((Here it is! It's the long-awaited revision! This is of course only a fraction of the original chapter, so it will be continued.))
Hiccup blinked past the blinding sunlight that shattered itself across the room to discover Toothless staring at him with protective fondness.
"Hey buddy," Hiccup groaned hoarsely, rubbing the inner corners of his eyes, "I had this weird dream about you," he slurred, stretching his body underneath the heavy fur blanket that lay over tilted his head to the side, curious to hear about this weird dream.
"I dreamed," he yawned, using his leg to kick off the fur, " that you were a girl, and you turned into a human," he grunted as he pushed himself up, reaching towards the ceiling to wake himself up. It ended up just making him dizzy, which made him regret the choice very quickly. Toothless's ears perked up and he lifted his head at this fascinating news. Noticing this only after forcing himself to look past the sunlight, Hiccup registered this excitement and questioned the reaction with a simple, sleepy "what?"
With a sigh of resolution, Toothless placed his head back on top of his feet as if defeated. There was of course no time to question this because the quiet of the house was rudely interrupted by a loud thumping on the front door. Hiccup waited on his bed and listened for his father's thundering footsteps to cross the floor to greet whomever was there. To his dismay, there was no such sound - there never would be any more. Facing the unfortunate fact that he was going to have to answer the door himself, Hiccup ungracefully flung himself off his bed and began the tedious descent down the stairs from the loft. Many grumpy knocks later, the door was finally opened for the guest. Astrid of course was standing there, completely dressed as if she had been up for hours and had been waiting at the door for just as long.
"Morning," Hiccup smiled pleasantly as he greeted her, watching her come in with her arms crossed over her chest.
"What took you so long?" Astrid asked, looking around the interior as if she had never seen it before.
"I was asleep," Hiccup sighed, pushing the door closed behind her. She was angry - as per usual. He had neglected to remember her birthday last week, and she was giving him an icy shoulder. It seemed as if she would continue to do this until next year, which was only a notch below an exaggeration. Unfortunately he was bound to forget again and go through another vicious cycle. Days just seemed to blur together as he get older. All these chances to go scouting, to broaden their horizons, it all seemed like some big day with blinks of night time in between.
"Of course," she clipped in return to bring him back, still avoiding eye contact.
"It is still the early morning," Hiccup gently pointed out, not wanting to anger her even more.
"I've been up for hours," she replied, tight-lipped as she finally looked at him.
"Of course," Hiccup replied, keeping his face void and blank.
Tense silence filled the room and became so palpable that Hiccup saw Toothless raise his head to peer down from above. Per his usual behavior, Toothless literally rolled his eyes upon seeing Astrid and lowered his head once more. A slight smirk of amusement creased Hiccup's mouth, but it disappeared once he observed Astrid's sour face once more.
"How long are we going to do this?" Hiccup groaned, taking the initiative to walk past her towards the dying fire.
"Until you apologize!" she exploded, kicking the table with her foot, "Hiccup you are HOPELESS."
"I forgot that I have apologized. Many times." Hiccup shot back, lifting a log from the pile, "And don't kick the table - my dad made that." With that heavy reminder of his dead parent, Hiccup shoved a new log into the giant fireplace and silenced Astrid once more.
Astrid bit in inside of her mouth in frustration, glowering behind him as she planned her argument carefully, "You need to stop using your father as an excuse for everything."
"Your birthday is two days after his, OK?" Hiccup defended impatiently, yanking the salt box open, "I was a little attached to my dad, so it's a little hard for me to have your birthdays in proximity. Happy?"
"You'd think you'd rather celebrate the birthday of someone who is alive rather than someone who is dead!" she fought back, knocking the table with her hip. "Hiccup we are ENGAGED. You DO NOT have any room to forget anything let alone my BIRTHDAY."
"If we are ENGAGED and IN LOVE as we are pretending for the good of the village, why are we still arguing about this? I have apologized and tried to repent, but you're just being difficult," Hiccup shot back, rubbing a handful of salt onto a fish he had taking out of its ice bath. Impatiently, he stooped down to the fire and shoved it onto the rack above he small fire to cook it.
"Because it was important to me!" Astrid yelled, slamming her fists on the table, making it creak slightly in warning - as if it were crying out for help.
Hiccup sucked in a deep breath and approached her fiercely, anger etched into his face as his steps thundered over the wood floor. Face to face with her, he let out a hot breath and whispered as calmly as possible to her in an attempt to convey how serious he was.
"Do not. Hit. The table." he hissed as a final warning. Astrid's tight mouth relaxed as she realized her mistake, and tried to diffuse her own anger, "I'm sorry," she replied quietly, raising her eyebrows in surrender.
Taking in another deep breath to calm himself, Hiccup backed away from her, and straightened the table back to his liking. Once he had done so, he placed his palms flat against the table top and leaned forward, "I was planning on going out into the Forest to have lunch and a moment of peace, but seeing as you apparently still want to argue - would you care to join me?" he asked, straightening once the request had been made. She took in his seriousness, and begrudgingly answered his request with a calm affirmation that she would indeed join him.
Many hours later, Hiccup held a hand out to Astrid after observing the rapidly darkening sky, "I don't like this," he noted after she stood up, "These clouds are coming in fast."
"I'm not blind," Astrid clipped, denying his hand before making her way back to the clearing where they had essentially abandoned Toothless.
"I never said you were," he muttered under his breath, "May the Gods help me if I ever did."
Moments after their steps were taken, lightning stabbed the earth many paces ahead of them, and a titanic screech of suffering exploded shortly thereafter, followed closely by deafening thunder. Rushing forward to assess the damage that they had just witness Hiccup could only utter a prayer under his breath that no harm had come to Toothless. Alas, the clearing was empty, now bathed and burned in a blackness as if evil itself had been poured and splashed. Refusing to believe the nightmares that were erupting in his mind, Hiccup slid down the steep side of the clearing, abandoning Astrid to search for his true companion.
"Toothless?!" he cried as thunder called to him from a distance away, "Toothless where are you?" he asked the frigid air, thick and palpable with something ghost-like and heavy. Hiccup spun around in different directions as he searched the sky for anything, any streak of black to tell him that Toothless was alive.
When he had crossed the entire circle, Hiccup felt panic finally grip his throat and a choking sob shook him, "Toothless!" he cried out once more, stumbling backwards to look up into the sky once more, "TOOTHLESS!"
In an attempt to understand what had happened to Toothless, Astrid scanned the ground from above, watching as Hiccup stumbled around like an idiot in an attempt to locate his lost dragon. The smell was overpowering; a mix of burned wood and blood. Obviously, lightning had struck here, but would Toothless really have just vanished? Even if the worst had happened, there would have to be some trace of the creature, if only a small fraction. Even so, maybe lightning really did destroy everything...
"Hiccup!" she finally called, taking in a deep breath to steady herself and rid her eyes of the tears which formed.
Whipping around in her direction, Hiccup fell to his knees, the ashy ground mashing under him,"Don't..." he pleaded, tensing his jaw, "Astrid... don't..."
He saw her press her lips together and wobble only slightly, brow furrowing upwards as sorrow finally touched them both. "Hiccup, he's gone," she told him, her voice breaking at the end as they realized that the lightning really had destroyed everything.
