Chapter 20

After another day of work, Toothless almost had to carry Hiccup's exhausted body back to his house at midnight. Hiccup laid face down on the saddle and dangled his hands and legs beside his dragon as Toothless walked back from the Great Hall. Hiccup knew that he could walk, but he was just too tired and decided to be lazy.

"Toothless… thanks, bud," when they arrived, Hiccup lifted himself up and jumped off the saddle, "You can go and do whatever you want now."

After licked his rider's palm, Toothless rushed off to find Stormfly and start their hide-and-seek game. Hiccup watched Toothless leave while he wiped his palm on his shirt to remove the Night Fury's sticky and clammy saliva.

Today he spent most of the time on coastal defense by the cliffs and in front of the village. According to their prediction, Dagur was most likely to directly rush the village, so he could seize the most important part of the island quickly, and in order to do that, he had to break Berkian defense of the village. Hiccup didn't know when Berserkers would launch their attack, so instead of spending times on paperwork, he and Toothless also engaged in the physical works of constructing walls, forts, and weapons.

The Riders were searching for boulders, crags, and similar materials that could be made into obstacles along the coastline to prevent ships from coming too close, and Hiccup and Toothless would carry the materials to the designed positions. Each boulder could be as heavy as ten sheep.

Gobber was leading a group of Berkians forging weapons and assembling new catapults. Every time when Hiccup walked into the forge, Hiccup thought he would be caught on fire because of the high temperature.

After 12 hours of constructing the coastal wall and building weapons, Hiccup was totally worn out. He lied on the beach like a dead dog and tried to use the sunlight to recover his strengths. His knees and legs were aching, and his hands were covered by scratches created by the sharp edges of rocks or woods. After all of these, he still had to take care of the Nadder Team who was responsible for the defense in the forest and the far side of the island.

Even though Hiccup predicted that the possibility of Dagur launching an attack at Raven Point was low, he still didn't want to take the chances. The Nadder Team completed their assignments by creating twelve fire positions that could cover the whole forest and a moat filled with small but poisonous dragons between the forest and the beach. Each position had three crossbows, three catapults, a group of archers, and a group of infantries. If the Berserkers decided to land at the far side of the island, they had to cross the moat while facing the poisonous dragons that could kill a Viking with one bite, and after that they would encounter a forest full of elite Berkians and the Nadder Team.

Hiccup signed at his recollections of his day as he opened the creaky door of his hut.

"Whoah! For the love of Odin! Astrid, don't scare me like that," Hiccup shouted with trepidation as an energetic blonde jumped in front of him, "and why are you here?"

"Because I have nowhere to go," Astrid replied while she crossed her arms as if she was upset, "What, you don't want me staying here? I can leave."

"No no no! I was just… I mean I'm glad that you are here… and … " Hiccup clarified himself shyly and in a hurry.

Astrid chuckled at Hiccup's reaction. She grabbed her boyfriend slash chief's shirt and pulled him into the room while she slammed the door shut with her right foot.

"Now you remember to close the door," Hiccup chuckled. He put his left arm around Astrid's tender waist and pulled her against his body. The

Before, when Astrid continuously came over to his hut to spend the night, and usually not just looking for a bed, she seldom closed the door when she came in. Hiccup believed Astrid was too busy undressing herself and Hiccup so she forgot to close the door.

"Because I have a special plan for tonight, chief," Astrid whispered obscenely while giving Hiccup a leer. Before Hiccup could reply, she hungrily covered Hiccup's mouth with her own. Her tongue explored across the chief's mouth and tangled up with another needy tongue.

As sunlight descended onto the Island of Berk and lightened the world, Astrid opened her eyes. Her vision adjusted quickly so that she could see the environment around her. She was in Hiccup's room, the room which the duo usually stayed in during the night. The wall was covered by Hiccup's sketches and drawings that he made throughout the years.

Astrid stretched herself under the blanket made by fur. This blanket was big enough to cover two people and could keep them warm during the cold Scandinavian nights even when they were naked. She tried to recall what happened last night. Last night's memories were unclear and ambiguous. She couldn't grasp what occurred on this bed, only the pleasure that she gained remained in her memory and body.

The only scene that she could recall was when Hiccup asked her "are you sure about this?", and she undoubtedly replied "yes". Then the rest was in the hands of the gods.

The blanket trembled minutely signaling that another Viking had woken up. Astrid turned herself towards Hiccup and pressed her naked body into his as her hands traced the scars he received from years of forging and dragon training.

"Mmmm…"Hiccup groaned as the unexpected morning welcome struck him.

"Morning, babe," Astrid whispered by Hiccup and gently bit the sensitive spot behind Hiccup's ear.

The sensations of Astrid's teeth and lips were transported by the nerves and into Hiccup's brain, causing the young chief to shiver besides the blonde.

"Astrid… It's not the time..." Hiccup tried hopelessly to use his hand to block Astrid's head.

Astrid straddled Hiccup and pinned his wrists above his head, and seduced the boy with her naked body. Hiccup, whose brain was in turmoil due to his sleepiness, wriggled beneath the strong blonde.

"Common, Hiccup, we can relax today. Unload the stress and… have some fun with each other," Astrid's mouth was just an inch above Hiccup's and she could feel his warm breath. "The Berserkers won't attack us today."

Hiccup, regaining some of his consciousness, lifted his head up and kissed slowly on her lips. "All right, you win Milady," Hiccup smiled. "How about let's get up and take a morning flight, for fun?"

"I rather have some fun here."

"Last night wasn't enough to satisfy milady?"

"Not even close," Astrid smirked as her hand trailed down Hiccup's belly towards his groin.

"Then I'll give you something to remember," Hiccup replied as he pulled Astrid back to the bed and rolled on top of her.

"After two weeks and those Berserkers are still doing nothing," Fishlegs murmured as he and Meatlug were patrolling around the sea. "What do you say?"

Tired by the flight, the Gronckle growled at his rider. Meatlug shook her head, trying to prevent herself from sleeping during flying. Meatlug knew that she didn't have the "superpower" to fly while sleeping, but she knew which dragon could. Grump, Gobber's dragon, could fell asleep during almost any circumstances, even flying. Sometimes Meatlug was jealous about Grump, so she tried to at least close her eyes while flying, but she received nothing but bumping into a wooden shack.

"I know, girl," Fishlegs reassured his dragon and threw a piece of bauxite into Meatlug's mouth. "This won't take so long. We'll just gonna reach every statue and head back, and then… we can enjoy some silicates for a snack."

The word "silicates" empowered Meatlug. Excited by the snack, she grunted and flew faster.

Reaching the furthest Viking statue standing in the sea, a group of brown dots on sea surface came into Fishlegs's view. A flock of sea dragons, maybe some Scauldrons, Fishlegs thought as he pulled out his spyglass that Hiccup gave to him.

Through the spyglass, Fishlegs could see a whole fleet of armed ships. Formed in an organized formation, the fleet traveled steadily. The fleet was formed by at least five dozens of large iron ships. Fishlegs's hands trembled with fear.

"The Berserkers!" Fishlegs yelled.

He couldn't think of any other tribes in the Archipelago that had a good reason, and had the power, to send that many ships to Berk. Also, the Skrill on the sail couldn't be more recognizable. A skinny, short man stood on the deck of the flagship.

"Common Meatlug," Fishlegs said to his dragon. "We have to go back and warn the others!"