Chapter 11. "Revelations Part Two"
Hiccup makes a shitty plan.
Astrid's world is broken in two
. Stoick deals with reality.
More than one thing echo's across Hiccup's mind as she sits down on a log ,head in hands and sighing deeply.
Puzzlement at Astrid's irrational performance at the Dragon Arena. Confusion over said girl suddenly making her way over to what Hiccup believed was a safe place. Anger over shouting herself raw and breaking up a fight between Toothless and Astrid before they killed each other. Anxiety, well because if Astrid could find out then who else? Did she talk to other people before she came? Is Hiccup supposed to expect an angry raiding party of Vikings to descend upon the Cove - drag her out kicking and screaming while Toothless is gutted like a fish? And genuine exhaustion, if Hiccup had a mirror then she'd probably expect to find her skin in a ugly unhealthy tone, bags around bloodshot eyes and unkempt messy mousy hair.
Still,could be worse. Toothless could have eaten Astrid and while that would have been some short reprieve in this nightmare - inevitably people would have come looking and Hiccup'd have to explain why dragon shit bone's are littered over a cove that's decked with equipment of her handiwork. Equipment that needs to be sorted and loaded , a new harness rigged and also food and water for a week's stay. If that's what she decides to do since the plan is to make sure Toothless can fly, fly Toothless to a remote island and then figure out how to get back to Berk.
Work in progress, or well it was until Astrid barged into the cove, screamed and shouted and then picked a fight with the both of them before collapsing into a heap, a still breathing and conscious heap but one that now demands its own attention and leap frogged to the top of the ever increasing to-do list of bullshit that Hiccup has to deal with.
She could scream and rave to the Heavens and let the gods know how fucking pissed she is about everything, she could kick valuable maps around ,ball her fists up and splatter food into rocks while throwing a justified and well overdue temper tantrum like a certain someone.
It's a week of stress added on to an already existing strained mental state of not eating, constant work, bad sleep and the knowledge that she's been keeping secrets from Berk while attempting to unravel the fact that the dragons have been stealing animals that they don't eat.
Instead Hiccup eats something, takes a few swigs of water and then promptly falls over onto the sand/dirt of the cover with a humorless laugh filtering out of her mouth. One that's a wordless minute of grievances ,of pain and the ever increasingly worse and shitty situations that she finds herself in.
"What's so funny?" A small tired voice from the right chimes in, it's Astrid's hair covering her eyes in a deflated mop and veiny tired muscles that's on show when Hiccup makes eye contact to tattered clothes and a defeated posture.
Is she setting up for another fight? Maybe Toothless eating Astrid wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.
"This, all of it. You, everything. I fucking hate this" Hiccup confesses with a edge in her voice that borders on no longer giving a shit.
Silence, for a few seconds. Astrid audibly moves from side to side with a defeated sigh as Hiccup rubs her forehead and stares at the sun, Toothless is somewhere over there - probably sulking since she told him off.
"I'm not gonna apologize for it Astrid I-"
Astrid cuts her off, Hiccup notices trembling fists and a quivering lip.
"Why? Why'd you do it?"
Astrid sounds as defeated as she does.
"Do what?"
"This, the dragon arena, you-"
"What does it look like?"
Upon Hiccup's bluntness, Astrid leans forward and buries her head in her knees, if her lip was quivering before then that's moved to her voice because oh god's does she sound on edge. Like she's seconds away from breaking. "Like you've leaving, like your gonna go and never come back, that everything you did in the Arena- to me was some kind of calculation, that you- I dont know, I'm fucking tired of this, I lost in that Arena to you and my world's been turned into shit and I dont know what I'm supposed to do anymore"
"I'm not leaving Astrid, he is. He can't fly so I'm going to fix him and then I'll be back"
"Just like that? Like attaching a wing to a dragon is every day for you? Like it is pacifying every dragon at an arena is second nature? What the fuck Hiccup, I tried my hardest at that place and-"
Hiccup stands up, marches over to Astrid and gives her a piece of her mind. Being humiliated by the other kids and fucked over, told her experiments were useless and being compared all the time adds fire to her voice.
"I never meant to make you lose ,and for the record. I saw you refuse to kill that Nadder, I refused to kill Toothless because he was just as scared as me when I was going to take his heart and you know what? I found something out about those dragons? I learnt things while everyone was fumbling around in the dark and now it's even more complicated so give me a fucking break, I'm not gonna apologize, you'll win and get whatever you wanted so dont complain to me about it."
"Then WHAT THE FUCK? Was that about?" Astrid points furiously to the direction of Berk, to the dragon arena and when she speaks again her voice almost completely cracks from that hard edge of . "What the fuck do you mean I'm gonna win?! I LOST, I'm done for"
Hiccup's fucking incredolous.
"Don't you get it? You didn't need to try!"
"What the fuck do you mean? I had to be number one, I had to be the best and prove myself so I wouldnt get married off to some rich fuck because my family is suffering, and now I will! Nothing I've done or do'll change that, I'm fucked Hiccup - fucked and- my sister is- fuck!"
Mind reeling, mouth open. Hiccup struggles to process that she's got to break it to Astrid, that the Blonde honestly has no idea and..wow that's gotta hurt. She feels cold inside at the realization and a little bad.
"Holy shit do you not know?" She says such a monumental thing quietly because well, shouting wouldn't do either of them any good at the moment and the energy for something like that has disappeared.
"What the fuck am I supposed to know?" Hiccup thinks back to that meeting with the council, where she learnt about replacements, for both herself and for-
"Stoick was discussing a replacement for a team leader, you were mentioned" She repeats to Astrid, calmly as possible.
"Are you-"
Astrid looks at Hiccup like she's crazy. "What?"
Mouth agape, stammering in disbelief.
"What the fuck?"
"Yea the uh" Hiccup shifts awkwardly as they make eye contact and the intensity of Astrid's gaze is hard to stomach. "The finale didn't matter at all, I was there to make sure I could be certain, for the dragons."
"Are you - serious? I went through all of that and nobody told me? Bullshit, fuck. I-"
"Go ask my father or Gobber or Spitelout or even Mildew , Astrid it's the truth I have no reason to lie to you right now, if you want confirmation then ask - I'm not stopping you"
Astrid seemingly ponders this for a minute, face turning from a beet red frown to a somber quiet.
"It's…. hard to believe" She finally replies in a voice so quiet it's mouselike. "So hard - I. Did I? For nothing?"
Strangely Hiccup feels a kind of pull towards answering even a rhetorical question, has she been this lonely or is she just weird enough that the first person of her age group is-
"Your performance I think, Stoi-Dad felt impressed, I don't think it was nothing"
Astrid huffs, sighs and then moans in a combination of angst, anguish and then devolves into a hollow laugh.
Awkwardness, for the next ten minutes.
"I'm sorry for shouting at you by the way"
Hiccup reciprocates. "Same f'y'know, the shield and upstaging"
Seconds go by and then a minute, Hiccup's wondering if Astrid's finally fallen asleep but it turns out that she's just moping, or well she turns her head to stare at Toothless and then when she comes back the two girls are making eye contact.
Is it still hot in this cove? The springs nearby must be counteracting the oncoming winter or something, or maybe she's wearing too much.
Hiccup coughs, Astrid coughs. Awkwardly, the blonde is the first to make the conversation.
"It's uh better knowing that I won't be married to some dipshit, prospective guy that'd have to pay for me as a wife"
Glad that you're off the hook but… Hiccup thinks to herself, a flash and buried memory of being drowned surfacing as quickly as it faded away.
"What about you? Can't imagine Stoick'll have another kid" Astrid despite herself asks innocently.
Screaming, suffering, begging for help and cruel laughter under a windswept sail above a water grave.
"Probably" Is the answer, a bit too quick though - although Astrid, as perceptive as she is, probably chooses to ignore it.
Moving to a different topic would be less painful.
"One secret to another?" Hiccup says fuck it and gives a yes, even if relieving the memory is painful and hearing Toothless breath lazy breathes a few metres away brings it home even further..
"Yea" Comes the reply.
"With Toothless - I actually had him conernerd, shot him down and was gonna take his heart out but I couldn't do it, I realized him was just protecting himself and all I'd done was hurt him and I couldn't any longer"
"Looked that Nadder in the eyes too" Astrid pauses for a second ,nods soberly and then replies. "Changes don't it?"
"Yea, probably shouldn't have done it, so why'd you do it? You went through so much and it was horrible to watch but you dropped your axe and left"
Astrid turns confessional.
"So did I. I couldn't do it either Hiccup, I felt like a coward and I was angry at myself and you and everything around me. We almost killed each other and I beat it until it was nearly crippled. I- It didn't feel like a victory though, despite well everything"
For a brief few seconds of stark clarity.
I dont think it's anything to be ashamed of though Astrid.
They talk for a while, alternating points of view and discussions between light meals as the sun moves in the sky, Toothless uninterrupted as he lazily sunbathes. Astrid mournfully speaks about her situation and her sister, the incredible pressure she forced on herself because she believed it was the only way.
It's an uneasy peace but a welcome one from the far cry of being at each other's throat for the last week.
Deciding to finally air the conspiracy she's uncovered, Hiccup knowingly let's slip the information she's gathered, the groundbreaking study with the dragon's and the food they ate, she watches as Astrid's mouth falls open and her brain break as the future chiefess explains the terrifyingly confusing evidence that the dragons only eat fish and that if Astrid wants to prove it, she can replicate the results and it'll be the same.
Astrid sighs, Hiccup sighs. The two of them reaching a sort of neutrality, but a better situation than before. For Hiccup it's discovering that the brutal blonde has a scarily good intellect behind her with how quickly she digested the information. For Astrid it's a welcome relief in some parts, and an uncomfortable doubt about Berk's future. Once a solid rock conclusion, but with Hiccup speaking about the lack of food and long term storage, it's evident now why the elders were always so paranoid and jumping - forcing conversations about leaving Berk all together to be stopped and forgotten.
For Astrid at the least, it's a sobering eye watering realization that her life's become significantly more complicated.
"You seem to be handling it pretty well Astrid, are you okay?"
"Why do you care Hiccup?"
Astrid's temper flares up for just a moment but with knuckles whitened and biting her cheek near bloody, she collars the brief burst by the throat and forces it down into a somber apology.
" ….never mind, I guess having everything turned upside down and learning what I've believed is the opposite to be true has kind of made accepting it easier, information overload I guess"
"Does it still hurt? The Nadder's spikes, you kinda nearly passed out at the arena and here and should-"
"No I'm good, it's temporary cuz they're weaker, remember?" Astrid lies.
When she flexes her arm ,it hurts. As Astrid moves her torso - the post penetration venom stings and brings a silent hiss to her lips. It's not as painful as it was a few hours and with a clearer head thanks to a forced knockout, food and drink she's able to dull the pain enough to make it look visible and not vocal.
And Hoffersons do not shower weakness, especially in times of revelation and especially to a chief - even so one in waiting. No grunting, nor wincing or showing.
"Are we going back? They'll be getting worried and send out a search party for us" Especially since she fucked up. Astrid keeps the last bit to herself, instead she studies Hiccup's reaction.
"Probably, but I need to make sure Toothless is fine - was going to send him and well I out tonight but we ate all the food and I don't want to leave you hanging, plus it'd look weird if it was both of us heading back at the same time" Hiccup's gotten stronger somehow, there's a more assertive tone to her voice and her body language is looser and less rigid, although she does still flap her arms and shoulders and whine nasally sometimes.
Is this an act? An illusion of strength molded in the image of Stoick the Vast, or is the fortitude of a real chief emerging from within and slowly breaking free? Either way Astrid studies the way Hiccup's brow moves, her pupils when they dilate with an interesting topic and the swallow of her throat when she finishes. It's strangely alluring to watch and yet bizarre and uncanny that this is something new.
Astrid takes in a breath, runs fingers down her exposed torso and nearly hisses when a tip touches the impact wound, unsure if Hiccup noticed Astrid distracts by asking another question on her mind.
"So the plan is to - what? Take your dragon away so he'll never come back, then somehow get back to Berk and then continue life as normal?"
Hiccup doesn't even miss a beat. "Yep" And pops the p.
"Is that it?"
A shoulder shrug. "Pretty much yea, should only be gone a week or two"
"So you'd strand yourself on an island, somehow find a way back home before winter hits and try to explain yourself - all for the sake of a dragon?" Astrid asks incredulously, is Hiccup this- weird? And dumb and smart at the same time? Like she managed to make a contraption allowing this dragon with a busted tail to fly and yet is so dense.
"I don't see the problem with that?"
"You're an idiot - seriously, and besides , you figured out all of this about the dragons - the food and that they can be trained and that was it? Like this is your master plan?" She points to Toothless who has forgone his rock and is currently chasing his tail, tongue out and growling. Not that Astrid is still pretty wary of the dragon that tried to bite her head off.
Hiccup flaps her shoulders again and does that nasally voice and hand waving, it's kind of funny to watch and cute - if it wasn't a serious conversation about one of the firsts to happen in Viking history.
"I mean what did you expect me to do exactly? There's nothing else I've tried, I've talked to Gobber and d-Stoick, I've fed the dragons and watched them throw up all kinds of food, I've seen them eat fish at the docks or when we give it to them and that's it, they can be trained and they won't attack if you dont which was the entire point of me being in the Arena and"
"And, what?" Astrid interjects and leans forward, making Hiccup flush and stutter.
"Well -there's nothing else to learn, Toothless can't talk and it's not like I can fly him to the home of the dragons or anything"
"Why not?"
"Wha?" Hiccup stares. "I don't even know where it is, it could be forever to get there and-"
"You flew him before right? - or you're planning to since all that gear is lying around. What's stopping you,seriously?"
"Well I-" Hiccup starts shrugging her shoulders and flapping her arms with redness coating the freckles on her cheeks as she starts blubbering about it being difficult.
Astrid gives her a look. The kind of one that says "what are you waiting for, you idiot?. How is that supposed to be more difficult than flying a fucking dragon how are you this smart and so utterly stupid at the same time holy fucking shit thor?"
Instead the noise that comes out is more a disgruntled "hmpph" that has Hiccup eeeerring and aaahhing while at the side of the her vision Astrid can make out Toothless side eyeing them, she's not that afraid of him as much (it is hard to take Hiccup's pet dragon seriously after you've witnessed them attack a flower).
"I'll think of something" Hiccup gets off the log she's on and moves over to Toothless, getting his attention with her a snap of the fingers, the dragons side eye's Astrid for a brief second and she feels a light terror tug at her heart before she stamps it down, choosing to focus her attention on watching Hiccup mount something on the dragon.
"It's a bit contradictory don't you think? Having literal death machines locked up behind the forge that you made to kill dragons and here you are, helping one to escape"
Hiccup grunts as she slides a heavy pain in between, something - Astrid can't make the rest out and she's a very practical girl anyway, Hiccup is definitely the one between them with the engineering and technical brain.
"I guess but that was before I found Toothless, fed him and trained him - well sort of, he's still a bit wild and that'd be a hard sell to Stoick if I wanted to bring him to the house like - can you imagine that?" "Hey Dad, do you mind looking after this giant black dragon that shoots plasma for me? He's completely safe as long as you feed him fish and have a bucket of water ready with hopes and prayers in case he farts plasma or something"
A giggle escapes her throat as she watches Hiccup do a one to one impression of her father, voice and mannerisms all - the sarcastic side coming to light and it harkens back to a few days ago when she asked Hiccup to fix her axe.
"Oh no it's no problem Lass - I always have a bucket of water ready for incendiary dragon farts in the household, it's right next to my doilies and sweet cakes that I have for emergency tea parties - tis on the shelf with the plans to relentlessly murder everything that looks at me funny"
"That's not a bad impression actually, do that a lot?" Astrid can't help but laugh. Hiccup is kind of funny.
"Yes actually, Gobber finds it to be hilarious"
Astrid finishes her short spirited laugh, she looks at Hiccup and her damm dragon and there's a part of her that just wants to know, a curiousness that's seen the ultimate level of bizarreness today and coupled with the endorphins of relief, it propels her forward to ask a question before the beaten rational part of her brain gets a say in things.
"So" Astrid cocks her head to the side. "What are you going to do, Hiccup?"
Astrid has fought dragons with venom seeping into her veins, she's shouted down adults and beaten them in close combat training, she's been fucking nominated for a leadership role. She should be fearless. She's even been close to death via dragons twice today,
But perched precariously on a hastily modified two person saddle that's attached by junk wire to a dragon that dislikes her with the damn things tail attachment fluttering (and it's responsible for them not spiraling to death) all of that - has gone out of the window.
Astrid deeply regrets that line of curiosity.
"You can't be serious"
"I am serious, why not? You were literally asking me about my terrible plans like five minutes ago and well here's another one"
Hiccup's sarcasm game is incredible, if it is and if it isn't just how she how before it was irritating to listen to like a grating squeal down a wall and now there's a touch of hilarity to it.
"Why did I let you talk me into this?" Astrid has to shout over the wind buffeting them from side to side as well as constantly shift from how itchy the long sleeve shirt is that Hiccup forced her to wear and not to mention Toothless keeps wavering at the back end and Astrid's clinging on to Hiccup with her strong arms wrapped around the girls skinny waist for dear life as the future chieftess continues to push them through the cloud layer and its fucking wet and soggy and her eyes are -
"It's really rough the first time I know but-!" Hiccup's unencouraging speech is cut out by Toothless roaring at something from the left and then Astrid makes the mistake of looking down and almost loses the food she recently ate.
The sheer enormous feeling of weightlessness every time Toothless jerks from side to side as they rocket in the air is terrifyingly juxtaposed by Hiccup's whooping and that she's not even sitting down like Astrid is - Hiccup's riding Toothless like a horse with her ass in the air.
She's having fun.
While Astrid's
Not that'd Astrid would know since she's now buried her head in between Hiccup's shoulder blades and has muttered every single prayer she knows - with an utterly pounding heartbeat that's racing so fast it'll burst out of her ribcage.
Thor, what did she do to deserve this?
At least she can see, even if it just clouds and moisture and wetness surrounding them, Hiccup provided a pair of goggles and judging by the sheer amount of wind buffeting at her neck, Astrid is thankful for that.
She clings harder, eliciting a squeak and a full body shiver from Hiccup which takes the hint to slow down and she pulls on a lever or a rein of some sorts, the mechanical contraption runs parallel along Toothless's body and Astrid feels and hears a distinctive "whirring" followed by a "click" as suddenly they slow down, their direction changes and they slowly pull up.
Despite the maneuver being significantly more gentle than the immediate hard pull off the ground, water gushing over them and then the near vertical climb upwards, it's still enough to tug and put a weight on Astrid's head. She's tearing up with closed eyes and clinging on,begging for it to stop.
And they do - eventually. Toothless settles into a lazy gliding pattern and the only resistance is a gentle breeze flowing over Astrid's exposed skin on her hands ,neck and face. She still has her eyes closed though, looking down would probably be a bad idea.
"Hey" Hiccup says, wiggling to sit down in her seat with Astrid's fingers practically recoiling off her waist as soon as she felt hips.
"Mmffhmm" Is the muffled response Astrid gives, arms crossed and sitting up perfectly straight.
"Hey" Hiccup insists with a harder tone.
Astrid lets out a grunt in response, eyes still closed. "What?"
"Look!" Astrid doesn't budge. "Seriously, you gotta" Astrid shakes her head.
"It's safe, I mean a scrawny toothpick like me is doing it"
With that taunt, her eyes reflexively open up.
To her front is Hiccup, arms out and the breeze flowing over them with her head turned to the side, one eye on Astrid with a flush on the cheek below, Toothless's head lazily turning with his tongue out to lap at errant moisture. To the left is a cloudlayer that appears more like a fluffy pillow than a murderous rain bringing blanket.
Heart beating steadying, no more weighty pressure or feeling of terror, it's like everything that mattered with life and death down there has simply disappeared up here.
Letting out a long breath and peering over to the right, Astrid can just about make out Berk below. It's battered fleet of ships sit at the docks with hundreds of little lanterns guide the streets and corridors of the colony.
"It's so small, is that what they see?" Astrid asks quietly, referring to the dragons.
"Probably, that's our whole world down there, from up here you can finger frame your entire life if you've never been off Berk"
Astrid does that, even then she's supposed to discover that the whole of Berk and its surrounding islands fits in between that little box.
"Have you been off Berk?" Is this why Hiccup was so nonchalant about leaving?
"Yeah, like properly to another chiefs and not just off the ships - Stoick always dragged me there" Hiccup admits.
"It's…" While trying to find the right word to say, Hiccup interrupts with a smirk and a small laugh which prompts a retaliatory punch to the shoulder.
Beautiful, thank you for taking me here-
"Ow"
"That's for interrupting me!" She half says, Hiccup's usual response is a witty and or sarcastic answer when it comes to verbal so Astrid'd prefer to use her biceps instead. Not hard, but enough to get a squeak out of Hiccup and it's satisfactory enough. And kind of funny, and Hiccup's taking it in stride.
Behind them is the sun, or the golden evening rays of the light that shines down on Berk. From down there it provides a source of illumination other than the torches but up here - it's almost like Astrid's on speaking level with the gods themselves.
"Holy shit this is awesome"
Oddly enough Hiccup doesn't reply, instead there's silence between the two with Astrid wondering if she actually hurt the future chieftess (which if she did then she's going to be executed) , there wind buffets between them creating a cone of whistling - and leaning to the side Astrid can make out that Toothless ears are more like a cats pinions now with Hiccup hunched over and both of them are stiff.
"Hiccup?" Astrid prods Hiccup in the shoulder to get her attention. "Shhh" Is the response.
"What are we sushing about?"
"It's Toothless, he's gone quiet and - OH FUCK" Hiccup screams and it's followed by Astrid yelling as Toothless suddenly perks up, and then swings to the side and barrel rolls downwards - flying straight through the cloud layer and in a terrifying dive that speaks more like legend of the sound a Night Fury makes than the "dragon with a attitude" that Hiccup has described and Astrid has only experienced in bursts.
He's different, more like a collared animal as his wing flaps become mechanical like and his head swivels back and forth with a lot of sniffing until he finds something
"Toothless what's happening, what is it?" They exit the clouds and are surrounded by fog, the screams of distant dragons echos all around them until they find themselves in the a middle of a pack of hundreds, Astrid holding on tight to Hiccup and Hiccup bracing herself as they weave under a Nightmare, three Gronckles and a pair of Nadders until fog envelops them.
Was it ten minutes or an hour?
Whispering to each other, silent stilled breaths of holding in to not disturb the eerie formation around.
"Toothless can you do something?"
Jagged rocks and thousands of pieces of splintered wood around and under them, Toothless's tail battering the waves under and that heart wrenching realization that Hiccup's engineering skills better have been good enough or all three of them would drown.
"Are you okay?"
It's cold too, moisture sticking to skin and making it hard to breathe. There's barely any sound coming out of Toothless which is disturbing in comparison to the bated and heavy noises of wings flapping, nostrils flaring and terrified screeches of livestock coming from all around them.
"Talk to me bud"
There's no sense of nature to this, it's been proven that dragons only eat fish. And it'd be lunacy to drag their kills all the way out here when they could just find a nearby unoccupied island, Berk is after just one part of a massive archipelago.
So where are they taking them?
"Hiccup this is really fucked up" Astrid comments , her head buried between Hiccup's bony shoulder blades so they'd be as small as possible as to not attract any undue attention.
As they keep proceeding past the outskirts ,they're met with jagged and pointy splintered ships having crashed into them, bones without a graveyard and even remains of vikings and dragons lying out in the open together, mist and moisture clings to their skeletons and even the leftovers of fresh kill that never made it to the nest, having drowned and their bloated corpses floated to the surface to join the others.
The sheer oppressive weight of the fog blacks out the stars and puts on an invisible hand that weighs down the shoulders, to Astrid it feels like she's entered a place that only pulls you towards the center and never lets go like a gate that shuts instantly and the promise of salvation lies further ahead.
"Holy shit" Hiccup quietly swears in front and Astrid has to lean over to witness what the other girl saw.
She quickly wished she hadn't.
The fog breaks out in front, or more like it gives way to a truly disturbingly shaped island - a massive combination of a dormant volcano sitting at the center more akin to the fat tower of a fortress than any natural eartworks, the beaches outfront are the shape and color of rough gravel and dragons occasionally dart in and out of the exits like bee's in a hive.
"This is … - where they go isn't it. To some big fucking fortess that no one ever'll find"
"It's what Stoick's been looking for all this time…fuck. Bet we've been wasting hundreds looking in the wrong direction" Hiccup adds quietly and somberly.
"If only we could- never mind"
They're sucked into a nearby entrance, a ugly gash torn into the landscape like a ugly wound with claw marks the size of a building scraped across the sides.
Holding her breath and shoving Hiccup down before she gets her head taken off by a chunk of rock, Astrid watches to her horror as the world glows in black and red around them with nothing but the screams of adjacent dragons for natural company.
And as quickly as it all appeared, so too did it disappear. Toothless comes to his senses and Hiccup yanks on the reins to force a hard break that results in a somersault to the side of a safe ledge overlooking the center, it's some form of pit that's located over a steam vent, the inside is extremely hot and it's practically a sweating temperature.
Dragons circle around it, one by one they fly as quickly as possible over it - discharging their kills and then flying away like their lives depend on it.
Hiccup breaks the silence, sarcastically and whispering. "Well it's great to know that all of our food is being dumped into a hole"
Astrid watches as none of the dragons ever look down or look remotely hungry - their eyes and body language is - even to a viking like her - one of apprehension of fear.
"You were right, they're not eating any of it"
Astrid opens her mouth to make another comment but something shines in the corner of her eye, the dragons around begin to shriek and wail about something and Hiccup is nearly yelling for her to come back as Astrid pulls herself off Toothless and sprints to a corner, the shiny object is-
"Astrid get the fuck back here! ASTRID HOLY SHIT IT-S"
"I am I am!" Something big is growling and snarling and breathing and searching but its out of range and out of sight, instead Astrid dislodges the half buried object with a kick and a grunt - taking it in both hands as the rock formations around begin to crumble and the dragons start flying and Toothless is desperately flapping his wings in protest but Hiccup keeps him down as the Blonde sprints back, to her left (and she really shouldn't have looked) something peers out of the volcano steam. Two beady eyes the the full height of a greatsword peer from out of red smoke - the grinning maw of a building sized head with teeth the size of lesser dragons stares them down and despite the overwhelming heat - it's chilling to the bone and she yells as Hiccup yanks her abroad and Toothless waste's no time in getting the fuck out of here.
The undeniable dread of pursuit by an apex predator laughs at the idea of courage and they flee, Astrid's fought a Night Fury with zero hesitation but this? She's a tiny morsel about to be swallowed whole by a whale.
Whatever is back there nearly eats them, Astrid almost falls off as she clutches the object in her hands and death grips Toothless's body with her legs and Hiccup is shaking so badly that she nearly crashes them into a wall.
When they're safe and in the cloud, Hiccup screams and asks "what the fuck did you do?" her eyes look down and Astrid is barely hanging on to a tooth.
The biggest fucking tooth any of them have seen. Jagged and damaged, salvia long since integrated into dirty shine and its overpowering scent more like steam and earth than blood and body.
The one belonging to a queen.
Astrid breathes out.
"Holy shit"
Hiccup's pacing silently, Astrid's fists are trembling. Chest heaving, blood pumping.
"Holy shit, holy shit shit holy shit fucking holy shit"
Toothless is lying down flat, ears pinned and whimpering quietly.
"What are we gonna do? What the fuck was that? Holy shit"
Hiccup turns round and shrugs , usual stereotypical animation gone and replaced by nervous and "I don't know".
"I didnt- I couldnt- I never" Is all she can manage with a trembling lip, from where Astrid's standing the girl has gone stark white and she can barely hold herself up.
Astrid is not doing any better.
"It's like a giant fucking beehive or something with a queen in the middle and Ifuckinghellwhatthefuck, holy shit. Is that what we've been up against this whole time? A giant dragon that eats everything and sits in the MIDDLE OF A VOLCANO?"
"I know I know! I just, it's so hard to believe that is comes down to a fucking bee allerogy , all this time? What we've been fighting for centuries has been that?"
Astrid nods ,finding somewhere to sit down. "It is hard to believe, I should know"
"We should probably tell your dad," Astrid adds.
"NO" Hiccup jumps, her nerves immediately affecting her posture and voice. "No nono no, they'll kill Toothless and they wouldn't believe us anyway"
"We have proof?" Astrid kicks at the tooth she carried all this way to show.
"You dont understand, they're fucking lunatics they'll just kill Toothless and-"
"LISTEN TO ME" Astrid grabs Hiccup by the shoulders and shakes her. "FOR FUCKS SAKE, for the first time we have actual fucking proof that of why we've being starved out and you want to piss it away for the sake of your dragon?"
Hiccup is more ragdoll than human. "I-I-I-I, well yeah. I mean we're vikings and Astrid they're-"
"NO" She forces herself to relax. "No, we have proof and Stoick's anal about finding a nest for years, your throwing him a bigger bone than he could ever dream of and then- I dont know? We save Berk and YOUR dragon"
Hiccup takes a second, maybe two - well actually more like twelve and then she shies away from Astrid, avoiding eye contact and rubbing her forehead. "Maybe, it's a massive risk and we've committed treason and how are we supposed to explain this to the council? Oh hey we've got this big fuck off tooth and theres a giant dragon in the middle of a dormant volcano we should totally throw all our boats at it and be washed ashore as ske-"
"Hiccup"
"What?"
"Tell your dad first, not the council"
"And then what?"
Astrid is being the rational one for once. "Bring him here? On his own with just us, we can force him to see the truth". She pauses. "Besides, didn't you promise to find a way to end this thing? I've been here for an afternoon and even I can see this is the best way".
She might have sounded a bit smug.
Hiccup groans.
"This is such a bad idea, why would he believe us anyway? Any idiot could have found a tooth? I don't even know if he trusts me or not"
Hiccup. Astrid sighs, puts her hands on Hiccup's shoulders and looks her dead in the eyes. "It's worth a try, he's your father and if he doesn't trust you now then he never will. Take it from me that doing something is better than not doing anything. We'll tell him everything we know and if he doesn't believe us then we've at least tried our best, alright?"
Swallowing and then quickly blinking, Hiccup finally nods and visibly steels herself.
"I'd like to go down on record that this was a joint operation"
"Noted" Astrid chuckles without a beat.
With Hiccup scampering off back to Berk, Astrid lights a torch and waits at the edge of the riverbed with Toothless on the opposite side.
"Not much of a talker?"
She should be terrified of the Night Fury, lightning and death itself.
But.
Today's been fucking weird.
Astrid could have thrown a much bigger fit of rage there, but somehow she's managed to force it back with a great mental dam and make herself concentrate on the bigger target at hand - saving Bekr.
If Hiccup can manage to convince her father, a noted war hero - powerful and mighty with a temper and stubbornness to match - to come all the way over here in the middle of the night and then it'll be down to convincing the Chief of something insanely stupid and reckless.
No biggie, Astrid had no idea she'd be the first person to passenger ride a dragon this morning.
It's just a waiting game, to see if Hiccup the toothpick could convince Stoick the Vast that there could be a better way, one which took Astrid a significant degree of convincing (first hand).
A waiting game, with a dragon.
A spirited meeting with the council that was conducted in better spirits than usual.
A crowd of hundreds of cheers and adorations, an arena of pacified dragons with nary a mark left on them except for one.
A meeting with Gothi to discuss nutrition and a health plan.
And many hours of waiting, no food cooked for two yet so an empty stomach combined with drowsiness from post battle fatigue for the evening and now nightfall.
And still he waited, chair facing the door, saliva dripping his chin and wearing casual attire rather than the iconography and armor of one of the most successful dragon killers of all time, a peerless warrior and the chief of Berk. A position that commands armies of battle hardened in the hundreds, a command of dozens of purpose built warships.
And a man who very much wishes for his daughter to be home safe, so he can greet her - apologize and make up. To acknowledge how wrong he's been and that he wishes to set things right, that his errant idea to promote his daughter to chief was not made out of madness but a decision that recognized and so desperately wished to foster potential but knew not how to.
This is Stoick the Vast's situation at near midnight.
He starts to drop off, eyes dropping and head lolling to the side after a day that began with cheering for his only child, then furious meeting after meeting to calm nerves about the dwindling food situation, raising concerns with shipbuilders and smiths about replacements and trying not to tear his own head off.
Such a busy day, five minutes couldn't hurt, could it?
Stoick almost immediately falls asleep - product of an exhausting day.
He gets about twenty minutes of pure unadulterated sleep before the front door in front of him opens just a crack, the small noise though is enough to startle the Chief immediately awake - a combination of constant warfare and hyper vigilance.
Stoick's first action is to scream about both dinner, dragons and to kick a chair across the room when he startles from being self jolted awake.
However the intruder is neither a dragon, nor a non family member - they speak with a quiet and strained voice and their footsteps are light on rug covered wood floor.
"Uh, Stock - you okay there?"
It's his daughter, his Hiccup.
"Hiccup?!" Stoick wipes away the salvia on his beard and immediately gets up,brushing himself off, upon seeing his daughter , while looking worse for wear with ragged clothing and torn skin is enough to make him both nervous ,protective and joyful all in one. "How are you doing Lass? Good day today eh? Hope you've been busy, I was going to make us food but wanted to wait until you were back - still we have some nice bread left over from earlier , why dont I make you a nice bowl of soup for a midnight snack? How has your day been? You were fantastic today! I knew you had it in you, here here here - a good loaf for a mighty warrior!"
"Stoick?"
Stoick throws meat and vegetables together into a pot and immediately starts enthusiastically boiling it. "See! I told them, I said you could do it - and you did! Never seen those moves before but I was right to allow you in, you've made us all proud out there Hiccup!"
Hiccup's response is a bit odd, Stoick would have expected any other viking to respond with roaring confirmation of their victory but hers is a quiet sigh and to learn on a wall.
"Hiccup?"
"Busy day Stoick, busy Stoick - I uh, needed to talk about-"
"Yes yes talk! I imagine you've got a lot on your mind after such a rousing victory, you really should share with how you managed to disarm those dragons? Never seen those moves before"
"Actually-"
"Oh? Something else on your mind?"
"It is about dragons but not, well that" Hiccup fidgets with some hesitation and Stoick stops stirring the soup and turns around to face his daughter directly.
"So? What about them? You can tell me anything you know?"
"I uh, well y'know the thing we talked about, it's uh. Well I found something uh and err and uh and yeah y'know"
Hiccup does something afterwards but it's really really quiet.
"Can you speak up lass? I'm not as young as I used to be?" Stoick hopes that the old joke would be enough to make his daughter feel better (hopefully) and to mask the sudden bubbling excitement he's feeling..
"Yeah it's just hard, well you see me and Astrid we found something and it practically explains everything but I don't think you're gonna like it"
Stoick nods, stuffs a loaf of bread in his mouth and practically devours the whole thing in one bite before throwing his arms together.
"And what is it about? -Exactly"
"The dragon's, uh - we found something about them and you need to take a look? It's uh uhhhhh really important?" There's this stressed look on Hiccup's face and Stoick leans in, interested but Hiccup steps back a bit.
" .it?"
"The grove"
"That old place? What in the nine hells is down there at midnight?"
"Stoick please please please trust me" Hiccup puts her hands together and begs. "This is super important and I wouldn't have come to you without solid proof but we need to go there right now"
Even if the actual line is a bit suspect, said with a small bit of implied mistrust that'd Stoick fly off the rails or something.
"You can't put me up with all of that and not have it on hand? And this Hofferson girl, well it's fantastic news to see that you've made up but where is she right now? Her parents have banged on this door a few times tonight you-"
For once in her life and with an incredible effort of composure and confidence, Hiccup just blurts it out and it makes Stoick stop in his tracks. She's just like her mother.
"Stoick. I have it. I know it. It's the proof and the solution and everything but you need to trust me. No axes or weapons and it'll just be the two of us. Oh and Astrid is there at the grove."
"What?" Head shaking and incredulous expression, Stoick leans forward with a raised eyebrow. "Come again?"
Hiccup to her credit doesn't back down, she stiffens straight and it's admirable and lends weight to her claims. It's just like how a chief acts.
"Yes, what we talked about? I promised a solution and I have it. But you need to trust me?"
"Okay" Stoick immediately replies, the promise of solving a third of his problems all in one go is too tempting to ignore. His immense bulk causes a creak in the floor as his weight shifts, hand reaching for an axe until he remembers. "Right, so it's at the grove correct?"
"It's on the other side of the island yeah, you look tired do y-"
"No, let's go now lass". Stoick cracks his knuckles. "You've gotten me worked up and promised proof, I need to see this with my own eyes"
After all, what could be the worst thing lying in wait for him?
So I finally got round to updating this! Since the last update I've written 138k words in other fics so it's been a busy time.
However there is good news! I have part of the next chapter written already and I intend to finish the first season1 of this fic before moving on to updating others. Also the title was changed from Coming Out to World On Her Shoulders - I think it's more apt and the rating is now E considering the content planned ^^
Thank you all for being patient:)
And feedback would be greatly appreciated ^^
Follow me on twitter, KaffeeKupp