Chapter 9
As soon as Toothless' initial excitement at seeing his rider was ok wore off he caught another sent, it was familiar but only vaguely. The dragon tilted his head to find a large man with a wooden leg and hook in place of two if his limbs, similar to Hiccup but different. Following his instincts the Night Fury bared his teeth at him with a menacing growl, he was about to pounce on the intruder when Hiccup managed to jump in between them, Toothless was reminded to the last time this happened here five years ago. "Toothless, calm he's a friend." Yepp same reason, Toothless rolled his eyes but kept them trained on the man, if he ran the dragon would blast him. The man didn't run however, instead he just looked… impressed. The man and Hiccup shared a few words and Toothless sniffed the newcomer's wooden leg, vaguely registering a comment from the large man about raising his back paws near it, before finally accepting that he was not going to bring harm to Hiccup. As the two humans walked over to Hiccup's tent and continued talking, he resigned to his spot, burning the ground to warm it up before lying down. He still kept a watchful eye on the pair however, Hiccup trusted people from this village before and it hadn't ended well and Toothless would ensure that it would never happen again.
The next few hours in the cove were spent all of Gobber's questions, from what happened on the day Hiccup left to his defeat of the Red Death, and the loss of his left leg, onto his encounters with the Outcasts and Berserkers to the torture he had endured at the hands of the Romans and the training he'd received from various places he'd been. Gobber rarely spoke as Hiccup told his tale, only leaving out certain things that Gobber didn't need to know just yet, Hiccup couldn't think of a time the forge master was quiet for so long. "You know Gobber; if it weren't for you breathing and the occasional blink I'd think you died being so quiet." The smith managed to get him in a headlock, drawing laughter from him and stopping Toothless from attacking at the sudden movement. "You'll have to forgive Toothless, Gobber; he's just used to looking out for me like I do for him. Five years and it's always just been us, and being back here has him on edge even more than me. You should have seen him the day I sparred with Astrid; he could smell her on my armor and whacked me upside the head. Oh and speaking of his tail come get a look at this." Hiccup said excitedly and Toothless walked over to them and showed off his artificial tailfin, Gobber looked over the detail of the harness and the frame for the fin, Hiccup explained how he used dragon skin for the fin itself after the leather one was burnt away when they fought the queen dragon. The red scales stood out against the rest of the black dragon but it strangely seemed to be fond of it, there were white scales in the fin used to make the same symbol of a Viking head with a dragon's jaw that was also on the right shoulder of Hiccups armor.
When they realized the sun had almost set Gobber stood to return to the village, Hiccup still needed to rest to recover from his injuries and jumping from a tree earlier hadn't helped with that. Hiccup saw him to the entrance of the cove, "Well "Iccup, I 'ave to say et you and yer dragon have done some amazing things, we should have listened to ye' and maybe we coulda helped with that queen dragon." Hiccup shrugged, he had made peace with his life and the loss of his leg long ago. "Well what can I say Gobber, that's what you get for keeping all this raw Vikingness contained for so long." He responded dryly, a moment passed and the two were laughing loudly at the comment remembering the night Hiccup had shot Toothless down. Gobber picked up Hiccup for another hug before he left, "I've missed you lad." Hiccup returned the hug before admitting he'd missed Gobber as well, "Now I'm off to the Meade hall to 'ave a drink to yer health, and you should be getting some rest and letting those wounds of yers heal." And with that he left.
Hiccup caught some fish and made himself a small dinner while Toothless ate his usual amount to fish, the moon was beginning to rise and the cool air was setting in so they got a fire going, they course meaning Hiccup gathered wood and Toothless set it ablaze. Hiccup changed out of his armor and into a simple green tunic and a brown fur vest like he wore when he was younger, in fact were it not for the fact that he was taller and slightly more muscular he'd look exactly the same, minus one leg. Sleep however evaded him this night and only one thing could help with that, he held his prosthetic up to catch Toothless' attention, and folded back the walking foot that turn pushed out the attachment that hooked into the stirrup for flying. Toothless bounded over with his tongue out ready for a evening flight, a couple seconds later they were in the air, and Hiccup felt the sun would be up before they landed again.
*The next morning, Meade Hall
Astrid was irritated; everyone around her could feel it and kept their distance. "Hey there babe, you look great this morning just like always." Well almost everyone. Snotlout had his usual flirtatious grin on his face and was oblivious to the scowl on her face, she didn't bother telling him to not call her babe and settled for kicking his leg and cracking his wrist. She gathered her food and let her thoughts flow freely, why did Ryder have Gobber with him last night and why couldn't she come too? How had he known she was following him, she had done the smart thing and was tailing him without the others and she was one of the best trackers on Berk. And why did she freaking blush when he caught her? These were questions she wanted answered, but for the first time since he arrived he wasn't in the Meade hall, Gobber had come back after the sun had set the night before and was drinking as much meade as he could saying his apprentice was truly the greatest and other things no one could understand due to his slurring. Astrid assumed he got the answers about Hiccup's work on Ryder's artificial leg and possibly his sword and didn't care if no one else wanted to hear about how proud he was of the boy who turned on his own people.
Stoick was the only one present at the time who wasn't annoyed by Gobber singing Hiccup's praises regardless of how drunkenly he did it, but he did search for Ryder throughout the hall. Astrid had still been fuming about being caught at the time and refused to look up from her plate to acknowledge Gobber's antics, she knew the camp was somewhere in the forest and she had a feeling that Ryder was going to put off talking to her as long as possible and maybe even avoid it all together if he knew Hiccup wouldn't want to see her. So she had made a decision, she was going to forego following Ryder to his camp and find it on her own, the only problem was she had no idea where to really start and the forest covered a large portion of the island. Then she remembered Gobber might have gone there last night with him and could possibly be 'persuaded' at axe point to tell her where he is holed up. Astrid stood and made her way out of the hall. Kicking Snotlout again for good measure after his earlier comment, cursing herself for submitting to the village's pressuring and going on a date with him, single worse night of her life.
As she made her way to the forge she stopped by her house and retrieved her trusty axe and was now standing outside the smithy, normally by this time Gobber was awake and working the forge while poorly singing some old Viking song she swore he was making up as he went, but today the forge was quiet as the grave and no smoke was billowing out. Astrid went for the door and found it was still partially open and Gobber was inside, lying on his work table snoring lightly, most likely due to the sheer amount of meade he had ingested the night before. The young shield maiden prodded the large man with the butt of her axe and sighed when he didn't move, back to square one. Leaving the forge she stalked off towards the forest edge and with a deep breathe she went in, Astrid wasn't afraid to be in the forest on her own, but she was also not used to breaking rules, five years later and Hiccup still seems to get under her skin.
After nearly an hour of searching Astrid was getting frustrated again, she wasn't about to give up but she was definitely going to make Ryder sorry that he was being such a jerk about the whole Hiccup thing. Her attention was brought back when something flew overhead faster than she could blink, she looked around the sky but saw no trace of what it could have been, then a snap not to far away reached her ears. Astrid turned and saw a Deadly Nadder's tail behind a rock; she stood very still to see if it would attack, if it did she'd most likely die since Nadders are among the fastest and deadliest dragons on the island, she slowed her breathing and waited. Minutes passed before a roar was heard from a nearby cliff causing the Nadder to run off into the forest and away from Astrid, she looked to the cliff but could only see a silhouette of another dragon, it took off a moment later and flew too high for her to see what it was.
Hiccup swore as he and Toothless climbed higher into the sky, the pair had been flying all night and had landed on the mountain face to relax for a bit. It had been over a year since the last time they had pulled an all-nighter in the sky, but Hiccup needed to clear his head of everything that had happened. Gobber and Gothi finding out he and Ryder were one in the same had shaken him, but Gobber's joy to see him and promise of keeping it a secret for now did help calm him, and since Gobber is practically the only person who can read Gothi's chicken scratch he knew that she wasn't going to tell anyone else. Then Astrid had tried to follow him back to his camp, again! Hadn't he made it clear the first time when he nearly fractured Snotlout's head to make a point? So Hiccup foolishly climbed a tree and gave her a scare with his knife, how he managed to not lose it after the fight was still a blur to him but he was thankful at the time. Unfortunately jumping from that tree had reopened the stab is his stomach which he got an earful from Gobber about, but at least Astrid had gone away. Even though he knew she was genuine in her desire to make amends with him, the memory of what she did that fateful day still haunted him; he needed to be absolutely certain she wasn't going to turn him over to Stoick.
When they had landed to take a breather, it was less than a minute later when they heard a loud snap and saw a teen Nadder scratching at a large rock, in all likelihood trying to get to some type of prey hiding under it. This normally would've just been ignored by the two but Hiccup spotted Astrid on the other side of it around seven feet away with her axe clutched in her hands, Toothless spotted her too and huffed his indifference. Hiccup knew with as smart as the Night Fury was he had held his own grudge against Astrid but after giving him a stern glare the dragon rolled it's eyes and roared to scare off the young Nadder, Hiccup then climbed back on Toothless and laid as low to the dragons back as he could in case Astrid looked their way. He barely got down in time as she spotted where they were on the cliff and stared, Hiccup clicked his prosthetic into place as stealthily as he could and opened the fin urging the black reptile to take off and now they were among the clouds again. Knowing his best friend was exhausted from a night of high speed flying and tricks Hiccup steered him to a cave just around the mountain, they could rest there for a bit before returning to the cove. He slumped to the ground and leaned against his best friend, they were both asleep in minutes.
*2 hours later, Berk, Dragon arena
Astrid had searched for hours and was no closer to finding Ryder's camp than she had been trying to follow him, she's returned to the village after the close call with the wild Nadder and wanted to be alone. She found herself outside the dragon arena in the spot where she had last seen Hiccup, sitting on the back of a dragon claiming they weren't their enemies before leaving, of the last five years of her life the final few times she had seen or interacted with Hiccup were the most vivid memories she had, even more then the handful of dragons she'd killed in raids in the couple years they lasted after he'd left. 'Until he supposedly put an end to them.' She thought to herself as she wrapped her arms around herself and felt another wave of guilt wash over her, what if's started playing in her head, what if she had listened, what if there could be peace with dragons, what if she hadn't been so damned jealous? She turned to leave when a glimmer caught her eye.
It had come from inside the ring; Astrid opened the main gate and walked in seeing the aftermath of the duel. There were blood stains on the hard stone ground, undistinguishable from each other now that they had dried, a large black ring from where Ryder had released and lit the second cloud of gas just before ending the fight, and lying near the center in between a large bloodstain and a trail leading from a few feet away was Ryder's fire sword. She picked it up and looked at it, remembering how Dagur had been unable to bring the blade out which had cost him the fight and saw there was a small latch near the end where the blade came out. Sure enough the moment she touched it the blade sprang out and was ablaze, she marveled at the ingenuity it must have taken to not only craft the weapon but to gather the required dragon components to give the dragon-esqe aspects of it. That's when she recalled that morning in the Meade hall before Ryder had snapped at Stoick and then everyone in the hall about how Hiccup had been treated and what he'd accomplished on the back of a dragon, the list was impressive and the forging of this sword was on it.
A fresh wave of guilt hit her, that list could've been so much longer and gotten the recognition it deserved if she had his sense of right and wrong, she was so buried in tradition and jealousy as well as the thought of dragons as merciless and mindless killing machines that the fact Hiccup had one as a pet never clicked. Her resolve to find him doubled, and she no longer just wanted to apologize, she wanted to listen. She'd ask him to teach her how to tame and ride a dragon like he had; she would learn everything and she would prove she was wrong in her actions when she told Stoick about the Night Fury. That afternoon played in her head again, but this time the events before she had run back to the village, following him to that cove, demanding to know how he'd gotten so good and the little beating she gave him before spotting the dragon.
The cove, she hadn't been there since she'd watched Hiccup and his dragon being bound and dragged back to the village and she suddenly found herself wanting to visit the last place where she had been before becoming a backstabber to Hiccup. Breaking Stoick's rule of going into the forest alone twice in one day was as crazy as it sounded, but Astrid needed to go there, she needed this and she didn't entirely understand why but she knew it had to be done. She was careful to sneak past everyone to get to the forest, almost getting spotted by Ruffnut on the way but she managed to avoid detection. Once she was in the forest she found the path Hiccup had taken there the day she followed him, making her way to the secluded spot. She arrived expecting to find it the same as five years ago when she'd found him there that day, it was around the same time of day with an orange hue in the sky, she thought she'd sit on that same rock she set herself on to scare him and think about what she could do to convince Ryder to take her to him but that's not what happened. Upon entering the cove she found a tent sitting by the small lake, her mouth opened and closed silently when she realize she had finally stumbled across Ryder's campsite, tightening the grip on the sword still in her hand she moved forward to investigate, since Ryder hadn't been back to the village today he was most likely recovering from his injuries.
She noticed a small place where a fire had been the previous night with a stick to serve as a spite for fish a few feet from the tent, it was still smoldering indicating it was left unattended at some point during the night. Another glimmer caught her eye and she saw an ornate shield resting against one of the poles folding the center of the tent up, it was silver with a dragon painted on it; the dragon was black except for one of its tail fins which was red for some reason. Astrid wondered why Ryder hadn't used it in his duel with Dagur, having a shield could have possibly saved him from one or both of the stabs he had sustained during the fight. This thought was pushed aside as Astrid peered within the tent itself, there was a small bed roll and Ryder's armor stacked neatly to the side she crawled in as her curiosity got the of her, missing a shadow starting to descend towards the cove. She found his helmet sitting beside the stacked armor and held it in her hands wondering what he looked like with it off, the face this helmet had been hiding was probably around somewhere uncovered and a shutter ran through her as her thoughts from last night of it being scarred returned.
A loud thump outside the tent brought her out of her thoughts, thinking he was back, a low yet loud growling noise told her otherwise. She took her axe off her spiked skirt and readied it while also figuring out a way to hold Ryder's sword so she could release the blade, once she had it figured out she readied herself, she had fought and killed a few dragons and this one she had the drop on. She rolled out and popped into a fighting stance prepared to jump at the beast and attack, however what she saw made her drop the sword in her left hand. The dragon was pitch black and was currently having it's back scratched by a tall, thin man with auburn hair in a green tunic and brown vest. When the sword hilt landed softly on the ground the dragons ear's perked up, then it's eyes shot open and narrowed to slits.
It saw her immediately and let out a menacing growl, the man standing with his back to her turned to see what it was growling at and a gasp escaped Astrid's lips when she saw his face. His face wasn't scarred or really torn in any way, it was in fact quite handsome, the freckles under his eyes were faded to the point of blending in and the small barely visible scar on his cheek all told her how was standing in front of her with a growling dragon by his side. They stood there in silence for what felt like an eternity, the only sound coming from the Night Fury beside him. After who knows how long he finally spoke, more to himself but loud enough for her to hear
"Oh, crap baskets."
A/n: I know I said I wouldn't do another one of these but I wanted to present a little scavenger hunt for all you folks reading this, the 129 of you following at the time of this chapter's uploading. There is a single Easter egg in this chapter, and the first person to spot it will be allowed to name a character appearing later on in story. It won't be a main character, more of a bad guy for a few chapters or person from Hiccup's past. Happy hunting readers.
