Ch. 7
As soon as Hiccup and the Night Furies reached Berk, Hiccup saw that most of the village was still asleep, but he didn't have time to wait for everyone to wake up, so he started running through the village and yelling to try and wake everyone up.
"EVERYONE! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! I NEED EVERYONE AWAKE AND OUTSIDE NOW!" Hiccup yelled, and everyone in the village was soon outside, looking at Hiccup annoyingly.
"Hiccup! Why are you yelling! We're trying to sleep!" Stoick said, and Hiccup got right to the point.
"I FOUND ASTRID! SHE'S ALIVE!" Hiccup yelled, and the village was shocked.
"What! Well where is she?" Boulder asked.
"SHE'S….she's been captured…" Hiccup said sadly, and Boulder got right in front of Hiccup.
"What are you talking about captured?" Boulder asked, and Hiccup proceeded explain Astrid's condition and the people that captured her. After about an hour of repeating what Astrid told him, and the Viking's were furious about what they were told, especially Boulder.
"These…Knights…they think they can just sail our waters, kill our people, and torture our children?" Boulder asked.
"Which is exactly why we have to stage a rescue; I've already come up with a plan." Hiccup said.
"If you…think…I'm going to betray…my family…and my friends…you're all fools." Astrid spat, and that resulted in her being beaten again. Astrid didn't care though; she just put one thought in her head, and although it was one word, it was keeping her from telling the Knights anything.
'Hiccup…Hiccup…Hiccup…Hiccup…Hiccup…' Astrid thought, and that was keeping her alive and keeping her from talking as well, no matter how much pain she was put under.
"The pain you are experiencing will end if you just tell us what we want to know." The interrogator said, and Astrid spit in the mans face again, and he punched her right in the mouth, and the metal glove he was wearing made her mouth bleed as soon as it made contact. Suddenly, the interrogator was called away, and he talked to one of the other soldiers for couple of minutes, and returned with an axe. "I'm afraid we've grown tired of you not giving us the information we want, so I've been given the order to get rid of you. This is the last chance you have to tell us what we want." The interrogator threatened, but Astrid didn't say a thing, so the Knight shrugged and raised the axe above his head. He was about to bring it down to Astrid's chest, but Astrid heard a familiar screeching noise, and then a blue blast appeared from the sky, and it hit the ground a few feet away from her, and any Knights that were caught in the blast were killed instantly, and before the survivors could react, a familiar Night Fury and an even more familiar scrawny Viking landed on the ground, and Astrid recognized the dragon and Viking as Toothless and Hiccup.
As soon as Hiccup jumped off Toothless, he got his war hammer and Targe Shield and began attacking the Knights, and Toothless did the same. While Hiccup was bashing heads with his hammer and stabbing Knights with the spike on his shield, Toothless either burning Knights, biting their heads off, mauling them with his claws, but a Viking and dragon wasn't enough to take on over one hundred men armed with swords, maces, and covered in steel, but it wasn't just them. A couple of minutes after Toothless' first strike, several dragons appeared in the sky, and they were swooping down, either grabbing Knights by the claws, or burning them to death with their fire. A few minutes later, the rest of Berk's Viking's ran out of the forest and began attacking the Knights immediately. Everything was happening so fast, but to Hiccup, everything was in slow motion as he hit a Knight in the head with his hammer, and with a twist, Hiccup hit the same Knight in his neck with the pike of the hammer, killing his enemy. Hiccup then did a quick spin and stabbed a Knight in the chest with the spike of his shield. He then ran over to Astrid right as three Knights were about to kill her, and Hiccup killed the three quickly with his hammer.
"Raven!" Hiccup yelled, and the Night Fury landed next to Hiccup as he cut the ropes holding Astrid, and he caught her before she hit ground. "See Astrid; I told you I'd keep my promise." Hiccup said smiling, and he kissed Astrid on the lips, ignoring the blood in her mouth, and he enjoyed the feeling just as much as Astrid did. After they separated, Hiccup slowly carried his wife to Raven and placed her on the dragon and grabbed some ropes and gently tied the rope around his wife, careful not to cause her too much pain, but firm enough to keep Astrid on the dragon while she's on the Dragon. "Raven, take Astrid home, slowly though. Don't cause her too much pain then what's beyond your control. And don't take her to Berk; take her to our other home." Hiccup said, and he stroked Astrid's cheek one more time before the Night Fury took off.
"Son! Focus! We still got a fight to win!" Stoick said, and Hiccup nodded and started killing more Knights. Three hours passed the Knights were on the run, retreating back to their ships to cower back to their homeland, but Hiccup called Gobber over, and he and his Boneknapper landed next to Hiccup.
"Gobber, I want you and the other Knapper riders to go up, and burn the running Knights; do not leave a single survivor. And then, burn their ships to ash; show them what happens when you mess with Viking's." Hiccup ordered, and Gobber nodded and he and seven other Boneknappers took off into the sky, and few seconds later, fire burning and screams of pain and fear filled the air, and Hiccup smiled, knowing that the Knights were getting exactly what they deserved.
"Well, it's over…" Stoick said, but Hiccup shook his head.
"No dad, I believe more will eventually come to try and destroy us. We just have to be ready." Hiccup said, and one of the Viking's walked over to Hiccup and Stoick.
"Stoick! We got one that's alive!" The Viking said, and he raised his hammer to kill him, but Hiccup spoke up.
"Wait! I recognize this one; he's the one that would investigate Astrid, so he speaks our language." Hiccup said, and he bent down and removed the interrogator's helmet, revealing his bloody face, and Hiccup smiled. "Hey there." Hiccup said warmly. "So, did you enjoy torturing my wife?" Hiccup asked, and he punched the interrogator square in the face. What gives you the right to just capture and torture anyone you see fit, huh!" Hiccup asked, suddenly enraged, and he unleashed a fury of punches and kicks at the man, and he got his hammer and drove the pike into the man's shoulder and the man screamed. "WHY! WHAT PURPOSE GAVE YOU RIGHT!" Hiccup asked, and the man chuckled.
"The noblest purpose of all; removing all pagans and heathens in this world so God's glory can shine eternally." The man said, and Hiccup looked at the man confused. "My only regret is that your she-whore of a wife won't be burning Hell right now, like she should be." That made Hiccup snap; he drove the pike in the spot between the mans legs and he screamed in absolute agony, and even some of the male Vikings groaned in pain too. Hiccup then rammed the blunt part of the hammer into the mans neck, and finished him off by driving the pike right between the mans eyes, definitely killing him. And as Hiccup stood up, he spat in the corpses face, and Stoick put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder.
"You should get home to Astrid son; she may need your help." Stoick said, and Hiccup nodded and got back on Toothless, and took off towards their island home.
When Hiccup got to his island home, he saw that Astrid was still tied to Raven's back, so he untied the rope and carried Astrid into the home and slowly laid her on their bed.
"It's…good…to…be…home." Astrid said hoarsely as she coughed between words. Hiccup went over to a bucket and ladle and got Astrid some water and had her drink until the bucket was empty.
"Astrid, rest. You deserve it, for all you've been through." Hiccup said, and Astrid smiled as she closed her eyes to try and sleep. Once Hiccup was sure she was asleep, he put a blanket over her and got some herbs and bandages ready for Astrid, when he heard a knock on his door. He walked over to the door and saw that it Stoick that was knocking.
"Son. We need to talk." Stoick said.
"Okay. But let's do it outside; Astrid is sleeping." Hiccup said, and he stepped outside and shut the door. "What's wrong, dad?"
"We need to get Berk ready just in case these Knights find us. Do you have any weapon designs that we can use to help increase Berk's defenses?" Stoick asked, and Hiccup held up his finger and ran into the house. A couple of seconds later, Hiccup returned with a book, and he gave it to his father.
"The designs in this book should give Berk more than enough defensive and offensive power. I'd normally help with the construction, but…" Hiccup said, and Stoick raised his hand.
"I understand son; Astrid needs you. You take good care of, Hiccup. And you two return to Berk when she's feeling better." Stoick said, and Hiccup nodded before he went back into his house. As he walked over to his bedroom, he smiled to see his wife sleeping peacefully, and he walked over to her and he kissed her forehead. Hiccup sat on the bed and just watched his wife sleep, and he couldn't wait till the day that Astrid is fully healed, so they can resume the happy marriage. As Hiccup thought of the best ways to help Astrid heal however, he looked around and noticed that Toothless and Raven were nowhere to be seen, and he was wondering where his two friends went, when suddenly, he heard roaring in a different room of the house, and he followed the roaring, and found his dragons in the other bedroom, on the floor, with Toothless on top of Raven, and doing something that was making Toothless roar and Raven purr. When the two dragon's opened their eyes, they saw Hiccup and roared at him, and Hiccup ran out of the room.
"I can't believe Hiccup just walked in on us like that!" Raven growled, and Toothless ran his head across her neck and purred.
"I don't think he meant it, love. Accidents happen." Toothless said, and Raven calmed down.
"I guess you're right. Besides, we only have two years before the egg arrives. We don't need to be focusing on trivial things like this, so let's just forgive him and move on so we can get our home and lives ready for our offspring." Raven figured, and Toothless continued to rub his head against Raven's neck.
After getting over the initial shock of seeing his two friends mate, Hiccup walked back to Astrid and saw that she was waking up painfully. He was immediately at her side, and when Astrid opened her eyes, she started groaning in pain.
"Astrid, what hurts?" Hiccup asked concerned, and Astrid just looked at him.
"Everything!" Astrid yelled, and Hiccup got the herbs he got from a cupboard and had put them on Astrid's burns and cuts. He then wrapped bandages on her wounds and got a stilt ready for Astrid's broken limbs and he tightly wrapped them around Astrid's broken arms and legs so her broken limbs would heal. After a few minutes, the healing herbs started to work, and Astrid stopped groaning in pain. "Thank you, Hiccup." Astrid said, and Hiccup smiled and kissed her.
"You shouldn't have gone through that, Astrid. You didn't deserve it." Hiccup said as he wrapped his arms around her. For a few minutes, there wasn't a sound filling the room except for their breathing as the two feel asleep together peacefully for the first time in three months. Right before Hiccup fell to sleep; he was praying to the Gods that things will go better for awhile, if not for their rest of their lives.
A/N: So, Hiccup and Astrid are back together, but Astrid isn't exactly in the best of shape; she has 1st and 2nd degree burns, severe gashes across her entire body, and several broken bones. It may take her awhile to be fully healed. Which brings me to a question I have for you readers; how long do you think it'll think for Astrid to heal fully, six to nine weeks, or six to nine months, or anywhere in between those time lines. Please tell me what you think, and I'll go with the majority.
