Armed with a bowl of fresh wild berries, topped with honey bread, the younger Hiccup made his way toward the prison. As he made his way through Berk, he was hyper aware of the weight of the prosthetic leg and the fire-sword-whatever weapon neatly tucked into the lining of his vest. One misstep could easily expose him, or at least draw unnecessary attention. The moon was only a sliver in the sky, giving him an added advantage of an extra dark night. There was still a few people walking around Berk, visiting with friends and family, or stumbling home from the tavern. Mostly though, the Berkians were asleep in their homes. Oh Gods, Hiccup thought to himself as he approached the prison, this better work.
"Torstein! Magnus! Good to see you two," Hiccup called to the guards as he made his way towards the jail. The two bulky men gave him a strange look. "I brought food, Siv told me you hadn't eaten yet so I thought you-"
"We've eaten." Magnus stared down at Hiccup.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Well I could've sworn Siv told me you two… anyways I guess I'll take the berries back. Shame, really. The dining hall is empty for the night and they'll be rotten by tomorrow. These ones are early for the season. It's going to be at least two weeks before there's anymore-"
"Okay Hiccup. We'll have some," Torstein rolled his eyes. Hiccup's tendency to be over-dramatic could easily get on one's nerves. But once he handed over the food, the two guards began to dig in.
"Hey Magnus, you're good with strategy right?" Hiccup questioned the eating guard.
"Some have said so, yes." Magnus was always quite humble. Hiccup had heard stories of his brilliant battle strategies, which aided Berk on multiple occasions. This was a long time ago though; before Hiccup was even born. When Magnus' eldest son died in battle, while using his formation, Magnus settled into the guarding position which he held now. His story had become a sort of legend on Berk, passed around the fire. But he was a good man at heart. Hiccup hoped the crazy plan didn't get Magnus into too much trouble.
"Well perfect. You see, we've been having problems with the berry bushes. The east patch is further away, but the berries are so much better than the western patch. Which is closer, and there's more bushes too. So as a community I think we need to look at what we really want from our food," Magnus and Torstein's eyes were beginning to droop, so Hiccup continued his rant. "I mean, if we just had a few more people, we could plant more bushed in the eastern patch and then also have more to pick and carry the berries back to Berk. But, then again, I might be completely wrong. So… Magnus I need your opinion on this essential, crucial, vital issue."
Magnus stared at Hiccup for a fraction of a second, his hand wrapped tightly around his sword. He opened his mouth, as if to yell, before staggering forward and collapsing into the dirt. Torstein fell to his knees not a moment later, but unlike Magnus, had the strength to lift his head and speak. "Hiccup," his voice was no more than a whisper, "what did you do?" He tried to crawl forward, towards Hiccup's feet, before falling into the ground. Hiccup stared at the two men, slack-jawed and drooling on the ground, and for the first time he began to question what he was doing. He just gave two of Berk's best guards food laced with a stolen sleeping draught, for Thor's sake. He listened to man who claimed to be his older-self, a crazy, dragon-riding older self. All because of a knife, which although rare, could have been replicated if the intruder knew him. Hiccup took a shaky step away from the prison door. What am I doing? He asked himself again. Defining his father, helping a prisoner, hurting guards, befriending dragons, it couldn't be right. He took another step away from the building ready to turn and run. I've got to leave, I can't do this. What was I-
"Take your time, I enjoy waiting here," a voice, laced with sarcasm, broke Hiccup's thought bubble. "The dirty floor is really quite comfortable. The stale bread they've given me is wonderful also, this is a fine establishment."
Hiccup swallowed his fear, and pushed his way inside the prison, empty except for one cell that held the one-legged man sitting on the ground. As strange as it was, the more his older self talked and acted, well, like Hiccup, the more confidence the younger had that he wasn't an imposter. Appearance, voice, artifacts, those could all be replicated. But the Hiccup brand sarcasm wasn't easy to duplicate.
"Finally," the older Hiccup sighed, "I was beginning to think you'd given up on me."
The younger shrugged and uneasily scratched the back of his head. "I couldn't give up on myself that easily. And, well, they want to kill you in the morning."
The older, who had managed to remain fairly carefree through this whole ordeal, blinked back in shock. It was one thing to be thrown into a cell, but to think his father was calling for his death… Well, he would rather not think about that. "Thank you." He told his younger self, sobering his tone from the previous flippant comments.
"It's, uh, my pleasure," the younger nodded and unlocked the cell door. He reached into his vest, "here I have your sword-weapon-thing." He tossed it to his older self, who tucked it into his waistband. "And, uh, your leg…" awkwardly reaching down, he passed the limb over.
It was unnerving to see his stump, ragged and scarred. The younger couldn't help but stare, although the older had refused to tell anymore of his life story. One day that would be his leg (or lack of) and Hiccup knew it would be hell when that day finally came. But there wasn't anything he could do to stop whatever caused the accident from happening.
"Damn," the older cursed, trying to adjust the prosthetic. "Those brutes ruined the locking gear," he explained to the younger, pointing to a damaged bit of metal. "Until I lock into the harness, it'll just swing from flight to walking position." To demonstrate, he flicked the rounded 'foot' part, and it swung several times around before it rocked back into a resting position. "Those guards have no appreciation for craftsmanship, I'll tell you." With a slight struggle, the older got to his feet. He shuffle towards the younger, careful to keep his prosthetic on the ground so it wouldn't swing out. "But we'll have to change the plan. I know I told you that you'd be free after I got my leg, but I need help getting to Toothless. All I can really do is shuffle along right now. Once I'm there, I'll lock my leg in and be off. Then you can still say I enchanted you, or blackmailed you, or whatever really. Understand?"
The younger nodded. "Torstein and Magnus will be out for at least a half hour, and it'll be a three quarters of an hour until new guards are here. So let's move." He looped his older self's arm around his, taking as much weight as he could. The pair began to shuffle out of the jail and up the hill, out of Berk and towards the old storehouse.
Once they reached the top of the hill, the older pulled away from the younger and turned toward his younger self. "Thank you, Hiccup. I couldn't have done this without you. And, uh, I… Well, I know life might be great right now. But it gets better, it really does. Also, umm, well," it was the older's turn to awkwardly shrug, "Just don't be too shy around Astrid." He gave the younger a firm clap on the shoulder, "Now scram before there's more trouble."
"Good luck," the younger called as began to sprint down the hills towards the town. Back to my home and my dad, the older reminisced. Despite there differences, his dad had always been there for him, he cared for Hiccup deeply, and took on the roll of both parents in the absence of Valka. Life hadn't been the same since his passing.
Hiccup shook his head, the nostalgic feelings had to be shelved for now; soon the guards would be swarming these hills. "Toothless!" he hissed into the old storehouse. Out of the black, two yellow slits cut through, and before he knew it the nightfury was pinning him to the grass. "I'm here bud, it's me," he reassured his friend, scratching under his chin, "come on boy, let's get out of this place."
Before he could even protest, he was dripping with dragon saliva. With a loving shove, he got up from under the dragon and began to climb into the harness. "Alright, let's -"
A hard knock to the head sent Hiccup flying into the grass for the second time in the minute. His hand span, and he felt a wave of nausea beginning to rise up again. "Oh Gods," Hiccup was completely disoriented, and would be useless in a fight. He couldn't even walk properly in the first place, and now he was struggling to sit up. "Don't kill me," he raised his hands weakly and closed his eyes, "please." It was pathetic, begging for life, but he didn't have any other options. Toothless, he thought, do something.
But, after a minute there had been no action either way. He was alive, but Toothless didn't seem to be doing anything. Wearily opening his eyes, Hiccup's mouth dropped as he was who had smacked his head. "Gothi!? What are you doing here?"
The village elder was standing there, one hand on her staff, the other resting on Toothless' nose. She stared at Hiccup before stepping forward, using her staff to crave symbols in the dirt. Squinting at the writing, Hiccup laughed. "What am I doing here? Well, it's a long story how I got here," he gestured around to Berk, "But the reason I'm here here is because I really don't want to die. So if you don't mind, I think we're going to get going…" as he started to stand, Gothi pushed his chest back to the ground with her staff and began to write again.
"Well, no, I don't know where I'm going." Hiccup rolled his eyes at the new question. "I thought I'd maybe a little beach vacation, or you know, go anywhere that I don't have a death sentence?"
Gothi shook her head at the boy, before adding a new statement, which seemed to catch the boy's attention. "A seer? In the Northern Isles… I don't know Gothi…" Hiccup stared at Gothi now. The woman gave a slight head nod, and as stupid as it sounded, Hiccup felt it was the right thing to do. Gothi somehow had found him out here after all, and wasn't dragging him back to his father. And if Toothless trusted her, so could he. Getting up slowly, he limped to his dragon, and locked his leg into the harness. "Gothi," he said, turning back, "thank you."
The old woman nodded, her eyes giving a twinkle of knowledge. She was the village elder for a reason. "Come on boy, let's go," he whispered into Toothless's ear. The duo soared off, over chaotic Berk, where the prisoner had just been declared missing, and into the black night.
AN: Okay so I think that firstly, I need to start with an apology. I had some family stuff come up, so the story went on the back burner. Updates are definitely not going to be as fast as they first were, but I do have the rest planned and I know where the story is going so it shouldn't be too long before it's complete. Secondly, what did you think of the chapter? Pretty focused on the escape, but I needed this transition to set up the rest of the story. Next update will follow the fallout of the escape and the arrival at the seer's.
Thanks for all the support, Adeliner.
