Author´s notes:
At Guest: No. I just thought 'companions' sounded too Dr. Who-ish and 'buddies' or 'co-workers' weren´t really fitting for people you go on a space ship with. If you have a better term, let me know and I will consider it.
During the following weeks, I will go on vacation, meaning I won´t be able to continue releasing one chapter per week. But I have put up a tumblr queue that will do it for me - it just won´t be on this site. You can find aforementioned queue here:
It will even release the 4th Chapter just one day from now!
Hiccup and Astrid got up in a hurry and scrambled onto their dragon´s backs. It took longer than usual because Stormfly and Toothless refused to keep still, but eventually they managed. Still, they were deeply unsettled. What could have scared the dragons so much?
All thoughts about Astrid were wiped from Hiccup´s mind by now. This was a dangerous situation, he couldn´t risk lowering his concentration to indulge in romantic fantasies.
After a few minutes of flight, another island came into sight. It looked unsuspicious at first, but as they flew nearer and were able to make out more and more details, Astrid could only stop an agonized screech by pressing both her hands on her mouth.
A long stretch of land was entirely black, seemingly scorched by an unidentifiable cause. Dented and twisted pieces of metal lay along and beside it, underlining the impression of total devastation. But that wasn´t what had made Toothless and Stormfly so nervous, or was it?
It wasn´t.
Not long after, they found the source of both their dragons´ panic.
Several beings of incomprehensible size were moving around the island with equally incomprehensible speed. Their heavy bodies let the ground shake with every stride they took, and their dark green, scaled skins left no doubt that everything that got in the way of one of these beasts would be crushed by their momentum. Their whole appearance was fear-inducing: Their three-and-a-half-meter-long, two-meter-high, egg-shaped bodies, their three eyes and their muscular legs all seemed to serve no other purpose than to kill.
And kill they did.
No matter which poor animal they spotted - it was mercilessly chased down, cornered and shredded alive. Then these creatures opened a gap in the front third of their bodies that seemed to be their mouth and gobbled large chunks of raw meat and bones with a single gulp.
Hiccup and Astrid had no doubt that these... things would easily be capable of reducing the area´s fishing resource noticeably. And while they did not yet have proof that they actually were the cause of their problem, they quickly agreed that it was time to go back to Berk, report and come back with reinforcements. It would have been suicide to land and try to investigate without any protection.
The sun was already setting when they returned to Berk. As soon as they landed, people came storming towards them and bombarded them with questions. Hiccup and Astrid had to push quite hard to make the crowd part, and they were relieved when they finally arrived at Valka´s house and were able to lock the door behind them. It was obvious they had to keep what they had seen a secret from the general public. It was too strange, too unbelieveable, too frightening.
After they had made sure nobody was listening on the door anymore, Astrid began to report what they had discovered. To Hiccup´s relief, she did not mention his 'accident' on the first island at all. His face would probably have overheated.
But as Astrid came to the point of their discovery, Valka didn´t seem to believe them at first. She kept asking them whether they were really sure of what they had seen. After all, they had kept quite a large distance and therefore hadn´t been able to really make out that many details. Besides, nothing like such creatures had ever been spotted on Berk - where should they have come from all of a sudden? And if they were so strong, why hadn´t they spread to other islands?
After a while, even the two explorers became uncertain. Had their minds played a trick on them? But Toothless and Stormfly had been scared as well...
When Valka noticed this, she decided to disband the meeting. 'Maybe the two of you should sleep over it. It´s been a very long, stressful day and you had to leave your normal routines without any warning. No wonder you´re a little disordered. But that´s nothing a good night´s sleep can´t fix.'
Relieved, Hiccup and Astrid grabbed their bags and left. Valka escorted them to the door and stayed outside for a while, enjoying the cooling evening air and the play of colors in the sky. She smiled. Astrid´s hand had reached out for Hiccup´s when they had left. She wasn´t sure, but she couldn´t recall Hiccup and Astrid ever walking hand in hand during the last years. Maybe Hiccup had finally gotten over his initial anxiety. Maybe her little boy was growing up after all.
Hiccup felt a touch against his fingers and looked down in surprise. Was this an offer? Blushing, he intertwined his fingers with Astrid´s and looked towards the orange evening sun. He didn´t want her to see his reddened cheeks.
They climbed over a few rocks leading towards their home. Neither of them said anything. Hiccup was still unsure about what the coming night was going to bring, and he didn´t want to ruin the moment by asking.
When they arrived, Astrid suggested that he could move their beds beside each other if he wanted while she made dinner. Once again, he was thankful for the relative darkness in their home, as it hid his horrendously violet face. But he agreed.
After they had eaten, Hiccup went to the bathroom to change into his pajamas and brush his teeth. When he got out, Astrid gifted him a smile and went to change herself.
Nervously, Hiccup laid down on his side of the bed and rolled over to face the wall. What would happen now? Were they doing to... make love now? But he didn´t know how! He wasn´t ready for any of this! What if he messed up? What if Astrid didn´t want to be with him anymore because of that?
His thoughts raced as the last glimpse of light vanished from the bedroom. He heard Astrid emerge from the bathroom in the dark. His heart was racing, cold sweat was forming on his forehead, Goosebumps covering his whole body. What was he supposed to do? Nobody had ever prepared him for this! The mattress behind him squeaked quietly as weight was put onto it, he could hear Astrid shuffling with her cover. Maybe he should ask her what she expected of him? But wouldn´t that make him look even more stupid?
Suddenly, he felt hands touching his back.
One was nudging its way under his side, the other was moving around him, pausing when it met with the over on his chest. Then, Astrid´s voice whispering right behind his ear: 'Are you okay? You seem uneasy...'
But all of a sudden, Hiccup couldn´t recall ever being more okay before. All the worry was suddenly swept away. 'Y-Y-Yes, don´t worry', he said, turning his head towards her as far as he could. Her lips brushed his cheek lightly, then she pulled his chest towards hers.
Hiccup was entirely engulfed in her warmth. He could feel her warm, comforting lips kiss his ear, her soft breasts against his neck, her strong legs entangled with his. He closed his eyes and relaxed, trying to ignore the undeniable bulging in his pants.
However, that proved to be more difficult than he had hoped. What if she noticed? He really didn´t want to make this situation awkward again...
But it seemed Astrid didn´t mind. He heard her chuckle. 'Don´t worry, it´s normal', she whispered before going back to tracing her lips around his neck and his ear.
For a few seconds, there was silence only broken by their slow, peaceful breaths. Then, Hiccup murmured: 'Can we stay like this forever, please?'
Astrid chuckled again. 'I think not. But I wish we could, too.'
Hiccup took a deep breath.
'I love you, Astrid.'
'I love you too, Hiccup.'
The young viking lay awake for a few more minutes, thinking about how lucky he was to have found a girl like Astrid. It was incredible how she managed to show off what a tough Viking she was every day and still maintain her soft, emotional core. And while he was the guy who was more intelligent and rational in most situations, there were so many things he didn´t know anything about. She seemed to be willing and able to help him out with these things without asking for anything in return. They were a great team.
Everything was going to be alright.
When Astrid and Hiccup arrived in the town center the next morning - the fact that they were walking hand in hand had caused several interjections of surprise among the people on the way there - Valka was already busy deploying a team of reinforcements that would support Astrid and Hiccup in case they needed to engage in battle. She had picked out some of the strongest and most brutal man Berk had to offer, as seemed fit for the occasion.
Hiccup, however, wasn´t too happy about this. What if these people didn´t obey him? Yes, he was their chief and they probably respected him, because they usually acknowledged that his decisions were wise. But what if their group got into a situation where they trusted their own intuition more than Hiccup's? Where they panicked? After all, they were still Vikings, and Vikings generally didn´t like obeying orders...
On the other hand, he had Astrid with him, who could protect him and underline his authority with her physical strength. It probably would be alright as long as she was with him.
Valka was talking about all the tournaments and trophies each of these people had won, but Hiccup wasn´t really paying attention. He wasn´t sure why, but for some reason, he didn´t think any having won fighting trophies was going to help anybody deal with these... beasts. They were too large, too strong to be beaten by a single human. No, if they wanted to capture one of these creatures, they´d have to use their wit. And if wit was needed, it was usually him who had to come up with a plan.
Around midday, they all mounted their dragons and took off. Toothless and Stormfly had no trouble finding their way back to the island, so they led the way.
When they arrived, they formed a large circle formation and flew around the island in large rounds. Hiccup and Astrid hadn´t been imagining anything: These strange, fear-inducing beings were still there. Right now, several of them were standing in a circle around what seemed to be the very bloody corpse of a deer, taking turns in ripping chunks of meat out of it. Their reinforcements, very confident when they had left Berk, looked rather unsettled and perhaps even frightened now that they saw this brutal, savage behavior by themselves. How little morale did one have to have to ravage an animal, especially one that was as gracious and harmless as a deer, like this?
After everyone had gotten a good look at the situation, the group turned towards another nearby island and landed there to debate.
'You can´t seriously expect us to fight these things!', one of the fighters exclaimed. 'You´ve got to be crazy! They´ll rip us apart!'
'Calm down, calm down', Hiccup interrupted. 'I won´t force any of you to do anything you don´t want to. Therefore: is anyone of you still willing to serve as our escort?'
There was silence. Hiccup looked around and saw nothing but embarrassed and uneasy faces.
'Just like I thought.'
After another while of silence, he added: 'Listen, guys, I know you´ve come all this way, but there´s no use in fighting if we aren´t confident, and I don´t really think we can do anything about this issue with brute force. If we can´t beat these creatures by strength, we´re going to have to beat them by wit. It might be better if you just return to Berk and do whatever you would normally do right now.'
Astrid wanted to object, but Hiccup told her he knew what he was doing and he´d explain once these brutes had left.
'What in the world was that?', Astrid asked a bit later, visibly aggravated. 'We´re exactly where we were yesterday! You are aware that we only have a week to solve this problem and two days of it are almost over?'
'Yes, of course. Now calm down. What do you think would have happened if I had commanded an attack? Didn´t you see how scared these people were? It would have been chaotic! The most likely outcome would have been that our warriors return home beaten and battered and that these creatures would´ve become angry at us for attacking them. A far worse situation than the one we´re now in.'
Astrid couldn´t argue with that. 'Okay...', she admitted. 'You´re probably right. But what are you planning to do now?'
'I´m not sure. I´ve been thinking and... maybe these beings are just like dragons.'
'Hiccup, these things are nothing like dragons. They don´t even have wings', Astrid interrupted in a matter-of-fact-fashion.
Hiccup let out a short chuckle. 'I didn´t mean it literally, you silly. I was trying to say: What if there´s a way to communicate with them?'
'How are you going to talk to them? All they do is grunt.'
'All dragons do is grunt.'
Astrid laughed curtly. 'Ha, you got me on that one.' After a moment, she added: 'Okay, maybe you´re right. Perhaps we should take that option into consideration. But how are you going to start?'
'The only way there is.'
Not long after, Hiccup was slowly walking towards one of those giants, both his empty hands raised and stretched out. He hoped this was a universal gesture to signal you meant no harm. It had worked on dragons, at the very least.
They had chosen to approach this particular one of the foreign creatures because it seemed distant from the other ones, as they had found out by watching it from the air for several hours. For all that time, it had just been sitting around on a rock, hitting some strange metal box, but with no intention of breaking it - or so it seemed. They had no clue what the being was doing and what it was actually trying to achieve. Maybe it was simply crazy and their enterprise was destined to fail right from the start.
The giant seemed to have noticed him now. It put the metal box away and looked up at him. Hiccup´s heart started racing. He had to resist the urge to run away to where Astrid was hiding.
Stay calm, stay calm...