000 seconds, not that I'm counting or anything.

It's been five years since I last saw Hiccup, and I miss him. I miss him more than I expected to, much more. So much so that it makes my heart throb. I have received a few letters from him, sent secretly by a terrible terror known as Sneaky, biannually, for my birthday and Snoggletog. Otherwise I don't hear from him. He hasn't told me what he's been doing really either, other than that he's made a few friends and that he's living on an island known as "The Edge". When I tried to ask him what he had been doing, he just replied with "exploring" which didn't actually explain anything. I wondered why he was so secretive. Maybe he had something bad happen to him that he didn't want to tell me. If so, that worried me.

Over the five years he's been gone, I realised why my heart throbbed when I received his letters. It wasn't just because I missed him, it was because I loved him, or rather that I was in love with him.

I realised this when Snotlout tried proposing to me 2 years ago. As soon as he did, I rejected him, of course. But that night, I dreamt of being proposed to again, but this time, by Hiccup. In the dream, I didn't just accept, I embraced him, and kissed him passionately. When I awoke the next morning, I thought about the dream, puzzling over what it could mean. I eventually came to the conclusion that I wanted Hiccup to come back, and to propose to me, and that meant that I loved him. I fell in love with the village runt, the so-called 'talking fishbone' and I was pleased about it.

After Hiccup left, Stoick mounted a huge search for him, but they obviously didn't find anything. After a few months, everyone gave up looking, and they held a funeral for him, believing him to be dead. I was the only Berkian who knew that he wasn't.

After Hiccup's funeral, Stoick hid away in his house, neglecting his chief duties and not speaking to anyone, except Gobber.

About 3 months later, the Dragon Raids suddenly stopped. No one is sure why, or how for that matter, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it has something to do with Hiccup. Afterall, he and I are the only ones who know the location of the nest.

Recently, we have been hearing tales from the Traders about a man known as the "Dragon Master". They say that he wears dragon-scaled armour, that he has only one leg and that he rides a black dragon no one has ever seen before. Some say that the dragon is a Night Fury, but I'm not so sure.

But the most mysterious thing about the Dragon Master is that no one has ever seen his face. No one knows what he looks like. It's said that he wears a helmet that covers his whole face, and the only things visible are his emerald green eyes. It was really quite a mystery.

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