A/N: The next 2 chapters are dedicated to Stormlighter. Thank you!
Of Misery and Men:
Previously, back on Berk…
Astrid hadn't meant to nap for more than a half hour or so, but when she woke up to the shifted shadows in Hiccup's rooming telling a tale of hours instead, she cursed at the lost time. Daylight was precious, after all, in a land where the sun didn't even rise for weeks in the middle of winter.
Her torpid indulgence was all her fiancé's fault, of course, thanks to them staying up nearly all night, talking and snuggling. (Okay, maybe she was equally to blame.)
One double-sided consolation was that she woke up with her arms wrapped around Hiccup's pillow and surrounded by his musky boy scent thanks to his probably-due-for-a-wash bedding. It was pleasant, but not as comforting as waking up in his arms would have been.
What wasn't pleasant was the low-level ache in her core that said Mother Nature was going to be very mean to her starting very soon.
Which was strange, considering she wasn't due for another monthly curse for at least a week. But who knew sometimes with these things?
"Ugh" Astrid muttered as she flopped over on to her back and gave the ceiling an epic glare she hoped pierced all the way up to the realm of the Gods. Because surely this was their fault. "First I get left behind, and now I have to be miserable physically too. What did I ever do to you?"
Of course, the Gods didn't answer.
After a few moments of waiting anyway, she talked herself into moving. Better go make sure the village is still standing. And find more of that nice absorbent moss, since I'm almost out. Don't want to have to resort to sheep wool again. Thor, that stuff stinks when it gets wet. Groaning, Astrid rolled herself into a sitting position and then pulled on her boots before standing.
Next, she buckled on her studded leather battle skirt, shrugged into the sheath that held her axe, checked all the various hiding spots on her body for her arsenal of knives, and finished by rebraiding her thoroughly mussed hair into a thick tail that hung over her shoulder. She was ready to face the world again as a Viking Warrioress.
And what with her already missing Hiccup and the ache in her core, Astrid dared the world (or even just the twins) to make her mad right now.
But when she walked out of Hiccup's house, the village was still standing, people were calmly-if-quickly going about their business as afternoon storm clouds rolled in, there were no enemy fleets sailing into the harbour, and the twins, in particular, were nowhere in sight. "Hunh."
Almost amused by her anticipation of doom and not finding any, Astrid shrugged and turned up the hill and towards the bridge that led to the bigger part of the island and the forest where green things grew. Straight to moss hunting then. And maybe I'll scare up a rabbit or four for dinner. Yeah. That sounds good. Haven't had rabbit stew for a while. And I'm sure the rest of the village would enjoy it as well. Make up for not being helpful all morning.
But Astrid hadn't been in the forest for more than fifteen minutes, only finding a couple handfuls of good, dryish moss so far that would actually be absorbent, thanks to yesterday's rain, when something entirely new and very disturbing distracted her.
"By all the stars in the sky, Toothless, I'm going to burn off your favourite parts when you get back!"
Astrid froze at the feminine-but-very-pissed-off voice, faint, but clear. "Who said that?" She scanned the trees around her, seeing no one. Her eyes narrowed and she reached up to grab her axe as she peered into every shadow.
"Ugghhhhh! This hurts! Why do females go through this?! Why don't the males ever have to experience the painful things?"
Astrid, reminded of the increasing ache in her belly that she'd been steadfastly ignoring, sympathized. "Hello? Where are you?"
Still no answer from the area around her. Astrid started stalking through the trees, searching now for someone, perhaps hurt, nearby.
"Stupid mating instincts, driving me to this. I swear I'm ignoring them from now on. These are the only eggs Toothless is ever getting from me!"
Astrid froze again. What the Hel? Eggs?! What kind of human talks like that?!
"Oh, Gronckle droppings. I was projecting, wasn't I?" These words were much louder than the previous statements had been.
It was at this point that Astrid finally realized the female voice was coming from inside her head and not from afar. Her first instinct would normally have been to freak out. Probably. But Astrid was in just enough pain and just tired enough to skip that stage and go straight to replying back with loud thoughts, "Ummmm, yeah. I can hear you. Are you a Goddess?"
The voice in her head laughed bitterly. "Stars, no. If I were, do you think I'd be enduring these awful contractions if I was?"
"You mean monthly curse pain?"
The female laughed again, not so bitterly this time. "No, no, thank the Great Dragon I don't have to deal with that. And I'm glad. I've felt yours and that's more than enough for me. No, this is egg-laying pain."
Astrid blinked at that. "You're not human, are you?"
"No," the voice laughed again, and then gasped at a wave of pain that Astrid definitely felt with her.
The girl doubled over, holding her stomach, and realizing that the pain she'd been feeling for the past hour or so probably hadn't been hers at all. "Thor. Is this what childbirth feels like?"
"I don't know about you humans, but this is definitely what laying an egg feels like," the female groaned.
Astrid managed to stand upright again as the pain eased off. "Bloody Hel, I might not be having any kids then, if it's as bad as that."
"Hiccup might object to that."
Astrid's eyebrows rose, her feet moving of their own accord through the forest now and even further away from the village. She felt drawn to find the body belonging to the voice. "You know who Hiccup is?"
"Of course. You think about him all the time."
Normally, Astrid would be pissed at the implication that the owner of the voice was listening to her thoughts often enough to know this, but she was too intrigued with the puzzle yet to get to that stage. Maybe later. Probably. Depending on who the voice belonged to. She still wasn't ruling out a fallen Norse Goddess or Valkyrie or something. Who was laying eggs. But who knew what those Gods got up to?
"That's true. I do." She paused, thinking back on what she'd first heard the voice say. "Soooo, your mate's name is Toothless?"
"Yeah…"
Astrid could hear the affection in the word, completely belying her earlier vow to essentially geld her partner. "Is he actually toothless?" Cause that sounds kind of wimpy. She sniggered quietly to herself at the thought, her quickening strides bringing her out of the forest and overlooking the sea.
"No, he's not," the voice giggled, then gasped again. Astrid grimaced at the telegraphed pain, but had a much easier time ignoring it now that she knew it wasn't hers. Just like she was ignoring the first drops of rain falling from the now completely overcast sky. "He has rows of nice, sharp teeth, but they're retractable, just like mine. Bloody Hel, as you humans like to say, why does it have to rain too? Now I'm going to have to move into the cave instead of staying in the nice sand by the lake. His parents just had questionable taste in names, is all. Though I do think it's very cute and somehow suits him. He's very sweet, considering he's supposed to be the most fearsome thing in the skies."
"I see." And she was. Astrid was starting to get a very broad hint of what she was going to find when she found the owner of the voice. And it wasn't going to be a human-shaped Goddess. Whatever it was, though, she was now almost positive was on the island of Berk as well. Astrid turned south, heading even further away from her village and towards one of the few hard-to-reach locations on the island. There was a small cove near Raven's Point that no one had bothered to try and make a path into as far as Astrid knew. But… if she were wanting to hide out on the island, that's where she'd go. And she happened to know for a fact that it had a small lake. And… it wasn't far from where she currently was.
It was a perfect place for something with wings that liked to eat fish to make a home.
"What other distinguishing features does your mate have that you find cute?" Astrid asked as she started jogging, hoping to confirm her suspicions without sounding too curious. Her well-honed hunter's instincts had been awakened and prey had been spotted. Sort of.
If Hiccup couldn't catch a dragon to tame, then maybe she could. This one sounded vulnerable right now and everything. Not that she had any rope with her, but… maybe she wouldn't need it.
Was it possible to make friends with a telepathic dragon? Or maybe even start from scratch with a baby dragon?
The voice in her head was obviously preoccupied with her current state of egg-laying, so she wasn't hearing anything other than what Astrid was thinking loudly, which was good, all things considered. "Oh, my Toothless has the most beautiful green eyes," the voice said in a besotted tone that Astrid recognized well. From herself.
"So does my Hiccup."
"And he draws the most adorable pictures of myself in the sand."
"Wait. Dragons can draw?" She hadn't meant to say that word yet. Oops.
"You figured it out. I'm not surprised. I always knew you were a smart human. It's why I picked you." Astrid beamed to herself at the praise, as weird as it sounded to be grateful for the good opinion of a man-eating, sheep-stealing dragon. "And yes, Toothless can draw like a human. Sort of. Ugh. Egg laying sucks. I definitely don't recommend reproducing. He's probably the smartest dragon in the world. I've never seen a dragon draw before him."
"Hunh. Hiccup is good at drawing too and he's waaaay smarter than most humans. Sounds like our males would be good friends. And I'm definitely taking your advice under consideration. I can feel how much it hurts you."
"Sorry, Astrid. I don't have much control of my telepathy right now, and we're connected because I've been watching you for a while. And… you're right about our males. Toothless watches over Hiccup. That's where he is right now, in fact."
Astrid basically stumbled to a stop at the top edge of the cove with shock and looked down at the blurry lake, mostly obscured by the now driving rain soaking her to the skin. "What do you mean we're connected? Like permanently bonded? I never asked for that!" She started looking for a way down, circling the top of the indentation in the earth.
"Oh. Not permanently. Not if you don't want to be. I'm sorry if you feel intruded upon. Toothless and I were just curious about you humans and one thing led to another and now we sort of consider you two as ours. We can stop if you wish."
The voice sounded extremely sad about the idea, and Astrid found the concept of not talking to this very interesting dragon again depressing. "No! No. Please, don't leave me! I think I like you!" She nearly cheered when she spotted a tiny break in the rock wall surrounding the cove and made for it with all haste, slicing tree branches out of her way as needed with her axe and skidding down the steep, rain-slick slope in a barely controlled slide.
"Oh. Good. Because I like you too, Astrid. Ahhhhh! I think the first egg is coming out!"
"Eeeeep! Hang on. I'm almost there!"
"You are? Of course you are. Ughhhhh! Okay. That's one. Stars, that feels a little better. My goodness, am I ever out of it to not notice what you were doing."
"Yeah. I figured as much. All right. I'm down in the cove by the lake. Where are you?"
"Cave. East wall, about a human's height above the ground level."
"I see it. I'll be there in a minute."
"Okay."
Putting action to words, Astrid sprinted through the rain around the edge of the small lake and under the waterfall that sprang from the rock walls and fed the freshwater haven. The dark impression in the east wall became clearer with each step until she was right below it. Without even stopping, and giving a running grunt, she leapt up and grabbed the edge, pulling herself up with practiced ease.
And then she was in the cave. The very dark cave. Without a light. With a dragon. Who might have just lured her here as dinner. If her voice came out a little tentative and she gripped her axe a little tighter, could anyone really blame her?
"Hello? I'm here?"
"I see that. Come on in. It's much nicer out of the rain, isn't it?"
"Yes?" Astrid took a few careful steps forward, ears straining for the slightest sound of possible attack. A claw on the rock. A slithering noise. A hiss. Anything.
It took all of those few steps, but when she did finally hear something, it sounded like a pained moan. One that echoed the telegraphed pain in her mid-region. She didn't relax exactly, but Astrid felt slightly more confident to continue. "Where are you?"
"Oh. My apologies. I didn't realize you had poor night vision. Hang on."
Astrid heard a feline sounding grunt, which was followed by what sounded like the rustling of wings and then the nearly silent patter of carefully placed feet. And then a long inhale, followed by a burst of purplish blue plasma flames that showed the outline of a very sleek, pale dragon as she turned in a few circles and superheated the rock floor around her, casting everything with a purple glow that faded to just red as she ceased spewing flame.
The dragon looked down at Astrid with wide, gentle eyes that glowed reddish purple in the current light but she had no doubt were another colour entirely. "Hello Astrid. I'm Luna. It's nice to finally meet you face-to-face."
Astrid gawked up at the beautiful creature standing in the center of the glowing rock, a black egg the size of a bread loaf just outside the circle and supported by a nest of sand. Two more nests were ready and waiting for their deliveries. Luna was unlike any dragon she'd ever seen, with the possible exception of the outline of the Night Fury caught against the moon one night a long time ago. With awe filling her chest, Astrid sheathed her axe on her back and took a couple steps forward, hands out, showing she wasn't planning on being a threat to the new mother dragon. "You're gorgeous," she breathed.
Luna made a chuffing sound that definitely sounded like laughter as well as laughing in her mind. "Hmmmm. I suppose. Now, Toothless, he's gorgeous. I look just like every other Light Fury."
"Is that what you're called?" Astrid took a few more steps closer as Luna settled back down on the warm rocks on her stomach, curling her legs under her like a huge cat and keeping her long, elegant wings tucked close to her body. The only thing she didn't tuck in tight was her finned tail, which she curled carefully around her first egg instead.
"Yes. And Toothless is a Night Fury. Black as a moonless sky and with a heart as big as the ocean. You'll like him too, I'm sure."
"I'm sure, too," Astrid said, taking the last couple steps to the edge of the glowing rock, which she didn't dare step on, not willing to burn her feet, even with leather boots on. "Anyone who takes time to watch over Hiccup is definitely going to be a friend of mine. Thank you for letting me be here for this."
The white dragoness smiled at her, no question, showing her a large mouth currently devoid of teeth. "Oh, I don't mind. I like the company. Normally, all the females in my herd would be here as support for my first egg laying, but there's only Toothless and I now, and he's off playing watch-dragon to your mate. He'd much rather do that than endure my bad mood."
Astrid recalled the things she'd first heard Luna say in her head, as well as all the times she'd seen husbands and sons evacuate a house with all haste whenever a woman was going through childbirth or even just having a bad day and had to laugh. "I understand. Boys of any species are just cowards when it comes to female stuff."
"Exactly." And then Luna's grin turned to a grimace as another wave of pain swept through her, her entire body tensing and rippling. "The next one will be soon, I think."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere." Astrid emphasized this by sitting her soaking wet body down cross-legged on the rock, smiling gratefully at the residual warmth that warmed her backside.
"Thank you." Luna stretched her neck and rested her chin on Astrid's knee, closing her eyes in a show of trust, making the girl catch her breath in surprise.
She raised her hand slowly. "Can I…" Luna opened her eyes, inquiry in them, clear to see. Astrid gathered her courage again and finished her sentence. "Can I touch you?"
Luna nodded slightly, her eyes sliding half closed as she watched Astrid's slow approach. But then, finally, she was touching the top of the dragon's short snout and it was like a little bit of magic settled in her heart at the rightness of it. Luna rumbled out a soft sounding purr and her eyes closed all the way as Astrid explored the dragon's face with gentle fingers, up and down the front of her slickly scaled nose in between her large eyes, to up her forehead and around her… ears? "Wow," Astrid breathed reverently. "I never thought I'd be touching a dragon like this. Ever." Skinning one, maybe, but not petting one.
"I'm glad you're not skinning me," Luna chuffed teasingly, eyes slitting back open a little. (Astrid was pretty sure they were blue, below the red glow that covered everything.) "I'm afraid I wouldn't react well to that."
Astrid's hand stilled on the dragon's cheek. "I promise, I will never harm a dragon that doesn't try to hurt me first."
Luna's eyes closed and another short purr emerged just before it turned into a semi-swallowed whimper of pain. "That is an acceptable promise."
They sat in the peaceful dark for a few moments, just enjoying each other's company, when suddenly Luna tensed and shot up to her feet, her eyes looking suddenly wild and very afraid.
Astrid bounded up to hers as well, hand settling on her axe in case danger was coming. "What? What is it?!"
It took Luna way too long to answer (an eternity of breathless seconds) her gaze now far away as if she were looking right through the rock walls, but when she did, Astrid felt her heart simultaneously sink down to her toes as well as lodge in her throat. "Hiccup did something stupid. Toothless did something stupider. Then Toothless had to burn off Hiccup's lower leg to save him from worse pain and now they're both hurting and in trouble and…" Luna flinched. Hard. "And now Hiccup's sire just cut off a piece of Toothless' tail and he can't fly! Great Dragon, help them!"
Astrid swayed on her feet, feeling faint. This. This is why Hiccup is never going anywhere without me ever again!
Luna exhaled loudly, drawing Astrid's attention, and meeting her blurry (Why is everything blurry?) gaze with eyes shining with hope now instead of flat with fear. "Someone's saved them! A Stormcutter and Hiccup's mother, apparently."
Astrid sat back down in a graceless heap as her legs gave out with relief and further shock. Luna basically did the same. "Oh, thank Thor," the girl gasped out through lungs that hurt from not breathing. "When Hiccup gets back, I'm so killing him for being an idiot."
"Same. But Toothless, I mean," Luna huffed with a burst of heat that Astrid frankly welcomed, her body starting to shiver from cold and the adrenaline crash. The glowing rock floor was starting to look very inviting.
Then the poor dragoness winced as her pregnant body made itself known again and Astrid boldly reached over to stroke her neck soothingly. "Don't worry. We'll get you through this and then we'll be waiting for our boys to come home with a few surprises waiting for them."
Luna turned her head and licked Astrid's hand. "Yes, we will, my friend."