First off: FANART!!
I do this for my other stories and I just have to tell you about the most beautiful picture that TugaMaggie drew over on Deviantart! Its her interpretation of the scene where Astrid gets the bluebells in "Of Hills and Bluebells" which is one of my favorite scenes. THe pic is just beyond cute and their expressions make me squee with joy everytime I see them.
So you can go to my profile page and click the link labeled 'fanart' and it'll take you to the folder with all the art people have drawn for my stories. Keep in mind that most of it is Bleach (japanese manga) but the pieces are all wonderful. This one's b Tugamaggie and its called Bluebells.
Secondly: Boat Lingo
There isn't going to be any. I know my way around a boat. But there are those of you who don't. So I'm keeping it strictly to "Forward, Backwards, Right, Left etc." Therefore, those of you who want to be egotistical and go all, "Left on a boat is Port", save it. I know. (that's a huge negative generalization but there's always a reviewer or two who thinks they're soooo smart. Call it preemptive action)
Now back to the story!
"This gonna be, like, the best hunting trip ever!"
The outlandish assertion came from Snotlout and was voiced as soon as the island was out of view. No parents, no rules, no supervision--just them and the objective of their mission. It was like being out into the sun after being cooped up in doors for too long. Despite the fact that it was colder out on the water than it had been back on land, the vikings were too excited to care about anything of that sort. They'd steered the boat away from the docks and cove that sheltered the ships in Berk and slowly the land had given way to the waters that surrounded Berk. Their plan was to swing around and make for the rock formations that sheltered the eastern side of the island. Game was plentiful but it meant they were going to have to navigate the treacherous, rock filled waters that surrounded it. As long as they swung wide, they could have a day of relatively easy sailing and avoid having to undertake the rocks at night--which was certain suicide for even the best of the sailors.
Hiccup took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting the wind comb through his hair. He had never really had an aversion to boats. He liked the rocking and the smoothness. Especially now. It kind of reminded him of flying, though it wasn't quite as fun. Like all the vikings he'd been on a boat before, but his father was the chief and chiefs tended to stay behind and watch their people sail off, not do the sailing themselves. In fact, as the thought back, Hiccup realized that he'd been on a boat but never overnight. As he glanced around he didn't think any of the younger vikings had spent nights away from home. Trips like the one that they were taking were rare. Any time they had gone overnight away from the safety of their home they had been with their parents. They had been kids and kids went with their parents.
But now they were adults. It was funny to think that they had already saved the world once. Something as simple as undertaking a hunting trip would be easy. But it wasn't. They had saved the world in a plan that was crazy, stupid and relied heavily on no-one knowing that they were coming. This had been thought out, it had been planned and like all things that Hiccup thought hard about, there were at least a million ways for it to go wrong. It was a habit he had, to think about all the ways that things went wrong, and one that he wasn't going to break anytime soon. It was practical, really, to consider how things could go wrong. When you worked as a blacksmith you had to consider the way things could go wrong. If you assumed everything would go right you got surprised when it went wrong. But, if you planned for what would go wrong you could deal with it.
Most of the time.
"Well we haven't sunk the boat yet," Astrid said coming to stand next to him.
Hiccup looked over at her. Her eyes were directed at the sail above their heads. His gaze followed hers. The sail was still fat with wind, carrying the boat merrily away from the safety of Berk. Astrid seemed perfectly content to be on the boat, though Hiccup knew that even if she was wildly uncomfortable she'd die before she made it obvious--even to him. That day when she'd shown him her hands on the cliffs had been an exception, not the rule. She wasn't one to show weakness, not under any circumstance. Hiccup had always thought that was silly--until he became a good viking and found himself doing the exact same thing. But looking at her now, he had a feeling that she was not off put by the boat at all. Her eyes went from the sail to him and almost on instinct he found himself smiling at her. He'd always done that when she looked at him. The difference was that now, now when he smiled at her she always smiled back.
"What?" she asked.
"You don't seem to mind the boat," he said.
"Not really," she said looking down at the deck and then at him, "Bluebell likes to look at herself so much we've been going on the water a lot."
"Yeah, but here you're standing," he said.
"What makes you think I don't stand on Bluebell?" she asked raising an eyebrow.
"You stand on her?" he asked, "but the saddle's not designed to do that--"
"So?" Astrid crossed her arms, color staining her cheeks as she muttered something. Hiccup gave her an inquisitive look, "she still likes to look at herself and she's not entirely used to me being on her. If I stand when we fly low over the water, only my boots get wet instead of everything I'm wearing, okay?"
"Okay okay," he conceded, holding up his hands, "they've all got their quirks And Bluebell's a pretty dragon," she still looked embarrassed by it so Hiccup lowered his voice, "and at least she's not getting upset when you hold tighter and setting herself on fire," he added, glancing purposely over at Snotlout.
Astrid let out a snort of laugher and covered her mouth with her hand in an effort to stifle the laugh. It was one of Snotlout and Sparklout's less than stellar moments. Snotlout had been trying to show off to a group of girls--as he was prone to do--and Sparklout had been nothing but enthusiastic about doing the same. The trick had started out fine but midway through, Snotlout had been so busy showing off by waving he'd lost his grip on the reins and grabbed the dragon instead. He was fine but Sparklout, not understanding that, had broken into hysterics and when a Monstrous Nightmare became hysterical, they set themselves on fire. It was a very good thing that he'd been doing the trick over the water and been able to drop from the dragon before he too was set on fire--though none of the young vikings let him live down his outlandish behavior.
"Well I guess that's something," Astrid said finally, her eyes bright with amusement. Suddenly the boat titled to the side, throwing the two of them together. Instinctively her hands went to his shoulders as his wrapped around her waist to steady her, "Hiccup--"
"Whose steering?" he asked looking over at the vacated space.
He and Astrid looked at each other in horror.
"We've got to go right!" Astrid shouted, turning away from Hiccup and looking over at the land, "someone take us to the right!"
At her shout, the rest of the vikings scrambled for the back of the boat.
Unfortunately the twins made it there first.
Each took one side though neither found anything wrong with that except for the fact that the other was standing there trying to take the other's job. The rest of the vikings moved away, knowing that the twins were going to turn it into the kind of fight that they wanted no part of it. Sure enough the twins glared at each other furiously.
"Its my right!" Ruffnut said shoving him across the wood.
"No its mine!" Tuffnut shot back, "See I've got my hand on the steerer, I'm steering."
"You're facing the wrong way, idiot."
"So? My hands on this thing. I'll face whichever way I want."
"You're going to steer the boat backwards?"
"I'll steer the boat whichever way I want."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"You're an idiot!"
"No, you!"
They began to shove back and forth, each grappling for control of the boat. The tiller was forgotten as the twins began to shove back and forth. The boat rocked wildly in response, causing them to loose their balance as they tumbled to the ground and began to fight with their fists instead of their words. At the rough pitching, all the vikings scrambled for something to hold onto as the boat tipped from one side to the other. Arms locked around the mast, Hiccup looked around at the vikings, all of whom were too occupied with keeping upright to worry about the balance of the boat. Biting his lip, the young viking looked at everyone before taking a deep breath.
"Astrid!" he called over. The young viking girl was holding to the right side of the boat, "on the count of three go left. Fishlegs!" he turned his head to see the viking holding on to the ropes on the left side of the boat, "catch her!" he turned his head over to where Snotlout was standing, "Snotlout can you steer?"
"Huh? Me?" he puffed out his chest, "I can do anything--"
"No, not to impress girls. Can you steer a boat?"
"I can steer it better than those two losers!"
Hiccup rolled his eyes and looked around. Steering a boat better than the twins who would very well capsize them wasn't exactly what he was looking for. His eyes moved around the boat until they landed once again at Fishlegs. The huge viking wasn't clutching at the ropes like Hiccup had previously thought. He was holding on but it wasn't with the same desperation as the rest of them. In fact, Hiccup watched as the large viking shifted his weight in time with the pitch of the boat. He didn't look afraid or, at least, not as afraid as the rest of them. He looked like he was getting ready for the boat to tip. Like he knew what he was going to do once it went over. He looked more at home than Hiccup had seen him look in dragon training.
"Fishlegs!" Hiccup shouted over, "can you steer the boat?!"
"I--uh--" the young viking fumbled for the answer as the boat pitched again.
"Fishlegs!"
"Yes!" he hollered back.
"Okay!" Hiccup looked back at Astrid and Snotlout, "count of three, we're going left. Fishlegs you're going right, aim for the back. Ruffnut? Tuffnut?" he looked around for them.
"We're here!" they said from the other side of the mast.
"Who weighs more?"
"He does!"
"She does! She just doesn't wanna admit it because she's a girl!"
"He just wishes he wasn't such a scrawney little--"
"Ruffnut you go left! Tuffnut you go right!" he looked around, "ready? One, two--three!"
On three the vikings rolled. With the majority of them on the left, their weight balanced out and the boat stopped pitching back and forth as violently. Fishlegs grabbed the tiller, getting the boat under control. Breathing hard and maintaing his white knuckled grip on the side of the boat, Hiccup looked back at Fishlegs. The viking maneuvered the boat with the kind of ease that Hiccup knew came from practice. Lots and lots of practice. His eyes went up to the sail as he made a small adjustment to the boat. It responded to his touch, picking up speed as it took them further into the waters. Hiccup only dared to move when the boat finally stopped rocking all together. Letting out a breath, Hiccup reversed his position and slid down to join the rest of the vikings sitting on the deck of the boat.
He caught Astrid's eye. The young woman looked back at him. Her hair was askew and her cheeks were red but she still gave the lopsided grin Hiccup was beginning to think was reserved for just him. His leg gave a painful throb to remind him that it did not appreciate being knocked around like it had been but Hiccup ignored it and returned her smile with one of his own. Pushing himself to his feet, he made his way over to where Fishlegs was steering. If he leaned a bit heavily on the side of the boat or favored his leg more than usual, no-one was stupid enough to say anything about it. Fishlegs saw him coming and looked intently at the ground before fixing his eyes up at the sail, doing things that Hiccup had a feeling weren't strictly necessary. But Fishlegs was one of the more polite members of their group and when Hiccup stepped in front of him, his eyes met the other viking's gaze.
"So," Hiccup began, "you're a sailor?"
"My parents fish," Fishlegs said, his fingers running over the edge of the wood, "and build boats."
"You're parents make boats?!" Snotlout demanded, "why'd you let these two idiots steer?"
"Hey!"
"Hey!"
Fishlegs muttered something inaudible.
Hiccup realized that half the time they were telling Fishlegs to shut up with his endless stream of facts. But if his parent were fishers and built boats then he'd have learned all those facts from them. The vikings who built things were even more knowledgeable about the dragons than the people who hunted them. In hunting you went for the weak spots of the dragon without much thought. The knowledge came from the people who picked up after the dragons. Hiccup had seen builders who were able to correctly identify a which dragon had done what and at what number of shots it'd been at with little more than a quick examination. There was a good chance that Fishlegs hadn't just learned the facts he spewed from a book, he'd learned them from his parents who had probably written them down themselves. Hiccup looked at the blonde viking and realized that he hadn't known that at all. And from the surprised looks on everyone else's face he realized they hadn't had any idea either.
"So your parents make boats?" Hiccup said, "any we'd know of?"
"They made this one," the blonde viking said looking over at Hiccup.
Night fell on the young vikings and their boat.
Snotlout, it turned out, could steer a boat. Not as well as Fishlegs but he managed and the two boys had been trading off on the duty ever since. After their first near-disaster, they'd decided that whoever was in charge of steering got to take control of the boat. It wasn't any problem for Snotlout who lived for giving orders but Fishlegs had had one too many close calls due to his politeness before the others told him that he could be a bit ruder as long as they didn't crash. The young viking was still polite to a fault but at the very least he now was able to give them orders without too many 'please' and 'would you minds' getting in the way. Gobber had warned them all that they were going to have to sleep in shifts so that the boat didn't crash. Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were dozing while Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs worked the boat.
Hiccup was at the front of the boat, his eyes scanning for any kind of obstruction in the water. But everything looked clear. Out on the water it really did seem like they were the only thing in all the world. The water lapped softly at the sides of the boat, reflecting everything back to him. The boat, the dragon head, even the stars above them. Hiccup looked upwards at the stars that twinkled high above their heads. They were bright and clear and so very far away. Hiccup felt a stab of melancholy go through him. It wasn't like Toothless could fly high enough to actually get them in line with the stars but when you saw them from the back of a dragon they seemed much closer than when you looked at them from the deck of a boat. Resting his head on his chin, Hiccup looked up at the sky. Toothless was probably out there somewhere looking up at the stars too. It wasn't like he was going to be flying. No-one knew how to control his fin. Toothless was as grounded as Hiccup.
"Hey," Astrid said coming over to him, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Hiccup said with a shake of his head, "what's going on?"
"Nothing," she said with a smile that let Hiccup know he wasn't fooling her, "the stars look different down here," she said raising her head up towards the sky.
"Yeah," Hiccup said, "they look further away."
Astrid looked over at him. Hiccup looked upset and she realized that he was probably missing Toothless. The stars did look further away down here but that didn't mean they were bad. They'd been looking at stars for longer than they had been flying on dragons and Astrid had a feeling that when they were old and grey and no longer taking to the skies, they would still be looking at them. But she could sympathize with Hiccup. They all could. Their dragons had become their friends--on cold nights their bedfellows as well--and it wasn't fun at all to leave them behind. It was, however, part of the hunting trip and that was one of the few traditions that they had left. Leaning against the boat next to him, Astrid looked back at Fishlegs who was managing the boat just fine before she turned to Hiccup.
"But down here you can see the constellations," Astrid said.
Hiccup looked over at her, mildly surprised. He wouldn't have pegged Astrid Hofferson to be a star gazer. She seemed like she would have been a girl who worked herself to the bone and dropped--with utter grace of course--into bed. Not someone who stayed up at night and looked at the constellations. But her eyes were already directed upwards, scanning the sky for the constellations that she knew. Hiccup looked up towards the sky. Astrid wasn't the only kid in Berk who'd spent endless hours looking up at the sky learning the stories that were written in the stars. His house had never burnt down to boot so he'd never spend those long nights sifting through debris and given the number of dragons that attacked that was a lot of hours spent looking up at the stars.
"I'd never figure you for a star gazer," he said looking at her.
"Everyone looks at the stars," she said looking purposefully up at the sky, "even Fishlegs."
Hiccup glanced behind at the same time Astrid did. Sure enough the young viking was making adjustments to the boat with his eyes fixed determinedly up at the sky. Both he and Astrid knew he was looking at the Lode-star. It helped them to navigate. Hiccup had used it once or twice when he got lost with Toothless and it was too dark to see properly out. But the stars were more than just navigational aides. Hiccup had hear entire stories from Gobber who told them to him with only the stars to tell him which story to tell. Hiccup hadn't been able to see what he meant until Gobber had taken his smaller hand in his larger one and traced the patters with his finger. He'd done it endlessly, until Hiccup could see the heroes that were set into the sky.
"There's Frigga's Distaff," Astrid said pointing.
Hiccup followed her finger to where her finger was pointing to the three stars that made up the constellation. It made sense that that would be the one she saw. if there was any girl who resembled a tough, ass kicking queen it was Astrid.
"That your favorite?" he asked. Astrid raised an eyebrow, "well you've got a favorite flower, favorite dragon--i just figured you'd have a favorite one of those too."
Astrid gave him a look that clearly said she wasn't amused at the assumption.
"Well, uh, there's Aurvandill's Toe," Hiccup said pointing at the bright star. Astrid followed his finger.
"Is that your favorite?" she asked.
"No," he said, "it is Toothless's though," he added. She raised an eyebrow, "he always looks for that star. I see him doing it too. I think he likes it because its brightest at dawn and dusk. Its the clearest star there."
Astrid smiled at that. it was easy to think that Toothless would not only have a favorite star but that he would make sure you knew what it was. At the mention of his dragon's name, Hiccup's smile slipped a bit, his eyes going from her to the water. Astrid knew he was missing his dragon--they all were missing their dragons. But none of them were as close to their dragons as Hiccup was to Toothless. The loss of his foot and the loss of Toothless's tail fin had only brought the two of them closer together. Astrid was sure that back in Berk Bluebell was having no problems flying but Toothless wasn't going to be taking to the skies anytime soon. Not until Hiccup returned. A part of her was saddened by that fact but she knew as well as every other viking on the boat that it was probably the fact Toothless couldn't fly that was saving them from being followed by the Night Fury. Still the melancholy on Hiccup's face made her heart clench.
"I'm sure he's doing fine," Astrid said. Hiccup looked at her, "you're dad's probably spoiling him rotten back in Berk."
"My dad's not really the spoiling type," Hiccup said with a feeble smile.
"Maybe not for you," Astrid said with a flick of her braid, "Toothless on the other hand," she began.
"What about Toothless?" Hiccup questioned.
"You really don't think Toothless is going to have your father feeding him more fish than either of us could carry by the time you get back?" Astrid asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow.
"Well I--" Hiccup began and then paused.
It was true enough that Toothless and his father were dangerously alike but Toothless was also the single most charming creature that Hiccup had ever encountered. Even the most stalwart, dragon hating, axe swinging vikings--his father included--found they couldn't resist the wide eyed dragon. Or at least that they couldn't bring themselves to be angry at him--even though he had torched half the village of Berk at one point or another. And it wasn't even because the dragon was trying to be charming. Toothless was among the most inquisitive of the dragons and the way that he learned was by imitation. For some reason the vikings found it hard to be angry when the dragon imitated their facial expressions and movements with varying degrees of success. The worst part was that Toothless knew it too. The moment he won you over the dragon not only knew it but he made sure that you knew it too. In spite of his father hating dragons, without Hiccup there to convince him otherwise, Toothless had managed to charm his way into a spot at the table, a space in the bedroom and, if history was any indication, a fish supply that 'mysteriously' refreshed itself even when Hiccup found he didn't have the time to go out himself.
"Yeah I'm probably going to have to find a new place to sleep when I get back," Hiccup realized with a groan.
"Probably," Astrid said, her voice dripping with sarcastic sympathy, "but if its any consolation, I'm probably going to need a new bed. Bluebell's all about the scents and that's got mine the strongest. She's probably crushed it already."
Hiccup didn't really hear past the words 'Astrid' and 'Bed'.
Well he heard but it was hard to focus on anything but those words. A month ago and he'd been struggling to get a date. Now he was thinking about his girlfriend and her bed--not to mention the dragon that had crushed it into oblivion. Astrid didn't seem to find anything wrong with mentioning her bed and the fact that it had been destroyed, in spite of the fact that Hiccup was fairy certain his heart had jumped from his chest to his throat. Astrid's amused smile slowly fell into a puzzled look and Hiccup realized he'd been staring at her.
"Well, hey, you know, my bed is your--house!" Hiccup felt heat burn at his face, "My house is your house. So if you need somewhere to stay--"
"I think I'll be fine," Astrid said, not looking the least bit embarrassed by his sputtering, "does Toothless do the bed thing?"
"Not really," Hiccup said, fighting to get himself under control, "he sleeps from the rafters. Or on those stones he picked out. I think he just likes to be warm."
"Bluebell to. Maybe its a dragon thing?"
"Probably," Hiccup said, "but I mean doesn't everyone want to be warm?"
"Are you cold?" Astrid asked.
"Me? I've got enough fur on make a whole other Hiccup here," Hiccup said motioning to himself.
Astrid smiled.
Behind them they heard movement as the vikings changed their shifts. Instantly she stepped away from him, saying something that he couldn't hear before putting a physical space between them. Snotlout took over Fishleg's place as the biggest of the vikings walked over to the middle of the boat and laid down where his weight wouldn't tip it too wildly. Hiccup watched as Astrid walked over to the packs they had brought. Pushing himself away from the front of the boat he walked over to them as well. Even in the moonlight he could see her blushing furiously, like they had been caught doing something.
He knew she wasn't ashamed of being with him, no more than he was of being with her. But they had enough to do without the rest of the vikings making fun of the two of them. In fact, in the entire village of Berk, only a handful of people knew that Astrid and Hiccup were any sort of together. Oh there were rumors and their long flights together certainly didn't help to quell them, but there was a serious lack of hard evidence to say that the two of them were officially together. Past that first kiss she'd given him when he staggered out of his house using Toothless as a crutch. And the preparations for the hunting trip had taken up so much time that neither had seen the sense in dealing with the insanity that was sure to follow.
"Sorry," she mumbled softly, "I just--"
"Its fine," he said, feeling his own cheeks burn, "don't worry about it."
She gave him a grateful look that had his heart feeling like he was back on Toothless before turning to the packs to get out the extra furs they'd brought for sleeping with. Hiccup stuck his hand into the pack, his fingers easily finding the fur even in the semi-darkness. Not bothering to unroll it, he tucked it under his arm and looked at Astrid before he stood up.
"Well, see you in a couple of--"
She kissed him quickly, secretively but still with the kind of boldness Hiccup had yet to master.
"Night Hiccup," she said, getting to her feet and walking over to one side of the boat.
Hiccup stood up, glad it was too dark for the other vikings to see his bright red face. His heart felt like it was going to pound right out of his chest. In fact, he felt like it was kicking him in the ribs. Hiccup frowned and looked down. That wasn't his heart, of that he was sure. Because the kick came again. Only it wasn't an internal one, it was an external one. Either his blanket had grown sentient or--Hiccup's thought was cut off at the exact same time the familiar hiss reached his ears. Instantly Hiccup turned away from the packs, dropped to the ground and opened the fur with a snap of his wrist.
The fur fell open and out fell the familiar, tiny dragon.
He rolled across the deck before landing on his feet and glaring up at Hiccup, giving a disgruntled hiss but seeming to know better than to blow fire on the boat. All the eyes on the boat went instantly to the small but vicious dragon who bolted forward and ran up the length of Hiccup's leg before settling himself on the young viking's shoulder. Hiccup already knew who the dragon curling around his shoulders was. It was the same dragon who had made the dire mistake of trying to steal Toothless's fish. The one who had first followed him home and then adopted Gobber as his viking.
"T.T.," Hiccup groaned looking at the dragon, "what are you doing here?"
The Terrible Terror puffed himself up, obviously very pleased that he'd managed to sneak on board the boat. Hiccup looked over at the packs, glad that there wasn't food in there. The dragon didn't seem hungry at all and Hiccup knew that Terror's didn't require the same amount of food that the larger ones did. He bent down and picked up the fur that he'd dropped when he found the dragon. There wasn't anything that could be done, not until the morning and Hiccup had a feeling that even then the Terror wasn't going to leave. T.T. was the embodiment of finding a heart through the stomach and ever since Hiccup had fed him he'd been protective of the boy--protective of him and petrified of Toothless.
"Come on," Hiccup said hobbling over to the spot on the side of the boat opposite Astrid, "lets get some rest."
"Dude," Tuffnut's voice stopped him, "I must be really tired--" the viking said, "could've sworn you had a dragon on your shoulder."
Hiccup didn't bother to correct him.
There would be time for that in the morning.
Next time they go through the rocks. Hopefully they'll get to land in one piece.
Also what's the dragon doing there? Is it a present from Gobber or is T.T. just that cute and annoying?
Okay so I know that you need special tools to navigate via the Pole star, but its a long time ago and, hell, there are dragons flying about so just suspend your belief.
Now onto Bluebell + Co. Yes I know you all love to get these messages from me (almost as much as I love having to write them) but its come to my attention that some of the very nice people who asked me permission to use my dragons have been getting reviews along the lines of "but i thought that girl was a possessive biatch?" Well I don't like people who take without asking (its called stealing, however 'un-malicious' it may seem), but some people have been very nice about asking and have written some great stories. The people who you see who have said that I have given them PERMISSION to use Bluebell + co. (and who aren't notified by me otherwise) are the nice, awesome kind of people who know when to ask and understand the common courtesy that is so sorely lacking on this site.
Last off, please review! You guys are kicking ass and taking names in the review department and that totally makes me want to update the story! We've got action, adventure, romance and dragons coming up and that can come a lot faster if you review!
So please review!