Chapter Twenty One
Shadow had never known relief like the sudden rush of it when he realised Hiccup's fever had broken a couple of hours later. The boy was still pale, but the fever had obviously finished its rampage, and his forehead was just as warm as the rest of him; no longer burning.
As a result, Shadow puts away the cloth and water and busies himself by the fire, building it up more so that the boy won't go to the other extreme and be chilled. He tucks the child in a not-too-heavy blanket; smoothing it down so that he'll feel comfortable and hopefully safe when he wakes, and then he potters back to the fire to heat up the soup so he can have a little himself as the claws of hunger have just began to gnaw at his stomach.
Settling down with a sigh Shadow glances over to the pale face and his brows meet in a frown.
What in Thors name is he going to say to the child when he wakes?
'Oh yes, by the way, we sort of captured you, and Alvin wants to hurt you, and he'll force you to train dragons, and if you do you'll probably get yourself killed because you're a titchy little fishbone, but it's ok because you can trust me, that is, you need to trust me so I can get us off this dam island, so yes, trust me, even though I was completely horrible to you, because, you see, I felt bad and I had a childish moment of self-hatred because you reacted as anyone would have done facing their kidnapper, and I took it out on you leading me to kinda drop you, and like, knock you out, but it's ok now because you're like the little brother I've never known, even though you don't really know who I am, and I've been looking after you for ages, and watching you sleep, and I changed your clothes, and this is not creepy or anything in the slightest, right...?'
Sure, that was going to go down really well.
Shadow sighs aloud again.
How was he ever going to get Hiccup to trust him?
...
From the prow of his best ship, The Horrible Helga, Stoick the Vast look out at the equally vast, unending expanse of sea before him, blue disappearing over the horizon into the depths of the archipelago.
Hiccup's out there somewhere.
The Viking Chieftain takes a deep, heaving breath and rubs a hand wearily across his face. His nightmares hadn't exactly allowed him to be well rested. There are deep, dark circles under his eyes and his hands shake slightly as he grips the rail and stares out at the ocean.
His son is in grave, terrible danger, and badly injured.
He turns back to see Gobber at the helm, Toothless the dragon on deck beside him; his eyes narrowed and bright green and fierce with determination. Stoick sees his small armada of Viking long ships behind them and the kids, Hiccup's friends, on their dragons and in the air, their little faces resolute and unyielding in their own determination.
They're going to rescue his son.
There's no doubt about it.
Stoick looks back out to sea once more, feeling the lurch of the ship beneath him as they pull up the anchor and the rhythm of rowing starts up, each man bending the oars with long strokes in time to a beating drum.
Stroke. Pull. Stroke. Pull. Stroke. Pull.
The long, rhythmic beat syncs with Stoick's heartbeat and breathing, and he as he looks forward, his fists clench and his brow crumples with determination.
I'm coming Hiccup. He thinks. Just hold on for a little bit, son.
Hold on.
...
A.N: A bit of a short chapter yes, but an update is an update. :)
Hope you enjoy! Glaze says 'hurr, hurr'; I think that means he hopes you like it too! Drop us a review if you did! Glaze hurred on the cookies, so they're a bit charred, but I can offer you a yummy virtual cupcake as bribery instead? It has sprinkles? :3
- Lenle (And Glaze the little pottery Dragon, who's hurring and blowing smoke rings at me because I only wrote a little chapter.)