Thanks for all the reviews! I admire your support! Admire…that's not the word I want to use, but I can't place the one that I do want. So I'm sticking with admire. Onward!

Chapter 7: An Old Story

Stoick roused with the sun, something he only did when sleep had been tremulous. He hadn't slept more than ten minutes at a time, waking with irritation in his limbs, wanting to move about and stretch out their weariness. It had been such a terrible night that when the first rays of sun pushed through the easternmost clouds he welcomed them with gratitude.

No one else in the village seemed at all irked about the strange weather the previous night. He assumed it was because no one else had noticed it and left it at that. He did, however, intend to track down his wayward son and have a chat. He was neglecting the guests and Stoick had a deep set feeling that Hiccup saw the strangeness in the skies. If he were to be chief someday they he'll need to learn vigilance.

Stoick went outside and into the village. There was something rewarding about another sunrise, like the morning after a victorious and bloody battle, known only to those who survived, the victors. It was a reward for surviving another night. It was a promise that there would be another day. It came with the possibility of another victory, another sunrise.

Stoick made a chief's lap around the village checking that all was as it should be. And to his learned eye, it was. However that suddenly came crashing down around him. Scaggs and his few men from the house met him at the village's heart, a terror upon his aged face that Stoick had never seen.

"What is it?" Stoick asked immediately.

"Stoick, my Esol, she is gone." Scaggs said, his voice fearful, angry, ashamed.

"What?" Stoick asked, the prospect of the girl vanishing from his own house impossible. "No, Esol is probably already in the village. With Hiccup, perhaps."

This idea seemed to dampen the fire, but not put it out. Scaggs let out a groan, and Stoick was unsure whether it be better Esol vanish altogether or be found to have slept the night with Hiccup. Either would have dire consequences for someone.

"Let us wait until the village is up and running before we panic." Stoick said to Scaggs. He had no plans to panic, or even worry. Doubtless Esol was in the village somewhere. Where could she have possibly gone?

Hiccup and Astrid lay tangled in each other. The daily commotion of the village outside was accompanied with extra sound this morning. Hiccup stirred first, and could not move without stirring Astrid. So for a moment while he waited for the lasts dregs of sleep to ease away, he admired how warm and soft the girl in his arms was. Her hair was spread out like a web, over his arm and between his fingers. Her breathing was even, the rhythm of life.

If only he could stay here a while longer, taking her in, after missing her presence for so long. But eventually Astrid began to stir, as if she knew that he was watching her, even in her sleep.

"Good morning." Hiccup said, her drowsy smile warming his insides like nothing else, melting, almost.

"Morning." She whispered.

There was something happening outside. The commotion was a bit more … erratic? No, that wasn't the right word for it, Hiccup thought. It was different through.

"Stay here." Hiccup said as he untangled himself from her, a bit unwillingly.

She responded with a morning groan, stretching and rolling over. That was fine, Hiccup thought. He didn't want someone to just wandering in here, thinking the sounds of life were his, and having the surprise of a lifetime.

Hiccup walked outside the smithy and was greeted with the strangest attitudes. Some Vikings were glaring at him, judgingly so, like he had burnt down his own house. Others had a sultry look about them, watching him pass them with a nodding approval. Did he miss something?

"Hiccup." Stoick was calling over the disarrayed crowd. He didn't sound happy at all, quite the opposite in fact.

"Yeah?" Hiccup answered back. If anyone knew what was going on, his father would.

"Son, have you seen Esol?" Stoick said to him. A few murmured chuckles went through the crowd.

So that was it, Hiccup thought. They'd discovered that she was gone and had assumed that she'd been with him. He would normally have been peeved at the assuming glares and rumors, however given the circumstances he understood why they wanted to think that. It was either she was with him, or they had no idea where she was.

Time to lie.

"No, dad, I haven't seen her." Hiccup said.

There was an unrest through the crowd. Obviously, that was not the answer Stoick had wanted. His eyes narrowed at his son, urging him to fess up, this was not the time to cover tracks.

"Honest." Hiccup said. "I haven't seen her since yesterday."

"She's not with you in the smithy?" Stoick asked, making sure they were on the same page.

"No, of course not." Hiccup said. "I don't know her that well."

Stoick glared. Now was not the time for smart-mouthing, either. Truthfully, he hadn't seen her since the night before so it wasn't a lie. It just wasn't the entire truth. But that wasn't what Stoick asked. If he'd asked if he knew what happened to her, well that question was a bit more open ended and harder to go around. Hiccup had to play along, for his sake as well as Esol's, and the mysterious man she loved enough to abandon her father and tribe.

"Did you lose her?" Hiccup asked.

Stoick frowned.

Stoick sent word out through the village and soon everyone was gathering on the Great Hall's steps. Hiccup tried to sneak away to tell Astrid to stay in the smithy, to hide, or something but he couldn't get away from his father's sight. Stoick would bellow for him to stay put, that they'd need him.

Vikings were whispering, gossiping, and tossing rumors around. Hiccup stood at the stair's top landing just outside the Great Hall's doors. Stoick stood before the village with his leader's stance while Scaggs slumped behind him looking utterly defeated.

Stoick soon began to issue orders, quickly and with purpose. He divided the village into teams to search for Esol. Some went into the forest in several directions, some went to the beaches and coats, other went seaward to the stacks and outlying islands.

"Hiccup," Stoick said while the search parties were heading out. "I want you to search from the sky. That dragon of yours is faster an can cover more ground."

"Sure." Hiccup nodded. "I'll get Toothless from the stables after I stop by the smithy. I...left my eyeglass there."

"Go now." Stoick said. He watched his son take the stairs two at a time. He had been spending a lot of his time at the smithy. But he would worry about that later. There were more pressing matters. Where could that girl have run off to?

Hiccup ran through the village as fast as he dared. He didn't want to attract attention to him or the smithy. He tried to seem casual as he glided inside.

Astrid was still laying on the cot. When he shut the door behind him she stirred.

"What's going on?" Astrid said, sitting up. She hadn't slept since he left.

Hiccup put a finger to his lips. He whispered, "They village is searching for Esol. They think she just wandered off. I have to go help. Astrid, whatever you do, don't leave the smithy. If someone comes in here looking for Esol, hid."

"Alright." Astrid whispered in return.

"I'm serious, Astrid. They can't find you." Hiccup said, grabbing hold of her shoulders and staring into those ice blue eyes.

"I promise." Astrid said. "I won't be found on purpose."

"Alright, I've got to go. My dad is on high alert." Hiccup said, kissing her on the forehead as he left.

Hiccup left the smithy with his destination as the stables. He walked briskly, a mission of acting on his mind. He'd have to pretend to search. It would be hard looking for something he knew couldn't be found. The stables came into view and Toothless bounced happily toward Hiccup. He climbed onto the saddle and the dragon leaped into the air.

The search parties were lie tiny ants, scrambling franticly. Hiccup sighed. He felt a twinge of guilt for knowing what had happened to Esol, but how could he confess that? He didn't know where she'd gone only that she had. He knew she wasn't on the island or near it. But how to tell his father?

As he flew above Berk, he was left with a lingering feeling of unease.

Stoick organized and operated the search from the village. He wanted to make sure she wasn't there. He saw Hiccup emerge from the smithy, his hands empty. Stoick watched him run to the stables and greet the night-colored dragon. He hadn't taken anything from the smithy, no eyeglass.

Did Hiccup lie to him? Why would he do that? Stoick scanned the smithy. He could feel it in the air, smell it. Something was off. He watched the black spec that was his son ride away from the village, and walked to the smithy. The forge was empty. Hiccup had a small workspace, a tiny space near the back.

He ducked under over-hanging shields and swords. The closet door was closed. He reached for the handle and pulled it open.

There was a candle burnt down to its end, and a few books and designs laying about. There was a blanket strewn half on the floor. Stoick reached for it and wadded it in his fist. Hiccup never could keep a space tidy. He dropped the blanket wad on the cot where it belonged.

It was a bit messy, but there wasn't anything there that shouldn't have been. Stoick exhaled with a huff and closed the door. He had more important things to do right now than examine his son's behavior.

Astrid listened as Stoick's heavy footsteps trailed away, out of the smithy. He let her held breath go in a sigh of relief. That had been a close one. If he hadn't telltale footsteps she would have been caught. As soon as she heard him coming she dove underneath the cot, throwing the blanket to the floor in the process. She'd held her breath as his large hand reached down.

She feared that he would look underneath, that his hand was going to press against the floor and his head would follow, piercing her with his suspicious eyes. But, to a great relief, he didn't.

She waited until there were no footsteps, and crawled out from under the cot. She sat on it, knowing the day would be a long one. What was she supposed to do in this tiny room?

Stoick met Gobber at the square.

"What's wrong?" Gobber asked.

"Nothing's wrong. I've got a missing Viking and an entire village searching, and one worry-sick chief." Stoick said in a exhale.

"Nah, I know about that." Gobber said. He had a knack for knowing Stoick's facial expression, a talent learned from many years spent as friends. "Is there anything else? You kind of have that distracted look."

Stoick grumbled. He changed the subject. "What are you up to?"

"Oh, Scaggs asked me to repair a few weapons before they take off. Something about wanting to be prepared for anything." Gobber said. He pointed to the wagon of swords, maces, hammers, and shields.

"Are they leaving?" Stoick asked.

"Eh, beats me, but Scaggs was mumbling about Esol leaving for home. I think he's just thinking whatever he can to believe she's safe and sound."

"I would do the same." Stoick said.

"Well, I've got loads to do. Good luck with finding her." Gobber said as he trailed off, the wagon rolling behind him, the metal inside clinking and clanking.

Stoick watched Gobber pull the wagon to the supposedly empty smithy. Sighing and shaking his head, he turned away to help with the distraught guests. If there was someone, or something, in the smithy Gobber would find it.

Astrid stayed in the smithy, like Hiccup told her. After Stoick had nearly found her a few moments passed before a terrible rattling of metal clashed into the smithy. She jumped to the floor to hid herself when she heard Gobber's humming. She sighed, and sat back on the cot.

Hours passed, and all Astrid had to do was listen to Gobber. He hummed, threw in a verse or two here and there, and worked. He hammered, hummed, hammered, and then she heard the plush and sizzle of a hot blade dropping into the water. She moved around, sat on the cot, laid on the cot, paced back and forth to keep herself from going stiff. She needed to get out of here and do something.

Gobber hammered away and she paced. Back and forth, back and forth, to the shelves, to the door, back to the shelves. The cot was on her right, and then her left, and then it was back on her right. This space was so tiny, she needed to go outside and do…anything! Run, jump, roll around in the grass, ride a dragon around the island a few times.

Thinking of dragons, she thought of Stormfly. She couldn't ride her own dragon because she was Thor knows where. Would she ever come back? She could only hope so.

Astrid was near about to rip her hair out from boredom. She could always disguise herself, put ash in her hair, or coal, and wear a helmet or hat, wear something baggy and big to hid herself.

But that was all fanciful thinking. A stranger would cause a ruckus too. Stupid superstitious Vikings! Astrid sat back down on the cot. She brought her legs up with her, crossing them and her arms in one motion. She just couldn't sit still. She tapped her toes on the cot, adjusted her shoulders, scooted this way a bit and then back.

Gobber tossed something into the water and it hissed. In the momentary pause Astrid heard a scratching from underneath the cot. On the floor, like tiny claws attached to a tiny dragon, its thin nails rattling in their roots as they slid across the worn stone, brittle and breaking. Was there something under there?

Cautiously, Astrid pushed herself to her hands and knees but remained on the cot. Whatever it was, it didn't sound friendly. She dropped her head over the edge. The floor under the cot was empty. Knowing she had heard something Astrid got up, and knelt down on the floor beside the cot. There was something under there, she knew it.

But the floor was unoccupied, whole and unscratched. Gobber was hammering again, clank, clank, clank. But that sound had been so real, and terrible, had she imagined it? Or maybe it had come from outside and it only sounded like it was inside. Yes, that had to be it.

Whatever, Astrid sighed as she plopped back down on the cot.

Silence. The humming and hammering had stopped, no hissing followed. Astrid felt her heart drop into her stomach. Instantly, she threw herself to the floor and crawled under the cot, regardless of what might be there. She felt the wall of the closer pressing against her back.

She could hear the step, plop, step of Gobber's walk heading to the closet's door. Right up to it, and he stopped. His shadow was moving under the crack between the door's uneven edge and the dusty floor. Astrid held her breath. The door opened, and she could see his boot and wooden leg.

He stepped inside, step, plop. Her heart was racing, the need to breath overpowering her will to not make a sound. Gobber stepped in the same pace-track she had, pausing here and there.

Was he sniffing the air? Did she smell?

Gobber turned and took a step to the door. He mumbled, "Guess I'm losing it."

Astrid let out a slow and quiet exhale. She couldn't hold her breath any longer. She drew it back in as Gobber took another step to the door. Astrid was sure she'd survived another close find.

She exhaled, just as Gobber turned back around and bent with quickness she didn't think he had. His face appeared so fast Astrid let out a startled scream.

"What in Thor's name are you doing under there?" Gobber asked, a bit edgy. "Stoick's got the entire village out scouring the island for you!"

Astrid didn't move.

"Get out from there." Gobber demanded. Astrid did as she was told, although she was intimidated by what could happen. Gobber held out his hand to help her stand. "Ought to string you up for making such a fuss. Why would you…"

Astrid saw the surprise in his face, the uncertainty, the confusion, disbelief, fear. He ripped his hand from hers and held it tight to his chest. There was a slight shake in his head, and he mouthed a few words before he found his voice again.

"Odin's beard." He whispered. He was searching her face. "I thought …I thought you were Esol."

"I know." Astrid said. Right now, she almost wished she was.

"I don't understand." Gobber said. "You…you're dead. Watched Stoick carry you're carcass to the tombs."

What to do…what to do? Astrid stand there, staring back at Gobber's blunt disbelief.

"You're dead." Gobber repeated. He gulped. "Why aren't you dead?"

"It's kind of a long story." Astrid shrugged. If there was any time for Hiccup to come back, now was it. She paused, expectantly, but he didn't miraculously appear in the door. She was on her own.

Astrid told Gobber everything. About waking up in the cave in Hiccup's arms, and how he'd done some sort of ritual to bring her back. She told him everything she could about the cave, the stone basin, the altar. It all flooded out of her, relief of having something happening, something to think about, someone to talk to, hope that she wouldn't be stoned and cast out into the sea in fear.

And he listened. He didn't interrupt or comment, only listened. He sat on the cot while she paced back and forth, spilling things as they came to her. Finally she came to when he found her, and at last she gave a great sigh of relief.

"So…you were dead, but now you're not?" Gobber asked, trying to wrap his brain around it.

"Yes." Astrid nodded.

"Alright." Gobber said. "I supposed weirder things have happened…no, actually I don't think any have. But, tell me, Astrid, how did Hiccup know this ritual?"

"He didn't." Astrid said. "There was this woman, she told him. I think."

"A woman?" Gobber asked, suddenly his doubt and disbelief turned to suspicious, something sinister under his tone. "What did she looked like?"

"I…don't know. I didn't get a good look at her." Astrid said.

"Was she older? Dark skin, dark wild looking hair?" Gobber asked, leaning off the cot with every word. "Foreign, creepy, with eyes that bore into your soul?"

"That could be her." Astrid said. The description fit.

"Oh, dear." Gobber said, leaning back and rubbing his head with his hammer-hand.

"What?" Astrid said. "Do you know her?"

"Unfortunately, I think I do." Gobber sighed. "If it's the same woman I remember. It was years ago, when I was just a little lad, too young to swing an axe. Stoick's granddad was chief then, and like Stoick he took no nonsense. Gothi traveled more when she was a younger woman, and she had a strange friend who'd spent time on Berk. She was about as strange as they come, and they said she was only half human. The other half was darkness. She played with dark spirits, talked to demons, and knew things that people aren't supposed to know."

"What happened to her?" Astrid asked when Gobber paused.

"She was banished. I can't remember for what, exactly. Something the chief didn't approve of. She was bad news, they said. And if she is involved then your story almost makes sense. It sounds like something that creature would know." Gobber said.

The way he said 'creature' sounded so hateful. Astrid didn't have much feeling toward the woman. She had such a short time in her presence. However, she had aided in brining her back from the dead, and Astrid still didn't know how she felt about that.

"I would keep this to yourself." Gobber said, his voice a warning. "Stoick will not want to hear about that woman messing in mortal affairs with her devilment."

"Hiccup is afraid of telling him." Astrid said.

"I would be too." Gobber said. "I don't know how he'll react. Glad that you're back for Hiccup's sake, but Thor knows he'll be anger that that woman's weirdness was involved."

Astrid sighed.

"Don't worry." Gobber said in his cheerful tone. "I'm sure when this thing with Esol blows over Stoick will be less agitated. Speaking of which, do you know what happened to her?"

Without thinking about it, Astrid told him. "She ran away."

Gobber inhaled, preparing to speak, but then let it go.

"She was in love and her father disapproved of him, and so she and him planned to run away to be together. She borrowed a dragon and left." Astrid said, knowing that since she'd already spilled it she might as well give him a more specific answer.

"Oh." Gobber said. "Well that's alright, I guess. Better than dead and floating in the ocean, or eaten by a wild dragon."

Astrid laughed, it was such a morbid image.

"Have you eaten?" Gobber asked. "I'll bring back something from lunch for you."

"That would be great." Astrid said.

Gobber went back to work, hammering and humming. Astrid retreated to the closet, occasionally answering a question from Gobber. He'd never talked to anyone who'd been dead.

What was it like?

She couldn't really remember. Dark, like being underwater without the water. Kind of like being asleep , or half-asleep, or in that moment right after you wake up where you are still mostly asleep but just a little awake; just awake enough to know to be aware that you're sleeping.

Did she talk to anyone on the other side?

She didn't remember doing so. If she met anyone else it was too dreamlike to remember.

How did it work?

The ritual? She didn't know. She woke up in a tub of freezing water, and she remembered that she thought at first she was drowning. Hiccup pulled her out of the water. It looked as though it had been carved out of the rock.

Was she wearing that?

No, she was actually naked. Did that matter? Was it the idea of Hiccup seeing her naked that he found so interesting?

Gobber laughed at her then. He looked around, to make sure that no one saw him laughing to himself.

High over the forests on the west side of the island, Hiccup and Toothless were pretending to search. He drifted in and out of thought, thinking about Astrid back at the smithy, and about Esol wherever she was. Down below he saw a group searching in a stream, as if her body had washed away and somehow lodged between the rocks.

He felt horrible about putting everyone through such a rough day. And he saw Scaggs when he circled over the village. He looked horrible. He was a father who had no idea where his daughter was. He was no doubt thinking of the worst, of dead, of near death, of horrible painful death, of a future with no daughter or grandchild.

Hiccup knew his own father would be the same if he vanished. But he knew that Stoick wouldn't fall apart so easily. When Astrid had died her father was beside himself, which made Hiccup wonder if it was a daughter-father thing. If so, he hoped that he would have a son.

Hiccup shook his head with a agitated sigh. Toothless grunted.

"It's alright bud." Hiccup said. He'd landed on the idea of having children, which was more than Hiccup wanted to think about. Sure, one day, but that one day was a day far away.

And there's chapter seven! Whoo! Oden is actually spelt Odin, which I learned today. I would go back and fix it but…I really don't want to. Maybe one day, far away.