Thank you SO SO much for the great response the previous chapter received! You're all so amazing, I wish I could hug all of you.
Here have the next chapter where Hiccup makes some important decisions while his mind is raging with uncertainty because of a special someone ;)
Hiccup wasn't going to make a mistake this time. He would be confronting Stoick with a complete, fool-proof plan in his mind. His poor execution of the white lies after Astrid's reveal about Briral's plans was still haunting him at the back of his head and he wanted to bury himself alive every time his brain decided to bring the moment up. And that was often.
He was in a bit of a quandary, however.
If he used the mysterious, nameless man as an excuse again, Stoick would surely demand his presence and that would turn out to be tricky considering that the man didn't exist. He couldn't make anyone play that part either, for it would be too dangerous for that poor, innocent man.
He thought of not telling his father, too. He soon dismissed that thought because of how cowardly it was. If it came down to it, he would rather risk his life if it meant that the majority of Berkians would remain safe.
Which had led him to considering telling his father the truth, or at least most of it. But how could he ever talk himself out of that situation? As much as he wanted the safety of his people, he also wanted to be around to ensure that. And what troubled him even further was the fact that when the thought of coming clear about his unlikely friendship with the princess of Briral arose in his mind, the main reason he pushed the thought away was because it would also put Astrid in danger. And if that wasn't enough, he also realised that admitting he was concerned for her safety didn't cause panic to flood within him, which would've surely happened a couple weeks back.
The prince had come to a dead end in his plan and it was already past midday. He just couldn't figure out any reason as to why he suddenly knew that they would be surrounded by an army of bloodthirsty Briralians in three days. All of his plans were either stupid or putting someone in mortal danger and as much as he hated to admit it, he felt like he was in a very Hiccup kind of situation. Something like this could only happen to him.
"Is something wrong?" Fishlegs asked once he entered Hiccup's chambers and saw the prince leaning onto the window behind his desk, his hand repeatedly hitting his forehead. "You've been acting weird all day."
"Have I?"
The annoyance couldn't have been clearer in his voice, but Hiccup didn't care – he was, indeed, annoyed as well as frustrated.
"Did something happen last night?" his friend asked again.
The prince could hear Fishlegs drop something on the floor and he quickly glanced in his friend's direction. He had come to deliver his washed clothes back to him, and his friend had placed the wooden basket in front of the wardrobe. Fishlegs, however, wasn't putting the clothes on the shelves – he was focusing on Hiccup, waiting for him to finally tell what was bothering him.
Hiccup dropped his hand to the side and turned around so that he was looking out the window, down to the marketplace that was always full of Berkians going about their daily life.
"Have you ever had to make a decision about something that only has bad outcomes?" he asked Fishlegs, dodging the earlier questions.
Fishlegs was silent for a short moment. "I have never had to make decisions like that, my life has always been more or less planned out for me," he then said thoughtfully. He waited for Hiccup to continue, but when he didn't do so, he said: "I suppose you need to decide what is the right thing to do?"
Hiccup shook his head, still looking out the window. "No, I know what's the right thing to do, I just don't know how to do it." He turned around to face his friend who clearly wasn't getting anything out of the prince's babbling. "Astrid told me that the Briralians will be here in three days."
"In three days? Are you certain?"
"Yes."
"Have you, I don't know, considered that she is lying? Why would she want to help Berk anyways?"
"It's not like that between us anymore. We're friends."
"You– what?" Fishlegs blurted out in a high-pitched tone. "How did that happen?"
Hiccup just shrugged. "I've been spending an awful lot of time with her lately, it's not that hard to stop hating someone when you don't even know what you hated them for in the first place. She's actually great, she's nothing like any other princess I've met. Like, she knows how to fight, can you believe she can hold a battle-axe and knows how to use it? There's always something interesting to discover about her every time we talk. Did you know she doesn't like her life in Briral?"
"No, of course I didn't," Fishlegs said, looking confusedly at Hiccup. "And were you going to tell me about this new friend of yours soon, or was I supposed to just find out about it?"
"I've been trying to distance you from this because I don't want you or anyone else to get in trouble because of me, and I believe that the less you know, the safer you are. I also sort of thought that it'd be obvious we no longer hated each other when she told me that there's going to be an attack, and you knew about that. Or when I told you I was looking forward to seeing her again but I wasn't sure why."
"I assumed you forced the information out of her or something and we both agreed that you only wanted to see her because you wanted to know more about Briral's plans. I didn't dare to believe that you'd be so quick to throw 20 years of hatred out the window like that."
Hiccup had to admit that Fishlegs had a point there. He had known Astrid for about two weeks now, and his negative emotions towards her had been really strong a short while ago and he was pretty much one of the last Berkians that were expected to change his mind so radically. But Hiccup would've been lying had he claimed to not enjoy it – not having so much hatred on his shoulders felt sort of refreshing and he felt he had more room for more important thoughts, such as the problem he was dealing with right now.
"Anyway, I just don't know how to tell my father what I know without losing my or anybody else's head. I suppose that telling the truth is what I will have to do if I can't come up with anything else, but the thing is I'm too scared to do that," the prince confessed. He wasn't sure why he said the last bit, but saying it out loud made him realise that it was the truth. He was scared because he didn't know what the consequences would be. He didn't know how serious Stoick was about the law when it was his only son that was breaking it. "Does that make me a coward?" Hiccup asked after a pause that had felt like forever. He looked at Fishlegs, hoping yet fearing to hear an honest answer from him.
"It doesn't. Anybody would be scared in your situation. Even the king."
Hiccup snorted. "Good one, as if my father would have ever gone against his father's words."
"You don't know that. He might have," Fishlegs answered and gave the prince a smile that didn't look convinced at all. "However, I think I might know something that can help you avoid spilling the beans."
Hiccup's lips parted slightly in confusion as he frowned at his friend. "What do you mean?"
"Lately I've heard the knights talk about the king's spies."
"Spies?" Hiccup repeated, even more confused than a moment ago. "Since when does my father have spies? What are they for and why on earth hasn't he told me anything?
"How could he have? You've been avoiding the king like a plague ever since you helped Astrid escape and he stopped keeping an eye on you after you came back from that trip. That hasn't gone unnoticed by the people that work in the castle, I did tell you that you're being too obvious. And as far as I know, their sole purpose is to spy on Briral. I don't know who they are, but I suppose that being unknown is the point."
The prince had to reverse the memories in his head to go through the previous weeks. Had he really been avoiding his father that much? He had just simply been busy, especially now that yet another battle was almost upon them and he had fighting practise twice as much as he normally did. And the only time he really had some peace and quiet was during the dinner time that was usually reserved for the father-son moment of the day, so he was glad to skip it and retreat to his own chambers or Toothless' stall. Even if he had avoided Stoick, surely there had been a moment when his father could've told him about his new plans.
Unless Stoick had seriously started suspecting his son and the spies had their eyes fixed on Hiccup.
The prince shook the thought off his mind in an instant – it wasn't like Stoick to order someone to spy on him. His father would've already confronted him about his suspicions if there were any, but Hiccup hadn't heard a single word out of his father's mouth that would've caused the alarms in his mind to go off.
Hiccup broke the short silence that had fallen upon them. "So you think I could just tell him that I heard it from his spies? I doubt that would work."
"It's worth a shot. The spies came back this morning so it would make sense that they have this sort of information to share."
"I hope you're right about it. Thank you for telling me this by the way, I do wish I had heard it from my father but I prefer it this way than not knowing at all," Hiccup said genuinely.
Fishlegs smiled slightly. "My pleasure. However, I think it'd be for the best if you didn't sneak out for a while. You know, to cool things down and to stop people, especially the king, from suspecting you."
Hiccup shook his head. "Too late for that, we already agreed that we'd meet in two days to give one last treatment to the dragon."
The smile faded from his friend's face and it was replaced with a look of terror. "In two days?!" he cried out. "But that's the eve of the battle!"
"Yes, Fishlegs, I am aware of that," the prince said. He knew exactly what his friend was about to tell him, but he waited for him to say it out loud nevertheless.
"Don't you think you need to rest before you start fighting for your life? What if something happens to you during the night and you won't make it to Berk by the time the battle begins?"
"I wouldn't be resting anyway because I would be too busy thinking about what is coming for us. You know I wouldn't. This way I can use the time for something a bit more useful and I may even get more information that will help us win this battle. And nobody's crossed my path so far, I don't see why this time should be any different. I may as well be murdered right here in my own chamber that night, you can never know what's going to happen."
"Yes, but–"
"Trust me, Fishlegs. Astrid and my meetings are going to be over after that, we won't be seeing each other ever again and I will return to my normal life."
Saying that made him feel something in his chest, as if he didn't want to put an end to their meetings. He assumed that he was reluctant to let go because he had finally started to looking forward to them. Sure, the dragon was the reason he had always been excited to go out there, but now there was something more and Hiccup had to admit that the additional feeling didn't have anything to do with the Timberjack in the cave. That certain feeling arose whenever he just thought of Astrid.
Perhaps he was just happy to finally have another friend?
Yeah, that must be it.
Fishlegs let out a loud sigh as he looked at the laundry basket he had left by the wardrobe. "Tell me how useless my protest will be so I can decide whether or not I dive into it."
Although his friend wasn't looking at the prince anymore, he smiled at him in slight amusement. "It'd be really useless, so don't even bother."
Fishlegs just hummed to let the prince know that he had got the point and yet another silence fell upon them. Fishlegs started folding Hiccup's clothes into the wardrobe and reorganizing it so that it would look neater. The prince decided to turn his attention back to the market place underneath his window and he focused on the villagers. When he had difficulties seeing the people properly, it was only then he realised that there was a bit of frost on the window glass – he had been so deep in thought that he hadn't even noticed that the first time around.
Hiccup placed his fingers on the window, and when he felt his fingertips get wet, he noted that the frost had also crept inside, but since it was much warmer in his chambers, it had melted and there were now several waterdrops on the glass.
As he shifted his gaze from the melted ice back to the market place, he watched the figures walk around. Some of them were standing in groups of two or three and were talking in what Hiccup could only assume to be a friendly manner. He was living so far up in the castle that he couldn't see the Berkians' faces so it was impossible to tell whether they were happy or distressed or something in between.
The prince thought about what he had realised a while back. In war, it wasn't the ones living in the safety of the castle that suffered; it was the villagers. If some part of the castle was destroyed, it could be fixed in no time, but it wasn't as simple for the ones who had to work hard to just have some food for their children. Seeing their homes burnt to ashes was probably a devastating view to them for it meant that they had to survive with even less food than normally, for they needed money to buy supplies for rebuilding.
Hiccup knew that something had to be done about that. He knew that his father wouldn't do it, but he could. There had to be a way for the prince to help their people even if his meeting with the king went horribly wrong. Now that he finally knew what kind of a kingdom he'd love to rule, he wanted to do something to strive for it. To let Berkians know what kind of a king he'd be, although he still wasn't entirely sure of that himself.
But what he was sure of was that in his Berk there'd be no useless grudges against other kingdoms and his people would be able to live a more peaceful life.
Hiccup was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Fishlegs silently laughing to himself. The prince instantly turned around to look at his friend with a questioning look. Fishlegs was still putting Hiccup's clothes into the wardrobe, so it must have been something else that was amusing him.
"What?" the prince asked and that gained Fishlegs' attention.
His friend just shook his head but his shoulders were slightly shaking from the bursts of voiceless laughter. "I was just thinking about everything you've told me this morning and how absurd it is that you've gone and befriended the princess of Briral, out of all people."
There it was again, the strange sensation that tingled all over his body just at the mere mention of Astrid.
"Yeah, I didn't see it coming myself either, but I'm really glad we both were able to look past the grudge," Hiccup replied with a smile. "And she doesn't seem to be at all like her father. Well, of course I can't be entirely sure what the king of Briral is like, but I have a faint idea. And everything my father has ever said about her is untrue. For example, he would always tell me that she always uses the opportunity to abuse her position if it benefits her, but that's literally the last thing she'd ever do. In fact, she doesn't even have much power as a princess, so she couldn't even do that."
Fishlegs looked up at Hiccup just as he was about to take the last piece of clothing from the basket. He wore an expression that the prince had hard time reading, but what he could tell for sure was his friend was still amused about something.
"The surprises you've brought on me are beginning to be so many that at this point I wouldn't be surprised if you told me you've developed romantic feelings for the princess of Briral," Fishlegs said happily as he turned back towards the wardrobe and freed his hands of the clothing.
Hiccup stared at the side of his friend, completely taken aback and unable to respond. It had taken him by surprise and his brain didn't seem to know how he was supposed to be reacting to Fishlegs' joke. He didn't even know why it had such a strong effect on him – it was, after all, just a joke and there was nothing else to it.
Fishlegs noticed the prince's silence when he was lifting up the wooden basket from the floor. He looked up at him again and he misinterpreted the blank expression on Hiccup's face. "Of course that'd never happen, I was just joking. I'm sorry if I upset you," he rushed to say, looking a bit alarmed. He apparently feared that he had taken a step too far and insulted Hiccup or something.
"I– uhm…no, you didn't upset me. I– I was just lost in other thoughts," Hiccup lied poorly. Gods, why was he reacting like this?
The prince's response didn't seem to convince Fishlegs, for he apologised one more time before he rushed out of the chambers with a quick 'good luck' before he disappeared behind the sturdy wooden doors. Hiccup was left staring at the doors, trying to figure out his head. He was mad at his mind for failing him like that when there was no reason to do it.
He was just simply taken aback by the comment that came out of nowhere. He hadn't been prepared to hear something like that which was why he had reacted so strangely. There was no other sensible explanation for it, because he only liked Astrid as a friend.
Next time he crossed paths with Fishlegs, he would turn the entire situation into a joke so that Fishlegs would be aware that the prince wasn't mad at him and his friend wouldn't get any fallacious ideas.
He would never like Astrid more than as a friend.
Or would he?
Hiccup tried his very best to concentrate on more pressing matters, such as the fact that he had a kingdomful of people to come up with a rescuing plan for, and he needed to completely reorganise most of the posts since some dragons, knights and guards needed to protect the Berkians, but Fishlegs' harmless words were distracting him all the time.
It just wasn't like him to constantly think about one person and be in desperate need to know more about them. It also wasn't like him to feel a tingling sensation all over his body just by thinking about someone.
He very hard tried to tell himself that whatever it was, it didn't matter because he was destined for Princess Arleigh. He shouldn't be bothering his head with something that had no importance in his life.
But he just couldn't stop thinking about it, and that kept irritating him.
When he finally found some space in his mind for the rescue plan, he grabbed the thought with all his might and tried to hold onto it so that his thoughts wouldn't travel back to the dangerous waters. His people was what mattered the most right now, and he already knew what he had to do.
He would tell the guards to take Berkians to the underground tunnels that would be guarded by as many dragons and knights as they could bear to lose from the actual battle, and most of the guards would remain in the city extinguishing the fires that were set on the houses. He hoped that this way they'd decrease the number of deaths among the villagers, and they'd return to half-burnt homes instead of fully burnt, which would mean that they needed fewer supplies to rebuild.
Since there was no telling whether he'd be seeing the plan implemented, he decided it was for the best if he started carrying it out now before he went to see his father. He truly hoped he was overreacting and his meeting with the king would turn out all good, but he didn't want to walk into the Throne Room with too much confidence. It was always when he thought he knew what he was doing when things went south and quick.
So once he found one of their many knights walking around the castle grounds, he walked up to him and told him about his plans to take the people to the tunnels. The knight – whose name Hiccup couldn't remember – listened in interest and kept on nodding to let the prince know that he was following him. Hiccup wanted to make it very clear that they needed to start supplying the tunnels as much as possible because they didn't know how long the battle was going to last. The knight seemed to like the idea and he promised to let all the knights and guards know about the plan.
When the knight was off again, Hiccup was left alone with two thoughts that were nagging at him.
First, the next thing he would have to do was face Stoick. He didn't know how facing his own father could be so terrifying, but he sure hoped there weren't many people out there who had to feel this way.
When he walked towards the Throne Room, he realised that his earlier plans to go in fully prepared had been ruined – he had no clue what he would be doing there. He didn't know if he should try to use the spies as an excuse or if he should just tell his father the truth. Just thinking about the latter made him want to throw up out of pure nervousness.
As he walked in the corridor that would lead him to his destination, he passed by a few maidens that looked really young and were carrying some very heavy-looking baskets that were full of dining equipment such as plates and glasses. Despite having those in their hands, they humbly curtsied to Hiccup. One of them looked up just as the prince smiled at them and her eyes grew much bigger in surprise. Once Hiccup was past them, he could hear that maiden whispering excitedly to the other ones and they all started giggling. It was moments like this that made the prince realise how isolated he was from the people of no noble blood – even a small gesture like that was unexpected from him.
Now, with his mind clear about the Berk of his (possible) reign, he finally began to see how…wrong some of the rules were. Why should their subjects be treated like they were nothing when they were the ones serving and doing almost everything for them?
The doors to the Throne Room were opened, but it was empty. Hiccup had to blink a couple times to make sure he hadn't just got momentarily blind. There really was no one, and the deserted sight looked unfamiliar to him; he was so used to seeing his father sitting on that massive throne while Gobber was either standing close by the king or was behind the throne working on something. The candles around the room were still lit, so that either meant that they would be back soon or they had just left.
Hiccup was standing next to the doors, so he turned around and walked in front of the guards on the other side. He looked at both of them before asking: "Where's my father?"
"He is in the Great Hall, My Lord. He should be accompanied by his advisor and some knights if I am not mistaken," the other one on the left side of the doors answered importantly, his chin very high up.
"Alright, thank you," Hiccup replied and was already on his way towards the other room.
Of course his father would be there – where else? It was Stoick's second most used place in the castle. It was where they always ate together and where the important meetings were held.
The guard had said that some knights were also involved. Would that mean that they were already planning how to best defend Berk from the Briralians? If so, why hadn't he been invited? No matter how differently Hiccup and Stoick viewed the world, it was always the prince's opinion that the king valued the most when it came to things like that, so why would he be excluded this time? Was this really his father's way of making his son aware that he had been avoiding him far too much?
His questions were soon answered as another pair of guards opened the large, wooden doors to reveal the Great Hall where there was already a chaos ongoing. The knights were shouting at each other and Stoick was roaring loudly over them. Gobber was looking at the sight before him with a raised eyebrow. Hiccup instantly realised that his assumptions had been wrong – the meeting had started a good while ago. A part of him was happy he had missed the most of it, but he also felt highly irritated by the fact that his father had decided to not involve him.
"I say we put all our forces outside of Berk so the filthy maggots cannot even reach our borders!" one of the knights shouted.
A few other knights let out a cry of approval, but others protested loudly.
"It's not going to work!"
"If they reach the borders, we'll be doomed!"
"We need to spread evenly so that all areas are protected!"
"But if we're stopping them before the even set their feet in Berk, there's nothing that needs protecting!" one of those that was for the idea argued.
Hiccup walked past the mass of angry knights, looking at them uncomfortably. He could already feel the restlessness building up inside him. He hoped he'd be out of the Great Hall before it got out of hand for him – he couldn't bear to live through another night with little to no sleep.
When the prince was by Stoick and Gobber, the advisor gave him a simple nod as a way of greeting, which Hiccup returned.
"We do everything as we always do, how many times will I have to tell this to you?" Stoick yelled, causing most of the knights to turn around to look at him. "The knights with dragons stand at the front, the rest will be shooting arrows from the towers. The guards will protect Berk inside the walls if the Briralians ever make it that far."
Some knights started shouting at each other again after they realised that the king had finished talking. That was when Hiccup saw his opportunity to tell his father what he knew.
"Uhm…Dad?" he started unsurely.
"Not now, Son," Stoick replied, not even turning to look at the prince. "I have important things that need to be attended to."
"But what I need to tell you is highly important!" he said, flailing his hands on his sides.
"I'm sure it can wait. I am busy now," his father said coldly.
Hiccup was silent for a couple seconds, looking at his father and trying to figure out what was going on in his head. Was his coldness simply because he thought his son's matter wasn't related to the attack, or was it because he was cross with Hiccup? The prince glanced at Gobber in search of help, but to no avail – the advisor was also looking at Stoick, the other eyebrow higher than ever.
"But Father–"
"NOT NOW!" Stoick roared and he finally looked at his son. His eyes were full of frustration and anger, and Hiccup just stared into them with a blank expression.
His heart had sunk to the bottom of his stomach. Gobber was taking turns in looking at the prince and the king, clearly confused as to what was going on. That hopefully meant that his father was just stressed about the attack because Stoick always told his advisor everything, and Gobber's reaction gave away the fact that he had no idea why the king was so angry at his son.
"Fine," Hiccup said with no emotion in his voice, though he could feel anger bubbling inside him.
He wanted to leave the meeting, but he knew that it was his responsibility to sit through the rest of it now that he was present, so the prince observed the view before him without uttering out a single word.
He had been mentally prepared to be shouted at for breaking the law. Now he wasn't even given a chance to tell his father that he had done that. The bad air that was left between him and Stoick stopped him from offering any sort of suggestions on how to better their defences. Not that it would've mattered anyway, for the anger he felt towards his father made him determined to go through with his plan to save the Berkians and their homes.
As he stood there in his own silence, he had too much time for his favourite and least favourite entertainment – thinking. He suddenly found himself wanting to fast forward to the night he'd be meeting with Astrid. He really wanted to share his plan with her because he knew she'd support it.
The strange sensation was there again.
Then his mind told him it'd most likely be the last time they'd ever see each other.
The strange sensation was replaced by a jolt of pain in his chest.
By Odin, what was wrong with him? Why couldn't he think of Astrid like any normal human being?
He sure did not have any romantic feelings for her.
He just couldn't.
Ten more chapters to go! EEEEEEEEEEEEE.
I honestly never thought this story would see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm so glad I picked it up again after like a 1,5 year break from it.
Once again, your feedback means the absolute world to me!