So, technically, it is Saturday... Or, the very early hours of such... D: D: D: D:

I have fail you guys.

I really did mean to post this earlier... however, things go in the way.

Which brings me to some good news...

Today (yesterday), was my senior dissertation presentation thing... AND I TOTALLY PASSED. XD GUESS WHO GETS TO GRADUATE?! XD

So anyway, I was doing that all day, then was out celebrating and whatnot... therefore, a technically-Saturday-post. I hope you can forgive me. Good news is, this wont happen again. I mean, I never have to do that presentation EVER. Things will also probably be updated quicker too, like in the morning, because I don't have any of that 'must pass to graduate' stress. My work load has been severely lightened... :)

I hope you guys like this chapter! Hope it was worth the wait... This is Ari's breakdown. It all gets better from here, though. :)

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~a sexy line~~~~~~~~~~~~

What was left of the ships started to return. Nearly everyone was back by that evening and repairs were underway. They weren't the only ones to land in Berk, however.

Dragons were amongst them as well. Slowly, cautiously, they started poking their heads around the Village. At first it was just the dragons from the arena, the teen's dragons. But then others started coming. With the Monster dead, they seemed to now know what to do. Nothing was tying them to the island anymore. There was no need for them to raid. That, and the dragons had started to see things. Some had seen Toothless and Hiccup together in battle. They saw the rest of the teens flying as well, and as the day wore on, they saw the peaceful interactions between the teens and their dragons. The dragons, being ever curious, decided to explore this.

It made people nervous. Chief Stoick had commanded them not to attack unless in defence, unless attacked first, and that they would be charged for provoking a dragon. What were they to do when a dragon approached them, it's face just inches from their own as they looked them over? What were they to do when a dragon just started following them around?

Some Vikings, the older, more stubborn ones, refused to interact with them. Some would even shout at them to go away or leave them be. Others, however, had a great curiosity build up within them.

It was a slow, tedious process. Dragons approached the Viking that interested them. They would look them over as the Viking sweat and fidgeted nervously. The dragon would follow the Viking around. Eventually, a look was shared. They locked eyes, and things just clicked. They were both scared, but they understood that. Curiosity overshadowed the fear. Then, they would touch. The Viking would cautiously hold out their hand, just as Hiccup had done, and the dragon would respond, just as Toothless had done, pressing their snout to it. It was remarkable. No one could quite believe it. It's safe to say that repair work was slow.

All of this was happening outside. Ari wasn't aware, though. He stayed inside, with Hiccup. Ruffnut had fixed up his arm for him, and then he sat. He sat in a chair at Hiccup's bedside. Toothless was beside him, the length of his body and tail wrapped around the cot, encircling the girl. Freja laid a few feet away, the end of her tail wrapped around his chair and ankle. Her presence would be comforting, but Ari's mind was much too far away to register it.

He sat there for hours, all day and through the night, eyes never moving from Hiccup. He stared at her leg, that unnatural absence of body beneath the furs. He gazed at her face, her pale, sweaty cheeks. Her breathing was shallow, uneven. She was still fighting infection, and it was taking it's toll. She looked broken, half dead, a fraction of the girl she had been. Physically, maybe. But there was no telling what Hiccup would be like when she woke up.

How would she react? Part of him worried. He was worried that she would be terrified, distraught. Would she be taken by grief? Lost to it, never to return? Would she turn bitter or volatile? Angry at the world?

He shook his head. No. Hiccup wouldn't do that. Hiccup, his Hiccup, was stronger than that. She would fight through it. She would fight off this infection, and the grief to follow. She was strong. Stronger than him.

He felt heavy. His head, his chest, his heart. He was so weighed down, clouded by emotion that kept him from doing anything but sit there by Hiccup. So much emotion, some of which he felt he had no right to feel. He felt guilt. It was him. He had cut off her leg. He felt the frustration of knowing that there was nothing else he could have done.

And then the grief. Overwhelming, unmovable grief. He was lost in it, unable and unknowing of where to go or what to do. Hiccup had lost her leg. It was gone. He had cut it off. But it was Hiccup's leg. Not his. So why couldn't he climb out of the hole he had dug himself into?

Hiccup wouldn't react like this, he thought. Not if it was his leg. Hel, she wouldn't even act like this with it being her own leg. She would move past it, help him move past it, because that's who she was. She was strong.

Toothless shifted around the cot. How would she fly? That was still uncertain. Maybe she wouldn't. Not with Toothless, anyway. No. She had to. They had to. He wouldn't, he couldn't, be responsible for taking that away.

He had to do something. He had to help her, fix her, somehow. She had done so much, so much for everyone else. Now, she had lost what she had been fighting for. But not for long. No. He couldn't let that happen. He had taken her leg from her. He would give her one back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~a sexy line~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ari was making noise again. Freyja was, too. She stood outside the forge, being too big to go inside, squawking and flapping her wings around, clearly upset at the state her boy was in.

It was late morning, so everyone was awake by then, and Ari was starting to attract attention. He was moving about frantically. He had managed to heat everything up, though he had made it way too hot. He was melting things, pounding things. But he was using the wrong kind of metal, the wrong hammer. He dropped things and tossed them aside in frustration. He was meeting little success, and was voicing this accordingly.

"Ari?" A voice came from the doorway. He looked up, but didn't stop working. It was Ruffnut, her brother, Snotlout, and Fishlegs at her side. "Ari, what are you doing?"

He almost laughed. "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm making a prosthetic for Hiccup."

No one said anything for a moment as he kept pounding away. He could feel their eyes on him, especially Ruffnut's. She was studying him, the mental state he was in. He certainly didn't look sane. His hair was in a state of disarray, more so than usual. Dark bags clouded underneath his eyes. His movements were quick and shaky, his hands failing to perform the simplest of tasks. And his eyes... They were wide, holding this unhinged glint in them that could only be achieved by a combination of several days without sleep and a heart full of guilt.

He could hear Ruffnut behind him, whispering to one of the boys to go get Gobber, the Chief, and Ari's mother. "I don't need any help," Ari called to them. "I can do this myself." Just as he said that, his hand slipped and came in contact with hot iron. He seethed, gripping his burnt palm close to his body. He cursed loudly and groaned at the pain.

Ruffnut spoke again, this time her voice much closer. "Ari, I think you need to step back. Here, let me see that."

He pushed the throbing in his hand out of mind and spun around, face flushed in anger and desperation, finding her just a few feet behind him. She reflexively took a step back at his threatening stance. "No," he said in a low voice. "You need to step back."

"Hey!" Tuffnut came to her side. He stood between his sister and Ari, pushing him back a bit. "Back off, man! No one threatens my sister but me!"

Ari roughly pushed Tuff's hand off his chest and leaned forward, getting right in his face. "You need to back off! All of you just need to leave me alone!"

Tuffnut was not so easily moved. He held his ground. "Look, I get you're upset and everything, but that's no reason to act like a dick. I'll tell you one more time; back off."

Ari shook his head violently, breathing hard. "No!" he shouted. "You don't get it! None of you understand!"

"Understand what then, lad?" a voice came from the door. Snotlout had returned with Gobber, Stoick, and Ari's mother. Gobber looked around his shop with eyebrows raised. "What have you done to my shop?"

At that, Ari went back to his failing work. "I'm making a prosthetic for Hiccup."

His mother approached him. "Ari, my boy," she said tenderly, placing a hand on his arm. He paused at the touch of his mother. "You must stop. This is not the answer to your pain."

His shaking only intensified. He slipped out of his mother's grasp, though less rough than he had been with the others. "No. I have to do this."

"But why? You don't even know wha' yer doin' lad!" said Gobber, still clearly upset at the state of his shop.

Ari was shouting again. "Because I did it!" He threw his tools to the side and ran both hands through his hair, eyes wide and desperate. "Don't you get it? It was me! I did it! I cut off Hiccup's leg!"

Stoick was staring at the boy. He had gotten worse from the day before. Unable to quench the pain through destruction, he tried to kill it in a hopeless attempt a creation. He could see the crazed look in his eye. He could seen the guilt, as clear as a dragon sitting on top of him would be, weighing him down. Suddenly, he felt like he was back at that night when his wife died. He looked at Ari and saw exactly what he felt.

"Alright, that's enough of this," Stoick muttered more to himself than anyone else. Ari had moved back to the hammer and picked it up. Stoick grabbed the boy's wrist, however, forcing him to drop it, then pushed him against the wall to restrain him, holding him there with his forearm.

Ari struggled against him. "Now you listen to me, boy," Stoick ordered. His voice held such a low and commanding sound that it made Ari stop and look at him. "I'm going to say this one last time, so hear me now, because we won't be going around in circles anymore. You saved Hiccup's life."

Ari opened his mouth to argue, but Stoick wouldn't let him. "No. This is something you need to learn right now. It's a part of life, a part of being a Viking, and a part of being second-in-command. You're going to lose things, things that you really care about. You'll get scars and stories, lines and limbs alike. People will die. Those that you love will be ripped away from you without warning. You're going to have to make tough decisions, ones that mean life and death. It's the hard reality of life. That won't ever change."

Ari had started crying, even though he was in front of the Chief, even though there were other people around. He couldn't even remember the last time he had cried, let alone in front of people. Regardless, at Stoick's words, they fell silently from his eyes.

"But life goes on, Ari," Stoick went on. "We survive. We function. Without our loved ones or with our battle scars. Hiccup will move on. She will function, just as others have. But she'll need us. She'll need you to help her through it, to adjust. You and I need to be there for her."

Ari had sunk down to a sitting position, completely drained of energy. Stoick let him, now leaning in front of the boy. Ari put his head in his hands. "But... Her and Toothless... They may never fly together again."

"But she's alive. Which would you rather have; Hiccup dead, or Hiccup with one leg that may not fly on the Night Fury again?" Ari looked up at him, locking eyes. "She's alive, Ari, and that's because of you and your strength. You made the tough decision. You were there for her. She's lucky to be alive, and that's because of you. You saved her life."

Ari took this in, the glazed look in his eye slowly starting to fade. "She's alive..."

Stoick nodded. "Yes. Life is going to be very different for her now. She'll need us. She'll need you. You've always been there for her. Regrettably, more than I ever was. Be there for her now. Help her function, and, perhaps, something can be done about her prosthetic and saddle."

"Aye," Gobber said, coming up beside him. "Already been workin' out some designs myself. Could, you know, be workin' on it now, had my shop not been thrown about."

The cloud in Ari's mind was starting to dissipate. Hiccup was alive. All this time, he had been so focused on what she had lost, so distraught with the unknown, that he had completely disregarded what she had gotten away with. Hiccup was alive. She had cheated death. He had helped. Hiccup wasn't dead. She was alive. He had saved her.

The world started coming back into focus. He was then aware that his mother and Ruffnut were at his sides while Gobber and Stoick stood in front. "She's alive..." he said again. He looked at each of them, trying to express how he was slowly regaining his sanity.

Gobber gave him a smile. "There he is," he said, patting the boy's cheek. "Come on back to us, laddie." He did, shaking his head slightly, as if trying to get rid of the bad thoughts. Hiccup was alive. She wasn't dead. She was alive. Yes, he did it, but he saved her.

Ruffnut had grabbed his face, turning it to face her own. "Ari," she asked, looking in his eyes, "when was the last time you've eaten or slept?" He couldn't even remember. Sometime before everything. He hadn't slept since the night before the battle, and even that was little as his head was heavy with blissful thought due to the moment he and Hiccup had shared in the cove. And food? He couldn't remember the last time he had even looked at food.

"I... I don't know..." Just those few words were hard to get out. He felt himself fading, his body shutting down at the lack of energy. He could have fallen asleep right there had they let him.

"Come on," Ruffnut said. "Lets get you to your feet."

With the help of Gobber and Ari's mother, they were able to help him stand and lead him away. There was no way he would make it to the Hofferson house, so they settled for the cot in the back of the shop, the one in Hiccup's workroom room. He didn't even register that that was there they brought him until they had laid him down, and only vaguely aware of Ruffnut wrapping up his injured hand. "Hiccup's... room..."

It was just his mother with him now. She sat on a stool beside the bed. "Yes, Ari. This is her workroom. Don't think she'll mind ya using it."

Ari didn't respond. His eyelids were much too heavy to open. His mother sighed. She brought a hand up ran her fingers through his hair again and again, a comforting gesture that he hadn't felt since he was little. He plunged even quicker into unconsciousness.

"Sleep well, my boy," he heard his mother whisper. "Heal that heavy heart of yours."

Hiccup...

She was broken now. That was his fault. But she was alive. That was also his fault. He had saved her, for a price. But, now he realized that he would be willing to pay it again. Hiccup would have a prosthetic made. They could maybe even design one for her that would work for the saddle. Looking at the broad view of things, Hiccup's missing leg was not really that important. No. What really mattered was that Hiccup was alive. She was alive, and she was there. She would get better. She would be in their lives. She would be his.

He finally lost himself in a deep, heavy sleep. He dreamed of Hiccup playing with his hair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~a sexy line~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, the affects of going days without sleep... Poor Ari. He needs to sleep for like, a whole day AND night. Lets let him, shall we?

Okay guys, one more chapter until Hiccup wakes up, and then there's an epilogue, and then... that's it. Wait. No. After that is... In the Eye of a Pirate! :D I'm so excited for this. You have no Idea...

And now, a quote from such! This one comes from... Ari!

"Please tell me this isn't a dream."

Well, there you have it folks! I'm going to go sleep now, considering I haven't done so in nearly 24 hours... So, goodnight!

Until Monday! (ON TIME, that is...)

~StoriesOfAnInsomniac