Chapter 1: Loose Bear, Part 1
A rare occurrence appeared on Berk; sunlight. Its dazzling light shot rays down in rows over the small Viking dwelling island, waking up the residents one by one at the opening day. Hiccup had woken up an hour or so ago and was just gliding around the village on his dragon Toothless, enjoying the warm weather after a quick waking flight. The two soared down to the docks where a fishing boat just pulled in its latest catch. Dismounting Toothless before he even landed, Hiccup ran down the dock boards, nearly reaching the barrel loads of fish before his dragon. But Toothless happened to be quicker and hungrier.
Toothless barged past his rider and buried a face in one of the fish barrels, leaving Hiccup falling into the water three feet below. He gobbled down the tasty, slimy, freshly caught salmon like he never was going to taste it again. The fisherman who was saving those particular fish for trade had his eyes pop open when he saw the Night Fury eating his fish. Yelling and waving his arms in the air, the fisherman tried pushing Toothless away, who so much as flicked his ears in reply, hardly noticing the man.
Toothless licked his lips and looked up at Hiccup only to find in confusion that he wasn't standing next to him anymore. Craning his neck around, Toothless smiled sheepishly when he saw his cross rider spitting water out of his mouth down in the salty water. Using his teeth to pull him out by the shirt collar behind his neck, Toothless purred in embarrassment when Hiccup lightly chided the dragon.
"You useless reptile," Hiccup tried to sound assertive, but couldn't help but smile. In retrospect the little event was a bit funny.
Hiccup apologized to the fishermen about his eaten trade, took his, his dad's and Toothless's share of fish, then flew back to his house at the top of the village beside the Great Hall. Dragging the heavy overloaded rucksack off of Toothless, Hiccup panted from the weight and sat it on the ground with a plump.
"There you go, Toothless," said Hiccup as he pushed over the rucksack with a foot, its contents of fresh fish sliding out in a slimy avalanche. The Night Fury licked his lips and took care in eating the fish one by one, choosing his favorites first. "You're lucky that fisherman even let you take your share of breakfast after eating his trading fish…"
Astrid, a lovely teenaged girl whom Hiccup was close friends with and had a crush on, came walking up the hill cheerfully. "Hey, Hiccup!" She greeted, pausing at his state. "Why are you all wet?"
"Oh, it's nothing." Hiccup smiled at Astrid. "Toothless just accidently pushed me in the water."
"How long have you been up?" Astrid asked.
Hiccup mused, "…Eh, about since the break of dawn, all thanks to this load of dragon." He gestured at 'all of Toothless' in annoyance. "They should have named him 'Morning Fury.'"
Toothless looked up with perked ears and round, curious eyes at the mention of him, half of a fish hanging out of his mouth. Astrid giggled a little at him and patted his snout before facing Hiccup again.
"I left my axe at the cove the other day during our training session with Gobber… wanna come with me to go get it?" the blonde pulled her bangs out of her eye and smiled at Hiccup.
Hiccup felt delighted to go with her. "Y-yeah, sure! Just, let me go get my harness and- -"
"Oh, well I was going to walk there," Astrid interrupted. "My father wants me to take a break from riding dragons, mainly Stormfly, for all of today. I guess he thinks I forgot what it feels like to take a stroll in the woods."
Surprised, Hiccup raised his eyebrows. "For all of today? I honestly can't imagine doing that. Toothless would kill me if I tried."
"So, you coming?" Astrid asked again.
"Wha-? Oh, yeah! Yeah, I'm coming. Uh…" Hiccup looked over at Toothless and smiled a bit. "…See you later, bud?"
Toothless snorted in disapproval and continued to eat his breakfast.
0o0o0o0
"Catch up!" Astrid taunted Hiccup.
Hiccup grinned and ran towards Astrid, stumbling a little on his way up the hill. He spat out grass, got up, and chased after her again, awkwardly leaning on his right side more than his left. Determined to not look slow Hiccup dug his feet deeper in the soil and pushed on faster. He was surprised at how much speed he was gaining.
Astrid turned her head over her shoulder to check on his progress again only to gasp in surprise as Hiccup lost balance and slammed right into her. The two went rolling down and around the other side of the hill and into the forest, through the undergrowth, and finally halted in a bundled heap under a patch of ferns. Astrid sat up with wide eyes, putting her fingers to her forehead in attempt to remove her dizziness. Hiccup coughed as he lifted his upper body up, leaning against his hands in the grass behind him.
"Wow," Astrid stated. "I… I didn't know you could run so fast,"
"Me neither!" Hiccup agreed rather happily. "I was sure the best I would do was fall in the dirt."
"Especially since we don't run as much as we used to, huh?" Astrid asked as she stood on her feet and brushed herself off. She offered a hand and pulled Hiccup up next to her.
Hiccup swayed on his feet a bit. "Yeah. I would blame the dragons, but I don't find a fault in it." He added half-jokingly.
Astrid stretched her muscles a bit. "Enough talk. I'm looking forward to retrieving my axe at the cove now."
It was about ten minutes later when the two were on their way back to the village after successfully gaining Astrid's axe. Hiccup also discovered his knife was still in the cove pond after kicking it in there all those months ago and twirled it around in his hands rather blissfully. Astrid flinched away when Hiccup's knife flew out of his fingers and stuck into the dirt several inches near her. The blonde gave him an unamused look.
"S-sorry, sorry! Butter fingers," Hiccup said sheepishly as he ran around to get his knife back. As he bent down to pick it up a sound caught his attention that came from the bushes in front of him. Hiccup paused and looked up, brushing his bangs out of his green eyes. It sounded like something heavy was running to him. The sound became more violent, and, sensing something big and most likely lethal, Hiccup grabbed his knife and briskly trotted back to his friend.
"Astrid, did you hear…? What is that noise?" He trailed questioningly. But Astrid looked just as confused. She eyed the area the sound came from for a moment before turning on the invisible trail again.
"Hiccup, let's get out of here," she decided, not wanting to know what the noise was coming from.
"Not arguing," Hiccup agreed and followed after her.
The sound became louder and more rapid, meaning whatever it was started picking up its pace. The teens instinctively went faster, hearts slowly speeding up as the seconds ticked.
Just when the sound seemed like it was right behind them it stopped abruptly.
The two slowed down and listened. "You think it's gone?" Astrid asked.
"I don't know. I hope so," Hiccup whispered back. Nevertheless he still didn't feel safe. "Astrid- -"
His sentence was cut off as suddenly a huge brown bear came crashing through the undergrowth, opening its large jaws in a ferocious roar.
"- -RUN!" Hiccup screamed.
It was about at that time when a light thunderstorm began. Rain pattered against the ground in a rapid calm movement while Hiccup and Astrid leaped to the left and right as the bear lunged in between them in a rage. Panicked and unfocused, Hiccup ran as far away from the bear as possible.
"Quick, Astrid, go, go, go!" He yelled. Looking over a shoulder, Hiccup's heart lurched. "Astrid?" She wasn't beside him.
Right when he was about to turn around and go after his friend Hiccup tripped over a root and found himself falling in open air. With no time to react he tumbled down into a ditch, rolling under an uprooted tree. The wind got knocked out of him for a few moments, and when he was able to breathe again he sat up gasping.
He sputtered out dirt and raindrops, running to the wall of the ditch. He dug a hand in the dirt and tried prying himself up, but lost the slippery grip and slid back down. Frustrated, he tried to listen over the quiet thunder and gentle rain.
Neither bear nor Astrid was heard from Hiccup's sense of hearing, and that made a tight, anxious knot tie its way around his bad gut feeling.
A/N: Leave a review to let me know your thoughts!