How To Train Your Dragon fanfic2

Parasite

Time was up. Astrid had grown tired of just sitting around in the mess hall, waiting for Hiccup to return, and now, no matter what the others were going to say, she was going to look for him. The sun was already setting, and she was worried sick by how long the boy was taking, it should take this long to find some "injured animal" out into the woods. She collected her axe and dragon's saddle, and although the other young vikings were still trying to consult her, she was already outside, heading for the dragons' kennels.

She heard the others, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout all calling after her, but she ignored them, her mind settled on Hiccup. She knew and had already approved for him to seek out an animal in peril, or something, but she had never expected it to take this long. Astrid just couldn't understand him and animals all that well, although it was thanks to his good relation with animals that had allowed him to befriend Toothless, but seriously... He would have at least showed up to tell them a story or something.

However, the young man use to keep everything to himself, months ago he was just a loner, but today he was popular to everyone, although some of the other young vikings still tease and belittle him. But the point, why would he be so solitary now, when he had friends, and a girlfriend, to be more thankful for. He had Toothless, the pet Night Fury, though, which probably over shadows themselves, and it would seem he spends more time with the dragon instead of everyone else.

So that was the mystery that aroused her curiosity and suspicion, and once she found Hiccup, she was going to make him spill whatever secret he was keeping from her, and hopefully, she might not sock a fist into his shoulder for hiding it like he did with Toothless. However, she will sock him in the shoulder for keeping her waiting for such a long time.

"Astrid! Astrid, wait up!" She heard Fishlegs's voice, but she didn't stop to listen, she continued her way to the kennels. "Astrid, just hold on for a minute, you've only been waiting for fifty-three minutes and forty seven seconds... you still have six minutes and fifty seconds."

She ignored the portly viking, not turning to look at him and the others. It didn't matter what they said, what the time and day said, what anyone said... Time was up, she wasn't going to wait any longer for Hiccup to return, she was going in to find him and pull him out herself if she had to.

"Astrid, hang on!" Ruffnut demanded, throwing a hand onto her shoulder, and that almost stopped her. But she shrugged it off, not bothering to respond to anything they had to say.

"Okay, listen babe, let's been smart and listen to reason..." Snotlout began, walking faster to get in front of her. He would have said more, but all it took was a good, hard grip in the pressure point between his shoulder and neck.

Astrid stopped as she held him in place, gave it a hard squeeze before letting go, as Snotlout collapsed, but reluctantly stayed on his feet. She took satisfaction from his pain, now sure that he had gotten the message to stay quiet, and continued onto the kennels. She paid no attention to the group of teenagers who didn't seem to understand her, but if they did care about Hiccup as much as she did, wouldn't they understand and agree with her?

She was only a block away from the kennels, still keeping to herself as the other young vikings tried to convince her otherwise, until she stopped upon spotting a shadowy figure. Astrid could easily recognize the shape, it wasn't Hiccup - who was scrawny - the silhouette was big, meaty, and portly, like most of the vikings around here, he had horns on his head, obviously from his helmet, a prosthetic leg, and a prosthetic arm. She came closer, squinting her eyes, and was reassured to find Gobber the Belch.

"Gobber?" Astrid replied, both quite glad to see him but also a little confused, shouldn't he be double inspecting the shepherds? "What are you doing here?"

The veteran viking stood silently still, not responding, he just faced their direction, a mace hanging from his right hand.

"Gobber?" Fishlegs asked, sounding concerned, "What's wrong?"

Finally, the portly veteran started forward into the light, his image becoming clear and in sight as he drew closer. Everyone, even Astrid, suddenly grimace in terror upon seeing the expression of his face. It was blank, as if he hadn't sleep in ages, his jaw was hanging wide and low, his shoulders were sagging forward, and his eyes... they just didn't look like real eyes anymore. The pupils were reduced, shrunk to only small dots residing in the middle of his now white eyes.

"Whoa... Gobber..." Snotlout began, "You don't look too well."

Suddenly, something appeared to rise from behind his back, like a tail, small and skinny but still enough to spook them. The "tail" pointed at them, as if it were an eye, and a hissing sound emitted. It was horrible, so bizarre, so frightening in fact it would have made them jump out of their own skins. Gobber's armed hand twitched, and rose, holding the mace high into their air. The hiss grew louder, almost as to signal a charge, and the viking's legs started forward, fast.

"Gobber, what are you-?" Tuffnut was about to ask, before Astrid pushed him and the others out of the way, just in time to dodge the swinging of the mace herself.

The heavy sphere flew over her head, reluctant to not have snatched a thread of her hair. She backed away, keeping her weapon raised, she didn't expect to use it on the man who had been their preceptor, but she never expected him to just attack them for no reason.

"Gobber! Stop!" Fishlegs cried, tackling the veteran and, given his own portly weight, was able to knock him to the ground, before he could go for another attack.

The large young man quickly recollected himself to his feet, just in time to shriek like a girl (no offense to some readers) at the sight he had endorsed. Everyone looked to find the horrifying sight that had resulted in his frightened scream. Attached to Gobber's back was a spider, octopus-like animal, wrapped between his shoulders, its tentacles sticking into his head.

Astrid felt herself tremble on the inside, this creature was just too frightening - too alien - to handle. She no longer felt the rush of adrenaline pumping into her, instead, she felt fear itself struck her, now running through her veins, almost enough to turn her into stone, she hoped that wouldn't happen. For the first time in years, Astrid Hofferson was frozen stiff in fear.

She stood still, her axe in front of her for her protection, watching as Gobber - or rather what was left of him - began to recoil to his legs, the creature on his back hissed and pointed its tail, which appeared like some eye receptical, straight at her. The viking turned to her, mace still grasped in hand, as he sprinted in her direction. His movements almost resembled those of a zombie.

Astrid thought this was it for her, she couldn't move, she was too shocked by everything she was witnessing. She felt her fingers becoming twitchy, until they finally gave in and lost their hold on her weapon. She heard the axe hit the ground, but she didn't try to recover it, frozen in fear. She would have been dead, if someone hadn't snatched her wrist and pulled her out of the way in time.

It was Fishlegs and Ruffnut that had saved her, pulling her out of the way of the attacking assailant that use to be Gobber. She watched as the veteran continued in the direction of which she was in, as if not noticing that she was no longer there, tripped over her fallen axe, and tumbled into a carriage of hay.

Snotlout and Tuffnut took advantage and pushed the carriage, watching as it rolled down hill. They both looked away, averting their eyes from the crash, and when they reopened their eyes to spot the new haystack in Berk, "Sorry Gobber!" Snotlout called, before he and Tuffnut turned back to the others.

Fishlegs and Ruffnut released Astrid, who was breathing heavily, still spooked by the experience she had just endorsed, but everyone was looking at her, she needed to stay strong and not look weak in front of them. Appearance was apparently everything to a viking, and she wasn't going to let hers slip. She shook her head, not making eye contact with the others, only saying "Thanks" to the ones who had just saved her skin, and recollected her weapon without another word.

"What was that about?" Tuffnut asked, folding his arms. "Gobber just went crazy on us."

"I'm more curious about that thing on his back," Fishlegs exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like it, it looked like some new species of spider or crab or something..."

"Regardless of whatever it was, it doesn't look like something we should be fascinated by." Astrid told them, gripping her weapon firmly. "that creature, it looked like it had some kinda control over Gobber, like he was a puppet."

"Wait, are you saying" Snotlout snorted, disbelieving the theory being suggested, "that big bug on him was 'controlling' him?"

"Why else would Gobber attack us without reason, without even saying a real word? And that look in his eyes, I doubt that's just him having a bad day, or drinking too much."

"True, alright, going with this 'bug controller' theory. So whatda we do?"

"If only Hiccup were here," Ruffnut exclaimed.

"Hiccup?" Snotlout snorted, "The guy's been in the woods all day, and if these things are here, who's to say they're not in the woods too. The poor wimp's probably limping around with his dragon, looking for brains to-"

Astrid punched him in the face, shutting the stupid boy up before he said anything more. Though what he was claiming might sound harsh and unfair to the young, scrawny viking out there, he could be right. Hiccup had been gone for way too long, and hasn't return or even called for help. Maybe she wouldn't even hear it but surely one of the dragons would have, and she could use them to hopefully find him.

But she had to face facts, the more possible facts, if Hiccup encountered anything, such as something like that spider, the odds that he got away were quite slim.

"We've got to go," she told them, "we've got to gather everyone, warn anyone about this, and maybe we can do something about it. If not, then we should leave Berk."

Her option was questionable, but it made sense. If there was any more of these creatures crawling around, and were possibly plotting some sort of infestation, none of them wanted to be around when that happened. As they all started for the search, Astrid turned her head away from their onlooking eyes to shed a tear, praying fair well to Hiccup. She didn't want to accept it, she couldn't, she wouldn't, but it all must be true.

Hiccup was gone.

Of all things, Hiccup was not "gone," however, he was afraid he might be too late. Soaring through the sky on Toothless' back, he urged the Night Fury to go faster, letting him know that lives were at stake.

"Come on, buddy," he told Toothless, "come on!"

Feeling the auto-reload crossbow slung on his back, the weapon which the masked hunter, Fray, had given him in case he needed it, Hiccup felt a sense of de'javu. Once again, he was given a weapon, against his will, and being thrown into the fight, just like his father had done. But he had done it because he believed Hiccup wanted to fight dragons, and he did before, but Fray had just handed him the weapon as a last resort. He would use it, if not to engage one of those things then to at least protect himself, or others.

He feared for Astrid, after seeing a boar possessed by one of those bugs, his very skin had sprouted nearly permanent goosebumps. He couldn't stand to see any of his friends get caught by a mutant spider, he didn't want to imagine them as puppets to those bugs, it would be a scar in which he couldn't redeem himself of if he allowed that to happen.

As they flew and entered over Berk, Hiccup looked down to the village, finding many people, just sloppily walking around, which seemed usually. However, he could easily spot the mutant, pasty skinned bugs on their backs, the little eye/noses swinging all around. He was too late, the infestation had already begun.

But there had to be survivors, vikings wouldn't go down without a fight, and he doubted dragons would be different in that scenario. There was still hope, there was still a chance.

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