This Is The Last Time (HTTYD)

Chapter Three

Hiccup's house was nothing short of spectacular. It sat right at the edge of a cliff, giving a perfect view of the early morning sunrise and the evening sunsets, as they both painted their vibrant colors across the sky. Surrounding the house was a field of grass, with a small garden in the back, and flower boxes boarding the walls of the house. Targets, of both broken and new, were stacked in a pile on the edge of the house, and a watchtower was only a couple yards away, with a zipline going from the roof of the house.

The house itself was a perfect mix between the two personalities of the family. Effective, defensible, and cozy enough to call home. Once you walked in, a grand wooden table greeted you, with a small kitchen pressed against the wall. A staircase led to Zephyr's room, which she also shared with the dragons and sometimes Leerir. Then another staircase led to Hiccup and Astrid's small and private bedroom. In the winter, the bedroom was big enough for one dragon to come in and keep the room warm, while the other tended to snuggle up against Zephyr.

The only downside to the house, was when one of them was injured and unable to reach the other floors of the house. Therefore the only remaining options were to pitch a tent outside, or to struggle up the first flight of stairs, and bunk with Zephyr. This, is what Astrid was soon finding out. In the first days of being back, she had to wait for either Viggo, Eret, or Dagur to carry her down the stairs, and slowly progressed to leaning on someone for support. Now, however, she was simply frustrated with everyone babying her, as she felt perfectly well again.

So to keep herself busy, she watched over Zephyr, spending several hours regaining the time they had lost while she was gone. Astrid tweaked Zephyr's axe assaults, and after awhile, just lit a flame and let Zephyr play with the fire. Then while Zephyr was in someone else's hands, Astrid would clean the entire house top to bottom, inside and out, then scrub every one of Stormfly's scales.

By the week of her return home had ended, Astrid was bored out of her mind.

"Maybe you should practice on the mindfulness of your powers." Mala kindly suggested, one day on her visit with Astrid, who had spent the last hour trying to convince anyone who was in earshot, to let her get her hands on her axe, or throw balls of fire at something.

"That's not going to help. I need to move, use my powers, throw my axe. Do something!" she cried, throwing her arms up in frustration and punched the table, a small flame flickered within it, but quickly died.

"Well I daresay that you are well again." Mala told her, brushing aside the small pile of ash that she had created from flaming the table. "Join us for training one day, would you?"

"I can't, no one will let me." she growled.

Mala looked at Astrid, with an eyebrow arched high. "Serafina, you are the Queen of Fire. You were gifted with the abilities of your sister in law. I think you can find a way." Mala gave a quick and small bow, one that was appropriate for a queen to make, then walked to the door. "Be there by the pool at mid day tomorrow, and do me a favor by dragging Nikolai down with you. She's been missing for an entire week, and it's starting to worry me for the sake of the village."

Astrid, relieved to have been freed from her house, quickly nodded and ran upstairs to collect Zephyr. "Hey Zeph, do you wanna go axe throwing?"

Zephyr jumped up from her blanket fort. "On top of Stormfly?"

"With a little bit of," Astrid waved her hands and a small flame appeared. "Fire."

Zephyr squealed with delight and climbed out of her blanket fort. "Last one there is a one legged viking!" Astrid gave a chuckle and followed her daughter down the stairs, to the small shed where their weapons were kept, and Hiccup had his small blacksmith shop for leg repairs, fixing Toothless' tail, and creating Snoggletog gifts for the rest of his family.