NO POV

You walked down towards the fires that lit the heart of the village with your helmet concealing your identity. People were dancing, singing loudly and drinking; the great smell of ale, mead, moist grass and sweet crackling fires were beyond nostalgic. You saw familiar faces passing by, but you kept a low profile, to avoid any reason for you to stay a second longer. You pushed yourself through the crowd towards the valor of dragons who were playing with the children of Berk. The children looked at you, their eyes gaped, their mouths open and their attention were fully towards your unique white, scaled armour.

"Woah" one said

"What are you?" Another asked

"Hey, you can't have the dragon back, he's part of the Alfa's family." A beautiful, young, red head girl said innocently... plats laced through her hair just like your braids when you were younger.

"Toothless already has a big family..." you replied, bending down to match the height of the young girl.

She glared at you with big, brown eyes making you feel guilty...

"No one can have a family that's too big... Chief Hiccup won't let you steal dragons." She said whilst playing with the bottom of her braids.

All the other children were looking up staring at your helmet, confused and astonished... waiting for your reaction.

"I'm sure Hiccup wouldn't mind if I took my own dragon back to where we came from..." you said with a jolly tone to keep them sombre.

"Where do you come from, lady?" Someone's blonde son asked.

You didn't know what to say... you had nowhere to go... you had no other home. Nevertheless, there was nothing that could make you change your mind about staying. You looked for Libelle among the valor or dragons, leaving the children to play. They carried on as if they had never seen you...

"Elle! Here girl!" You shouted... "Libelle!! Where are you?"

You walked through the reptiles and then saw pure white scales peaking through silhouettes of wings ahead...

"There you are, Libelle!"... You saw her coming into your sight. You recognised the pigment of her scales immediately. She was with Toothless.

She jumped towards you and licked your helmet with a delighted look upon her face.

"Oh come on, you know that doesn't wash out!... Someone seems happy!"

She growled joyfully and pranced around Toothless. He barely noticed your presence, to busy being completely mesmerised by your angelic dragon.

"Huh... you like it here, don't you girl." I stated.

She pressed her head against Toothless's.

It made you smile seeing her so happy. You barely ever saw her this happy anymore.. moving from island to island, no family, no friends, no lovers. You realised what you have kept her from all these years... and to think her new love could've been the dragon of yours... No! Instead, Hiccup has betrayed me, he manipulated me into thinking he had feelings for me, while he beds a woman all this time.

You stared at her for a few minutes thinking of how to tell her that you both had to leave. It hurt you to have to drag her away from the Nightfury, however there was no other way.

"Libelle. We need to leave soon..."

"But you just arrived..." you heard a voice coming closer, unclear from which direction....

"Who's there?" You asked, wiping Libelle's spit off of your helmet.

"It's been too long, (Y/N)..." Astrid came forward from between the crowd of dragons.

You didn't know how to react. How did she know that I was here? You thought.

"Hiccup told me you're back! I couldn't believe it!! I didn't think I'd see you 'till tomorrow... but here you are! Welcome home!" She opened her arms and on her face was a big smile and wet cheeks caused by trails of tears.

Of course Hiccup told her...

You didn't move... You felt vast anger towards her. She has the man I love. She's the reason he and I can't be together. She's the reason I have to leave.

"What, you're not gonna say hello? I know it's you (Y/N), come here!" She walked towards you and gave you a big hug. You forced yourself to hug her back.

"You said you were leaving?...Why? Does Hiccup know you're leaving?"

"I don't know..." you said emotionless.

"Well remove your helmet, (Y/N)! I want to see you!"

You removed your helmet..

"Oh Oden, how you've done me proud! Look at you! So pretty-" She grabbed your cheeks whilst beaming with light.

"You've changed a lot since the last time I saw you as well, Astrid!" You tried to be polite and suppressed your jealousy.

"Meh- Not that much! But Hiccup has! Do you remember how he used to be? I can't believe how much he's grown over these past few years, look what he's done to our home! It's unbelievable!" She said passionately.

"Yeah, he has... I- I was very shocked to see him.."

"So was he! He told me how happy he was when he found you."

"Oh, he did?" You said, not absorbing her words. All you could think about was how she and Hiccup were together...

"Well yes! He missed you so much..." she started looking to the floor, the enjoyment of seeing you left her face, she was consumed by another feeling... heartbreak.

"Astrid, are you okay?" You tried to show empathy, but your blood still boiled with jealousy.

"I'll be fine, can we- can we talk?"

You looked to the sky, where you wanted to escape to, then you looked back at your dragon dancing with her new love...

"*sigh*, yes for a bit, but not too long, we ought to be leaving soon..."

She grabbed you by the arm and took you up to one on the many green hills of Berk.

~~~

You reached a hill not to far from the village. You could still see and hear all that was going on below.. you could see Toothless and Libelle dancing in harmony underneath the moonlight... all of the dragons playing with the children who were still somehow filled with energy... everyone embracing the opportunities of the night... the joy in all their presence... you had never seen the island this full of life before. The Berk you knew lived through chaos during the dark hours. Everyone used to be awake all night long to fight for their lives and to take others... but now, they're up all night to celebrate their freedom and peace.

You couldn't see your mother or brothers within the energetic, drunken crowd. Of course, they aren't there... what do they have to celebrate? They're heartbroken due to my actions... they hate me for what happened to dad.

"So much has changed here..." you said looking down at the village below.

"Isn't it crazy? How much it's changed in so little time... it only took five years to turn the ongoing civil war of our ancestors into THIS." Astrid said with a proud look of achievement whilst gazing down on Berk.

"Yeah it is. After being gone for so long... and coming back to this- it's - it's amazing."

"I could only imagine." Astrid gave you a censored glance... "Um... (Y/N), I want to say I'm sorry about your father... I'm sure his loss impacted you deeply... being alone all those years... I'm so sorry."

"Thank you. I- well yes, it did... but I wasn't alone. I had Libelle"

"Ahh yes the Nightfury! She's beautiful... But, (Y/N), a dragon can feel your loneliness. They're empathetic creatures. If you're lonely, she's lonely."

"Lightfury." You corrected her out of spite. "Thank you... yeah she is, I don't know where I'd be without her." You said, avoiding her remark about your loneliness...

Astrid looked down towards the dragons...

"She seems very fond of Toothless."

"She is! They're getting along well. We were searching for Nightfuries for a while and were starting to loose hope... when we found Toothless... well and Hiccup... it- it was almost like a dream."

"Hiccup told me that he was going for a day trip to feed Toothless his favourite foods... he ended up surprising me three days later with a Lightfury and a long lost friend"

She smiled and looked at you. You still felt empty inside even though she spoke with kindness.

"You must be proud of Hiccup..." you said kindly, slowly excepting the fact that Hiccup couldn't be yours.

"I am- truly am. Everyone is. Back before he met Toothless I would've never thought he'd be capable to make these changes... I didn't think anyone would. But he ended up changing the lives of so many people, including Stoick the Vast, which I thought was impossible!"

"Mmhm. You're so lucky Astrid- I would be proud to have a man so capable of influencing that many people by my side-"

"Hiccup's not my-... he and I aren't together, (Y/N)." Astrid said, looking down and playing with her hands.

"He's not- you're not together? But I heard-"

"We were... but..."

"What happened?!"

"...I thought you already knew..."

"Knew what?"

"Oh... (Y/N)... it's you that he's in love with."

"What? But I-" Your heart swelled.

"He loves you (Y/N). Always has. It took months for him to even step out of his house after you were gone! He was mending his broken heart because he loved you so much. After you two came back to Berk... he and I talked and he told me that things couldn't carry on between us because his feelings for you came flooding back!"

You stayed silent in disbelief. He loves me! You felt so happy you could collapse. Everything started making sense! That's why he stopped the kiss..

"Is that why you were planning to leave?! You heard that him and I were together so you decided to leave without saying goodbye or even hello to most?" Astrid said. She showed empathy but you could tell she judged you of your cowardliness. I didn't realise she knew me so well..

"No! Well... I... I thought... I just can't believe this! He loves me?! But what about you, Astrid. I can't hurt you..."

"(Y/N). Don't." She held your hand tightly.

"I'm fine, trust me. A part of me always knew he could never let you go. You're his soul mate. You need each other. Didn't your love for dragons already proof enough?? He would've never become the man he is today without you. You're perfect for each other!" She smiled wiping tears from her eyes.

You both hugged. Mutual understanding and respect were between you.

"Thank you Astrid. You're a good friend."

"It's the least I could do to welcome you back home."

"I owe you."

You stood up ready to run towards Hiccup's house to see him-

"Oh, (Y/N)... promise me... promise me that this time, you won't let him go."

"I won't. You have my word." You said confidently "Oh and Astrid, thank you for not asking me why I left Berk the first time.. I feel like I'll be hearing that a lot now."

"Didn't even cross my mind. I was just happy to have you back. Besides, we had more important things to talk about.. Now go!" she said with an understanding smile on her face. She understands me.. I'm so glad to have her in my life.

This is it. I have to see Hiccup and confess my love for him. You ran down the hill, leaving Astrid to her thoughts. She smiled watching you go... she knew that this is what Hiccup would've wanted her to do.

You ran past Libelle who was still with Toothless and all the other dragons of Berk. She growled in confusion as she watched you head upwards, towards Hiccup's house.

You continued to run... past the Berkiens, everyone seeing your familiar face but you didn't care one bit. You heard your name being called in the distance by the ones who were sober enough to remember you... the word about your arrival suddenly spread like wild fire... but you didn't care about anything else whilst leaping towards Hiccup's door.

END OF CHAPTER