Searching For You

Chapter 1: Echoes of Absence

Three years

Three years ago the young heir to the Berkian thrown had gone through a drastic change. A change that would cause him to leave the island altogether, giving up his title in the process. At first, adjusting to life without him proved to be quite the challenge, especially for Astrid. Although she knew it was the best thing for him, that didn't mean it didn't hurt.

She loved her muttonhead. He was the person she looked forward to seeing every day. But as she watched him go she felt this hole form in her heart. Of course, eventually, she was able to get through a day without becoming an emotional mess anytime he crossed her mind. She had asked him before he left to come visit them but it's been a little over three years. After the first year, she had little hope of ever seeing him again.

Then the second, and third years passed and she rarely thought about him coming back. She wasn't even sure if he was still alive. Both the Wingmaidens and The Defenders of The Wing had agreed to keep a look out for him and report to them if they ever saw him or had any clues of him being alive.

They hadn't come up with anything either. So now Astrid looked out into the horizon holding the Betrothal gift he had given her so long ago. Her fingers ran over the surface of the precious necklace. As she stared at the setting sun she thought about all that had changed over the past three years. Quite a lot had changed.

Dagur had completed the King Trials and had later gotten married to Mala becoming King Defender of the Wing. Because Dagur was no longer Chief of the Berserker tribe Heather had taken over the position.

She was now the Chieftess of Berserker Island with her new Chief, which just so happened to be Fishlegs.

Fishlegs and Heather had married a little less than a year ago. Since Heather was the Chieftess and married Fishlegs, making him the Chief, he had to move to Berserker Island. Since then he's been running their village with Heather.

For some reason, Snotlout had been interested in Ruffnut. Ruffnut of all people. But she had to admit both Twins had matured greatly over the years. She never expected it out of them. She and Ruffnut had become great friends, they would talk about things together, have lunch together, and just hang out together. Snotlout had started taking an interest in Ruffnut about a year after Hiccup left.

He would follow her around and give her gifts. Soon he gathered up enough courage to ask her out. Over time their relationship grew until a month ago Snotlout had proposed, of course, Ruffnut accepted and had planned on getting married sometime soon.

Astrid on the other hand was the only person, other than Tuffnut, who hadn't found anyone special. Many boys had tried but failed. None of them could compare to him. And how could she betray him, they were already betrothed for Thor's sake. But she had considered the idea that he had already found another woman.

And now she stood wondering what he was doing at this moment if he was even still alive. She looked down at the special item in her hand and let a tear fall from her eye.

"Oh Hiccup, I miss you so much. Please if your out there at least let me know that you are alive. Please." she said to no one in particular.

She had a feeling deep in her heart that he was indeed out there somewhere but she never really acted upon this feeling. She didn't want to go looking for him only to come up empty-handed and broken-hearted.

She heard a familiar coo from behind her. She turned around to meet the large green eyes of a certain Night Fury.

"Hey Toothless," she said solemnly as she patted him on the head.

Toothless was given an automatic tailfin shortly after Hiccup left. Although he still technically lived on Berk he would go off and fly to unknown places. He would always return in a day or two and they didn't worry about him too much. He knew how to take care of himself. Astrid was particularly curious about where he would fly off to.

Toothless gave her a soft purr and stared into the sunset with Astrid.

"Well, I guess I should head to bed. Are you gonna fly off again?" She asked him as she turned around heading back to her hut. She looked back and saw Toothless still sitting on the cliff, not having moved, telling her he would probably fly off in the cover of night.

She just continued back home to get some well-needed rest. For the past few weeks, she had been working on training new A-team riders. Ever since Hiccup left, Krogan had become more elusive. His attacks on Berk and the Edge would be much more threatening but were not quite as often. Still, Stoick had suggested that Berk had more guards to ensure the safety of everyone.

So far the trainees were doing quite well. They had nearly complete training, but it was exhausting. Stoick had chosen her to do it because she was not only the most eligible for the job but also because there wasn't anyone else to do it. Most of the village had their day-to-day activities, the Twins were the village weapon testers, and Snotlout was still in Chief training. So it just made sense to put Astrid in charge of the training.

But she had been exhausted almost every night. There were days when none of the trainees wanted to listen, like today. All of them wanted to continue target practice even though the lesson was on formations. To them, it was boring so none of them really paid attention and now they would have to do the same thing again for their next class.

She had to end class early today, though, because a student asked an uncalled-for question.

"Remember, a line formation is a great way to stay organized as well as hide your numbers from the enemy," Astrid explained to the very bored trainees.

"A V-formation is great for..." she started but stopped when she saw one of their hands go up in the crowd. She took a deep breath before calling on him. "Yes Oscar, what is it?" She said, annoyed he was interrupting her lesson. Oscar was 14 and was definitely "that kid" in the class. He would try and do anything possible to stop class. Usually, his efforts were a waste but this time Astrid was already so annoyed with everyone's unwillingness to listen that she didn't care.

"Miss Astrid, where did you get that necklace from?" He asked while pointing to her betrothal necklace she just so happened to be wearing that day. Immediately after he asked his question she tensed up a bit. She wasn't one to openly talk about Hiccup, especially younger kids.

She wasn't even sure if Oscar knew about what happened to Hiccup let alone about them being betrothed. So when she didn't give an answer Oscar spoke.

"Um, are you going to answer or...."

"Class is dismissed," she said softly, practically inaudible.

The class looked around at each other confused.

"What?" one of them asked.

"I said class is dismissed." She said more sternly while walking out of the arena.

In that moment she just needed to be alone to calm her thoughts. She figured she could try and go think by herself and if that didn't work then she could talk to Ruff about it later.

She wished she had more people to talk to about Hiccup. But it was less that there weren't enough people to talk to, it was that no one wanted to talk about him. Most of the village agreed not to talk about what happened, especially to other tribes. Whenever a visiting tribe asked where Hiccup was, Stoick would just tell them there was a terrible accident that resulted in his death.

Stoick was someone who didn't want to hear anything about Hiccup, but it wasn't because he was trying to forget about him. He was the one trying to tell people to stop trying to forget him. Stoick just didn't want to hear about how he lost his son, which everyone understood. He had no real family left on Berk.

So whenever someone mentioned Hiccup while Stoick was around he just gave them an irritated look which usually got them to shut up. Astrid was the only one who really got an exception to this unspoken rule and most could probably guess why.

Astrid looked into the mirror as she brushed out her hair, still staring at the necklace that hung down her chest. She gave a heavy sigh before crawling into bed and falling into a restless sleep.