Warning: Story is rated for graphic violence.
Characters: Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless, OC evil vikings
Summary: Strangers arrive on the island of Berk to learn about dragons. But everything is not as it seems... O:
I also should mention that English isn't my first language... I'm Scandinavian. Besides that, I have no excuses.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Cressida Cowell.
FYI: Kaupang was a town founded in the 780s during the time when the Vikings started to launch their raids against Britain and other parts of Europe until it was abandoned for unknown reasons in the early 10th century. It was situated in Vestfold county in Norway.
Pick Up Your Tears and Run
---Chapter 1: 'I'm always learning things the hardest way'---
Hiccup curled his trembling fingers around a root growing in a crack of the rock. Some of his fingers were broken but he gritted his teeth against the pain and used all his remaining strength to try and pull himself upwards. But he didn't get very far before he felt the other boy leaping on him from behind, panting and grabbing around his waist to yank him back down on the beach. He didn't know how much longer he would be able to stay conscious. But with each foot and fist that connected with his body he felt more removed from the gruesome reality - that his dragon and his people had been captured and Berk had been burned to the ground.
Everything had gone to hell and it was Hiccup's fault for being too bloody weak.
One day earlier.
"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted enthusiastically as she ran through the tall grass towards him.
It was way too early in the morning, if one could even call it morning.
Even the village rooster was still slumbering in his nest. But when Hiccup had asked Astrid if she could come and meet him, Astrid had not hesitated to say yes. Meeting Hiccup was always something Astrid looked forward too, Even at 5:30 in the morning.
Teaching the village how to train and take care of dragons nearly took all of Hiccup's time nowadays. Hiccup usually took the early rounds of feeding the dragons too, it was just something he liked to do. And Astrid and Hiccup usually managed to squeeze in a moment alone before the rest of the Village woke up. Astrid treasured these moments, and if it meant loosing a few hours of sleep, well, she could live with that.
It was mid summer but the temperature had dropped significantly and the wind had brought with it an icy chill. Dark rain clouds were billowing rapidly as they blew speedily across the dark sky. There was definitely a storm brewing on the horizon.
Her grandfather, who claimed he could feel weather changes in his left toe, had already warned them about the storm the night before. For once, his predictions seemed to be true. Not that storms were anything new on the Island of Berk. Besides, the weather wasn't really her main concern as she ran towards the boy standing at the far end of the field waiting for her. The sight of Hiccup always made Astrid smile.
The cold wind picked up a few strands of his copper hair and played with it upon his head and he raised his hand a little bit and waved slightly at the girl storming towards him. The boy bit his lip when he noticed that Astrid did not intend to slow down and he tried to position himself ready for the blow.
"Good morning!" Astrid said cheerily as she bounced into his arms.
Astrid had meant to merely give him a hug. But as usual she had forgotten that Hiccup hadn't quite managed to find his balance yet with his new replacement foot. And they stumbled a little before the impact sent them crashing into the ground.
She heard Hiccup groan underneath her weight and she hurried to scramble off him.
"I'm so sorry!" She said breathless. "I cant believe I did that... Again". She blushed a little and wrinkled her nose and smiled.
"Good morning". Hiccup croaked, his voice was a little hoarse from having had all the air blown out of him. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked at her and the corner of his mouth pulled up into a crooked smile.
It was as if his whole face lit up when he smiled, and his wide, green eyes seemed to glow a little.
His eyes were so pretty. They were big and round and really kind and green like the sea in spring when all the ice has melted. Yep. She had studied his eyes. And the rest of him too.
Hiccup wasn't as tall and broad as the other boys. He had a nice natural built but he was rather thin. He wasn't the strongest or the fastest and he almost always lost when arm wrestling, even to a few of the village girls. Although Astrid wasn't sure if he did that on purpose.
But Hiccup's personality made up for it in buckets. He was kind and loyal and he made her laugh like no one else. It also didn't hurt that he had a really cute face. He always had this gentle expression on his face and he really listened when you talked to him.
Before Astrid had gotten to know Hiccup on the other hand, everything about him had annoyed her.
Well, not really. She had mostly pretended not to like him to try and conceal the annoying truth. Which was that she had always found him kind of irritatingly cute. And she had had a list of reasons to why this was a bad thing:
1. She was not supposed to lose focus during training. Hiccup made her loose focus.
2. She spent a great deal of effort on trying to pretend Hiccup was nothing but air to her.
3. She always worried if someone had noticed her looking at him.
4. She had always been the best out of all the kids and suddenly Hiccup had taken her place. She just couldn't comprehend how he'd suddenly gone from this clumsy, silly boy to a master of dragon training. Astrid trained for hours every day, while Hiccup suddenly seemed to do it with no effort at all.
But of course everything changed when she got to know him. And she had soon realized that she didn't really have any reasons not to like him. And it didn't matter if he found out, because, amazingly: he liked her too.
The thought still made her smile.
Astrid suddenly became aware of the fact that she was staring at Hiccup with a sheepish grin on her face.
She shook her head a little bit and tried to snap out of it quickly. Hiccup had clearly noticed for in the next moment he lifted his hand and waved it in front of her face.
"Hello". He said loudly. "You still in there?"
"Yes". Astrid giggled and crawled over to him on the ground to sit close to him.
"Hi, Fishbone". She said tenderly and brushed some of his soft hair away from his face.
Hiccup had come to accept that his pet name was Fishbone. It may be a bit insulting, but he didn't care when it was AStrid who said it. She could call him anything.
"Hi... Astrid". Hiccup hadn't dared coming up with a pet name for her yet.
Astrid giggled and pushed him on to his back on the moist ground and placed her hands on either side of his face and smiled down at him. "Hi..." She said in a soft tone.
"Hi..." Hiccup repeated and looked up at her with wide eyes. The girl still took his breath away and it was impossible for him to hide it. "You're my girlfriend". He said absentmindedly and blinked slowly up at her.
His eyes were nearly the exact same colour as the green grass around his face. His lips were slightly parted and Astrid could feel his warm breath on her face.
It was making her head swim.
She leaned down to kiss him briefly on the lips.
"Yeah..." She said breathily, "I am". She leaned down and closed her lips around his, once again.
She loved kissing Hiccup. They had been kissing more than talking lately, since they had such little tame together. His lips were just so incredibly soft and he was really good at kissing - even though Astrid suspected she was the first girl he had ever kissed. Not that she had much experience either, it just felt so perfect and natural.
So when after some time, when Astrid noticed that Hiccup was suddenly trying to pull out of the kiss, she hoisted herself up on her arms and looked down into his face with disappointment.
She was leaning her upper body against his. He was kind of bony, but he was still felt warm and comfertable to lay on. She could feel him breathing slowly underneath her.
"What's wrong?" She asked confused.
Hiccup tried to smile, but failed. "I'm sorry".
He brought up his hands to his face and rubbed it roughly.
Astrid looked at him bewildered, "Did I do something wrong?"
"What?..." Hiccup looked at her, "No. By Odin, no". He brought up his hand to put it gently on her head and smiled warmly up at her as he stroked some blond strands of hair away from her face before continuing, "Listen..."
He dragged his words and it was making Astrid nervous. She watched his hand as he picked up her braid that had fallen across her shoulder and played with it absentmindedly between his fingers.
"I'm supposed to tell you something important and then I see you and I... forget". He looked at her for a moment and his mind seemed to drift off.
"What's the thing you have to tell me?" Astrid asked in a strict tone. For some reason she had a strong feeling that she was not going to like whatever he was about to tell her.
Hiccup looked up to the sky above and narrowed his eyebrows. "I'm really hungry." He said, "Did you have breakfast yet?"
"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted and nudged him gently on the shoulder before sitting back on her knees.
"Alright". Hiccup got up with a grunt and sat up in the grass. His gaze was set on the ground and he was brushing his hand gently across the grass. "That's why I brought you out here. To talk to you..."
He didn't get any further before a lightening flared up the sky and they both jumped in shock. And soon after cold rain started drizzling from the sky.
"Great. We should get back". Astrid said and pulled her fur closer around her and looked up to the dark sky.
She jumped up to her feet and held out her hand. Hiccup looked at it for a moment before accepting it and let her help pull him up to his feet. Astrid was about to turn and head for the forest where she knew Toothless was waiting, when she felt Hiccup holding her back.
"We should hurry, Hiccup". The ice cold rain was now hissing down all around them and she had to shout to have her voice heard. "You can tell me at breakfast, we'll get drenched!"
"I'm leaving for Kaupang*". Hiccup shouted back.
Astrid let go of his hand momentarily to look at him.
Hiccup shivered and he hunched over and hugged his thin arms around his scrawny body. "You know the ships that came in last night?" He asked her and pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. His eyebrows were pulled up in his forehead as he nodded towards the sea.
Astrid nodded, of course she had seen the ships. They had come in from Kaupang to trade for weapons, or at least so she had thought. But she had suspected there was another reason. She knew word had spread to other kingdoms about the boy who could tame dragons. She also knew Kaupang had had severe problems with dragon attacks. She took a step back.
"You're not leaving with them, are you?" She asked.
Hiccup looked at her for a moment and opened his mouth as to speak but ended up nodding instead.
"When". She asked quickly.
"I don't know", His teeth were shattering now, which was making it hard for him to get his words out. He wasn't wearing his furry vest that day, and his shirt was already drenched to the skin.
"Before winter sets in, I suppose". He stuttered.
Another lightening lit up the surroundings and thunder rolled just seconds later.
Astrid didn't jump this time, she merely kept her focus on Hiccup, "You're leaving, but you don't know when? How long will you be gone?"
"Thor is really working his hammer on those clouds. We should get back". Hiccup said. "I'm sorry I brought you here so early, I guess I should have listened to your granddad!"
It seemed as if as soon Hiccup had said what he needed to say, all his worries were gone. But they weren't gone, he had merely pushed them over on Astrid. He started to walk, but Astrid stood put and grabbed his drenched shirt to hold him back. She needed to clear things up.
"But, 'before winter' that's not in a while, right? It's still summer". She exclaimed. But she knew that it had been the coldest summer in years and winter was sure to come early.
In the next moment it was as if the sky exploded above their heads and the ground shook. It was definitely time to go and Toothless had already arrived, a thick blanket was hanging from his mouth. They climbed on the huge black dragon, slick from the rain, and Hiccup threw the blanket around the both of them. Although it was wet it gave them warmth.
"If you're going to Kaupang, I'm coming with you!" Astrid shouted into Hiccups ear as they soared over the treetops speedily while thunder blasted all around them. She clung to his narrow waist, not because of the flying fast and reckless bit or the lightening that could electrocute them at any moment. The thought of Hiccup leaving scared her more than anything.
Although his clothes and his hair was dripping wet, Hiccup walked Astrid back to her house first. They were supposed to get changed into dry clothes before meeting up to have breakfast together.
Hiccup was talking about food and Astrid wasn't paying attention.
"You heard me before, right?" Astrid asked on the way to her house and squeezed his hand tight. "I'm going with you!"
Hiccup smiled shortly before looking down.
"Listen, I don't even know what's going on, I just wanted to make sure I told you before you heard from someone else. All I know is that they need urgent help, that people and dragons are dying..." He looked sad. Astrid knew the thought of the dragon wars that were still going on in other places of the world pained Hiccup everyday.
Hiccup cleared his voice before looking up at her with a clever expression on his face "Besides, I wouldn't want to put you in a dangerous situation like that".
"Excuse me?" Astrid gasped.
"You know, it'll be dangerous and stuff. You shouldn't get involved..." Hiccup was cut off mid sentence as Astrid jabbed her finger into his chest.
"I don't think you're the one who should worry about me". She started, but when she noticed that he was grinning widely at her she looked down and smiled and bit her lip.
"Be gentle", He said, rubbing his chest where she had jabbed her finger. "I'm crippled, remember?"
"You know I'm not afraid to hurt you". Astrid said with a smile and narrowed her eyes.
"Yeah..." Hiccup nodded, distracted by her mouth and he leaned forward to kiss her. "So you're not upset?" His voice was muffled from kissing her. "Nmm fh cosh not!" Astrid said, it had meant; 'no, of course not.' She assumed he had understood. She rather kiss than talk.
After a while they were interrupted by someone clearing their voice next to their heads.
Apparently Hiccup noticed long before Astrid did, that the person clearing their voice were no other than Astrid's mum; Tora.
It was as if Hiccup had vanished from Astrid's embrace in thin air. Suddenly he was standing at least a meter away from her with his arm outstretched and patting Astrid awkwardly on the shoulder and laughing sheepishly, "Good job on the... The Dragon... Thing". Astrid looked confused from the empty space in front of her, to Hiccup and to her mum and then back at the empty space again. Her lips still slightly pouted.
"Stop it boy, I saw you kissing my only daughter". Tora said simply, giving the boy a sideways glance with an unidentifiable expression on her face. She either looked really mad or like she was about to laugh.
"Oh, you did? Haha! Ok. I just... I should go". Hiccup was waving with his hand, "Nice to meet you mrs. Hofferson, you have a really talented daughter, bye!" He babbled while turning to leave.
"Talented in what exactly, mr. Horrendous Haddock the third?" Tora asked suspiciously.
Hiccup cringed and froze instantaneously. He turned slowly to face the large woman, but his eyes were set on the ground before her, "Talented in training dragons, mrs. Hofferson..."
"Just... Stop talking". Tora said. She let her gaze glide from the blushing boy to her own daughter, who simply stood there looking half confused, half annoyed that Hiccup had suddenly stopped kissing her.
"Mum!" Astrid exclaimed as her mum pushed open the door behind her and pointed for her to go inside. Hiccup was tip toeing away from the situation, which was really hard with only one working leg and one made out of iron.
"You too young man!" Tora shouted at Hiccup.
Hiccup nodded immediately, "Yes ma'am". And followed Astrid inside obediently with his head hanging low. He knew he was going to get it from the large Viking woman now.
"Hurry up!" Tora said, a glimmer of amusement in her voice, "The whole village is waiting for you two".
Thanks for reading!
If you like it, I'll be happy to continue :)
*Kaupang was a town founded in the 780s during the time when the Vikings started to launch their raids against Britain and other parts of Europe until it was abandoned for unknown reasons in the early 10th century. It was situated in Vestfold county in Norway.