Because I LOVE ME SOME HICCSTRID ANGST. Also thanks for reviews and favs! I'm honestly super thankful to anyone who takes the time to make it through this, even if it absolutely ruined your day. Part 1 because I messed up and made this much longer than it needed to be.

The weight of fear had been crushing Astrid's chest ever since Hiccup had been shot down. Now, though, with each passing moment of no signal from the rider or his dragon, the weight was crippling. She could barely breathe from the constriction over her chest, terrified that her own dynastic ambition had put him in harm's way. The scene playing in vivid detail of the arrow piercing his frame repeated, mockingly. She tried to hit the pause just as he slipped off the crafted saddle of his dragon and plummeted towards the earth.

"Come on, girl, we gotta find them!" Diving into a cluster of trees, Stormfly landed with two skidding hops, her eyes darting about for their friends. The dragon screeched in a desperate call for their companions. It had just been a normal scouting mission. Inhaling deeply, the young woman pressed her fingers to her temples, willing herself to calm down and muster forth her skills. Her anxiety still bubbling over visibly, Astrid surveyed the grassy floor, and then the trees, "Focus. Show me tracks, broken branches... anything" Stormfly had sprinted off into the brush, taking a different approach to covering more ground.

All reason was leaving her, in spite of her efforts to concentrate.

"Astrid?" A soft, strained voice reached her. She whirled, hand instinctively flying to her weapon. At seeing the lanky Viking with his flaming sword drawn defensively, relief blossomed.

"Hiccup!" Shoulders releasing the built tension with her gasp, Astrid placed a hand on her chest, "Oh thank Thor." Beneath the sheen of perspiration on his forehead, Hiccup blanched, failing miserably at taking a single step forward. Toothless growled despairingly, shifting quickly to support his rider. Weapon extinguishing and falling to the ground, the male slid forward on Toothless. He felt arms wrap around him and gingerly lower him to the floor, preventing an inevitable harsh impact.

"The arrow. I think it was poisoned." And not with dragonroot. His revelation was a bare whisper. The deep gash in his side, where the arrow had ripped through a weak point in his armor, radiated with an intense sting. Stormfly and Toothless hovered nervously nearby. The dragon rider's consciousness was a candle guttering in the encroaching blackness, light flickering in and out of existence, threatening to be extinguished entirely.

"No no no…. It's going to be okay, we'll get you back to the Edge." They had a variety of herbs available to them, and might have been able to devise something of a solution. Though, in her experience with poison, one needed the original agent to create a cure. "You have to stand up…" She coaxed, wrapping her arm around his waist and pulling him up.

"I can't… feel my leg." It took every ounce of effort to keep his voice even, faltering only a moment. Internally apologizing, Astrid hoisted him up, heart wrenching tightly at his pained cry.

"Here, Stormfly." The dragon attempted to lower herself as much as possible for both riders to safely climb on.

"He'll die before he makes it to your outpost." It was a voice that Astrid most certainly did not want to hear right now. She protectively held onto Hiccup, incapable of reaching her weapon. Fortunately, Stormfly reacted in her stead. The nadder shrieked in sheer discontent before swinging its deadly tail. Sharp spines were flung at a blinding speed towards the nearby huntress.

Aqua ducked and boldly swept her hand into the barrage of spikes. Stormfly growled at seeing the woman holding one of the poisonous spines between her fingers, careful not to cut herself. With frightening accuracy, she threw it back at the party. Reflecting her own attack, the deadly nadder hissed irritably, "Okay if you're done with that, you might want to listen to me."

"We're not listening to anything you have to say. To be honest, we really don't have time for you today." Astrid snapped frostily.

"Then he dies." She shrugged, sliding her right foot behind her and pivoting away "With the antidote solution being like ten paces away from you." Rolling her eyes, Aqua knew she had seized the viking's consideration.

"Are you… seriously offering to help?" Weakly placing a hand on the blue hued scales of the dragon to keep himself upright, Hiccup wearily looked from one woman to the other.

"I thought that was kind of clear." She said haltingly, wondering just how delirious the both of them were.

"What the catch, huh? What're you playing at?" Astrid sneered, causing the night fury to deepen his defensive stance with a huff to accompany her interrogation. Teeth visible as a growl vibrated his upper lip; Toothless felt a brutal blast of violet flame stirring in his core.

"Uh. No catch." Aqua's expression began to exude annoyance, like she was speaking to incompetent children. "I don't have any orders to maim or cripple you today." Justified the huntress. Unwilling to question the skewedness of her moral compass, the riders exchanged glances with one another.

"Then what are you orders?"

"None of your business."

"Uughh, Yes fine, FINE. If you have the antidote, I'll take it." Astrid impatiently demanded.

"Never said I had it. All of the ingredients are on this island." She rolled her shoulders, keeping her voice a soft drone, "It won't take me long to create it though. There's a cave east of here. Take refuge there and I'll return before sundown." Before the blonde Viking could go off on a whole tirade about the act of earning trust, and what a horrendous job she had done to gain it, her companion began to cough violently.

"Hiccup." She called soothingly, trying to reorient him.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." The man repeated over and over a few times for assurance, his voice cracking with each reiteration.

"Shhh. shh" She lightly caressed Hiccup's clammy cheek. Faced with a serious dilemma, Astrid swallowed thickly. Trusting the huntress was ill advised. "I'm coming with you." It was the only way to ensure her cooperation, and a swift demise, were she to stray.

"Are you joking, or are you just stupid?" Flames might as well have sparked in the viking's eyes, "He's wounded—unless a night fury and a nadder can stop the bleeding, stitch that up, fetch him water, and attend to basic comforts to keep him alive?"

Her teeth were grinding as she watched the huntress hurry off to complete her task. It was at that moment Toothless reacted, shooting into the air and landing so harshly that the earth quaked next to their enemy. The dragon snorted indignantly, opting to keep an eye on the distrustful human in Astrid's place. If anything happened to his rider, the night fury would be the first to roast her alive.

"Really?" Unfazed, Aqua bore her gaze into Toothless. "You're going to leave a Night Fury." Her unnerving gray-blue eyes flickered to the Vikings. "The Night Fury." She emphasized, "With me. A dragon hunter." Enunciation present in each letter, Aqua let it sink into their thick skulls.

"Don't get cocky—Toothless can handle you." Bolstering the dragon's cleverness, Astrid nodded knowingly, trusting Toothless would do everything in his power to save Hiccup.

"Incredible." Aqua made a face, obviously not expecting the extra company, but adjusted nonetheless. Having a dragon breathing down her neck definitely gave a whole new definition to "grace under fire".

0_0_0

Empty echoes of dripping water bounced around every dark crevice of the cave Aqua had mentioned. At least one part had been true, but Astrid Hofferson wasn't one to be careless. After gently leaning her injured companion against a sturdy, flat stone near the entrance, she requested that Stormfly remain on guard at the cavern opening. Meanwhile, she ventured to the very back of the hollow to confirm that there weren't any nasty traps lurking in their temporary refuge.

Bandaging his wound didn't take long, even with her hands trembling as she secured the wrap. Vigilantly, the deadly nadder patrolled along the outside perimeter, sensing that they were not the only souls dwelling on the island. Her wings unfurled and ruffled like a bird before she jerked her spiked head to listen for any discrepancies in the air.

Struggling to speak as an unforgiving shiver sent his body into a spasm, Hiccup muffled a grunt in his throat. He twisted his body to channel the pain, fighting to regain control of his consciousness. "I'm here." Something warm wrapped gently around his hand and squeezed. "Hang in there, alright, we'll get through this together." Her presence offered a measure of comfort that allowed a brief reprieve from the burning sensation dominating his entire torso. "You and I—we've been through way worse."

"Toothless…" He didn't recognize his voice, so hoarse that a dry choke was all he was rewarded for his effort.

"He'll be back soon." Astrid injected as much conviction as she could gather into her answer, despite the dire circumstances.

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