Chapter 3

She couldn't hold back the tears and tried her best to keep her breath under control, so her voice wouldn't crack. Her heart was racing like crazy, she was about to say something but were interrupted by Gobber whistling Hiccup's parent's song from behind her. She glanced back at him over her shoulder, wondering if he on purpose tried to ruin their moment. Then Hiccup started singing and Astrid understood the connection.

"I'll swim and sail on savage seas. With never fear of drowning. And gladly ride the waves of life. If you will marry me. Nor scorching sun, nor freezing cold. Will stop me on my journey. If you will promise me your heart." Hiccup sang. Astrid sobbed, at first he thought she wasn't gonna sing her part, but then she took in a deep breath and continued where Hiccup had stopped:

"And love me for eternity. My dearest one my darling dear. Your mighty words astound me, but I've no need for mighty deeds when I feel your arms around me." Astrid sang, she smiled. Hiccup grabbed her hand and swung her around. She smiled happily, safely landing in his arms again.

"But I would bring you rings of gold, I'd even sing you poetry!" (Astrid: oh would ya). "And I would keep you from all harm if you would stay beside me." Hiccup sang. Astrid laughed and sang her part:

"I have no use for rings of gold, I care not for your poetry! I only want your hand to hold."

"I only want you near me." He kneeled down again and raised his hand into the air, she ran around him, jumping over his leg on the way. He stood up again swinging her around once more, singing into her ear.

"To love and kiss to sweetly hold. For the dancing and the dreaming! Through all life's sorrows and delights, I'll keep your love inside me! I'll swim and sail on savage seas with never fear of drowning and gladly ride the waves of life if you will marry me!" Hiccup and Astrid sang the last part as a duet. They hugged each other tightly.

"Meeeeeeeeee. I'm still goiiiiinnngg." Gobber said between the loud tones. Snoutlout tapped him.

"I'm done," Gobber said with a smile. Hiccup and Astrid smiled at each other. They both chuckled catching their breaths.

"I didn't know you could sing like that." Hiccup said, after hearing Astrid sing. She laughed moving her hands from his chest to his hands.

"Oh yeah well I try my best," Astrid said. He bent down on one knee again and took out a small wooden box and opened it, presenting her the ring. A few tears rolled down her cheeks when she saw the ring, the ring that was about to become hers.

"So Astrid. Will you marry me?" Hiccup asked. 'Please say yes, please say yes.' Hiccup thought to himself. Everyone looked at Astrid, waiting for her to answer.

"Oh, Hiccup," Astrid said. Hiccup's heart was racing like crazy he was worried that her answer would be no, maybe she felt she wasn't ready.

"You're the love of my life, and there is no one else I wanna spend the rest of my life with, but you. Of course, I say yes." Astrid said. Hiccup was surprised to hear her response. She fell down on her knees and hugged him tightly. He caught her and dropped the box, trying to stop them from tumbling backward before the eyes of the entire village

"SHE SAID YES!" Hiccup yelled, so it could be heard all the way to Valhalla. She nodded as she loosened herself from him. Astrid screamed into his shirt with excitement. Hiccup picked up the box and took out the ring sliding it onto her finger. She jumped in his arms and hugged him tight again. They kissed firmly, everyone started cheering like crazy. They were going to see a wedding, at last, they pulled away and smiled at each other. Astrid laid a finger on his lower lip and looked him deep in the eyes, in this instant there were only them, no crazy, cheering Vikings around them, only them for the rest of eternity. They stood up and turned, readying for the cheering crowd. Zaya walked up to them and hugged them tightly.

"Soon you, Astrid will be a Haddock," Zaya said with true joy in her voice, tapping Astrid's nose with her finger. Hiccup smiled.

"I can't believe it's actually happening. Pretty soon Astrid is going to be a Haddock and no longer a Hofferson, that was it with the dream about uniting our to family-names into one." Snoutlout said. Astrid sent a command to Stormfly, commanding her to send a single spine flying towards Snotlout. It hit his helmet perfectly causing him to drop it.

At the darkest and quietest time of the night, Astrid woke up wrenching in pain. She bit her lip, trying her best not to disturb her peacefully sleeping, fiancé. She swayed all the way to the bathroom where she fell to the floor leaning against the wall. She crumbled up, pressing both hands on her stomach. She saw the lights being lit in the other room and in came Valka, with Hiccup right behind her. He rushed to her and fell down to her height. She lifted a hand from her belly and laid it on his cheek.

"What's wrong Astrid?" He asked nervously taking her hand in his. She looked over at Valka, who was still standing at the door frame. Her expression changed in a second when another cramp hit her.

"Hiccup. I'm scared." She sobbed, his eyes widened as he gazed over at his mother. He stammered between the words coming out of his mouth:

"Mom… can you help her?" She carefully sat down next to Astrid.

"What are you so scared of Astrid?" Valka asked her, Astrid looked up at her, surprised by the question. But answered what she was thinking:

"The truth," She crumbled together in Hiccup's arms, she fell asleep bathed in her own tears. Afterward, he carried her to his bed and stayed by her side, her breathing was faint and her heartbeat a low eco in his ears. The words kept running through his head, what did she mean when she said she was scared of the truth. She looked so small, so fragile, laying there with the covers pulled up over her chest. It wasn't until sunbreak she started moving, her eyes opening slowly, as a reflex she looked to the other part of the bed to find it empty, she searched the room with her eyes and at last found him sitting in his desk chair next to her, half asleep. She dared not waking him and tried to sneak downstairs, leaving a folded paper on top of the covers. Right before placing her bare foot on the stairs, she remembered everything from last night, downstairs she heard one of the other Haddock members walking around, probably Valka.

"Valka," She tried whispering down the stairs, the voice was borne like an echo by the walls, from the corner of the stairs she saw Valka coming. She walked up the stairs to help support her on the way down. At the bottom she let go and went back to the kitchen, Astrid took place in Hiccups chair. From this place in the house, she had a perfect view of the village. She watched the Vikings leaving their huts one by one. She raised her hand in front of her and looked at the ring, a smile spread across her face. Hiccup interrupted her thoughts and together they went outside. At first, they went to the Great Hall, to start the wedding planning.

Outside the hall, she once again found the gang, talking casually, she looked over at Hiccup, just to make sure he hadn't disappeared like the last time. He hadn't he was still right beside her, holding her hand and smiling at her. The gang greeted each other shortly before getting some breakfast. After finishing his plate Hiccup took out a list and a pen from his inner-pocket in his leather tunic.

"Alright so I was thinking, maybe you guys wanna be ushers?" he suggested, turning to the boys sitting on his right.

He looked at Astrid asking for her agreement, she nodded. Then shifted her focus to the guys on the opposite side of the table. She said very still, pricking to the food on her plate.

"Do we ever," Tuffnut answered for them, Snotlout sent them a thumbs up. Astrid looked up from her food and scanned the table, across herself Fishlegs was sitting and on his right side was Snotlout, then Tuffnut. Beside herself was Heather, Zaya, and Ruffnut. Hiccup, as usual, said at the end of the table in his chair.

"So do you girls wanna be a bridesmaid?" Astrid asked. Heather and Zaya smiled big and nodded eagerly. Ruffnut just looked up from her plate and met Astrid's gaze, shrugging her shoulders.

"I guess. Since I have nothing better to do." Ruffnut answered.

After breakfast, Astrid excused herself to go on a stroll through town with Stormfly. After walking around for longer than an entire round with the sun-clock, she finally sat down on a bench to take a break. Stormfly noticed she had her eyes closed, so she gently pricked her with the end of her tail, to keep her awake, she shook her eyes open and noticed something at the corner of her eye. She turned towards it and saw Fishlegs and Heather walking casually next to each other.

After studying them for a few minutes, she gave up on them and was about to yawn and get up, when she saw him taking his hand and give him a kiss on the cheek, before separating and going in each direction. Fishlegs heading for the blacksmith, Heather heading for the Great Hall. Astrid mounted Stormfly and flew to the Great Hall, she stood leaned towards the wall when Heather arrived. They didn't say anything to each other, they just giggled and entered the hall arm in arm. In there they found the rest of the gang exactly where they had left them, apart from Fishlegs. Hiccup was standing leaning in over the list and a map over Berk. Snotlout stood on his left and Valka on his right. They came in just in to hear Hiccup say:

"No we can't have it at the Square Tower, there isn't room enough. I mean how many are even coming?" He turned to his mother, who shrugged her shoulders before answering, with an encouraging smile:

"Rest for sure, all of Berk will be attending," Hiccup nodded and turned to Snotlout.

"Can you and Hookfang fly to Wingmaiden Island and deliver their invitation?" Snotlout sent him a thumbs up and took the invitation from his outstretched hand. Snotlout walked of mumbling ambassador to himself, before flying through the Hall doors in flames.

He saw Heather and Astrid approaching them and gestured them to come closer, they both stood still at his left side.

"Heather if you go back to Berserker island with your invitation and talk to Dagur, then sent a terror mail, when you know furthermore." She nodded firmly. Hiccup turned away from the girls in search of Fishlegs, but couldn't see him anywhere.

"Has anyone seen Fishlegs, I wanted him to go to Protector of the Wings island," Both girls covered their mouths with both hands and winked at each other. Then Astrid said:

"I'll find him, you stay here." She said taking both Protector of the Wings and Berserker islands invitation, raising them into the air, running to the exit, Heather following jumping up and down next to her, trying to catch the letters. Outside they jumped on their dragons and flew to the sky. They circled around for a few minutes till they spotted the blacksmith and Meatlug walking around, wagging her tail happily. The two girls landed outside and dismounted, Meatlug immediately turned around and smiled at them. Stormfly and Windshear began chasing each other around, Meatlug joined them, meantime Astrid and Heather entered the Blacksmith and found Fishlegs pathing back and forth, his head buried in his notes and some Deathsong amber in front of him along with some ice pieces in cooled down water. Heather slowly nodded the wooden wall, he gave a small jump and looked up at them.

"Hiccup was looking for you, he wants you to go to Protector of the wings island to deliver an invitation," He looked confused at first, so Astrid looked around and noticed some white fabric folded on a table next to her, she grabbed it and swung them around her, re-entering the Blacksmith with Heather imitating the wedding clocks chiming.

"Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da," She said, Astrid, entering again, walking slowly, with the fabric around her.

"Invitations for the wedding muttonhead," Astrid said, folding the fabric nicely, before putting them down.

"Ohh, of course," he answered, completely beside himself, the girls sent each other a confused look and jumped aside as he rushed out the entrance, still with his notes in his hands, he came back shortly after and dropped the notes down next to his project. Astrid shrugs her shoulders and walked back too Stormfly, mounting slowly, looking to the sky missing the sun with her hand. Fishlegs was already long gone.

She said goodbye to Heather, Stormfly and Windshear nudged each other lovingly, before splitting.

Astrid and Stormfly went back to the Great Hall, it was almost empty, only Hiccup and Valka remained, they both looked up with the same similar look exposed in their faces. Valka was sitting crossroad in Stoick's old throne, which now belonged to Hiccup, staring bored at him pacing back and forth, just like Astrid had seen Fishlegs doing just before. Hiccup shook his head and continued his conversation with his mother.

"But, it's difficult mother, a seating chart for over 300 people," Astrid stopped so she stood across Valka, with Hiccup marching between them, she leaned up against the table and felt something, she turned around and saw the seating chart. She took the small bricks and moved them around a little ignoring the fact they were supposed to be real people. Valka got curious about what she was doing and jumped down from the throne and looked her over the shoulder.

"Not so hard after all, huh Hiccup," she said, not taking her eyes off the chart, he stopped pacing and looked over her other shoulder. Astrid clapped her hands together as if they were dusty and took a step back. She yawned and stretched her upper body into the air.

"I'm tired, meet you at your place?" she asked them, Hiccup turned to her again and nodded, he placed a kiss on her forehead before she walked off.

The Haddock Hut was as weird as it may seem empty. Not even Zaya was anywhere to be seen. She didn't take notice and simply went to Hiccup's bedroom where she sunk down in his chair, on his desk were some clean paper and a pen. Just in case he got a Hiccup idea in the middle of the night or something like that. She took the pen and started doodling absently just because she was bored. She ended up sketching her expectations for their wedding, a rather ugly curlicue of herself on the aisle with the chairs lined up side by side and at the end of the aisle, stood Hiccup and another curlicue of an unknown person that was supposed to be the preacher.

As she was curlicuing, she took a clean piece of paper, she wrote down a list of things they still had to finish doing, the list went something like this:

List of things that still need to be done

 Preacher

 Flowers

 Place

 Date

 Dresses (Bride and bridesmaids)

 Hair and makeup

 Suits (Groom and ushers)

 Invitations (To Elders and other Chiefs in the archipelago)

 Seating Chart (For the ceremony and for the party)

 Decorations

 Honeymoon (Where to go, when and for how long)

 First dance (Song and place)

 Who will be walking me down

Just then she stopped writing, the pen dropped out of her hand and landed on the floor who would be walking her down? She thought about it for a long time, she didn't even know where her parents were if they were still alive, she crumbled up her knees to her head, know sitting extremely uncomfortable in the wood-chair. She fell asleep there, in his chair, crumbled up, her eyes red and a little wet. Toothless landed quietly outside and entered with Hiccup, making his way to his rock bed in the corner of the room. Hiccup rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes and prepared himself for a little night work before bed, as he turned to his desk he saw Astrid sitting in it, crumbled up, a pen laying on the floor and two different papers folded out on the desk. Toothless curiously picked up the pen and placed it back on the table, before carefully sniffing Astrid's folded hands, she moved around nervously so he backed off. Hiccup kneeled down a little, placing a hand under her legs and on her back, lifting her from the chair. In pure reflex, Astrid laid her hands around his neck and rested her head at his chest.

After comfortably placing her in his bed and pulling the covers up, he went back to his desk, he was about to fold them up and save her list and doodle for tomorrow, but then he read the headline for her list

'List of things that still need to be done'

He quickly looked it over and put a v with those things that were under control, Ushers and Seating Charts, when he came to the final thing he stopped himself and stared blankly at it for a few minutes, then put it down again and sat down beside the still sleeping Astrid. He took a good look at her and noticed the red and wet under her eyes. He gently wiped the remaining tears and kissed her cheek.

He sat down in his chair a little longer and thought of the last one, then an idea hit him and he quickly wrote it down.

By the next morning when Astrid woke up, she completely forgot about the problem she had sobbed over last night. She stood up in complete ignorance until she saw the papers and the pen, then everything tumbled back to her and she sunk down deep in the chair, pushing her hair away from her face. Until she noticed a rather bad handwriting right under her last note. It said:

 Who will be walking me down

Valka

Valka, she thought for a second then gazed back at her fiancé, who was sleeping on his stomach, his head turned slightly to her. She rested her head on the backrest of the chair, then jumped up from the chair and jumped onto his back hugging him tightly, he woke up very suddenly, with the thought he was under attack, that was till he saw the messy blonde hair, hanging down in his face. He rubbed his eyes and met a pair of glowing mechanical, deep-sea blue ocean eyes.

Most of the day went by with planning, Astrid insisted on it should be held just outside the forest when spring arrived and covered the grass in millions of flowers. Which meant they had less than one and a half month to plan the wedding. Astrid had already decided what kind of hair she would have and how her makeup would look like. Even though Hiccup had kept saying, she was too pretty to get covered in make-up she had insisted.

That night, they went to bed early, but first, they talked, they talked and talked about everything and nothing. At last Astrid got to a subject she had been dying to ask him about since last night when she was writing her list.

"So, what's the plan after our wedding?" she asked, looking at him nervously, he coughed nervously over the sudden question, then he smirked happily.

"Well, I was thinking, we were gonna get ourselves a nice little house at the top of the hill, at the foot of the mountain, where there will be no one to disturb us, and then we will start our own family and grow old and become that irritating old couple, sitting on a bench at the front yard, yelling at all the kids, commanding them to stop harassing the dragons," he laughed evilly, she rolled her eyes of his joke, but love the idea.

"But what do you want love, lots of adventures, drama," she shook her head happily, throwing her arms around him.

"No, I don't want any of that, I want everything you just said, I wanna start a family with you, I wanna grow old with you and I wanna die knowing you were mine and only mine."

"Don't worry luv, I want all those things too, and the day I'll be on the knees for another, is the day I tie the boots on our children's feet," she laughed maniacally and threw herself in his arms burying her head in his shoulder's. She gently pulled away from him, placing both hands on his chest, her face changing to sneaky.

" What about right after our wedding, our honeymoon. Any ideas?" She hinted him, his face became serious, then very secret and sneaky.

"Yep, I've our entire honeymoon planned out," he smiled big, she tried reading his face, seeing if he was gonna inform her or anything, he didn't say anything and wasn't going to. Honeymoon for the Haddock family was a secret to the bride, only the groom was allowed to know were. That's the way it has always been and that's the way it will always be. She took her list from the bedside table and read it through, sat a few v's before turning to Hiccup, her pen resting at the square form outside the 'Preacher' mark, he rested his chin at her shoulder, looking at where she had stopped.

"I talked to Gobber earlier, he volunteered, to be our preacher, if it's alright with you," he whispered kissing her hair softly, she removed the pen from the paper and bit the end of it.

"Let me think, no I'm totally against having your father's best friend as our preacher. Those two are so alike it would feel like it's your actual father standing in front of us," she joked, Hiccup chuckled lightly as Astrid made another v. She led the pen down over the list and passed both 'Flowers' and 'Place' before noticing 'Date' Then she looked up and out into the early night, spring was arriving soon this year, which meant if they were supposed to have their wedding in the early spring flowers, it had to be in the next few following months. Astrid had always had a soft spot for the month April, she didn't know why she just had.

"The 1st of April?" She whispered to herself, Hiccup looked at her again. Looking at the paper.

"The date: The 1st of April," She said a little clearer, Hiccup liked the idea, which meant another mark could get a v.

At breakfast the next morning, Valka handed over some wedding dress ideas and designs for Astrid and her bridesmaids (Heather, Zaya, and Ruffnut) to look through and come up with their favorite.

At first, she only concentrated on her own dress before even beginning to think about the others, but it was too difficult to make a such decision on her own. So she called her bridesmaids to the Great Hall, where she folded out all of the designs, for them to look through.

Throughout the next hour, there was a hell of a lot discussing, laughing and arguing. At last, they ended up choosing the violet bridesmaids to dress, with the white flowers. They picked out Astrid's dress too, no doubt that was the dress for her, all of them missed a tear, even Ruffnut sobbed a little, picturing Astrid in that dress.

Astrid couldn't fall asleep that night, when she finally did, it wasn't peaceful. She kept on moving around nervously.

'Don't get away from there.' She thought in her head. 'Hiccup NO.' She woke up, bathed in sweat. She looked at her sleeping Hiccup. She kissed his cheek, before getting dressed to go for a walk. She wouldn't be able to sleep again. Not without her nightmare coming back. When she got outside she whistled to Stormfly, who woke up and walked over to her. They walked down to the dock, where they found Zaya and Dusk.

She sat down beside her, and gave Stormfly free reins, to go play with Dusk.

Several minutes passed, everything was so peaceful, the dragons were playing in a short distance and the two girls just sat and looked out on the water. After some time, Astrid stood up and walked right between the two playing dragons. Meantime Zaya picked up her stick and hissed with it to get Dusk's attention. She jumped on his back and flew to her own hut

When Astrid got home, she found Hiccup in the kitchen. Astrid looked at him with a little smile. He raised both his arms, his head a little backward, miming 'come' silent. She practically ran to him and buried her face in his shirt, at once she felt safe, she had probably never felt this safe before. With only the two of them

Astrid looked at herself, before her a full-body mirror where standing, leaning up against the wall in Valka's bedroom in the mirror. She was wearing her wedding dress, the veil was still laying nicely folded where she had put it.

"Oh, my gods I've never looked this beautiful before," Astrid said, her eyes got wet and she quickly grabbed the handkerchief, Valka passed on to her, she tried to dry her eyes, so she wouldn't ruin the dress.

When Astrid saw Valka's wet eyes, she passed the handkerchief back to her, she to helplessly tried to dry her eyes. It had been a couple of days since her sleepless night and Valka had been working day in and day out on Astrid's dress, this very morning she had come to Astrid at Breakfast and whispered in her ear. Afterward a big smile had grown on Astrid's lips, then she had gotten up, quickly given Hiccup a kiss on the cheek before running after Valka, out the hall, all the way back to the Haddock Hut and into Valka's room. Completely ignoring the Villagers staring. The only thing that had been able to keep her mood down was the thought that her parents couldn't be there. Even though she was sad about that, she couldn't hide the growing smile on her face, when she admired, the dress Valka had sewed.

The dress was white with golden border's, On the top of her stomach, there was a golden rim. From then it split into two revealing an underlayer of light golden silk, It was off-shoulder with long sleeves. The silk covering half her shoulders and arms were almost see-through, opening with angel sleeves. On the back, it was tied with leather rems. The bottom was mermaid gown formed, as long as a veil. Speaking of the veil, it too had a golden rim, see through with glitter and lots and lots of laces, the veil was even longer than the mermaid gown bottom. The veil was attached to a high ponytail at the back of her head, letting some of her hair fall free.

The wedding bouquet she had in her hands was mostly yellow flowers, with some green leaves and white Dahlia flower's (Her favorite) in between. The bridal bouquet wasn't as big and fancy as Astrid's: Each bride maiden had 5 lilies with green leaves surrounding the flowers, matching the violet bridesmaids dress.

Valka had done her hair in a high ponytail, leaving some hanging, forming her face.

"Now let's get this dress off before it gets ruined by all the tears," Valka said still quite teary. Astrid laid the bouquet and loosened her hair. She then slowly and very carefully took off the dress, with help from Valka they got it pulled over her head and hang it back into the closet, safely hidden from Hiccup's curiosity.

Astrid had planned to walk to the great hall, and had just gotten out on the street, leaving the Haddock Hut behind her, when someone came and hugged her from behind, she smiled and turned around. Her face was only a few centimeters apart from his. He smiled back and gave her a quick kiss.

She took her list out of her side pocket and the pen he was always carrying with him, with it she wrote down another v just outside the mark:

'Dresses (Bride and bridesmaids)'

Hiccup smiled smirked at her. That's the longest she got from the Haddock Hut within the next few hours.

She woke up a few hours later, she sat up and noticed him sitting at his desk working on some new feats for Toothless´ tail.

"What 'ya doing?" Astrid asked childishly.

"I'm just making it a little bit heavier so it doesn't break when we try and take those sharp turns. With his new double spikes, he keeps breaking them. Besides, we need everything we can get to even have a chance of beating you and Stormfly." Hiccup said looking over at Toothless in the corner. The dragon laughed back at him, then stood up and jumping out the loft window. They looked after him, laughing quietly.

He smiled at her affectionately. She smiled so hard as she walked over to him, with the covers around her, and sat on his thigh.

They got interrupted by a lot of cheers coming from outside their window and a firm knock on the door, Hiccup sighed heavily and smiled apologizing at Astrid, who smiled back and got up to get their clothes. Astrid was done first while waiting for Hiccup, she first looked out of the window and saw Windshear, Sleuther and Skullcrusher standing side by side at the Square Tower, she then smiled big and rushed to the door, when passing Hiccup she quickly said:

"Heather, Dagur, and Eret are here," Afterwards she stormed downstairs, completely forgetting the knock earlier, she pulled the door open, grabbing her coat, nearly bumping right into Heather in the process. Heather laughed hysterically at her best friend before helping her up from the ground. When she got up the two girls hugged each other tightly. In the door behind her appeared Hiccup, dressed as the Chief he was. Dagur hurled his arms in the air, yelling 'Brother' giving Hiccup a firm hug, lifting him from the ground, Hiccup had prepared himself and had quickly taken a deep breath. Meantime Astrid gave Eret a short hug to. On the way back to the Square Tower, they chit chatted like old friends, which they were. Dagur talked like the proudest father ever, bragging on about Mala expecting their third child sometime this very summer and Eret who with Skullcrusher had been out learning each and every Viking in the entire Archipelago by name. And when Eret finally asked what had been going on here, while he had been gone, Dagur took his shot and burst into the whole wedding thing, just then they arrived at the Square Tower, Skullcrusher immediately came running towards Hiccup nudging him lovingly. Hiccup patted him back.

"Hey big boy, how are you holding up?" He asked, not expecting an answer, but the dragon growled softly back, lowering its head a little, then Eret told him:

"Some nights out on the water, sailing in our little boat I find him awake in the middle of the night, staring blankly at the sky, sending out some very strange noises from time to time," Eret assured him not to worry though, it didn't happen often and he was back to himself by the next morning.

By the next morning, Astrid was sick, not just a little fever, or a little stomach ache, it was so bad, Hiccup ordered her to stay home, of course, he would have to explain her absence to the other's but that is just the way it is. Valka had helped her downstairs to the couch and made breakfast for her, so she didn't have to overload herself. Astrid once again found herself sitting, staring, thinking. She shook it off her and searched the room for Valka, just then she came around the corner with a plate for her

"When you were, pregnant with Hiccup, when did you find out," Astrid asked, accepting the plate and taking a small bite, hoping she could it for the cramps.

"Ohh, um, I'm not sure dear. why?" Valka asked.

"It's just these cramps, Hiccup thinks I'm pregnant, I don't know," she bowed her head as if she was ashamed to even be thinking of it since they weren't married yet. She searching laid a hand on her stomach. She knew it was dumb. She sighed over her inner fantasy of Hiccup, their unborn child and herself and smiled. Valka then started glowing as she took the plate from Astrid and put it on the table next to the couch, taking Astrid's hand and helping her up, gently pushing her to the bathroom upstairs. It went slow, but they got there.

For Vikings, the pregnancy test worked in two ways:

1. Pricking your finger and placing it on a special made thin very thin piece willow bark, -it takes 2 hours to get the result-

2. Or 2. Wait nine months to see if you get a baby -It takes nine months to get the result-

Number one is the most used one. If the blood spreads to the entire paper it's positive. If the one drop of blood stays in the same place it's negative.

In a few hours, she could either tell Hiccup, that they were pregnant or break down, realizing her fantasy was nothing but a dream.

Hiccup came back and found her on the couch crying.

"Milady, is something wrong, are you ok?" Hiccup asked. He picked up her hands, checked her neck, face, legs, stomach. She wasn't hurt.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It is just so stupid. I just took a pregnancy test, and I'm crying, I haven't even checked it yet. But… but … I'm scared it will be negative," Astrid sobbed.

"Hey, shh. It's ok, I want it to be positive too. But if it's negative there is nothing wrong with that. Ok." He took her head between his hands and looked her in the eyes.

"We won't know before in a couple of hours. So let's just talk about something else. The reception is going to be in the great hall." Hiccup said, Astrid nodded and soon fell asleep in her own tears in Hiccup's arms. Hiccup gently stroke her cheeks to wake her up. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the most beautiful green eyes in front of her. She smiled.

"Wanna go check on the test?" Hiccup asked. She immediately tried to stand up, way too fast. Her cramps came back, causing her to tip over. Hiccup grabbed her back and head and lifted her up in his arms.

"Since you don't know where to put your feet I better carry you." Hiccup giggled. Astrid had her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

"If it's negative, don't worry about it, we have the rest of our existence left. We will have babies don't worry." Outside the bathroom, Hiccup put her down.

She took in deep breaths and walked into the bathroom, instead of looking directly at the paper, she first looked out the window, a few birds flew by, she could sense Stormfly and Toothless playing under the big chestnut tree in the front yard, what a perfect place to chill a warm summer day with their firstborn in front of them , she sighed and looked down. She picked it up, crumbled it together and threw it out. She walked out the door and saw Hiccup pacing back and forth, he stopped when seeing her in the door. She nodded eagerly Hiccup placed both hands over her mouth and shushed on her, but couldn't hide the growing smile on his lips, Hiccup lifted her up and spun her around while kissing her tenderly.

He then helped her downstairs and ran out to find his mom and sister. Astrid started thinking, in nine months a little Hiccup or a little her would be running around in their hut. Playing with Stormfly, Toothless and Cloudjumper. She picked up a pillow from the coach and screamed into it with all of her energy. When Hiccup came back, Astrid had calmed enough down, not to scream every 2 seconds.

"Ok, mom, Zaya. We have an announcement." Hiccup said. Astrid laid a hand on her stomach and said:

"I'm pregnant." She studied their faces carefully and waited for their reaction. Zaya got teary, Valka just looked from Hiccup to Astrid, to her hand on her stomach. Valka and Zaya started screaming and jumping up and down around Astrid and Hiccup. Zaya hugged her brother tight, before switching place with Valka to hug Astrid.