Between us, Astrid and I had that seal skinned, and its hide tanned and cured to withstand being inside Toothless within just a couple of days. The seal's meat was fortunately still good, too, and we shared fresh seal steaks with Toothless, while also preserving some for later. With his being a dragon though, I was always amazed Toothless preferred his food raw, when he could so easily roast it to not just medium or well done, but to a crisp! He wouldn't even try a piece of my medium rare steak when I offered it to him however.
"Okay," Astrid said after I finished sewing the hide and sealing the seam with pine tar one evening, "so what next?"
"We have to fill him up with pain relieving tea," I guessed. "'Cause otherwise, this is really gonna hurt."
"Nope," she said. "We get him drunk, really stinking drunk!"
"That's what you've been saving the mead for, wasn't it?" I guessed.
"Mostly," she said with a smile.
"Well, you want to get to it?" I asked. "We're ready."
"Tomorrow," she countered. "It will take a while to get him drunk, and I don't want to work on him through the night after that. So, how about bath time?"
"Bath time?" I responded.
"Yeah," she said. "I want a talk."
"That's usually not all you want when we take a bath now," I cautioned with a knowing smile.
"You enjoy it, too," Astrid smiled herself as she moved towards me.
— — — — —
"Ohhhh yeahhh . . ." Astrid sighed as she truly relaxed in the tub against me. "You good here?"
"Right with 'ya," I sighed myself, burying my nose in the freshly washed hair on her head again as I held my arms loosely around her.
"You know, I'm glad you didn't catch what I had," she noted. "One of us having that brief fever was bad enough."
"I'm glad you didn't have what you did for long," I replied.
"Could I ask you a question?" she posed.
"Here it comes," I warned, " . . . 'The Talk'."
"All I want from you is an honest opinion," she replied. "Am I too hard on you?"
"Around you, that can be a dangerous question," I smiled with care.
"I'm sorry, Hiccup," Astrid apologized, now looking at me.
"It's alright," I assured her. "You're just you . . . and I love you, and all that you are."
"So you're putting up with me?" she asked.
"Well, one minute, I'm hearing you thank the gods for my wonderful self," I noted. "And the next, I'm dodging a semi-frozen fish. I've just learned to be ready for anything."
"Oh gods, I'm terrible towards you, aren't I?" Astrid sighed, giving me a distressed look.
"It's better than you used to be towards me originally," I observed optimistically. "At least I'm not getting bruises anymore . . . much."
"Okay, we're switching places here," she decided, getting up in the tub.
"Why?" I asked, now confused, as she stepped around me while I scrunched forward.
"Because, I need to be a loving companion you can really trust . . . and relax around," she answered, now sitting down behind me, and drawing me back against her. "I should be relaxing you here."
"Okay, this is a weird position," I noted, even more uncertainly now.
"This is what I mean," she sighed. "You're on edge — your shoulders here are as tight as a drum," she said now running her wet hands along my shoulders. "I'll even bet your teeth are clenched a little."
I immediately unclenched my teeth . . . although they just seemed to naturally come back together again on their own inside my mouth.
"My mother warned me about this in the last days she saw me with you before everyone left," she noted.
"She did?" I wondered.
"Yeah," Astrid sighed as she began rubbing my shoulders, "she said I was lucky to be married to you, because no one else would put up with so many ups and downs from me the way you already were. I said, 'Mom, I love him. I am nothing but good to him.' She just politely disagreed with me, saying I was still too intense — saying that 'the war was over' now. I didn't get what she meant by that, until I found myself slapping you with that fish the other day. I couldn't believe I was actually doing that!"
"I just assumed that it was in fun," I observed, beginning to enjoy her rubs, " . . . heavy duty fun. That you were being really playful."
"I was," she replied sadly, "but I also wasn't. I then went onto make a bad remark that you shouldn't be anything less than a village chief. I couldn't trust myself around you after that while we were both dragging that seal back home."
"So that's why you were so quiet," I realized. "I thought I'd done something else."
"No, Hiccup, it was me!" she now said, almost distressed. "I don't know what's wrong with me . . . why I do these things to you! Why I'm so horrible to you!"
"Astrid, we're switching back here," I said, stopping her and now rising in the tub, balancing my left knee and both my hands on its rim as I now moved behind her again.
"Why are we doing this?" she asked as she now scrunched forward and I resettled in behind her again.
"Because," I said, giving her a close embrace from behind, and a kiss on the side of her head, "you're the one who needs to relax here more than I do. How about turning sideways, so we can really lie close in the tub here, and talk?"
"Okay," she said finally, resettling herself against me across my lap with her knees up and a smile on her face, as she draped her warm, wet arms around my shoulders. "Here I am."
"Good," I said, taking charge of the situation for practically the first time like I was now.
As she looked expectantly, even uncertainly at me, I just decided to kiss her, drawing her to me powerfully, even turning her around me against the edge of the tub, as we both breathed in hard through our noses.
"Wow!" Astrid remarked after the kiss, still in my arms. "Wow . . ." she sighed a second time.
This suddenly felt like a date to me — but I had been married to this girl for almost a month now. That stopped me.
I could have come up with some manly 'Viking' act here . . . swept Astrid off her feet, even though I had no real hope of carrying her anywhere. Rescuing her just tended to bring out a superhuman strength in me when it was needed. The rest of the time . . . I was just Hiccup.
So instead, I spoke from my heart.
"I don't know what to do, Astrid," I simply said. "Except to say that how you treat me is something I leave up to you. I know better than to try and change it myself, or change you. I don't know your heart fully, but I'm learning. You and your heart are driven, and kind of untamed . . . perhaps even more so than the fiercest dragon. Toothless and I had to learn what we were each capable of, and what our limits were. Through that, we came to know and respect each other. Maybe you and I are still doing that . . . I don't know."
"Hiccup . . . are you giving up on me?" Astrid asked with apprehension.
"No," I said. "My vows to you are for life. I choose them to be. I meant what I promised. I will always be with you . . . unless you turn me out. You can do that under our laws if you want. But that's not what you've said you wanted, I know that. I just, well . . . wanted to allow you that option . . . in case you feel like a mistake was made . . . somewhere along the line . . ." Now I felt like I was digging myself into a proverbial hole.
"Hiccup . . ." she then replied, seeming halfway between being distressed and irritated. "Okay, cool it, Astrid," she coached herself, trying to regain control.
I now felt I had just avoided being really punched for something here.
"Sorry . . ." I apologized.
"This isn't quite the conversation I expected to be having here," she remarked, looking downwards and seeming uncomfortable now.
I tried to get up to basically get out of the tub and give her, and maybe me, some space for a while. This was quickly turning into an uncomfortable disaster . . . something, being me, I was all too familiar with.
Astrid resolutely clamped her arms around my shoulders however, holding onto me and preventing me from getting up as she still looked away, gathering her thoughts.
"Okay then," I said, sitting down again with her basically still in my lap anyway, " . . . what's the conversation you want to have?" I asked, trying to focus on her. "I'm listening . . ."
"Hiccup . . . I want to be good to you," Astrid said, leaning her forehead against the side of my head.
That surprised me . . . and melted me towards her.
"You are, Astrid," I found myself gently replying, giving her forehead a long kiss.
Her eyes looked up at mine sadly, longingly. "Really?" she asked.
"Really . . . you are," I said, giving her a gentle kiss now on her lips, rediscovering my ability to focus just on her, on us, again . . . and forget myself.
"Even with the fish?" she asked.
"Especially with the fish," I assured.
She finally laughed. I joined her, laughing, too.
"Is this the way you train dragons?" she asked, bringing her forehead back against mine, " . . . win their confidence?"
"They don't talk," I said, reassuringly cradling her with my whole body now. "All I do is to meet them where they're at. That's all I can do with you, too, Astrid. What they do with it . . . and me . . . is their choice. It's your choice, too, every day. You can throw fish at me, or you can cook fish for me. You can mend my leg rig or clothes, you can kiss me, you can make love with me. It's all your choice, Astrid."
"What about your choice, Hiccup?" she asked.
"This is my choice," I replied. "Right now . . . the way I'm holding you, talking with you . . . loving you."
Astrid moved closer to gently kiss me, cradling my head with her wet hands.
"Hiccup . . . why are you so good to me? So patient, loving, everything?" she sighed with a distressed look again.
"Because I choose to be," I assured. "Toothless taught me that kindness and dedication, even love . . . they're all choices. You taught me that, too."
"When?" she asked.
"When you asked me what I was going to do about helping Toothless that one day my father took him away on the ships," I said. "I couldn't see how to do anything. But you helped me see that I still had a choice . . . to do nothing . . . or something crazy. You helped me make that choice, Astrid — and everything changed. I've loved you for choosing to stand with me, to even talk with me then. I still love you for that. That's why I'm choosing to be so good to you now . . . because you were an angel, a warrior, and a friend to me, even then . . . especially then.
"You are a good companion to me, Astrid," I assured her with tears in my eyes. "A wonderful companion . . . just with a few sharp edges. But I'm even coming to love those edges of yours now. You wouldn't be you without them."
"Hiccup . . ." Astrid sniffed, embracing me tightly, as I held her tightly, too.
"I don't care if you ever change, Astrid," I sniffed as well now. "I love you, just as you are. I always will. Keep throwing those fish at me."
That caused Astrid to cry against me even more . . . in joy, and love.
"I want to be better than I have been for you," she reiterated to me a moment later. "I want to give you the gift of change . . . of kindness and love you can rely on and feel totally safe around — if nothing else, so you can relax those shoulders . . . and that jaw."
"I would never refuse such a gift from you," I said gently, smiling and almost laughing that she now knew me so well. "Anything I can do to help?" I softly asked.
"Keep being gentle to me . . . being patient, and kind, and loving," she asked with her eyes closed, almost in prayer, as she touched her forehead again to my cheek. "The difference between what you do, and what I've done, haunts me. I'll get it, one of these days."
"I love you, Astrid," I said.
"I'm trying to find out what it is to love you, Hiccup," she confessed.
"You're doing it, Astrid . . . not just trying," I assured her, holding and rocking her gently in the tub as she now moved down lower, nestling her head against my neck and shoulder.
"It's okay," I whispered as I cradled her with the fiercest, yet gentlest love I've ever known. "I've got you."
She just pressed her face against my neck even tighter.
It was a good talk.
— — — — —
"Morning, my love," I heard. "I have your tea."
I felt a pair of lips ever so gently kiss mine. I reached out blindly, without opening my eyes, and brought her to me.
"This is the way I like to wake up," I sighed as I felt her form settle back in bed against mine.
"I know," she whispered in my ear, sending delicious shivers down my entire body.
"Astrid . . ." I sighed contentedly.
"I'm trying," she said.
"You're doing," I assured with a smile as I finally opened my eyes to behold her.
"At least I'm getting the dragon drunk," she added with a slight smile. "He'll be ready to be worked on soon."
"You alright?" I asked.
"Yeah," she gently smiled, touching her forehead to mine once more. "I'm good . . . thanks to you. I'm gonna work on staying this way — even swore it on your heart," she said, laying her hand on my chest.
I just gently rolled her over in bed now.
"Wow," I noted, " . . . you surrendered, without a fight this time."
"For you, yes," she said.
"Good girl," I dared to praise.
That made Astrid smile. She embraced me tightly.
The Dragon Master was beginning to tame a heart. Astrid was allowing it.
I kissed her, hard, and proceeded to love her for a while, as she now yielded to me totally.
We deserved it. After all, we had a busy day ahead . . . and I knew our routine was about to change.
— — — — —
"I never thought I'd be barmaid to a dragon!" Astrid laughed later as she carried another bucket of warm mead around in front of Toothless as we were about to begin work on him. "He loves this stuff straight!"
"You're doing it," I assured as I gave the beam sticking into Toothless a firm nudge. "There's no reaction as I push this. He's not feeling a thing!"
Toothless now had a thoroughly relaxed, dumb and happy look on his face as he gladly, but was just barely able, to hold his mouth open as Astrid poured the bucket of mead in.
"Okay," I said almost laughing at the scene, "I think that's enough for him for now. Come over here, and let's finish rigging this beam up for removal."
First, Astrid and I finished securing a chain to the top of the beam as she threw the rest of the chain over a house beam above us.
"Wow," I admired after she had just pitched the not light loops of chain upward.
"These arms may be thin," she smiled. "But they're all muscle . . . and all yours."
"Astrid . . ." I sighed happily, falling even more in love with her.
"Come on," she invited, "let's keep going."
I was glad she was still a little driven at times, but she seemed more relaxed about it now. She was different, yet the same. It was refreshing.
"Okay," I said, refocusing myself. "Let's finish securing the sealskin to the beam, and then inflate it."
First, with Toothless not feeling me jerking or pressing against the beam anymore, I was finally able to saw the bottom of the beam off, so there was now a flat bottom to nail the top of the sealskin around. Together, Astrid and I nailed the top of the sealskin around the bottom of the beam, and sealed it with pine tar. Then we attached the other end of the skin around my forge bellows and began pumping the bellows. Toothless had fallen blissfully asleep by then, even snoring loudly. Any other time, that might have been annoying — but now it was an easy way for me to monitor him, and be sure he was resting comfortably and in no pain.
"Alright," I said nervously now. "It's time to cut through the dried pine tar and reopen the wounds around the beam and start pulling it up and out."
"We can do it," Astrid assured as she gave me a quick kiss and hug. "I'll cut open the top wound, you cut the bottom. We'll each apply fresh pine tar around the wounds to minimize the bleeding, and then I'll pull the chain while you monitor and take care of everything else. Let's go."
Then, taking a deep breath, I got underneath Toothless' shoulder with a dagger and cut into my friend around the beam. Once the initial shock of having to basically stab him was over, I cut around the beam as quick as I could while his dark, red blood started oozing out. Having cut halfway around the beam, I paused, quickly grabbing a brush of pine tar and slathered the thick tar over the reopened wound. It was fortunately sealing Toothless' blood in behind it. It was working.
I picked up the dagger again, and cut the rest of the way around the beam, as Astrid did the same above me on the other side of Toothless' shoulder.
"Okay, done here," she said before me. "I'll go take up the chain, and be ready to pull when you tell me."
"I'm done now," I said a short moment later, as I finished applying the pine tar before going over and pumping air from the bellows into the sealskin. "Alright . . . pull!" I instructed Astrid.
She grunted as she began pulling hard, almost beginning to lift up Toothless' entire shoulder at first. I briefly got up and joined her in pulling on the chain as well. Then the beam jerked upward, partway out of the dragon's shoulder now. I ducked back underneath his shoulder. Sure enough, the makeshift seal air bladder was now being drawn up into the wound.
"Pull more!" I said. "It's working!"
Astrid moved her hands up the chain and pulled again, carefully. The beam inched upward as I quickly moved to the bellows and pumped more air into the seal bladder again. As she continued to pull slowly but hard, I could begin to see the bottom of the beam, and the top of the sealskin, begin to emerge from the wound on top of Toothless' shoulder.
I ducked down again, and applied fresh pine tar over the lower wound around the seal bladder.
"Check as I pull the beam all the way out on top," Astrid said, pausing as I emerged from under Toothless' shoulder again. I watched the top of his shoulder as the sealskin bladder was now pulled all the way through the wound.
"Stop!" I said, seeing that the beam was out and the bladder was now fully plugging the wound. "Okay, I'm going to bind leather strapping around the top of the sealskin to pinch it off, and then we can slice through the sealskin above it, and cut the beam free."
I reached for a leather strap and wrapped it around the top of the sealskin underneath the beam, pulling the sealskin closed under where it was still attached to the beam. I now quickly cut through the skin above that, and the beam was suddenly swinging free now on the chain.
"Okay, get the beam out of the way," I said as I now sealed Toothless' top and bottom wounds again with pine tar, and the top of the seal air bladder as well, before going over and pumping the bellows more to maintain inflation in the air bladder.
"We'll burn this in the fire together, as a ceremony, when Toothless wakes up," Astrid suggested, now presenting that horrible beam to me after she had detached it from the chain.
"Now begins the long part," I sighed. "We have to watch and maintain enough air in the bladder here day and night now so his wounds don't open back up and he loses blood. We'll gradually decrease the size of the bladder as the wounds slowly close around it — but this will probably take weeks, maybe a few months. When the bladder gets small enough, we'll cut the smaller wounds open again, then either pull the bladder out and seal up the wounds, or allow his body to absorb it if it won't come out freely. But we probably won't be able to really sleep at the same time together anymore for right now."
"It'll be okay," Astrid assured as she knelt down next to me and gave me a hug. "There's not much else we can do with the storms and winds of winter now howling around us. We'll just pull our mattress over this side next to the bellows, and one of us sleeps laying down, while the other sits up and reads for a few hours during the night, or in your case, draws and thinks up more wonderful plans. Then we'll switch off, nudge and wake the other up when we're feeling really sleepy and needing to rest. We'll make this work . . . we will."
"You don't mind the mattress getting dirty on the floor of my workshop area?" I said with surprise.
"It's not that bad around here," Astrid decided looking around, " . . . and I can clean the mattress. It's worth it though, not having to sleep alone on the opposite side of the house apart from you."
"Astrid . . ." I said looking at her next to me, "I love you."
"I love you, too," she smiled as she hugged me again. "But let me get a meal on for us. You keep watch here for now."
Later, when Toothless was awake, and after he had recovered from an obvious hangover, Astrid and I took the beam together and placed it into the fireplace on Toothless' right side as he watched.
"You know," Astrid said as we watched it begin to burn. "That beam is giving us all this . . . all that we're sharing now. We should be grateful for it, really."
"You wanna save it now?" I said, joking.
"Yeah," she decided, now quickly reaching for it with a metal poker, "actually, I do!" So, after putting the fire out on it, we placed that charred beam, now a long log really, next to the fireplace to serve as an odd symbol in our household of all that we now enjoyed, and how it came to be — a reminder to us that the worst of things can bring the best of times.
— — — — —
And so our new routine began. We took turns through the night. One of us would sit up for a few hours and keep watch on the air bladder in Toothless' shoulder, pumping more air into it occasionally, while the other slept.
I was able to watch Astrid sleep at times during these nights now, so peacefully, as I sat up next to her. It was a scene I would never tire of enjoying, of savoring. I would so want to touch her, caress her, at times as I admired her. But I'd promise myself I'd get to do that soon enough, when I'd have to gently wake her. She was an angel, a valkyrie, an exotically beautiful warrioress — all in one. And she was gladly my wife, joyfully married and devoted to me now. My eyes would mist up with awe at times when I thought about all this as I looked at her.
Then I began writing these thoughts down as they came to me at night.
I started to read them to her as I'd gently wake her up to take over my watch on Toothless and the seal bladder. Sometimes she'd tear up with joy upon hearing them, but always she would be thoroughly charmed by what I'd write, asking to keep my writings with her so she could re-read them as I'd sleep. She said my words, my pages, were more beautiful to her than any book she'd ever read.
Tired as I'd be when I woke her up during the nights, once she was up, I'd have trouble laying down and falling asleep — wanting to stay awake and share so much with her.
She would let me stay up for a while. But then . . . "Lay down," she'd usually invite with a smile after we had shared and talked some, "and let me rub you to sleep." She'd then proceed to give me massages along my entire body that were ohhh sooo good. She said they helped her finish waking up, stimulating her as she worked her arms rubbing me. Her wonderful rubs became the last thing I'd be aware of as I'd blissfully fade off to sleep.
I quickly learned how to give her massages as well, soon becoming as skilled at it as Astrid was, as the nights went by.
Our love grew deeper now as equals. She no longer threw fish at me. Our passion deepened as well.
As winter truly closed in around us now, Toothless' healing earnestly began. Just really starting to heal my friend — someone who had given so much to Astrid and I — felt wonderful. Soon, we began keeping only enough air in the sealskin to keep Toothless' wounds closed around it, almost drawing his skin and muscles to grow in around the slowly shrinking seal air bladder.
The smaller the air bladder got, the better Toothless began to feel. He first began flexing his shoulder one day while both Astrid and I were up. I touched around his wound, even pressing against it, and he no longer roared or even groaned. He began to look expectantly at me.
"Not yet, buddy," I had to caution. "Not yet."
We had another problem though.
"Hiccup, his body is getting too soft," Astrid commented to me another day, firmly rubbing against his side. "His muscles have been wasting from inactivity."
"What can we do?" I wondered.
"We need to massage him regularly now to stimulate his body," she responded. "And we need to start exercising him, even inside the house here."
"Toothless," she said, turning to him, "would you try walking for me? Follow me around the house?"
"Come on, buddy," I encouraged beside her. "Let's see if you can start moving again."
Although he had been shifting himself around a little in the one spot he had been lying in, and moving his limbs periodically — Toothless groaned as he began to raise himself up off the ground and onto his own legs again for the first time in almost two months.
"Let's rub his legs as he gets up here," Astrid encouraged. "You take one side, I'll take the other. Rub him hard, even pound on his legs."
"Come on, buddy!" I encouraged as I rubbed and even pummeled his large legs as firmly as I could.
"Okay, hold on," Astrid now encouraged, "let's get some pain relief into him. I'll mix some tea and mead real quick here . . . heavy on the mead."
"Toothless, take a break," I encouraged now at his front where he could see me. "Rest. We'll try again in a moment here. You're gonna get some mead first!"
He seemed to like that idea as he lay back down for a moment.
"I need to disconnect and plug the air bladder, too," I remembered. "Otherwise, he might be trying to drag the bellows around with him."
Soon, fortified by a couple of buckets of the slightly intoxicating pain relief of Astrid's stronger mead and tea blend, we tried again.
"Alright, up on your legs, buddy," I encouraged. "Try walking with us."
Slowly, Toothless rose unsteadily onto his legs again. At least he wasn't moaning. But, I realized he almost had to learn how to walk again now. Flying again suddenly seemed like a really daunting challenge for him. But one thing at a time, I cautioned myself.
He looked at the floor as he began moving off his patch of sand at last, concentrating on each step.
"Good boy, Toothless!" Astrid praised, stroking his head as she left for her cooking area for a moment. I saw what she was doing.
"Hey, got a fish over here for you, buddy," I encouraged as Astrid then tossed me a fish — gently — from our stores. I placed it a short distance away from him, giving him something of a challenge and goal.
We could see Toothless now focusing on the fish ahead of him as he strove to make his legs work again.
"Come on, Toothless!" Astrid encouraged as she walked right beside his large head, while I watched beside the fish ahead of him.
I exchanged a worried glance with Astrid.
"He'll do this," she assured, "and fly again. It will simply take time and effort . . . from all of us."
Toothless strained as he made the final few steps towards the fish, even stretching his neck to reach it.
"You've done it, bud," I said, picking up the fish and handing it to him.
Toothless collapsed on the floor in exhaustion as he took the fish in his mouth. I was almost reduced to tears at seeing how weak and almost crippled this once mighty dragon and friend had become.
"Good boy, Toothless!" Astrid praised as she came next to me. She put a reassuring arm around me, seeing I needed encouragement as much as he did. "He'll do this," she optimistically assured. "Besides, we're getting a little soft, too. We could all use some exercise! So to start with, we walk him, and us, around this house. And when it's nice enough outside, we go for more walks out there."
I just hugged my wife tightly, hoping she was right — that Toothless would recover. I don't know if I could forgive myself if he didn't.
— — — — —
As the days progressed, we all started walking in a small oval, around Toothless' sand pit inside the house — first going in one direction for a while, and then turning around and going the other direction.
"He's going longer and longer. It's happening, Hiccup. He's starting to get better," Astrid assured as we walked slowly with Toothless a few days later. "Walk him until he really gets tired," she added as she kissed me. "I'll get supper on for us all."
We finally took him outside into the snow as well . . . the three of us going for short walks around the cove when the weather allowed.
One day though, we found our front door buried by a heavy snowstorm the night before. A few gentle blows from our dragon however, and we had a nice, clear path again to the cove's shoreline.
Looking at my close friend, Toothless, and my wife, Astrid, laughing together in the snow one fine day . . . I could not have been happier at the sight. If Odin had offered me all of Valhalla, right there — I would have turned him down flat. I had my heaven now, right here . . . with the two of them.
And then one night, another bit of news happened — or rather was announced . . .
"Time for another 'tub talk'," Astrid requested.
"No objection from me," I said as I moved to kiss her.
"Okay . . . you can have your preliminaries," she smiled as she slowly unlaced the front of my tunic. "I like them."
"You always do," I sighed. "I make sure of that. You've taught me well, you know."
"And you have taught me, too," she said openly. "But enough 'taught' between us," she invited as she kissed me. "I want another test . . ."
Soon, we were relaxing together in the tub, having once again washed and scrubbed each other, as well as being thoroughly spent from our 'test' as well . . . and blissfully in love.
"Hiccup," Astrid said, shifting and curling herself up crossways on my lap into our favourite 'talking' position in the tub, " . . . I have something to share with you."
"What is it?" I asked, sensing her get somewhat nervous now.
"I think I'm pregnant . . . with our child," she answered, looking at me — seeming to be unsure how I would take it.
I actually wasn't all that surprised.
I looked at her though. She now seemed different to me yet again. She was now the mother of our child. She and I had helped to create life together.
"Astrid," I warmly said as I placed my hand down over her womb.
"There's not much to feel there yet," she cautioned. "But I'm pretty sure."
"When do you think the baby will come?" I asked.
"Probably sometime in summer or early next fall," she guessed, "judging by how one of my brother's wife's pregnancy went."
I drew her closer and kissed her. "I'm proud of you, Astrid," I said, touching my forehead against hers. "I'm proud of us."
"I was hoping you'd be ready for this," she said, relieved. "I'm just glad there is peace around us now — because I'm ready to lay my 'warrior' aside, and become a mother . . . the best I can be."
"You're still competitive, and driven," I smiled.
"I've been working on letting things be," she gently defended with a smile of her own, "like you've suggested."
"Just don't drive our child to perfection," I requested, holding her. "We need a bit of awkwardness, even klutz. I have a tradition to carry on here."
"I want our child to carry on your dedication, and love," Astrid admired. "That's what you're really best at, because I'm so blessed that you've done that for me. I don't know if I could be a kind, loving mother without you doing what you have within me."
"Taming Astrid," I dared to joke.
"Yeah," she accepted with a smile as she kissed me again. "You gave me your heart a while ago. Now, my heart," she said taking my hand and placing it on her chest, "is finally yours."
Astrid and I embraced and kissed each other again in the tub . . . long, and hard.
If I could only get Toothless back to his old self again, flying once more . . . everything would be perfect.
