Chief's wedding

The wedding dress finishing touches

The docks

The next day when the news Trader Markers & Spencius ware approaching the island word spread quickly through the village as it normally did. Hiccup & Toothless go down to the docks to meet them to find Astrid already there, The baby dragons go rushing to meet their father then go running up towards the main village, Toothless & Stormfly following them to keep them under control. 

"What are you doing here?" Astrid asks, surprised to see her fetcher husband down at the docks. "I'm chief, I have to be here to meet Trader Markers & Spencius as soon as they get in, dad always did with Jo-han" Hiccup points out.    

"Well I'm here to meet them if you want anything you can come later, I have things for the wedding dress their bringing & you can't see them yet" "Oh come on, it's not like I'll be seeing the whole dress" "You're still not allowed to see what Trader Markers & Spencius are bringing me" "I promise I won't look" "You'd better not" Trader Markers & Spencius ship finally arrives by the walkway where Hiccup, Astrid & a lot of other villagers were waiting. 

"Chief Hiccup, Miss Astrid how great to see you" Trader Markers & Spencius say from their ship as they move the ramp down so people can get on. "We're hoping we'll be welcome to stay for the wedding" "Of course" Hiccup says as he & Astrid board the ship. "It will be good to have you there" "Now you go off & look" Astrid says shooing Hiccup away. "Me & Trader Markers & Spencius have business to take care of" Astrid then pulls Trader Markers & Spencius away.

"Tell me you've got what I need" Astrid asks. "Certainly & you've got choices" Trader Markers replies, Trader Markers leads Astrid over to a pile of fabrics in a variety of colors. "I'm sure you'll find something perfect" Trader Spencius continues."They all look so beautiful" Astrid says.    

In the pile in front of her are silks, satin's & velvet's in shades of red, purple, green, blue & orange, some plain, some with various designs on them. "Do you have any thread that matches these colors?" Astrid asks picking up a plain orange satin & a light blue velvet with a orange Nordic knot design embroidered into it. "I'm sure we have some somewhere" Trader Markers says going to search through some of the boxes & baskets he had stacked up.

Astrid glances over at the other end of the ship, where Hiccup had been caught up helping Gobber make a decision on a few purchases, she makes a mental note to thank Gobber for keeping Hiccup occupied. "we don't seem to have any blue but we do have some orange thread" Trader Markers says coming back with two spools of orange thread.    

"That'll be perfect" Astrid says putting the two folded sheets off fabric over her arm. "Ok, I'll take these two & the thread" She takes the thread from Trader Markers & pays him with a few coins while Trader Spencius goes to see to another customer then she rushes over to Hiccup giving him a quick kiss goodbye before rushing off to take her fabric home.

The Hoffason house  

When she gets home her mother is by the fire busy making lunch. "I got the fabric" Astrid says closing the front door behind her. "& it's perfect, it's going to look so amazing on the dress" "Oh it's lovely" Magnhild says. "It will surely make the dress look fit for a chief's wife" "I'm going to go take this up-stairs & then I'm going to go find where Stormfly & the baby dragons have gone, hopefully I'll be back before lunch" "OK"    

Astrid rushes upstairs, comes back down a minute later & is out the door, passing her dad who is just coming in as she goes. "Where's she off to in such a hurry?" Asmund asks going to join his wife. "Off to find Stormfly" Magnhild says. "Seems her & the babies went off to play while Astrid was shopping for fabric" "Did she get some nice stuff?" "I haven't seen it properly but she says it's perfect" "Well it must be then" 

Magnhild sighs & goes to get a few thing from a nearby shelf. "I knew this was going to happen one day but it's going to feel so strange with just the two of us" She says. "It will, but I'm looking forward to having my wife to myself for the first time in 20 years" Asmund says. "Like you didn't have me to yourself when she was off at dragon's edge" "But this is long term" "That's part of the problem she's all grown up, there's nothing I can do for her now"    

Asmund walks up to his wife & puts his arms around her waist. "Oh she'll still need you" He says "When she becomes a mother herself she'll want your advice, & just think, she'll be happy from day one of married life, isn't that something we wanted for her?" Magnhild smiles at the thought, although she was happy with her life, that hadn't been the case when she heard her parents were marrying her off. 

She'd dreaded the wedding for months, & the first few months of married life she'd been incredibly unhappy, even though Asmund had shown her nothing but kindness, Asmund had noticed how unhappy his now wife had been, & had been determined to make their life together a happy one, Magnhild noticed his efforts to woo her & ended up falling in love with him, when Astrid was born they both vowed they'd never let their daughter go through what Magnhild had. 

"I guess there is that, & she is only across the square" Magnhild says. "& it's not like I haven't got enough to do to keep me busy" "See? That's the kind of attitude we need for when she leaves" Asmund says before giving Magnhild a kiss on the cheek, he then let's go of her waist so she can get back to cooking while he goes off to finish a few tasks he needed to do before lunch.

The woods & village

In the mean time Astrid searches the whole village for the dragons, eventually finding them playing around the woods with Cloud jumper & Volka. "I've been looking for you everywhere" Astrid says to the dragons. "I found them trying to keep the babies from burning the whole village down" Volka says. "So me & Cloud jumper thought we'd give them a hand"    

"Thanks they went rushing off while me & Hiccup where with Trader Markers & Spencius" "I guess baby dragons just don't like shopping" "Yeah, well I need to get them back for lunch" "I'll walk back with you if you like" "Yeah that'll be cool" The two women start walking back towards the village, the dragons quickly following behind. 

"So, how are the wedding preparations going on your end?" Volka asks. "Great. I managed to get everything I need to finish my dress, I should have it done by tomorrow" Astrid replies. "Oh I can't what to see it" "It's going to look amazing, & I'll know I did it all myself"    

"I remember making my own wedding dress, I had it planned for months & worked on it every day, it looked so beautiful" "Do you still have it?" Volka sighs. "No unfortunately, It got destroyed in a raid a few weeks after the wedding" Volka says. "But for a few weeks I got to see my hard work & remember one of the best days of my life"    

A couple of Terrible Terrors flow overhead, making Astrid smile, she didn't have to worry about dragon raids burning the village down & destroying something as precious as her wedding dress, she'd have the chance to look at her dress & remember a day that she know would be one of the happiest days of her life until she was old, & that made all the effort she was putting into making the dress all the more worth it.