It started the next morning. The voices, the strange visions, the constant pain. It would seem like someone was saying something or he'd see something out of the corner of his eye. After a couple months, he would wander up to the cliff-side and stare out at the sky and dream of flying.
He tried to do dragon training, but got told to not come back after the first few times due to a few accidents. He watched from the sidelines as Astrid emerged victorious, slaughtering the Monstrous Nightmare in the ring. The next day there was a serious accident in the forge, severely burning his left leg. It was saved, barely. He would have to wear an awkward metal brace until it fully healed. Gothi said he wouldn't be able to run or fight dragons until it did. It still hasn't after four years.
The voices started off pretty soft, but the day that Astrid became victorious in the ring, he heard her loud and clear. "I bet he's pretty scared right now. What are you going to do about it?" He looked around wildly trying to figure out where it had come from. But with everyone cheering and shouting, it was hard to tell.
Hiccup decided he had gone insane about a month after the forge accident. He had finally been cleared for work by Gothi and had just limped into the shop when he noticed Gobber's belt buckle. Suddenly, an image flashed into his head of a dragon wearing an armor of bone with a hole in his chest just large enough for that belt buckle. "Gobber?" he asked. "How did you get that belt buckle?"
Gobber laughed and went off on a high tale involving hammer-head sharks and yaks and a dragon wearing an armor of… bone.
Hiccup tried to discount it to his insomnia that started after the accident, but that was just another part of his insanity theory.
The images continued, the voices kept speaking. It was almost as if someone was trying to have a conversation with him, but he couldn't quite respond.
"It's not supposed to be fun. It's a Hiccup idea."
"I saw Toothless spit in it."
"No! It's metal!" "Leg…."
"Well your friends are an odd bunch…"
"See you later, Stormfly."
"Then during one raid, it came out to everyone else that he had gone insane. Or, more accurately, after the raid. The voices and visions were always louder during the raids.
He saw Ruffnut standing outside the forge afterwards.
"Ruff? You're… you're alive! I-I don't believe it! Where's Tuff?"
"He didn't make it, Hiccup."
Hiccup scrambled outside to her as fast as his bad leg could take him.
"What?!"
"Kidding! He's right behind you."
"Hey Ruffnut! Where's your other half?" Hiccup said as soon as he got to her, trying to push the voices out as they persistently got louder.
Ruffnut just stared at him, an empty look on her face.
"Tuff hollowed out that tree so he couldn't be seen. Problem is he can't move."
"And I have bark beetles in my pants."
"Are you serious?" Hiccup heard a growl from behind him. He spun around to find Astrid with her axe pointed at him. "Tuffnut died in the raid LAST NIGHT! And you have the audacity to ask where he is! NOW!"
"I-I," Hiccup stuttered as he backed away from Astrid, putting his hands over his ears as Tuff's voice got louder and louder.
"We knew that. That's… why we did it."
"Wait, would you capitalize 'serious' or 'trouble'? Both?"
"Shut up!" Hiccup screamed out before falling over, blacking out.
That was just the start of Hiccup's blackouts. They would randomly occur whenever the voices became too much. Most people avoided him as if insanity was contagious. Except Ruffnut. She would still go out during the dragon raids, but other than that, she seemed to spend all her waking hours with Hiccup. She never said a word though, but as far as he could tell, she didn't speak to anyone.
After a few months of this, Hiccup looked up at her and asked if she wanted to hear a story. To his surprise, she nodded. So, he started telling her of the things he heard and saw, filling in the gaps where needed. After another couple of months, Ruff started laughing and smiling again. She still never talked and never did this around other people. Then again, Hiccup never told the stories around others either, not even Gobber.
However, there is one story that he still hasn't told her and was praying that he would never have to…