Well, the boy had grown somewhat, thought Gobber, not physically of course but in character. Not that anyone could notice but he saw some confidence in the boy where once there was none. He held his sword acceptably, though he still looked uncomfortable. Gobber imagined that this was due to Hiccup not being violent. He and everyone watched as the two boys prepared themselves in their own way.
Hiccup was evaluating his surroundings to make best use of them and his adversary. The boy was a strategist, which Gobber knew quite well. After all, how many people can say they tricked two Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus into tearing each other apart? Thought this was okay, it was not necessarily all good for sword combat. The old soldier remembered the many times when it all came down to reflex and pure gut feelings.
Dogsbreath was the complete opposite; he was all instinct and no brains. He wondered if there was at least one thought in the boy's mind that wasn't about killing, destroying, or hurting what was placed in front of him. He was actually eyeing Hiccup like a dragon eyed his prey. He had thought the wooden cases lame for a very long time, but today he decided to make an exception.
"Go!" Gobber shouted hoping not to regret allowing this fight.
"Ahhh!" shouted Dogsbreath at top of his lungs as he charged straight forwards and swung his sword down with a force that could have knocked Hiccup out hadn't he simply turned his body to the side. The sword encased in wood hit the hard wooden floor of the ship sending a tremor through Dogsbreath arm, which was actually painful to the large boy, "You!" the beast of a boy who wasn't used to pain, of course got furious.
"My turn," said Hiccup before making his move.
"There is no taking turns in sword fighting!" shouted Gobber.
Hiccup ducked under Dogsbreath's rising arm sword and hit him on the back of one of his knees, which made the large boy stumble for a moment. This made him even more furious.
Hiccup could hear the cheering of the others, but paid them no mind. His eyes kept darting from his opponent to a sneering Snotlout who was still whispering to his dragon. No one else but him had noticed this. He had a very bad feeling about it. Still, he did his best to concentrate on Dogsbreath's brutish attacks. They were all vertical or horizontal attacks, or sometimes he would reach to grab him, but it was all too easy to read for him.
At top of that, because of his small size he had more mobility around the deck of the ship. Had his balance been better he would have taken advantage of the banisters to move freely around the ship and tire the other boy.
"Now…" sneered Snotlout before Fireworm ducked down and flew out of sight to the back of the ship where Toothless was watching the so called Viking fight with one eye slightly open.
He was thinking that the boy was doing okay, for being a human of course, against someone so much bigger than him. Not that he would ever admit it to the boy. Then, suddenly he felt strong jaws sink into one of his back legs. He screeched catching everyone's attention before snapping his neck to look back at Fireworm who had a smug smile. The Monstrous Nightmare was perching on the back of the ships banister looking down on Toothless.
"That's how a real dragon's bite feels like," he claimed still bitter about the painful gum filled bite Toothless had given him a few months back.
"Son of Jormungand!" screeched Toothless before he jumped, surprising Fireworm, and then sank his gum filled bite on one of Fireworm's wing joints.
"MONGREL!" growled Foreworm as he raked one of his claws on Toothless flank. It wasn't deep, but the droplets that fell to the wood enraged Toothless.
Toothless hissed before scratching the other dragon as well. Soon both were wrestling in the back of the ship screeching more insults at each other.
"For the love of the Thor!" shouted Gobber before going to separate the dragons when he saw all the kids entranced at seeing two dragons fight; incredibly enough, it wasn't something that it was seen every day.
Snotlout took this as an opportunity to remove the wooden case of Dogsbreath's sword.
"The useless is making fun of you," he whispered to the other boy who had also been distracted by the wrestling dragons, "are you going to let him get away with it?"
"No!" shouted Dogsbreath, warning Hiccup that the fight was still on. He rolled to the side just in time to see the uneven sharp of Dogsbreath's sword slash through the air.
Hiccup watched as Dogsbreath tried to pull his sword out of the wood, not realizing the sword was no longer in its wooden case. It took Hiccup a fraction of a second to realize that he was in true danger.
"Dogsbreath! Your sword…" but he didn't get to finish. The infuriated boy reacted to his voice and swung a heavy fist in his direction catching Hiccup on the side of his head. The force sent him flying all the way to the head of the ship before he hit his head on one of the banisters. Equally bad, his sword flew off his hands and landed somewhere among the unused seating.
His head spun and he felt sick. He had to close his eyes for a moment to keep the throbbing of his head from making him throw up. Thankfully he regained his bearings just in time to hear Dogsbreath running towards him with another blood curling scream.
Hiccup scrambled forwards, going between Dogsbreaths legs before hearing the sword sink into the wood. He scrambled to the unused seats where he searched for his sword. He had to put something between his soft flesh and that illness covered sword.
This hadn't definitely been one of his best ideas. Had he paid mind to his gut feeling when he saw Snotlout whisper to his dragon he would not be in this situation. It was all because he wanted a little of spotlight when he had already learned a long time ago that being in the spot light was the worst thing he could do. Why, even his dragon thought so too. All of this happened because he let his pride get the best of him. Just because he had a nice sword it didn't mean he could beat Dogsbreath, not even if he had learned a few fancy moves from Astrid. With his luck, the best he could hope for was not to get killed.
"I WILL KILL YOU!"
Yeah, definitely not one of his best ideas…
"Stay still!"
He ducked still searching for his sword.
"Not going to happen!" he shouted over his shoulder before hearing the sound of the blade cutting the air. He stepped to the side as the disgusting blade sank into the wood.
"Get him Dogsbreath!" shouted Snotlout unable to believe Hiccup was that good at dodging. This caught the attention of everyone back to them, for exception of Gobber who was still trying to separate the two dragons.
What they saw was a swordless Hiccup as he scrambled for his life; it wasn't cool at all.
"Stop Dogsbreat! Your sword is missing…" Hiccup tried again but was over-shouted by Snotlout.
"Get him!" shouted his cousin as his face started to turn red with fury. Why couldn't the shrimp stay still!
Fishlegs had been frozen just as the rest, but Snotlout's shout snapped him out of it. He noticed the sun reflected off Dogsbreath's sword; the blade was bare, and that Hiccup kept trying to find something around the unused seats. He knew exactly what he needed to do and knew he wasn't going to like it. He grabbed one of the shields that hung on the side of the ship and with his strongest blow threw it towards Dogbreath's head. His aim failed and hit him instead on the shoulder, but it did the trick just the same. Dogsbreath turned away from Hiccup and glared like a mad man at Fishlegs before charging towards him.
"Wait, I thought we were allowed to cheat, but isn't that like cheating on cheating?" asked Tuffnut to his sister, who instead of answering simply pulled her brother down as Dogsbreath jumped over them towards Fishlegs.
Everyone tried to scramble away as Dogsbreath started to chase a high pitched screaming Fishlegs.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…" Hiccup kept saying as he searched for his sword before he found the familiar handle and pulled it out. But, as soon as he had it he lost it again.
"I will do it myself," Snotlout sneered as he pulled Hiccup back by the neck of his vest and placed the sharp of his sword against his freckled cheek.
Gobber was still trying to separate the dragons and everyone else was trying to get away from Dogsbreath as he launched at anything that moved. No one could help him.
Of all the ways he could die, this had to be the one. He was raised to be a Viking, and to a certain point he was not afraid of death. However, he hated that it was Snotlout who would give the final blow and get away with what he wanted; destroying and tarnishing all he cared and loved in the way. He imagined his father, grandmother, and even Gobber despairing, Fishlegs bullied and probably later banished or killed, Toothless caged and miserable, and then he thought of Astrid who would learn that he had failed to keep his promise of protecting their tribe from his cruel cousin. It made him sad and so much angrier. In the spur of his momentary rage Hiccup kicked with all his strength and connected with Snotlout's shin. Hiccup's foot hurt horribly, but it did the trick.
"Ouch!" Snotlout shouted and dropping Hiccup who fell on his bottom. He reached for his sword and took it out the wooden case before he pointed it up, one touch away from Snotlout's throat.
"You are too much of a coward" he said trying his hardest not to gulp as he felt the small prickle of Hiccup's sword point on his throat.
"Is that really what you think?" Hiccup said doing his best not to shake. If he did this, then maybe his life would get so much better… but this wasn't him! And he cursed inside his own mind at his weakness (or so he thought at that time). He was ready to pull his sword back when he noticed Snotlout was looking up, his mouth wide open. Hiccup turned and saw that their rivalry would have to wait for another day.
Pulling the boat into her innards was a gargantuan wave. Their ship tilted as they were pulled up and soon all the fighting stopped and they were all holding to the ship for dear life. In one amazing and agonizing moment they stood on the crest of the wave.
"I am king of the world!" they heard someone shout, but it didn't matter who.
A moment later it all crashed down. The monstrous wave threw a heavy object into the middle of their ship which broke it in two and soon they swallowed by the violent waves. For a few horrible seconds Hiccup didn't know what was up or down. His body tumbled in the water and he was almost out of air. Just as his last breath escaped him, he felt a strong grip on his shoulder before got pulled up. He coughed before looking up at Toothless who flew just above him.
"Thanks," and then coughed. The water was still restless but it was better than being under it, "have you seen Fishlegs?"
His friend didn't know how to swim, so he was terribly worried.
"Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself?" Toothless said tiredly. He was also cranky because he had been winning his fight against Fireworm, but thanks to that snoopy Viking he didn't get to finish what they started.
"Go find Fishlegs, or at least have Meatlug do it. He doesn't know how to swim" Hiccup said still out of breath.
"What type… oh! Whatever!" all of Hiccup's friends were weird; he didn't see the point in questioning it anymore.
Hiccup in the meanwhile had no idea what he would do. He could hear the other trainees spread over the waters and Gobber somewhere in between trying to have them all swim towards him. It was going to be impossible to get back home from this, he thought as his limbs started to get tired. Then something bumped into him. At first he thought it was debris from the ship, but found something much larger and without his knowing, dangerous.
8888 Astrid and the Bog Burglars Part 2 8888
Bertha woke up earlier than usual, dressed and went to the barracks of the young shield maidens in training with a naughty smile on her face. The poor things had no idea what was going on when Bertha kicked open their door.
"We are under attack!" she shouted in a shrill voice that had them in less than a second running over each other in panic.
"OH FREYA! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"
"WHERE IS MY SWORD!"
"THAT IS MY SHIELD!"
"EEEEEENOUGH!" shouted Bertha before they all stopped dead on their tracks, "this is very disappointing! Had this been a real attack you all would already be dead. For punishment," she proclaimed, "you lot will start the day by running to the well and back with buckets of water ten times" they also needed to fill the baths that day, but everyone hated that job.
"Yes Chief Bertha," they all said in various degrees of shame before they started to get dressed for the day.
Then Bertha noticed something, "where is Hofferson?"
The petite blond was nowhere in sight, actually her bed was already made. All the girls shrugged. They hadn't noticed Astrid was missing until then. She was very quiet, which made her pass unperceived most of the time. This was the key depiction the Bog Burglars had for the once young Hairy Hooligan. She never talked back, ate her meals by herself, and to Bertha's annoyance was very talented but never bragged. She couldn't help to be terribly reminded of Asmund.
After making sure the rest of the girls started with their punishment Bertha went to look for Astrid. She asked around but none had seen her. She wondered if she had changed her mind and had gone back to Berk, but quickly dismissed the idea when she found her Nadder sleeping on the dragon stables, a basket with poultry already waiting for her when she woke up. The girl had been here.
"I guess Hooligans aren't as undependable, right Chief?" said the main stable care taker, her name was Isgerd.
"She has Bog Burglar blood," was her cold response, and cursed Asmund in her mind.
"My apologies," said the stable keeper, "still you have to admit she is an early riser. She was waiting for me to open the stables with her basket already at hand"
"Do you know where she went?" asked Bertha glad to finally have a hint of where the girl had gone.
"To the training grounds," said Isgerd, "she also had her axe with her"
Bertha nodded before turning to the training fields. She had well in mind to give the girl a punishment… though she was having trouble figuring out for what reason. She was taking care of her chores early and practicing; maybe for being absent from her so called drill? When she made it to the training field, which was a large piece of grassland where all Bog Burglars practiced their weapon skills, she saw no sign of Astrid.
"Good morning Chief Bertha!" called Groa as she ran to her sweaty, dirty and very cheery, "are you looking for that little one?"
"Have you seen her?" Bertha tried to ignore the fact that Groa got along quite well with the girl. Groa was one of her best, so she hoped she wasn't going soft.
"Yeah, she was here a while ago but when Hekja spotted her, she made her help carry some baskets to the kitchen. I think she might still be there" she said looking towards the main kitchen of the Bog Burglars.
She nodded before she proceeded to the kitchen. She found Hekja, the head cook and once one of the best warriors in the tribe; now she was old and with graying hair. She always made sure to take advantage of the youth of their tribe to help her in the kitchen; still she didn't spot Astrid anywhere.
"If you are looking for that walking disaster, I sent her to chop some wood" said Hekja before Bertha caught sight of a half burned would have been stew.
"Walking disaster?" that was the first time Bertha heard someone refer to Astrid like that.
"Yeah, child couldn't even peal a vegetable to save her life, less alone cook it. Since she seemed so handy with the axe, I sent her to chop some wood" she pointed to another door from the kitchen which led outside, "at least she is good at that"
Bertha didn't waste any time and went through the door to the back garden where the wood was chopped and some vegetables were grown.
"Ha!" she stopped dead on her tracks and watched as Astrid threw a log into the air, swung her axe, and cut the small log exactly through the middle twice, "Ha!" she did it again, "Ha!" and again without missing a beat. Just about all the wood they would need in the kitchen for the week was already cut. She bet Hekja wouldn't be complaining about Astrid any time soon.
"Astrid!" she called which startled the girl making her miss her mark. The log fell intact to the grass.
"Good morning Chief!" she said turning, her axe dropping to the ground.
"You missed one," she couldn't help pointing out.
"I am sorry Chief Bertha," the girl blushed truly embarrassed.
Bertha was at loss with this child who tried so hard. When she had arrived and seen her small frame she had expected a timid, weak, and cowardly girl. She admitted to herself, she had even expected her to be kind of stupid, but the girl was none of that.
"Make sure to finish the wood here, and then join the rest of your group at the hall for breakfast," said Bertha before turning to leave.
"Yes Chief Bertha!" called Astrid before going back to the remaining wood. Bertha picked for a few more second to watch her finish the small piece of long and then left. As she walked back to her home she cursed Asmund again for training the girl to be so good, or maybe she had made a mistake when she let her go.