(A/N You've done the impossible… You've made me loathe someone's entire. Congratulations.
No need for the venom. Regardless of your feelings, I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for my own personal agenda-
Just get out of my head.
+Fondness-
It was past midnight and there was a hunter out. The hunter didn't hunt for sport, he hunted for an outlet to his ever-growing fury.
The spear screwed to the left and the victim roared in pain. The victor wrenched the screw out of his victim's chest and walked away to leave the bear to die.
"That's another one. You're getting soft, Toothless." Hiccup rested the spear on his shoulder.
The Night Fury didn't respond, he just came out of the darkness, dragging a family of deer. He dropped them in front of Hiccup and waited. No trace of smirking, boasting, or superiority on the dragon's face. Like his rider, Toothless abandoned his chipper personality and now wore a scowl on his face. Now forever mute.
"Seems we're tied." Hiccup motioned for Toothless to follow him. "And yet, I'm still pissed off." Hiccup kept walking until he exited the forest and found himself on a cliff. A cliff overseeing the village of Berk. He had never left Berk, it was his home after all. Besides, Hiccup had found a loophole in the promise he gave to his father. A promise where Hiccup could watch over Berk, and most importantly, take his anger out on whatever unlucky prey crossed his path. "Toothless, get ready for round forty-seven…" Hiccup turned away from the damned village and started back for the forest.
Toothless lunged into the forest as Hiccup was done announcing the round. A shrill scream but died down when Toothless growled.
"No fair, you got a head start." Hiccup accused with a monotone voice. Then he perked up and spun around to throw his spear into a bush. Hiccup straightened himself and checked to see what he killed. Another bear. Hiccup kicked it to turn it over and confirmed that it was a female bear. The ex-chief sighed and yanked his spear out of the corpse. He was about to find another target, but then whimpering came from his right. Two small cubs came out and slowly stepped towards their deceased mother. One of them looked down at it's mother and then sent a resenting glare at Hiccup. The cub growled and pounced onto Hiccup's metal leg, pointlessly biting at it.
A memory flashed through Hiccup's mind as he stared down at the orphaned cubs. Vehemence contorted onto Hiccup's face as he plucked the bear cub off of his prosthetic and enveloped it's head with his hand. The seventeen month-old anger that's been boiling in Hiccup started clenching his full hand. Damn that Council straight down to Hel Herself.
CRACK!
+Fondness-
"Why don't we go for a flight? For old time's sake?" Ruffnut tried. She, along with Fishlegs and Tuffnut, was trying to get Astrid to move from her bed.
"No thanks, Ruff." Astrid was wrapped in her blankets, her back facing the three.
Fishlegs set the plate he brought over on her nightstand. "Have you had lunch yet, Astrid?"
"I'm not hungry, Fishlegs." Astrid yawned and tried to keep her eyes open. If they even shut once, she knew she would start screaming.
"Then what do you want to do, Astrid?" Tuffnut asked bluntly. He received glares from his siblings.
For a full minute, there was nothing but silence.
"Astrid? He didn't mean that-"
Said shield maiden began to stir from her laid down position. With her back still her friends, Astrid stretched and sat up straight. She turned and saw her friends for the first time in three weeks. "I don't know." The volume of her voice had risen since her previous soft tone she's been using these past weeks. "What do you have in mind?" Her voice now chipper.
Tuffnut recovered from Astrid's sudden movement and stared at Astrid with annoyance. "Weren't you listening- Ah!" Tuffnut finally got hit for insensitiveness.
"Sorry!" Astrid's mood changed to frightened, on the verge of tears. The only thing she recalled was getting freaked out of her mind last night by the shadow. Now she wanted nothing else but to stay awake and be surrounded by people with different personalities than her own nerve-racking self. Astrid recoiled from Tuffnut's harsh voice and quickly apologized before she made them all leave her, alone.
Ruffnut was glad that Astrid was moving again but at the same time she was furious that her brother was about to botch it all up. "Ignore him." Ruffnut instantly let go of the edge in her voice when Astrid winced again. Then she stepped up and grabbed the plate Fishlegs brought. "How about lunch?" Ruffnut asked and plopped herself onto Astrid's bed. Although she reminded herself to be cautious with Astrid, she didn't want to seem to faux when acting around her. She had to be rude, but also careful with everything she did from now on.
Astrid checked Ruffnut out. When she noticed that Ruffnut was all smiles, Astrid untangled herself from her covers and inched closer. "W-what is it?" She asked while slightly leaning over.
Ruffnut genuinely smiled. "Today we have…" She took off the cloth covering. "Sausage links, bread, and a wedge of cheese." Ruffnut announced and passed the plate to Astrid.
"You had me at sausage links." Astrid grabbed the plate. Then her brow furrowed.
"What's wrong?" Tuffnut stepped up but he was pushed aside by Fishlegs when Astrid backed away some.
"You need a fork, right?" Fishlegs asked.
Astrid nodded.
"Alright, coming right up." Fishlegs sent a glance to Tuffnut.
Tuffnut grumbled and left the room to get the utensil. When he came back, he gave it to Fishlegs. Tuffnut knew that he wouldn't be allowed near Astrid until she relaxes more.
"Here." Fishlegs gently handed her the fork.
"Thank you." Astrid grabbed it and was about to start eating, but something stopped her. She peered back up at Fishlegs' towering figure and tilted her head. Confused as to why he was towering over her.
Ruffnut came to the rescue and coughed to get her husband's attention. "Hey Fishy?"
"Yes?" The mountain of a man turned his attention to Ruffnut.
"Why don't you sit down? You're kind of overshadowing Astrid." Ruffnut gave him a cute smile, a small warning edge in her voice.
"Right. Sorry, Astrid." Fishleg quickly apologized and sat himself down on the floor.
"S'kay." Astrid began eating.
"You want anything to drink?" Tuffnut offered. He was right next to door, he thought he might as well fetch things for Astrid, seeing as though he wasn't allowed five feet from her. And because he thought the whole visit to Astrid's was awkward.
"What's there to drink?" Astrid tried breaking apart her bread but had trouble with it. She hadn't eaten in as much as she should've during the last few weeks and it was showing in her lack of strength in everyday tasks. Fortunately, Ruffnut held her hand out to offer to tear the bread for her.
"How am I supposed to know-" Tuffnut cut himself off when both Fishlegs and Ruffnut looked like they were going to kill him where he stood. "I mean…" Tuffnut sighed and deflated into himself. "Lemme go check…" He left to go downstairs again.
"Here." Ruffnut changed her scowl to a smile and gave Astrid her bread back.
"Thanks." Astrid laid them down and started making a sandwich.
Everything was quiet except for some rummaging downstairs as Astrid started eating her sandwich.
"Alright, here ya go." Tuffnut got back from getting Astrid's drink. While he was downstairs, Tuffnut forgot about keeping his distance and walked right up to her. He only froze when his hand with Astrid's drink was outstretched in front her. Tuffnut forgot how to breathe as he stood there, waiting to see if Astrid would scream at the top of her lungs and the whole village would amass at her house.
Astrid simply took the cup from him and took a sip. "Thanks, Tuffy."
Once Tuffnut composed himself, he didn't glare at Astrid for the nickname. Instead he just breathed a sigh of relief and immediately backed up.
Ruffnut relaxed and was about to start a conversation with Astrid, but then a scent reached her nose. Something sweet. Mead? "Mead?!" Ruffnut shouted at Tuffnut, temporarily forgetting that Astrid was right next to her. She slapped both hands over her mouth and gave Astrid a sideways glance to see if she flinched or not.
Astrid's eyes were lidded and she blinked a few times. Then she yawned and looked over to Ruffnut. "I don't remember giving you permission to be on my bed, Ruff." Her voice reverted back to what it used to be before Hiccup left. Her face went back to the usual cocky smirk, and Astrid laid down and propped on her elbow. "Well? Get the hell off my bed!" Astrid laughed stuck her foot out to kick Ruffnut off her bed.
Ruffnut was stunned but then she recovered as Fishlegs caught her before she hit the floor. "Excuse you! I brought you lunch, ya ungrateful dumb-ass!" Ruffnut retorted. Then she blinked and started to apologize.
"Psh! What the hell do you want, a cookie?" Astrid snorted and finished off her sandwich.
Ruffnut's brow twitched in annoyance but she restrained herself. She straightened herself on Fishlegs' lap and slightly frowned at Astrid. "Yeah, you're welcome." Ruffnut rolled her eyes to get back to her acting. She still didn't know how stable Astrid was. She thought Astrid would snap at any given moment.
"Astrid, are you feeling okay?" Fishlegs tried confirming after sharing a perplexed look with Tuffnut.
Astrid put her knee up and rested her other leg on it. Then she took another swill of her mead. "Why are you asking?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Hmm." Fishlegs ignored Astrid's attitude and started to stand up, bringing Ruffnut with him. "Trust me, Ruff." Fishlegs whispered and nodded at Tuffnut to follow his lead. "Excuse us, we're just going to go downstairs for a second."
"Put this plate in the sink, would ya? You are my guests after all." Astrid stood up from and started making her bed.
The trio shuffled out of the room and gradually went downstairs as they all listened to see if Astrid would start yelling. No screaming. Once they made it downstairs, Fishlegs confirmed his theory.
"Just as I thought. Mead seems to relax her nerves and she's momentarily, uh, better." Fishlegs was stroking his chin as he stated this.
"Better? So all she has to do is drink- Ow!" Tuffnut was interrupted by Ruffnut punching his arm. "What the hell?" He asked, rubbing his arm.
"What were you thinking? Mead, really?" Ruffnut could only hold in Tuffnut's bad decision and Astrid kicking her off the bed for so long.
"Hey! It worked!" Tuffnut said in his defense before Ruffnut started to come at him again. "Astrid is back to normal. This is something we've tried to do for weeks now!"
Fishlegs stepped in between the twins. "Tuffnut's right. But it's not that simple."
Ruffnut pinched the bridge of her nose. Anything good that happened in this cursed village always had a catch. "What's wrong, Fishlegs?"
"The mead. We can't just rely on it to keep Astrid in her stable state of mind. There's too many risks as there is promising results."
"Like what?" Tuffnut inquired.
"For one, Astrid has never drunken mead before in her life. The one sip she just took is proof that she has a low tolerance for it. If we give her too much… I don't know, I'm not a Healer but I'm guessing it wouldn't be good." Fishlegs rationalized for the skeptical two.
"Damn it." Tuffnut sighed. Any hope he had that Astrid could take lead of the Village just got dashed by Fishlegs.
Ruffnut shook her head and stared back at Fishlegs. "What's the good news?"
Fishlegs face grew stoic. "Nothing. Even if Astrid is back, we can't just let her take charge of the Village. If we do that, I'm 110% sure that someone would ask her about when Hiccup will come back. Then, regardless of the mead, Astrid would crack and we would be stuck right back where we are today. I think for now, it's best she doesn't go outside until we actually fix her psychologically."
"Then what do we do now?" Ruffnut was irritated of the backfires.
"We go flying."
Ruffnut, Fishlegs, and Tuffnut turned to see that Astrid was at the foot of the stairs.
"Shit." Fishlegs muttered under his breath. His careful planning straight out the window.
+Fondness-
"All in favor for Fishlegs Ingerman?"
No's sounded around the round table.
"All in favor for Tuffnut Thorston?"
A series of declines sounded around the Council's room.
"All in favor for Snotlout Jorgenson?"
"Aye."
"Aye."
"No."
"No."
"No."
"That is all the candidates for the next chief. There are no others that are eligible for the chair."
"Gentlemen, I think we would need to assess the qualities of each candidate to actually find a suitable replacement."
Silence. No objections heard.
"Anonymous agrees with no objection."
"Fishlegs Ingerman is now the most intellectual candidate for Chief. His strategies and acute awareness should prove valuable for Berk. His planning could intercept and capture the murderer that has been plaguing this Village since Chief Hiccup has left us."
"Carry on."
"Tuffnut Thorston is an light agile fighter and has the quickest reflexes of the three. He is also a gifted archer and stealth expert. This could prove valuable to Berk's murderer case in which he can attack during the murderer's favorable midnight schedule."
"Next."
"Snotlout Jorgenson is a heavy-weight fighter. Slow movements but powerful deliveries. He has neither gifted stealth or intelligence. He is also the last of the known Haddock lineage."
"What say you, Councilmen?"
"We are not able to confirm a possible candidate at this time. All three of the men are brilliant in their own rank but Hiccup had all their qualities as one man. Until the next meeting."
+Fondness-
After an hour of trying to keep up with Astrid and her dragon, the group decided to call it a day for dinner at the Mead Hall. Fishlegs broke away from the group to get the drinks while they got a table
"You guys suck, you know that right?" Astrid sat down on the bench, not in the least bit tired from the flight.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Tuffnut stumbled and sat down. His head crashed down onto the table.
"Aw, sore loser?" Astrid teased.
"Sore winner?" Tuffnut mumbled, not lifting his head up.
"Actually, I'm feeling awesome." Something caught Astrid's eye and she stood up.
Ruffnut perked up and followed Astrid with her eyes in alert. It turned out that Astrid just got up to help Fishlegs with the drinks. She relaxed and turned back around in her seat.
"Astrid! Thank the Gods, you're back!"
Shit. Shit. Shit! Ruffnut almost got whiplash from how fast she turned her head. She got up and ran over to Astrid. From the distance, Ruffnut saw that it was a whole family crowded around Astrid. Ruffnut was slightly relieved that Fishlegs was using his large frame to block Astrid from the pestering mother.
"Heard of personal space, Fishlegs?" Astrid was juggling the two full cups of mead while Fishlegs kept getting in front of her.
"Sorry, I think I have some kind of pebble in my boot or something." Fishlegs lied smoothly. "Can you help me to the table?" He started limping away from the clueless family. He couldn't scold them for it, they were innocent and just wasn't in Fishlegs to punish them for it. Fishlegs started to walk back towards the table, pretending to limp all the way.
Astrid raised an eyebrow but followed him anyway. The thought of asking what the random family was talking about was fading. Along with her previous mead buzz.
It all crashed down on her and Astrid's eyes grew wide as she stopped in her tracks. All the unanswered questions came flooding into her head and Astrid couldn't process it fast enough. She frantically looked around, searching for something that made sense. Unfortunately, everyone around her were giving her odd looks and moving way too fast for her to stop one of them and ask what was going on. Suddenly she realized that she had something in her hands. She looked down and saw two cups filled with a brown liquid. Astrid understood that it was a cup of a drink, so she carefully drank it. A wave of warmth came over and everything focused. The racking nerves left and Astrid felt her frame settle from the jittering she was experiencing earlier.
"Astrid, you okay?"
Astrid looked up to Ruffnut. "What?" She said with an edge in her voice. She hated vague questions.
Ruffnut actually saw Astrid go through the transition before she finally caught up to her. Ruffnut noticed the edge in Astrid's voice and figured that Astrid got her buzz back. "Well? Are you going to give me my drink or not?!" Ruffnut pointedly stared at the other cup Astrid was holding.
"You're a big girl now, go get your own." Astrid laughed and walked past Ruffnut. What am I, her maid? Astrid thought as she kept walking towards the table Fishlegs and Tuffnut were sitting. "'Sup guys." Astrid sat down next to Tuffnut.
Tuffnut stiffened up and looked straight forward. His sister hadn't come back yet with the confirmation if Astrid was stable or not. "Y-yeah."
Astrid chuckled and rolled her eyes at Tuffnut's odd behavior. She was used to the Tuffnut that was always animated and in your face about one of his jokes. Psh! Lightweight… Astrid thought before throwing back the rest of her mead. She set the cup down and looked around the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she could've sworn she saw Fishlegs avert his eyes away from hers. "What's wrong with you guys? You're looking at me like I'm some crazy maniac or something." She stared at both of them, waiting for an explanation.
"I'm gonna have to say 'or something.', Astrid." Ruffnut came back with dinner plates. She set them down in front of everybody and then sat herself down next to Fishlegs.
"Thanks, Ruff."
+Fondness-
Tuffnut left after they dropped off Astrid. Fishlegs and his sister were heading over to their house. Now he was walking through the streets of Berk towards his house. He had just gotten back from the docks and he was getting kind of sleepy from the mead he drank earlier. As Tuffnut walked in the direction of his house, he stopped and held his breath. He ducked into the darkness not shown from the moonlight and waited while controlling his breathing pattern. The reason he was on alert was, one, he felt something off and, two, he heard something unusual. He always trusted his gut when he trained in stealth and so far, his still being here is proof that he was right to trust it.
Tuffnut opened his mouth and breathed in and out as he crept out through the shadows and through the Village, still listening for that strange sound that stopped him in the first place. There! Tuffnut tucked rolled. He waited a second and came face to face with the darkness incarnate. All the air left his lung and in his years of training, Tuffnut lost all his quick reflexes.
The being was up on a rooftop watching something as if it was a gargoyle. Tuffnut shakily followed it's gaze and saw that it was Astrid's house up ahead. Tuffnut's eyes widened as he witnessed Astrid pressed up against the window with a contorted expression. Due to the distance, Tuffnut couldn't see if she was in distress or not. Tuffnut watched on as Astrid's figure in the window twitched every now and then for two minutes straight. Then the lights were blown out and nothing. Tuffnut broke eye contact and his eyes locked right back onto the spot where the dark stranger was sitting. He cringed when he saw that the gargoyle-like being was gone from it's post.
A chill ran up his spine and his gut came up to his throat as he quickly turned around. No… Odin, save me…
+Fondness-
Astrid's buzz was gone just as the person came back again. He had done away with her and she was staring up at the stars again. Her eyes drooped and she surrendered to the fantasia dreams awaiting her.
"…"
Astrid waited but no yelling came. No blood-curdling scream, nothing. She began to smile as she got comfortable and slept for the first time in days.
"AGH- NOOO! GODS, SAVE MEUUH!" A morphed scream came and then it was silence.
Astrid didn't stir from her sleep. She only yawned as if she didn't hear it.
Tears fell from her eyes onto the pillow case. Then a sniffle. Nothing makes sense… The tears came flooding out, nothing was holding them back anymore.
+I Want-
(A/N Curse my eyelids for betraying me…
Then go to sleep.
You're going to have to fight me for it. I will not let it be such an easy feat.
While complicate simplicities?
Heed to my warnings. I am the epitome of willpower.
Such illusions can only get you so far in battle.