CHAPTER 2

Several days passed and Hiccup was still unconscious. Astrid visited every day and whenever Stoick went into his room, Toothless was sitting at the end of the bed, staring at his best friend. Most of the time, he wouldn't move, but every now and then, Stoick managed to get him to eat a fish or two. Astrid seemed to ease Toothless' anxiety.

"Hey there boy, you miss him don't you?" Astrid stroked Toothless' head absentmindedly, "Me too."

It had been almost three days since his accident and while he wasn't getting any worse, Hiccup had not yet shown any signs of waking up soon. Gobber and Stoick assured everyone that nothing was going wrong and that there was no need to worry.

Fishlegs and Astrid were still determined to run the Academy as normal as possible.

"What are we doing here?" Tuffnut asked as he and Ruffnut arrived at the Academy "I mean, what's the point if Hiccup's not here? Isn't he the dragon expert?"

"He's not the only expert, we can still go over Dragons and keep training with Astrid and me while he isn't here," Fishlegs explained.

"So why didn't Astrid even come?" Snotlout asked from his saddle.

"Because she's helping Stoick," replied Fishlegs.

"Plus, you can't make her do anything she doesn't want to do," Ruffnut said giving her brother a shove.

"Not without getting beat up at least."

"Yeah!" both twins banged their helmets together, which then caused them to become entangled and they shouted as they wrestled on the ground.

"Oi! Get off!"

"You Get off!"

"I can't because of you!"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah!"

"Seriously you two? You cant go five minutes without fighting" Fishlegs said, wanting to break up the fight but reluctant to physically stand between them.

Well that's what happens when we're stuck in cramped spaces for long periods of time" Tuffnut said as he finally managed to detangle his helmet from Ruffnut's.

"We've been here half an hour."

"Yeah, and that's a long time for us."

"Well, not that this hasn't been fun, but I'm leaving" Snotlout turned Hookfang around and took off into the sky.

"Wait! Snotlout! We need to go over new additions to the Book of Dragons!" Fishlegs yelled after him.

"Well there was kind of a chance we were going to stay," Ruffnut began.

"But since you've said that," added Tuffnut.

"We've got a lot of stuff to do."

"And by 'do' we mean blow up!"

"Hey, Barf get over here!"

"You too Belch."

Their Zippleback ran over and almost immediately, they were flying away, leaving Fishlegs standing in the Academy, Meatlug itching her ear near the wall.

"Come on girl, let's go." Meatlug grunted as she flew over to Fishlegs and they flew off to a place on the island to spend the day.

Back in the village, Stoick was talking with Gobber in his shop as he fixed the shelf, which had fallen on Hiccup.

"…And then I had to deal with a pair of men who'd gotten into an argument over who's sheep it was" Stoick said, exasperated, "you know, I just want one day to myself, one day or even an afternoon to be able to sort out that dragon. I know Astrid's been keepin' him company, but he's still restless."

"Well, I don't think there's much you can do about that Stoick," Gobber said as he hammered the last nail into the wall, " That dragon's not going to do anything until Hiccup wakes up, the most you can do is just make sure he eats and hope Hiccup wakes up soon."

"I know, I just wish there was something I could do." Stoick waved his hands in exasperation and stood up.

"Like I've said, you can't do anything until-"

"Until Hiccup wakes up, I know Gobber, you've said."

"I'm just saying" Gobber put up his hands in defence "it's best you find something to do while you wait to keep busy otherwise it'll drive you mad. After all, you're not to most patient Viking ever."

Stoick walked back to his house to check on his son. When he walked into the room, Toothless barely acknowledged the chiefs presence and continued to stare sadly at the still form in the bed.

"Come on boy, time to eat" Toothless simply groaned in denial. "He's not going anywhere, and you know your hungry."

As if in agreement, a loud grumble was heard from deep within Toothless' stomach, reiterating what Stoick said. After a few seconds, Toothless finally moved towards the stairs and Stoick lead him over to his bowl and placed some fish in front of him. Toothless stared at the fish for a few seconds before slowly nibbling at a fish.

Later that afternoon, Astrid made her way over to the chief's house for her daily visit to Hiccup.

"Hello Astrid" Stoick said as he answered the door.

"Hello Sir, I'm just here to see Hiccup," Astrid said as she stepped inside the threshold.

"I would never have guessed," he said with a chuckle "up you go then."

"Thank you Sir."

She walked up the stairs and saw Toothless asleep on his stone bed across from Hiccups own wooden one. She sat next to the sleeping dragon and patted his head, accidentally startling him.

"Woah, hey! It's OK, I'm sorry Toothless, I didn't mean to wake you." She continued to pat him as he laid his head on her lap. "He's not changed?"

Toothless groaned which Astrid understood to mean that he hadn't. She could tell the Night Fury was getting restless but didn't know how to help him. What would Hiccup usually do in this situation?

"You wanna go for a ride?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

Toothless snorted, and kept his eyes fixed in the direction of Hiccup.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," she said, "It's not the same without him is it?"

Resigned to the fact that Toothless wasn't going anywhere until Hiccup had regained consciousness, Astrid leant into and buried her face in the dragon's neck and dozed off.

Near sunset, Stoick still hadn't heard from Astrid and went to check on her. He found her snuggled into Toothless' side, both breathing deeply. He wanted to leave them be but he knew her parents would be starting to worry. She'd been gone for hours. So he walked up to the pair and gently woke her.

After looking out the window and realising the time, Astrid woke up properly and said a quiet goodbye to Stoick and Toothless, promising to be back tomorrow.

When she was gone, Stoick returned to his son's room and replaced the blanket over Hiccup.

"Why'd you move his blanket Toothless?" He asked, the last few times he'd been in the room, Hiccups blankets had been either pulled back or thrown off entirely. Toothless however pretended to be innocently sleeping every time. If that dragon didn't stop knocking off the blankets, Hiccup would never get better with all the colds he'd get. As quiet as he tried, Stoick still managed to make enough noise that neither he, nor Toothless noticed the exceptionally loud sigh that escaped from under the blankets. Nor did they see the small signs of life behind the lids of the now dreaming Viking.


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