**** Hi everybody. Here is chapter 3. Continuing on with more Stalka. This chapter will focus on Stoick and give him much more important development. I am thinking to set up this story as a prologue to another AU story with Valka returning to Berk right after Hiccup defeats the Red Death. Family reunite fanfic.

It was an autumn night and dragons were attacking Berk, again! Stoick moved fast to rally the men and gather the weapons to fight off the beasts. They were everywhere. On the houses, in the fields, and setting things on fire. The battle cries of Berk's warriors mixed with the roars of dragons, making the chaos sound worse than it was in reality.

Stoick was fighting against one of the dreaded Monstrous Nightmares. They had a nasty habit of setting themselves on fire and used that to scare of many Vikings. Stoick had come to face that fear and swung his axe aggressively to hit the dragon of the watchtower. The dragon put up a good fight but, Stoick's physical strength was able to knock the Nightmare off the watchtower.

He climbed down the watchtower and ran to the open square to see what he could do to help in the main village. A few houses were on fire and the dragons were carrying of sheep by the numbers. He made his way to his loghouse, wanting to make sure that Valka and Hiccup were okay… then his heart almost skipped a beat when he saw fire coming out of his home. The roof had been caved in and the smoke was rising, with the orange glow of fire coming out of the hole. He also heard the distinct roar of a dragon coming from inside the house. Panic set in.

His legs carried him as fast as they could as his heart was racing. Fear pumped into him at the thought of what could have happened to Valka or Hiccup. Once he ran into the house, he saw a dragon in the center of their bedroom. It was a Stormcutter by the looks of it and Valka was holding one of the family swords, pointing it defensively at the Dragon.

"VALKA !" Stoick screamed. He tried running towards her but, the Dragon turned its' attention away from Hiccup's cradle and stormed towards Valka. Stoick was knocked out of the way as the dragon took off and then … that is when he noticed that Valka was no longer standing in front of him anymore. What remained was the dropped sword that she had held a moment ago. It hadn't registered in Stoick's mind just yet but, he got himself up and went to get Hiccup. A wave of relief washed over him as he knew his son was safe; the boy was crying and had a small cut on his chin but Hiccup was safe.

He quickly got out the burning home and the villagers then came with the water buckets. The fire raged on for a few more minutes before the burning had stopped and the fire extinguished but, that did not matter to Stoick at that moment. He knew that Valka was gone. There wasn't even a goddamn moment to say goodbye. Taken away from him in this tragedy and bad luck.

Stoick resided in the mead hall that night. So many of the others villagers also took refuge in the great hall. He silently mourned for Valka that night, thinking about her in his waking moments. The villagers came to give him condolences for his loss but, he still could hear that some of them were rejoicing … that his "crazy" wife was finally gone. People were actually feeling happy that Valka was gone. It sadden him that some of the village had openly mocked Valka, just for her beliefs about dragons. He wanted more than anything to have her back and in the moment. His grief was only comforted by the fact that Hiccup was still there with him.

Now Hiccup was reaching his 15th winter. It had been 15 long years since Valka was taken and Stoick still had the pain of losing her in him. He had taken no other wife since, for he remembered his promise to Valka all those years ago.

"And love, and love me for eternity."

The vivid memory of their song helped him get through these 15 years. Even when Hiccup was still young, he would sing the hymn to help his boy get to sleep.

Stoick knew that he hadn't been the best father to Hiccup and he surely didn't spend enough time with the lad due to his chieftain duties but, he knew he tried. Now, he was back in his hut. It was late into the night and Hiccup had ran off into the forest again. Again, and again Stoick worried that Hiccup would be in danger of something out there. The boy was too good at getting lost and finding himself trouble but, Gobber had convinced him to let Hiccup be. He understood that Hiccup needed time to grow, and maybe this would be better for his own sake and wellbeing. The discussion with Gobber was enough to convince him that Hiccup might actually have better chance of fitting in if he would be allowed to start learning the Viking way and that was fighting dragons. Stoick tensed up when Hiccup finally opened the back door, and came strolling in.

"Hey dad, I need to talk to you about something." Hiccup said as he closed the front door behind him. Stoick thought something was wrong immediately as Hiccup hung his head low and his eyes were directed towards the creaky wooden floor. Stoick stayed silent, looking at Hiccup with an expression of eagerness to hear what he had to say.

"Dad, I... I don't want to fight dragons."