Astrid Struck

Chapter 3
Decision Time

Goober collected each delicate-ink stained piece of paper into his large hands and set the stack down upon the table before Stoick. Nearly a hundred thin films of folded paper sat like a pile of dung upon the table begging somebody to count them out and reveal the results.

Hiccup looked into his father's eyes as he stared at the pile of ballots before him regrettably, "Can't we just decide something for once without all of this?" he whispered.

Seeing that nobody was going to take action upon the ballots Hiccup reached over in front of his father and took the pile off of his hands. Immediately he began announcing the vote, "Yes: 1, Yes: 2, No: 1 Yes: 3, No: 2…"

Astrid's mouth dropped to the floor as her love proceeded to count the votes with an unfaltering precision that she had never seen before. The pieces of paper were pulled from his left hand and transferred into his right where they stayed for a second before being turned back down to the table.

She glared into his eyes in the dull twilight of the fire light room and dreamed about him care freely. She returned herself to that evening with him on the back of Toothless when she had begun to loose herself to him. She returned to herself the feeling of Hiccup's back muscles her chest and the excitement that the wildly beautiful ride upon the dragon's back had been.

She imagined another darkly light room deep in the future with him fast asleep holding her in his arms while she slowly fell victim to the same tiredness. She imagined the feeling of his chest and arms as they encased her in place blissfully. She saw him upon her dragon's back while he held onto her for his life just as she had him on Toothless.

During training she would have killed herself to have been thinking these thoughts, but now she could see the kindheartedness within him that all of the other boys were missing. She saw that he had a vision of a future that was better than that of the one they were living, full of peace and lacking of war. Even knowing that such a dream was impossible to achieve, she couldn't help but love him for it.

While thinking of this untold dream that Hiccup had for this world she was instantly reminded of the importance of events happening in the moment.

"Yes: 57, Yes: 58, No: 42," he announced to the mass of skin and armor around him as it continually absorbed the results as they were put out.

The stack steadfastly approached its end and only a few votes remained in the decision that would alter the course of Burk's history. "Yes: 65, No: 55 No:56, Yes: 66, No: 57, Yes: 67," announced Hiccup as he scanned the only piece of paper remaining in his left hand and relocated it to his right hand. Taking up the edges of the paper he revealed the internal writing and read its contents aloud for all to hear, "No: 58."

The crowd around him stood in anticipation of the final results that were not immediately forthcoming. Silence enveloped the hall as they all stared at Hiccup expecting something more.

"Final Results," he started hoping that this was what they were in search of and with a quick scan of the faces he decided that this was such, "No: 58, Yes: 67"

The Vikings shifted uneasily as they absorbed the full implications of the decision into their minds slowly. They would not be allowed much a period of thought though as a shout came out from somewhere in the back, "This will be the end of our civilization!"

Stoick burst onto his feet and bore a hole in the wall where the exclamation of opinion had come from. "Who is it that wishes to threaten the decision and the rules of the land!" he demanded of the multitudes as he pulled his lips back to show a slight portion of his teeth.

"I do!" one announced drawing himself through the bramble of metal and flesh eventually reaching the center table where he stared Stoick down from point blank range.

"Windfall, you have two options here, either you lose your life, or you are banished! There are no other options!"

The man coiled up and threw his Viking helmet to the ground where it left a dent in the wooden floor boards. "I'm not going to stay here just to see everybody else get eaten by those monstrous beasts! Nice knowin' all of you!"

The crowed parted allowing the enraged man through the circle without hindrance. Windfall clutched the doorknob into his hand and threw it towards the wall on his way out of town. "You'll come to you senses soon enough!" he shouted through the external walls in one last statement of rage.

The stars shone dully onto the nighttime city scape as Hiccup arrived at his house's front door with Toothless directly at his one side and Astrid at his other. "Well, I guess that this is the end of the road," Hiccup sadly said to Astrid giving her a slight gleam.

"I guess so," came the reply as she glanced around the city street in attempt to avoid Hiccup's eyes, "may I come in briefly?"

Now she gazed Hiccup in the eyes. Hiccup realized just how serious she was about this, and thanked the gods that she was because he wasn't going to be making any moves on her it would seem.

Hiccup held the door against the external wall of the house and nodded at Astrid in acknowledgment to her preposition. Astrid put foot before foot and traversed the doorway into the home before Hiccup followed behind her and closed the door eliminating almost all of the star light and shutting Toothless out for the night.

Removing his mother's breast plate helmet, he grabbed a box from the side wall of it and fiddled around with the papery edges. He eventually found the place where it folded over top of itself and began to peel the small protective flap back from the rest of the container.

As he did this he heard a small squeal and then the squeak of friction upon the floor as something hit the ground with a soft "thud".

Hiccup rushed himself into the contents of the package and stroked a thin rod from it upon the reverse side of the container. The room was instantly bathed in a soft orange fire light that radiated from the wooden stick in Hiccup's hand. Hiccup turned his attention immediately to Astrid who was lying hung over to top of a chair with her feet off of the ground and her face on the turf.

Her armor skirt was hanging around her torso where it revealed her body form from the abdomen and down only covered by a thin layer of under clothes. Hiccup reveled in the sight of her perfectly rounded gluts as they flexed and brought her back up right.

The skirt fell back over the spectacle and Hiccup's face burst into a red tint as blood slipped from the capillaries in his face and pooled up at the surface. He desired to see more, but of course he wasn't going to ask to see her again. In fact, he decided that he was too shy to even ask her if he could see her house, let alone her body.

He placed the slight wooden stick into a waxy tower and the room burst into light anew. He braced himself for a moment before he turned back around to the beauty behind him and hoped that his embarrassment had been erased from his face.

However, upon meeting Astrid's glance he found that her face was also burnt in red coloring. "I'm sorry," she explained, "I really, didn't mean to do that."

"It's alright," he said, "I actually liked it,"

He couldn't believe that he had just said that. It was as though he had just spoken without even thinking about what he was saying and how it was to be received by her. He wanted to take it back, but he knew that it was too late for that now.

She walked up to him slowly, swaying her hips from side to side and moving her hands across the bottom of her dress as she began to extend her lips towards his. Hiccup instinctively leaned into it and closed his eyes as his body trembled with uncontrollable excitement in the heat of the moment.

Suddenly something hit him hard upon the cheek, "That's for looking," Astrid exclaimed.

A/N: Hope you have enjoyed. Notice that the "T" rating still stands so know that I have nothing in the way of lemons planned for the future of this story though it may read like an "M" rated Fic. I'm getting everything that I can out of this "T" rating to date. I'm about to end this type of stuff and set this little plot a side into a sub-plot. It will not go away none-the-less.

For you people who have helped with my writing, I'm sure that there's something I've reverted to because it feels like something is wrong again, even though the product is much better than before still. Thanks as always for your help. Don't even think about being soft!

Thanks for reading and don't be the least bit shy to leave a review even if it is just something simple like "I read it" or something like that. That's what drives my writing more than anything.

Hope to see you back for more of the same within the week,
Cornys