Chapter 12: Moving On
As Astrid arrived just off Raven's Point, she took in the sight. A large pile consisting of wood and twigs was built up just at the end of the tree line. She had not been up there much. Of course, she would train in the forest occasionally but she never came to the edge of the cliffs. She looked over the edge to see the foamy blue waves crash on the large rocks below. The morning was a depressing one; the sky was empty of the sun. A gray haze seemed to cover them. Eret was adding to the pile of wood. Snotlout hugged himself as Fishlegs was comforting Ruffnut, who glanced at the pile of wood with determination in her eyes. Ruffnut's eyes traveled to Astrid, and then the others noticed her. She tightened her hold on the box as the eyes stared at her.
She swallowed, "I brought what you said."
Ruffnut pushed herself off the ground and went to Astrid, "Good. The sooner we get started the better," she turned on her heel.
She went to the pile of wood and carefully took Tuffnut's belongings from the box and set them on the wood. Astrid had a stinging feeling as she did the same. She looked down at her box, everything that she had tossed inside seemed much more valuable than it did before. She reached in for the papers, but her hands stopped just as she did so. Maybe she should leave that for last. She reached for his shoe; she pulled it out of the box and placed it on the wood. No, that wouldn't do, it looked silly there. She picked it up and put it back in the box. She glanced over her shoulder to see that Ruffnut was almost done. She was just throwing Tuffnut's socks on the pile.
"I don't know if Tuffnut will need his dirty socks in Valhalla, Ruff." Snotlout put a hand on her shoulder.
Ruffnut wiped her teary eyes, "Yeah, he liked the smell of them. I want him to have them."
Snotlout's eyes swelled as well. He turned away from the girl, a slight sad smile appearing on his lips, "Alright then."
Astrid turned back to Hiccup's belongings. What would he want in Valhalla? His dragon. The forge. Her. She pursed her lips as she went through the designs. Most of them were for dragon saddles. One was a bread machine, lots of catapults. Would Hiccup really want those in Valhala? Of course he would.
Fishlegs got to his knees beside her, "Need any help?"
Astrid pulled her hair away from her face, "No. I'm good, thanks."
Fishlegs grabbed one of the designs and looked it over, "Is that a bread making machine?"
She let out a quiet laugh, "Yeah, it is."
Fishlegs did also, "He was so imaginative, I could never come up with the things he did! Like, look at these!" Fishlegs grabbed more from the box and read them to her, "Portable water skin holder, Dragon bunk beds, another catapult."
Fishlegs suddenly stopped. Looking down at a paper, his smile fell slightly as he took a deep breath. Astrid reached for the paper in his hands.
AShe gently took the paper from his hands and looked it over. Her shoulders dropped.
It was a cradle. The perfect cradle, one a lot different from the nightmare she had before. This one was covered in dragon designs. It had arrows all over it, Hiccup had jotted down notes about the type of wood he would use, springs to make it rock up and down. Paint colors.
"You okay?" Fishlegs asked her.
Astrid carefully folded up the design and stashed it away in her coat pocket. She used Fishleg's shoulder to pull herself up from the ground just as Eret spoke up.
"Alright, I think we are ready."
They stepped away from the stacked wood as Eret got to his knees. He rubbed his hands together and grabbed two sticks and rubbed them viciously together.
Snotlout snorted, "Eret?"
"Yeah?"
"You know we have dragons, right?"
Eret tilted his head with confusion. Snotlout just shook his head; he put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Hookfang, who was relaxing with the other dragons, suddenly jolted up. He sent a blast so powerful to the pile of wood it caused an explosion. The gang turned their faces away as fire blazed the grass around it. Astrid blinked as the smoke reached her eyes and made her cough.
They turned to Snotlout, who was turning red with embarrassment. He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets, "Well...Tuffnut always wanted to go out with a bang."
Eret suddenly let out a loud laugh, coughing it down. They all turned to him. He was biting his lip keeping in his laughter, "I'm sorry. That was just- Out with a bang!"
Fishlegs's mouth suddenly turned into a grin and he started giggling. Snotlout lost it soon after and soon the three men where brushing the mirth out of their eyes. Astrid, who was quite shocked, turned to Ruffnut, she herself had a slight grin on her lips.
Astrid shook her head as she watched the fire grow. The laughter suddenly died, they all surrounded the flames and listened to the crackling of the wood. She felt her body shake as tears began to spring from her eyes. She wiped them quickly, clearing her throat. Ash from the flames began to fly towards them as the wind blew. Astrid felt Fishlegs grab her shoulder and pull her into a hug. She did not pull away. She let him comfort her. Snotlout brushed past her and his shoulders fell.
"I wanted to kill Tuff sometimes. I remember back when we were kids he would do the most annoyingest things ever." Snotlout turned to Ruffnut, who was carefully listening to him, "Remember that time you and him locked me out of the emergency bunker? I spent the entire night trying to get myself in. Tuffnut wouldn't budge. That moron." he looked down to the flames, "but he was still my best friend."
He stretched his neck, "And Hiccup, he was a good guy, even though he stole my chick."
Astrid let out a humorless laugh and shook her head, "I was never yours, Snotlout."
Snotlout bit his lip, "I can see that now." he turned to face Astrid; she was almost surprised to see tears clouding his eyes, "I am so sorry for the way I treated him all those years. I was jealous, his dad was the chief. I thought he had everything. I'm sorry," His voice hitched.
Astrid reached out and took his left hand in her own. His lips parted as she nodded, "He forgave you," Astrid rested against Snotlout's shoulder. Fishlegs reached out and put his hand on Snotlout's shoulder.
They watched the fire begin to die down. The belongings of their loved ones were taken, hopefully sent up to them to Valhalla.
Eret's eyes traveled to Ruffnut, she was standing behind her friends, watching the smoke, sparks from the fire touched the grass in front of her. Without thinking, he side stepped softly towards her and took her hand. Squeezing it, she looked up to him and smiled sadly.
The days were beginning to get easier. Hiccup and Tuffnut had been prisoners for a little over four weeks now. Surprisingly, they had gotten used to their new routine fairly quickly. The mornings were always the hardest, getting up at the crack of dawn to haul rocks was hard. Hiccup often had to pull Tuffnut up by the arms and shake him awake. Once the work day was started, the two boys found it quite easy. And after all, it was worth it at the end of the day when they feasted. One particular day was more exciting than the rest.
Hiccup, Tuffnut and their four other friends found themselves working on the shores of Coldstone Island. Each man seemed to have their own job. Frey and Scar, the two strongest men, were hauling the large logs from the rocky shores and chopping them up. Pavel, on the other hand, had the easier job of collecting sea shells to be sold at the town's market. Tuffnut was out in the ocean, checking the multiple fish nets for any sort of food. Hiccup almost laughed to himself as he saw his friend out in the crashing waves, his pant legs rolled up to his knees even though the waves crashed well over his waist. Calder, who had somehow heard gossip of Hiccup's artistic abilities, had asked (or really, demanded) Hiccup to sketch out a map of Coldstone Island. He sat on a giant rock out by the water; it was there he had best view of the giant cliffs. As he sketched, he could not help to feel a little home sick. It had been four weeks since they had been taken. It had also been four weeks since Hiccup had a pencil in his hand. He took his time, carefully tracing each cliff to the exact measurement. He even added some extra shading, even though Calder would not believe it was unnecessary. When he finished the map, he took out the extra paper and started to doodle. The feeling of drawing was calming to him. He looked around; the day was a miserable one. Gray skies, the ocean was rough. The wind was whipping at him and he could taste salt from the sea.
Over his shoulder, he felt someone drop beside him. He turned to Aradynn carefully whittling a piece of twig. Hiccup was still not on the best of terms Aradynn. Aradynn's blue eyes suddenly pierced Hiccup's own. He reached down and snagged the paper from Hiccup's hands before he could protest.
Aradynn set the knife and twig aside, examining the drawings, "You are talented. I did not believe them."
Hiccup's eyebrow furrowed, he mumbled, "Thanks."
Aradynn turned the paper to face Hiccup, "Who is that?"
In the lower right corner was a sketch of a beautiful blonde. She had a slight grin, her hair in a perfect braid. Hiccup felt his chest tighten, "That's Astrid. We just got married a few months ago."
"Sa'shame," Aradynn studied the drawing and passed it back to Hiccup, "she's beautiful. You're a lucky man."
"Was a lucky man. I probably will never see her again."
Aradynn reached over and slapped Hiccup in the back, making him almost fall off the rock.
"Do not be so negative. I'm sure you will be released one day. Give or take ten years," Aradynn smiled at him.
"I was hoping I would be home give or take nine months."
Aradynn raised an eyebrow, it took him a few seconds to clue in, "Ohh, you bugger. That's right, get her knocked up, then get yourself kidnapped. What were ya thinkin?"
Hiccup shook his head, "I have no clue. I really should have thought that through better, shouldn't I?"
They sat for a moment before they both started to laugh. Hiccup watched as Aradynn jumped from the rock and made his way back to Scar, "You're alright, Haddock. I don't hate you anymore."
Hiccup's smile hardly fell, "Thanks."
Tuffnut dragged himself up from the sea. He smelled like fish. Hiccup jumped off the rock and went to meet him.
"This is impossible, how do they do this without dragons?" Tuffnut gestured to the empty nets.
"Toothless could catch a dozen fish in his mouth at once," Hiccup looked off in the distance, "he could probably do a better job than all those nets combined."
Tuffnut nodded, "Blech could too. Sometimes he caught lobsters."
By dusk, the five men, covered in sand, were escorted back to the dining area. Tonight's dinner was some sort of fish stew. Tuffnut could hardly wait to devour it, no matter how over cooked the fish was, but he was looking forward to something else as well. Tuffnut's little secret, something only he knew of.
He quickly gulped down his stew. Thankfully, Hiccup was being bombarded with congratulations as Aradynn told news to the table of Hiccup's fatherhood; Hiccup's cheeks went red as the men slapped him on the back. Tuffnut would have had the same reaction when Hiccup told him four weeks ago whilst being stuck in the dark in a cold damp boat, but the mood wasn't just right. Tuffnut found this the perfect time to sneak away. He pushed himself up from the table and headed to the outskirts of the dining area. He sat himself down past the bushes on a rock. He had hardly sat down as something appeared from the trees. Or someone. Runa nudged Tuffnut to the left and sat down beside him.
"You certainly don't waste time," Tuffnut laughed.
Runa grinned, "I do not have much time to spare. I make dinner for the prisoners at six, and then my parents expect me home for dinner by six-fifteen. It does not help when I have to clean dishes too.' She explained.
Tuffnut nodded, "What do you want to talk about tonight?"
"Continue from last week," Runa pounded on his chest a few times, "tell me about Snuggletog!"
Tuffnut roared with laughter, "N-no, it's Snoggletog. Like I said before, it's our winter holiday, when Odin comes and leaves gifts for everyone. The dragons also go and lay their eggs, so when they come back Berk is always taken over by baby dragons."
Runa's face lit up with delight. She jumped up from the rock and twirled, "Oh! What I wouldn't do for a dragon! What I wouldn't do to be able to grow wings and fly to this place. To think, having my very own dragon. Even seeing a dragon would be marvelous!"
"You've never seen a dragon?"
"Only in books," she looked down to him with gloom, "Dragons do not seem to wonder this far east. I wish they did."
Tuffnut searched her excited gaze, "alright. Let's say dragon did fly this east. What type of dragon would you like?"
Runa's hands clasped together and she bit her lip, "I would like a Zippleback. Just like you!"
"You have to have someone else to ride a Zippleback, like I have my sister."
Runa shook her head, "Of course. Of course, what was I thinking? Oh!" She turned, "Then I would like a black one! Just like your friend Hiccup!"
Tuffnut shook his head once more, "Sorry. Only one left in the whole world and Hiccup called dibs."
Runa sat down, "I cannot remember the other dragons. I just want one that will be loyal to me. One that will love me as much as I love it."
Tuffnut grinned at her, "Don't worry, we will find you a type. Everyone has a type."
Runa, who finally was self-aware of her excitement, blushed away with embarrassment. She suddenly jumped up from her rock and went to take off once more. Tuffnut grabbed her hand before she could run.
Runa looked with confusion. Tuffnut opened her palm, "I forgot to give this to you. Pavel found it for me."
She looked down to her palm to see a perfectly white sea shell. She stroked it, it was smooth. She lifted her head and gazed into his kind eyes. Tuffnut expected her to stay something; instead she averted her eyes and stepped away.
"I will promise you something," she whispered to him.
"What?" Tuffnut asked with confusion.
Runa looked up once more, her eyes filled with determination, "I will help you escape."
Wow, that was definitely not supposed to take so long to be updated. Truth be told I finished the chapter last week but my Beta was super busy and I couldn't upload it without her. On the bright side, next chapter will be coming very soon.
Don't forget to review.
(at least Hic and Tuff are finally fitting in, right?)
