"Unnnhhhhh..."
Hiccup's senses only returned to him one by one. First, touch: he lay flat on his back, against some hard rugged surface, with the cold biting at his hands. And his leg...his left leg was sore.
Now, as if emerging from water, he heard sounds muffled and distorted, slowly growing clearer. Groans and squawks and growls and snorts, in every direction.
Now he opened his eyes, just a sliver at first. He saw for a moment his room on Berk, from the perspective of his bed, with the wooden beams criss-crossing the ceiling. Opening wider, his eyes dispelled the hallucination - he lay on the rocks, below a grey dreary sky, surrounded by-
"Ohhhhh boy." He leaned up on his elbows as he stared at the circle of dragons that had formed around him. Dozens of them, of every species, had gathered around to watch the strange human wake up.
"Toothless?" He called out. The Night Fury came around from behind him, gave a quick sniff, making sure his boy was alright. "There you are, didn't see you at first." Hiccup tried getting to his feet. "Aw bud, what hap-"
Hiccup's left foot suddenly seared with pain, and with a yell he stumbled forward as it gave out. Putting his hands out to stop his fall only served to skin his palms. He gave a few shuddering gasps and screwed his eyes shut. Toothless came around beside him, concerned that his human had hurt himself more. Already, though, the agony died away, and Hiccup opened his eyes again.
Now he saw the Red Death, which had rolled over onto its front. There was a dark crimson blotch on one of its claws where it had stabbed into...something. A trail, also crimson, led from it, as if the same something had been dragged away. His eyes followed the trail as it approached him, then went under him, and now he turned himself over to look at his leg.
"Oh gods..." Hiccup grimaced and turned away, not wanting to see what remained of his left foot. His guts suddenly flipped, and he heaved violently to the side. Nothing came out, thank goodness - he realized already the strength he'd need to survive this.
"Ohhhhkay." He shivered from his shock, but he tried to recollect, as best as he could, what to do. Amputated limbs were common in Berk, and it was fairly common knowledge on how to perform the procedure safely. He only had one small problem: he wasn't in Berk, and nowhere near the supplies he needed to complete the gruesome task ahead of him.
Toothless watched as his boy kept glancing around, looking for something it seemed. Curious, he bent his head down beside Hiccup's, trying to see if a better perspective would help him understand.
Hiccup broke from his mental panic, and gave a half-hearted laugh as he rubbed the top of the dragon's head. "Hey, you did good bud. You saved me." Just not all of me, he added to himself. Given this relief from his thoughts, however, he was free again to notice the dragons that surrounded him. They watched both the Night Fury and the boy with intense concentration, noting their every movement, like they were expecting something.
He made eye contact with a Monstrous Nightmare at the edge of the circle. The dragon tilted his head, and began to crawl closer. Toothless snarled a warning.
"No no, it's okay." Hiccup stretched out his hand. "It's okay..."
The Monstrous Nightmare gave the hand a sniff, gave one more look to the boy, then pressed his snout against Hiccup's palm. The sign of trust and respect.
Now other dragons began to crowd around. Hiccup glanced around, and extended his other hand. One by one, it seemed every dragon wished to convey its trust and loyalty in the boy. A dawning realization came over him as his fingers rested on snout after snout.
"We defeated their queen..." He glanced at Toothless. "That means we're their leader now!" One more step of logic. "And if you rely on me to fly, then that means, I'm..." His eyes grew wide as his new status washed over him, his hands still passing from dragon to dragon, follower to follower.
Gradually, all the dragons had their turn, and they now sat again in a wide circle, expecting some kind of command. Before Hiccup could think of anything to say, however, a sudden pang of hunger put its message forward very clearly.
"Hey Toothless, could you grab a fish for dinner? Heh, nothing like becoming a dragon king and losing your leg in the process to work up an appetite, huh?" He gave Toothless a caress on the top of his head, and the dragon walked to the water. The other dragons, realizing that the Night Fury could understand the boy's request, followed, leaving Hiccup alone to consider his leg.
Being in charge of the dragons surely was a nice perk, but it scarcely helped him in his current predicament. He doubted that either Nadders or Gronckles were skilled in medicine, and he didn't particularly relish the idea of a Monstrous Nightmare trying to amputate his leg. Dragon fire could perhaps be useful for cauterizing afterwards, but before he reached that point he'd need something to make a clean cut. The closest he had was his small dagger, which he knew was not wide or heavy enough to be satisfactory. And on top of that, he needed a prosthetic to actually utilize later. For both of those purposes, the removal and the replacement, he would need something metallic, which was out of the question at the moment. As for cutting off circulation...a quick scan over his inventory reminded him of the leather buckle that the Vikings had used to seal Toothless' jaw closed. He pulled it from his vest pocket, and sat it by his side. At least he had something, a start if nothing else.
Hiccup was so engrossed in his morbid plans that he didn't hear the terrific chaos ensuing at the water, and didn't notice anything odd at all until Toothless returned.
"Oh!" He broke from his trance as a nice silver fish was plopped into his lap. "Hey, thanks, looks great!" There was nothing to build a fire with, though, so Hiccup began to steel himself for a raw meal - and promptly had three more fish piled next to him. "What?"
Looking up in confusion, he saw that every dragon had taken his request as a personal responsibility, and now they returned with mouthfuls of fish.
"Well, at least I'm not going to go hungry while I'm here."
As his pile began to grow larger, however, he began to worry about potentially being buried beneath his mound of offerings.
"Wait, wait!" His tone got the dragons' attention. "Uhh..." How he wished they could understand plain Norse! "I'm full!" He held his hand under his chin to indicate his fullness, and paired all of his words with hand signals. "No more fish, no more fish. You have them, you eat too!"
Thankfully, they understood, and some immediately gulped down their catch. Hiccup could hardly believe that his communication was successful, and also that they were so eager to please him. All at once, a crazy idea entered his mind.
"Listen, close! Listen!" He gestured for everyone to gather around. "Bring." He motioned grabbing his chest with both hands. "Bring me, metal." He slowly reached into his vest pocket and pulled out his dagger. At this, every dragon instinctively flinched backwards and growled. "Yes, bad, bad metal! But I need some." He slowly set it beside him, where his pile of fish had been. "Bring me metal."
He hesitated, squeezed his eyes shut, then pointed in the direction of Berk.
"Bring me metal, please."
The dragons cried their assent, and all except Toothless flew off. The sun set low on the horizon, silhouetting them. Black wings against fiery red.
Astrid gazed at the whole chicken leg on her wooden plate. She picked it up by the bone, twirled it around. She sighed, put it back down so the bone stuck out to the other side of the plate.
"Hey Astrid!" Gobber came over and sat by her. "What's the matter? You're usually through your secon' leg by now."
"I dunno." She sighed as she set her leg twirling again, soon to be realigned on the plate once more. "There's just been a lot of crazy stuff happening lately." She looked away.
"Aye, I was s'prised as you were." He took a hearty drink from the jug attached to his prosthetic hand, and wiped the froth from his mustache. "I mean, the boy was always a bit odd, but tryin' to make peace with the dragons?! Now that's just outright loony! I mean-"
"He was not," Astrid's fist slammed on the table, "a loony." Her sullen melancholy had given way to the quiet but potent anger of offense. "He knew what he was talking about, but no one listened to him."
"But a Night Fury? I mean, no one even survives lookin' at one!"
"Well he did! And I-" Astrid caught herself. She hadn't told anyone that she had been on Toothless, and at the moment she preferred things to stay that way. "And I am sure he knew what he was doing."
"You know," Gobber took another drink before continuing, "you've been actin' funny since he left. I mean, a few days ago you were gearin' up to be the best dragon killer in Berk! And now, you've lost all of that."
Astrid said nothing, she just returned to twirling her chicken leg.
"I'll tell ya what I've lost, though: my apprentice! No one to help me at the shop! I just pray to Odin we don't get a dragon attack before I can replace-"
There was a crash outside, and the familiar cry: "Dragons!"
Everyone in main hall leapt to action, but Gobber took enough time to look up and say with a disgusted scowl, "Thanks a lot, Odin."
"Get the torches raised!" "Protect the flocks!" "Man the catapults!"
Astrid got swept up by the crowd as they rushed about, grabbing weapons. Out of habit, she ran back to her hut and grabbed her axe. Instead of immediately charging outside, however, she hesitated. Dragons are not mindless animals, she reminded herself. If you don't attack them, then you'll be fine.
Unless someone else gets them angry. Or if they're looking for something you have.
She settled on a defensive approach: she'd watch outside her own house, but only fight if any dragons tried to come near.
With the sounds of battle echoing outside, Astrid opened her door and held her axe at the ready.
All of the fighting was distant, so she relaxed a bit, and began to patrol around her house.
The Deadly Nadder pounced on her from behind.
"Augh!" She was pinned to the ground, luckily able to throw her axe in time to keep it from impaling her. "Oh no, no no, this is it!"
The dragon released her immediately.
Astrid scrambled to her hands and knees, going for her weapon. But the Nadder got it first. She watched as the dragon took the wooden handle in its beak, spread its wings, and immediately flew off.
"What..." Astrid stayed on the ground, watching with heavy breaths as the Nadder escaped with her weapon. "What does..."
Across the island, Vikings rushed into battle only to find their swords and axes and shields ripped from their hands. Gobber, unexpectedly, found his own shop the most besieged building on the isle that night.
Not a single sheep was missing the next morning.
Hiccup counted it among his good fortunes that the dragons had managed to snag a hammer in their - he didn't want to call it a "raid". Scavenging, that's what they were doing.
He had managed to drag himself over to a flat rock to use as a makeshift anvil. With the help of the Nadders' fire, a pair of swords warped and melded into a suitable prosthetic. Hiccup spent a couple of days making sure it was just the right length, at the same time figuring out exactly where to make his cut.
These couple of days were also necessary mental preparation. Hiccup knew he couldn't put off the deed much longer, though.
Once his leg was finished, he gave a shuddering sigh.
"Toothless," he offered a metal shield, "can you heat a small circle here, that I can use for...afterwards?"
The Night Fury could sense his human's apprehension, and had to be prompted twice to perform the task. While that was being prepared, Hiccup rolled up his pant leg to his knee, revealing where he had marked earlier, in charcoal, where he needed the incision to be. He took the buckle and wrapped it just below his knee, as tight as he could pull. Then tighter.
The dragons grew uneasy, not as perceptive as Toothless, but with a general sense of foreboding.
Hiccup's hands trembled now as he reached for an axe handle, the head removed so that it was just a plain old stick. He stuck it in between his teeth, his breath coming hard. A pause, was Toothless done? He was, and a bright yellow spot glowed in the otherwise dull shield.
"Uhkay," Hiccup's voice was muffled by the wood. With his tremulous hands, he picked up the axe head that paired with the handle. The handle without its weapon, the head without its wielder.
A deep breath.
He placed the edge of the axe along the mark.
A deep breath.
Stop a second, wipe the sweat from his brow.
A deep breath, shuddering.
He raised the head.
Toothless looked away.
