Been ages since I wrote the original, but eh, I got some requests to finish the sequel and now low and behold, it's done. Please Enjoy!
Stormfly's happy squawk was what alerted Astrid that the intelligent deadly nadder had located them. Sure enough, a few moments later she felt Stormfly land and heard toothless's artificial tail flap dragging along rocky ground. Before hearing him warbling a greeting to the deadly nadder. "Afternoon milady, where have you been?" She heard Hiccup's voice a few yards away as she dismounted her dragon and pushed back the furry hood that blocked out the rushing wind when she was flying with Stormfly. The wind was terrible for the blind Viking, it threw out her hearing and other senses.
Astrid sighed, still rather thrilled around her win of the dragon's race, and felt toothless's scales brush against her hand as the night fury bounded over to her dragon to start playing. "Oh, winning races, what else?" She said casually as she wandered over toward Hiccup's voice, her blind eyes directed vaguely toward where she had last heard his voice. "The real question is," she smiled, using one hand on Hiccup's shoulder to figure out where he was as she spoke, "where have you been?" She asked as she sat down side saddle on the ground, one hand still on Hiccup's shoulder, the other judging the distance from her position to the ground.
"Avoiding my dad," Hiccup responded with faint irritation in his voice, and Astrid could hear the tell tale sound of charcoal rubbing against paper, meaning Hiccup was mapping, again.
"Oh no," what happened now?" She asked and put the hand on Hiccup's shoulder on the ground so she could lean on that arm. Hiccup had always been a pretty restless talker, and she sensed from his voice and the shifting of fabric that he was about to get up and explain what was going on while waving his arms around in gesture. A smile quirked Astrid's lips, Hiccup could really be dramatic without meaning to.
"Oh you're going to love this," Hiccup huffed, Astrid able to hear rocks crunching under his feet and the clinking from his metal foot. "I wake up, the sun is shining, terrible terrors are singing on the rooftop." He handed Astrid the charcoal pencil and she started spinning it between her fingers, while gazing unseeingly out at the edge of the island. "I saunter down to breakfast, thinking all's right with the world, and I get…"
Hiccup continued and Astrid felt the leather of Hiccup's arm guard brush against the fur of her hood as he stood up, which caused Astrid's furry hood to shift slightly. She heard the sound of grass and rock crunching beneath Hiccup's leather boot and artificial leg as his weight shifted. "Son, we need to talk!" As Hiccup took a breath to continue his sentence Astrid interrupted with her imitation of Hiccup.
Jousting her shoulders up and down as she spoke, Astrid made a funny impression of the inventor next to her based off of what she remembered him being like back before she lost her sight. "Not now dad, I got a whole day of goofing off to get started!" Astrid chuckled slightly at her horrid expression.
Hiccup laughed as well, "wha, what? okay. First of all," he said and Astrid assumed he was pointing at her, she heard leather rustle as Hiccup changed the gesture to a confused open arms one. "I, I don't sound like that, who, what is this character?" He asked, his voice indignant before softening to a playful tone, "and second, what is that thing you're doing with my shoulders?"
Astrid could hear the gesturing Hiccup was doing and it was a struggle not to laugh as she bounced her shoulders up and down in an impersonation of what she had done earlier.
"Yeah, okay, that's a truly flattering impersonation, anyway," Hiccup said and Astrid heard the clanking of metal and the rustling of leather as he walk around behind her. "You're the pride of berk son," he said as Astrid heard his loud footsteps at his attempt of mimicking his father. " She then heard him softly hitting his fist a couple times against his chest, "and I couldn't be prouder-"
"Auh, thanks dad," Astrid interrupted and kept bouncing her shoulders in her ridiculous imitation of Hiccup. "I'm pretty proud of myself too!"
Astrid heard Hiccup's footsteps stop and heard leather rustling as he gestured some more and started laughing slightly, "what? When have I ever done that with my hands?"
"You always have!" Astrid laughed, even if she couldn't see Hiccup, she knew he was still gesturing with his hands as much as he used to.
"Ugh, okay," Hiccup huffed playfully as he knelt down and grasped her arms, "just, hold still."
Astrid giggled slightly and nodded and attempted a serious expression as he continued speaking, "very serious." He let go of her hands and stood up. "You're all grown up," Astrid could hear his imitation of Stoick's loud footsteps. "And since no chief can ask for a better successor, I've decided-"
"To make you chief!" Astrid gasped and scrambled to her feet, listening intently for his footsteps and position, "oh my gods!" She exclaimed and gestured excitedly with her arms while listening for the creaking of his artificial leg, "Hiccup, that's amazing!" She finished with a punch to his gut that caused him to part way double over and give a yell of pain. She also heard the steering fin of his flight suit pop open and she laughed somewhat sheepishly, smiling at him while clasping her hands together and laughing. Far behind her she heard Stormfly and Toothless wrestling with a tree.
"You're going to wear around the spring coil," he groaned and she heard the sound of him winding the mechanical device that pulled the fin back into the suit winding it up, "the calibration is very sensitive-" He was cut off by their dragons almost mowing them over.
"Ah!" Astrid yelped as she fell over on top of Hiccup. She quickly pushed herself off of him and stumbled backward a few feet, working to regain her balance on the uneven ground.
"Yeah," Hiccup sighed as he rolled over, and propped himself up on his arms. "So this is what I'm dealing with," he sighed as he accepted Astrid's hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet.
"What did you tell him?" Astrid asked as she brushed off his shoulders.
"I, I didn't. By the time he turned around I was gone." Hiccup admitted with an almost sheepish tone.
"Huh," She breathed as she leaned down and brushed her fingers along the ground, being an inch off from her thought position of the map. Well," Astrid said with a deep breath as she straightened up, her blue eyes staring spaced out at the sky, "it's a lot of responsibility, and the map will have to wait for sure," Astrid admitted as she pushed the map into his chest, her blind gaze staring blankly ahead of her. "And I'll need to ride toothless since you'll be to busy, but…" she trailed off as she walked a few feet away from Hiccup, noticing the lack of reply from Hiccup.
"It, it's not me Astrid, all those speeches and planning, and running the village," She heard hiccup's suit shift as he gestured, "that's, his thing."
"I think you're missing the point," Astrid said gently, as she stepped closer to him "I mean, chief! What an honor!" She directed her blind gaze at Hiccup, "I'd be pretty excited!"
"Uh, I, I'm not like you," Hiccup sighed as he tucked the map into his suit. "You," he hesitated slightly, "know exactly what you are, you always have." He turned away from her, "but I'm still lookin." he bent down and picked up his helmet, "I know I'm not my father, and I never met my mother, so what does that make me?" He asked and Astrid heard the scraping of leather against rock as he took a seat on the turf beside her.
(Going off script for the sake of the story and creative liberty)
"You're Hiccup, ace dragon rider," Astrid could hear leather shifting along his arms as he fiddled mindlessly with his hands. "I didn't always know what I am and wanted to be," she spoke firmly but with a gentle aspect to her voice as she scooted closer toward the sound of his voice, "after all, a certain someone came along and completely changed the world I lived in." The side of her thigh bumped into his leg and so she stopped moving, choosing to instead use her fingers to search for the leather gauntlets on his forearms. "I was born and raised as a dragon killer Hiccup, and it took everything ounce of strength I had in me to trust you and allow you to show me what a world where we were in peace with dragons would be like." Her fingers found his gauntlets and she idly tightened and straightened the loose leather that wasn't quite in the right place.
"Maybe, but Astrid, I've never been like you," Astrid could hear the frustration and even pain in the young man's voice as he spoke. "You're amazing at adapting to the world around you, while me?" Astrid could feel his shoulders slump by the way his arms lowered as well, "I'm not."
"Adapting has nothing to do with it Hiccup," Astrid told him, her fingers continuing to straighten out the leather into where she knew it was supposed to be. "You taught me a lesson a long time ago, one where you told me that I needed to rely on others a little more. And guess what? I completely lost my vision and was forced to rely on you and everyone else as I learned how to find my place once again."
"Hiccup," Astrid heard his intake of breath that was always followed by him saying something, and quickly hurried on before he could speak. "What you're searching for isn't out there," she gestured into the landscape that she couldn't see but had no doubt was there in front of her. "It's not among the thousands of islands you've explored and searched and it's not among the places that haven't been seen by a Berkian eye."
Using her knowledge of how thin Hiccup was, Astrid reached across him and estimated where his heart would be before resting her hand there and leaning closer to him. Feeling her breath bounce back against her face, telling her how close she was to the side of his face. "It's in here Hiccup, and it's always been there, you just haven't noticed it yet." With that she leaned in and pressed a short kiss to his cheek, fully regretting it a moment later as she reeled backward and used her sleeve to wipe the dragon saliva that had been covering him for who knows how long.
"A heads up would've been nice," she lightly snapped and shoved him a little, "remind me to never kiss you without asking you if Toothless has recently drenched you in a spit bath of his own."
There was no response from Hiccup, and Astrid patiently waited a few moments to let him digest her words, having no doubt that the cogs in his brain were running at full speed at the current moment.
It took a bit, but eventually she heard leather shifting against itself and metal scraping against rock as Hiccup moved up closer to a standing position.
"Astrid, even with that being the case, there is something out there."
The tone of Hiccup's voice told her of his concern and worry and so, begrudgingly, she let the subject go.
"Then lead on Hiccup," She said to him, narrowing her unseeing eyes and sobering herself up from her previous light-hearted comment. "You know that I'll always have your back, just like how you always have mine."
End