Chapter 2
Berk was ever so slowly returning to a semblance of normality, mostly out of necessity; Gobber was back doing blacksmithing work, though his mood seemed particularly sour, Stoick did his chiefly duties, in spite of the insistence of some of the villagers that he should take a few days to just grieve and get it out of his system. Most of the village was back to doing what they usually did, outwardly nobody would be able to suspect a thing, though for the locals the heavy atmosphere was still very much tangible.
Astrid woke up in her bed and sat up, looking through the cracks in her windows shutters only to find it was already morning. She let out a disappointed sigh whilst rubbing her eyes, paying attention to use her right hand rather than her left. Astrid's injuries were healing slowly, but she still felt a stinging pain whenever she touched the burns that now covered most of her left arm. She held out her most injured hand in her lap and shakily flexed her fingers; she wished to make sure she didn't lose feeling in that hand even though she was well aware that that was mostly out of her control now.
After sitting in bed with slumped shoulders for another quarter of an hour the young Viking got up and readied herself for the day ahead of her; nothing unusual was happening, but ever since the arena incident every day seemed like a struggle to her, her warrior instincts told her to make the best of it and see it as another foe to overcome, yet her heart just couldn't really bear the thought. Frankly the only redeeming quality of the day was that she would finally start learning to fly with Toothless, though without Hiccup there to give her guidance it was going to be a lot of trial and error… well, mostly error. Her train of thought was rather rudely interrupted by her growling stomach, indicating she needed food first and foremost. She made her way out of her room and went downstairs to greet her parents and hopefully get a bite to eat. Once there she found her mother currently stitching up a slightly ripped tunic, though her father was nowhere to be found. "Good morning, mom… where's dad?" Astrid inquired, her voice somewhat more quiet than usual
"He is already out for the day, dear. I would have woken you up earlier but you seemed so exhausted I couldn't bring myself to do it" her mother Hilda said with a soft smile. She motioned to the dining table "I prepared you some breakfast, you must be hungry"
On the table sat a hot bowl of honeyed gruel with a bit of bread on the side, it was nothing fancy by any means, but it was not unpleasant and would provide Astrid with enough nutrition to last her most of the day, though she would likely go out to the great hall to have some lunch or dinner later.
"Thank you" Said Astrid with a faint smile, her mother's concern was a nice change of pace from all the upset and mental turmoil she had been experiencing. The blonde sat down, picked up her spoon and began eating whilst idly watching her mother work.
Once she had sufficiently filled her stomach Astrid stood up from the dinner table and went out the door, saying her goodbyes to her mother as she left the hut. Once outside she found the Berkians hard at work preparing for winter, some were busy fixing up some of the huts that were damaged in the last dragon raid, others were hauling carts and baskets of fish, grain or other foodstuffs toward the storehouse, and others still worked on their own trade, carpenters were making furniture, Gobber was busy in the forge, hammering away at some weapon or other, even the reclusive healer Gothi was out and about, presumably stocking up healing plants and such for the harsh winter months. Were it not for the depressing mood and the upset facial expressions, Astrid would have been certain the events of a few days prior were entirely forgotten… Strangely it relieved her to see that they were very much still fresh in everyone's memory. The young Viking ended up wandering for a short while, though she quickly found herself in front of the village forge, perhaps the rhythmic clanging of his hammer attracted her in some way.
Astrid found herself watching the gruff smith work for a few moments, considering whether she should approach him to strike up a conversation, gods know he may need the distraction. Gobber's face was stoic, almost emotionlessly so, though that was likely an attempt to hide the grief he held inside of him. Having made up her mind she stepped closer and spoke up, "Hey Gobber… busy day?" she started, seemingly she didn't really consider how to start the conversation which meant that was the best she could come up with in the moment.
"Aye, very… The weeks b'fore winter are always busy, but normally I'd have… help…" he replied with his typical and rather charming brogue, and while he tried to keep his tone positive his voice nearly cracked at the mention of his usually having help.
"Right… I'd offer to help if-" Said Astrid before being interrupted by Gobber,
"Don't you even think of that, lass, ye're injured… speaking of, how are your arms?"
"Honestly? Painful, but it could be much worse…" responded Astrid as her gaze unwittingly drifted down toward Gobber's artificial limbs.
"Aye… it can always be worse…" The tone in the smith's voice held no more attempt to hide his sadness, frankly he was surprising himself with his ability to keep his composure like that. A long uncomfortable moment of silence followed until the blonde Viking spoke up once more "When I'm back to full health could you teach me to take care of my weapons? Since you're on your own, I'd rather not be a burden… or you could even take me as your apprentice" She offered, hoping to learn some skills that could help her later in life.
"Teach you how to fix yer weapons, that I can do… but I don't think I want to take another apprentice just yet" Gobber's shoulders slouched heavily at that, he sighed and wiped some sweat from his brow before taking the hot piece of metal he was working on and quenching it in the water bucket he had close by. Steam rose from the water as a sizzling sound filled the room.
"… I understand, thank you." Astrid said with a genuine looking but ultimately fake smile, she wished to ask him about how he felt, how he was. But strangely she couldn't bring it up, something within her prevented her from doing so. "I will see you later then" she added awkwardly before turning around and leaving for the village proper once more. Gobber nodded and continued working.
Once Astrid returned to the town's centre she simply spent the day helping people with different tasks. Due to the recent events there would be no more dragon training until further notice, and as such she didn't exactly have many duties of her own, her chores at home were rather limited due to her usually exemplary behaviour, so she was normally left to her own devices with plenty of free time, time which she usually would have spent either training and honing her skills or helping out around the village with whatever needed doing.
Much to her surprise working in preparation of winter kept her distracted enough that the day went by in a flash and once the afternoon came to an end and evening took its place Astrid headed toward the great hall, hoping to get a good bite to eat before meeting with Toothless. Slowly and awkwardly pushing the door open she made her way inside and went to get a plate of whatever the women in charge had cooked up for the evening, it appeared to be some smoked salmon with a slice of bread and a side of various vegetables. With her plate in hand she then sat down at an unoccupied table, her lips quirked into a very faint, yet almost grim smile as she realized just how much like Hiccup she had become, just like him she sat alone at the table, and just like him she increasingly felt like she didn't belong, the weight of everything she knew weighing heavily on her, but there was more to it than just that… Astrid felt angry and hateful, both to the villagers who now thought fondly of Hiccup as though none of their past transgressions mattered anymore, and more importantly at the likes of Stoick, she couldn't bear to look the man in the eyes any longer for fear she would strike him for his perceived wrongdoings.
As she was midway through her meal, chewing on some bread, the other teens arrived and joined her with their own plates once they noticed that Astrid was in a better mood than the last time they saw one another. Much to Astrid's surprise, the timid and rotund Fishlegs was the first to address her. "Hello Astrid" he said with a somewhat cheerful tone, likely trying to lighten the mood.
"Hey 'Legs… how are you?" Astrid inquired politely, looking up from her plate at him.
"U-uhm, not too bad really… I mean winter is nearly there but considering recent events I'd say I'm doing alright…" he stammered in response, it seems he was nervous to bring up the topic of Hiccup and was trying his hardest to tread lightly.
"That's good" she responded briefly, taking a sip of water from her cup, she then glanced over toward Snotlout, who was trying to break up a fight between the twins. Not because he was being a good person, but rather because he sat between the pair and they annoyed the ever living Hel out of him. Once he noticed Astrid looking toward him he huffed indignantly, turned away and crossed his arms. "What's his problem?..." Asked Astrid, motioning toward the Jorgensen boy whilst desperately resisting the urge to beat him up, if she was honest with herself her blaming him turned into blind hate the more she thought about the situation.
"He thinks you've become "unobtainable" because of your … "Love" for… for Hiccup" Fishlegs explained with hesitance, using gratuitous air-quotes to both get the point across that he didn't believe that and to avoid getting punched in the shoulder like Astrid was so fond of doing. The mere mention of the boy was enough to bring back the fresh and painful memories, with both her wounds and her stomach began aching mildly.
"That muttonhead could never have "obtained" me anyway…" she spat, shaking her head, to which Fishlegs just nodded whilst taking a bite of fish.
As soon as the blonde had finished her meal she stood up and left the great hall without another word to her peers she returned home to grab her things before rushing into the forest where she would find a lazy Night Fury enjoying the last few rays of sunlight to nap. The sleeping dragon looked restless however; he was constantly moving and twitching in his sleep, if Astrid had to guess she would assume it was a nightmare. The shield-maiden slowly approached him after discarding her gear and went to lay a gentle hand onto his head; the contact first caused the jet black beast to stiffen until he felt her hand fondly stroking his head. A few moments later Toothless would wake up and look around sleepily until his gaze crossed with Astrid's who was smiling at him. "Hello Dragon~" she said with a soft voice, Toothless sat up and warbled at her, lightly tilting his head to the side. "I was thinking… I should learn how to fly with you, what do you th-INK?!" Astrid's words were cut short by Toothless practically pouncing on the blonde, knocking her flat onto her back; his pupils were dilated widely from apparent excitement. A hiss of pain escaped Astrid's mouth as she had hit her injured arm against the hard rocky ground of the cove, Toothless had seemingly taken notice of her pain and gotten off her, his excited demeanor switching into something more of a guilty expression, he crooned quietly, almost as if asking for forgiveness. "I-it's not your fault… you just forgot" Said Astrid while picking herself back up from the floor and fixing her now dusty clothing. Rubbing her bandaged wrist she walked toward Toothless' saddle, inspecting every part of it carefully in an attempt to understand it to the best of her abilities. "We will need to work hard… and I need to take it slowly to figure it out, so we'll stay on land for now, ok?" she explained, the Fury huffed disappointedly while padding closer to her and sitting down, waiting for his saddle to be strapped onto him. Whilst looking over the piece Astrid noticed the technical intricacy in the design, the stitching on the leather was excellent and the design of the mechanism connecting the foot pedal to Toothless' tailfin was complicated but elegant, and likely the simplest Hiccup could make it with the means he had available.
With a quiet huff Astrid hoisted the leather saddle up and laid it against Toothless' back, she firmly fastened the straps, petting the beast once she was done. "It suits you" she quipped, to which the dragon simply sat with an air of pride. The blonde moved toward his flank and promptly climbed onto the Night Fury's back, the dragon in question was of course rather obedient in allowing her to do so, he had no reason to resist, he wished to be back in the air just as much as she wished to learn. Astrid slowly eased herself into the saddle, letting her feet slip into the pedals whilst her hands went to lightly grip the handlebars that Hiccup had built into the rim. "Ok now… nice and easy." Astrid said quietly, her tone just barely above a whisper. She looked behind herself as her foot swayed back and forth in an attempt to get a feel for how her movements affected Toothless' prosthetic. The dragon crooned and started walking around the cove with Astrid on his back. "So far so good…" she commented, though her mind went somewhere entirely different "I've never even learned to ride a horse and here I am riding a bloody dragon!" she thought, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips, "Let's try it a bit faster, ok Toothless?" The dragon took off into a slow run, mindful of his new and inexperienced rider. He let out a pleased sound upon hearing his own name; it had been the first time she consciously referred to him as anything other than "Dragon". The added speed would make Astrid grip onto the bars somewhat tighter, though just enough to not fall off, she couldn't firmly grip anything with her injured hand yet and she didn't wish to injure herself further.
The pair's first training session would end after around an hour or so, after which Astrid simply removed the dragon's saddle, setting it aside. The blonde sat with her side against Toothless' where they simply enjoyed the last few moments of daytime. "I can only stay for a few more minutes" Astrid announced with a sleepy yawn as she sank further against the beasts coal black scales, it wouldn't be long until Astrid was fast asleep, propped up in a sitting position by nothing more than a watchful Night Fury. Sometime later the sleeping girl would grow tense and restless, mumbling unintelligible things under her breath and gripping onto Toothless tightly, and after a few instants she became positively agitated until she finally jerked awake in a panic and sat up straight as an arrow, her eyes shooting wide open, "HICCUP DON'T!" she screamed. Astrid was panting lightly, her shoulders drooping as she realized what had just occurred; she wiped the sweat that formed on her forehead off using her sleeve and looked at a concerned dragon, his green eyes giving off a pleasant and calming glow. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself then lowered his head and rubbed his muzzle against her stomach. The blonde responded to the touch by embracing him fondly, laying her head against his. "I'm sorry if I woke you… I just had a… nightmare". It slowly dawned on her that she had fallen asleep, and more importantly that she should have been home hours ago judging by the position of the moon. "Thor damnit!, no no…" she uttered as she sprung to her feet, grabbing her bag and rushing toward the cove's entrance after giving her new partner a last few affectionate pats on the head. "I'll be back tomorrow, promise!"
Astrid snuck back into the village, a few Vikings were posted up as sentries to warn of dragon raids, but they were luckily facing the opposite way, toward the coast. She stealthily made her way back toward the Hofferson hut and pushed open the door as quietly as possible whilst also ignoring the weight that lay on her shoulders every time she recalled her recent nightmare, it was like a twisted memory of Hiccup's death, she hoped the night terrors would subside after a while, though there certainly was no guarantee that she would ever have peaceful nights again. She stalked up the stairs, mindful of each and every one of her movements. Of course that proved troublesome as it was pitch black in the hut, her parents must have gone to sleep already, lucky her… she made her way to her bedroom without breaking her neck on the stairs and entered, laying her bag down on the floor and stripping off her boots and day clothes. She climbed into bed, letting the warmth of her blanket envelop her as she drifted off again into a fortunately dreamless sleep.
Unbeknownst to Astrid her trusty axe was meanwhile still laying in Toothless' cove, seemingly forgotten by all.
Morning over Berk, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the mood seemed to slowly but steadily improve again. "Where is it? It has to be here somewhere!" Astrid exclaimed whilst turning her room upside down in search for her weapon. Admitting defeat she slumped back onto her bed and let out a sigh "the gods hate me…" She certainly realized she was being somewhat dramatic, but it really hardly mattered to her at all in that moment. After cleaning up the mess she'd made and getting dressed Astrid made her way downstairs to face the day. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs she spotted her father waiting for her. "There ye are, lass" Bjorn, her father, said.
"Hey dad" She said with a fake but convincing smile, "What's up?"
"I wanted to go see Gobber to get my axe fixed, if you want I can take yours to him too" he announced, patting the battered axe that hung from his hip.
"N-no!" Astrid replied almost too quickly, she turned somewhat paler than before. Bjorn raised his brow in surprise and confusion.
"An' why not? I thought yer always wanted it to be in tip top shape" he questioned, noticing how his daughter grew increasingly ill at ease with the turn the conversation has taken "or is there something yer not tellin' me?" he added,
"N-no of course not… I-I just wanted to learn to take care of my own things better since Gobber is alone now…" she explained, breathing a silent sigh of relief and praising herself for having come up with that on the spot, while it was fundamentally true she wouldn't have minded if her weapon wasn't lying next to a Thor-damned Night Fury. Bjorn simply shrugged in response,
"Alright then" he says with a still somewhat confused tone whilst heading toward the door. He stopped as he put his hand onto the handle. "B'fore I forget, Gothi said ya should go see 'er today about yer wounds"
"Will do, dad."
"Be safe, my little Valkyrie" he said with a smile as he exited the Hofferson homestead. Astrid groaned to herself, she desperately hated lying to anyone, her parents most of all. As her father used her old nickname the blonde felt more and more ill, perhaps she could bring it up with Gothi and see if she has a solution for the girl's predicament.
Astrid left the house and headed up the hill toward Gothi's little hut right away, she took a good look at Berk while climbing the stairs, you could say what you wanted about the healers hut, but the view was simply stunning. Once in front of the door she took a shallow breath and knocked with her right hand. "Gothi? It's me, Astrid… My father said you wanted to see me" she explained to the door, which opened a few moments later. The smell of herbs, plants and other things flooded her nose once more, though one smell stood out among others, inside of a large black kettle, Gothi appeared to have been preparing some sort of medicine, Astrid knew it was medicine against fevers and colds, something the healer always stocked up on during the weeks prior to the real winters beginning. The mute elder motioned for Astrid to sit on the bed, who quickly complied. Gothi softly gripped onto her forearms before beginning to remove the bandages. The little woman then reached for one of her healing salves, the same one she had used during Astrid's first visit, she realized and swiftly smeared it all over her wounds, though using less of it than last time. Astrid watched her work and also inspected her wounds, from what she saw they were healing quite nicely, even if it was going to leave nasty scarring. Before the blonde even realized it Gothi had then skillfully replaced her bandages and was looking up at her expectantly. Astrid flexed her fingers and moved her arm a little bit before nodding, confirming that the healer did a good job.
"Gothi… I have another problem…" she sighed, looking down at her feet "Ever since the arena I keep feeling ill, like I have an upset stomach or something…" she added, Gothi stepped closer, moved Astrid's hands out of the way and began poking and touching the shield-maidens stomach, she furrowed her brow and moved her head in closer still, laying an ear against her tunic, listening for… something. After a minute of examination she came to a conclusion and shook her head. She reached for her staff and started scribbling something on the floor in an attempt to get the point across. "No illness, just… briefs?" Astrid attempted to read before being lightly bonked on the head by Gothi's staff "Ow! Grief, Grief… right" she then continued reading "Grief and Heartache, it will fade with time, but never really disappear fully…" the girl sighed and slumped her shoulders in defeat. She was tempted to empty her heart out to the elder, to tell her that she had fallen head over heels for the chief's late son, she knew she wouldn't tell anybody… but it felt wrong. She desperately wanted to tell somebody, anybody, about how she felt. But nobody she knew would not judge her for it… Hiccup's death was tragic, certainly, but it didn't change the fact that he was considered a failure to most of the village.
Looking out the window Astrid wondered what would have happened had he lived… knowing Hiccup he likely would have managed to succeed in his crazy plan to unite humans and dragons, most likely through more luck than sense to boot… The impatient tapping of Gothi's staff snapped her out of her train of thought, reminding her that her business here was finished. The diminutive elder wrote one last message to her, stating that she wished to see her again in a week to check up on her wounds again, before bidding her goodbye for now.
Astrid left the healer's hut, squinting at the sun that now shone straight into her eyes. The rest of the day went by fairly uneventfully, save for one crucial detail she noticed whilst helping the fishermen haul in their catch: The islands shipwrights were already well in the process of adding ornaments and decorations to the length and breadth of one of the larger longboats they had, knotwork and religious symbols alluding to the gods now adorned its wooden hull. It was fit for a chief without a doubt. Despite nobody having told her it seemed quite obvious just what that ship was going to be used for… It was a grim reminder of the events that unfolded several days prior, a reminder that things would never be the same as they were before.
Over the course of the days that followed Astrid would spend her time alternating between learning the basics of weapon maintenance from Gobber during the day, whilst spending the evenings trying to learn flying with Toothless. The start of both was rather shaky, though the lass didn't let that discourage her, she was determined, instead she simply pictured it as another challenge to best and come out on top of. She did it for herself mostly, though knowing that it would be what Hiccup would have wanted did help alleviate the weight in the pit of her stomach. To say that she made many mistakes at the start was an understatement… She knew how to fight, but when it came to maintaining an axe, her knowledge stopped at the usage of a whetstone or a grinding wheel. Gobber had to resort to teaching her the very basics before he could teach her such things as how to replace her weapons head or shaft, or how to change out the leather wrappings. Of course her wounds did nothing to help her situation, and in fact often hindered or downright prevented her from doing certain things, but she would memorize them to the best of her abilities so that she may make use of them once she was back to full health.
Flying practice with Toothless was just as, if not more bumpy than her smithing practice, despite the dragon/viking duo taking baby steps to slowly inch closer to finally taking to the air again. For the first few days she just started her routine by simply having the black scaled beast gallop around the cove with her on his back. A simple exercise for them to learn to trust one another more blindly, she thought. She wouldn't admit it to anyone of course, but she wasn't completely at ease at the thought of flying again… The admittedly romantic flight she had with Hiccup was exciting and had her adrenaline pumping for hours afterward, however she was incredibly nervous at the idea of leaving terra firma again.