From One Misunderstanding
Chapter 7
Author: Carla, aka cali-chan
Rating: PG-13 because making out.
Genre: Adventure/Comedy/Romance.
Pairings: Hiccup/Astrid, of course.
Canon/timeline: Canon divergence, but it follows the general plot of the first movie. The deviation point is Hiccup and Astrid's "romantic flight"— namely, it takes a bit too long, and things just go downhill from there.
Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon but I really wish I could. I also wish I could own a real, live dragon. I mean, how COOL would that be, y'all?! :D
Author's note: I'm not planning on actually typing out the Scottish accents phonetically. I don't want William Wallace to rise up from his grave to finish me off for desecrating such a crucial element of his culture. You'll have to use your imaginations, sorry.
Summary: What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.
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Stoick practically dragged Hiccup all the way back to the village by the neck of his tunic; Astrid could barely keep up with his large strides herself. When the older man finally pushed Hiccup into the Great Hall (where one of the tables that had been set up for the wedding feast abruptly and painfully stopped his momentum), Astrid managed to get inside just as the tall doors were about to slam in her face.
"...Cavorting with one of them!" the Chief's voice boomed in the enclosed space as Astrid rushed to Hiccup's side and helped him regain his balance when he stood up from where he'd almost been embedded into a wooden stool. "So you were never really excelling in Dragon training, was it? You were just tricking everybody!"
"Look, dad, I should've said something before, I know, but I— I didn't even understand everything myself..." Hiccup tried to reason with the man, but Stoick had his back turned on his son, and didn't appear to be paying attention, as wrapped up as he was in his own anger. "But I know what's happening now," Hiccup continued, "and I just— If you let me explain, you'll see that Toothless didn't do anything wrong. Please, there's no reason to hurt him."
"Stoick, there's a good explanation for everything," Astrid tried to intervene as well, banking on the idea that two voices would be louder than one. "I swear there is. Just listen to what Hiccup has to—"
"And why should I?!" The Chief spun on his heels and towered over Hiccup with a dark frown marring his already gruff features and the weak sliver of moonlight coming in from the half-closed door making him seem even more dangerous. "Every time he opens his mouth, it's just to defend that— that— creature!" He shook his head forcefully. "Defend it over his own fellow tribesmen! Did you not see how many of them could have been killed because of you?"
"They were never in any danger from Toothless! He only reacted when he thought they would hurt me. And either way, nothing would've happened to them if you hadn't led them there on a dragon hunt!" Astrid cringed when he said that. True as it was, it probably wasn't the best argument to raise when the Chief was already seething with anger.
Stoick's hands wrapped into fists at his sides, and for a second Astrid was afraid he might even smack his own son. "How can you ever stand here, in front of your father— your Chief— and defend a dragon?! They've killed hundreds of us!"
"And we've killed thousands of them!" Hiccup shot right back at him, without even stopping for a second to think about it. For one brief moment, under all the desperation to make himself heard, Astrid once again saw that determination she now knew very well. "It's a vicious cycle that has to end, dad, and the only way to do it is to understand what's really causing this!" He shook his head, eyes fixed on his father as the much larger man paced in front of them. "They don't need to kill us, and they only steal our food because if they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves!" He ran his hand through his hair once again, with a sigh. "There's this... massive... thing... on their island that controls them, forces them to raid—"
Stoick stopped abruptly in his tracks and turned to Hiccup again. "Their island? You've been to the nest?! Tell me how to get there," he demanded.
Hiccup's eyes widened as he immediately realized his mistake. "No, dad, I— I can't. Only Toothless knows, dragons can hear some sort of— some sort of call. I couldn't find it again even if I tried—"
Once again he was interrupted as his words unwittingly gave the Chief a new idea. "Good thing we've got the blasted creature in the cages, then." He not-so-carefully pushed Hiccup to the side as he strode toward the doors of the Hall.
It didn't take long for both teens to understand what he meant to do. "Wait. Dad, no! This— this giant dragon, it's like nothing you've dealt with before. There's no way you can beat it, you'll be leading everybody into a massacre! Dad, I mean it, please don't do this!"
Up to that point Astrid had been mostly silent, her heart in her throat as she watched the two males scream at each other, her poor attempts at breaking the tension failing every time. But she knew, she knew, if there was ever a moment to speak up, it was this one. "Stoick, please. Hiccup is telling the truth; if you won't believe him, at least believe me. I've seen it, too. I was there the day Toothless took Hiccup to the island, and this giant dragon... it's too much. It's the size of a mountain, Stoick. It eats other dragons. There's no way you'll be able to walk out of there if you don't know what you're dealing with—"
The Chief had stopped walking halfway through Astrid's speech, and for a moment she thought she had finally gotten through to him, but then he turned to look over his shoulder and she felt like his irate gaze was somehow a thousand times colder now that it was directed straight at her. "You were there with him? When was this?" His eyes widened as the answer came to him. "The night you were out until past midnight. You lied so that we would think something untoward was happening between the two of you!"
"What?" Astrid could feel the pit of her stomach growing cold, like a block of ice was starting to grow in her abdomen. "I've never lied to you! You were the ones who just assumed—"
Stoick had now turned fully around and signaled at her with a threatening finger, effectively shutting her up. "You deceived me so you could worm your way into the Haddock clan! Why, you little gold-digging snake—"
Now angry, Astrid took a step forward and was about to further defend her integrity when Hiccup intervened, extending an arm in front of her as if to halt her steps, and moving to stand in-between her and his father. "Stop it!" he exclaimed, steadfast and sharp over the previous sheen of desperation to his words. "You can yell at me all you want, but I won't let you badmouth Astrid. She didn't do anything wrong; her only fault was covering up for me, so you leave her out of this. We told you all over and over again that things between us weren't the way you thought they were, but you wouldn't hear anything but what you wanted to hear.
"It's already bad enough that you forced us into this sham of a marriage just because you refused to listen, but now you're doing it again and this time it's going to get people killed!" He took a step forward, the arm that was previously extended toward her now stretching toward his father. "Dad, I'm begging you," his hand landed on Stoick's massive forearm, soon joined by his other hand in a hopeful squeeze. "For once in your life, would you please just listen to me?!"
The Chief looked down at his son for half a heartbeat before shoving his touch off him with such force that it knocked Hiccup off his feet and onto the floor. As Astrid rushed to make sure he was okay, Stoick spun toward the door again, his heavy cape rustling noisily with the heft of his strides.
When he got to the door, he paused, glaring at the two teenagers over his shoulder. "You've thrown your lot in with them," he all but spat in Hiccup's direction, and Astrid, who was holding him up into a sitting position, could feel his entire body tense up. "You're not a Viking. You're not my son." With that, he walked outside where presumably the rest of the tribe was waiting expectantly, and signaled loudly for them to ready the ships.
Hiccup didn't move for a long time, his every muscle taut like the Chief's parting words had paralyzed him. Until he finally spoke again, Astrid would've sworn he had been holding his breath for minutes. "They're all going to die," he croaked finally, his throat dry and his voice shaky.
Astrid didn't know what to say to that, so she didn't say anything.
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The ships would've set sail by now, Hiccup thought, upset. Dawn was fast approaching, and his father would've planned to make as much use of daylight as possible. Did they have Toothless in a cage? He wondered. Did they have him in chains? He'd had enough trouble getting even a much softer leather harness on him, so he had no doubt the poor dragon must be miserable by now. Hiccup was not exactly in chains, but he was feeling pretty miserable himself; it was only fair. He knew now that he couldn't convince his father not to do this, but he'd still wanted to go down to the docks and watch the ships disappear in the horizon. Mope in public, why not? He deserved the scorn of his fellow villagers, as this whole mess was his fault anyway.
However, that plan was thwarted when the Goethi declared (through Gobber's translation, of course) that with every able warrior setting off to destroy the nest, they couldn't afford to have the gods angry at them, and so the whole wedding rite had to be completed. Astrid and Hiccup were practically shoved into the Haddock hall, and the first six people who passed by had been pulled in as witnesses (actually, Hiccup was pretty sure one of them was a sheep [1]) for the bedding ritual.
Blessings were recited in haste, Hiccup was unceremoniously ordered to take Astrid's bridal crown off, and just as quickly as everybody had crowded in, they'd all flushed out [2], with word that there would be eyes on the house the entire night just in case either of them thought about sneaking out and attempting to stop the ships from sailing off.
There would be no consummation that night, and everybody knew that, but at least their obligations to the gods were complete.
He felt, more than saw, Astrid moving closer to him. Her hair was down as a wife should wear it only for her husband; she looked more beautiful than he'd ever seen her, and ideally tonight would be the perfect time to tell her that, but they were both so wrapped up in their gloom and guilt, that it wouldn't feel right. She sat down beside him on the bed— he could just see the bump of her knees under the white fabric of her dress out of the corner of his eye, hunched over with his forearms resting on his thighs as he was— and he heard her take a deep breath, releasing it in a sigh. "This sucks," she said, eloquently wrapping up the entire debacle into two words. "I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now. It's like in one day you lost everything. Your father, your tribe, your best friend..."
He frowned. Was she trying to make him feel worse? 'Cause he hadn't thought that was possible, but she was doing an excellent job of it. "Thank you for summing that up," he quipped dryly, as he often did when someone pointed out his shortcomings. It probably wasn't the right moment for sarcasm either, but it was a hard habit to break.
The bed moved as she shook her head emphatically. "No, what I meant to say was—" She cut the phrase short, paused for a moment as if thinking, and started again. "What I'm saying is..." She stretched an arm in his direction, her hand taking hold of one of his, where they hung close to his knees. "...You still have a wife."
His stomach did that funny flip it did whenever she said something wonderful that he wasn't at all expecting. He looked down at their hands, how they were touching, and then lifted his gaze to meet hers, her blue eyes imbuing her words with utmost sincerity. Just hearing her say she was his wife was more than he'd ever dreamed of, but... He scoffed. "Please. Your parents arranged for you to marry the heir of the Haddock clan. You heard what my father said, he practically disowned me! I'm pretty sure that's more than enough for the contract to be declared null and void," he pointed out in a bitter tone.
"Don't you dare, Hiccup Haddock," she hastily pulled her hand away from his, only to use it to slap him in the shoulder. "I didn't say my vows to your father. I said them to the gods, and I don't intend to go back on them. And don't you even think of doing so yourself, or you'll be in for a world of pain, mister," she finished, eyes narrowing with a sharpness that made him cringe. There was the Astrid he knew, loved, and was deathly afraid of.
Her glare softened after a few seconds. "I'm serious, Hiccup. This whole thing is a mess, but we'll fix it somehow. And we'll do it together." She took his hand again, and this time he reciprocated the hold. "We're a team now, okay?"
His hand tightened around her, almost reflexively. "Fix it? There's nothing to fix! The ships are already gone, they'll be at Helheim's Gate in just a few hours [3], and once they get there, they're toast. There's nothing we can do!" He exhaled in a despondent sigh, as if all the fight was squeezed out of him. "I should've just sucked it up and killed the dragon when I found him in the woods. Every other Viking in the archipelago would've done it."
Once more she shook her head, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear when it fell out of place. "Yes. The rest of us would've done it." She lightly caressed his hand with her thumb, coaxing his fingers to entwine with hers. "But I told you, you're different. And that's not a bad thing."
"It feels like a bad thing at the moment," he muttered under his breath, his gaze dropping down to the floor again.
"It's not if you had a good reason," she spoke decisively, as if it was law; her tone left him no room to argue. "So what was your reason? Why did you let Toothless live?"
"I didn't let Toothless live, I just couldn't kill him," he retorted dismissively. It's not like it was the first time he failed at something Viking-y. In fact, most of his failures seemed to be of the embarrassingly public variety, oftentimes happening in front of the entire village. That was just the story of his life.
"I don't believe that," she refuted straight away.
"Why wouldn't you believe it?" he snapped angrily, wrenching his hand away from hers to tug at his hair in a frustrated fashion. "It's what always happens, isn't it? Typical Hiccup. I was a coward, I was weak, I— I wouldn't kill a dragon!"
"You said wouldn't, not couldn't like you did before," she pointed out, and he almost groaned. Was she seriously going to argue semantics with him now?
"Wouldn't, couldn't, it makes no difference!" He dismissed her comment in an attempt to dodge the question. Talking about that day in the forest wasn't going to do Toothless, or his father's unwitting suicide squad, any good. "Why does this matter so much all of a sudden?"
"Because." And just as he was going to open his mouth to give her some sass about how "because" wasn't an answer, she pulled at his arm, bringing his hand back into the fold of her own, and he found himself looking straight into her eyes again. In the blue, he could see a mixture of emotions: the assertiveness he'd always known in her, frustration, even a little bit of anger, like his words had somehow offended her. But most of all, he saw honesty and empathy, and he couldn't look away from her if he tried.
"Because," she started again, when she knew he was giving her his full attention. "You matter to me. And Hiccup," she tugged at his hand, "I want to remember what you say right now. Please."
He sighed, feeling his objections start crumbling down in a second. It wasn't so much the fact that she'd said please, but the fact that she wanted to know. His whole life, he'd had to deal with people rolling their eyes at him or condescendingly patting him on the head whenever he suggested something, some going as far as to consciously ignore him or avoid him whenever he came up with his more outlandish ideas. Hel, his own father had outright refused to listen to him just a few hours ago. As far as Berk was concerned, he didn't matter; he never had.
Yet here was Astrid, someone he'd scarcely allowed himself to believe would ever even notice him, reassuring him otherwise. Here was Astrid hanging onto his every word because she thought what he had to say was important. That it mattered. That he mattered. And she mattered to him as well, so much. How could he ever refuse her?
"I..." he started, his mind's eye transporting him back to that one moment in the forest that changed his entire life. He looked down at their joined hands, unsure how to put those feelings into words; he wasn't even sure he understood the feelings himself, looking back on them. "He... he looked... terrified. He looked just as scared as I felt. I..." The words tumbled out, surprising even him. He'd never thought of it that way, but now that he was saying it out loud, he knew it to be true. [4] "I looked into his eyes... and I saw myself."
He raised his eyes to meet her gaze, and found that she was smiling at him, a sweet, satisfied smile, like he'd just said something she'd been wanting to hear. He tried to reciprocate, but couldn't manage to lift the corners of his mouth, because thinking of that day only served to remind him that Toothless was in danger— the whole tribe was in danger— because of him... and there was nothing he could do about it.
His hopelessness must have shown in his expression, because her smile faltered until she was reflecting his own despair. "He... he must be really scared now," she let out, her voice raspy, her tone uneasy.
And with that, Hiccup couldn't hold it in anymore. There were no tears; he didn't cry, didn't think he had the right to, but it felt like he was breaking inside. Unable to hold Astrid's gaze anymore, he leaned forward until his head was resting against her shoulder, and tried to choke the dry sobs down. He felt her wrap her arms around his shoulders, holding him tight, and felt her rest her face against his head. She didn't say anything, but he didn't want her to. Just being this close to her was enough.
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He woke up to a sunlight on his face; they must've fallen asleep at some point, sideways on the bed, and now it was dawn and the first rays of daylight were beaming down on him through his open window. They'd managed to get a couple hours of sleep, it seemed.
His face was nestled in the crook of her neck, a strand of her blond hair tickling his nose. Both of her arms were around him still, one supporting his head and the other around his shoulder. His own arm was hanging loosely around her waist. One of her legs was tangled with his.
Slightly embarrassed by the unexpected intimacy, he tried to pull away, but only managed to make her stir awake in the process. It made sense: fiercest warriors tended to be light sleepers. He froze in his fidgeting when her eyes opened and focused on his face. "Uh, hey."
"Morning," she replied in a husky tone that— unintentionally, he was sure— gave him the shivers. "How are you feeling?"
He was going to say "fine" out of reflex, but she looked genuinely concerned so he figured he shouldn't brush off her question. "Well... about the same, really." He didn't mean to imply that her attempts to comfort him last night had been for naught, but he'd be lying if he said the problem had just magically vanished. The reality of those longships currently making their way to Helheim's Gate still weighed heavily in his mind.
Thankfully, she seemed to understand. She nodded, and when her hair moved against his shoulder he realized he still hadn't let go of her as he had originally meant to. "Ah, uh, sorry," he said, pulling his arms away from her sheepishly.
She chuckled as she sat up, amused. "It's okay. You're allowed." The comment reminded him that no, it hadn't been a dream and yes, they were indeed married. Man, how many life-altering events had taken place in just one day? "I'm pretty sure they didn't leave us any food, so I'll go to the Great Hall and see if they've already started cooking," she said as she stood up from the bed. They'd slept with their boots on, he noticed.
She went downstairs, presumably to wash her face and get changed (he didn't know where they'd put her things, he hadn't exactly had time to ask after the wedding), while he sat there and tried not to brood. It was really early, with the sun just peeking out over the horizon; he hoped Astrid wouldn't bring a lot of food back from the Great Hall, as he wasn't feeling very hungry.
It wasn't just food she brought back.
"Soooooo," Snotlout started, with a not so subtle nudge of his elbow at Hiccup's ribs. "I hear you couldn't perform last night, Cuz." He shook his head, as if disappointed. "Guess all that sneaking around didn't help at all."
The twins snickered from the back. Astrid slapped her face against the palm of her hand with a groan. "I highly doubt the mood last night was conducive to a successful consummation, Snotlout," Fishlegs intervened, ever the mediator, trying to convey the idea that teasing Hiccup and Astrid about the lack of "action" on their wedding night was perhaps not the best course of action given the situation. Hiccup appreciated that.
"I only understood about half of that," Snotlout pointed out, smirking like he thought that made him sound wittier, and Hiccup rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying! It's no way to spend a wedding night, being all 'boo-hoo, my daddy took away my pet dragon.' If it were me, I still totally would've done it."
"If it were you, you wouldn't have made it to the marriage bed in one piece to begin with," Astrid pointed out, brandishing a threatening fist in Snotlout's direction. Then she turned to Hiccup meekly. "Sorry, Hiccup. I tried to shake them off, but they wouldn't leave until they saw you."
"You saw me yesterday," Hiccup reminded them, rather unnecessarily, he thought. He'd been locked inside his home for the entire night. What could have changed between then and now?
"Yeah, but now you're a married man! It changes things," Tuff commented. Given they already knew nothing had happened between him and Astrid last night, Hiccup didn't know how he was supposed to have changed, but apparently it seemed to make sense to Tuff.
"You still spent the night alone with your bride in your little love nest..." Ruffnut started, following Tuff's train of thought, but then she paused. "No, wait, they already had a love nest in the forest. Ooh, did I tell you that they had a love nest? They totally had a love nest," she pointed out to the rest, almost bouncing on the balls of her feet, and Tuff eagerly turned toward her, prompting her to dish out all the juicy details.
"There is no love nest!" Astrid all but exploded, and it was only by grace of Fishlegs standing between her and Ruffnut that she managed to hold back from jumping at the other blonde's throat.
Hiccup ignored the imminent outbreak of violence (one had to be used to that, living in Berk) and ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. "How can you guys even be gossiping about my wedding night right now? Don't you care at all that our parents are most likely about to be killed out there?" He saw them all slowly come to that sobering realization as they looked back at him.
"They're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard," Snotlout interjected, gamely trying to pretend that things weren't really that dire, but his attempt fell on deaf ears as the reality of the situation dawned on everyone.
"Is it really that dangerous?" Fishlegs asked in a small voice, clearly dreading the answer.
Hiccup looked at them, all of them more serious than he could ever remember seeing them, and knew that he couldn't lie. Astrid moved to stand next to him. "You didn't see that thing, guys. It was terrifying," she admitted. And coming from a clan famed for being fearless, they all knew that when Astrid admitted that something scared her, it meant a lot.
Hiccup nodded. "I... I don't think anyone's walking out of this one," he confessed, his throat drying up as it did every time he thought of what might be happening over at the nest. "And I don't know what to do. And even if there was anything we could do, they're getting close to Helheim's Gate by now, and we're all the way here in Berk."
There was silence for a moment, with all of them quietly internalizing the gravity of the circumstances. That is, until Tuff spoke. "Man, if only we had wings like the dragons, right? Then we could fly there and help the fight."
"We could fly..." Hiccup mumbled to himself... and then he knew. "That's it! Tuffnut, you're a genius!" It was a stretch, a big one, but he had to try. With renewed energy, he split from the group and ran toward the back room, scrambling about for leathers.
The wooden walls around him muffled Tuff's response, but he still heard it clearly: "Of course I'm a genius! Wait, why am I a genius again?"
Ignoring Tuff's question and everybody's eyes on him, he made his way out of the back room and toward the main entrance, shouldering a medium-sized roll of leather skins. "What are you going to do?" Fishlegs asked, this time sounding more like he was curious rather than scared.
Hiccup paused in the doorway and looked back at the five of them. "Probably something stupid," he replied, half-shrugging a little awkwardly under the weight of the rope.
Astrid took a step forward. "Good, but you've already done that." She put a hand on her hip and smiled at him, as if daring him to elaborate. Had she caught on to what he was planning? He wouldn't be surprised if she had.
Her words reminded him of that conversation they'd had the day they were engaged, about the inherent weirdness of hiding Toothless in the forest, and the corners of his lips began crinkling up on their own. "Then something crazy," he replied. A full smile, three steps backwards and then he turned, running as fast as he could.
He thought he heard her say something else, but he couldn't place it, and it must not have been important as a moment later he heard her raise her voice: "We're coming with you! The rest of you go on to the kill ring!"
"Huh, what for?" That was Snotlout, of course, but whatever protests he was going to state must've gotten lost as the others started pulling him forward, and Hiccup heard several pairs of feet stomping off in the direction of the kill ring, and the dragons that were kept there.
He and Astrid headed off into the forest, to the cave where Toothless was captured the previous night. They were immediately hit with the acrid smell left from the fire, the soles of their boots sticking to a dark substance that was covering most of the floor of the place. One whole side wall of the cave was covered in scorch marks and burnt pieces of what looked like Tuff's ale barrels were strewn all over the place, which explained the sticky mess: they must have exploded during the fire. [5]
Hiccup moved past the disaster area, and was relieved to find Toothless' original tail rig right where he'd left it. The self-controlled one Toothless had been wearing had been destroyed last night in the commotion, but at least he still had this one. The stitching burnt off in the fire and what was left of the leather was looking scorched as well, but as long as the metal structure was still okay, he could repair it.
"What's this?" he heard Astrid ask, and when he turned around to look at her he saw she was holding something in her hands. It was a metal circlet of some kind, silver, with etched designs on it, but he didn't recognize it.
"It looks like a crown of some kind, but none that I've ever seen," he said, as Astrid handed him the object. "Do you think Toothless brought it here?" Hiccup was entranced. It might be from the mainland, or maybe even further south. Was it possible that Toothless had flown to uncharted lands and back to Berk in just three days? Wow. The places he must've seen. Imagine the potential for exploration...
"I don't know, it was just laying here on the ground..." Astrid moved to signal the place where she found it, but as she looked down, her expression morphed into a frown. It was then that Hiccup saw there was something else there, covered in mud and sticky goo. She probably hadn't seen it when she picked up the circlet, but from her expression she'd definitely noticed it now.
She crouched down to pick up the object, this time a thin strip of leather, studded with metal, that was much more familiar to both of them. "This is my kransen..." Astrid confirmed, somewhat in shock. The fabric was torn at the edges, like it had snapped unexpectedly. "Toothless must've knocked it off my head and stepped on it the day I moved him to the cave," she explained.
As she spoke, her eyes widened little by little, and Hiccup could see that something was dawning on her. "Toothless. He left Berk so he could get me a replacement," she said, pointing at the circlet Hiccup held in his hands. "He came back to bring me this. He got captured... because of me," she concluded, astounded and guilt-ridden at the same time.
Her logic made sense, and given Toothless' reactions the day he flew away from Berk, how he'd seemed almost alarmed at the mention of Astrid's name, Hiccup figured that's exactly what happened. Still, that didn't mean it was Astrid's fault. Not anymore than his, at least. "Hey... you can't think that w—"
She interrupted him with a harsh shake of her head. "We have to save him," she stated, leaving no room for discussion, but underneath her words there was a current of emotion. Astrid had truly begun to care for Toothless, just as he did.
He couldn't argue with that. Handing her the roll of leather, he picked up the tail rig and they ran back to town, toward the kill ring where the other teens were waiting for them.
Later on, when his fellow teens were already introduced to the dragons they would be riding and were in the process of getting used to the idea (and to the creatures themselves), Hiccup sidled up to Astrid. Having had some experience with Toothless, she was a lot more comfortable with her nadder, and it seemed to reciprocate, already nuzzling affectionately at the girl after only a few minutes of being acquainted.
"So," he started, already cringing as he opened his mouth because he knew she wouldn't like what he was about to ask, but he had to ask. It was the gentlemanly thing to do. "This... is probably going to be dangerous."
"Yup," she said, without looking at him, as she was busy petting and making cooing sounds at her new reptilian friend. He personally was completely fine with this; if she was only paying half-attention to him, she was a lot less likely to punch him.
He pushed forward. "And... there's a real possibility that we might die."
"Uh-huh."
He took a deep breath and braced himself for impact. "Are you really sure you want to do this?"
She paused ominously in her ministrations to the dragon, and turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed and her jaw tense. "Would you like to try and stop me?" she asked him pointedly, and her tone was sharp like she was brandishing her axe at him.
Hah. As if he could. "Point taken," he gave her that one, as he knew from the beginning he would. At his concession, she seemed to relax momentarily, subconsciously rubbing her hand against the nadder's horn. "But Astrid," he started again before she could say anything, "if something goes wrong..."
Like if I end up as dragon chowder for the giant Queen, he wanted to add, but he didn't think sarcasm would work in his favor at the moment. Instead, he paused and looked at her, hoping to transmit with his expression every ounce of the earnestness he was putting into his words. "If something goes wrong, just get out of there. I'm not saying don't fight," he added quickly when it seemed she was about to protest, "I'm just saying... take care of yourself, okay? Please, this is important."
She studied him for a moment, as if carefully measuring his heartfelt request against her personal warrior code. For a second he wasn't sure which one would come out on top, but then she softened noticeably, and he knew she understood. "I will," she replied. "Just... promise me it won't go wrong."
If he could have made that promise, he would have. Oh, how he would've liked to promise her that. But he knew it wasn't up to him, so he said nothing.
Probably wondering why the pair had suddenly gone so quiet, the nadder turned its head toward Hiccup and nudged him with its snout. Its horn dragged locks of Hiccup's hair in the process, making it stand on end in a way that Astrid must've found very funny, because she laughed out loud. If it were anyone else he would've felt some indignation, but he really liked the sound of Astrid's laughter. Smoothing down his hair into some semblance of normalcy, he smiled, scratching the mischievous nadder affectionately under its chin. "They're amazing, aren't they?"
She grinned brilliantly at him. "All I'm going to say is," she ran a hand over the scales on the dragon's forehead, "best. Morning gift. Ever." The unbridled excitement in her voice made him laugh. They laughed together, until Fishlegs and Snotlout chimed in that they were ready and the twins had finally decided who would get which head of the zippleback.
And then they were off to Helheim's Gate.
.
.
Author's notes!—
[1] I'm pretty sure I got the idea for this from Reens' story The Choice, so all credit for that joke goes to her. When I wrote this scene, I couldn't get the idea of a sheep witness out of my head, so I decided to leave it in for humor purposes. If you haven't read The Choice, I suggest you go do so right away! It's one of my favorite HTTYD fanfics ever, and definitely the strongest influence on this story as far as this fandom goes.
[2] Although the idea of a "public consummation" where witnesses had to actually watch the couple having sex is widespread in Viking-related fandoms (understandable because oh, the drama), it's actually not clear whether this custom ever took place. Certainly in the period in which HTTYD is set it didn't. Instead, the witnesses had to accompany the couple to their marriage bed, confirm that it was indeed the bride and groom there and not any kind of impostors, and then watch as the groom takes off the bride's crown (which was sort of a symbolic "deflowering"). After that, the witnesses left the couple alone, so at least that's a little less pressure on Hiccup and Astrid that night. Sometimes the bed linens were checked for blood the next morning, to confirm the actual "deflowering," but not always, and given everything that happened that night, I'd say verifying the consummation/Astrid's virginity was low on the Berkian's priority list. As long as Hiccup didn't mind, nobody else had a right to complain.
[3] From the movie, I would say the Berkians were on their nest-hunting trip (the first one) for at least 8 days. I counted, because I'm a big nerd like that; it's a bit hard to tell, though, so I might be wrong, but that's the number I'm going with. Now, given the level of destruction they encountered on that trip, I'm going to assume it took them at least 2-3 days for them to recoup and salvage enough of their fleet/survivors to make it back home. So I would conclude that a round-trip to Helheim's gate would take the Berkians around 5-6 days, with at least 1-2 days spent on the way. However, there's no archipelago large enough in Scandinavia/Iceland/Northern Scotland that would require 2 days of travel at the fastest speed a Viking ship could reach, so I'm going to keep it on the low side of the range and say it takes them about a day to get to the nest. (Yes, I know this is fiction and I don't have to adhere to real world geography if I don't want to, but *points to self* nerd, remember?). Since they sailed off during the night in this iteration of the story, this full-day or so is what Hiccup is referring to when he says they'll arrive "in a few hours."
[4] "HICCUP... I AM YOUR FATHER." ...Sorry, I had to. I'm a dork.
[5] Ale, which has about the same alcohol by volume as beer, is not considered flammable at room temperature. A substance catches flame because a certain amount of it is in the gas state, and this gas can ignite. In the case of room temperature ale there is not enough gas present for ignition. However, the higher the temperature of the ale, there more gas there is, and at some point it will be enough to catch on fire. (This is why you can get flames when cooking with beer, for example). Another important thing is that when alcohol is encased in a closed space such as a barrel, this gas will build up and increase the pressure inside the barrel, and this can lead to the barrel exploding. This is what happened inside the cave. Also, leather isn't really considered flammable like other fabrics, but it would burn, or at least get scorched, to a certain degree. (That is why burn etching of leather is possible).
Howdy, folks! It's Tuesday again, and here you have the second-to-last chapter of this story. I hope you liked it! From here on, they're off to fight the Queen and at that point things are going to go pretty much the same as they did in the movie (except for Hiccup having to put the old tail rig on Toothless again), so I'm not going to actually write the battle. The next chapter (which is the final chapter) will instead deal with the aftermath of it all.
Thanks so much to everyone who has left me a review so far. I'm thankful for the favs, alerts and kudos as well, of course, but nothing beats a review. I love talking to my readers so don't be shy, leave a comment! It helps me a lot to know what you liked and didn't like about this. What do you think of Tuffnut being both the one who revealed Toothless' presece and the one who gave Hiccup the idea for his rescue? Did you catch the nods I put in to Hiccup's explorer nature in HTTYD2? Did it make you "awww" that Toothless literally brought Astrid a crown? (HOW ADORABLE IS HE?) :3 Tell me in a review!
In the next chapter: Astrid has a realization, and Hiccup wakes up to a new Berk.
Don't forget to follow me on Tumblr (girls-are-weird) or Twitter (girls_are_weird) if you're in either social network! I post snippets from future chapters sometimes. See you next Tuesday for the finale! :)
