Author's Note: Chapter Nineteen! WOO! I can't believe this story is almost finished! =D But like the chapter title says...IT'S NOT OVER YET! XD
I hope you enjoy chapter nineteen! =D
Chapter Nineteen: It's Not Over Yet
The Riders left immediately when dawn arrived. Hiccup made sure that every last ingredient was inside the saddlebag, and the young viking even triple checked just in case. The Dragon Riders mounted their dragons and left the island they had been resting on and flew toward the direction of Berk.
It had been a rough couple days for them all, and Hiccup was excited that they all had managed to gather everything without anyone getting sick. Hiccup knew that by the time they reached Berk, thought that they would probably catch the virus since they had been exposed to it long enough.
The Isle of Berk came into view, and Hiccup noticed that it looked darker than before. The Dragon Riders landed quickly, and Hiccup grabbed the bag that contained the ingredients for the cure and ran to the Great Hall with the other Riders in tow. Hiccup saw Gothi standing outside with Gobber, trying to tell him something through her runes, but the blacksmith couldn't make out anything.
"Ah...could you repeat that again?" he said. Gothi took pleasure in whacking him across the head with her staff. When she saw Hiccup and the Riders, she somewhat brightened.
"Hiccup! You're all back!" Gobber said. Hiccup made it to the top of the stairs and panted.
"We...got...everything…" he said between breaths. He held up the bag that contained the ingredients for the cure and Goth took it out of his hands and quickly walked inside. Snotlout snorted.
"Not even a thank you?" he said. "We risked our butts for that stuff!"
"How is everyone?" asked Astrid.
Gobber shook his head. "We were about to lose hope until you arrived just now. No lives were lost, thank the gods."
Hiccup let out a breath. "Thank Thor...I thought some would be gone by now." His face turned into a worried one. "How's Dad?"
"The Inyitis hit him out of nowhere," said Gobber. "But, he's doing better than most of the vikings in the Hall quarantining."
Hiccup nodded, but he still felt anxious for his dad. Astrid laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, we got the cure. Everything's going to be okay," the Hofferson reassured. Hiccup bit his lower lip and nodded, then turned to the others.
"We should probably go," said Hiccup. "We have a long night ahead of us and—-"
Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Snotlout suddenly began to cough raucously. Hiccup's eyes widened and he and Astrid stepped away from them.
"AH! I'M SICK!" screamed Snotlout. Hookfang's eyes widened and the Monstrous Nightmare flew away from him almost instantaneously after the Jorgeson coughed. Snotlout was shocked.
"Where's the loyalty for your rider?!" he shouted at the dragon. Hookfang didn't come back.
"You guys should go inside," said Astrid as she and Hiccup began to walk down the stairs. "Gothi's making the cure and she'll be able to give it to you."
"But what about you? You've been exposed!" said Ruffnut.
"We'll just stay at our houses for a while," said Hiccup. "We'll see you later."
Hiccup and Astrid first stopped at Ruffnut and Tuffnut's house to drop off their dragons before heading back to their own places. Hiccup said goodbye to Astrid and he and Toothless made their way home. Hiccup opened the door and stepped inside, realizing how much he missed being back at home. The young viking threw off his armor and flopped onto the couch. Toothless laid his head on his lap and Hiccup patted the Night Fury's head.
"We did it, Bud," said Hiccup. "Everyone's gonna be just fine."
Toothless crooned and then left Hiccup's lap to dig into the fish baskets. Hiccup laughed.
"Okay, okay, we can eat something," said Hiccup. "It has been a while since we last ate."
Hiccup gave Toothless a basket of assorted fish and for himself he made a soup. Hiccup watched as Toothless consumed the entire basket in just a matter of seconds, and Hiccup couldn't help but laugh when the Night Fury got the basket stuck onto his head as he tried to look for more.
"Dad's right, you're gonna have to go on a diet soon if you don't stop eating so much,"said Hiccup teasingly. Toothless couldn't see Hiccup, but Hiccup felt that the black dragon was giving him a deadpan expression.
Hiccup pulled the basket off of Toothless' head and the Night Fury pounced on him for payback. Hiccup shielded his face with his arms as Toothless batted at his face playfully. Hiccup pushed Toothless' paws away.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" cried Hiccup.
Toothless continued to stare at him. Hiccup sighed and stood up, bowing down to Toothless.
"Oh, almighty Night Fury! The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, please forgive me!" said Hiccup dramatically. Toothless seemed satisfied and licked his rider across the face. Hiccup groaned.
"Great. Now I'll be taking two baths tonight," said Hiccup. Toothless gave him a look that said, "You deserved it."
Hiccup rolled his eyes and since the sun was already setting, decided to start getting ready to turn in. The young viking did end up taking two baths much to Toothless' amusement. The moon was round and full, and Hiccup decided to work on Dragonfly before going to bed.
Hiccup showed the new and improved flight suit to Toothless. "What do you think, Bud?"
Toothless grumbled in a way that sounded like, "It looks like a death trap like the other previous ones."
Hiccup shook his head. "Come on, Toothless. This one is much safer, I promise! It's not like I'll fly into a sea stack or something while flying it."
Toothless rolled his eyes. His human clearly didn't know the difference between flying and flying to your death. Hiccup placed the flight suit in the closet and wrote down a few notes on his paper. After he was done, he picked up a book and sat down, leaning against Toothless. The Night Fury looked at his human, wondering what he was going to read tonight. Toothless did enjoy a story every once in a while as long as it didn't involve violence toward dragons and addressed a Night Fury by its full title.
"Sorry, Bud. But this book isn't a storybook," said Hiccup. Toothless shrugged and watched his Rider as he read anyway. The dragon was surprised that it was a book about chiefting. Toothless grunted, asking in dragonese why his rider was reading the book if he didn't want to become chief.
Hiccup wasn't fluent in dragonese, but the auburn haired boy always seemed to understand dragons even if he didn't know their language. Hiccup sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know, Bud. I just feel like my time is coming soon. Not too soon, but soon enough that I need to start preparing." Hiccup bit his lower lip. "I guess I just want to be ready when that time comes."
Toothless nodded understandingly, and gave his rider an affectionate nuzzle before laying his head in his paws and falling asleep. Hiccup continued to read his book until the words on the page began to blend. Hiccup yawned and set the book aside, feeling too tired to get up and place it back on the shelf. The young viking leaned into Toothless' warm scales, and was lulled to sleep by the steady beat of his dragon's heart.
…
The next morning, Hiccup woke to a knocking at his door. He shook off the remaining traces of sleep and he and Toothless made their way to the door. Hiccup opened the door and squinted his eyes at the sudden bright light from the sun, but could still make out Astrid' smiling, ecstatic face.
"Morning, Astrid," said Hiccup. "What brings you here?"
"It worked! The cure worked!" said Astrid cheerfully. "Everyone still feels pretty sick, so they'll have to stay in the Great Hall for a few more days to recover, but other than that, the Inyitis is gone!"
Hiccup smiled. "That's great!"
Astrid nodded, her blonde braid bobbing boisterously with her head. "Yep! I came over to see how you were doing. You looked exhausted the other day."
"I'm doing pretty good," said Hiccup. He stepped aside to let his betrothed enter and he shut the door behind them. "I still can't believe that we won."
Astrid shrugged and took a seat. "We always do."
Hiccup cracked a smile and sat down across from her. "So...do you want anything? Water?"
Astrid shook her head. "I'm good." She watched with bemused eyes as Toothless circled a part of the room multiple times. "Uh...is Toothless okay?"
Hiccup rolled his eyes. "The overgrown reptile is just upset that I hid the extra fish from him."
Toothless snapped his head toward Hiccup's direction with a frown on his face. The Night Fury grumbled and continued to sniff the floorboards for traces of a fishy scent so he could track down the hidden baskets.
"Don't even think about it, Bud," said Hiccup. Toothless rolled his eyes and then whined pathetically and laid on the ground in a pount. Astrid laughed.
"You can always come to my house and share a basket of fish with Stormfly," the blonde said. Toothless perked up, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he smiled at her.
Hiccup squawked in protest. "Hey!"
Astrid smiled impishly at her betrothed. "Sorry, but we can't have a moody Night Fury when we go on flights."
"I guess you have a point there," said Hiccup. Then he turned to Toothless. "But seriously, you need to cut back on the Haddock, Toothless."
Toothless snorted at him and joined the two at the table. Astrid gave the Night Fury a scratch under his chin and Toothless purred.
"So, what now?" asked Astrid. "I mean, things are finally getting back to normal and—-"
Astrid was cut off by the sound of a horn from outside. Hiccup and Astrid's eyes widened as they both knew what that horn meant. Hiccup and Astrid ran outside and looked out to see.
"Please tell me that isn't Ingvar and his men," said Hiccup.
"It isn't Ingvar and his men," said Astrid. "But that's a lie."
Hiccup groaned and Toothless growled behind him.
"I know, Bud. Why can't these people just leave us alone?" said Hiccup.
Astrid grabbed an axe from inside and tossed Hiccup a sword. "We might need these." Astrid looked Hiccup over. "And you might want to change out of your pajamas."
Hiccup blushed. "Oh. Right." As he ran up the stairs to change, he could hear Astrid and Toothless giggling slightly. When Hiccup came back down, he and Astrid mounted Toothless and flew to the plaza. Hiccup wished that it was just the two of them coming back from another flight and stopping by the plaza to see the others, but it wasn't.
This was war.
