A/N: Bear with me here. I was having a hard time with timing, so it's kind of jumpy.
Guest responses:
Random Fan: The last chapter was just pleading to be goofy and light, and how could I say no? XD Yeah, beware the angry Astrid! Apparently, you and I are the only ones who wanted the dart...
Guest: Thanks!
It was midday, and Hiccup was still playing with the dragons. Which was okay, totally okay, at least he was calm? And at the Edge? And…
And trying to eat a raw fish.
"Tuffnut, stop encouraging him!" Astrid yelled.
Tuffnut jerked around and hid the fish behind his back. Astrid glared at him until he shuffled away. She did her best to ignore the whining sound Hiccup made as his supposed lunch was carried away.
"Hiccup," Astrid said, prompting the boy to look at her. Astrid faltered briefly. "You… do you understand me?"
Hiccup blinked, then squawked and bounded to where Toothless was eating from a bucket of fish. Astrid watched Toothless growl at Hiccup until he sat back. Toothless took a fish, made a sort of hiccup-y sound in his mouth, then dropped a blackened fish in front of Hiccup.
"At least Toothless can talk to Hiccup."
Astrid startled at Fishlegs' voice. She glanced at him standing at her shoulder.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" Astrid said.
"Never. By now, he should have slept it off, but…" Fishlegs gestured helplessly. "At least he's here with us now, though. It would be best if we followed our usual routines. Who knows, something we do could snap Hiccup out of this."
"You think so?" Astrid asked, watching Hiccup gag on a fish bone.
"Starting with patrols," Fishlegs said firmly.
"What for? The Hunters are long gone by now."
"Hiccup always insisted on patrols," Fishlegs said.
Astrid gave herself a mental shake. What was she thinking? If their roles were reversed, Astrid knew Hiccup would be ensuring nothing could get to her. Just because the Hunters had been run off, there were always other threats.
Also, if nothing else, it provided a distraction.
"You're right," Astrid said, turning to give Fishlegs her full attention. "I'll go out myself."
Fishlegs started. "Really?"
"Yeah. I need to get away from…" Astrid waved at Hiccup whining for another fish. "Somebody needs to check on the Edge Nadders, anyway, and I'm guessing Stormfly has met them already if she was captured with them. You and Snotlout check where we left the Hunter fleet last night and make sure they're far away."
"What about Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked.
"Toothless and the twins seem to have a hold on the Hiccup situation."
Fishlegs looked skeptical, so Astrid gestured to Hiccup. Okay, so growling with Hiccup and crawling around with him was odd, but it was fairly normal for the twins. As long as they kept him calm, Toothless would ensure Hiccup didn't wander off.
Fishlegs nodded, though he looked pained. Astrid suspected her expression was the same. But she had to get away before she gave into the urge to scream at the sky. If Hiccup didn't go back to normal soon, then they'd have to go to Gothi for help...
Oh, Thor.
Snotlout came up then, unknowingly voicing Astrid's thoughts. "So, who's telling Stoik that his son's a dragon?"
Astrid didn't give any warning. She just wound up and punched Snotlout, dropping him to his butt.
"I was just asking!" Snotlout whined.
Fishlegs grabbed Snotlout and pulled him to his feet and out of reach in one move. "Come on, Snotlout, we need to go out on patrol."
"Aw, come on, can't we get a break?" Snotlout complained.
Astrid let Fishlegs lecture Snotlout about keeping on their toes, instead going to the twins. Tuffnut hid another raw fish behind his back, but Astrid chose to ignore that.
"Fishlegs, Snotlout, and I are going on patrol. You two are going to stay here with Hiccup. Make sure he doesn't wander off, alright?" Astrid said firmly.
Ruffnut beamed. "You can count on us, Astrid!"
Astrid still had her doubts, but walked to Hiccup. "Hiccup."
Hiccup looked up at Astrid. He gave a questioning little roar.
"I don't know if you understand me, but I have to go check the Edge Nadders. You need to stay here with Toothless, Ruff, and Tuff, okay?"
Hiccup cocked his head.
"Stay," Astrid said, jabbing a finger toward the ground for emphasis.
Toothless gave a small roar. Hiccup glanced at him, then squawked and sat down.
"Alright… good." Astrid slowly backed away. "Stay, Hiccup."
Hiccup just blinked at Astrid, so she turned away. Stormfly was right there, crouched and ready to go.
"I guess you're wanting some time, too, huh?" Astrid asked, mounting.
Stormfly squawked, then suddenly took off. Astrid grunted and grabbed the saddle before she could fall off.
"Stormfly!" Astrid scolded.
Stormfly squawked apologetically but continued to rush over the forest, so low that her talons brushed the treetops. Astrid noticed her head was twitching back-and-forth and she was sniffing.
"Is there something out here, girl?" Astrid asked quietly.
Stormfly squawked. Astrid let her have her head and scanned the forest with narrow eyes. She silently hoped the freed Edge Nadders went back to their roost and weren't wandering around.
As if on cue, Astrid heard a distressed roar from the left. Astrid quickly steered Stormfly -who was staring off to the right- toward the sound. She urged Stormfly toward a small clearing near rustling trees. Stormfly hesitated, then dropped to the ground.
"Easy, girl," Astrid murmured when Stormfly shifted her paws. "We don't want to spook him. Let's get a bit closer."
Stormfly grumbled, but stepped forward.
Through the trees, Astrid spotted an Edge Nadder. It was larger than Stormfly, with ragged wings and chipped scales. It sniffed along the ground, squawking quietly.
Astrid squinted. It didn't appear to be hurt, despite its miserable sounds leading her to it. Had it lost its flock after the Riders freed them from the Hunters? No, Nadders never got lost.
Astrid scanned the forest around the Edge Nadder, then slid to the ground. "Okay, girl. Since you're such good friends with these guys, why don't you go see what's wrong?"
Stormfly cooed and stepped forward.
In the same instant, there was a loud rustling for behind. Astrid tensed, but before she could turn, something struck the back of her head. Suddenly weak, Astrid fell to her knees. Stormfly's angry roar was abruptly cut off in a blur of silver. Ears ringing, Astrid was sure she heard human yells from ahead, but she flopped limply to the ground before she could look. Footsteps thudded to her side, then she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Sorry, Astrid." The voice, intense and quiet, was… Heather?
Finally, everything went black.
The twin Riders were trying to tell Hiccup something, he was sure. What it was… Hiccup wasn't sure. Not even Toothless could explain what they were doing.
Hiccup glanced at the latest object -brown, slightly thicker than his paw, and full of white leaves- they held out, then at the twin Toothless had called Ruffnut. She made a human noise and flipped through the leaves.
"Dragon book," Toothless said. "Learn dragons."
Hiccup blinked. "Wind-Gliders?"
Toothless churred, but otherwise didn't respond. Hiccup huffed, then bounded across the clearing he'd learned to be called an arena.
The Rider twins yelled something, but Hiccup didn't pay attention. He didn't know what they wanted and their playing made no sense.
Hiccup went to the Two-Headed Sparker. "Humans weird."
Barf and Belch chirred, then nudged Hiccup back toward the Riders. "Learn."
Hiccup cocked his head. "Learn?"
"Remember," Belch encouraged.
Hiccup rumbled. If the dragons were going to be stubborn about it, fine.
Before Hiccup could move, though, a thin cry echoed through the air. Hiccup perked up at the dragon roar. It was too far away to make out, though.
Toothless, however, seemed to hear the roar. His head jerked up and his ears flicked forward. He warbled sadly.
"What?" Hiccup asked, pawing at the larger dragon.
"Lost hatchling," Toothless relayed. "Spike-Flinger hatchling."
Hiccup whined. "Who hatchling?"
Toothless listened again. "Raggedwing hatchling."
Hiccup squeaked and fell on his haunches. He sheepishly bared his teeth in realization.
"Hatchling not lost," Hiccup said. "Hatchling… Hiccup."
Toothless gave Hiccup a look that could only be described as betrayed. He swiftly wrapped his tail around Hiccup and pulled him close.
"Toothless hatchling."
Hiccup chirred. Imagine, a Spike-Flinger and a Nightwing fighting over a Wind-Glider! He wondered what his flock would think of that!
Hiccup blinked at the thought, amusement vanishing in a blink.
Toothless looked down at him. "What wrong?"
Hiccup stared into his eyes. "Where Hiccup flock?"
Toothless hesitated. Hiccup shoved away, wings spread wide and head cocked back in aggression.
"Where flock?!"
As if caught up in Hiccup's confusion and pain, Raggedwing's distant roar suddenly turned panicked.
"Astrid is going to kill me!" Heather freaked out quietly. She glanced at Windshear pinning Stormfly. "How hard did you hit her?"
Windshear rumbled and removed her paws from Stormfly's muzzle. The Nadder turned and growled when she saw her Rider unconscious in Heather's arms.
"It's okay, girl."
Heather flinched at the panicked roar of the Edge Nadder, accompanied by the frenzied shouts of Hunters trying to subdue it. She and Windshear needed to get involved before anyone was seriously hurt, but she kind of had an unconscious Rider in her hands.
"New plan, Stormfly," Heather said, dragging Astrid into a slumped, but upright, position. "You and Astrid came to defend the Edge Nadder, and Windshear and I got the drop on you. Now, you have to bring Astrid back to the Edge without getting caught, alright?"
Fortunately, Stormfly's mood improved instantly when she realized Heather was giving her Astrid back. She quickly grabbed picked up Astrid by the back of her armor, like she was scruffing a young dragon. She spread her wings, then gave a slight rumble.
Heather stared at her, then felt something coil around her ankles. Before she could react, her feet were jerked out from under her. She fell hard on her back as Stormfly cooed and took off.
"I kind of deserved that," Heather said to the unconcerned Windshear.
The act also played in Heather's favor unexpectedly as a Hunter shoved his way through the bushes. Making a show of rushing to her feet, Heather pointed at Stormfly.
"Rider!" Heather panted. "They nearly scared off the Edge Nadder before Windshear and I jumped them." She winced. "They got away, though. Now the Riders know we're here."
The Hunter grumbled and threw down his sword. "And we just finished repairs."
Heather nodded sympathetically. "Did you get the Edge Nadder?"
The Hunter perked up. "It never even saw us coming!"
Heather hoped her smile wasn't too much of a grimace as she followed the hunter to a sleeping, chained dragon.
"Hurry back, Astrid."
A/N: I planned the have Heather's part as the start of the next chapter, then I realized everyone would have just been freaking out at Heather. XD It was an accident!
Oh, and don't worry. The "Astrid wakes up thinking she's a dragon, too" plot bunny was brutally shot down within half an hour of emerging. XD
In case you're curious on how the other choices in the poll would have played out...
Dart: Heather (with a boost from Windshear) would have tackled Astrid off of Stormfly, keeping her from going to the Edge Nadder's rescue. She then would have distracted Astrid, then stuck her with a dart.
Rock: Heather (with a boost from Windshear) would have tackled Astrid off Stormfly, but Astrid would have hit her head on a rock.
Ax: Astrid and Stormfly would have gone to the Edge Nadder's assistance, forcing Heather and Windshear to pretend to fight them. During the fight, Heather would have hit Astrid in the head with the side of her ax.