Berk was an incredible island. It had stood for seven generations (though every building was new). There were great views of the sunset, dense forests to roam through and a coastal beach that was to die for. The only problem, in Astrid's opinion, was her job.
"Hiccup! Do not touch that!"
It was a village that had felt like home to her since she had arrived five years ago.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Go back inside!"
Often times she found herself sitting on the roof of the Haddock's home simply drinking in the atmosphere. Filled with other stubborn and determined minds she felt truly at peace here.
"No no no nonono! Just, ugh, just go sit in your room and please try not to put another hole in your wall."
The run-ragged blonde slumped against the door of Hiccup's room. She had successfully corralled him in, nudging him and whispering suggestions into his ear that wow it would be really, really fun to go draw quietly in my room for the next six hours. The five year old menace had been attempting to create his own miniature catapult. After Gobber had shown him how one worked the past week when he was babysitting the young boy had become fixated on making his own. Astrid understood that, yes, Hiccup needed a babysitter- but did said babysitter have to be Gobber? In a forge full of very sharp instruments and a teacher that inspired Hiccup to create his own miniature death machines? Though she was a near constant presence and could instinctively tell when he was in danger the adults of the village didn't quite recognize her existence.
She imagined that Hiccup could sense her beyond the regular listening to her suggestions and gentle guidance. There were enough clues to point to that fact. Oftentime if she had left the house she would come home to find Hiccup pouting in a corner or crying for no reason with Stoick desperately trying to cheer him up. And then she would ruffle his hair and blow soft winds on his face and his tears would dry and he would be up and about in no time. The poor father must have thought his boy was suffering from severe mood swings.
Sometimes she thought she caught him staring at her. Not just the wall behind her or someone passing by but she could swear he locked eyes with her. Or she would enter a room that he was in and his head would whip around almost like he heard footsteps.
Still, she wished that there were a way that she could tell Stoick that it was not a good idea to let Hiccup into the forge. If he wanted his son to be a great fighter he would be better off leaving him with Spitelout and his own son. Hiccup's cousin may have been a horrible little human being but it would toughen the boy up. Instead Stoick sent him to Gobber- who was usually too busy working the forge to really watch the boy. Astrid hated to imagine what would have happened by now if she hadn't been there to catch falling swords and stop Hiccup from dipping his hand in molten steel.
Astrid still felt the way her heart stopped on the night that Valka was taken.
She had been outside the Haddock's front door watching the battle and her Grace hadn't alerted her that Hiccup was in danger. Should the boy have been in any peril she would feel it and still she wondered why she hadn't felt it that night. It was Stoick's shout that made her realize that a four-winged demon had made it's way inside her wards room. She couldn't breathe. All parts of her body moved of it's own accord. Her wings cut through the air and within a heartbeat she was inside Hiccups room standing over his crib. Her body crouched like a feral cat and her wings acting as a barrier between the babe and the flames that were ravaging his room she drew her ax. It would do little good but having the weight in her hand gave her courage. Hiccup was crying, blood was dribbling down his chin and his mother was just staring at the creature.
"Do something!" Astrid screamed at the woman "Pick him up and run!"
The young angel couldn't understand. There was a dragon in the room with Hiccup and Valka was doing nothing. No, worse than that, she was reaching towards the damned thing like it was a pet.
"Valka! Stop! Please, pick Hiccup up and run, please!" Astrid's voice cracked as she pleaded. Lifting her ax she tried to focus her Grace into the head of the weapon, she hoped to be able to give it enough solidity to land a hit but Stoick's ax descended upon the dragon first- narrowly missing its head and Valka's hand. She breathed a quick sigh of relief. She may have been able to extend her Grace out of her body for a short moment but it would come at a great price to her. She tried not to dwell on the details of what a broken Grace could entail- or at least the horror stories the older angels had told her. She didn't want to test if they were true.
"Valka, run!" The chief shouted as he scooped up Hiccup and jumped out of the burning home. Astrid had followed the chief out of the building and turned her head in time to see the dragon clutch the chief's wife and it's claws and spread its wings.
The home she guarded became quieter after that night. There was no more singing in the kitchen in the morning; nor was there any happy chatter or snarky fighting. The chief lived in silence and spent more and more time out of his home and in the village claiming that their was work to be done there. Astrid worried that Hiccup wouldn't learn to talk as quickly living in such silence, as the other children and so she talked to him. She didn't know if he could hear it but it seemed to calm him and he talked and walked and developed as babies should. And for a while it seemed he would grow into a fine young little viking.
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As Hiccup grew so did Astrid's doubt that he would be a great warrior. She took a page out of Stoick's book and spent time away from her ward. Some days she would stay in the clouds all day. Other times she would spend weeks at a time walking through the forests. A quick check in at night to make sure he hadn't gotten into too much trouble and she would be gone again. If there was any extreme danger she would know and could be back at the house in an instant and besides the boy did little else than draw, invent and cause trouble. He was sweet natured and paled at the sight of dead dragons when he thought no one was looking. There were few walls in his home that he hadn't knocked down by accident. But, he had the quickest wit and tongue Astrid had ever heard. Half of the time the other children wouldn't realize they'd been insulted until they were halfway home. Sarcasm was a skill he had honed to an art form.
"Hey, Useless!" A ten year old Snotlout pushed over a similarly ten year old Hiccup. Hiccup started to push himself up on his elbows but his larger cousin stepped on him with a muddy foot to keep him down. Astrid wished it was acceptable for her to hit children.
"So check it out. My dad got Gobber to make it for me." Snotlout pulled out a gleaming sword from it's sheath and pointed it's edge towards Hiccup.
"Very nice, Snotlout, now please. Can you get your foot off me. I don't wanna know where it's been." The smaller boy tried unsuccessfully to push his cousin off him.
"Hmmm. I will." Snotlout pushed down a little harder with his foot. "If! You can make me think of a good name for my new sword."
"I'm not sure I could make your brain do anything- hey! That's it! Brain Crusher." Hiccup shouted the name in a cheery voice.
"Brain Crusher?" Snotlout paused for a moment then whirled around, taking his foot off Hiccup who scrambled to his feet.
"Brain Crusher! It's perfect!" The large boy spun his sword around, fighting off imaginary enemies.
"Yeah! And since you don't have any of those you won't have to worry about hurting yourself with it."
Astrid burst out laughing at Snotlout's confusion as he tried to work out how he'd been insulted.
"Huh?" Hiccup whipped his head around at the sound of clear laughter only to find empty space. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what? Hah! Now you're hearing things too? Oh, that's perfect! Hiccup goes crazy and Snotlout The Great takes over as Chief. So, like, can you speed it up with the crazy?"
But Hiccup was already walking away. He had heard it so clearly. The sound of laughter. And he knew he'd heard it before. It felt familiar.
Sometimes he really did think he was going crazy. He heard things. Usually a laugh, or a voice that he couldn't quite understand, or a shout when he was about to be hit by something falling over. He saw shadows move where there were no people to cast them. He felt hands touch him when he was alone. Other times he would feel inexplicably lonely. He didn't really have any friends, not since Fishlegs realized he was a sinking ship it was better not to be on, but there were times the house felt like it was missing someone. Though none of it frightened him for some reason. Those strange touches on his hair or on his shoulder felt calming.
It was nothing he worried about until the day he brought it up to his father.
He was 12 and he didn't know why he thought it was a good dinner conversation topic. His father was in a rare good mood. Things had been going well for the village and food stores for the winter were unusually abundant.
"So, Dad, is there like..." Hiccup began "Is there any chance our house is, maybe, possibly haunted?"
Stoick the Vast choked on a mouthful of ale.
"What are you on about now? First it's trolls- now ghosts in our house?"
"No! Really I think there's something in the house- or at least something following me!"
"Ah, you're being paranoid. There's nothin' like that here. You're spendin' too much time with Gobber." Stoick stood to carry his refill his mug.
"Please, can you just believe me about this?" The young boy's gangly limbs tangled in his attempt to stand up as well.
Stoick paused at the keg of ale and he sighed.
"Ok. Explain it to me, then. Why do you think somethin' is following you?"
Hiccup took a deep breath and tried to organize his thoughts. If he was going to try to explain anything to his stubborn father he would have to do it well.
"Sometimes I-I heard things? Like voices where there shouldn't be voices. Or see shadows in the corner of a room move-"
"Well those are easy enough explained. Tricks of the wind and of the light." Stoick interrupted, sitting back down with a full mug.
"Oh yes. Tricks of the light. Since before I can remember. I'm not being haunted by spirits I'm just being haunted by some really messed up candles." Hiccup trailed off. He should have known it would be useless to try to make his father understand. The man was brick wall.
What Hiccup didn't realize is that his father would tell Gobber about his son's "fantasies". And what the chief didn't understand is that Gobber would tell... well... everyone.
Within a week the general consensus of the village was that Hiccup was even more cursed than they had thought before. No longer was he just a kid who had a bad streak of breaking things and couldn't lift a sword to save his life. Now he was cursed by the Gods. Parents tugged their children away when he passed by and the kids his age stayed their distance- other than to use the "cursed boy" as punching practice. He could handle those things. But the whispers he heard as he walked through the marketplace were worse.
"...Cursed by the Gods themselves. Why else is he still so small? Demons must be takin' half his strength."
"The poor chief. He must be so ashamed."
"Wonder when Stoick's gonna announce who's gonna be the heir now. Can't have a cursed boy runnin' the village- it would be Berk's downfall."
"Should have tossed the boy off the cliff when he was born... lettin' him live angered the Gods. That's why he's cursed."
When Astrid returned from one of her weeks long stints in the woods it was to a Hiccup who had stopped leaving his room. It took her a while to figure out what had happened as Hiccup obviously wasn't telling her and Stoick had gone on another search for the dragon's nest so she couldn't eavesdrop on their conversations for answers.
It wasn't until Gobber arrived at the house to apologize that she got her answer.
Guilt welled in her stomach. She had caused this.
"I'm sorry, Hiccup. I'm so sorry." She stood over his bedside as he slept and whispered apologies. She stayed away for a while. Hoping that her absence would stop the flow of rumors that were snowballing. But the damage was done.
From then on Astrid didn't leave her wards side. He took up working and training under Gobber as a blacksmith and told no one that he still saw glimpses of someone out of the corner of his eye. Sometimes a flash of blonde hair or he would hear the fluttering of wings- but these were things he kept to himself.
For two years Hiccup kept the strange occurrences to himself. He ignored the warmth of the empty seat next to him in the great hall and he didn't talk about how he never overslept because something had woken him up on time.
"Dragon raid! Hiccup, wake up!" Astrid shook the shoulders of the small brunette. It was still the early; about an hour till sunrise and dragons soared overhead.
"Hm? Wha?" The boy rubbed his eyes and roused slowly from his bed.
"Can you move any faster? There's a nightmare on your roof and you need to get to the forge!" She tugged at his fur vest.
"D-dragon raid! I have to get to the forge!" He flew out of bed in a tangle of limbs and tugged on a single shoe and looked around for the other one, trying to ignore the increasing banging on the roof of his house. Astrid spotted the other shoe tucked far under his bed and pushed it closer to his foot.
"Ah! There it is. Thank you Mystery Ghost Who Ruined My Life." Astrid narrowed her eyes at the nickname he'd taken to calling her. She smacked the back of his head and he flinched then smirked as he ran out of his room and down the stairs.
"Geez. Getting awfully violent these days, Mr. Ghost." He pulled open the door to meet the face of a monstrous nightmare that opened it's mouth- fire building in the back of it's throat.
Astrid flew down the stairs and slammed the door shut at the same time Hiccup did. She felt the door heating up and nudged her ward away from the door to keep his back from getting burnt.
"Go through the back door, you idiot!" She didn't need him to be getting burnt before the sun had even risen.
"The... the back door. I'm gonna go out the back door." He muttered and zipped to the back door of his house. Bursting through the door he made his way to the forge on a familiar path. Passersby yelled at him to get back inside as he ran through the thrall of vikings all preparing for a fight. Astrid flew overhead watching for any danger- occasionally pulling him left or right to keep him from running into someone. Or making him duck as people waved large blades and didn't take into account that a small person might be standing in their path.
The forge came into view and Hiccup sprinted the last stretch and made it inside safely. Astrid slumped against the closed door. She didn't get paid enough for this. Well, she didn't get paid at all but still. She thought she deserved something. This was above and beyond the call of duty. As she had told the High Council on the few occasions that they had asked her back to Asgard for an update.
"This kid- it's- it's gotta be a mistake!" She relayed on her first visit.
"Please, Astrid, the Gods do not make mistakes. I'm sure everything will become clear in time. Patience is a virtue you know." A withered old angel spoke from his seat across the room.
"So is not setting your own hair on fire! But that happened last week. Please tell me that there's some magic sword or something that I've just gotta get into his hands or something?" She thrust her hands out at the council who all just shook their heads and told her that she must be patient and trust in the Gods plan. Honestly, the Valkyries had it easy, she thought. They just had to fetch the valiant dead and bring them to Valhalla- they didn't have to guide them through the messy parts of life and try not to rip out their hair when their promised "great warriors" set loose an entire flock of sheep while trying to create a mass sheering station. She felt like a foot soldier trying to win a war. She would take the hard hits and then the generals would get the glory.
"You're late!" Gobber waved Hiccup into the stall as the boy tied his work apron around his too skinny waist.
"Yeah, yeah sorry I got held up!" Hiccup got to work on sharpening the pile of swords as he eyed the contraption in the corner. Astrid saw where he sight line ended and smacked her forehead. He could not actually be thinking about using that thing could he?
A massive fireball landed outside and Hiccup ran to the open window of the stall to get a better look. His cousin led the fire squad; made up of Fishlegs (his once upon a time friend) and Ruffnut and Tuffnut- twins who almost caused as much destruction as he had. Oh, their job was so much cooler than his. He leaned out farther to get a better look and Gobber's metal hand pulled him back inside.
"Oh no you don't. Back inside."
"Please! Let me get out there! I've got to make my mark!" Hiccup argued though it was impossible to take him seriously while he was still hanging from Gobber's hand.
"You've made plenty of marks." Astrid crossed her arms and nodded her head at a pile of broken wall parts. "All in the wrong places."
"You've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places." Gobber said as he put Hiccup down.
"Hah! See, even Gobber agrees with me."
"Just let me get out there! Two minutes! I'll slay a dragon and my life will get infinitely better! Everyone will forget about the curse thing! I might even get a date."
"You can't swing a hammer, you can't lift an ax, you can't even throw one of these!" Gobber pulled out a bola- though it was only in his hand for a good 5 seconds before a random viking from the crowd reached in and grabbed in in lieu of a sword.
"He does have a point you know." Astrid spoke from her place leaning on the wall. "What are you gonna do? Sass the dragons to death?"
"I won't have to!" Hiccup backed up to the odd contraption in the corner. "This will throw it for me."
He patted the top of the invention with what Astrid was sure was meant to convey confidence but the thing sprung to life and fired a bola at someone passing by in the crowd and Hiccup shrunk back onto himself and began to mutter about how it was a mild calibration issue.
"Now this righ' here is the issue! If you ever wan' to get out there you're goin' to have to stop all of... this." Gobber made a vague gesture towards Hiccup's small frame.
"You just gestured to all of me?"
"Yes, exactly. You need to stop all of this."
"Oh hoh." Hiccup tried to puff himself up and Astrid held back a snort of laughter.
"Keeping this much raw viking energy contained- there will be consequences!" He shouted at Gobber and Astrid couldn't hold back her laughter. At which Hiccup turned and glared in her general direction.
Gobber said something about them needing him out there and for Hiccup to watch the stall. Which of course he wouldn't do, Astrid thought. And sure enough within two minutes she was following him out the door as he pushed that infernal thing he called The Mangler into the fray.
"If you want to kill a dragon there's like a million right here! Why are you going all the way up here... unless... oh you've got to be kidding me!" Hiccup stopped at the peak of a high enough cliff and set up his machine to point out over the ocean. Astrid stood beside him and pointed back to the village.
"Listen to me! I get it! You want to kill a dragon and I am in total support of that but there's some nice slow gronkles out over the town that you could kill. You don't have to try to kill a freaking night fury. Let's work our way up to that, okay?"
For the past year he had gotten it into his head that he was going to be the first one to down a night fury. And at first Astrid had been proud. It was a hero's goal. If he could accomplish this it would clear any of her doubts that her time had been wasted and Hiccup would pass out of history without even a footnote about him. But he should at least do some basic viking training first. How was he expecting to actually kill the creature? From what she'd seen of his invention he had devised it to only down the dragon. Not actually kill it. What if it burst out of the ropes and turned on the boy?
"Hiccup, please." she rested a hand on his shoulder. "If by some miracle you actually do hit the fastest dragon known to man how are you going to kill it? I will find some lazy gronkle or something that you can sneak up on."
"Gimme something to shoot at, c'mon something to shoot at." Hiccup ignored to feeling that he was doing something stupid and narrowed his eyes at the sky.
The angel threw her hands up to the sky at the same time a high pitched keening began and seconds later a blue fireball lit up the sky. She saw the shadow at the same time Hiccup did. And he pulled the trigger.
The momentum flung him backwards and Astrid made no move to make sure he was ok because she was frozen by the fact that he actually hit it.
"Oh I hit it." Her ward sprung to his feet and lifted his arms in victory "I hit it! Did anyone see that?"
"I saw that! I did!" Astrid answered, ignoring the issue that he couldn't see or hear her. "It went down off Raven's Point, Hiccup!" She took to the skies to try to get a better view of where the dragon fell. She could just make out that blue flame off in the distance- like the creature was firing off angry flames. And then her Grace lit on fire too. And when she looked back down at where she had left her ward her heart went into her throat.
A monstrous nightmare had climbed the cliff and crushed Hiccup's contraption and pinned him under it's feet in the process.
Astrid screamed and dropped into a free fall. She landed on the ground at the same time the nightmare's skin caught fire- with Hiccup still under it's feet.
"No!" She pulled her ax out and swung wildly at the creature- trying to get it off him it had to get off Hiccup oh Gods please it's BURNING HIM he's going to die
By nothing else than pure coincidence another viking ran within the dragons sight line and the nightmare took off after a bigger kill leaving a whimpering boy with smoldering clothes.
Astrid dropped to her knees and cupped her wards face in her hands. His face was red and bloody and everything smelt like death. His eyes opened and tears leaked out.
Oh, Gods, her ward was going to die.
Her Hiccup was going to die.
Astrid felt tears streaming down her face. She'd forgotten she could cry.
"Who... hhgg.. w-who are y-you?" Hiccup's eyes focused on her face. Everything burned. Except where she was touching him.
"You can see me?" Astrid choked. Tears dropped onto his face and she remembered all the times she wished she could just speak to him like a normal person. He was halfway dead anyway. He must have been pushing through the veil.
"Y-you're that ghost, right?" He spoke softly- like he didn't want to move his mouth too much.
"Something like that." How could she let this happen. Hundreds of years and she was the first guardian to lose someone like this. This couldn't happen. It just couldn't. There had to be something.
There was something.
Astrid spread her wings, ignoring the shock on Hiccup's face, and moved her hands to his chest.
"W-What are you- ouch oh, Gods." He closed his eyes in pain and felt his breath becoming uneven.
She could feel a heat building inside her and wiped her tears. There wasn't time for her crying right now. She thought about how she'd watched him grow, she thought about how he imagined things that no one else could ever dream of. She thought about how he was so smart and that if you had a problem you could set it in front of him and he would fix it. She thought about how he was still trying so hard to be something that everyone would be proud of. The heat bubbled behind her navel and she forced it up and into her arms. It burned- but she couldn't complain because this was her fault. Her Grace moved down her arms and into her hands. She could see it. Pulsing in time with her heartbeat. Everything that made her an Angel. It shined like starlight and she pushed and watched the starlight sink into his skin.
She screamed. And Hiccup screamed. And she couldn't keep her eyes open because it felt like looking at the sun. Her hands felt like she'd stuck them into the forge.
She only pulled away when Hiccup's scream cut short and the light had began to dim.
AN: I thought I was going to take two weeks or so and write a whole bunch but I can't restrain myself. I tricked you all. I have mislead you. Updates in the future may not be quite so quick. But we can hope. And all your reviews certainly helped (wink wink nudge nudge).
Also, quick shout out to my friend Hubert because he is literally the driving force behind this whole operation. As in he's the one I message when I get ideas and everything snowballs from there and we end up with monstrosities like this.
A quick answer on something. Astrid is neither an angel of the traditionally Christian sense, nor is she a Valkyrie. I don't feel completely comfortable in my knowledge on either mythologies so I'm making up my own/taking inspiration. All will be explained, probably in the next chapter. Don't worry friends. Thank you for reading! Please remember to review/leave feedback.