Hiccup's POV

The chill evening wind ruffled my hair as we glided through the night. With a sigh, my gaze fell to the back of Toothless' head as I slowly disappeared into my own mind, which just so happened to be overflowing with guilt.

"I don't get it, how did you manage to make mom so mad?" Zephyr asked from where she flew beside me on Firestorm, yawning every so often after having been awoken from her sleep due to the little screaming match between Astrid and I.

A sigh escaped me as the memories of the fight flowed through my mind, tearing at me from the inside. I had been cruel to her, I had said things that I definitely shouldn't have said and I had driven her away. To think that just a few weeks prior I had been spurting meaningless promises about 'forever' and 'the rest of our lives' and now I had managed to drive away the one person in the world I would've given absolutely anything for.

"I ... I said some things I shouldn't have and she left." I clenched my fists as I suddenly found myself right back in the main room of our home, Astrid's hand resting on the door as she faced me, those ocean blue eyes brimming with tears, her thin brows drawn together and that expression of pure hurt that had taken over her face. I knew how much I had hurt her, I saw the way her eyes widened at every insult before something shattered behind them. I had hurt her, I had really hurt her. How would she ever forgive me?

"Dad?" Zephyr's voice echoed through my mind as the memory continued. It had been mere minutes since Astrid had left and I still found myself glaring intensely at the door, half-expecting Astrid to burst in through it and want us to talk everything over.

But she didn't. She didn't burst back in — she had left. All because of me.

"Dad!" Annoyance laced the echo of Zephyr's voice as I turned to face my daughter, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, forehead creased as she patiently waited for me to say anything, anything at all. "You should probably go back to bed."

"What happened? Where's mom?" Zephyr asked, desperately searching my eyes for an answer.

"She ... left." That's when it finally hit me. A wave of guilt unlike any other I had ever been hit by before washed over me, drowning me in its misery. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. The words pounded against my brain with such force my head ached. I had hurt her, I had really, really hurt her.

"What? Why? We have to go after her!" Zephyr exclaimed as she rushed back upstairs to change out of her night clothes.

My gaze fell upon the door once more, my heart breaking in tact with the sound of it shutting after her, after Astrid. What was I even going to say to her? How was one supposed to make up for something like that?

"Dad, let's go!" Zephyr barked as she threw open the door, whistling a slightly altered version of her mother's tune to call on her dragon. Minutes later, Firestorm appeared with a pleased squawk, as if she didn't mind being awoken late at night to go for a moonlit flight.

My daughter climbed atop her dragon, a wild look in her eyes as she impatiently rushed me. "Dad, come on!"

I eventually gave in, which lead us to where we were now, flying across the seas, searching desperately for a sign of a certain Viking on a Nadder. Zephyr let out a sigh. "We haven't even had mom back for a full month and you've already gone and screwed it up, nice one, dad."

I shot Zephyr a sharp look before a firm and disciplinary tone laced itself with my words. "Careful how you speak to me, young lady, I'm still your father after all."

I could almost feel the amount of force Zephyr spent rolling her eyes at me. Suddenly, I was hit by a thought that I felt stupid for not thinking of earlier. "Tracker Class, of course!"

"Huh?" Zephyr arched a brow at my sudden realization.

"Tracker class, Firestorm is a tracker class! We can use her to find your mother!" I informed the fifteen-year-old, who soon followed in my footsteps and lit up with realization as well.

"Oh my gods, you're right! Wait, did we bring anything of hers?" Zephyr asked as I scratched my chin, trying to remember if we had brought along anything of hers.

Then it hit me. "Zeph, your saddlebag!"

A questioning brow was once again raised by the teen as she glanced over at her saddlebag. "My saddlebag?"

"Don't you have a spare kransen in there?" I asked my daughter as she leaned back on her dragon and began digging through the contents of her saddlebag.

Zephyr picked up her spare kransen and held the studded leather band up for me to see. "I mean, I do, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"It was your mother's." I informed her, my heart letting out a sigh as a wave of nostalgia washed over me at the memory of her wearing that same kransen when she had been the same age as our daughter.

"Yeah," Zephyr exclaimed. "Twenty years ago!"

"Considering the fact that you've never worn it, we've got to take the chance that the kransen will work, now come on, let Firestorm sniff it." Another eye roll from Zephyr as she leaned down to stretch out her hand and let her dragon get a good whiff of the kransen. It took a minute for Firestorm to pick up the scent, but soon the dragon roared in delight as she set off to find our missing person.

Toothless and I followed closely behind as we flew zigzag around sea-stacks, straight through the tree crowns and through a tunnel in the mountain before we were faced with a large source of what I assumed to be freshwater, where a familiar-looking Nadder was drinking from the small river that flowed from the freshwater source.

We touched down not too far away from Stormfly as she curiously looked up before recognizing both Toothless and Firestorm, a squeak of delight escaping her as we jumped off our dragons and left them to greet the Nadder. "I suppose she must be around here somewhere then."

Zephyr toyed with the kransen in her hands, her eyes never leaving it as she spoke. "She probably isn't too far away, she and Stormfly are attached at the hip."

And as if on cue, a soft and gentle voice called out: "Stormfly!"

The dragon squawked in response, leaving her friends to instead go greet her rider, wherever she may be. The dragon ran on foot, which made it all that much easier for us to follow. We hadn't ran after Stormfly long when we spotted her. Golden, blonde hair braided into a thick braid that hung loosely down her back. Ocean blue eyes reflected the sun that had just risen in the early morning sky and she even had a smile on her face, that was until Stormfly turned to all of us with a joyous squawk — as if she was happy to inform her rider of our arrival. The moment she laid eyes on me, her smile faded.

"What are you doing here?" Astrid's voice was cold as a blizzard as her hand subconsciously seemed to wrap itself around one of the straps of Stormfly's saddle.

But before I even had the chance to reply, Zephyr cut in. "He came to apologize, mom, he's really sorry."

The stern look on her face momentarily softened as she turned to our daughter, who just so happened to still be clutching onto the kransen. Astrid's eyes landed on it. "You used my kransen to locate me, didn't you?"

Zephyr nodded as she stroked the smooth leather on the inside with her thumb before turning back to her mother. "Mom, please hear him out."

"This is between Hiccup and I, Zeph, you have no part in it." I winced at the mention of my name. She never called Hiccup to another person unless she was really really mad. I suppose her anger was justified though.

"But mom—"

Astrid cut Zephyr off with a simple shooing gesture. "If Hiccup came here to talk to me, he better do it himself and not through you. For your own best, sweetie, go and find somewhere else to be while Hiccup and I have a little discussion."

To my surprise, Zephyr complied and brought the dragons along with her, both so that she wouldn't be alone and so that she would have less of a chance of going home with a crispy parent.

"Alone again," Astrid huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest, that cold look from before etched into her face as she watched me with a glare that could freeze oceans. "What do you want, Hiccup?"