Hello! New story! Yay! Chapter 2! :D Some shout-outs:
Jesusfreak: Thanks! I try to keep all my writing interesting. I also never fail to leave you guys hanging. :) Sorry in advance for that.
Tamara-Isabel: Yep, cliffy. I am "Queen Cliffy", I suppose. :) "Queen Beyond Cliffy." Ha. I like that! :D
AmyMelissa: Nope! This is NOT a one-shot! :) Thank goodness... I'm not too good at writing one shots. I'm learning, but I always want to put a lot of information in my fics, and so one-shots are just never enough for me. :) Thank you! Glad you like where this is going! :)
"HICCUP!" Astrid shrieked in horror as she knelt down beside him, grasping his hand and shaking his shoulder. "Hiccup, can you hear me?"
She didn't get a response, which worried her to no end. Toothless cried out and bounded over to his rider, nudging him, trying to rouse him. Hiccup only moaned painfully in response.
Astrid quickly tried to find out what had made him pass out like that. She gently put one of her arms behind his back and lifted his torso off the ground, supporting his head and back.
"Hiccup?" she tried again, but to no avail.
She suddenly realized what was wrong. On his back were three large gashes, cutting right through his clothing and deep into his skin. Astrid paled when she saw the blood seeping through his clothing.
She also realized that it was her fault this had happened to him. The Changewing's talons must have scraped Hiccup when he shoved her out of the way. It just barely grazed her arm...she couldn't even begin to imagine the pain Hiccup was going through right now.
Toothless roared at Astrid, looking for an answer, but the girl didn't offer one, too worried about the unresponsive, unconscious boy in her arms.
"We have to find somewhere to go," said Astrid. "We can't stay here. The Changewings will be back. They always are. But where do we go?"
Stormfly raced over to Astrid and Hiccup, sniffing them both. Toothless looked out, and Astrid knew he was looking for shelter. Some sort of shelter. ANY sort of shelter.
Astrid wanted to fly straight back to Berk. But the problem was, Toothless' tail fin was desolated, and Astrid couldn't leave Toothless here, and Hiccup would kill her if he found out she had.
"Come on, Toothless," Astrid whispered. "Come on."
Toothless looked around for another minute before turning back to Astrid and letting out a shrill roar. He gestured to the East with his head.
Astrid was so relieved she could have cried. Toothless found shelter. She could only hope that it would be safe.
Astrid whistled to Stormfly, who came over and knelt down in front of her master. Astrid gently picked Hiccup up. He was so lightweight that it wasn't a problem for her. She jumped on Stormfly with the help of Toothless. Then she gripped Hiccup tightly, but not too hard, plainly because she didn't want to cause him any more pain.
"Show us the way, Toothless," said Astrid.
Toothless nodded before turning, walking/running deeper into the forest. Stormfly followed as fast as she dared, Astrid telling her to keep it up. Whenever Hiccup moaned, Astrid felt like someone was squeezing her heart. She kept whispering sorry in his ear, trying to keep him calm, knowing that they couldn't slow down. They had to get to shelter. If they didn't, Hiccup would either a) bleed out from his wounds or b) they would get attacked by Changewings again for taking it slow.
Another ten minutes passed before the shelter Toothless found was in sight. It was a large cave, roughly crafted, darkness engulfing it. It was hidden pretty much from view. The perfect place to hide from Changewings.
Unless the cave was infested with them, though.
Seeing Toothless' facial expressions, Astrid knew that the dragon was fearing the same thing. Toothless moved over to the mouth of the cave and shrieked into it. A purple glow of the Night Fury sound ran through the cave like a scanner (this is first seen in episode "We are Family Part 1). Toothless then turned to Astrid, made eye contact, and then raced into the cave.
He must be trying to tell me it's safe, thought Astrid. She patted Stormfly's head with her free hand, telling the dragon to advance. Stormfly did so, making sure she wasn't followed, and then bolted into the cave.
Hiccup jarred forward and cried out at the sudden movement. Astrid held him tighter, keeping him from thrashing around too much.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, choking on her own sobs. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't make that noise, I can't...I can't stand it."
Truly she couldn't stand it when Hiccup was in pain. She hated it when he was, especially when he was unconscious and unaware of the fact he was blatantly pointing it out.
Astrid dismounted ever so carefully, carrying Hiccup with her as gently and firmly as she dared. The cave was pitch black, but Toothless shot a plasma blast down it. When the plasma hit the end of the cave, it blared with light.
"Thank you, Toothless," said Astrid, although she wasn't even thinking about Toothless right now. Her concern was for Hiccup at this point. All her focus was on him and making sure he was okay.
Astrid gently laid Hiccup down on his back before gently turning him to his front to get a good look at the wounded area. It almost made her want to gag. His back was in an awful state by now. She couldn't even see the main wounds anymore.
"Toothless, get over here!" she shouted to the Night Fury, sounding much more harsh than she had intended to.
Toothless didn't need to be told twice. The urgency in Astrid's voice, and the seriousness of the situation was enough to pull the Night Fury to his rider and Astrid.
Astrid wasted no time in standing up, opening Toothless' saddlebag, and digging through it. Hiccup always kept bandages in the saddlebag, just for times such as now. She found a few rolls of gauze and a water canteen, which she quickly took in her hands and knelt down back beside Hiccup.
She hated herself for what she had to do, knowing how much it would hurt him, but also knowing that she needed to do it for him. She opened the water canteen and then poured some of it over his back.
Hiccup moaned and cried out at different times, his hands gripping the ground harshly, his eyes squeezed tight, tears escaping at some points. Astrid wanted nothing more than to just get him home and taken to a healer, but she couldn't do that. Not now, anyway.
After cleaning his back as much as she had to, she turned him over, gently grasping him under his arms and keeping him in an upright position with one arm while she wrapped the bandages clumsily around his entire lower chest and torso.
After she finished with that, she didn't want to let go of him. She didn't want to ever see a Changewing again. She hugged her friend tightly, hoping she didn't hurt him more, because she really didn't want to let go.
Toothless cooed worriedly at her. Astrid raised her head and looked to the dragon, seeing Stormfly standing right beside him.
"I'm scared," Astrid said. Wait. Did she really just say that? Astrid Hofferson? Scared? Was that even possible? Yes, it was. Astrid was terrified.
Astrid whistled to Stormfly. The Nadder sauntered over, kneeling before her rider. Astrid used one hand to open the saddlebag and pull out three blankets she kept with her for reasons such as this.
She spread one out as best as she could using only one arm, and then gently picked Hiccup up again, laying him on top of it, on his back. He still made no movement, the only sound he made being constant moans and cries.
Astrid took one of the other blankets and draped it over Hiccup, trying to keep him warm in the freezing cold cave. The clouds had been dark and full of rain when they were flying, and now with the sudden drop in temperature, the rain could have easily been turned to snow.
Astrid stood up, putting the extra blanket to the side, and then walked around the cave, searching for clumps of sticks and wood she could use to make a fire. After collecting quite a bit, she assembled a small pile just a few feet left of Hiccup.
"Stormfly, could you-?" Astrid started. She didn't even need to finish her question before her dragon lept into action. She shot a small, tiny blast of fire towards the stick pile, and the wood instantly blazed with fire, giving both light and heat to the cave.
"Thank you, Stormfly," said Astrid. She moved back over and sat down next to Hiccup, wanting to be there to comfort him as soon as he woke up. She knew he would be in pain something awful, and she wanted to help him through it.
Thinking of pain suddenly made her remember her arm. She looked at it, seeing the blood still oozing from it, but it wasn't anything that would be deadly. She took up a small piece of extra gauze and wrapped it around her arm, using as absolutely little she could, knowing she would need more when she had to change Hiccup's bandages later on.
Astrid looked at Hiccup. The color was still drained from his face, and he looked sick. He was shivering, despite her pathetic attempts to keep him warm. Astrid couldn't stop the tears from falling as she looked at him, wishing there was more she could do for him, but there wasn't. Nothing more she could do to help him. She could only hope his injuries weren't as bad as they looked.
Because if they were, Astrid had an even bigger problem on her hands.