Hey, guys! :D So, this is a new story, and I just wanted to, y'know, start posting it, even though my hiatus starts in a few days. Let me know what you think, and tell me whether or not you think I should continue.
And I wanted to let you know, I'm going to be fooling around with a new style of writing for a little bit. It's not going to change much, but just so you know, if it sounds or reads a bit differently, that's why. It's not a whole lot different, but, well, you'll see what I mean. :)
So starts the beginning of "Stay With Me"! :D Enjoy chapter 1! :D
The sun was just beginning to rise, sending orange sunbeams across the small island of Berk. The frost that covered the ground sparkled in the morning light, and the cloudless sky promised warm weather later on in the day.
Stormfly landed in front of the academy, and Astrid dismounted, her boots crunching against the frosty ground. She patted her dragon's head in a silent thank you, and then headed inside the academy with Stormfly in tow.
Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins were staring up at the sky. Snotlout looked amused, sitting down, leaning back on his hands while the twins were also sitting, leaning their backs against each other. Fishlegs was the only one standing, and he watched the sky with interest.
"What are you guys looking at?" Astrid asked nonchalantly as she approached her friends.
Snotlout simply pointed upwards, never taking his eyes off the sky. "Hiccup's thinking again," he said as if it were a regular thing.
"Oh," Astrid said, nodding in understanding. She averted her gaze to the sky. A Night Fury flew in circles above the academy with grace only that certain dragon possessed. After a few more moments, Toothless flew downwards and landed, letting Hiccup dismount.
"I've got it!" Hiccup said as he ran over to them. Snotlout and the twins shot to their feet and stared at their leader.
"You've got what?" Snotlout asked.
"An idea," Hiccup said.
"Uuuuugh," the twins and Snotlout groaned in unison. Hiccup stared at them with confusion written plainly across his face.
"What?" he asked honestly.
"It's just that your ideas...they don't really...involve anything interesting," Snotlout said slowly. "They're not exactly fun."
"Yeah," Tuffnut agreed. "You don't even let us blow anything up. How is that fun?"
Hiccup rolled his eyes. "That's hardly important," he said. "I've come up with something brilliant. I was up all night working on a prototype, it didn't work, and so now I've been trying to think of what I did wrong, and I got it."
"What are you going on about, Hiccup?" Astrid asked, crossing her arms casually while staring at him in a silent urge to continue.
"A dragon whistle," Hiccup said.
"A whistle?" Snotlout said, crossing his arms angrily. "I'm disappointed in you, Hiccup."
"No, not a usual whistle," Hiccup said. "It's a whistle that only dragon ears can pick up. Could you imagine how useful it would be if we ever got stranded on Outcast Island and separated from our dragons? We can't really use a normal whistle since it would alert the Outcasts, but a silent whistle that only your dragons can pick up would be handy."
Fishlegs' face brightened. "That's actually brilliant, Hiccup," he said. "How do you think you're going to do it?"
"I'm not sure yet," Hiccup admitted, "but I'm sure I'll have the solution for it in a few days. Once I can tune it properly it should be easy, but it's harder than it looks. As soon as I get one made properly, the rest shouldn't be hard to do. I think all the dragon riders should have one, just to be on the safe side."
"Uh, yeah," Snotlout said. "Sorry, are we going to train, or stand around talking about whistles and dragons and building all day?"
"Right," Hiccup said. "Okay, we should start by some...target practice." He motioned to Fishlegs and Snotlout, and the two of them began setting up the barrels: three on the bottom, two on top of those, and then a final one at the top, so it created a sort of pyramid.
"Okay, great," Hiccup said. "Ruffnut and Tuffnut, you go up first." As the twins nodded and mounted their dragons to work on the exercise, Astrid looked at Hiccup and examined his features.
He was paler than usual, and his posture wasn't perfect like it usually was. His shoulders were slumping, there were dark circles underneath his eyes, and he looked...different. He was acting less hyper than usual, and that alone was startling enough, since he was a normally active person who couldn't stand in the same place for more than thirty seconds.
Then she remembered what Hiccup had said: I was up all night working on a prototype. She had thought he had been exaggerating, but now, he actually did look like someone who had been up all night long.
"Hiccup," Astrid said at length. Hiccup turned to look at her, "are you alright?"
"What?" Hiccup said. "Yeah, of course I'm alright. Why do you ask?"
Astrid shook her head. "No reason," she said. "It's just that...you look paler than normal."
Hiccup gestured to the sky. "It's the lighting," he said casually. "I'm fine."
No sarcasm. No snarky, "Gee, thanks Astrid." If he had said that, then she would have been less worried, but now, he went straight to defending himself, using the lighting as an excuse.
Something was wrong, and Astrid was determined to find out what it was, one way or another.
"Are you sure?" Astrid asked, raising an eyebrow at him in disbelief. "Because you know, when you say you're fine, it kind of automatically means you're not. Can you argue?"
Hiccup stared at her in confusion. "I don't even know how to answer that," he said.
Astrid narrowed her eyes at him. "You can be so difficult sometimes," she said. "Why can't you just tell me that you don't feel one hundred percent?"
"I feel fine," Hiccup said. "I had a headache yesterday, but it passed. It's probably just because I was thinking too much."
Astrid opened her mouth to retort, when a fireball cut her off. The barrel on the top was smoking while the twins looked at it with satisfaction.
"We blasted it," Tuffnut said.
"We hit it," Ruffnut agreed.
"And we didn't even have a chance to ask it," Tuffnut said. "Ha. All five of those things rhyme."
"Okay, Snotlout, you go next," Hiccup said.
Snotlout rolled up imaginary sleeves. "Watch and learn," he said, mounting Hookfang and approaching the barrels.
"Hiccup," Astrid whispered, "you look awful. I'd feel more comfortable if you sat down."
"Astrid, I'm fine!" Hiccup insisted.
Once again, no sarcasm involved.
Astrid decided to let it go. She would learn more later, whether Hiccup liked it or not.