As told by Hiccup

Chapter 36

I woke to the sound of a soft voice, humming a gentle tune, and the feeling of warm blankets. I kept my eyes closed for a few seconds, just listening.

I opened my eyes half way, and the effort took all my strength. "Astrid?" I asked.

"Can you hear me?" she said.

"I guess."

She broke into a smile, a happy, relieved smile. Slowly, she curled her fist, and gently touched it to my shoulder.

"That's for scaring me out of my wits, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third."

"That was a bit of a pathetic punch, Astrid," I said, smiling in return. "I hope that's not going to be true of the next part of the deal?"

"Of course not," she said, and moved closer. Her cheeks shone – I could tell that she had been crying. I put a hand on her cheek, and she laid her hands on my shoulders, and kissed me gently.

I shivered with joy, and my stomach did a backflip. My aches and pains seemed to recede a little, and I felt comforted and soothed.

Pulling softly away, she asked, "Do you hurt anywhere?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Everywhere."

Suddenly my eyes snapped wide open, and I tried to sit up. "Where's Toothless?"

Astrid pushed me gently back down. "I'm not supposed to tell you until you feel better."

This did nothing to boost my confidence, and I resisted her touch, trying more then ever to raise myself. "Is he alive?" I gasped.

"I don't know," she said.

I let myself fall back onto the pillows, and lay completely still for a moment, concentrating all my power. I had never tried this before, and it might not work – but I had to know.

I focused on Toothless, and almost immediately, I felt a throbbing pain in my chest that I had not had before. My arm stung with pain.

I opened my eyes. "He's alive, but he's not doing well."

"What?"

"Well, my – our – his wing is gashed and – "

"You can feel that?"

"Yes, I think so," I said, sitting up. "I mean… I don't have any cuts on my arm right here–" I pressed on the spot where Toothless hurt. "It's him, then. And I don't have any stab wounds here…" I pushed on my chest, where Toothless was torn open. I shuddered. "It's not good. It's really, really bad, actually. The cut is gaping, and it's started to bleed again."

"But you just said you didn't have any injuries there."

"I don't. Toothless does."

"But you haven't seen him! How do you know what his wound looks like?"

"I can feel it, if I want to."

I flopped back onto the pillows and closed my eyes. "Someone's down there with him, right?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"The healer."

I opened my eyes again, and shivered.

"Her hands are cold."

-00000000000-

I slept for a few hours, and woke to find Astrid gone. I sat in my bed for a few minutes, feeling helpless, then opened my door and crept down the hallway and halfway down the stairs. I felt like a naughty child who could be caught eavesdropping, but I couldn't bear not knowing my companion's fate another moment.

I saw the healer, bent over Toothless, shake her head and sigh. Even though a fire burned in the corner of the room, I turned cold with dread.

She touched Toothless' wound, and I felt a stinging pain erupt on my chest. I moaned.

She looked up, wiping her hands on her cloak, and with a shock of horror, I saw that they were covered in black-green dragon blood.

I scrambled down the rest of the stairs to kneel beside her.

I tried to catch her eye, but she was carefully avoiding my gaze.

"Is he going to be alright?" I asked.

"I can't say that," she sighed.

My heart stopped. I started to tremble involuntarily.

"He's going to … die?" I choked out.

She slowly nodded. "There's nothing we can do for him."

"There's always something!" I said in desperation. My chest felt tight, so tight I could barely breathe.

She shook her head again, and stood to go. "I will come back. Soon."

"Do you have any advice for me? What can I do for him?"

"Make his last hours happy – and let go of him, Hiccup."

My eyes widened and I tried to speak, but before I could say a word, she was gone.

My legs gave out, and the tears came. I collapsed onto Toothless' body. Taking a deep, gasping breath, I frantically started to search for a pulse. With a flood of relief, I felt the blood flickering under his scales. But then molten panic engulfed me again, when it stopped, only to start again with a shudder.

I inspected his wound. It was deep, and extremely near the heart. But not through the heart, I thought, grasping onto a weak lifeline of hope. I took off my coat and my shirt, and tried to stop the bleeding.

"Wake up, Toothless. You have to. Please."

... And the breaks are weird and the formatting is off because my computer is messed up right now! Adding more conflict when it hasn't even been properly established that the old conflict is all gone! What was I thinking? Who knows... :)