5. Recovery
The sound of war drums sent a thrill through the hearts of those who heard them. The sound of their own hearts joined the rhythmic beat of the drums, a truly thunderous symphony.
Two sets of blue eyes glared at one another across their battlefield. Fingers twitched near their chosen weapons. This was it. The final round. They were going to give it everything they had.
"I won't lose to you, Whiskers."
"Like you're going to beat me, Cami."
"... is this really necessary you guys?"
"Yup!/Yup!"
Hicca's unimpressed frown told anyone and everyone who saw how she felt as she sat beside Astrid, who was nursing a flagon of mead, likely used to cope with the insanity of their two friends.
"You can't throttle them, Astrid. Don't do it," Hicca heard Astrid whisper to herself. "You can't kill them."
Seated across from the blonde and brunette, Norulf and Camicazi stared one another down with the brightest of grins etched across their faces. Down by their feet, each teen nudged a burlap sack by their feet, bearing all of the . Astrid merely shook her head while sipping on her mead. Hicca's head thumped on the table as she sighed.
"Every time they meet, this happens," Hicca lamented.
"And we suffer for it," Astrid supplied.
Hicca raised her head and eyed the vikings who had gathered within the Great Hall, conversing with one another, catching up with old friends and sharing stories of new adventures. They were about to lose some shit and they won't even know what hit 'em. She would pity them, but she was saving that pity for herself.
Bam!
If she didn't know what was going to happen, Hicca would have been surprised by Norulf's sudden actions. He had slammed a wooden flagon, one attached to a metal cup. A... drinking prosthetic?
"Oi!" The surprised cry rang out from across the hall. "Where'd my drink go?!"
Ah. Gobber's drinking prosthetic.
"Che!" Cami scoffed. "Stealing from Gobber is like stealing from a child." The blonde teen slammed a battle axe blade first into the table. "Phlegma's axe."
Bam!
"Stoick's hammer!"
Shling!
"Hadrid's sword!"
Bam!
"Phlegma's shield!"
Hicca and Astrid tuned out the incessant noise coming from the competing blonds. A "who could steal more shit without getting caught" competition is dangerous for everyone involved, especially when one is stealing from vikings. Norulf and Cami can get away with it because they somehow manage to remember who they stole what from and return the stolen items to their owners.
If it wasn't so annoying to deal with, it would've been impressive.
"I still don't understand how they can do this. Stealing from someone's belongings is one thing, but to steal it without them realizing the item on their person is missing? That's just…" Astrid shook her head, obviously confused by the pair.
"Insane?"
"Insane."
"That's the easy stuff," they heard Cami gloat. "Time for the real prizes!"
"I couldn't have said it better myself!"
Bam!
"Stoick's briefs!"
Astrid and Hicca's eyes widened. They stared at the offending object that had ended up on the table alongside other personal paraphernalia. To their horror, Norulf rose to meet Cami's challenge.
"Bertha's bindings!"
The two girls blushed madly as their male friend slammed down a ridiculously large set of breast bindings. Ones so big, they knew only one person out of both their tribes who could use the set of linen, giving validation to Norulf's claim.
"How…?" Both girls muttered quietly. Their eyes darted over to the chieftess, who appeared to be oblivious to the sudden freedom her girls were experiencing.
"Hicca's bindings."
Hicca couldn't stop the squeak that left her throat even if she tried. When she reached up to her chest, she could attest to the blonde thief's claims. Those really were her bindings. The same ones she had been wearing not five minutes earlier.
"Astrid's-"
Bam!
The aforementioned girl slammed her fist directly onto Norulf's head, sending him nose first into the table. With red cheeks and an annoyed huff, she took her personal effects back from the spiky haired idiot. All the while, Cami cackled away, witnessing her opponent's demise.
"You were saying, Whiskers?"
Norulf couldn't respond. He wasn't exactly conscious to do so.
"Was that… necessary, Astrid?" Hicca muttered as her friend sat down beside her.
"It's the least that he deserves," Astrid huffed. "Pervert."
The two watched as Cami rolled Norulf's head back, holding a finger up against his nose.
"He's still breathing, but he's out cold." Cami flashed Astrid a thumbs up, all too reminiscent of their knocked out friend. "Good shit, blondie."
Hicca said nothing as she glared at the blonde thief, taking back her chest bindings in silence. Was it humiliating to retrieve such a personal object from a thief in broad daylight? Absolutely. Thankfully, only Astrid and Cami were there to really witness the event. She was already the black sheep. She didn't need to be considered indecent as well.
"How have you two been?" Cami asked while she laid Norulf's head down on the table. Her fingers stayed tangled within his golden locks, slowly massaging his scalp like she would pet a cat.
"Fine," Hicca hissed through clenched teeth. Her possessive streak was kicking in.
"We've just started dragon training," Astrid answered, only raising an eyebrow at the rather intimate action.
"Cool! And how has Whiskers been doing? Still looking out for you, Princess?"
Hicca frowned and crossed her arms. Just because it was true doesn't mean she had to point it out.
"That's a 'yes,'" teased Cami. "What about you, Twinkle Toes? Still keeping him in line?"
"Of course," Astrid huffed. "Will you stop calling me that stupid name?"
"Ha! Fat chance." Cami poked at Norulf's cheek. "Wow. He's really knocked out. Thought he'd be up and about already."
"Are you sure you didn't use too much force, Astrid?" Hicca whispered, looking at Norulf with visible worry.
"He survived a Nightmare, he could survive my wrath," Astrid huffed, blowing at the bangs of hair that hung over her left eye.
"I don't know about that. I think I'll take the Nightmare over you."
"Wait wait wait," Cami interrupted as Astrid gave Hicca the stink eye. "Whiskers faced a Nightmare?" There was a visible gleam of excitement in her eyes. "How'd that go? Did he kill it?!"
"Yea, Hicca. How'd that go?" Astrid got her revenge against the brunette for her earlier words.
"I hate you," Hicca muttered, resigned to her fate as Cami pestered her for details.
x-x-x-x-x
A bite of blistering cold tore through the Isle of Berk, a howling gale that left Stoick on edge. There was something on the wind, something he couldn't pinpoint, but it was there. That was why he was here, on this isolated hill, one that overlooked the village much like his own abode.
"Ya know, if ye were anyone else, I woulda thought you'd gone mad," Gobber helpfully supplied beside him.
"Hm. There is something here, Gobber. The wind feels… wrong."
A quick rap of his knuckles upon the wood door, which sounded more like cannonfire than it did a knock, he was granted entry by a couple of wooden taps from within the house.
"Elder Gothi," the massive man greeted, taking off his helmet. "We have come for your guidance."
The old, shriveled woman frowned at him. She too had felt the strange stirrings within the wind. The presence of the chieftain was more than enough to confirm what she felt. The wind and the chill it brought came far too soon for winter. Either there was an early winter storm coming or winter will be harsher than usual.
Neither option was good for the village.
Hobbling away, Gothi reached for a special cup which held a series of bones, etched with runes and pictograms, denoting their use in scrying. With a shake and a toss, Stoick and Gobber waited with quiet anticipation as the elder read the runes that lay upon the bones. How she knew what the bones read, or what these ancient runes even meant, was beyond them. A serious frown furrowed the old woman's lips as she wrote a series of runes upon the patch of sand in the room with her cane.
"What is she saying, Gobber?"
"There… is… a chicken - ow! - dragon, dragon. Sorry. There is a dragon who… claims to be a doctor?"
Gothi didn't appreciate his jabs at her handwriting, slamming the bottom of her cane into his only foot.
"Ow! What?! That's what ye wrote!" Gothi glared at him and pointed at the runes again. "Oh, never mind. That's a mountain, not a doctor."
Stoick kept the snort to himself. How his friend managed to (mis)read Gothi's scribbles is always a source of entertainment. What he'd read though, left Stoick concerned. A dragon who has claimed a mountain? Was it responsible for the cold wind? Would that even be possible?
An… ice dragon?
That was preposterous!
"Elder. Are you sure?" The old woman nodded, looking far more serious than he had ever seen her. "Is it something we could deal with?"
Fighting dragons was not a problem. The adults of The Hairy Hooligans were more than prepared for a fight against any dragon on land. It would be the terrain that would mean the difference between victory and defeat. Fighting a dragon in the village and its surroundings give the vikings the home field advantage. The sky torches provide light and the relatively narrow streets prevent dragons from surrounding the viking.
Up in the mountains, hunting an ice dragon - still just as ludicrous as when he'd first thought of the idea - with no idea about its abilities, behaviour and territory? That was not a risk he could take. Although it bore less risk than hunting for the nest out in the misted waters of Helheim's Gate, those ships are necessary for the continuation of their livelihood. If they don't find that nest soon, it could mean the death of his tribe.
A single ice dragon claiming one of Berk's mountains as its own? An acceptable loss. The mountains held little value for the vikings as the metals they mine come from the lower mountains within the range, digging beneath the earth for the ore they require. All of the ice they use comes from the glacier that feeds into the ocean.
"Will it be a danger to us, Gothi?"
When she gazed back at him with uncertainty, Stoick's frown deepened. Ambiguity of an unknown, one so close to their home at that, was not good. If it is a threat, he would not hesitate to remove it, no matter how many men and women it took. If it wasn't, however, those lives that would be lost hunting it would all be in vain.
Sometimes, he really hated being chief. Now was one of those times.
x-x-x-x-x
"Hey, so I uhh I noticed that The Dragon Manual didn't have anything on Night Furies," Hicca started as she looked up at Gobber from within the Arena. "Is there another book? A sequel? A tiny pamphlet?"
Okay, so maybe that last one was pushing it a bit.
Hicca's eye contact with Gobber, the lazy, irresponsible teacher, was broken when a hand pulled her aside. Not a moment later, a blast of searing heat forced her to close her eyes and duck her head on instinct. When she opened them again, she noticed a patch of smoking, glowing wood next to her head, right where she had been not a few moments ago. Reflexively, she searched for the source of the burn.
It didn't take her long to find it.
Perched up on a wooden wall, one of the many erected by Gobber to act as a maze within the Arena, was a dragon. Its large, bird-like head was adorned with a crown of golden spikes, standing out from its bright blue scales and the gray stone and dark wood of their surroundings. She couldn't maintain eye contact with the creature as the same hand that had saved her before latched onto hers and pulled her away.
"Thank you, Norulf," Gobber shouted. "Hicca. Focus! Yer not even trying! Today is all about attack! Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter!"
Lighter than a Nadder? Boom. Done. Piece of cake.
Quicker? Eh. That wasn't gonna happen.
Hicca kept her gaze behind them as Norulf pulled her away, searching for that unmistakable crown of spikes. They'd lost it.
A series of whistles pierced through the air, followed by a distinct yell, one she could identify as Fishlegs. Ah. Looks like he found it.
Or it found him
"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" the boy yelled.
"Look fer its blind spot. Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike!" Not a second later, Norulf told the amputee exactly what he thought about his plan.
"Easier said than done, meathead!"
"Yer problem, not mine."
Pfft. Some teacher he is.
"GO GET 'EM WHISKERS!" Hicca frowned as Cami cheered for her crush. "SHOW THAT DRAGON WHO'S BOSS!"
It was likely her yelling was irritating the dragon - it was certainly irritating her - but bringing it up to the blonde wouldn't really accomplish anything.
"You alright, Hicca?"
Damn him and damn that concerned look. Her thundering heart slowed down a tad as she looked up at him. Those blue eyes peered down at her in concern as his hand picked away a smoldering wood chip in her hair.
"I am so fucking kissing you when I get the chance."
"Yea. I'm fine," she shyly responded, smiling up at him.
Their tender moment - it was tender for her, okay? - was interrupted by a distressed yell from the twins. A loud, crackling whoosh could be heard beneath their voices, signifying the dragon's fire breath.
Well, Tuff did say he wanted "some serious burns." Too bad they'll be the ones listening to Tuff whining about them while they healed.
"Come on, Hicca. You can't use the 'hiding is survival' argument this time," Norulf smirked.
"Cheeky bastard," she thought.
She couldn't do anything about it, however, as Norulf dragged her along with only her shield in hand. Her gladius lay strapped to her waist. It wasn't like she was gonna get any use out of the thing. She was still too clumsy to properly fight… anything.
By the Aesir, that is such an embarrassing thought.
The pair came to a stop alongside Astrid and Snotlout as the two blonds shared a look. Astrid tilted her head towards the path that lay ahead, remaining hidden behind the wooden palisade. Norulf nodded.
Oh, she was his best friend, but Astrid could talk to him with just a look?
Hicca shook her head, pushing those thoughts away with a shake. Petty thoughts could be saved for later, when they're not being chased by an angry, fire-breathing bird. As if her thoughts summoned the creature, she could hear a series of chirps and clicks coming from the path Astrid had gestured towards. Those chirps were awfully close.
And coming closer still.
Norulf took her hand once again - guilty pleasure - and guided her away from the dragon. She was rather surprised by how quiet he is. Her loudmouthed friend, someone who seemed incapable of stealth, was perhaps, the quietest, most stealthy individual on the island. She and Astrid had found that out the other day.
How did he steal Astrid's bindings that easily?
"Well, he could steal my…" Annnd that train of thought stops right there. Nope. Not the time for it.
A loud, hollow clang echoed from the path they'd just left. Snotlout's voice came after with a strange squawking, mocking noise.
"The sun was in my eyes, Astrid!"
That hollow clang was soon followed by a series of thuds, similar to the sound of rolling thunder. She could even feel the vibrations rumbling through the soles of her feet. It didn't even take a second for her to figure out what was going on: the palisades were falling like dominoes.
And they were in the way.
Just behind the wall to their left, they could hear a series of loud footsteps, far too loud to be human, running towards the wall. She didn't have to see it to know what was going to happen. Neither did Norulf.
Their feet carried them on a mad dash against time. And by time, she meant tumbling walls of wood and metal. Already, she was choking and coughing as the collapsing walls kicked up dust and debris. Their journey, however, came to an end when the wall in front of them started collapsing, far ahead of the domino effect behind them.
"Norulf!"
A panicking, wide-eyed Astrid leapt off the top of the wall as the Nadder swooped after her. The dragon's momentum, however, carried it up and over the trio, crashing into another series of walls with cries of pain.
Astrid, with her smaller size and lower speed, dropped like a rock. Her axe found its way into Norulf's shield while her flailing arms clotheslined the two best friends, sending them sprawling onto the ground. In the tangle of limbs that followed, Hicca will forever hold the event against Astrid.
"Kya~!"
"Gah!"
"Oof!"
"Oooh! Love on the battlefield!"
"She could do bett… actually, I don't think she could do better. Huh."
Astrid scrambled to get up and off of the pair, panting and wheezing in the wake of the collapse. Her bleary eyes were clouded by dust and the pain of falling onto a human body. Thankfully, he broke her fall or she might have broken something. With adrenaline pumping in her veins, her head snapped up to the nearest source of noise: the Nadder. Its journey had ended abruptly when it crashed into a cluster of walls, trapping the beast beneath their combined weight. That didn't last long though. Even as she tried to wrench her axe from Norulf's shield, the dazed dragon was already clawing its way out of the rubble.
"Come on!"
Mentally noting to apologize later, Astrid pressed her foot against the stunned blond's head and pushed, wrenching Norulf's shield off of his arm. With the axe still embedded into the blade, Astrid had no choice but to swing the weapon as an impromptu club, smashing the shield to chips of wood and metal as it crashed against the charging dragon's chin. The injured dragon whimpered and squawked, shaking its head as it wandered off, back to the safety of its cage and away from the feisty girl and her battle axe.
"Norulf!"
Panting breathlessly as her body fought the aftereffects of her adrenaline rush, Astrid turned around to the sound of Hicca's distressed voice. The girl's hands cupped Norulf's cheeks as he lay unresponsive.
A small crimson pool slowly oozed its way across the stone floor.
Oh Thor.
Astrid swallowed down the urge to throw up as she dropped her axe. Her feet carried her over to his side as the other teens clambered around them. Just as the blade of her axe crashed against the stone floor, he started to seize. Every muscle in his body tensed and relaxed in quick succession despite his lack of control.
"Gobber!" Hicca cried. "We need to get him to Gothi!" The stomp-clack of Gobber's footsteps pulled the girls' attention away from the injured teen.
"Fishlegs! Carry him! The rest of ye, clean up!"
The burly man hobbled alongside Fishlegs as the teen carried Norulf in his arms, careful to not jostle him any more than necessary. Hicca and Astrid ran after them with obvious concern. Cami joined them not a second later, her cheerful face now set in an angered frown.
"Gothi! We need yer help!"
x-x-x-x-x
Norulf gave her a nervous grin as she crossed her arms beneath her bust, obviously unimpressed by what happened.
"Are you just out to make me worry?"
Instinctively, his head reached for the back of his head and ruffled his blond hair.
"S-Sorry."
From the sound that escaped his lips, Norulf and his perverted valkyrie froze.
"Wh-what did you just say?" Her eyes were wide as she approached him, holding his face in her hands.
"Sorry?"
He didn't get to say anything more as her lips found his. From the brief glimpse of her face and the wetness that he felt against his cheeks, he could tell that she was crying. But why?
Her tongue tenderly caressed his lips before pulling away. Her tears have yet to cease.
"You can talk to me again."
The longing he heard in her voice pulled at his heart, a pain so deep that he had to stop himself from clutching at his chest. Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears and adoration and she pulled him into her chest, still crying softly.
"You can talk again." His arms settled around her waist as he held her, blushing crimson as his head rested on top of her breasts. "I've missed hearing you. I've missed speaking with you."
Norulf held her as she cried, ignoring how good it felt to hold her. It just felt right, like a missing piece of himself was found.
"I'm sorry. I don't know why I couldn't talk with you before," he mumbled into her chest, the vibrations sending pleasant shivers down her spine, but she held herself back from jumping his bones right then and there.
"It doesn't matter." She wiped away at her tears, smiling down at him. "You can do it now."
Any questions he had were put on hold as the taller woman kissed him again, but the kiss was a lot more heated than the previous one. Through it, he could feel her want, her longing and a pain he didn't understand. Before he knew what was happening, she had already pinned him down to the ground - a grassy knoll, he realized - and ravaged his mouth with impunity. She only pulled away once her desires were sated, planting her rear onto his lap.
"Do all valkyries do this with their charge?" he whispered, still breathless.
"Valkyrie? I am a lot better than those virgins, Naruto." She straddled him with a teasing smile.
"Why do you call me that?" Norulf frowned.
"Because it's your name," she whispered, her fox ears twitching ever so slightly. Her fiery tails swayed happily behind her. "It was your very first name. It's the name I've been calling you ever since."
"My first… name?"
x-x-x-x-x
Norulf snapped into consciousness with a pained gasp, his chest heaving as he was pulled away from the woman who haunted his dreams. The pungent smell of a poultice and the thick, viscous material on his upper lip left him dizzy, but also told him everything he needed to know about where he was.
"Gothi," he said softly, still trying to find his voice. When he spoke, it came out rough and calloused. His eyes caught several movements around him as the cobwebs in his mind cleared.
"Norulf!"
The voice of his best friend broke through the fog with ease. He looked up, still out of it, and was pushed back into his bed as a worried Hicca climbed onto his chest.
"You're awake!"
A weight settled onto the furs of the cot where he lay, drawing his attention. Dark blonde hair and blue eyes. He knew two girls with that color. Neither of them wore that morose expression. Nor did they have such heavy bags under their eyes.
"Astrid? What's wrong?" he whispered. His hand reached out to touch her forearm. When she jerked it away with an expression that bordered on panic, something was definitely wrong.
"I-" The girl looked like she was about to book it when his hand reached out and latched onto her arm with a strength he didn't know he had.
"Astrid. Shhh." With one hand brushing Hicca's hair, Norulf kept a vice grip on Astrid's wrist. "Talk to me." He kept his voice low, afraid that anything louder than Hicca's sniffles would make the girl run from him.
For quite some time, she sat there, looking at him with the most frightened expression he had ever seen on her face. He was afraid that she would bolt given half the chance, but thankfully, he saw Gobber standing in the doorway with Gothi. Thankfully, they kept quiet, watching the events unfold with way too much interest.
"I almost killed you." The strangled whisper that came left her lips was nearly missed by everyone present. Her words drew a whimper from the girl on his chest.
"But you didn't," he whispered.
"Norulf. You stopped breathing," she hissed.
"I'm awake." Shifting himself, he sat up with ease, almost like Hicca wasn't latched onto his chest. He didn't notice however, his eyes still locked onto Astrid's. "I'm alive."
He slid his hand down to hers and guided it to his chest, directly on his heart. All the while, he could see how afraid she was. It looked like she was seconds away from having her third panic attack that night. Her palm settled against the flat plane of his chest. Through the fabric of the tunic, she could feel his heart pumping away, keeping his precious blood in his veins and not smeared on the cold stone of the Arena.
He could see the conflict on her face. Her sense of relief fighting with the fear that she felt. She had even stopped breathing the moment her palm settled against his chest.
"Astrid," he whispered. "Come here."
He didn't know if she did it because she wanted to or because of his words. Either way, her head came to rest against his chest, her ear pressed up against his tunic while her arms wrapped around him with a feather-light touch.
"I'm okay, Astrid," he reassured her.
His arm wrapped themselves around the girls. Hicca was still crying softly into his tunic clutching at his shirt much like the time he'd woke up after his fight with the sounds of Gobber and Gothi starting a fire was ignored by the trio as the girls basked in his recovery.
Norulf looked out of the room's only window. With the shutters closed, there was only a minute amount of light coming through. Even then, he could tell that it was night time. So what were the girls still doing here? Shouldn't they be back in their homes already? Hicca, he could understand, but Astrid?
"H-How long was I out for? A few hours?"
"No," Hicca looked up at him, her green eyes filled with both relief and trepidation. "Norulf. You've been out for a week." His eyes widened. He had never been out for that long. Ever! "And you stopped breathing during the fourth day. You had the worst fever Gothi had ever seen before in her life."
Norulf took his eyes away from the girl in his right arm to look up at the elder, searching for a sign of confirmation. When he received it, everything became a lot more clear. That was why the girls were so distraught. They thought he would recover in a few hours or a day at most, when he'd taken over a week to do so.
"A fever?"
"Astrid was the one looking over you that day," Hicca muttered as she settled herself back against him. "You were heating up the bed and sweating until you soaked your shirt through. We had to cool you down but it took so much ice."
Her petite fists clenched at his shirt. Astrid, by this time, had already fallen asleep. She snuggled deep into his chest, keeping her head above his heart.
"We… we thought we'd lost you when you stopped breathing," Hicca whispered. "You scared us, Norulf."
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
Their eyes closed as they leaned in. Their lips didn't meet, however, as they rested their foreheads against each other. Their noses rested side by side, their cheeks almost touching.
"You're all I have, Norulf," she whispered. He wanted to dispute her but he knew she needed this. "I thought you would heal from the wound. I didn't think you would start… seizing." Her tears were flowing once again. "I thought I was going to lose you. I didn't know what I would've done if I did." Her fists clenched tightly again. Even through his shirt, he could feel her nails digging against him. "Why is it always you? Why are you always the one in danger while I stand by and watch?"
The two sat in silence, holding one another while Astrid lay asleep next to Norulf, clutching at his shirt. What could he do?
This time, Hicca made the first move.
When she angled her head ever so slightly, their lips met in a light, yet electrifying kiss. They stayed like that for several minutes, their lips slowly moving in a cautious, but relentless dance of emotions. The kiss ended when Hicca pulled away, her forehead pressed against his again.
"I love you," she whispered, her voice breaking with unrestrained emotions. "I know you don't feel the same way, but if this keeps up, I don't think I will get the chance to tell you." Her tears were flowing faster than ever now. "Please. Just let me stay like this. Just for tonight. You won't ever have to talk to me aga- mm!"
This time, it was Norulf who kissed her, sealing her lips with his in a long, deep kiss that made her toes curl and her aching heart leap with joy. His hand pressed itself against the small of her back. Hicca arched herself against its weight, pressing her chest against his.
(Un)fortunately, Norulf ended the kiss before it could get any further than that. Hicca whimpered as their lips separated, coming back in for more when Norulf's hand on her hip held her in place. Her green eyes searched his face for any sign as to why they stopped.
"Astrid," he whispered. Hicca's eyes sharpened and glared at him, her cheeks flushed from the kiss and what he'd said.
"You're kissing me and thinking about her?" Freyja, what a way to ruin the fucking mood!
"She's laying on me, Hicca."
The anger and jealousy she felt was stymied as she glanced over to her side. True enough, the sleep deprived girl had her head resting against Norulf's chest, directly over his heart. Much like her, Astrid's fist was bunched in Norulf's shirt.
"Bitch," she hissed.
Norulf's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline as Hicca's gaze turned back to him. She didn't say anything more as she settled against him, her head nestled in the crook of his neck.
"Lay down," the usually meek girl commanded.
"... do I have a say in this?"
"What do you think?"
"Yes?" Norulf argued against her even as he leaned back onto the bed.
"Funny. Now sleep. You can tell your jokes in the morning."
x-x-x-x-x
Norulf expected a lot of things when he woke up the next morning. Like continuing the conversation he had with Hicca and reassuring Astrid that he was really okay. What he didn't expect to see were four burly vikings - five if you count Gothi - crammed into the tiny hut, speaking in hushed tones. Except Gothi, of course. Can't speak in hushed tones if you can't speak, period.
Stoick was probably checking in on him.
Gobber was probably here to help translate for Gothi.
Gothi was taking care of him, so her presence was understandable.
His mom was probably here to check on him. Or to lecture him. Depends on her mood.
That left Bjørn, a brown haired and bearded viking he'd seen around the village before. Of course he knew who he was. Norulf is friends with his daughter, after all.
So what in the world was Astrid's dad doing here?
With that big mystery in the way, Norulf kept quiet as he listened in on their conversation. Time was on his side. They didn't know he was awake yet.
"Mmm. Norulf~."
Well, he would've had more time to figure out what they were talking about if Hicca didn't just moan and mention him in the same sentence. As one, the five adults turned and faced the cot with an array of expressions.
Stoick seemed… stoic. Big shock.
Gobber, his mom and Gothi looked like they just won Thawfest five years in a row.
Bjørn looked like he was trying to imitate a Nightmare. Man needs to breathe or he's gonna pass out. Is it healthy to have that much blood in your head?
"Norulf. We have things to discuss."
Somehow, that sounded really ominous.
That was when he realized there was a secondary weight on his chest, on the side not occupied by Hicca. Looking down, Norulf could feel his stomach sink as Astrid's grip around him tightened and buried her face deeper into his chest.
"Um… this isn't what it looks like?"
There was a slim chance that he'll get out of this alive without both fathers putting him through the blood eagle.
"Mmm. Deeper, Norulf~."
Never mind.
