WELL, A SHORT NOTICE. STUFF WILL GET MORE ANGSTY AND GORY AS TIME GOES IN. YOU MUST HAVE REALISED BY NOW THAT THIS WORLD, WHERE THE STORY IS TAKING PLACE IS A MUCH MORE HARSHER ONE THAN THE MOVIES AND TV SERIES. ACTUAL BAD STUFF HAPPENS HERE, STUFF WHICH WILL MAYBE FORCE THIS STORY TO BE UPGRADED TO 'M'. THE WORLD WAS A REALLY BAD PLACE THEN. SO, YEAH.
BUT THAT IS FOR LATER. THE WHOLE PREMISE HAS TO BE SET NOW. AS TIME PROGRESSES, THIS STORY WILL LIVE UP TO THE 'T' RATING, THEN WILL GO UP ONE. PEOPLE WILL GET A LOT MORE FRUSTRATED, AND CUSS-WORDS WILL BE USED. AS WILL VERBAL ASSAULTS AND PHYSICAL ASSAULTS (OF ALL TYPES AT DIFFERENT LEVELS). PEOPLE WILL GET HURT, WEAPONS WILL BE HEARD CLASHING, AS WILL MANY OTHER THINGS.
ANYWAY, WE WILL CROSS THAT BRIDGE WHEN WE GET TO IT.
SO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WITHOUT ANY MORE FURTHER ADO, A NEW CHAPTER.
ONWARDS:
"Ca-Cami, hey! Hello, Cami! Hi! Hi there! Hellooooooo..."
Camicazi, bless her, just looked plain unimpressed. Hiccup cottoned on fairly soon.
"Yeah, I guess apologies are in order. Um, for the, em ... six years, right?"
She tilted her head at that, with an appraising but still unimpressed look aimed at him. Hiccup gulped.
"Oh, come on, Cam. You know I have been busy and stuff!"
That managed to break her silence, and Hiccup shivered pleasantly after hearing his once best friend's sweet voice.
"You must have been very busy, then. I mean, you couldn't make time to visit me in the whole of last year."
"Well, ye- I mean, no! I was ... um, occupied, but not, em, busy. Um, it's complicated."
A deadpan stare. He winced.
"Come on, gimme some credit, Cami. You know what happened a year ago, right?"
"Don't tell me your leg is still healing. I saw you leap off your dragon."
Hiccup laughed a bit nervously at that.
"I didn't mean that, no. Well, yes, maybe."
A single eyebrow raise.
"Look, it took me a few months to get used to it. Over that, I had to integrate the very stubborn and proud vikings of my village with the dragons. It's not been easy, Cami. Add that to the frequent Berserker and Outcast attacks. Oh, and training the various dragons at home. That took a huge chunk off time. Also, solving all the additional and completely unnecessary problems the twins and Snotlout created. It's been busy, Cami. Very busy. In fact, Most of it let up about a few weeks ago, all with Dagur in jail and stuff. I finally got some room to breathe, and could actually sleep without worry. Things are getting better, and so, I have time now."
Now that's an explanation. Camicazi's smirk had gone down, and a slightly incredulous look had replaced it, complete with a slightly ajar mouth.
"Whoa..."
Strike!
"See? It had definately NOT been simple and easy. You know that now. Just don't cut me in tiny pieces, alright?"
She rolled her eyes at that, an amused look filling her face.
"I wouldn't have cut you up, Hiccup."
A sigh of relief.
"While it's fun, it takes a lot of time. And, it requires a lot of cleaning up later. No, I would have just impaled you."
A strangled groan.
"Oh, come on..."
Cami laughed, and it was hands down the sweetest thing he had heard in a long time. She finally chortled to a stop.
"You know, I had half thought you had forgotten about me or something."
"Huh? No! Why would you think that?"
"I don't know. That being said, when you first saw me tonight, I was half expecting you to say something on the lines of 'I know you, but have forgotten your name'."
"You think that low of me, Cam? We used to be best friends!"
That, finally, cast a sad look on Cami's features.
"That was then, Hic. Six years is a long time."
Hiccup should have been happy, as both of them were using nicknames they had given to each other at the age of five, a sign that they were re-bonding and getting comfortable with each other again. But he didn't, as he was feeling guilty.
"I know. Believe me, I do."
A small stretch of silence followed, in which Hiccup gave Cami an once over. She hadn't changed much - same messy blonde hair, small height and incredible amount of sass. What had changed were her, ahem, assets. Probably the expected thing for being the daughter of 'Big Boobied' Bertha, Chieftess of the Bog Burglers. She looked out of shape, to be honest, with a short but too-curved-for-a-sixteen-year-old body, yet he knew how agile, strong and capable she actually was. He eventually broke the not-too-uncomfortable silence.
"What are you doing here?"
"Huh?"
"What are you doing in the woods at this time?"
The unimpressed look returned.
"It's my island, Hic."
"Yes, but it's late, that's all..."
"You think anyone can attack me? On this island?"
"Well, no... maybe? I mean, you ARE in the infamous Bog forest- full of, well, anything and everything."
"I can defend myself, Hic. Thank you for your concern."
Hiccup gave out an half-exasperated-half-amused bark of laughter.
"Believe me, I know. Still, seems a bit odd, that's all."
Camicazi narrowed her eyes and gazed at him shrewdly. He gulped. She finally let out a sigh.
"I'm avoiding my mom a bit. She had become a bit ... overbearing as of late."
"Oh?"
"Well, Chieftess-training and stuff. It's complicated."
"Oh."
Silence.
"Well, seeing that dad probably intended to pass the chieftainship to Snotlout, he hadn't bothered to train me in the past. But, seeing that I'm the 'Pride of Berk' and all now, he will probably train me. At least, that's how Gobber bluntly put it one day."
Cami giggled at that, and Hiccup smiled.
"Same old Gobber, eh?"
"Well, he doesn't disappoint. He did call you Camcrazy instead of Camicazi a few hours prior, so I should know."
Cami only looked mildly affronted as she was trying her hardest to not burst out laughing.
"He did NOT...! Did he really say THAT?"
"Well, in his defence, he had forgotten your name. That, and when I pointed this out to him, he chided me by saying thahe had gotten the first three letter right."
"Oh, I'm soooo gonna chop his arms off..."
"Please don't. He will whack me on the head with two prosthetics instead of one then."
Cami rolled her eyes good-naturedly, and mock-scoffed. Hiccup burst out laughing. Cami smiled.
"I missed this, Hic. All of this."
Hiccup smiled wistfully.
"Me too, Cam, me too."
A silence followed, post which Cami moved and approached the snoring Night Fury. Don't worry, Toothless was worried, too, when that knife narrowly missed his best human friend, but Hiccup had pacified him earlier, saying that Cami was the friend he was telling him about all the way up to Bog Island. Toothless had rolled his eyes at Hiccup, had taken a good look at Cami, and had promptly rolled around to sleep, not any other care in the entire world.
Cami approached Toothless and squatted down in front of his face, and took in the sight of the rare dragon.
"So, it's really true, huh. You do have a Night Fury."
Hiccup proceeded to rub the back of his neck.
"Well, yeah..."
"And you named him, um, ... 'Toothless'? Seriously?"
"Well..."
"Don't tell me you took your revenge on being named 'Hiccup' on this poor thing."
"NO! Why would I do THAT???"
"Don't tell me he has no teeth, then."
"Well, no. Yes. Um, they are retractable, actually."
Cami raised her eyebrows at that.
"Oh..."
"Yeah..."
Silence, again.
"Well, he is beautiful. That, and I wanna see those retractable teeth. He seems very tired though."
"Well, we did fly a lot today. I mean, a LOT. That, and half of the total journey was covered really fast. Night Fury fast. That tends to drain him a lot. He will eat a boatload of fish tomorrow, just wait and watch."
Cami smiled at that.
"Well, I will make sure he gets that boatload of fish."
"Then you better be ready, because you WILL be licked thoroughly, and trust me, you don't wanna smell like dragon slobber and fish for a week. It doesn't wash out easily."
She laughed.
"I will keep that in mind."
Silence, yet again.
"You know, Hic, that question you asked earlier, as to why I am here? That question suits you more."
"Oh, right. You noticed, huh."
"You thought I wouldn't?"
"No."
Cami folded her arms.
"So, why are you here?"
Hiccup shuffled on his feet a bit before answering. Well, a foot and half.
"Well, I had a proposition for you, actually."
A single eyebrow raised questioning look. Hiccup rushed to clarify.
"Yes, an offer. You know, we might be better off if we sit down."
He quickly looked around and spotted a felled tree trunk. That would have to do.
Pointing her to the bark, they both moved towards it, approached it and sat down.
"Well?"
Camicazi's questioning look was masking a lot of excited expectations. Hiccup gathered his thoughts before readying himself.
Well, here goes nothing...
A SHORT AND RELATIVELY SWEET REUNION CHAPTER.
THE REUNION MOMENT RIGHT BEFORE HICCUP LIGHTS THE METAPHORICAL BOMB.
NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE LONGER AND WILL CONTINUE ON WHAT HAPPENED ON BOTH SIDES OF THE STORY.
ANYWAY, UNTIL LATER, THEN.
ABHASCLASH.
