=Astrid's POV=
{Monday, March 28, 2022-12:20 pm}
(Archian Preparatory; Cafeteria)
I had to admit that I was beyond surprised to see Eret, Nadia, Camicazi, Thuggory, and Ragna show up at Haddock Manor with Dagur, Heather, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Minden. I knew I had asked Hiccup to speak with them after the school day ended, but because of the accident happening; I didn't know how things played out or what was said. And I was speechless after hearing Hiccup say that not only was he going to accept their apology and forgive them, but he let the five join our group as friends under the warning not the basically screw him again, or he would ruin their lives entirely. And the scary part about that warning is that I knew it was more of a promise; Hiccup could dig up dirt, or perhaps he already had, and destroy them with it. Hearing that threat; I had no doubts that Hiccup had something to do with Gruffnut dropping out of school. Hiccup must have figured out Gruffnut was a submissive gay and sent it around the school; that was enough to make Gruffnut run out of the lunchroom and drop out. I could only imagine what else Hiccup knew about our five newest members of the group.
The sleepover was fun, surprisingly. I didn't expect Hiccup to invite them to stay Friday night, and I honestly didn't think they would have been prepared with a bag of clothes and bathroom items already on them. I guess they got the idea to have a spare set of things after the blizzard where we got stuck at Haddock Manor for two days and had nothing. I adored Hiccup's song to Olivia; I remember when she asked Hiccup to sing it in October, but Hiccup told her it wasn't finished and he would get it done for November. Sadly; I think Olivia's cancer took a turn for the worst and Hiccup pushed the song aside, and unable to complete it before Olivia passed away. I heard Hiccup promise to finish it for November, and it didn't appear that he did, so he refused to pick it up all this time. I gathered all this just by what Gobber, Valka, Stoick, Bard, and Maeve had said to him. Hearing the song, finally; I loved it. I assumed it was meant to explain how Hiccup felt meeting Olivia and the amazing time that they did have before she died.
I think the best part for me to see was that Hiccup went from miserable to happy in the middle of the song because from what I understood later on; Hiccup had never finished the lyrics, only the music. It looked like Olivia had jumped in at some point behind Hiccup's back and wrote something in for him to use, so Hiccup sang it all, and it meant the song was finished now. It was a little moving when Hiccup looked out the window, telling Olivia that it was done, and hoped she liked it. I knew Hiccup would always love Olivia, and no matter where he went into the future; she would always have a place in his heart that no one could fill. Olivia and Hiccup fell in love and did so much in so little time. Also, Olivia gave Hiccup Runa to raise. I knew that would always be special to him, and nobody could take it away. I know that if I got a chance with Hiccup; I certainly wouldn't be upset if he had some moments of just wanting to remember her. I wish I could do more to help Hiccup heal, but unfortunately; I'm in no shape to help him through a loss when I'm going through the same.
I'm still mourning and coping with the loss of my parents, and yet; I couldn't fight my feelings for Hiccup. I know what I told him in the hospital was just over-excitement, but it wasn't. I kissed Hiccup because he has been so amazing to me since Eret, Nadia, Gruffnut, Camicazi, Ragna, and Thuggory abandoned me in December. Here we are at the end of March and so much for me has changed. I have a job, a place to live, friends, and Hiccup has been there every step of the way. I secretly liked Hiccup once, but after meeting Eret; those feelings faded. It would seem now that they never truly left, and were coming back much stronger than before. Hiccup and I have been best friends for years, but when all this happened to me; Hiccup has gone above and beyond a best friend for me, and I couldn't stop what I felt for him. I just hoped I'd get a chance to tell him one day, but I knew for now that I had some things going on, and so did he, so it wasn't the best time to be admitting feelings and possibly starting a relationship IF Hiccup felt the same way. That was the biggest thing in me telling Hiccup was that he would have to feel the same for anything to progress.
But as I said; I'm dealing with loss, and so is Hiccup. The difference is that Hiccup is mourning the loss of his wife; the woman he loved, and mother of his daughter. I knew Hiccup was far from ready to move on, so for now; things would stay just as they are. There is one other big thing that's happened, and it's something that is affecting the entire island. The dragons have gotten progressively more aggressive and violent, having a hard time training them, and in some cases; they've been attacking others and raiding as they once did before the first Dragon and Viking war was ended centuries ago in the Viking Age. Nobody understood what was going on, not even Hiccup. The island was turning to Stoick to figure out a solution, and the man wasn't sure how to handle it. People part of a group who don't think dragons belong in our world are getting together to petition the removal of dragons from our lives and suggesting to use hunters and trappers to deal with the ones who attack. So far, the motion wasn't nearly large enough to outweigh those of us who felt like something else was going on, and maybe something was wrong.
Regardless, that was a matter for Stoick and people he worked with to handle, and I guess we'd see what happened. Currently, I'm with my friends in the cafeteria for lunch hour. I had to say; it was really weird being with Heather, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Minden along with our five newest members. What we did was take two octagon-shaped tables and put them together, so now we had one slightly mis-shapen figure eight table for all thirteen of us. I can't begin to tell you how many weird looks we got for it, but I guess people would get used to it sooner or later. Not that it matters because school would be over for us in June, which was only about two months away. I know that out five new additions still had to earn my forgiveness, and I believe a few of the others too. I can't just forgive what they did to me so easily, but I could tell they were trying. However, true to the words of Heather. If someone was cool with Hiccup, and he approved; then the whole group was in agreement with him. I could see they were accepting and playing along, but not totally sold on if Eret, Nadia, Camicazi, Thuggory, and Ragna were going to stick to this better side of themselves.
I could tell Hiccup seemed to be deep in thought about a few things; he's barely said a word to anyone all of lunch. "Hiccup?" he glanced at me now. "Are you okay?
"Never better, why?" Hiccup asked.
"You've been abnormally quiet all day," I stated.
"Yeah, I noticed that too. What's up, cuz?" Snotlout inquired.
"Thinking," Hiccup said.
"About?" Ruffnut pushed.
"Yeah, come on; tell us, Hic," Tuffnut added after his twin sister.
"Trying to figure out what's going on with the dragons," Hiccup admitted.
"Yeah, this whole thing has gotten worse over time. When did it start again?" Thuggory wondered.
"A little after Christmas," Nadia replied.
"Any idea on it, Hiccup?" Minden questioned.
"Not really, no. I know untrained dragons have tendencies to resort to their instincts, but usually getting them to calm down and trust us humans isn't such a difficult task. And as of late; it's been ridiculously hard, even for me," Hiccup sighed. "The part that doesn't make sense is the already trained and bonded dragons are acting strange too,"
"What's your dad gonna do? More and more people are saying that we can't live in peace with them if this doesn't stop…" Camicazi said.
"And what happens to our dragons if they can't figure out what the cause is?" Fishlegs asked, a bit fearfully.
Hiccup closed his eyes and let out another heavy sigh. "Word at the house when I talked with Mom, Dad, and a couple of Dad's work colleagues on Sunday is that if they can't find out what's wrong; then Dad might call for dragons to be sent off the island. Also, if they insist on attacking us…We'll defend ourselves…" Hiccup looked down. "Even if that means we enter the second dragon-human war…"
The people at our table gasped, me included. "So you mean we could lose our dragons?" Eret asked quickly. Hiccup nodded once.
"What…Would happen to Toothless? He can't fly without you, Hiccup," I decided to ask because I could see how much it bothered Hiccup to think about losing his Night Fury.
"That's…Not entirely true," Hiccup said. "Toothless can fly without me with an automatic tail," Hiccup sat back now. "I made it for him once, the first Christmas we had after I bonded to him. It was a black tail fin that was able to move in sync with the right one by a series of moving gears and comfortable connect pieces on the fin he still has that's real. It let Toothless fly without me but after about four days…I went outside for our morning flight, and he had pulled out the old rig that requires me to operate…Toothless destroyed the automatic one and pushed the old rig towards me. My mom said that it appeared Toothless doesn't want just to carry me like other dragons do their riders. Toothless prefers I, in a sense, fly him; that we work together and have a stronger bond than most because of that,"
"Because you built the first dragon prosthetic to allow flight. I know dragon medics can build stuff for legs, much like a human…But you, Hiccup, created a rig with no training whatsoever to allow a dragon that was grounded to fly again," Fishlegs reminded.
Hiccup only shrugged. "After we bonded, I had to do something. I tried so many different things that failed, but finally…I got the one he has now, which has been modified a few times from the first fully finished product,"
"How did you make it anyway? I mean, it looks severely outdated compared to modern day technology of prosthetics," Ragna asked.
"That's because Toothess's rig is outdated from modern day things. The century we live didn't have what was needed to fix a dragon's flight, especially one that is missing an imperative fin. I went a bit old school with the pieces on Toothless's rig. In the sense that it's forged, and built by hand, not a machine. A rig created with leather, metal, rope, pulleys, pedals. You can't find something like that modernized. Dragon medics have tried to replicate what I did, and they've failed in every attempt over the last three or so years," Hiccup chuckled a little. "A bit satisfying that trained professionals can't do what I did at fifteen-years-old,"
"So how are we going to handle this dragon thing? I don't want to lose my dragon…" Nadia frowned.
"There isn't much I can do; I've already talked to my dad about it. And as usual; he's not listening to a word I say…" Hiccup mumbled. "I tried to argue the point with him last night that Toothless doesn't seem to be affected by whatever is going on, so whatever it is…He can't blame the dragons and use the reason they are just returning to their natural state…" he explained. "Something else is going on, and if my dad isn't going to listen to me; then I gotta figure it out quick, or not only do we lose our dragons, but we'll be at war with them too…" he added in a grave tone as we all looked at him worried. "Don't worry, guys; we won't lose our dragons…I'll personally see to it," he added.
. . .
{1:55 pm}
(A-Hall)
I met up with Minden, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Heather at the main office and Hiccup rounded the corner to join us. I noticed our five newest additions preparing to leave for their Study Hall. Hiccup watched, then moved to cut them off.
"Hey, where you five going? Dragon Training is this way," Hiccup stated, motioning with his hand.
"You said you weren't teaching us anymore," Thuggory reminded.
"I said I wouldn't teach a bunch of assholes who weren't my friends. You five are friends, so let's go; you got a lot of catching up to do. Already spoke to Mr. Meatsen about it," Hiccup remarked. "You meet here every day Monday through Friday at 2 pm, and we go to my house and train until 3 pm. And Saturdays and Sundays, you're with me all day from 9 am to 5 pm. That's the only way I can make sure you five catch up in time for Finals in May," he added. The five smiled and nodded their heads. Without another word; the thirteen of them were gone from the student lot. Astrid rode with Hiccup on Toothless with the dragons following them, and the rest were piled into cars for easier transportation to and from.
. . .
=Normal POV=
{Thursday, March 31, 2022-3 pm}
(Berk; Haddock Manor)
"Good work today, guys. Seriously," Hiccup told his friends. It was hard for Snotlout, Minden, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, Heather, or Astrid because they'd done it all over the last couple of weeks. However, it worked out because Hiccup could pair Eret, Nadia, Thuggory, Camicazi, and Ragna up with one of the others, and it helped in the long run for everyone getting to do the same thing, and learn it faster. Hiccup had a whole plan set out for how to catch them up, and he had Dagur's help too. It had been a few days since the training had started once more. After everyone left, Hiccup and Astrid would go to work, or just Hiccup would if Astrid had the day off. Hiccup wasn't working Fridays, Saturdays, or Sunday anymore because he had the training to take care of.
"Still having a sleepover tomorrow?" Eret asked.
"Every Friday unless weather or another event," Snotlout said.
"And we're staying all weekend until Sunday night, right?" Camicazi wondered.
Hiccup returned outside in his work uniform. "Yep. Pretty sure your parents don't mind, but double check anyway. It's the only way I can make sure you learn everything in time, and have time to review or ask questions for things you aren't sure on and would like to practice excusively,"
"Got it. See you tomorrow, Hiccup," Nadia waved. Hiccup whistled for Toothless, who bounded over happily. Hiccup jumped on his back and opened the tail; Toothless launched into the sky heading for the center of the island to get to work.
. . .
{1:45 am}
(Berk)
Hiccup was tired but happy to be on his way home. With him now eighteen; the Archia burger hours had changed so that they were open until 1 am. And closing the doors and leaving didn't happen until 1:30 am. Thankfully, he and Toothless were about five minutes out from landing at Haddock Manor. Suddenly, Toothless's ears perked up and began twitching around.
"Toothless, what's up bud?" Hiccup asked him. Toothless growled a bit, looking around before finally diving to whip around and veering off course from their destination. "Uh, where are we going?" Toothless make any noise in response, but he did pick up speed and was taking them West of Berk now. For nearly an hour, there was nothing but open sea until Hiccup and Toothless reached what appeared to be a wall of fog. Toothless had stopped, hovering, and stared. Hiccup inspected it.
"Why'd you bring us here, Toothless?" Hiccup asked. Toothless growled a bit, motioning inside. "Is there something in there, bud?" Toothless gave a low warble. Hiccup looked forward, narrowing his eyes. "Take us in," he stated. Toothless shot forward into the fog as Hiccup tried to adjust his eyes to see better. There were other growls, wings flapping, and more; Hiccup recognized it as other dragons. Finally, five minutes later; they broke through and saw a mass of dragons flying towards another island with a volcano. Hiccup could see the smoke spewing from the top and bits of lava coming down the sides or through small holes.
An active volcano? Thought those were extinguished for good way back in the day…This is Dragon Island and final resting place of the Red Death from centuries ago. Hiccup thought while inspecting more. Hiccup took notice of how aggressive the dragons were with one another while flying. Soon, Toothless was taking them inside a hole on the side of the mountain with another group of dragons in front and behind. After a series of turns; Toothless emerged in what appeared to be the volcano, but a set of rock formations and nothing but smoke and hear farther down where Hiccup assumed was lava. Toothless took refuge on one rock, watching closely.
There was a roar that made any dragons inside fall silent. Hiccup watched as a Gronckle flew in and stopped over the hole to scratch the back of its head. Suddenly, a massive head shot up as Hiccup's eyes widened. "No…No; it can't be…" Hiccup breathed out. A massive beast with three pairs of eyes; it bit the Gronckle down in one bite. Hiccup knew exactly what this thing was, and why the dragons were acting so oddly. This dragon was the Viking Legend, The Red Death. The dragon sniffed the air, turning its attention to Hiccup and Toothless. "O-Okay, time to go Toothless!" Hiccup panicked. The creature made a snap for them, and Toothless bolted. However, escaping would not be easy as there was a flurry of dragons trying to get out to avoid being eaten. Red Death was right on them, blocking exits out and shooting her fire. Hiccup only prayed that he and Toothless could evade and get out before either of them were seriously injured or ended up dead.
. . .
{Friday, April 1st, 2022-4:30 am}
(Berk; Haddock Manor)
"I'm worried, Stoick…" Valka expressed as she, Gobber, Stoick, and Astrid were all sitting in the Great Room, waiting up for Hiccup to get home.
"I am too, Val. But what would you like me to do? Hiccup wouldn't answer at work, nor is he on the cell," Stoick said. Finally, Toothless's roar was heard as they quickly rose and looked outside after flipping the lights on. Toothless landed in the backyard, and it was a hard one which accidentally threw Hiccup off as he landed hard and rolled to a stop almost.
"Hiccup!" Astrid said with worry.
"Laddie! Are ya alright?" Gobber asked as they rushed to get to Hiccup. Hiccup tried to push himself up, coughing hard.
"Where in Thor's name have you been!?" Stoick demanded. "It's almost five in the morning!"
"Stoick, stop," Valka demanded. "Son, what's wrong?" Hiccup panted, trying to catch his breath, but it was too much, and he passed out. Stoick and Gobber caught him, but Hiccup didn't wake up despite the many attempts to awaken him with soft shaking and pleas.
"Val, call an ambulance!" Stoick told her. Valka nodded grabbing her phone and making the call. By 4:45 am; Hiccup was being transported to Archia General Hospital with Valka. Gobber, Stoick, Runa, and Astrid took Stoick's truck to follow. The only thing any of them could wonder was why Hiccup was home so late, and why he was ranting, seeming afraid then passed out. The four adults were hoping that the hospital could offer more answers, and if not that; then they would have to wait for Hiccup to wake up.
