The next day they were dragged into the kill ring. There was an audience gathered. They were both tied to a pole, at opposite ends of the ring. Snotlout went over to hiccup with a whip and began to beat him. Astrid who still had a gag made a muffled scream through it, her eyes welling with tears. Hiccup however just bit his lip and tried to imagine he was somewhere else, back on their home, dragon rider island, with Astrid, Noël, Haley and Brant. He tried to imagine his little girls throwing their arms around him, taking brant on walks and teaching him skills for their game nights, Astrid and him spending time together, those nights they all sat around the fire, trips to different locations on the island, flying with toothless. It worked, no cries escaped his mouth. The Vikings were shocked, 10 beatings and still no sound! Astrid however could see the hurt in his eyes, she was proud of him for not giving in and succumbing to Snotlout's wishes. Snotlout threw the whip to the floor in anger and kicked hiccup in the stomach.
"Clean his wounds with salt and lemon juices!" he yelled.
A guard came over to him and did it. hiccup mentally hissed and winced a little, Astrid winced and shuddered at the thought of his pain, her eyes full of tears for her husband. Snotlout walked over to her and undid her gag.
"Mmm, mmm, mmm, nothing quite like watching a loved get beaten, am I right Astrid?" he asked.
"You are evil, pure evil, what did hiccup ever do to you?"
"He stole my future bride!"
"Please, he didn't steal anything, there's no way I would ever have married you, heck if my parents arranged a contract with you I would've just run away!" she snapped.
He slapped her.
"Please, you just think he's hot, well, lets see how hot you think he is covered in whip marks and blood."
"I've already seen him like that, after the battle at the nest, when hiccup took the queen down and freed the dragons from her reign," she spat.
Snotlout growled.
"Take them back to their cell!" he ordered.
They were shoved into their cell.
"hiccup, my love, are you alright?"
"Yeah."
"You were really brave, you were so strong."
"You give me that, and brant, Haley, Noël and toothless. You make me strong Astrid."
"Now, let's see to your wounds."
She massaged the wounds, pressing them and numbing them. Hiccup had lost some blood.
That night…
During the still hours of darkness 2 silent figures crept through the cages. They reached hiccup and Astrid's cage. Astrid was, as usual, asleep on hiccup's shoulders. They undid the door and crept in. they quickly put their hand's over the couple's mouths. Hiccup and Astrid woke with a start.
"Sssh, it's us," said one of the figures as they let go of the gasping couples mouths.
"Ruffnut? What're you doing here," whispered Astrid.
"Duh, we're busting you out," said Mirtha.
"Who're you?" asked hiccup.
"Tuffnut's wife, Mirtha, now come on, Fishlegs and Tuffnut aren't exactly the best lookout's if you know what I mean," said Mirtha.
"Tuffnut, Fishlegs, why're you all helping us escape?" asked Astrid.
"Cause, we don't think you should be going through this, its not fair and its not right, I mean, you two have your own lives, and from what we're hearing your own children," said Ruffnut as they exited the ring.
"There you guys are!" whispered Tuffnut.
"Yeah, we're hear," said Ruffnut.
"Guys, thank you, if there's anything that we can ever do to repay you…." Said Hiccup.
"Well you could let us come with you…" said Ruffnut.
"You could, I mean the island's great and I'd love for you to meet our family," said Astrid.
"Well, then, let's go get our kids," said Mirtha.
"Kids?" asked hiccup and Astrid in unison.
"Yeah, you know, kids," laughed Ruffnut.
She and Mirtha raced to their houses to get Gunnar, Viggo, Sigrid and Unn.
"So, what's it like, living with dragons I mean?" asked Fishlegs.
"Well, its great, really, no raids, great defenders and not to mention that they each have an incredibly useful factor," said hiccup.
"Speaking of which, when we get back, we're getting you dragons," said Astrid.
"Yeah, a zippleback would be great for Ruffnut and Tuffnut, a Gronkle for Fishlegs and a Nadder for Mirtha," said hiccup.
The two returned with their kids.
"Awww, they're so adorable," crooned Astrid.
"How old are they?" asked Hiccup
"one and a half," said Ruffnut.
"Wow, that's about as old as Haley," said hiccup.
He teared up whenever he thought about them, 'hang on darlings, daddy's coming,' he thought.
"Come on, let's head to the docks, your mom and Gobber've been making a boat for you to escape on," said Fishlegs.
"Thanks but that wont be necessary, come on," said hiccup running into the woods, the others following him.
They walked through the woods when….
"What're you doing here, Seraphine?" asked hiccup.
"Toothless and Stormfly sent me. Said you were captured. Worry not, your kids are safe, they're watching them. Shame I didn't know where this island was, I could've stopped 'that' from happening to you," she said*.
"It's okay girl, I'm fine, these are our old friends, they helped us escape, can you get us back to dragon rider island?" asked hiccup.
She nodded.
"Come on guys, lets go!" yelled hiccup.
They got on Seraphine.
"Is this even safe for kids?" asked Fishlegs.
"I dunno, we've never really taken babies flying with us, brant and Noël only started coming along when they were 3," said Astrid.
They took off.
"Wait, Astrid, your mom and Gobber," said hiccup.
"Oh yeah, hey Ser, can you take us down to the docks?" asked Astrid.
Seraphine complied an took them to the docks where Glenda and Gobber were.
"Mom!" cried Astrid sliding off Seraphine and running to hug her mother.
"Astrid," sobbed Glenda.
"Gobber, hey," said hiccup, going to his mentor/ emotional father.
"Hiccup, there's something different about you, I cant put my finger on it…. did you do something to your hair?" asked Gobber playfully ruffling hiccup's hair.
"So, how're the kids, are they okay?" asked Glenda.
"Oh yeah, they're fine. Hey would you like to meet them?" asked Astrid.
Glenda smiled.
"someday," she said, "but for now we need to focus on getting you back before daybreak."
"So, what're the little tikes like anyway?" asked Gobber.
"Well, we can safely say they've definitely got hiccup's heart, Brant takes after hiccup most though, Haley takes after me and Noël's like a mix, you know, unpredictable," said Astrid.
"How old were you when you had them?" asked Glenda.
"Well…. We were 14 when we had brant, 15 when we had Noël and 18 and 11 months, so almost 19, when we had Haley," said Astrid, her cheeks slightly red.
"Well, aren't you the frisky one," murmured Gobber to hiccup.
Hiccup went scarlet, "Actually, after the battle with the red death, I was unconscious and had a few injuries around my body, I was out for a week and to make my wounds easier to clean Astrid took my clothes off. When I woke up she was so happy that she got into bed with me and began taking her clothes off before, well…" by this time hiccup was redder than a tomato, as the people around him laughed, wait a second, Seraphine was part of the laughter.
"Yup, I broke down his walls and claimed him as mine, then about a week later we got married," said Astrid triumphantly.
"well, that's nice, now come on, I doubt you'll have much time left the sun rises in about 2 hours," said Gobber.
Glenda gave hiccup a big hug, "so, I guess that means you're my son now, you know Astrid, Boar*2 always wanted a brother.
They laughed.
"well, if you want we can send a dragon here some other time to bring you to our island, I'm sure the kids would love their grandmother and Gobber," said hiccup.
"That'd be nice," admitted Glenda.
"Yeah, but if we leave together they'll think we fell in love and ran away, Glenda, you go first and about a month or so later I'll come," said Gobber.
"I agree, by the way darling did your father really hit you?" Glenda turned to Astrid.
"Yeah but hiccup punched him in the gut for it and he ran away like a little girl," smirked Astrid.
"That was brave, speaking of wounds you really ought to head back and dress those dear, I doubt your kids'll be happy that you got hurt," she said to hiccup.
"Please, I'm more worried about the destruction toothless would unfold on berk if he found out what happened, gods that dragon and his revenge," shuddered hiccup.
That caused Astrid to shudder too, she knew just how over protective toothless could be and the kind of wrath that would unfold on berk should he catch whiff of what happened on berk.
"You know, your father would've loved to be here to see you off," said Gobber.
"Please, he only cared enough to kidnap us, after that he didn't even bother to visit," said hiccup.
"You know hiccup, he wanted to leave you alone, that day we found out that you were gone he was worried about you, of course Sven decided that that was the last straw, you see for some reason he hadn't liked you, guess he thought that your head was full of air after you became a celebrity, then he thought that you kidnapped Astrid and forged the note and well, he demanded blood eagle to be performed to you," said Glenda, the teens gasped.
"Well your father said that that was extreme, but then Sven called him out, said he was playing favorites, that he was being lenient to you because you were his son, got the village together and confronted him, he had to accept," said Gobber.
"Your father didn't want you to be found so he tried to stop any boats leaving berk, but of course he was confronted by Snotlout and Spitelout, see, Snotlout wanted Astrid as his bride so he was going to force fleets to search the archipelago, he had Sven's consent, they gathered the village, told em you kidnapped her and that she was innocent, that they had to work together to find you and bring him to justice, Stoick couldn't stop the crowds gathered, questioning his loyalty to the tribe, so eventually he complied," said Glenda.
"He then brought together the ones he knew weren't happy about the fact that they'd be disrupting a happy couple and formed a plan. The plan was to find your island, then make sure that no one else did, steer them as far as possible away from it. however, Snotlout and Spitelout seemed to have seen this coming so they made sure that there were crew members who agreed with the rest of the tribe on each boat. You father got desperate, even married Snotlout to Helga, yes I know a chief can have more than 1 wife, but he hoped that once they had a child they'd forget about this stupid hunt. But he was wrong, Snotlout still wants Astrid and we had to rescue you tonight because tomorrow he's going to punish you for declining his proposal, a way that no person should be punished, a way that no one on berk has ever been punished," said Gobber.
"Huh?" asked Astrid.
"He was going to rape you," said Glenda.
Astrid gasped. She knew she would be punished for declining his request but she had never expected him to do that, it was unheard of. She turned to look at hiccup, he looked a mixture of fear and anger, the fear she had no doubt was for her and the anger, she had no doubt was for Snotlout.
"Thanks, but why isn't dad here?" asked hiccup after a while.
"Believe me hiccup, he wanted to say goodbye, to hug you tightly and say he loved you. But I said no. see, if anyone saw him then that would be bad, you know, him being chief and all. He really missed you hiccup. He would've visited you but he's been so busy planning the perfect escape, getting Gothi, who by the way agrees with you as well, to brew a sleeping draft to pour into the guards drinks," said Gobber.
"He-he did that, for- for us?" asked hiccup, stunned.
Gobber and the others nodded.
"He loves you hiccup, he always has," said Glenda.
"Wow," hiccup said, "you know, I missed him while we were gone, but, I-I had no idea he missed me too."
"Yeah, he even managed to convince Snotlout that torturing you would be more fun than killing you, you know, so we'd have more time to get you out," said Gobber.
"Hey, Gobber, do you think, maybe dad would be willing to retire as chief, I mean he is getting a little, you know~"
"Old?"
"Yeah."
"Well sure, but why?"
"I was just wondering, you know, whether he'd like to move to dragon island as well."
"Hiccup, I'm sure he'd say yes, after all, who wouldn't want to meet their grandchildren."
"Well, look, in a few weeks we'll send Seraphine, if you see her run outside, we're not specific about order, heck you could all come at the same time, she'll pick you up in her claws and bring you to dragon rider island."
"That sounds like a plan."
"Good, now we have to get going, bye Gobber."
"Bye hiccup."
"bye Astrid."
"bye mom."
It took them a few hours to reach dragon rider island.
It was 11ish, judging by the stars position in the sky.
They landed outside the hut and ran inside.
They were thrown to the floor immediately by their children and dragons, hiccup wincing a bit because of the whip marks on his chest.
"Oh, I knew you'd come," said Noël.
"Yeah, she even made us stay up super late," said brant.
They laughed.
"Mom, dad, where were you?" asked Brant.
"We were taken, at night, by some enemies, we were taken back to our old island and well, some old friends helped us escape, we brought some here, others are still back on berk, but they'll be coming soon," said Astrid.
"Where are they?" asked Noël.
"Here," said Ruffnut as they all walked in.
"Who're you?" asked Brant.
"My name's Ruffnut," she said,
"Oh, so your aunty Ruffnut(Astrid and hiccup had told them about their old friends)," said Noël.
"Yup."
"And I'm guessing that's your brother," said brant pointing at Tuffnut.
"Yeah," said Tuffnut.
"Is he uncle Fishlegs?" asked Noël pointing at Fishlegs.
"Correct," said Fishlegs.
"Who's she?" asked Brant pointing at Mirtha.
"That's my wife, Mirtha," said Tuffnut.
"Oh, what're their names?" asked Brant indicating the babies.
"This is Gunnar, and this is Viggo," said Mirtha.
"And this is Sigrid and Unn," said Ruffnut.
"Cute babies," said Noël.
"Why thank you," said the mothers together.
Hiccup eventually declared it sleep time for his kids. He put them in their room and had Brant and Noël share a bed, Haley sleeping with hiccup and Astrid, so that he could put the other children into beds. Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Mirtha and Fishlegs slept downstairs by the fire and they all fell asleep.
* seriously, 7 years on an island full of dragons and you didnt think they learnt dragonese?
*2 Boar is astrid's older brother in this story. he, like his father, hates hiccup, while Sven preffered Boar, Glenda preffered astrid, not like that was a secret in the family.
