A New Life

A little Butterfly was perched on the peak of a roof, splayed out and basking in the warmth of the sun, looking out at the horizon over the cliff and out at sea. It was common knowledge that she was deep in thought about absolutely nothing at all, her way of coping with a dark and bitter world without becoming dark and bitter herself. However, she did not dwell on that because that was not nothing, and anything that was something other than nothing would ruin the peacefulness of nothingness.

A gentle breeze drifted over the land, fluttering the blades of grass on the ground. A few sheep contentedly grazed nearby. Past the cliffs, out over the sea, a large dragon tucked in his wings and seemed to float motionless for a moment before dropping like a rock to catch some fish. All of this, though seen and acknowledged by the little Butterfly, did not disturb her peaceful state of thinking of nothing at all.

A cat-sized dragon scuttled up onto the same roof, who was named Nose because of his favorite chew toy - but he gnawed on the noses of only those who deserved it. He sprawled out on the roof, watching the little Butterfly, clacking his claws and being thoroughly ignored. He knew she was enjoying the peace of nothingness, but that was boring.

The dragon coiled his haunches and took a moment to wiggle his tail in anticipation before leaping to pounce on the little Butterfly. He curled up and squirmed in her lap under her tickling assault, then stretched out and purred when it devolved into a belly rub.

Well, maybe she's not quite so little anymore, the dragon thought to himself. However, there was no doubt she was still a Butterfly.

Well, technically, she was not a butterfly, but a land-strider, which meant that she was fleshy, scaleless, hairy, tall, lanky, flammable, and relatively harmless without any of those shiny iron claws and fangs they liked to carry around. Dragons looked on the mind more than the body, however, and Butterfly's natural giddiness and cheerfulness was positively alluring to all. She had endured great losses in her short life, forced to flit around from perch to perch, but her mind was light, nimble, and especially elusive.

"HRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

The shrill roar from below drew the attention of both dragon and land-strider. Now that Nose had his fill of belly rubs for the moment, he nudged Butterfly and tapped the roof with a claw. She understood immediately. There was a land-strider down there in great pain, and Butterfly's help was needed.

The pain was not indicative of any injury, though. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the poor thing at all except for the unfortunate fact that she was a land-strider.

Butterfly puffed out a sigh and rose to her bare feet. She bent down to give Nose a gentle pat on the head, but he let out a startled yelp when she poked his nose and dragged one of her blunt claws across the sensitive membrane, causing it to tingle. He shot up to all fours and dug his claws in to leap at her, but she was already swinging down to the ground below with only her giggle on the breeze to indicate she was still nearby.

Flee and flutter, Butterfly, he thought to himself. Your nose is mine!

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"Push! C'mon, Astrid, you got this!"

"HNNNNNGH!"

Astrid grit her teeth and focused on taking deep, controlled breaths as another contraction attempted to split her body in twain. I am a warrior! She told herself. I am a conqueror! I will not be defeated by this… thing!

Her mother-in-law, Valka, squeezed her hand reassuringly. "You're doing great, Astrid."

Astrid gave Valka a grateful smile and hummed in thanks as Gothi, the village elder, healer, and soothsayer, dabbed a cold cloth on her sweaty forehead. The elder handed off the cloth to someone else, and judging by the tone of the cheerful humming, Tofa had been found and sent to help. She was a rescue who had lived with Astrid and her family for a few years. Then, when she turned twelve, she started working for Gothi as her apprentice.

Astrid's eyes drifted down to the source of an encouraging warble, a Terrible Terror named Nose. He used to be one of the subjects in the village's "dragon training" classes before the dragon war ended. A lot has changed since then, most notably that dragons went from raiding the village to peacefully coexisting. With the fall of the massive dragon queen that had forced the dragons to raid, Nose had moved in with Gothi and helped her in various ways, such as how he was purring mightily while pressed against Astrid to provide comfort and a lot more relief from the pain than she would have ever considered possible.

The dragon suddenly stilled and looked at something above Astrid's head. She followed the stare to see Tofa wink at the dragon and touch a finger to her nose. The dragon fanned his wings and snapped his teeth.

Astrid rolled her eyes at the antics and groaned at the withdrawal of the purring comfort. "Excuse me, kids, am I interrupting something?" she said. Tofa let out an apologetic squeak and the little dragon settled back down to resume his purring.

"Thanks, Nose, that really does help a lot," Astrid said as she idly stroked the dragon's head, and the purring intensified. The spoken words were lost on him, of course, but he picked up on the intent of her expression of gratitude. The dragon flicked a glance at his mate in a corner, who was perched on a pile of eggs, then gave a significant look at Astrid and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in," Astrid groaned. For dragons, reproduction involved a period of hunger as the eggs developed inside, a moment of mild discomfort as they came out, and a year of feeding some hungry mouths until they could feed themselves. She looked over at the brooding dragon with no small amount of envy. "Hey, wanna trade places?" A snort and flutter of a wing was the only response.

"All this will just be a memory soon," Valka gently said. "A pleasant memory, trust me."

Astrid snorted at that. "Yeah, pleasant, sure." She gasped as another contraction hit her. "HRAAAAAAAAAGH! Get this thing out of me now or I'll-" she proceeded to spew out a series of gratuitous and colorful threats studded with crass expletives.

"Astrid!" Valka tsked. "There's a child in the room."

"I'm thirteen!" Tofa declared with her arms crossed. Another Terrible Terror flew in through an open window, landed on her shoulder, and chittered quietly. "Yeah, Shrill, you tell them," she told the dragon.

Astrid groaned at another contraction, thankfully a little lighter this time. "Tell me again why I didn't remain a shield-maiden my whole life."

"Having a child hurts, and raising one is a chore, but it's worth it," Valka said with another reassuring squeeze of her hand.

"Even with all the messes?"

"Yes."

"And the crying?"

"Without a doubt!"

Astrid grinned mischievously. "I dunno. Maybe I'll bribe your dragon with some fish if he'll pluck me up and fly me off to-"

"Astrid!" Valka chided, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face. They both laughed at that until they were sore, which wasn't long for Astrid.

"I just wish…" Astrid started to say, but she didn't finish her sentence because she'd already said it a hundred times since arriving at Gothi's hut.

"I know," Valka said consolingly.

Astrid closed her eyes and sighed out another deep breath. Hiccup wasn't present, and nobody knew where he could be… or if he was even alive.

About a week ago, he had flown out on his dragon for a quick bit of diplomacy with the Meathead tribe on a nearby island, something about a cave that was found to be rich in veins of iron and copper. The only problem was that it was haunted by evil spirits; at least, that was what everyone said. Having local access to such resources without depending on trade would greatly benefit both tribes, but everybody was afraid to delve into the depths of a haunted cave.

It was silly, really. Haunted caves, what a joke! When he mounted up, Hiccup rolled his eyes and said to his dragon, "C'mon, Toothless, let's go check for monsters under the bed," but their allied tribe's chieftain did make a good point that Toothless was uniquely qualified to investigate. The dragon's head was crowned with sensor lobes, each an incredibly sensitive web of corded nerves encased in scaly hide. Dragons were telepathically sensitive already, but Toothless took that to a whole new league, perceiving the "hum" of thoughts that any living creature passively projected at all times. How such a feat was possible could not be explained by anyone, but the many proofs could not be denied. Even through solid stone, from hundreds of feet away, he could "see" where a creature was and know if it was a human, dragon, bear, or something else. Then, any dangerous lurkers could be identified, located, and flushed out with the safety of knowledge so that the cave could be declared safe and the delvers could get to work.

It would be a quick out-and-back, gone after dagmal and back before nattmal. The next day, Astrid was feeling very pensive, and she wasn't alone. The morning after that, a search party was sent out to find him.

Astrid longed to be out there to track down her husband, but with her child due to pop out at any time, she had to remain behind and let the other Hooligan riders fly out to find him. They questioned the Meatheads, explored around, and came back empty-handed. There were some hints that the missing duo went inside that cave, but the trail turned cold. However, the search party hadn't included any tracking dragons, so they set out again yesterday with Astrid's Deadly Nadder. Stormfly had become quite the mother hen as the child grew in her rider's belly, but they needed a good tracker who was very familiar with Hiccup's and Toothless' scents and Stormfly was the best.

Valka gave a gentle pat and rub on Astrid's belly with a gleeful smile. "You'll be taking your first breath soon, little one," she crooned.

"Not soon enough," Astrid growled. She reigned in on her expression and forced a smile at Valka, who would have been part of the search party to find her son, but Astrid's water broke just before they took off and Valka made the snap decision to support her daughter-in-law instead.

"I don't want to say it, but I'm glad you're here." Astrid paused as another contraction hit with a merciless vengeance.

Valka smiled and waited it out with her. "Of course, my dear. The search party doesn't really need me. Besides, I know Hiccup is alive and making his way back as we speak. He's my son. I would know if something happened to him. Call it a mother's instinct."

Astrid nodded as she also held the same conviction. Hiccup was her husband, after all. He knew the time was nigh and would never allow himself to miss the birth of their firstborn.

Another contraction threatened to hit, but it waited, paused on the precipice like a sneeze that would not come out.

"Auuugh! This is torture!" Astrid hissed.

Valka smiled and patted her hand. "I know. It will pass."

"I'm no stranger to pain!" Astrid snapped, then gave an apologetic look for the attitude. "Hiccup wouldn't miss this for the world. When I see him, I'll-" she started to pound a fist into the palm of her hand when another wave of pain washed over.

"Use that anger! Push! C'mon girl!"

"HRRRRRRRRAAAAGH!"

The loud bugling of dragons sounded outside, blending in with Astrid's pained outcry and then crescendoing as more joined the racket. Even through the walls and roof, it was so loud that Astrid had to cover her ears. Finally, the roaring settled down to scattered squawks and grunts of dragons excitedly buzzing around outside.

There was a rattling at the door, then the clattering of someone banging on it. Astrid could hear Hiccup and his dragon both grunting in frustration. From outside, she could hear Tuffnut's sarcastic voice saying, "I know, I know, so complicated, these pesky latches. Lift, like this."

The click of the latch lifting could be heard, followed by more impatient pounding on the door.

"Pull, not push," Tuffnut said from outside. The door was flung open and Toothless forced his sleek form through the doorway with much more difficulty than normal only to trip over himself and sprawl out. Hiccup came running in behind and tripped over his dragon to land on top. As someone from outside closed the door, Tuffnut shouted, "And good luck! You know how Astrid can be very… ya know… Astrid."

If Astrid wasn't beside herself with relief to see her husband alive, she would have considered how hard of a punch that last comment deserved.

The tangled mess of dragon and rider writhed around to stand - Hiccup sticking his rear in the air like a yak - and they rushed forward. Astrid started to shout his name in joy, "Hic-" but another contraction chose that very moment to wallop her. "HRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" She panted a few breaths and wailed, "Why it is still hurting so much?!"

Hiccup and Toothless rushed to her bedside. Astrid grabbed Hiccup's wrist, hauled him in against the bed, and punched him in the gut. "Where were you?!" she hissed.

Hiccup groaned as he slid down to the floor, "Whyyyyyy?"

Astrid scrunched her face and grit her teeth through the pain. "You deserve it," she ground out. "You were supposed to be here four days ago!" She paused as she felt another contraction coming. "Oh gods, again, so soon? Wh-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAGH!"

"Sorrry!" Hiccup said, sounding a little drunk. "We sorry!"

"What happened-" Another contraction hit and Astrid screamed it out. She caught her breath and asked the question plaguing her, "What happened to you?"

Hiccup looked at Toothless and pressed a hand to the dragon's nose. "We cave. Go. Go cave we. Ah! To! Find thing. Shiny. Rock." He closed his eyes and huffed in frustration. "We go to cave shiny rock touch bad no like!" Toothless gave an exasperated groan and Hiccup crossed his arms with a grouchy grunt.

Astrid punched Hiccup again in frustration just in time for the next contraction. After her vision straightened, she stared at him, hoping to find some reason for his apparent madness. "Are you… drunk?" Hiccup had never liked ale and would not be the type of person to drown his problems in a mug.

"I? Ah! Me?" Hiccup asked in bewilderment, rubbing his shoulder and shuffling out of reach, staring at his legs in deep concentration as if walking was a difficult task. "I no. No that. No me. No… I…" he cast a pleading look at his dragon.

"... What?" Astrid asked, then slowed her breathing at a reminder from Valka.

"Toothless!" Hiccup said. "I am!" He pointed to his dragon. "He me, no like!" He stamped his foot emphatically - well, not his foot but the prosthetic secured to the stump on his maimed leg - and then winced at the pain.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Whatever! Goth- HRRRRRRRRAAAAGH! Gothi, smack him for spewing such nonsense!"

Gothi hefted her staff, but she cocked her head in thought and then looked like a dog that had its favorite bone taken away.

Astrid gave a confused look at Valka, who gave an equally confused and helpless look back. Valka shook her head at Gothi. "If you won't, I will. Leaving his wife to deliver their child alone and he hasn't even explained why we had to send half our riders out to find him in the first place. He was raised to be better than that!"

WHACK!

The Night Fury yelped in pain and rubbed a paw on his abused snout.

"I said to smack Hiccup!" Astrid gritted, staring in frustration and impatience.

WHACK!

The Night Fury let out another yelp.

Astrid groaned and leaned back into the bed. "Fine then! Smack his dragon for all I care!"

Gothi looked between the rider and his dragon and her face lit up.

WHACK! WHACK!

Both rider and dragon dropped to the floor, rolling around and groaning in pain.

Astrid pressed her hands to her temples. "Too much noise!" Another contraction hit, and it was not gentle.

Toothless rolled to all fours and pressed his snout into Astrid's hand, but she irritably batted him away. "Not now!" she hissed. Nose swatted a tail at his face, and Astrid smiled at that. "Yeah, Nose, you tell hi- NNNNNNNNNGHRRRRRAAAAAAAAGH!" she wailed as another contraction hit and the pain. Did. Not. Stop.

"Push!" Valka cheered her on. "You're doing great! I see a head!"

"Good!" Astrid grit out through her teeth between rapid breaths. "Out!" She pointed to the Night Fury. "You out!" She pointed to her belly. "And you out!"

Hiccup and Toothless exchanged bewildered looks.

Losing whatever vestige of patience that yet remained, Astrid clenched her jaw and propped herself on her elbows. "Gothi!" she barked through her teeth

The elder stared at the Night Fury, and Astrid could tell there was some sort of unspoken communication going back and forth; a warbling trill, a tilt of the head, a widening of the eyes, a stooping of the posture. Finally, Gothi and Toothless sighed in unison as she goaded the dragon out with her staff. Hiccup started to follow, but a shove from the dragon's tail sent him stumbling to brace against Astrid's bed. He tried to go for the door again, but a withering glare from Gothi stopped him and made him whine. Finally, the dragon left and Gothi shut the door again.

Hiccup turned to look at Astrid with a swallow and a lick of his lips. She grabbed his hand with a white-knuckled death grip as she made the last pushes. Her vision spotted, her heart fluttered, and just as the pain seemed too much to bear, it got even worse.

An agonizing eternity later, it was over. Valka made short work of cutting the cord and washing the infant, and Gothi performed the ritual of life to bless the newborn in the sight of the gods. Delivered into Astrid's arms was her swaddled baby boy. Instantly, all the pain she had endured was forgotten and she could no longer think of this child as the thing that was trying to split her apart like firewood under the chopping maul.

Astrid languidly shifted her gaze up to her husband, whose expression was not as adoring as she assumed it should have been. Instead, he looked like a fish out of water and choking on air; far from whining about the hand she had grabbed, as some men did, he seemed to be trying to distract himself with it. Something had shaken him badly.

"What's wrong, Babe?" she asked, forcing her voice to be gentle.

Hiccup licked his lips and swallowed. "I… I…"

The baby feebly squirmed and Astrid's heart leaped. "He's beautiful, isn't he?"

"I… I…" he flicked a glance at Gothi, then nodded.

Astrid sighed. Hiccup being Hiccup, she thought to herself. He was always brilliant and brave in his own way even though he shied away from physical violence. However, even though he and the dragon he rode had saved Berk from a mind-controlling behemoth - twice - his brain would shut down every now and then. He almost fainted on their wedding night, nine months ago. Of course he'd balk when the consequences of that night were fully realized.

She smiled at her goofy husband. It was one of his quirks, annoying at times, but mostly adorable. "I figured there's a lot to fill me in on with how long you've been delayed, but I'm not upset; let's put that aside for now. You were here to watch him come out, and you're here with me now. This is our moment. Our triumph. Our child."

Hiccup looked at the child for the briefest instant before he averted his eyes towards the door. A tear wormed its way down his cheek. He swiped at it, sniffed, looked at Gothi, and sighed.

"What's wrong, Hiccup?" Astrid asked.

"Gothiiii, I wanna telll herrrr!" Tofa pleaded, but the elder gave a curt shake of her head and the girl deflated.

"Rrrrrr, uhhhh, I not. Toothless happy you…" he gestured feebly at the newborn, then became engaged in some wordless discussion with Gothi again.

"Something is off," Valka mumbled, paying attention to Hiccup instead of the delivery for the first time since he entered. "Hiccup is acting… strange. Well, more strange than normal." Outside, a dragon groaned.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know." She grabbed his wrist and hauled him over to touch the child. The look on his face when those tiny fingers wrapped around his pinky was absolutely priceless!

"What shall we call him, Hiccup?" she asked.

Hiccup froze. "Toothless." Tofa burst out laughing, rolling around on the ground. Astrid punched Hiccup's shoulder. "OW!"

"We're not naming him after your dragon," Astrid said in annoyance. As impossible as it seemed, Tofa's laughing intensified.

Hiccup's face lit up. "Yes dragon! I Toothless dragon!"

"Can't… breathe…" Tofa gasped.

"Nevermind," Astrid said. "You look pale. Go get some fresh air. I'm sure you're up to your neck in chiefly duties." She took a good, hard look at his eyes. "And you look like you've been through a sausage grinder. Get some sleep. We'll figure out a name later. We'll sort things out tomorrow."

"Yes!" he said as he shot upright… and fell over. He scrambled up - from that weird butt-in-the-air posture again - shared a sly look with Gothi for some strange reason, and scrambled out. Well, he tried, but he smacked right into the door, fell down, picked himself back up, and finally managed to convince the door to allow him outside.

Astrid gave an accusing glare at Gothi's deeply-wrinkled face. She had that "I know something and you're not going to believe it" sort of smirk. It didn't help that Tofa was still rolling around, laughing hysterically as her Terrible Terror hopped on and around her.

"Something is up," Astrid said.

Gothi nodded.

"Gothiii, pleeeease, lemme tell her."

Gothi shook her head.

"Something big," Astrid said.

Gothi nodded again.

Tofa blurted out, "Hiccup and Toothless-" she was stopped by a withering glare from the elder as if it was a physical blow. She then held her dragon above her lap and stared into her eyes. "I know, Shrill, right? Crazy! Every one of us! We're all crazy!"

"I'm not going to like this one bit," Astrid said, already sure of the answer.

Gothi grinned.

Astrid sighed as she helped her newborn find his way to his first meal on Midard. All she had to say was, "Well, I'll deal with it later."

A/N:
So, ummm, yeah, that just happened. I never thought I'd write a story like this, but we're totally going there! If you've caught on to… what's going on… then congrats! If not, don't worry, all will be revealed in the next chapter.

Oh, and I can assure you there will not be any mature content. Well, there may be a little fighting, a bit of blood, and the potential for one or two foul words to slip in, but this story has nothing to do with citrus fruits. To Quote Cave Johnson from the game Portal, "When life gives you lemons… make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons!"

Any and all comments are greatly appreciated, as always. This community has a lot of brilliant minds, and whether your feedback is positive or critical, I always love to hear your thoughts.

Many thanks to Deadly-Bagel for volunteering to beta my story. Any extra shine is totally his doing. Go check out his "A Gift of Wings" story and tell him I sent you.

Obligatory Disclaimer:
I don't own HTTYD or its characters. I just put 'em in funny poses to try to make you laugh at them.