I woke up with the sun.
So I only really had three hours of sleep. B.B. had rolled over, exposing me to the horrible ball of gas and blue sky. Asshole. I curled even further inwards, trying to block out the rays and the sharp pangs in my stomach.
When was the last time i've eaten? Any of us, for that matter?
I wasn't going to get much more sleep anyways. I tossed and turned, groaning as I felt a rock dig into my ribs. I reached under myself, pulling it out and staring at it.
So the magical hunk of rock was still here. Good to know that it can't grow legs and run away. It caught the late morning sun, shining a beam into my face.
"Fuck." I moaned, wincing and pulling myself out of my nest. I felt dirt fall out of my pelt, a side effect of sleeping in it. I gave myself a good shake, ridding the last of it and hopefully, waking me up. The ground didn't start spinning this time at least. I stretched, watching everyone else sleep. Looks like im the only one up. Meaning I get to do all the work.
Is it too late to fall back asleep? Sneered that cruel little voice in my head. I ignored them, picking a direction and walking, praying i'd find a river or a bunch of squirrels or a conveniently abandoned fully-stocked Wal-Mart.
A girl can dream. I turned to walk backwards, facing camp so I wouldn't lose it on unfamiliar ground. I hummed quietly to myself a song from a video game, the theme of a labrinth forest. I spun around to not fall flat on my ass and picked up the pace.
Despite the cold air, an expected part of the viking experience, the patches of dappled sun breaking through the foliage were warm, tickling the top of my head whenever I walked through. The forest felt fresh, clean, good. A far cry from the disgusting magic-drenched pile of splinters that used to be a fortress. I heard birdsong. Everything just feels alive in here.
Except for me. I? Felt like crawling back into my hole and letting myself starve. I turned around, even though I hadn't been walking long, the only indicator of where the group was was Toothless, dangling from a branch like a shitty piƱata, barely dark enough to not get swallowed up by the overgrowth. As I rolled my eyes and turned to keep moving I slipped, falling on my side into a bush.
"Mother of fuck ass bitch lord jesus christ whyyy," I moaned into the brambles. I lay there for a few minutes, not even bothering to make myself comfortable and move from the position I fell into. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move on the ground.
A shrew. Not very filling but a desperate dog can't afford to be picky. As quietly as I could, I tried reaching out...
But I wasn't fast enough to just grab it, it darted out with all the speed you could expect of a frightened woodland animal. I jumped to my feet, sprinting after it, ducking through underbrush and debris just like back in the forest at home. I skid to a halt when the shrew darted into a hollowed-out stump, kneeling and reaching in, grabbing it tightly despite it scratching and biting. I yanked it out, knocking it hard on the back of its head to make sure it wasn't alive. I exhaled heavily, a little winded from chasing it, but this was food! I sat back, admiring my catch in one hand and thumbing over the crystal shard in the other. One-handed hunt! I'm better than I give myself credit for.
I stood up, looking for the upside-down night fury. Not that I wanted to gloat or anything, but I totally wanted to gloat. I didn't see him, but I did see a shock of sky blue just behind the trees walking around. Stormfly was up! I grinned to myself, running back with my breakfast in tow. She heard me coming and turned around, alert confusion fading from her face as she realised it was just me.
"Pepper?! Where have you been? We were worried when we saw you were gone, you know!" She chided as I hopped over a fallen log back into our little area.
"We?" I huffed, jumping as Toothless suddenly appeared behind me.
"Yes, we. You couldn't have told anyone where you were going?" He sighed, crossing his arms.
"Nobody was awake!" I defended myself. "Besides, I was hungry." I held up my shrew for emphasis. "Anyways since you're up Stormfly, I need one of your spines." I segued, giving the nadder fingerguns even though my hands were full.
"You... What?" She blinked owlishly, before shaking her head and groaning. "Know what, nevermind. Here." She flicked her tail downwards, lodging a spine into the soft grass.
"Thank youuu!" I sang, kneeling to grab it and trotting over to the dead fire pit, plopping myself down to work. Never carved an animal before, but it would be a cold day in hell before I willingly ate raw pelt again. I dropped the crystal in my lap to grip my makeshift knife in one hand and the shrew in the other and began cutting, picking off what I could eat and dumping the scraps into the pit. As I worked, everyone else woke up except Snotlout, Hookfang remaining vigilant at his side.
"Geeze, what did that dungeon do to him?" B.B. remarked to me as I was nibbling on the last few meaty bits of a femur. "It's almost noon!" I shrugged, before an uncomfortable thought crossed my mind. I spat out the bone, fiddling with it before flicking it away.
"...How are we gonna explain..." I gestured around at our altered bodies, "This."
The camp fell dead silent. Meatlug sat upright, took a deep breath, and spoke.
"Not it."
"Not doing it!" Stormfly cried out.
"Absolutely not." Toothless coughed.
"Not my kid not my problem!" B.B. shouted.
"I just can't." Hookfang deflated. Everyone turned to me.
"Oh come on, really?!"
"Sorry Pepper, you know how it works." B.B. clapped me on the back. I glared at him over my shoulder.
"If my paws weren't covered in shrew blood, I'd strangle you." I huffed. Toothless walked over and took Stormfly's spine away before I could stab anyone. Jerk.
"Tell you what, there's a pond only a little bit west of here. Help catch some ration fish and if he wakes up while you're gone you won't have to explain how this happened." He reasoned with me, tossing the spine into the bushes.
"Fine but only because I gotta get this out of my fur before it dries." I glared, shoving the last chunk of bone meat into my mouth before dropping the remains into the fire pit, delicately grabbing the shard as I stood. I didn't really care if it got bloody, but still. "Who else is coming?"
"I will. I need to move anyways." Stormfly stood, stretching her arms backwards and letting her digits flex between her wrist and sides.
"I'll stay here, make sure nothing gets burned down." B.B. spoke softly, joking tone betraying how worried he was for Hookfang. I turned to get Meatlug's reply, but she was passed out in her rock pile again, a few loose pebbles dropping out of her mouth. Guess that answers that.
"This way." Toothless gestured, waving us along into the woods. We walked in silence, me at the back as I tried picking the tacky red liquid from my paw pads. Stormfly huffed as her foot caught on a root sticking out of the ground.
"This would be so much faster if we could fly." She grumbled. "How do you two do it?"
"Lack of options mostly," I deadpanned. "Might as well get used to it though, we got a lot of walking to do anyways."
"Uuuuuuugh, seriously?"
"She's right, Stormfly. If we want to be able to fly at all, we'll have to walk to get there." Toothless spoke as he broke away branches to clear the path for us. "We're almost at the pond, by the way."
"Finally!" Stormfly crowed, running ahead. We raced to keep up with her as she stopped before a clearing, a gentle slope leading to the water's edge. I looked into the murky pool, watching a leaf on the waters surface get snatched by whatever fish was in there.
"Do we have a game plan here or are we just gonna go in and start blasting?" I questioned, trudging up to the water and sticking my hands in. "Fuck that's cold!" I felt a shock go up my spine as I shivered, not taking my hands out though as I scrubbed. The already stained water was tinted orange in the area around my paws. A smallfry that didn't have the sense to run away quickly fled when I made a halfhearted grab for it.
"Maybe I can shoot them?" Stormfly pondered. "But I can't really see where they are through the mud..."
"And I can't blast them out of the water..." Toothless paced, glaring into the muck. I pulled my hands out of the water, squinting at the crystal now free of the blood of both me and my breakfast. Memories of the light blast Tiger threw at us flit across my mind. It wasn't like some ability that only he could do, he only got the shard after the big crystal broke. So it was all... In there, right? I finished rubbing the last of the blood out of my fur and took a few steps backwards. I just had to visualise it. I held the crystal in front of me, the same way Tiger had, shut my eyes and focused.
What Tiger did first was raise his hand, and let it gather. Then, all he had to do was throw it. Easy. Easy easy easy. I exhaled, raising my hand over my head. Palm upward. I felt heat in the crystal, intensifying by the second. I opened my eyes, almost blinded by the soft yellow glow coming from above me. It was working! I was doing the thing, and I was doing it right! I clutched the shard harder as I flung it forwards and down, into the water.
What I hadn't accounted for was that water splashes. The resulting wave caught everyone, drenching us, but also depositing a large amount of fish on the grass.
"Heheh," I chuckled at Toothless and Stormfly's dumbfounded glares. "Oops." I wrung out my tail sheepishly. Toothless facepalmed.
"I don't know what I expected." He said.
"It worked though!" I shot back, grabbing a wiggling fish before it could accidentally flip flop back into the pond and get away. Slippery, cold, covered in mucus. "...Where do I put this." I held back a gag. Toothless, flicking water off his body, trudged over and extended a hand.
"Hiccup didn't pack much, I have space in my saddlebags." He spoke, taking the fish from me and twisting uncomfortably to reach for the bag at his side. Stormfly rolled her eyes good naturedly, snatching the meaty vertebrate and stuffing it inside for him. I wrinkled my snout, holding back the urge to wipe my paws off on my fur.
"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, or whatever." I stepped back, almost stepping on another fish. I knelt to grab it, and he three of us fell into a repetitive but comfortable rhythm. When it came to a point where I couldn't see any more fish on the ground, though, I stood up.
"I think we got all of the ones you blasted out of the water..." Stormfly muttered, standing and rotating her neck, cartilage popping. I held up the crystal shard, grinning only slightly manically.
"Want me to do it again?" She and Toothless immediately backed up, arms raised defensively.
"No!" They chorused, sending me into a laughing fit.
"Oh my god guys I was joking! I was joking!" I wheezed, holding my stomach and stumbling a little. They relaxed, but shot small glares in my direction.
"Really Pepper, we don't know what that... Thing can do." Stormfly scolded. "You could hurt yourself." I waved her off, dismissive.
"Yeah yeah, I could accidentally raze the forest to the ground," I sighed. "But how else am I supposed to learn how to use it other than just... Trying? S'not like this came with an instruction booklet." I fiddled with the shard, flicking it with my nail, flinching when the friction sent a small spark fizzling into the air. I moved my arms behind my back sheepishly.
"Just... Try not to be so reckless with it," Toothless conceded. "We have enough for now, anyway. We should head back to camp." He shook fish slime out of his claws and turned to move back, leaving me scrambling to go wash my paws again. Geez, it's like i'm a raccoon.
I wound up having to sprint to catch up to them, but otherwise the walk was uneventful. It was only when we got back to camp that things got interesting again.
"Hey, welcome back!" B.B. waved, sitting next to Hookfang. "Did you find food?"
"Heck yeah we did! I exploded a pond!" I shouted back.
"Without me?!"
We kept bantering for a while, trying not to look conspicuous while Toothless talked with Hookfang.
"How is he?"
"...Moved a little."
"I see."
"Mhm."
"He'll be alright. Come and eat something, okay? You'll feel better." Toothless grasped Hookfang's shoulder, pulling him to his feet. "You too, I know you're listening. Pepper and Mee are the only one's who have eaten anything." He looked over his shoulder to B.B., urging him up. I shrugged at the zippleback, reclining further into the cold ground as the dragons walked away, leaving me alone with the unconcious human. I shuffled around awkwardly for a moment before opting to just sit cross-legged and face him.
"Don't suppose you'll be much of a conversationalist, hm?" I asked him, fully expecting to not get an answer but still sticking my tongue out and blowing a raspberry when my witty comment was met with ambient forest sounds. I snuffled, examining the lean-to that had to have been Hookfang's doing. It was most of all branches, but woven between every other stick was that tapestry I had stolen. So that's where it went. The hanger lay abandoned in the grass, so I picked it up, picking at the thin and frayed rope until it snapped. Oops. I yanked the rope out, leaving myself with a stick that happened to have a hole on each end.
I unfolded my legs and fell backwards, arms splayed with my new holey stick in one hand and the crystal shard in the other. I raised the stick, peering through the hole. I raised the shard, peering through it and through the hole. I blew another raspberry.
Since when were adventures supposed to be boring?!
I groaned, pulling myself up, moving the shard to the hand with the stick in it so I'd have a free hand. My ear flicked when the rock came in contact with the wood, it had made a sort of tok sound. I rearranged myself, holding the stick horizontally and smacking it with the crystal.
To-tok toktok to-toktok.
I smiled to myself, picking a beat and humming.
"She calls me from the cold, just when I was low, feeling short of stable. And all that she intends, and all she keeps inside, isn't on the label." I sang to myself, not really caring that the dragons had stopped what they were doing on the other side of camp to watch me. "She says she's ashamed, can she take me for awhile? And can I be a friend, we'll forget the past, But maybe I'm not able... And I break at the bend. We're here and now, but will we ever be again? 'Cause I have found, all that shimmers in this world is sure to fade... Away... Again..."
The group settled in around the fire pit, Hookfang even relighting it. There was the gentle tapping of claws against the dirt, as I elected to betray how the song was usually played and kept it quiet. I didn't really have it in me to belt out the rest of the words at top volume.
"She dreams a champagne dream. Strawberry surprise, pink linen and white paper. Lavender and cream, fields of butterflies, reality escapes her! She says that love, is for fools who fall behind- And I'm somewhere inbetween. I never really know, a killer from a savior! 'Til I break at the bend. We're here and now! Will we ever be again? 'Cause I have found, all that shimmers in this world is sure to fade... Away... Again... It's too far away for me to hold, too far away. It's too far away for me to hold, too far away... Oh..."
I hummed my way through the breakdown, letting the stick do the music-making. Somewhere along the way B.B. and Meatlug had started clapping along, Stormfly bobbing her head peacefully. Something warm started growing behind my ribs. I ignored it, just letting their energy carry me to the end.
"Yeah... It's too far away for me to hold, too far away, oh oh oh. It's too far away for me to hold, too far away. It's too far! Away! For me to hold! Too far away! Oh oh oh. It's too far away for me to hold, too far away... Guess I'll let it go..." I finished softly, sliding the stick downwards in my grasp without dropping it on the ground. My head shot up as I heard applause. Everyone had started calmly clapping once I finished save for B.B., who instead opted to pump a fist in he air and cheer verbally.
"Woo! Yeah! I know that dog! I know her!" He laughed and whooped. I scoffed to hide a chuckle.
"Everyone knows me, you boob-" I was interrupted by the sound of shuffling beside me. I shot up like a rocket, backing myself away from the lean-to's openings. Inside, Snotlout groaned.
"Whggh... Where... Am I? Am I dead?" He mumbled. A tension clung to the air between us nonhumans, shocking Toothless into standing defensively as well.
As my breath caught in my throat, I managed to eke out-
"Close, but no cigar!"
"Pepper!"
Authors Note; Anniversary Edition!
Kicks the door in with leftover newyears noisemakers grasped in both hands and a kazoo in mouth*
Happy birthday agaiiiiinnnnnnn! We're skipping the talk about the story because I think my jokes will be funnier in next chapters AN and we're skipping the talk about my realworld experiences because *deep breath in* *deep breath out*...
Bruh.
But WHATEVER that means I can get right to the motherfucking Anniversary Schmaltz! Because hot fuck if you are reading this I love you! Life is hard and sucky right now! Doing this story every month and knowing i've been doing it every month for about four fuckin years makes it considerably less hard and sucky!
I've grown! This fanfiction has grown! You have grown! Batshit wild how that works! Shit! Fuck!
I love you! All of you! Very much!
I mean it!!! -Carly
P.S. Can't have an important milestone chapter without a song! This one's Shimmer by Fuel.
