Hiccup's POV

I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh air as it whizzed past me. One year, one whole year without ... her. Twice I had managed to let her slip out of my grasp, and twice I had failed to save her from that pain. Thoughts of what could've happened to her poisoned my mind as my heart grew heavy. I had failed her, once again. Gods, how was I ever going to forgive myself?

A coo escaped Toothless as he turned his head to look up at me. I let out an audible sigh as I leaned back on my dragon. I dragged my hands across my face, trying my best to get it all out of my head, seeing as there was a very slim chance that I would ever see the woman I once called my wife ever again. We had spent 6 months searching for her, 6 months looking under every rock and in every house, but we hadn't even found a trace of her, or Stormfly, who had disappeared shortly after her rider.

I kept my gaze up on the darkening skies above us, tears welling in the corners of my eyes as the image of Astrid danced around my mind, taunting me with something I was unlikely to ever have again.

I bit my lip, stifling a sob as the memories washed over me like a tidal wave. Gods, it felt like my heart had been ripped straight from my chest.

I sat back up again on Toothless, my heart begging for me to go home so that I could find something else to distract myself with, like I had been doing for the past year. It was my only method of coping, the only thing that kept me sane, so I had to turn.

And as we dipped beneath the clouds, I caught a glance of something that made my heart skip a beat. Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen a blonde braid flowing through the wind before disappearing behind a cloud.

I urged for Toothless to stop, the only thing keeping us afloat being the flapping of his wings. I scanned the area where I thought I had seen the blonde braid, praying to the gods that I hadn't just gone mad. As we flew closer to the place it had vanished, I could almost feel my stomach turning in on itself.

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the cold air of the skies as I motioned for Toothless to fly through the clouds. On the other side of the large cloud, the burning skies of dusk stretched far and wide. Not a single cloud could be seen for miles and miles ahead, which allowed me to see the owner of the blonde braid, who was riding atop a very familiar nadder.

Toothless picked up speed as we flew closer to the pair, and when I was certain we were within hearing distance, I said the one thing I had been burning to say for ages. "Astrid?"

The nadder stopped, hovering in the skies as I watched its rider freeze. I motioned for Toothless to stop as well as the other rider slowly turned around to face me, eyes wide.

I felt my heart leap in my chest as I saw the beautiful face of a woman I thought I would never see again, my wife. A grin spread across my face as my eyes once again filled with tears, but this time, they were tears of pure joy.

Astrid's face turned pale as I saw her entire body tense. Her chest rose and fell faster than I had ever seen before, and a look of pure horror seemed to be painted on her face. I drew my brows together, was she ... afraid of me?

"G-go away, please." Astrid pleaded as Stormfly slowly inched backwards, tail ready to strike at any given moment as its spikes stood straight out.

I attempted to search her eyes from afar, but found that she was avoiding my gaze. "Astrid, please, it's me, Hiccup. You know I won't hurt you!"

She turned away from me as she and her nadder flew away, but in classical Hiccup style, there was no way I was going to let her go without a proper explanation. Just as Toothless and I were about to fly up on Astrid and Stormfly's side, they dropped down in the direction of a small island in the middle of the ocean.

The pair landed and we quickly followed suit. I slid off of Toothless and marched determinedly over to her. I came up beside her right as she slowly slipped off her dragon, looking more exhausted and ... worn out than I had ever seen her.

She shot me a weak smile as I finally had a chance to see her up close. "Hey, Hiccup."

The past year had looked to be hard on her. Her face was more gaunt than I remember it being just a year prior, as if she hadn't eaten a proper meal in ages. Dark bags hung beneath her now dull, blue eyes and bruises appeared in different places across her face, neck and collarbone. A small, white scar stretched across her left eyebrow and her usually neat, blonde braid had gotten messy along with having lost its usual glow. She was wearing a different outfit from when I had last seen her, but the brown dress looked baggy on her much thinner frame. Gods, what had he done to her?

I reached out to touch her, but immediately found her shrinking away from me. She shook her head slowly as she continued to inch backwards, making sure to stay as close to her dragon as possible. "Please, don't come any closer."

I swallowed, hard. We hadn't seen each other in over a year, and she could barely stand to be within fifteen feet of me. "Astrid, What's going on?"

"I-I can't tell you." She said, her voice shaky as she once again refused to meet my gaze.

"Why? You know you don't have to hide anything from me!" I pleaded with her, but was only met with the sight of her back turned to me.

"It's been a year Hiccup, I've changed and I'm sure you've changed too. I've had some time to think and I believe that it's best for the two of us if maybe we ... separate."

"Separate? Astrid, what are you talking about?" I ran a hand through my hair as I tried to piece together all of the information I had received.

"Hiccup, I'm not the same Astrid you knew a year ago. I've ... become different. This is something you can't fix, Hiccup. I'm not something you can fix." Astrid said as she placed a hand on the neck of her dragon and began stroking the Nadder's vibrant scales. "You deserve so much better than this broken shell of a human being, Hiccup. So much better."

I let out an exasperated sigh as I made my way over to Astrid. I managed to place my hand on Astrid's arm which resulted in a flinch from her, but she made no effort to remove it. "Astrid, you are the best thing I've ever had, the best thing I'll ever have. No one can compare to you, no one. YOU are the only one for me, you and you alone."

Astrid furrowed her brows as her dull and unfamiliar eyes met mine. For a moment, she looked to be searching for a lie in whatever I had said. I relaxed my face as my lips curled up in a small smile. "Astrid, please come home. I've missed you so much, our friends have missed you so much and our people have missed you. We need you, I need you. Please, come home."

Softly, she retracted her arm, her fingers tracing the place my hand had been earlier as she broke eye contact with me and stared wide-eyed at the ground, as if the gears in her head were turning at a furious pace. "No ... no."

"Astrid, nothing in this entire world can change the way I feel about you. Nothing can change the immense amount of love I have for you. I will never, ever let you go again unless you wish to leave yourself." I reached out a hand to stroke her cheek, but she simply turned her face away from me. I had been handed my fair share of pain throughout the years, but having my own wife refusing to be touched by me? Gods, it felt like being impaled with a hot iron rod right through the heart.

"I-I can't." She stuttered as she wrapped her arms protectively around herself, as if she feared I would hurt her.

"Of course you can. And this time, I'll make sure you are never hurt by anyone ever again, alright?" I reassured her, praying that I would get to take my wife back home again.

"How can you guarantee that?" Astrid asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Because this time, I won't ever leave your side. I won't ever let you stand alone, never again." I swore to her, reaching my hand out for her.

She glanced down at my outstretched hand. "Do you promise?"

I nodded, my heart racing in my chest as those ocean blue eyes seemed to twinkle. "I promise."

Her hand gently grasped mine and something told me that I had finally gotten my wife back. And this time, we were never getting away from each other ever again.

Astrid's POV

I glanced out of the window. A year. It had been over a year since I had last seen ... my husband and my home. It had been a year since he had begun torturing me and slowly began ripping away every part of me that was truly me.

Some nights, I saw no way out of there. Other nights I planned an escape, but by the time I was ready to execute it, my confidence and bravery had been torn down once again as I was left merely a shadow of my old self. This process had been repeated more times than I was able to count.

I glanced down at my hands. My frail, pale hands. I hadn't held an axe in ages, I hadn't exercised in forever and I certainly hadn't enjoyed many meals, mostly due to refusal to eat whatever I was given as a form of protest. My body mass had dropped tremendously over the past year and I must've looked like a ghost. I couldn't take it anymore, I didn't have anymore hope left in me. If I didn't get out of there soon, I was either going to starve myself to death or die of exhaustion.

An awfully familiar screech rang through my ears and for a second, I was convinced I had completely lost my mind. Then she flew up to my window; my beautiful, amazing, gorgeous and smart Deadly Nadder, Stormfly. I nearly wept at the sight of her, but I figured I had to pull myself together before I alerted the guards and they shot her down.

"Hey, girl! I can't believe it's you, my beautiful Stormfly!" I whispered to her with more enthusiasm that I had been able to muster in months as she softly nipped at the tips of my fingers through the iron bars, joy nearly radiating from her. "Do you think you could give me a hand, girl?"

Stormfly flew a little further back and I knew exactly what was about to go down. I stepped away from the wall and observed as she fired a magnesium blast at the wall separating us, creating a scorching hole big enough for me to climb through and finally escape. "Good job, Stormfly!"

Loud voices began echoing through the hallway and I knew I had limited time to get out of that cursed cell. I jumped atop my Nadder and clung to her spikes as she took off, right as the door to my cell swung open, revealing a fuming Sigurd who was furiously waving his fist at the two of us before hissing some orders to his men.

I took a deep breath as we finally broke through the clouds and for the first time in nearly a year, I felt alive. I was finally free. Free from the torture, free from him, free from everything. It had taken a year, but I was finally out of there and no one was ever going to capture me again and keep me locked up in some cell. Not now, not ever.