Hiccup was unsure how best to approach this situation. Astrid Hofferson, one of the most respected people in the village (at least, for those under the age of 20), was sleeping outside the forge like some type of homeless person. Which confused Hiccup, because he was fairly certain she wasn't homeless. So, he did the logical thing; he kicked her.
Well, he didn't actually kick her, or she would have gone flying like a ragdoll, but he did nudge her with his foot none-too-gently.
"Huh? What?" the girl asked blearily, rubbing at her crusted eyes.
"I should be asking you that," Hiccup said dryly. "What in Hel's name are you doing?"
"What?" Astrid asked once more, still dazed.
Hiccup sighed, annoyed. He knelt down to be at about eye-level with the girl. "I mean, what are you doing sleeping in front of the smithy? Are you daft?"
"Hiccup!?" Astrid shouted suddenly, just realizing who was talking to her.
"Yes."
Astrid's face exploded with heat. She shot to her feet, and immediately fled into the village. Hiccup watched her from his kneeling position, and sighed once more.
"That girl is so troublesome…"
He pushed down his irritation for the moment, since he had no target. Later, however, Hofferson would feel his wrath. Maybe he'd withhold her axe for longer than the planned week? That was probably what she was here for.
Whatever. It was late, and Hiccup wanted to sleep.
"Kairos, I finished the saddle."
"So?"
"So, that means we can practice flying."
"I don't know who you're gonna practice flying in a saddle with, but it's not me."
"Yes it is, ya big baby. How else am I supposed to help you when we face the Queen?"
"Who says I need help?"
"Um, maybe the way you were panicking when we saw her?"
"... Fine, put the blasted thing on me. But, I'm not responsible if you fall off!"
"Then I just won't fall off."
Kairos was rather annoyed. Hiccup had this irritating penchant for being right a lot of the time, and this was just another one of those moments. The lad didn't fall off the saddle, and had instead somehow figured out that leaning side-to-side would cause the Shadowstalker to go that direction due to some unknown instinct. He was not meant to be controlled!
"Are you seriously still pouting over that?" Hiccup asked incredulously. Kairos turned away from him with a huff.
"I don't pout!" the dragon replied haughtily.
"Fine- are ya done sulking yet? Ya big baby…" Hiccup muttered, rolling his eyes at his friend's pride.
Kairos sniffed. "No. Now go fetch me some fish, slave."
The teen raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me, aren't you the self-proclaimed King of the Skies? You're tellin' me that the big bad Shadowstalker can't hunt?"
"I can hunt! I just don't feel like it," Kairos responded indignantly.
"Uh-huh. So you're just lazy."
Kairos didn't dignify that with a response.
"I need a weapon," Hiccup muttered to himself.
"Oh? What for?" Kairos asked, curious. Weren't his ice powers enough of a weapon?
"i don't really know, but it just feels… Wrong, to not have one. Especially when I'm about to go into the fight of my life. I need to leave behind something as part of my legacy, other than my corpse."
"Well, then make one. You're good with that sort of stuff, aren't you?"
"Yeah, but… I don't really want to use steel. It might be useless against that massive Queen- her skin looked pretty hard, and I can't have my weapon snap in the middle of the battle. That's bad etiquette, ya know?"
"You're worried about manners in a deathmatch!?" Kairos asked, still baffled by how casual Hiccup was when talking about his own death. The boy had zoned out, however, so he didn't hear lizard's shocked exclamation. The dragon simply huffed at being ignored, and laid down to take a nap.
"Today, is about teamwork. Work togetha, and ya just might survive!" Gobber shouted gleefully, watching with demented joy as the dragon arena filled with green gas.
All six teens were present today, each carrying a bucket of water.
"Now, a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The HIdeous Zippleback is extra tricky; one head breathes gas, the other one lights it. Your job, is to find out which is which!"
The young Vikings were standing in pairs of two, back-to-back, circling around in an attempt to find the Zippleback. The noxious fog was making that rather difficult, and Hiccup wished he could be anywhere else right now. Unfortunately, he needed to attend Dragon Training, or Gobber and his dad would bug him to no end. So, the lad simply sighed, and played along.
At his back was Astrid, whose attention was split between looking out for the dragon, and eyeing her axe, which was on his back. Hiccup noticed, and smirked cruelly.
"Hey, Astrid?"
The girl's face turned red, and she became noticeably more twitchy. "Y-yeah, Hiccup?" she answered weakly.
"Your punishment has been extended by another week."
"W-what!? Why!?" she cried, the red bleeding out of her face, taking all color along with it.
"For running away yesterday- that was really annoying. What were you doing in front of the forge anyways?"
"I, uh. I- I was…" she muttered, hesitating.
"You were…?" Hiccup prompted.
"I was… Looking for you?" she finally squeaked.
"What for?" Hiccup asked, now genuinely curious.
"I wanted to… talk, to you."
"What about?"
Here, Astrid stopped circling, legs freezing up from nerves. Hiccup didn't notice until he bumped into her diminutive frame, causing her to spill a bit of water from her swaying bucket.
"Um… Uh, about… About, how you took down that Nadder! Yeah…" she said, chuckling nervously.
Hiccup turned the statement over in his mind. "Oh, yeah, I guess you weren't there to see it…"
"Yeah!" Astrid cried, gratefully clinging to the excuse like it was a lifeline.
"Whatever. We can talk later. Right now, there's kind of a dragon in here, so…"
Astrid nodded furiously, shutting her mouth in relief. She didn't know if she would have been able to keep talking.
The Zippleback chose this moment to creep out of the poison cloud, revealing a single head. It stared menacingly at Hiccup and Astrid, neck swirling in an intimidating manner. Astrid's eyes widened, and she clutched her bucket of water tighter, knuckles losing color. Hiccup fixed his gaze on the dragon as well; specifically, on its mouth.
"Don't throw your water yet- we don't know which head this is," Hiccup warned his companion. She nodded and made a noise of confirmation, struggling against every instinct which screamed to attack.
The Zippleback head snaked a bit closer to them, before it finally opened its mouth and sprayed a jet of green gas. Astrid relaxed marginally, but then tensed up even more when she realized that she now had to watch out for the other head, which had yet to reveal itself.
"I'll keep an eye on this head. You look for the other," Hiccup commanded her. Astrid did so, managing to tear her eyes of the beast which was right in front of her. Her blue eyes scanned the obscured arena, looking for any hint of the second dragon head in the sea of green.
Finally, it appeared, slithering out the smoke like a wraith- though much more solid.
"Hiccup!" Astrid hissed, nudging the taller boy with her shoulder. He turned his head slowly, ensuring that the gas-spewing head remained in his peripheral vision, and caught sight of the other Zippleback head. Presumably, the one which lit the gas.
"Good job, Astrid. Now, we'll have to act quick, so the dragon doesn't get a chance to light the gas. Think you can create a distraction, while I rush the sparker?"
Astrid glowed under the small praise, but hardened her face soon after. "What should I do?"
"Maybe attack the gas head?" Hiccup said noncommittally. Astrid ran through a mental simulation of that scenario quickly, before deciding that it would likely be the quickest way to do this. With a determined nod, Astrid rushed forward, then tossed her bucket of water at the first head that had appeared. Water flew and splashed over the Zippleback's head, seemingly startling it. The beast shook the water off, then eyed Astrid maliciously. It almost seemed as if the lizard was smiling cruelly, which disturbed Astrid to no end.
The second head had its attention caught by Astrid's maneuver, and watched as its counterpart crept closer. Unfortunately for the dragon, it had lost sight of the one who was truly dangerous. In a sudden shock of cold, the dragon was reminded of Hiccup's presence as its head was drenched. Instinctively, it opened its mouth and attempted to create a spark, but nothing happened.
It was Hiccup's turn to grin maliciously now, as he leapt forward and delivered a brutal haymaker to the beast, causing it to snap sideways. The other head, alerted to its companion's pain, reverted to a primal mindset and screeched, before lashing out at Astrid.
The girl had quick reflexes, however, and narrowly avoided the thick neck by rolling to the side.
"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted, alerting the lad to her predicament. Making a split-second decision, Hiccup unlatched the axe on his back, and threw it at the Zippleback head which was furthest from him. The weapon crashed into it, blunt-side first, and interrupted its latest attack on the blonde. Astrid scrambled forward, picking up the hatchet from where it landed after bouncing off the dragon, then rolled to her feet. Axe at the ready, Astrid sidestepped carefully, keeping a keen eye on the dragon head in front of her. Noting the way its muscles tensed and coiled, she was able to predict when the beast would attack, therefore allowing her to dodge by a comfortable margin.
After one lunge, when the Zippleback had been a bit slow pulling back, Astrid leapt forward and sliced with her axe. The blade bit through the scales and into the skin, drawing thick, crimson blood. The dragon shrieked, more in shock than pain, and blew a jet of green gas right into her face.
Caught off-guard by the unorthodox tactic, Astrid backpedaled unsteadily, flailing her arms in an attempt to disperse the fog. The dragon, recognizing its prey's instability, took advantage and lashed out. This time, its neck slammed into Astrid's side with a powerful stroke, sending the small girl across the arena and into the stone wall. She bounced off slightly, and fell to the cold floor in a pile. Astrid struggled to get up, but only managed to get her shoulders off the ground before a searing pain in her chest took precedence.
Hiccup, busy weaving around and slapping his own Zippleback head, heard Astrid's loud gasp as she discovered the extent of her injuries. Turning to her, Hiccup found himself falling victim to the same attack which took Astrid out of the fight, and coincidentally landed right next to her. However, he was made of sterner stuff, and leapt to his feet with a growl.
He was against the clock now; the sparker head may be drenched right now, but it would dry soon enough, and then they would be in trouble.
"Astrid!" Gobber shouted from above, only now managing to peer through the toxic haze and see what had happened to one of the teens in his care. Stoick would have his mustache!
Hiccup warily watched his foe, the Zippleback crawling closer to him and Astrid. The girl was groaning in pain, so he would have no help from her. Fighting two heads would be difficult, though, so he would need to be careful. With their long, snaking necks, they would be dexterous, and their shared-ish mind would allow them to coordinate incredibly well.
Hiccup ran forward towards the head with the bleeding gash on its neck- probably the smoker, since Astrid had been the one with a sharp weapon- and jumped at it. The dragon wasn't expecting the smaller creature to be so aggressive, and was unprepared for the devastating punch to the nose which had it seeing stars. The sparker cried out as the pain was shared between the heads.
Pressing his advantage, the auburn-haired teen came close, and grabbed the smoker by the massive horn on its head. With the dragon unable to retreat, Hiccup reared back, and slammed the Zippleback with another incredibly powerful punch. This time, the dragon did pass out, flopping to the floor like a fish. The sparker roared, coiling up then striking out with the speed of a lightning bolt. Hiccup kicked off the ground, sidestepping the quick thrust, giving the beast a kick to the side for its troubles in the same motion. He stumbled a bit before regaining his footing, while the lizard shook itself to get rid of the sudden bout of dizziness.
Screeching at him, the sparker seemed to realize its head had dried off, and immediately opened its mouth. White-hot sparks poured out of the gaping maw, but did nothing other than create a pretty light show. Confused, the Zippleback glanced around, before its slitted-eyes widened in panic; the gas had dispersed during the fight, and the smoker had been knocked out!
With no other choice, the dragon head returned to the tried-and-tested method of old; bite the thing until it died. With a snap, the neck extended faster than before, leaving Hiccup unable to dodge. With the wide jaws ready to snap shut on him, the lad did the only thing he could think of- he caught the beast.
Well, he tried to, at least. It was easy to block the lower jaw, with its incredibly large teeth. Fortunately, they weren't sharp all around, so he only had to catch the smooth base. The issue, however, were the top teeth. Those were much smaller, and the Chief's son had been unable to properly catch one. He ended up getting his arm pierced by two of them, but managed to ignore the pain. The Zippleback, realizing it was in a disadvantageous position, attempted to pull back, but Hiccup used his grip on the bottom tooth and superior strength to keep it firmly locked in place.
The dragon began to buck wildly, to no avail, before attempting to use its crackling breath on the boy. Sparks washed over Hiccup, causing him no small amount of discomfort. He couldn't use his ice here, as the heat from the Zippleback would cause it to melt rapidly and steam up. That might lead to unwanted questions.
So, with a bellow of rage- and a mouthful of sparks- Hiccup slammed the Zippleback head onto the stone floor, shattering its concentration. He did it twice more for good measure, causing the dragon's teeth to gnash together painfully, as well as knocking it out.
Panting heavily, Hiccup finally let go of the dragon's yellow-stained teeth, and putting some space between himself and the unconscious beast.
"Hiccup! Are ya alright, lad!?" Gobber shouted, finally having gotten down to the arena pit. Hiccup, out of breath, and slightly smoky, just gave the smithy a thumbs-up. Gobber nodded back, before focusing on Astrid, who had passed out at some point. There was no blood that the man could see, but that didn't stop him from worrying. Internal injuries were probably more dangerous.
"Get Astrid ta the Gothi- that hit didn't look too good. I've got ta take care of the others."
Hiccup nodded, walking over and gathering the girl up in his arms, with one under her knees and the other supporting her back. She moaned slightly at his roughness, so Hiccup slowed down slightly, but still walked with haste.
Odin's beard, today had been eventful.
Astrid's back hurt. So did her chest. And her head… And just about everything else, for that matter. What in Hel's name had happened to her?
There was… Dragon Training. And they were fighting the ZIppleback today, right? She had paired up with Hiccup, and they got attacked by both the heads… And then one of them hit her really hard, or something like that.
Now, she was in a somewhat large room, lying on a cot, staring at the greywood ceiling above her. This definitely wasn't her home, since that was made of brown wood. The only places in the village made of greywood were the Chief's house and the Gothi's hut. That made sense, since the Gothi doubled as the resident volva and healer.
Why was Hiccup here, then? Said teen was sitting in a chair facing the bed Astrid was in, arms crossed with his head hanging, chin resting on his broad chest. He was tall enough that Astrid could still see his face, and she spent a while simply staring at his sharp edges and soft freckles.
Eventually, she let out a slightly dreamy sigh, which unfortunately woke the lad. On the bright side, she did get to see his striking emerald eyes, and was barely able to resist the urge to sigh again.
Hiccup looked slightly confused, but after a few glances around the room, seemed to remember where he was. He settled back into his chair, which he had halfway-risen from, and turned his piercing gaze on Astrid.
"How do you feel?" he asked, voice gravelly from sleep. The sound sent shivers down Astrid's aching spine.
"Um… Everything hurts, but I don't think I'm dying?"
Hiccup nodded, like he'd expected as much. "Right. The Gothi said you cracked a few ribs, and your back is gonna be bruised pretty bad for a few days. Lucky you, you get off Dragon Training for at least a week, depending on what Gothi says."
"Lucky!?" Astrid shrieked, shooting up then immediately regretting it. She ignored it for the moment, however. "I can't miss Dragon Training! How else am I gonna learn to fight?"
Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her, sliding down slightly in his chair. "I don't know, but it'll probably be a lot easier if you don't have crack ribs," he said dryly.
Astrid calmed down slightly, embarrassed at getting so flustered in front of the stoic boy- like father, like son. The blonde narrowed her eyes slightly, as she finally registered what he had said.
"Why do you sound like you'd rather not be part of Dragon Training? Isn't this what you wanted for, like, your whole life?"
Hiccup tilted his head sideways, pondering the question. "Well, it's kind of a waste of time? Besides, I don't want to do it anymore, but Dad forced me into it. He's annoying like that."
"A waste of-!?"
"Shut up."
Astrid's mouth closed with an audible click. Hiccup ruffled his hair with a hand, and sighed tiredly.
"Man, you're kinda annoying too."
Astrid opened her mouth to retort, but stopped once more when the boy held up a hand.
"You need to rest. You're injured, and the Gothi is probably gonna wring my neck if you strain yourself 'cause of me. Go to sleep."
Astrid drew in a breath, ready to fight against him. The pain was irritating her, which is where she was getting the courage from. Otherwise, she'd have probably melted into a puddle by now.
Seeing what was happening, Hiccup gently clamped a hand on Astrid's mouth before she could open it. "No fighting," Hiccup said, pushing her back until she was lying down, easily ignoring her struggles with his incredible strength.
Astrid was only able to focus on his warm, calloused hand. She was suddenly struck by a wave of exhaustion, and decided that maybe a nap wouldn't be a bad idea. Relaxing her muscles, she laid back and let sleep overcome her. She was unconscious in moments.
Hiccup sighed again- something he had been doing a lot lately- and withdrew his hand. This girl…
Whatever. He had things to do, which did not include watching somebody sleep like a creep.
Bruh. Everything sucks right now. Schools obnoxious, and I have to quit Track cuz I have neither the will nor the energy to do it. I can barely get through six hours of school, I'm not going to be able to handle two more hours of practice.
Also, chapter count for this story is finally in double digits! :)))))
K bai :D