(( Welcome, this is a new series with singles, it will be mostly about "Hiccstrid". There is not much to say, so have a good read.))
Chapter 1
A small fishing trip.
It was a chilly spring morning, she woke up just as the sun had start to set above the horizon. She had promised Hiccup to go fishing with him this morning, he had seemed much exited.
Astrid put on her regular clothes, she grabbed her fishing pole and a clay-jar full of worms.
When he had told her about his plans at the great hall the evening before he had, against what she thought, planned to go to a small river about a mile from the village, he had told her briefly about the gear that he was going to use but she hadn't listened, she was lost in his emerald green eyes. She had snapped out of it and more or less shouted " Can I come too?"
He had smiled happily and his cheeks had turned red. "of course you can! I-I'll be glad to have you with me…" they had parted ways with the promise of meeting at the main square as the sun rose with their gears ready. So now she stood there, holding the reins of Stormfly in one hand and her fishing equipment in the other. She looked up at the hill where the chief's house were located. Suddenly the rooftop door swung open and Toothless jumped out with Hiccup on his back. They glided down to greet her.
-Good morning milady, are you ready to go fishing?
-Ye, but one question though… where is your equipment?
Hiccup pated himself on the back and showed her a short roll made out of leather, not much wider than a thumb's length.
-I told you about it yesterday, I'm trying out a new prototype, it won't require any worms or a bobber.
-Oh, right… ye… you did. Well let's go then, you show the way, I don't know where we are headed.
Hiccup signaled for Toothless to fly up and soon they were both flying far up in the sky.
After about fifteen minutes of flying Hiccup pointed down at a small stream. Astrid furrowed her brow, how could you possibly catch any fish in that small stream? There were probably just enough water to support a small school of perch or roach… and those were no fun to catch.
They flew down to the field that the stream crossed. Astrid jumped off of Stormfly.
-So, what do you expect to catch in this little stream? Hardly fitting for anything bigger than a roach.
-Don't you know that the trout are migrating here in the spring? There are fish up to two kilos swimming around here.
Astrid looked skeptical at him.' – I don't really believe you…
-Take a look… just be sneaky though, they are easily scared.
Astrid peaked over the edge of the sandbank. And to her surprise, she saw a fish… a LOT of fish swimming around. Some of them were as large as her underarm. She quietly sneaked back to Hiccup.
-Well, you were right about that, let's see if we can catch some.
-We will, I'm sure.
Hiccup removed the roll of leather from his back and opened it, it contained four parts of wood, one of them had a thicker end and two metal springs and what looked like an extendable lid, over it was a handle, and then the three remaining parts that was getting thinner and thinner. He assembled the pieces and now it actually looked like a rod, but this one had metal rings bound on to it at the underside. Hiccup then opened a pouch in his belt and took out what looked like a ring with tendons wired around it, it had a metal spike in the top of it that pointed forward and at the end of the "line" he had a piece of thin metal wire, just as thin as a needle, he opened the extendable lid at the handle and connected the circle with line to it. He then took the line and pulled it through the rings at the underside. He looked up at Astrid who glared at him with a highly confused look.
-Let me explain, the rod here is extremely flexible.' He took out something else from the bag, it was a small metal hook with fur covering it, if you excluded the hook it looked a little like a fish.
-I snap this "fly" to the end of the wire that you see there, the fly itself doesn't weight much, but the goal is to throw out the line into the stream and then pull it back upstream with small movements, the fly will move like a fish and the trout will try to eat it. Now, since the fly doesn't weight much, you can't use that as a throwing weight, so you use the line.
He took hold of the handle and with his free hand he started to strip out some line onto the ground.
-I call this part "reel" the iron pin allows me to pull out line this way, but not the other. The meaning of the rod being so flexible is for it to act like a slingshot or a bow if you want. It will catapult the line from the ground and up in the air.
He started to swing the rod lightly by moving his wrist back and forth. And as he said, the line started to flood out, when he had about ten meters of line swooshing through the air he made one long draw forward and the line flied through the air and landed in a curly pattern along the surface of the stream, he then started to twitch the fly upstream. The throw was result-less. Astrod laughed, she walked down to the riverbank and threw out her bobber about one and a half meter from the shore.
-I don't really believe you there Haddock… worms and a bobber have always worked for me, so let's just keep it that way.
Hiccup frowned, he started to swing his rod again and ones again pulled it upstream.
Astrid's bobber went down below the surface.' –Yep! Got one!' she raised her rod high in the air and started to walk backwards, dragging the small trout up on land.
-Good, I little too small for eating though. Let it go back.
Astrid pulled out the hook with her fingers and a little unwillingly let the fish swim back.
She put on a new worm and threw out the tackle again. Some minutes later the bobber went down for the second time.
-Yep! Again! This is bigger though. She pulled it up on the beach and unhooked it, it was as long as her underarm, and a lovely eating-fish. She smacked it head with a rock and hung it from a branch nearby.
Some more minutes passed, and now Hiccup shouted. –Ye! Got one! Woohoo! Oh, it's a fighter.
Astrid looked at him while he stood a short distance away with his rod bent like a "C".
He pulled the line with his fingers and eventually he got the fish close enough for him to grab it with one hand. He held it up over his head in a pose of success.
-I knew it would work! I got one!
-Mine is bigger, And I have caught two. What about a little competition Hiccup?
-Sounds good to me! I feel it coming. First to six?
-Sounds fair, what's the pot?
-Winner gets to teach the other one how to fish, and to cook all the fish.
-Okay, one point for first to six and one point for biggest fish, if we get a draw, then we cook each other's fish.
Hiccup nodded and threw out his line again, it didn't take long until he got a bite again.
-Ye! Oh gods! This one is huge!' Astrid looked angrily at him as he pulled up a fish the length of his full arm.
-Nervous, Astrid?
-Never.
Hiccup whacked the fish with a rock and laid it in the grass beside him.
He threw out again and at the third twitch he hooked another one.
So he continued, when he was at five he looked over at Astrid, she stared furiously at him and didn't even notice that her bobber dived down, when it float up again he nodded at her.
-Your worm is gone…
She ripped up her pole and threw it behind her, she knew how to win this competition… if he couldn't throw, he couldn't catch. She walked over to him and hit him on the shoulder.
-That's for almost winning the competition.
-Ao... why did you do that?
-And this…' she leaned closer to his face and pressed her lips against his, she held him there for a very short moment, when she first though to pull back, her body didn't do as she told it, the kiss deepened, it became serious… real. She slowly put her arms around his back and pulled him closer. She opened her mouth a little just sticking her tongue just past her lips and was immediately met by his. He let go of his rod and she pushed him backwards, down against the ground, they met the ground with a heavy thud but quickly found each other's lips again. Astrid cooped her hand around his cheek and stroke his neck with the other one. His arms reached around her back and he pressed her against him.
Their breathing was heavy but they still continued until a big black head blocked the sun, they looked up and saw Toothless standing over them with his tongue hanging out.
Astrid rolled to the side and rose up looking shyly down in the ground. Hiccup scratched the back of his head nervously.
He bent down and picked up his rod, he started to pull in the line again, and just as he was about to take the fly out of the water a small trout jumped up and took it. He got scared by the sudden bend in his rod but quickly recovered, he dragged the fish onto the sand and held it up.
-Six! Let me teach you how to cast a fly.
Astrid's gaze was fixated on him, she looked a little pissed when she started to make her way over to him.
-You hold it like this, and then slow movements with only your wrist… no no no, the wrist, not the arm. So, there you go. No, let me help you.
He stood behind her, covering her hands with his and slowly showed her how to cast the fly.
They were close together, following each other's movements… maybe this wasn't so bad after all…' she thought.
(( Thanks for reading! I wanted to try this kind of stories too. I hope you like it. This series won't be updated as often as "On the wings of love", but please, leave a review and stay tuned!))