The birds were lively, the wind a golden rush of careful caresses; a rare day in Berk, a day of spring. Hiccup trundled through the forest, pushing branches from his brow with his forearm, bow slung over his shoulder. He attempted stealth, but with his metal leg and his clumsiness, furtiveness was far from his forte. Today he was Toothless' apprentice, following the sleek black dragon into the forest. The snow was thick and white, crunching and crushing beneath Hiccup's footsteps as he approached a clearing in the brambles and underbrush, eyeing it closely and from a reasonable distance. Down a little stream of muddy water, the snow on the banks flattened by rabbits, were a couple of quail. Hiccup could see them far off, his vision keen and his breath coming in slow, thick pants. Oak seedlings were peeking up out of the winter white, their first bark new and naked in the crisp, cold morning air. Seemingly incandescent dew was suspended, miraculously unfrozen, from spider webs that laced the treetops like silk and casted a shimmer on the birds' backs.
Toothless was silent in the distance, the morning sun peeking through the budding treetops in golden columns. Hiccup squatted, calm and still, and drew his bow. Though his frame was far from the masculine build of his father, he had grown from his fifteen year old body and into a new one, thin but sleek and lithe. Sinuous muscle slithered beneath his skin, calculated and cautious, as he drew back his hand, the rough string of the bow chafing against the callouses on his fingers. His eyes narrowed, watching the bobbing heads of the birds as they dipped into the muddy water for a drink. He didn't think, didn't breathe, tongue darting out like the head of a snake to wet his cold lips. The muscles of his back pulled into tight, lean curves up his spine, the power of his frame focused in his hands.
He released the string, the twang of it the only sound besides the powerful whistling of the arrow. It sliced through the air, cleaving it perfectly, piercing the breast of one quail and going on to kill the other. It was split second spent, blood dotting the crisp white snow when it departed. Hiccup's eyes widened, smile stretching his chapped pink lips, smile crooked and white. He let out a nervous chuckle, racing forward over brambles and snow to his prize. Two birds with one stone, indeed.
Hiccup gathered up his prey; both birds were clean and meaty enough to supply a good dinner, he thought, retrieving his arrow from the ground. The two birds were warm and full in his hands, still vivid with the quiet power of life when he placed them carefully into his satchel, murmuring quiet thanks to the forest. A nasty business it was, killing the birds, but he got used to it. He never killed more than he needed, but even with the farming in the village, he still had to hunt to keep his father fed. After all, a shortage of food was the last thing he wanted, especially since he now had summer at his disposal to spend looking for migrating birds and bucks nearby to store for the nest winter. The blood on the ground was brilliant and shone under the sun, specks of red and torn snow where his arrow had marred its pristine surface. Hiccup inhaled deeply the pure air of the forest, the smell of fresh snow and rotting leaves. Everything stung a little, from the sharpness of the sunlight to the cold air in his mouth and nose, fresh and new in the morning. It was rare to have days so warm, Hiccup knew, when saplings could reach up into the sky and bulbs of forgotten plants could come up in sunny places where the snow was thin.
Hiccup whistled, fingers in his mouth, as he turned around. From somewhere, he heard Toothless howl back at him, scaring up a murder of crows nearby. Hiccup licked his lips, his face chilled and stinging, and moved onward. He'd have to get back before long if he was going to get to take a ride on Toothless in the evening. As much as he'd like to be on the dragon's back all the time, the forest was too dense for the dragon to fly through, and Hiccup wasn't allowed to go out and fool around when there was work to be done at home. He still had a few hours of work owed to Gobber, being a smith and all.
As Hiccup wound his way back through the woods, he came upon a pond. It was a sunken area of the forest, tree limbs bowing down into it, snow preserved on its surface in a flat, perfect white blanket, save for the rabbit tracks that peppered it in little dots. Hiccup smiled when he saw it; this was a usual haunt for him as a child, where he'd go to play and ice skate. Hiccup thought about it for a moment, wondering if he'd be missed if he were gone for a few extra minutes.
"Ah, old Jokul, lets hope you've done a good job on this." Hiccup said, breathing out quietly, his breath fanning out in front of him in ribbons of white mist. He edged down to the pond, like he was visiting and old friend, his metal foot all but an extension of his body and as natural to his movement as the leg that had a foot on the end. Hiccup had always been a practical thinker, but even he was not always spared moments of sentimentality such as this. When he reached the bank of the pond he knelt, pushing his naked, chilled hand into the snow and clearing it away. Frozen water plants muddied the surface, preserved snail shells, tiny and white, lurking under the surface. Still, the ice seemed to shine with mazy patterns of frost that the snow would catch on. Hiccup smiled and ran his hand over them, feeling the prickling texture as it caught the grooves of his fingerprint. It was fragile, and when he drew his hand back he had melted it into nothing.
He was about to stand and leave when he felt himself suddenly shoved to the ground. Cold, wet, and angry, his face met with the ice of the pond in a loud, shattering smack. Hiccup groaned and wondered why this sort of thing always happened to him, particularly in times when he was trying to enjoy himself. At least Astrid wasn't around to see it, she'd have a field day. He swore he heard laughter from somewhere, warped and contorted like an echo. Hiccup stood bolt upright, snow falling down the back of his top.
"Who threw that?!" he barked out into the still forest, which quite predictably offered no condolences to speak of. His eyebrows drew together and he snorted angrily, the scene of perfect morning ruined by some juvenile prankster. Then he heard that quiet giggling again, always warped and bubbling, metallic like it was just a little too far away, half in his world and half out. "What is that?" Hiccup muttered to himself, looking around with his keen eyes to find naught but the forest staring back at him.
He heard the thundering of Toothless's wings and the drumming of his feet as the dragon geared in across the pond from him. He turned to look at Toothless, who kicked up snow wherever he went and seemed wary of the ice. The dragon's sleek black body was easy to see in the snow, despite how well he camouflaged in the night, stark against it like a swatch of black paint on an empty canvas. "Did I scare you?" Hiccup murmured, standing up and brushing the snow off of the back of his neck. The sun was rising higher in the sky, it was almost mealtime for the great dragon. "C'mon, just some dumb prankster. Probably Ruffnut and Tuffnut again." Hiccup grunted indignantly, adjusting his back and clothes so that he looked less disheveled.
"Dumb prankster? I'm an artist, you lousy goon!" that warped voice, distant and swirling, taunted back to him.
Hiccup's head snapped around, eyes narrowing into slits. He surveyed the forest, which was once again silent. That voice was not earthly; Hiccup could suspend his disbelief, and quickly decided that normal people didn't sound like that. A troll, perhaps, or a sprite of some kind; though he had never met oen in person, the village wise woman had warned him of them at every opportunity.
"I heard that. . . get out here, before I poke holes in you!" Hiccup shouted, drawing his bow and cocking it back, the finely tuned instrument like a branching extension of his arm. His voice seemed to fall on deaf ears, the only sound being the soft chatter of birds and Toothless's breath coming out in hard, thick breaths. Hiccup cursed himself for his vantage point, shooting up from the lake; always a disservice to the likelyhood that he would see his target before his taget could attack him. Everything seemed to still into stagnation, the silence so tense that Hiccup felt aware of every tendon in his arm, every breath he drew through clenched jaws that chilled and dried his teeth. His eyes darted over the gaps between the trees, which offered no solace, save for a disappearing rabbit and the swaying of the brush in the breeze.
Slowly, Hiccup turned to check on Toothless, who had been strangely quiet for being in such a tense situation; usually the dragon was quick to jump to attention and cause a ruckus. He found Toothless staring intensely at the place above him, just a few feet in the air atop his head.
"What are you looking a-" Hiccup stopped talking, split second nerves taking over. As quick as the thought occurred, it triggered several others. He snapped his gaze directly upward, pointing his arrow straight into the air. What he saw was not the sky, confusing to his mind for only a second before it was in his eyes. He spluttered as a lump of snow was dropped on his face like a rock, stinging his nose as he spat, finding it to be tainted with twigs and leaves.
"Alright, alright, that's enough!" Hiccup shouted, stomping and throwing his bow angrily on the ground. His teeth gritted together as he heard that strange cackling become more solid, human almost. Peals of metallic laughter, one after the other, flying around him, locationless and distorted. It was moving so fast around him, he could barely keep up with it, spinning to find its source. "Get out here, I can hear you, you stupid oaf!" he shouted weakly. He wasn't sure at all what he was dealing with, not a dragon and certainly not a mischievous pair of twins. He picked his bow up and drew it back again, pointing it around and cursing himself for being so hopelessly open to assault. This would be easier if his target didn't know where he was; Hiccup may not have been good at being quiet, but he was such a good shot that he could assume it from a distance that would render his shortcomings obsolete.
"Wait, did you just say...?" Hiccup heard the voice as it circled him. Flashes in the corner of his eye, that was all. Pieces of something pale, flitting around him like a leaf. Hiccup couldn't get a draw on it, it was far too fast. Toothless' pupils narrowed into slits as the dragon tensed back onto his haunches, nostrils flaring out hot breaths into the cold air. Hiccup settled, looking at Toothless, who stared right back at him, staring into the space just beyond Hiccup's shoulder.
"You...did you just say you can hear me?" Hiccup heard it, directly behind him, so close and so soft that it made every hair on his body feel like it was standing on end. It was like he could feel it on his shoulder, slithering up his spine, a presence so unbearably near that it was almost touching him. Hiccup tried to do a complete turn and catch whatever was taunting him, but his metal foot landed on the ice, where it slid out from under him in one swift misstep. With a yelp he fell backwards onto the ice, the back of his head hitting it with a splitting crack. Pain raced down his spine, his vision going white for a second, barely registering the low, ominous crack of the ice. His bow clattered out onto the pond, his ears ringing, something hot trickling down the back of his head. He grunted and closed his eyes, rolling over and touching the back of his head. His hand came away wet and hot, and when he opened his eyes it was blood that tainted his fingertips.
He heard Toothless make a noise and someone talking, but the ringing hadn't yet subsided, still a clamoring echo drumming against the inside of his skull. Curse his idiotic clumsiness, at such a vital moment it had reared its ugly head. Then he felt hands on his body, pulling him away as water began to leak between the cracks in the ice, briefly wetting the back of his fur coat and some of his hair. He snarled, but could manage little more, disoriented and bleeding. He could taste metal and salt in his mouth; blood, he must have bitten his tongue. "Get off me!" He tried to shout, but it only hurt his head to make noise. He scrambled with his hands but the ice was slick, and soon he found himself being dragged up the bank, cold hands under his arms.
"You, can you hear me?" Suddenly someone was jostling him. That voice, gravelly yet gentle, was the voice of the teasing stranger.
"Yes, I can, stop shoving me you cretin!" Hiccup snarled, yelping as he was picked up and nearly thrown against a tree. Suddenly there were hands all over him, touching his chest, his face, carding through his hair.
"Oh, oh my. . . this has never happened before, I never thought-you can hear me? I can touch you, you feel so. . ." Hiccup opened his eyes. For a moment everything was blurry and overly vibrant, but after a few hard blinks he could see with moderate success. Toothless circled nervously in the background, head low and pupils narrow. Before him was a boy, about his age, with snow-white hair and eyes like the purest swatch of blue he'd ever seen. He was pale, dotted with faint freckles, his lips purplish blue, everything about his face overly white and sharp, like a frozen corpse. Hiccup stared, unable to understand what he was seeing. Breath heaved through the excited creature, whose glassy eyes threatened to overflow with lustrous tears. The cold hands examining him continued their quest, attention tangential, pushing against Hiccup's chest as if expecting to fall through it. The boy was young and pretty, like he didn't belong in Berk, clothed in wears not sold in any shop in Hiccup's village; definitely foreign.
"Why are you touching me so much..." Hiccup muttered, overwhelmed, the bark of the tree digging into his head wound. Blue eyes met his and rendered Hiccup speechless, crushed under the weight of the moment, of how emotional this creature was, lips and eyelashes trembling, the crease that knitted between his eyebrows, the hesitant, broken smile. His eyelashes were wet and quivering, breath shaky and unsteady, some mounting pressure behind his eyes that Hiccup wasn't ready for, couldn't counter from a stranger. Hiccup tried to scuttle away, mashing down the snow where he scrambled, pushing himself further up against the tree, only to have the nymph follow him, hands rubbing up and down his chest, his arms, his neck. Those hands were chilled, unlike human hands, like they were made of marble that was somehow malleable.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, I thought I was going to live like this forever, until I died. . . nobody was going to. . . thank you, thank you. . ." The creature leaned in suddenly, placing a cold, tight and tremulous kiss to the corner of Hiccup's mouth, arms snaking around Hiccup like iron bars. Hiccup squirmed, but only managed to get snow up the back of his shirt and slide down the tree. He felt cold droplets on his neck as the spirit buried his head into the lily crook of it, the arch seeming to be a perfect fit for his face, simply clicking into place. Hiccup could feel a cold nose pressed to his sensitive skin, lips moving, breath fanning out in cold puffs that sent shivers down his spine.
"You...get off of me!" Hiccup began to struggle in earnest, head throbbing, vision going in and out as he thrashed weakly. Behind the nymph, Toothless gnashed his jaws and moved his tail back and forth, not sure what to do with himself. Hiccup tried to reach his bow, but when he looked for it he saw it sinking into the cracks in the ice on the pond. Too far away and unable to save it, he groaned loudly; at least the two quail were still in his bag. Hiccup tried to get a good grip on something to wedge himself out from under the white haired sprite, but snow melted under his touch as he worked himself up, nose and fingertips cherry red and punctuated with dark freckles.
"Oh, yes, of course, sir, I'm..." The creature drew back, releasing his embrace but keeping his hands in place, icy blue eyes wide and apprehensive. Slowly he leaned in, hand sliding up chest and neck until it was touching Hiccup's head. When he drew his hand back there was blood on his pale fingertips, hot and mean against his spider-like hand. "I did that..." The spirit muttered, looking back at Hiccup, then to his hand, then back to Hiccup. The moment was tense, where Hiccup wasn't sure if he was being assaulted or just pestered by some emotionally damaged spirit. His world was spinning; so many strange things had just happened, and his near concussion wasn't helping him think things through. Hiccup opened his mouth to snap back at the lunatic, but the creature put a hand over his mouth and looked at him curiously. "Quiet, now. Just let me look at you." Hiccup felt nervous and atingle when the spirit began to scrutinize him in honesty, eyes traveling up and down Hiccup's body. He felt a little insecure, being examined so closely, even in a situation where he thought he might be in danger. The spirit cracked a grin and caught Hiccup's nervous gaze, leaning forward and breathing heavily. "You're a real specimen, you know it? C'mon, I'll help you, you clumsy oaf." The creature wrapped his arms around Hiccup's shoulders and tried to lift him, but to no avail.
"Vikings aren't a lightweight people." Hiccup grunted in response, surrendering himself to the strangeness of the situation. He knew that he could die out here in the forest with just a minor injury like this. He was miles from home and hypothermia could set in easily if he let himself stop moving, which was tempting as his vision flickered in and out and his thoughts swam. Toothless came closer and nipped nervously at the spirit's back, but failed to get his attention.
"Either that or you're just a big, meaty lug. Scratch that, you're far to twiggy and pitiful for that." The creature laughed at him, and tried again, this time with his hands under Hiccup's arms. He got closer, managing to pull Hiccup up until the boy could at least partially steady himself on his own feet. The light coming down from the treetops seemed to swell and undulated in Hiccup's eyes as he clung to the white haired boy, face pressed to a cold, heaving chest.
"My bow, I need..." Hiccup grunted, trying to steady himself, his false leg creaking with strain. The spirit ignored him and tried to shove him upward to get a better grip. "Hey, are you listening? I.." Hiccup hit the spirit's back. "..am..." He hit it again, this time with an open palm. "...a brave, valiant...urgh..viking..." Hiccup almost puked down the boy's back; he was sure the gesture would go unappreciated. He was going to be late and not get his chores done, not be able to work for Gobber, and certainly be sentenced to days of bedrest. He groaned at the prospect; though Hiccup was benign and cautious by the standards of the people of Berk, he was also not one to be stuck in bed for days.
"More like a brave, valiant numbskull who nose dived into the ice like a total goon." the boy chortled, lifting Hiccup unceremoniously and leaning back accommodate the weight. Hiccup found that he was a good two inches taller than the sprite, and added that to his checklist of people he had grown to be taller than. Hicucp may have been twiggy, but he was also his father's son.
"Just, put me on Toothless..." Hiccup urged. The dragon whined and licked at Hiccup's bloodied hand, the scratchy surface of the dragon's tongue making noise on his coarse palm.
"You may be a mighty dragon trainer, but you're also the first person who has ever seen me. I'll give you a ride personally!" Hiccup could practically hear the condescending smirk curling up the edges of the creature's voice. Hiccup's toes curled and his hair stood on end, nerves buzzing. He dug his fingers into the sprite's shoulders, the flesh giving to his touch despite appearing to be struck by rigor mortis, his clothes worn thin from an apparently frequent history of use. He smelled of spiced wood and fresh pond water, something old and familiar in the way that fireplaces and favorite toys were. Hiccup grunted and thought about how much he'd like to be at home, working with Gobber, talking to his Dad, spending time with Astrid; anything but getting a concussion and being raced home by some spirit boy. Perhaps his head trauma had blessed him with a veil of indifference, because Hiccup couldn't muster much caring about the seemingly ethereal young man or his motives.
"And how, pray tell, will you be doing that, ghost boy?" Hiccup tried to snap but his voice cracked when his head throbbed in response to his temper. His voice seemed to send sharp vibrations up his jaw and into his skull, where they bounced around until they escaped through his watering eyes. A few days bed rest, indeed, and he still had to feed toothless at the least. Even though friendliness towards dragons was generally practiced, feeding was a thing that humans didn't usually do because of how territorial dragons could get about food. Nobody could really feed Toothless except Hiccup, and it was only because Toothless trusted him; otherwise, the dragon could easily snap and arm out of a socket, tear it off, and swallow it whole. Fortunately, Stoick seemed to understand that animal's territorial nature more than anything, and just let Hiccup do as he pleased.
"We're going to fly!" the creature sang, hooking his hands into Hiccup's belt and pulling him up so their chests pressed together. Hiccup tried to get steady footing, but his vision was swimming with unnecessary vehemence, and every time he tried to push himself upright the world would turn and he'd fall back into the creature's arms. He grunted and tried to get a better grip on the being. "Quit struggling, I'll drop you." the pale boy snapped; Hiccup wasn't really keen on the idea of flying or the idea of vomiting down this boy's back, two things which might go hand in hand. "Stop fussing, we'll be good friends soon enough." the puerile pixie snorted, sarcasm in his voice like a hot poker.
"I can already feel the warm, tingly butterflies of disdain." Hiccup growled. "Yes, I have a minor concussion, please be sure to pick me up and shake my neck around vigorously." he growled quietly. He was growing increasingly frustrated with not being able to stand and the stranger's general attitude. Also, he wasn't so quick to forget that this stranger was the reason for his injury in the first place, though he thought better than to bring it up when the boy could easily leave him to die in the woods.
"Oh, you're gonna love this!" Hiccup had tha distinct impression that he was not, in fact, going to love this. The spirit reared back, grabbed Hiccup carefully, and looked skyward. Behind him, Toothless eyed the whole situation with trepidation. Hiccup gripped his bag to his side, not wanting to lose his prize, though he longed for his bow which had long since sunk into the depths of the little pond and was probably beyond his capacity of retrieval. He only had a second to think about it before he saw the spirit's bare feet, like little blue paws in the snow, leave the ground, kicking up white and suddenly pushing everything far away, pistoning forward so that his vision did not have time to keep up with physical sensation.
There was a sudden lurching behind Hiccup's naval, his ears first perceiving a cry from toothless and then the sound of his environment screaming by him. Everything seemed to jolt to a start, the light filtering down between the treetops consuming his vision, bolts of white piercing his brain like little shards of rebounding hail. The wind was so sharp and cold on his face that his chapped lip split, blood running down his chin in a fount pressed by the stinging spring air. He could hear birds shrieking and cawing and flapping their wings to get out of the way, his bag jerking around in the wind. It was only a few seconds before they cleared the treetops and the sun blinded Hiccup in a bolt down his core. He felt the contents of his stomach heave upward, sick bile filling his mouth for only a second before he leaned away from the spirit boy and vomited. He barely heard Jack shouting in surprise or the sound of Toothless roaring behind them. He saw black worms eating at the edges of his vision, something slimy and far away, little insects crawling across his eyes, limbs melting, mouth full of cotton, ears full of wasps.
Hiccup lost consciousness in midair.
First attempt at writing: complete.
I'm just gonna keep wasting time in this fashion until spring break is over sjkdknfa... man, I should be doing productive things, but here I am in stead. Whoops. Mother would be so proud.
Anyway I don't think anyone actually reads these, but if you do, I'd like to apologize for my trainwreck writing. It seems I can't hold up a singular train of thought for more than five minutes, and this felt like it was awfully long for being one scene. Jeez.
