AW#11

It was dark when we got to Berk, which was probably just as well, it made us harder to spot. I sent most of the dragons to the cove hoping that they would be safe. Jorma refused on Toothless' pestering, they followed my directions to Gothi's house. Thankfully Gothi enjoyed the view from her house on the peak and had also pestered Stoic into building a fairly large deck of sorts off one side. I only hoped that it was sturdy enough to support 3 dragons, because I knew that neither Toothless or Stormfly would leave willingly, I doubted Jorma would either.

Thankfully the Vikings of Berk believed in sturdy and while the platform creaked a bit it seemed to be solid enough, if a bit cramped. I carefully climbed down, stiff from too long in one position and trying to hold Hiccup all that time, my shoulders were extra stiff. I laid him down as carefully as I could, wishing for the first time that he hadn't had such growth spurt this winter, he hadn't hidden his delight at finally being taller than me even if it meant all the extra sewing.

My hand was shaking as I lifted it to knock on the door, and my legs were as well. I took a deep breath and knocked. It seemed like forever before the door opened.

The look on Gothi's face was irritation that melted into pure shock.

"Gothi please! Hiccup's hurt! We found the nest and killed the Queen but he's hurt!" I babbled in panic. Gothi held her hand up to stop my rambling, and pushed past me to see Hiccup. She hesitated at seeing the dragons, I grabbed her hand and pulled her along. "They won't hurt you, Gothi please he needs help." She looked at them and me for a moment and then nodded, before beginning her exam.

"Help me get him in the house girl, and then go get your mother." Gothi said in her horse voice, numbly I wondered how long it had been since she had spoken, and followed her instructions. Toothless tried to follow crooning worriedly.

"Toothless, you have to stay here. Do what Gothi tells you." Gothi's head snapped up at that. "They are quite smart and capable of helping, just ask them. This is Toothless, Stormfly, and Jorma." I introduced them in turn, and then turned and ran towards the steps to the village. It was a long way and seemed to take forever to get down them, I then increased my speed to my parents' house. Shoving down my nervousness and burst through the door.

Everyone was gathered around the fire in the center of the house, all talk ceased as they stared at me. "Mom! Mom! Gothi needs you!" I stepped forward, when she didn't move. "Come on Mom! Hiccup's hurt!" That seemed to spur some action.

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad, I was able to stop the bleeding enough to get him here."

"Go get Phlegma girl." I nodded and pelted out the door to Phlegma's house. I heard all my brothers start asking questions as I left, I ignored them, there wasn't time.

Phlegma's house was quiet when I got there, I didn't burst in as dramaticly. I knocked briefly and then opened the door calling her name. Phlegma stepped out of the back store room to stop and stare in a little bit of shock.

"You came back then?" She asked archly.

"Mom said to get you. We found the nest and killed the Queen, but Hiccup's really hurt. He's up at Gothi's." Phlegma stared for a few heartbeats more, and then nodded. I turned away.

"The village will be glad to have you back you know. Especially if you ended the dragons."

"We didn't end all the dragons." I sighed "Just the Queen. She had some kind of mind control on them and feeding her was why they raided us. We trained a bunch of dragons to help us over the winter."

Phlegma didn't say anything more but gathered her things and we hurried along up the stairs to Gothi's house. Phlegma and my mother stopped and stood stock still at the sight of the 3 dragons, outside Gothi's door. I pushed the 2 women forward with a quick, "they won't hurt you" and hurried to Gothi's side.

Gothi looked up. "Those beasties of yours are useful. The black one is his?" She asked indicating Hiccup.

"Yes, Toothless."

"I'll be getting the full story from you later." She said to me seriously. "Wait outside Astrid, keep the beasts calm. You don't want to see this."

"You have to take his leg?" I asked, already knowing the answer. I nodded at her and fought the tears, I couldn't help it even though I had already known. I went outside to sit with the dragons.

Toothless was distraught, and kept moaning with his head in my lap. Stormfly was behind me, and was alternating between grooming me and Toothless in an attempt at comfort. Jorma wrapped herself around the lot of us in a giant dragon hug.

"He'll be okay Toothless, it will just take time. He will have to heal, but at least he's alive and I think you for that." It seemed a small comfort to Toothless, as he continued moaning.

I closed my eyes leaning my head back against Stormfly's side and unsuccessfully tried not to cry.

I woke to someone poking me, and opened my eyes to Gothi poking me with her stick. "He'll live, as long as the wound doesn't fester." She told me matter of factly. "Come inside and tell us what happened." It wasn't a request.

I untangled myself from the dragons and scratched Toothless' sleep spot when he wouldn't let me go. Gothi watched with interest, but didn't say anything further as I untangled myself from the dragons and came into the house. No one protested as I went to Hiccup first trying to assure myself that he was still alive and trying not to look at his leg. His shoulders were bare just above the edge of the blanket, and I shifted uncomfortably to realize that he was probably naked under the blanket. It made cleanliness easier, but it made me uncomfortable.

"Well daughter, what happened?" My mother asked, she was trying to be gentle I could see, but there was an edge of anger there I just didn't know who it was directed at.

"Where should I start?"

"From the beginning, is always best." Gothi said with a smile.

Phlegma and mom nodded.

"Well I suppose it all began when Hiccup actually did shoot down a night fury, when he found Toothless he couldn't kill him and let him go instead. He didn't realize at the time that Toothless had been injured and could no longer fly independently, so he was trapped. Hiccup fed him and gradually made friends, as that happened he learned so much about dragons that he started beating me in Dragon training. That made me mad and I was determined to find out how he was doing it and followed him one night. We fought and I was going to go back to the village to tell the Chief when he and Toothless kidnapped me. He said he wanted to show me what dragons were really like, and they are amazing! They are smart and pretty gentle when they are away from that Queen."

"This is not the first time I've heard you mention a Queen, what does that mean?" Gothi asked

"Well, we found the dragons' island, and the Queen was monstrous and the dragons weren't raiding to feed themselves, it was like they were offering sacrifices so they wouldn't be eaten themselves. The thing almost ate us! It was kind of like a bee hive but she seemed to have a mind control on them, because the dragons were completely different when they were out of her range. Hiccup and I started talking after we had got away and decided that we needed to buy time to figure out what to do, but we knew for sure that he couldn't kill the nightmare. If we told the Chief he would launch an attack and it would probably kill half the village. So we decided to let the kill ring dragons loose hoping to buy time, but got caught. Fleeing was plan if we got caught, and the Chief was really scary that night."

"He was very angry initially." My mother said "He calmed down quickly though and has sunk into a fog since then. He will be heartbroken by the state Hiccup is in now, though I dare say impressed by how much the boy has grown." She laughed and the others joined in.

"You should have seen how much he's been eating, it's like trying to keep a dragon fed." I could feel myself smiling at the thought.

"Well, go on girl." Phlegma prodded.

"We ended up on an Island about a days flight south. Maybe a week or so with ships, it's warmer there, greener and not so many trees. The Island we were on there weren't any people, but some of them near by did. We found stuff to survive on and found more dragons, we trained them to work together so we could attack the Queen. When the weather warmed and we felt the dragons were trained enough we attacked the nest. We did manage to kill the Queen, but as you see Hiccup got hurt badly."

There was silence for a few heartbeats. The wounds on his leg were made by dragon teeth." Gothi stated seriously. "How can we actually accept that they are safe."

I took a deep breath. "Toothless…. The night fury." I explained pointing at him when they gave me a blank look. "They were really close to the Queen, fired into her mouth when she was getting ready to fire them… to put it bluntly she exploded. Hiccup fell off and Toothless did what he could to save him from the fire. Dragons don't have thumbs you know." I was trying to add some humor to hide my tears, the other women could see through it though. "Toothless is feeling really guilty too, you saw his reactions right, he's like a clingy little child that's made a mistake and is worried that we won't forgive him."

Phlegma stood and stretched, "We are going to have to talk to Stoic, best sooner rather than later too."

"I have some things to tell you as well." My mother told me. "You know that you couldn't run off with a boy without consequences right?" She asked in an exacerbated tone.

I looked down and felt, my stomach tighten. "What consequences are we talking about Mom?"

"Betrothal… Stoic offer us a contract, we accepted it."

I blinked for a few moments at her. "I'm betrothed?... To Hiccup right?"

She snorted a laugh. "Of course to Hiccup."

I felt very hesitant, and took a deep breath. "You know dragons are excellent chaperones, or at least Stormfly is. She was very protective of me, there was nothing that happened that shouldn't have."

"Hmm…" Was all my mom had to say. Phlegma just looked at me speculatively and Gothi was trying not to laugh.

"Leave the girl be Inga, she wouldn't be dancing around embarrassed so badly if she and Hiccup were actually involved in that way." Gothi practically snickered.

Oh gods, I could feel my face flaming, and was rather irritated with their poking fun at me. I crossed my arms and huffed. It just made the older women laugh.

After checking on Hiccup again admonishing the dragons to behave and stay out of sight as much as possible, Mom and Phlegma cajoled me into going to see Stoic.

"Better now when we can reasonably talk to him alone than in a few hours and have the whole village up to raise a ruckus about the dragons."

"Do you think that I have any chance at sleep tonight? Sleep would be really nice." I mumbled kind of half heartedly.

Mom smiled at me and Phlegma patted my back "After we talk to Stoic, then you can get some sleep."

I nodded as we trudged across the village in the early morning light. Oh Gods I think that I last slept a full day ago, before the battle, before the flight to Berk, before getting Hiccup to Gothi. It seemed like a lifetime, and a breath at the same time.

Phlegma knocked on Stoic's door, hard. Then she just opened the door and walked in yelling for him. I flinched at the volume of her voice. There was a huge bang from the back of the house, and then Stoic burst through a door in the back of the house yelling for Gobber. He came to a dead stop when he saw us.

"Astrid?" His voice cracked. "Where's Hiccup? Is he alright?"

I struggled to try and smile. "Well… He… he's with Gothi right now, he's hurt pretty badly."

Stoic wilted visibly, I didn't think it was possible for such a large man to do so. Mom stepped in then.

"Sit down Stoic, you can't see the boy yet anyway and Astrid's tale is an interesting one to say the least. I'll make tea."

Stoic sat heavily on the bench by the table. "Well tell me."

I sat next to him. "We found the dragon's nest. They had a Queen, kind of like a queen bee I guess and she was controlling the other dragons making them feed her. We spent the winter training other dragons and we attacked and killed the queen….. yesterday, I guess. Wow." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, not wanting to see Stoics face as I told the rest. "Hiccup and Toothless were really close to the queen…. She was huge, I mean really huge. They fired right into her mouth as she was getting ready to fire them, ignited all the gas inside her, and she exploded."

"Exploded?!" Stoic looked shocked.

"Exploded." I nodded and gave a wry smile. "Turns out they aren't very fire proof on the inside." I laughed just a little at that. Stoic stared at me with an incredulous look.

"Well… I suppose Hiccup's sense of humor is rubbing off on you."

"You spend a winter on an island where all you do is train dragons and talk to Hiccup and see how unscathed you come out."

There was a genuine laugh out of Stoic.

"The explosion was huge, I don't remember much of it, but Hiccup was so close. He was knocked out or something. Anyway he fell off of Toothless, and Toothless trying to save him from the fire grabbed what he could and wrapped him in his wings. What Toothless managed to grab was his left foot." I looked at Stoic solemnly "Dragons don't have thumbs."

"Hiccup was bitten?" Stoic look torn, between anger and heartbreak.

"I'm already going to be dealing with one enormous guilty toddler, I don't need to deal with you feeling guilty as well." That was a horrible thought, both Toothless and Stoic guilty whining messes, Toothless over hurting Hiccup, and Stoic over driving him away. My vision was fuzzy with exhaustion by this point and I could feel the heaviness in my limbs, the weight of the day, of the last 2 days really.

"I am really, really tired, can we talk more later? I am happy to answer questions, but right now I feel like I am going to melt." I told them. "No one is going kill dragons right? You have to tell everyone not to kill dragons. They won't hurt anyone."

Stoic looked at me appraisingly. "I can't tell my people not to defend themselves."

I nodded knowing that was probably the best that I was going to get. I got up and started for the door, my mom followed me while Phlegma stayed behind.

"Come daughter lets get you to bed." Mom patted me on the back.

"I've missed you Mom." I leaned against her as we walked, taking comfort from her, and fighting a weird urge to cry. She must have sensed my insecurity.

"It will be okay Astrid, he'll heal, and it will be okay."

I could only nod as she guided me in to the house and to a bed in the back. "Sleep daughter, it will look better in the morning."

I could only hope that she was right as I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Maybe it would all seem more manageable without this exhaustion weighing me down. Melding the dragons with the Vikings was going to be difficult, even more so without proof that anything had actually changed other than my word and an injured boy in Gothi's hut on top of the hill. I could only hope that Hiccup would heal quickly and would consent to stay, that is injury wouldn't drive him away.