Chapter 16: Taking Too Long

This chapter is going to be twice as long since I couldn't find a good stopping point. But after not having a new chapter in almost a month, I'm sure that you guys don't mind.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Balto or How to Train your Dragon. They both belong to their respective owners and this is just for fun, NOT for profit.

(Snotlout POV)

It took half a week of back and forth mushing almost non-stop paid off when we got to the trading town of Bob-Burglar. We were halfway back when Dad made a suggestion that even had me hesitate.

"Uh, dad? You're veering a little too much to the south."

"I know son. I got a tip back in Bob-Burglar. He said there is a blizzard coming from the way that we came. So, I'm hoping that we can dodge the bulk of it by going around. And we'll be fine so long as we keep going west, stay close to the river, and then the coast."

"I don't know about this tip. We need to get back as soon as possible."

"And that's just what I'm trying to do, boyo. If we do run into a blizzard, we run the chance of getting turned around and getting lost. It least this was we'll know that there's a clear path."

He moved his scarf to cover his mouth, so I dropped the conversation. But I couldn't shake this weird feeling that we should stay on course.

(Hiccup POV)

Two weeks.

I know Dad said that it would have a little more than a week to for the antitoxin to get here. We got a telegraph from Bob Burglar more than a week ago reporting that Spitlout & Snotlout picked up the medicine. Whether they took a detour or taking their time since the arrived ahead of schedule, we should have seen or heard from them since.

I know if I'm stressed about this, people whose relatives are actually affected definitely feels worse. Speaking of which, I was getting close to noon and got somewhere to be. Since the outbreak, the second to last trial for Wolf Training has been pushed back from the lack of enthusiasm from the whole town. Also, with the outbreak, Astrid had to resort to the cooking for herself since both of her parents were.

No one should be subject to that.

So, I've been helping her out by inviting her to the house for meals and make a little something for her when she's too stubborn to come over. I had just finished making a fresh pot of garlic chicken stew and packed a couple of thermoses of it in my satchel since she didn't come by yesterday. As I trudged through the ever-present snow, and you could feel dismay in the air without looking at anyone. With almost half of the town bedridden the streets were more scarce than usual. When I got the Astrid's house, I knocked a couple of times before going in.

"Hello? Astrid?"

I looked around the living room and kitchen until I found a note on the dining table.

To: Hiccup

Went to the Qugax Tanaa

Will be back by before noon.

'Must have gotten lost in prayer.'

I left one of the thermoses at her house and made my way into the woods toward the Qugax Tanaa. As I got closer to the site, I could hear a rhythmic thuds like something getting hit. When I got to the clearing the torches on the posts were already lit, someone have to have been by recently. There was no one inside or outside the hut, but I could still hear the thuds from earlier. Since they sounded closer, I went to take a look.

Sure enough, it was Astrid swinging her axe against the tugamixtal log (*1). Legend says that it's a self-healing log post positioned north of the Qugax Tanaa, that if you're able to cut it in half you'll can be granted eternal luck and that legends still stands to this day. Especially since no matter how many nicks Astrid put in the damn thing, it hasn't gotten the slightest crack in it.

"You know there are easier ways of cutting that thing?"

"You know as well as I do that nothing, but a real blade can even put a nick in this thing." She said as she heaved another swing.

"You know it's past noon, right?"

"Just give me a few more swings."

"Oh, of course. Just a couple more swings ought to do it."

"It just might."

I sat at the trunk of a tree until Astrid had enough. When she did, I poured a cup of the stew from the other thermos that I had.

"Any luck."

"Just a couple of nicks, but it's like they disappear as soon as I make them."

"What else is new?"

"I don't know I just thought..." She let out a sigh and drank some of the stew before continuing. "The anti-toxin is late. The clinic is starting to run low on painkiller for everyone that's ill. Their condition is getting in worst. I thought if there was any time to have 'eternal luck', now would be the best time." She took another gulp of the stew before turning to face me. "What else can we do?"

"Hey, hey." I scooted a little closer and pat her shoulder. "We just need to keep having faith, if not in the Louts then in the Spirits."

"Aghhh! Maybe it's just the balance of things." she said as pour herself some more stew. "Aside from the wolves, everything was just peachy."

"I don't know about that, but I'm sure everything is going to work itself out." I, although hesitantly, gave a side hug.

"Thanks, Agitaadaan. And you know what? If push comes to shove, we can always look for them ourselves with my sled dogs."

"That's the spirit."

"Wait, I just realized. Have you eaten anything yet?"

"No, I was too busy looking for you."

"Well here. I'm going to try a few more swings and maybe you can help be with it."

She poured some of the stew into the cup and handed it to me. We took turns swing at the log post and eating stew until the thermos was empty and the sky was starting to turn orange. Like the last few days, I invited Astrid to my house for more stew with my dad and me and she accepts. We walked back in peaceful silence, but that peace left when my house came into sight and saw the door creaked open. When we got to the door, we heard choked hacking and couldn't open it fully. It took both of us to push the door only to find the house empty initially. We did a quick look around and found the hacking was my Dad coughing and curled up against the door.

"He must have tried to get to the door before the was coughing so much that he couldn't breathe." Astrid pointed out

"We have to get him to the clinic" I said as I grabbed one of his arms.

Astrid's grabbed his other arm and we both heaved as we dragged him to the clinic. It wasn't quite dark yet, so people were still out and around and dragging someone is bound to attract some attention. However, dragging an unconscious mayor (or chief) toward the clinic will definitely attract everyone's attention. By the time we got him there, we had a crowd of people crowding behind us and bombarding us with questions. We were thankfully spared of them when we were given face masks and got Dad to the backroom with the rest of the patients. He was laid out on one of the many cushioned mats since all the beds were taken and reserved for the oldest and youngest inflicted. It didn't take long for the doctor to verify that it was the outbreak.

Before I could even think out getting him, Gobber came from the lobby and he was alone. I don't know how he found her, but he brought Gothi. He pulled Astrid and me aside so that the short, old but firm women can examine him. She lit some kind of incense in a clay dish and bring toward Dad.

"What do you think that you're doing?" one of the nurses moved stop her, but Gobber stopped them.

"You leave her be. She knows what she's doing."

"But that smoke-"

"Isn't going to make things any worse than it already is."

"How did you even find her?" I asked

"Found her? Ha. She found me before I heard about Stoick. Something about the Spirits let her that it was time to come."

I turned back to Gothi to see her weaved the light-yellow smoke toward Dad's face. When he inhaled it, his coughing eased briefly and exhaled in a deep purple colored smoke. She repeated the process every patient in there with each of them responding to the yellow smoke by breathing out different colors that ranged from blue to purple. When she finished, she came to us and spoke.

"Chidgix dimil ataqan nidilix akiital asxaasal. Aangsum dimil lax ataqan nidilix akiital asxaasal. (*2)"

In an instant, Astrid, Gobber, and I all froze and almost stopped breathing.

"What did she just say?" the doctor broke Gobber out of shock first. "I thought I heard 'asxaasal' and even I know that's not good."

" This is a bit of a rough translation, but she said, 'Blue smoke one week until death. Purple smoke less one week until death.'."

"Txin. Inaqang agil (*3)"

"What did she say this time?"

"She said that she's sorry that she couldn't do more. I'll be back each evening to give the patients some incense. My guess is that it should give them some relief since we are running low on painkillers." He moved to leave.

"Wait, Gobber where are you-?" Astrid tried to question him.

"Stoick's out of commission and Spitlout is still out getting the anti-toxin. That leaves me in charge and I'll need to tell the growing crowd of people about the situation. You two should go get some rest."

He patted us on the shoulder and looked at us with saddened eyes before going out. We took a few minutes before leaving. Both to wait for the crowd to clear and to spend as much time with our bedridden parents.

"You know" I muttered loud enough for Astrid to hear. "whenever I though I would see my Dad down like this it would be because a wolf. What a way to go, huh?"

"Hey, don't say that." I moved to sit next to me. "It's like you said with my parents, everything will sort itself out."

"That was before we had a diagnosis from Gothi. You tell me one instance when Gothi's prediction has been off."

"Umm..."

"Right. I pray to the Spirits that that damn Anti-toxin gets here already."

When we were shooed out by the nurses, we walked home in silent, but one much heavier than before. Before we split off, Astrid grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a hug. And this time I hugged back without hesitation.

"Are you going to be alright?" her hair tickled my head as she spoke.

"I'll be fine."

"That's what I said two weeks ago. The first night was the hardest."

"Maybe one night wouldn't hurt."

We walked to my house and immediately cleared all of my Dad's things so that they can be cleaned & disinfected tomorrow. The showering situation was bit awkward at first, but we settled by me going first while Astrid started a fire then her turn while I reheated the stew from earlier. Astrid tried to lighten the with small talk, but we mostly eat in silence.

While Astrid cleaned the plates, I went to get some extra furs and spread them on the floor up in the loft. When I was getting settled in, Astrid came up and looked at me like I grew a third head.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm taking the floor so that you can have the bed."

"But it's you're bed."

"What descent guy wouldn't let the lady have the bed while he sleep on the floor."

"Well, I'm not letting you sleep on the floor."

"I wouldn't get you either and we can't both fit on the bed without touching..."

"... Well I guess, we're both going to be on the floor."

She spread out some of the furs on a clear part floor in front of the firepit until there were two bundles. It felt rude if I turned away from her, but it also felt too awkward to face her in this position. So, I settle on my back and tried to calm my racing anxiety from the most recent events. By the time I felt myself dozing off, I subtly felt hand cover and grip around mine. I peeked over to see Astrid looking away from me, that couldn't be enough to hide her smile.

(*1) tugamixtal = to strike several times. This is BS, I have no idea if such a log exists in Atkan Aleut lore.

(*2) chidgix = green or blue; aangsum = berry; dimil = smoke; ataqan = one, single, one & the same; lax = less?; nidilix = week; akiital = until, as far as; asxaasal = death

(*3) txin = sorry; inaqang = I myself; agil = stay; angaliq = afternoon

So... Was that last part weird? I felt like it can come off as weird. Originally, I have Hiccup just go home alone, but I realized that this was another chance to have a Hiccstrid moment. Looking back on it now, it felt a little shoehorned in and didn't give the same spark in me like the prior scene.

Other Atkan Aleut Translations used:

- Qugax = assistant spirit; Tanaa = place

- Agitaadaan = friend

Thanks for all those that reviewed, every little bit helps. If you're new to the story, please let me know what you think with a review. Constructive criticism is accepted, but no flames please. And don't be too shy to check out some of my other stories.