Chapter 7: Rest, Recuperation and Relationships / An Arabian Night
"No man has tasted the full flavor of life until he has known poverty, love, and war." -O. Henry
Hiccup's POV
"The sultan…has been killed." The lieutenant spoke to the gathered officers, Hiccup present, all exhausted and standing in a school circle inside the kitchen of a home near what used to be the command tent. Toothless had laid down behind him, softly sleeping. "He was killed leading a charge against the enemy, sometime after the second wave. Our Camel troop is still unaccounted for after having deserted, and I commend all of your efforts in the defense of this city. Unfortunately, the general has given me orders via carrier pigeon," he held up the small note, "to evacuate this position."
"Sir, we only experienced 3 wounded British officers and a few wounded British personnel. The only major casualties were among the sultan's army. Why are we leaving, then?" Hiccup was not impressed by the young officer's display of 'brilliance'. You idiot, you really think we can survive another attack, he thought.
"While that may be true, our numbers only serve as a garrison against disorder, and with the sultan dead, there is no one to rally his troops and we are essentially surrounded. No, our orders are to begin withdrawal and join with the rest of the Aden brigade to defend the coast."
"What about the wounded," another one asked.
"We are to take care of them best we can, but tomorrow, we are bringing the ICRC personnel and the medical staff with us to Aden. We would not normally do this, but we are escorting them with us per our orders."
"What about the rest of the Movable Column? Where are they?"
"We have no exact location, but since they have not yet arrived, we are to begin withdrawal as we do not have enough troops to survive another engagement. Gentlemen, I don't like running from a victory, but we have to if we are to fight another day. Any more questions?" No hands were raised. "Alright, dismissed."
Hiccup turned around, fully intent on taking a nap and having some food. "Corporal Haddock, a moment." Damn.
"Yes, sir?"
"That was some fine thinking yesterday, pulling back into the city. You saved a lot of lives yesterday."
"Thank you, sir." I don't need this ladder climber to tell me that.
"I thank you for that. Now, I didn't bring this up in the debriefing, but I also received an order from a General Montgomery," oh no, "reminding you about an order you received before the beginning of this campaign."
"Yes, sir, we received it and my riflemen are currently reading over it now." He hoped it wasn't too important or something that needed to be carried out today, they had yet to even open it.
"Ok." A pause. "Does it concern me what the orders state or ask you to carry out?"
Now the fun part. "Sir, no offense meant, but the orders that were sent to me by General Montgomery are of a classified nature, to be seen by my eyes and the eyes of my men only. I am not allowed to discuss previous, ongoing or future missions, sir."
"Oh, I…I see." Hiccup always got a kick out of seeing how flustered superior officers got when he pulled that. It never gets old. "Where are you from, soldier?"
"1st Battalion, Scot Guards, Foot Guards." He took pride he was considered the elite of an elite unit, even if he still had to spend two weeks of training for marching.
"I thought the Scots Guards were deployed along the Western Front, where the fighting was heaviest?"
"We are, sir." Time for one of the favorite lines. "For all intents and purposes, I'm not here. My men are not here. We are in Paris on leave." Signed, sealed, delivered.
"Ah, I see. Well, that'll be all then. Dismissed." Hiccup saluted, but once he received a return, he immediately dropped it and left, snapping his fingers for Toothless to follow him. He needed to get back and see if their orders were still relevant. He hoped that they were, he had never missed an assignment before.
Astrid's POV
The sun wasn't even all the way in the sky before Astrid was both physically and mentally exhausted. After she and Heather had helped the young remaining doctor and the natives move the wounded into their hospital, she was back to tending for them again, only this time, they were critically low on supplies. Following the loss of their tent, they had to the army surgeon attached to the Indian Army came in and announced a change in procedure: take the bandages off the corpses, boil them in 3% sodium bicarbonate solution, and reuse them. Sterilize the instruments in boiling water. Do not use sodium bicarbonate to disinfect any wounds that could possibly be mortal. Spare the morphine.
On the outside, Astrid took these new orders and followed them immediately. She had no time to question any orders. These men didn't have enough time for her to question the new orders, they needed her.
On the inside, however, Astrid was horrified. Was their situation so precarious that they needed to reuse bandages? How bad is it that they're not letting us disinfect wounds that are life-threatening? Are they saying we need to condemn them to death? Astrid's mind was still reeling with the thought of sentencing someone to death when her memory showed a face of the man she herself had sentenced to death not 1 hour ago. Somehow, she could remember every facial feature of the man, the color of his eyes, the color of his hair underneath the cloth wrapping his face, the color of the skin showing around his eyes.
She quickly stowed the thoughts, going back to the task at hand: wrapping a man's face in gauze. She hadn't cared to look at the damage that the fires wrought upon human flesh, just opting to wrap it as she was taught. Autopilot, she told herself.
Once she finished, she looked around, searching for both another soldier to help or Heather. Her eyes first fixated on Heather, and upon checking to make sure her help was not needed elsewhere, walked over. Heather was currently in the middle of removing fragments from a man's abdomen, eyes straining to see even the smallest fragments inside his flesh. She used a pair of small forceps, removing every visible piece of shrapnel and placing into a small glass vial. It was almost half full of the black and grey blades.
Astrid came up on the other side, checking the man for any other small wounds on his side. She finished, seeing there were no other wounds that she needed to be concerned about, and looked towards Heather. She still had a myriad of small cuts on her face, with one decent sized gash on right above her eyebrow. It looked to be patchily stitched up, however, so Astrid thought she would probably have to fix that later. "Hey, you ok?"
"Huh?" Heather looked up, a piece of shrapnel clinking into the jar she held. Astrid gestured to the area above her right eyebrow. Heather set down the forceps and tentatively touched the gash. "I'm fine."
"Heather, you're not fine. I need to disinfect it and-"
"No, Astrid, you heard the order. We have to save it-"
"Heather, we have to clean it."
"No, Astrid, we don't. The blood clotted, so it's fine. I need to finish removing the shrapnel from this man and then I'll look into it, ok?" Heather looked down from Astrid, going back to removing shrapnel from the victim, still unconscious. Astrid looked down at him, analyzing his face and features. Something's not right. She put her hand up to his forehead and felt it. Cold. She moved it down to in front of his mouth, not feeling any air flow, and upon looking at his chest realized it was not moving. No, no, please don't be dead. She quickly wrapped her index and middle finger on the man's wrist, and waited for a pulse. Hoping for a pulse.
It was futile and hopeless. The local soldier was dead. Astrid sighed in defeat, not wanting to acknowledge Death's victory over her once again today. She looked to Heather. "Heather, it's not worth it."
"Astrid, what do you mean? This man has shrapnel all ov-"
"He's dead, Heather."
Immediately, Heather visibly faltered. Her grip slipped, both the vial and the forceps crashing onto the metal plate at her chest. "No, no no no no, he…," she put her fingers to the corpse's wrist, same as Astrid, waiting for a pulse in vein. Astrid looked into Heather's eyes, seeing the exact moment Heather realized that the man she was trying to save was already passed. "He was alive five minutes ago, I checked. Astrid, I swear, he was alive not long ago, I-"
"Heather, it's ok," she got up and pulled the sheet over the man's face, and walked over to stand beside Heather. On the metal table in front of Heather was the man's possessions. Heather, still in disbelief, picked up a picture of the man's family, taken in front of sultan's palace. He was a local soldier, she realized, with no information of the conflict raging across the world, only told to be ready to die for his sultan.
"Five minutes ago, he had a family. A wife, a daughter," Heather picked up the photo, holding it directly in front of her, "parents, probably, but a family nonetheless. Five minutes ago, he was probably going through all of his life's most treasured memories, looking back at the moments that defined him and the people in his life that were special to him. Five minutes ago, he was probably wondering if he'd ever get to see them again, spend time with them, tell them how much he loved them, " Astrid could Heather's voice starting to falter, tears starting to form in her own eyes, " and pray that would survive the attack. He showed me this picture five minutes ago, Astrid, he trusted me, and I…I…" the picture fluttered out of Heather's shaking hand, floating down to the ground like a dead leaf in autumn, the happiness of the family in the picture now as dead as the man it belonged to. It would never be the same.
Heather's hands shot up to her face, and Astrid immediately squatted down so she was eye level with Heather, gently grabbing her shoulders and bringing her in for an embrace. She felt the shaky breaths and the muffled sobs from Heather, her head leaning into Astrid's shoulder for support. "It's ok, Heather, it's ok. You did the best you could, and that's all that you can do." She repeated the same thing, over and over, hoping it would do some good, but it seemed to have no effect. "Look, Heather, he died in peace. You saw, he just…drifted off. You made it painless for him. Right?"
"How did he die? I stopped the bleeding and disinfected everything, and I-"
"It doesn't matter, Heather. You can't go back in time to fix it. The only thing you can do is accept it, and move on. There are other people we need to help." Please move on, Heather, there are a lot of people coming in now. Astrid looked over towards the entrance, seeing the civilians begin to enter their makeshift hospital. There weren't enough beds, and wounded, crying children were held in their parents' frantic arms, hoping for someone to come and help their child. "Heather, there are civilians. We need to give them care. We need to go now."
Slowly, Heather lifted her head, wiping off the last of her tears, taking a deep breath, and carefully putting the picture of the family underneath the man's sheet, as carefully and gently as a mother tucking in their children. She turned around, eyes still swollen and bloodshot, but focused and ready. "Ok, I'm…I'm ready," sniffling a little but looking willing to start working again.
"Ok, let's go help them out." Some of the Indian soldiers had come in, starting to clear off the beds of bodies and opening places for the wounded to be cared for. Astrid, realizing she needed to cut down on some of the civilians with non-life threatening injuries, examined and helped the families and soldiers where they stood, while Heather took a woman who had a head wound from debris to one of the cots. As she worked, Astrid tried her best to console the worried local civilians, and while she didn't understand their language, she understood their behavior and movements, worried as anyone about losing someone they love. Fortunately, one man came forward to act as a translator, and helped her in explaining how to take of the less grievously injured victims. Some of the families understood, others needed more convincing.
This routine continued for another hour and a half, and as more soldiers came in to help out, the number of wounded dwindled till the cots were filled only with those who were mortally wounded or whose wounds were life-threatening. Unfortunately, the local healers and elders came in, and insisted on taking care of the native soldiers their own way. At first the young doctor refused, but upon seeing that his own supplies were dwindling, he reluctantly gave the responsibility of caring for the bulk of the wounded to the town healers and elders. Now, the Red Cross was only responsible for caring for three officers, and that task was being taken over by the British Army Medical officers.
It seemed there work was temporarily finished. He walked over to Astrid and Heather, both beyond drained of energy and sitting on empty boxes. "Being taking inventory of the remaining supplies. We'll have to requisition for more morphine and bandages once we get back to Aden."
Astrid was frustrated by this. "We're leaving? When? We just got here, and there is so much to do-"
"After this morning's battle, and with the death of the sultan, I received an order from the commanding officer to begin packing up essentials and rounding up important personnel, which it seems you two are the only ones left. We have very little supplies, and anything that's not bandages, disinfectant or morphine I'm leaving behind for the natives. We may be moving out tomorrow, so be sure it's all ready by tonight." He walked away immediately, brushing past Astrid and walking towards the door and then out of sight. Astrid immediately felt an anger burning inside her. How can we just leave these people? We won the fight yesterday, right? We can stay and fight another day, we don't need to abandon these people! But, at the same time, Astrid knew that staying was dangerous. Even though they were in an oasis, there was very little water left, the Main Column still had not yet arrived, and they were outnumbered, albeit in a better defensive position. But if those big guns started shelling the town, she knew they couldn't survive a siege.
Heather shook her shoulder. "Hey, we need to pack up, Astrid." She was still visibly distressed about the loss of the man who entrusted his life to her, even as death closed in on him.
"Oh. Right."
Astrid's POV (1 hour later)
That wasn't so hard, she thought to herself, but then again, that shows how little left we have. They had stacked the boxes of essentials in the corner of the dark room that was still tending the wounded, albeit by the native healers now, and took a quick inventory to finish up their work. It was only just now noon.
Heather yawned. "Hey, Astrid, I think I'm going to take a little bit of a nap now, if we're done."
"Yeah," she thought for a second, "hey, you ok?"
"Huh?"
"You ok? There is still a giant gash above your eyebrow and-"
"Oh, yeah. No, it's fine. It's not deep and the blood isn't dark, so it's nothing bad. I'll find some water later to wash it out with."
"Ok, but that's not the only thing…"
"Astrid, I'm fine. Now. I'm pretty sure. It…It was just…distressing. I don't know, I felt like I was close to saving him, but I guess he just…"
"You don't have to talk about it. I understand."
"Ok. Thanks." With that, Heather walked over towards the boxes they had stacked and laid down on them, hands behind her head. Her eyes closed as Astrid was walking out the door.
Ok, so what do I do know? I'm not tired, but there's nothing else to do, I don't think. She supposed she could walk around, checking to see if anyone needed help but wasn't able to reach it. She turned a corner and was immediately greeted by the sight of a shelled out building, with stone and wood thrown all over the street, while the natives and townspeople had only their hands to clean up the debris. Knowing how hard it was to clean up that much debris, Astrid decided to help them clear the streets. The soldiers weren't even trying to help a little. In fact, they weren't anywhere to be seen. But it wasn't so much all of the soldiers that Astrid was thinking about hoping to see.
It was only one of them.
Hiccup's POV
The devastation of the battle was not realized until the sun had fully risen over the battlefield, a phenomenon Hiccup was used to now. How many time have I seen the sun rise over dead bodies and shell craters? "Too many," he told himself, as he gazed out at the dead bodies strewn all in front of their former positions in the trenches. Men and women alike were collecting the bodies and piling them into carts to be either burned or buried, he didn't know which nor did he care that much. He looked back down at the envelope, stamped with that special dragon stamp only he carried to denote special assignments or orders. He used his bayonet and opened it, taking in the typewritten message carefully:
To: Cpl. H
From: G.M
Conduct intelligence gathering and raiding on Ottoman spotter outpost and supply depot, 8 miles outside of edge of Aden Protectorate. Conduct sabotage of railway lines as you see fit. Operation to begin after successful/unsuccessful defense of (redacted). Report back to Aden by 16 July.
Good luck.
"What a load of…" He gripped the orders tightly, crinkling the instructions and the maps that came along with it. They really want me to conduct raids and recon in this heat, with no experience in a desert, with new members? The fact that the general hadn't explicitly stated for the new soldiers under his command to be left out meant they would probably become members of his flying column. Which worried him. And pissed him off.
"How? No, why?" He looked at Toothless, sitting down in the trench and staring at his dog straight in the eyes, "why do I have to be stuck with them? They have almost no combat experience, one of them constantly disobeys my orders, the other is too scared to follow them, and then there's the twins, who are just a tad mentally unstable and might actually kill someone they're not supposed to kill. I mean, they were the only ones who didn't actually do anything to make my life hard on the line, but then there's Snotlout, who just wants to do his own thing and get himself killed. Oh, and Fishlegs, who I had to scream at for five minutes before he fired his own weapon. Why, why am I stuck with them right now? As if it wasn't awkward enough that they made my life unbearable at Berk, now I'm stuck having to rely on their ability to follow my orders and count on them to not get us all killed." He groaned and put his head in his hands, Toothless sniffing his ears and nuzzling his hair, as if he was trying to make him feel better.
Hiccup groaned in frustration. He hated the fact he was having to work with them now. He threw his head back, grimacing a little as his head struck the wall with a bit more force than he intended. To add insult to injury, Toothless gave a huff and a small bark, as if laughing at him. "Oh, you laughing at my pain now, too?" Woof! "Really, you find my pain and headaches comedic?" Roof! Toothless sat there, panting and wagging his tail, seeming to enjoy the sight of his friend being distressed at getting what was essentially long overdue reinforcements.
A smile slowly formed on Hiccup's face. "Thanks, bud. I needed that." He ruffled Toothless' head a little, before standing up in the trench and looking for his section. He needed to go over the game plan.
He found them by noon, somewhat segregated as Speedifist, Thuggory, Nobrains and Wartihog cleaning their weapons, like all professional soldiers did after a battle. The others, however, were not. They sat across from the professionals, sitting on the ground, their weapons in the dirt, exchanging stories. Well, Snotlout and the twins exchanging stories. Fishlegs sat with them, but was oddly quiet. Doesn't matter. He strode over, and as if the gulf between the professionals and new members wasn't clear already, he received stiff, standing salutes from his veterans, while the Berk gang just gave him a measly, 'hey'. Normally, Hiccup would not have cared for the lack of respect, but if they were going into battle with him, he needed their respect as a leader and for them to see him as their commander, not the boy they grew up with. That's it, no more mister nice guy. He turned to face the sitting Berkians.
"Stand up." They looked up at him in confusion. "Stand up," he repeated. They stood, but still in their circle, not even bothering to pick up their weapons. "You idiots, pick up your weapons and stand at attention! In a line!" They grabbed their weapons and hopped into a line, but only Fishlegs looked scared of Hiccup. That's unfortunate. "Listen, I don't know what it is with you guys, maybe something in your brain isn't clicking, or maybe it's the thought of Hiccup Haddock being your commanding officer, but when I give you an order, I expect you to follow it. I expect you to not question it, either. I don't care how crazy it is, how useless it seems, or even how outright dangerous it is. I've been in this war longer than you have been soldiers and I've been through more than you have. I was an officer, damnit, and I won't have some of Kitchener's volunteers questioning me about charging out of a fortified position," scowling at Snotlout, "or not following orders because you're scared," scowling at Fishlegs. "The survival of me and the other men behind me depends on our cohesion, our ability to fight together, and if one part of the machine doesn't work, what happens?"
"It breaks down…sir."
"Thank you, Fishlegs. Now, does annnyyyone want to voice concerns?" He should have known better than to say that, as Snotlout's hand shot up immediately. "What, Lout?"
"What do you mean you were an officer?"
"What?"
"You said you were an officer."
"I still am, but I'm not on the Western Front with some trained soldiers right now, am I? I'm stuck with a bunch of wannabe soldiers."
That smug look on his face was back. "Really? Because I heard you were demoted."
Silence.
That was all Hiccup heard, but what he wanted was an explanation from either Wartihog, Thuggory, Speedifist or Nobrains, because there was no way Snotlout could've figured that out without one of them. He'd sort them out later. "What did you say," as he closed the distance between them until he was in Snotlout's face, "what did you say?"
"I said, 'I heard you were demoted'. I heard it was a demotion because you weren't aggressive enough and failed to capture a hill at Auber's Ridge. You stayed put and lost almost all of your men."
"Really? Really Snotlout, you-you-you heard, didn't you? Where…where did you hear this story?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Really? D-d-doesn't matter? Ok, so then what's your point?"
"My point is you're too scared to-" Hiccup lost control at the word scared, unslinging his rifle and driving the butt hard into Snotlout's gut, before grabbing the other end and hitting him in the nose with the middle, knocking him back stumbling into the ground. The other Berkians dared not move.
"How…how dare you, of all people, accuse me of being scared? You…y-y-you haven't even been on the Western Front, let alone the real part of the war!" He strode over, putting his foot on Snotlout's chest and leaning over him. "This was nothing compared to the Marne, or the Battles of the Frontiers, or Mons. This was nothing compared to Ypres, or Auber's Ridge. Instead of, what, a 10 minute shelling that falls all over the place, try shelling that lasts for days at a time, so constant and accurate they can't even bring food up to you. Today, you were in the trenches going against a mostly second-rate enemy, who charged at you with rifles our fathers used. When we get back to Europe, we'll be going against professional, German soldiers, with the latest weapons, bombs, and artillery, who have grown up with Prussian militarism imbedded in them since birth. All the Hun knows is war, and trust me Snotlout, today's little skirmish was not war. You cannot fathom what it's like." He took his foot off, Snotlout's chest, not sure if he should feel pride at putting Snotlout in his place or shame that he violently lashed out at one of his subordinates. It wasn't uncommon, but Hiccup needed Snotlout's loyalty more than his respect. Maybe this was how he could get it. "Get your weapon out of the sand and stand up." Snotlout did so, letting the trickle of blood from the bridge of his nose run.
Hiccup looked at the others. Fishlegs was visibly shaken, he expected that much, but what was surprising was that it seemed to have an effect on Tuffnut and Ruffnut. They were standing up straighter and had wiped any evidence of a smirk off their faces, eyes a little wider and cautious. Good. "Now, clean your weapons, we have to-" just then, Hiccup heard the muffled boom of a shell landing in the town. But, unlike, before it was only the one. He looked to see all of the Berkians on the ground, hands over their head, and he had to laugh. "You guys don't know what that it, right?" They looked up at him, and Hiccup had to laugh even more now. Thuggory stepped up and filled in for him.
"It's just some harassment. They'll send one round over every," he turned to Hiccup and the veterans, "two, three minutes?"
Wartihog chimed in, "yeah but at night it'll be like one every 10 or 20 minutes."
"Yeah, just to keep us awake and rile us a little bit, very inaccurate, and there's no need to take cover. You'll be worn out if you do it every few minutes." Hiccup appreciated that Thuggory was being a little nicer to his former classmates.
"Yeah, but I got 5 sterling that the lieutenant is going to want us to find out where it's coming from."
"You know what Speedifist, I'll take you up on that."
"Really, Nobrains?"
"Yeah, because I think he'll instead want to get away from it as quickly as possible."
"You're on."
"Ok, gang, regardless of that, I have our orders from…Control." He normally would use General Montgomery's real name around his section, but he was still iffy on whether or not he was supposed to include his fellow Berkians. He didn't want to chance it. He walked away from the Berkian group towards his comrades, lowering his voice and explaining their orders and the tentative plan he had. Just then, another few rounds fell on the town, enough for them to at least get down on knee and shield their heads. "Those sounded closer. And lighter. Wartihog, whaddya think?"
"Field gun, almost definitely. There was little to no whistling from the round, and from the sound of the impact, it's probably on the smaller side."
"Ok. Let's hope they stay intermittent. I don't want to go out into the open trying to disable a battery."
"Uhh, Hiccup? Question?"
"What, Fishlegs?"
"Not wanting to sound like Snotlout, but why would it be a bad thing to go out and disable the battery? Wouldn't that stop the shelling?" Hiccup had opened his mouth to retort, but oddly enough, Speedifist beat him to it.
"It's an unnecessary risk if the shelling is as inaccurate as they are right now, at least in our eyes. It's not spotting rounds, they know we are dug in for the most part, it's not fast or heavy enough to proceed an attack, and they aren't raining it down hard enough to try to start a siege. In other words, they're just trying to annoy us. Plus, we have almost no cover out there. They'd see us long before we got close, and we'd be dead before we get close."
"But, isn't it dangerous? You…You know…to leave it alone? Letting it fire?" Nobrains decided to lend his wisdom now.
"Oh, yeah, it is, but only if you're unlucky or stupid. Or both." The newly arrived men (and woman) looked at Nobrains confused, so Hiccup decided to attempt to explain what he meant.
"Look, guys, for the most part, just walk on the sidewalks or as close as you can to the buildings, not out in the open. Somewhere you are already partially concealed if the shells start falling heavy. If it lands on top of a building above you or on you, no amount of cover would help. At that point, it's just unlucky. Just follow our lead and you'll be fine." With that, Hiccup gave the order to move to the barracks, since he was granting them a day's R&R after the battle. They could finally eat and drink something. Or better yet, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut could use the time to clean their weapons. Maybe I should remind them.
As they walked through the town, Hiccup saw all the familiar sights of war he had witnessed in France. Burnt out buildings, debris everywhere, people wandering around horrified and trying to clean up. It was weird because he felt that, while it saddened him that these people were suffering, there was something oddly familiar and comforting about it, almost as if being reminded that things hadn't changed here. As if the destruction reminded him that it wouldn't be any different than the place he had spent more than a year stationed at.
Weird.
They walked through the town, two columns on opposite sides of the street, towards the makeshift barracks, which was conveniently in a restaurant that had been hit. He was told upon entering they were not serving alcohol, but were distributing the daily rum rations. Great, just what I need. "No getting drunk on R&R, not under my command," he told his section, mainly his old Berkian neighbors, not his regimental brothers. He ordered two glasses of water and a bowl, and upon receiving his order, dumped one of the glasses into the bowl and set it beside his chair for Toothless, who loudly and happily obliged. As tradition, the raw recruits got the food from the Battalion chef, who seemed to be ecstatic to be serving out of a building and not a tent, bringing the food over to the table. If you could call it that, he thought to himself. Fishlegs seemed to be disgusted by the appearance, let alone the smell. "What is this?"
"Hot, canned soup with what looks like meat, vegetables, turnips, oooooooooh, this looks delicious." Wartihog grabbed a bowl out of Fishleg's hands, followed closely by Nobrains. Tuffnut and Snotlout handed bowls to Thuggory and Speedifist, who were a bit more apprehensive, while Hiccup took his from Ruffnut. The other Berkians sat down, looking down at the stew, appeared disgusted.
"Trust me, guys, it looks gross, but it's Maconochie's, and it's heated." It wasn't uncommon for the chefs to take food that was encased in tin and meant for frontlines to be turned into a stew, especially since there seemed to be unending stream of the canned horrors. "It's a demon when it's cold, so be thankful yours was prepared properly and," Hiccup sniffed it a little, "even has some spice? Wow, this chef is going all out."
"Yeah, you don't wanna eat this cold. Gives you the cramps." Wartihog added.
"And gas!" Nobrains added from his personal experience. The old breed chuckled at the memories of eating the stew.
Hiccup decided to bring something from memory lane. "Remember when we were in the trenches, after the Marne, and we were shelled so much we had to stay in our dugout for three days. All we had was Maconochie's!" Thuggory laughed.
"Yeah, Wartihog over here ate 5 cans a day, and the Germans have yet to master a gas as powerful as Hog 3 cans in."
"Ok, I was hungry!"
"We told you to stop when you finished the first can!"
"We had heaps of the stuff, Haddock!"
"That doesn't mean you have to make the rest of us suffer! We-We were in there for three days straight, I couldn't even go the bathroom, the stench from you alone was so bad!"
"Yeah, Hog, I have ta admit, it was pretty near unbearable."
"You know it was bad when Captain Schmidt walked in and said we all deserved a medal for risking 'life and limb'." Everyone laughed, and Hiccup remembered their old Captain from the beginning days of the war. He had seen combat in the Boers and was respected among the men, never leading them astray and always leading out front. Unfortunately, he was killed by a sniper in October, only to be replaced by a captain who seemed to only want to push the unit to the brink of destruction. He shook it off, and ate half of the stew and set the rest down for Toothless. He gobbled up the meat quickly and drank down the rest. It almost disgusted Hiccup how much and what Toothless was willing to eat.
They stayed down there for a while, the two groups of old friends talking amongst themselves, occasionally intermingling and creating conversations in a large group before splitting off again, before it the bell on the grandfather clock struck that it was 14th hour of the day. "Alright, so, gang, here's the plan. Unless another officer orders to, no attacks or raids today. Our targets are stationary, so no need in hurrying. Pack up your stuff and get some rest. Normally, I wouldn't keep the new members from participating in watch, but because of the possibility of us being ordered to destroy a gun battery is high, I want you guys to get as much sleep as you can, but make sure your out in the trenches before nightfall, preferably in a few hours" he turned to the old breed, "Pack up all gear, take a short rest, and then meet back here for planning, we need to go over what's being asked of us tomorrow. I want the horses moved to the closest stall to our position. After we are done with our discussion, head out to the trenches as well. Everyone, rotate 2 hour watches. I'll take up overwatch on a building behind our trenches starting at 19:00, but honestly I don't think we need to be worried. They've lost too many men to try to retake the city." The men nodded, and Thuggory led them in a quick toast to a successful battle won, before they went up to see if the battalion chef could give them any seconds on the heated stew.
Astrid's POV
Astrid was honestly surprised at how well the people were handling the cleaning up after the attack. The city's healers had basically put the Red Cross out of work, the roads were cleared in a few short hours, and as the sun was beginning to set, she was told they have the rest of the night off. Normally, she would've been happy and would've gone to see Heather and hang out for a bit before going to sleep.
But after today? The events of this morning still occasionally replayed themselves in Astrid's head, crystal clear, and it only became more frequent after Astrid ran out of tasks to do. She needed to find Hiccup. Not only did she want to talk to her boyfriend about, well, whatever it is couples talk about, but she wanted to ask him for advice, how to cope with what she did.
"It was self-defense, Astrid, he was going to kill you," she would tell herself frequently. Yet, somewhere in her mind, there was the nagging voice sitting at the back of head saying, "How can you be sure there wasn't another way?" Each time, she would review all of the possible outcomes, most of the time standing by her decision to shoot, but every once in a while she would realize there was possibly another way, then having to scrutinize that outcome until she was convinced it was, actually, also impossible and she was right to shoot him.
And yet, the voice continued. Not only would it question her actions, but it would ask questions like, "What about his family? What about his friends? Why did you just feel the need to snuff an entire person out of existence?" It was starting to wear her down. She needed to find him. Fast.
Unfortunately, there was no easy way for her to find him. She had been all over the city, seeing a number of local soldiers and Indian troops, led by white officers, but nowhere did she see the Scot Guard that was her boyfriend. Or the men under his command. I wonder how the old gang held up this morning. They seemed ok in the few moments she remembered before Hiccup shoved her into the room to avoid getting shot. She remembered everything after that, clear as a glass of clean water. It was burned into her memory, branded, like the cattle in Berk, into her brain and she would never forget it.
She needed to find him. In the moment, she didn't think twice about her actions, thanking her father's training and Berk's warrior culture for that, but it wasn't regret she felt. At least, she doesn't think it's regret. But something about seeing Heather distraught over failing to save the man's life and talking about his past got Astrid thinking about the soldier she killed. What were their lives like before the war? Was he young like me, wanting to fight and experience war, or was he older, more experienced, having already seen combat before? Did he have a family of his own, or was he too young and still lived with his ma and pa? Was he popular good at sports, was he loving, caring, compassionate, intelligent, or was he shy, forgetful, alienated and lazy? The more she thought about what kind of person the man she shot was, the more it dawned on her that it was not like animals she hunted with her father. She knew animals had emotions and personalities, but they weren't like humans, they didn't think the same, right? She was taught that whenever she hunted the animal, she had to be a merciful killer, not making the animal suffer and not let any of it go to waste. "Otherwise, it would just be murder," her father had told her. While others throughout her time in London had disapproved of this view, she had always thought it was considerate. Treat the animals with respect by not hunting too much, making the best of what they offered, and not let it suffer.
This morning was a far cry from that. There was no respect in her killing this time. She shot him several times, and for the first time Astrid thought about what he felt when she shot him. Was it a stinging pain or a numbing pain? Did he even feel it? What was he thinking about when he was shot?
Why didn't he stop?
The question rang in her head over and over, and she needed Hiccup for answers. Why didn't he surrender and stop? Why did they keep coming after they had already been beaten back twice before? Why did they want to kill everyone in the city?
She sat on the side of the stone road that ran through the city, putting her hands in her head and taking a deep breath. The roads had been cleared of debris, and while there was no material available to repair homes, people were still trying to use stones to rebuild some semblance of the structure of the walls, roofs and buildings. Every once in a while there would be another explosion somewhere in the city, and she overheard from passing officers that they were just trying to "rattle" the city's defenders. Once, she saw a man pull a dented, unexploded artillery shell out of what was formerly his kitchen, and toss it out on the street before continuing to clean up. The soldiers, of course, had a fit, and the shell was taken away on a cart, the soldiers keeping several meters between them and the bomb.
Astrid stood up, walking around a corner to see the sun just above the skyline of Lahij. It was starting to get late. Did he forget about her? She would slug him if he forgot about her. Dating him was a huge risk now not only because of the distance and the strain of both being in danger of getting killed, but their old friends (or, she assumed, her old friends) were now here and for some reason that made her nervous. She didn't know why, and maybe it was childish, but she was nervous about the others finding out she was now dating Hiccup Haddock, writing home and telling her parents and the ensuing drama if there was any. It was just something to avoid.
She walked a few more blocks before she saw the old gang walking across the street ahead of her. Perfect. Maybe they'll know where he is. She would have to be careful, but she assumed that they would not notice anything suspicious. She started to jog to catch up with them. As she got closer, she saw they were all wearing khaki uniforms similar to Hiccup's, bandoliers and ammo pouches too, with Snotlout carrying what looked like a shotgun, Fishlegs a machine gun and the twins seemed to be carrying two part of a machine gun, with Tuff carrying the gun and Ruffnut the stand. "Hey, guys!" They turned, and greeted her with exhausted smiles and replies.
"Where have you been? We thought you were dead or something!" Ruffnut seemed to forget that she was supposed to be disguised as a man.
"I was in the field hospital, I was helping the wounded."
Fishlegs said, "Oh, how many were there? And shouldn't you still be there?"
"Not a lot of our men, mostly local militia and such. And no, the local healers said they wanted to take over."
"Well, if you've got the whole night free, why don't you spend it under my ar-"
"Not on your life, Snotlout." Great, I'll still have to deal with his idiotic shenanigans.
"What? You're going to turn down your chance to be with a war hero?" He slung his gun to rest behind his head on top of his shoulders, flexing his arms while he did so. She almost threw up at the grotesque sight.
"War hero? How many medals have you won, Snotlout? Were did you display exceptional bravery again? Africa?" The others snickered, but Snotlout seemed intent to keep trying to win.
"Why, as a matter of fact, yes. I fought many Germans during battles, and fought even fought a tiger to save my commanding officer." Astrid almost laughed out loud, but decided to sarcastically play along.
"Wow. Snotlout, I wonder what it's like to be so brave," she batted her eyes, "I mean, a brave, strong man like you, I'm sure tigers and Germans alike travel thousands of miles to fight you."
"Yeah, I'm a target for a lot of people."
Idiot. She should've known better than to use sarcasm with a dimwit like Snotlout. "Tigers aren't native to Africa, you peanut brain."
"What?" Fishlegs groaned, and tried to help clear things up.
"Tigers don't live in Africa. Astrid knew that and was being sarcastic. There's no way you fought a tiger."
"What? Yeah, I definitely did! It had the stripes and the mane and everything!"
"Snotlout, I'd be willing to bet you only fought anything once or twice!"
"Nuh-uh, Astrid, I fought a ton of things." The twins both gave hearty laughs.
"Yeah, like there was that time you fought mosquitos, or fought the Colonel's pet cat, that time you fought one of our soldiers,-"
"Or that time you thought you fought a German general."
"Ah, yes, the tale of Snotlout explaining to our Captain how he thought he found the Lion of Africa." Oh my gosh, did he really? This is too good, Astrid thought.
"Hey! Stop making fun of me! I was onto something, I knew it, but that Captain just wanted to hold me back!"
"Snotlout, be honest. Before coming here, did you see any combat experience at all?"
"Oh, yeah. Lots."
"You liar, Snotlout," Fishlegs turned to Astrid, "We saw very little. It was mostly skirmishes with the German colonial troops and natives, but for the most part it was just walking through jungles and swamps."
"Thank you, Fishlegs," she turned to Snotlout, "Some war hero you are, marching all brave and stuff."
"I…Just…Shut up, Astrid." Astrid laughed at Snotlout's defeat, glad to be back with them after so long abroad.
"So, guys, why are you here then? Is there a reason you're transferred here?" Fishlegs was the first to answer.
"I think it may have to do because we were so hated among the other troops, with the twins making explosives and Snotlout disobeying almost every order, that they decided to get rid of us and sent us here, where there isn't a whole lot of conflict."
"Wrong, Fishlegs, they want us here because we can build explosive, and they need us to blow up that Swiss…Su…Susan…uhhhh...help me out, sis."
"The, uhh…Sez…Sue…Suez-"
"THE SUEZ CANAL!" Tuffnut shouted, "YES! They need us to blow it up because we made so many explosives." Astrid palmed her face.
"Ok, one, I'm surprised you know about the canal. Two, how would blowing it up help us? We control it!"
"Oh, really? We just overheard some officers talking about it in Africa and assumed it was important."
"It's very important, important to keep OPEN and RUNNING." I'm starting to not miss the twins, she thought to herself, I need to talk to Heather more.
"You're all wrong, they sent us here because they need us. We are just so good at fighting, and they thought the enemy would run away from us, like they did in Africa."
"You are actually to stupid to insult, Snotlout."
"Thank you, Astrid."
"Ugh. Ok, change of topic," she pondered how to word the next sentence out of her mouth, "how do you guys feel about having Hiccup as your officer?" Immediately, she got a wide range of reactions.
"He's scared and he's the worst."
"He's very tough and unforgiving, but a good leader. Wonder if that's because we were hard on him in Berk."
"He could be better, he said we can't build explosives or play with fire."
Ok, I kind of figured mixed reviews. "Yeah, he, Heather and I were put on a plane and flown down from France to here."
"Is Heather the one with black hair?"
"Yeah."
"Interesting, Astrid, because I've not heard of planes flying that far. Also, why would Hiccup be the only soldier on the flight?" Oh no.
"I think it was because of the supplies. We had a lot of crates and boxes of medicine and bandages for here, and I think Hiccup may have been on the flight at the last minute because it was quicker."
"Huh. Airborne travel, who would have that-"
"Oh, save us from another one of your monologues, Fishlegs."
"I'm just saying, Snotlout,-"
"Yeah, and I'm saying save us, Fishlegs. So, just zip it. I had to listen to all of them the entire time in Africa and on the way over here."
"Well, you know, maybe if you listened you could learn something from them, you ditz."
"What did you call me?" Snotlout turned around get up in Fishleg's face, and Astrid began to get worried about how bad a confrontation would look to the professional soldiers if they found out.
"Snotlout, Fishlegs, calm down. You guys are on the same side," she turned to Ruffnut, "back me up a little bit."
"Naw, I'd rather watch them fight it out and place bets on who wins."
"Yeah, me too, sis."
"Guys!"
"Ok, fine," Tuffnut stepped between Fishlegs and Snotlout, "calm on guys, save your bullets for whoever it is we are fighting tonight. Or…tomorrow. I wish they would just us a schedule so I can plan ahead for when I need to get stuff done."
"Really, bro? What could you possibly need to get done, other than shooting our gun?"
"First off, MY gun. I actually fire the thing and carry it, you just have the boring three-legged thingy. Second, my seemingly endless ideas that could help speed up a victory?" At this point, everyone in the group stared at Tuffnut, who was grinning, seemingly unfazed. "Well, since you all asked, I have plenty of ideas that would help the war effort, some of them crazy, some of them dangerous, but all of them completely helpful," he pulled a few pieces of paper out from one of the pockets on his bandolier, "An idea I had that is more general is rather than looking forward in time for ways to win the war, we should look back, and it was through this I came to the conclusion that we should use airplanes to drop what I call "air-rows" all over the enemy! See, they're like arrows from the old times, but instead we drop them from a plane! How genius is that?"
"Not that genius, we have guns that can shoot over a kilometer now."
"Ok, moving onto the main stroke of genius I had," he cleared his throat, "To help break the stalemate we've heard of so often in France, I came up with the ingenious idea to simply blow them up. Yes, blow them up. Them being the enemy, and all of them the enemy, which blow them up, we would. Yes. We could drop something on them that blows them from above, or dig really deep and blow them up from below, both of which, I have calculations to prove, would allow us to win."
"Really, Tuffnut? Fishlegs, can you check his calculations?"
"It's no use. I've looked at them already, it's basically drawings of explosion in mountains, fields, and cities. No math."
"Wait, there's math involved in explosions? UGH! You ruined one of the few things I love about life!" He quickly stuffed the paper back into the pocket, picking up his heavy machine gun and stomping a few paces ahead of the group. She saw they were almost near the trenches, and wasn't sure if it was against the rules to even be near them. She needed to ask them now. "So, I left some of my stuff back in Aden after we got off the plane, and I was wondering if you guys knew where Hiccup is right now so I can see about getting it either sent up here or going back to it." She hoped the lie would work, or would at least not give off suspicion of her and Hiccup being together.
"No, sorry," Fishlegs shook his head, but judging from the look in his eye, he wasn't telling her everything. She couldn't push it, though.
"Wait, Fishlegs, I thought he was going to be on top of that building behind us at like 19:00?"
"TUFFNUT! That's classified information!"
"Fishlegs, I highly doubt that him sitting up there for everyone to see is classified, everyone would will be able to see him," Snotlout added, but then turned and Astrid could've sworn she heard the words "coward", "scared" and "for everyone to see" mixed in.
After this war, I'm going to actually strangle him. If he survives the war, she told herself, before bleakly realizing, if we all survive this war. "Ok, thanks."
"Just, don't tell him it was from us."
"Ok, gotcha." She turned to leave, but Tuffnut had dropped back and stopped her.
"So, Astrid, did Hiccup tell you anything about where's he been? We only know he was on the Western Front, but we've been placing bets on where he's seen the shit. I got my money on Italy."
"Yeah, and I said I think he's only been in southern France." Ruffnut said. Fishlegs just sighed.
"You guys, that's disrespectful and demeaning to our commanding officer," he paused, "based on his behavior and his completely altered personality, I think the best option is Flanders."
"Yeah, well, I still think he was behind the lines, why else would they send him here?"
"Just…Just shut it, Snotlout, ok?" Astrid sighed, not sure what to tell them, considering he'd seen 'the shit' in all of those places, minus Snotlout's. "I don't really think I should say, I mean…He told me where he's been, but I don't think I should tell you guys. I'm not sure where they've sent the Scots Guards in the past year…" She should've known saying that was a mistake. Fishlegs was, of course, the first to react.
"WHAT? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh ohmygoshohmygosh WHAT? HICCUP'S IN THE," he lowered his voice, "Hiccup's in the Scots Guards?"
"No. I refuse to believe that. No way any of the Foot Guards would take a scrawny weakling like Hiccup."
"I mean…Ok, yes. He told me who he was with. He's in the Scots Guards, and I guess he's also considered an elite within them for…marksmanship."
"Woah. I mean, really, woah. In the history of soldiers from Berk, I don't think anyone has ever gotten accepted into training for the Foot Guards. This is historic!"
"What? No, I don't believe it," Snotlout huffed in what Astrid thought was apparent jealousy. She loved it. She decided to egg him on.
"He is, Snotlout. Face it, you are not as good a soldier as one Harry "Hiccup" Haddock."
"Yeah, sorry, Lout," Tuffnut patted his friend's back with his free hand, hoisting the machine gun over his shoulders, "looks like my man H has bested you."
"Wait, Astrid, ummmm", Fishlegs had turned to her and from the look of his face, he was thinking hard on something.
"Look, Fishlegs, I don't know…"
"If he's in the Scots Guards, how come he's never told us? Also, if he's our commanding officer, and he's in the Guards, does that mean…" he trailed off, but Astrid still didn't know.
"Thor's sake, Astrid, he's asking if we're part of the Guards now."
"Oh. No, I don't think so, sorry Fishlegs."
"But, why doesn't he wear his badge? His uniform isn't consistent with that of the Guards, none of those guys are."
"Yeah, Fishlegs, cause they're not in the Guards. Hiccup obviously lied to her." I really want to punch him right now. Astrid took a deep breath, doing her best to hold back her anger. Fishlegs must have noticed, because now he was trying to diffuse a conflict.
"Look, guys, why don't we ask him tomorrow? I mean, they all struck me as having the makings of an elite unit, definitely hardened enough to be in the Guards, and they did discipline Snotlout a lot, too, which is consistent with what all of the Household divisions require."
"Look, you guys ask him tomorrow. I still have to talk to him tonight. I'll see you all tomorrow, probably." She nodded her head, splitting from the group and walking back towards the building Tuffnut had earlier pointed out.
Still, everything Fishlegs had said rang in her head. Hiccup was definitely in the Scots Guards, she didn't doubt that, but why wasn't he wearing the regimental badge? Why wasn't he telling the others who he was with? Was this part of some secret assignment he was on?
She knew she couldn't ask him any of these questions, she'd need to figure it out herself. For now, she needed to clear her conscience.
Hiccup's POV
"How did Private Jorgenson find out about my demotion?" Hiccup asked the question to Wartihog, Thuggory, Nobrains and Speedifist, stern and frank, after the others had left to go into the trenches. They had been here for over an hour, but not once had he been given a straight answer.
And it was beginning to frustrate him and anger him.
"Guys, come on, no one else was there at Auber's Ridge, none of the officers in Africa would've known about it, same with the officers here in Aden. It had to have come from one of you."
"Honestly, sir, we don't know. None of us ever said anything about it. We're sorry, Hiccup."
"No, one of you had to have said something. I know you're sorry, Thuggory, but sorry doesn't fix this."
"Not meaning to question you, sir, but what is the problem if that sack of potato brains knows about your demotion? Thar's nothing he can do about that now, and I doubt he'll hold it o'er your head for long."
"The problem, Wartihog, is that Snotlout acts with a complete disregard to my orders and questions everything I say. Him knowing about my demotion just gives him more reasons to question my leadership, and I won't let his insubordination get this entire section killed."
"Sir, you could just court martial him."
"First, Speedifist, actually all of you, cut the sir crap. There aren't any superior officers around."
"You literally were just talking about-"
"I know, Nobrains, but…Well, I've known you guys since training. I don't need to be an officer to you all. You can treat me as an equal so long as we're not around others."
"Hiccup, all I'm saying is if he is insubordinate one more time, either questioning your orders or disrespecting your command, you'd have clear grounds for a court martial."
"We are not doing that, Speedifist. Do we really need to relive the one from last year? They said it would be fair, but we all knew it was rigged for the Lance-Sergeant. We knew it would be a death sentence against a conscript, it always is. Court martials always end in execution, it seems, and it's usually people from their unit who have to pull the trigger. Hell, Thuggory and Nobrains were on the firing squad. The captain picked men from our own unit to show the loyalty we have."
"Or to deter anyone from doing that again. Made me sick to my stomach after that. I swear I wanted to beat both the captain and that prick of a Lance-Sergeant."
"Yeah, well…Look, they both got their dues for their actions. No one helped the Lance-Sergeant when he was mortally hit, no one gave him water, and the captain got his ticket punched by a sniper." As horrible as it was, that was how things worked in the trenches, Hiccup realized. The men would be loyal to the letter, even if it meant executing a fellow soldier who got scared on his first bombardment. But, it made the others marked men. Marked men are not helped if wounded, marked men are not talked too unless concerning duty, ostracized from all social activities. It was the only defense they had in a command structure that demanded unwavering loyalty and unquestioning soldiers.
But Hiccup didn't want Snotlout shot, nor did he want to become a marked man himself. "No court martial. I don't want to shoot someone on my own side, so we'll just need to deal with it directly. I didn't want to be the one to rule with an iron fist, but I don't want any deaths because someone doesn't follow orders. I need you all to watch them, we don't know if they're going to be integrated into this unit, so we are going to face this issue like they are being integrated. Discourage anything you wouldn't do, but leave the actual disciplining to me, if someone acts out. Got it?"
"Got it," was the unanimous reply he received.
"Ok, are we all good on the plan for tomorrow?"
"Ride out with the main column to avoid suspicions from possible spotters, then turn off and ride towards the outpost. Once there, we suppress it and clear it quickly with grenades and machine gun fire, then look for intelligence."
"Alright, Thuggory. Now, our orders aren't specific after that, so I think we could use the depot to stock up with supplies for any raids based on intelligence we get from the outpost," he smiled, "and if not, demo some rail tracks." The rest of the unit grinned and high-fived one another. As a raiding party, their primary job was to go in fast and quick, before leaving as quickly as they came. They almost never got to use satchel charges for the big explosions, and were excited they were finally cleared to do so.
And in an area where there will be no casualties, too, Hiccup thought. A big explosion for us to enjoy and nobody gets killed. "Alright, that's all for right now. I still want to know who told Snotlout about my demotion, because I don't like the fact he's lording over me now and I think I deserve that much. I'm not going to punish anyone, I just want to figure out how he found out, that's all. Now, get out into the trenches," watching them as they walked out of the deserted building and into the streets.
Hiccup sighed, blowing out a deep breath as he sat down in his chair, the wood creaking under his weight. Toothless had fallen asleep over in the corner, and Hiccup didn't want to wake him. He got up from the chair, picking up his rifle leaning against the table and slinging his bag over his shoulder and walking upstairs to a bed he found earlier. The owner had returned to it, so he assumed they must have died in the shelling. It was sad, but death was something that he had seen so much it became just another fact of life.
He unslung his bag from his shoulder and placed it at the foot of his bed, setting his rifle leaning against the frame of the bed and removing the bandolier and the utility belt full of ammunition pouches and his shovel, laying those down next to the bed. He got into the bed, putting his hands behind and his head, finally relaxing for the first time that day.
Originally, he had planned to get some sleep, but once he decided he couldn't fall asleep, he got out his sketchbook and started doodling a little. Nothing much, just the usual sketches of the places he'd been, both Berk and abroad, like the dunes in Arabia, the rocky bluffs at Gallipoli, the mountains in Italy, the fields of Flanders and France. Occasionally, he'd jot down some notes on what was happening, lest he get hit in the head and lose his memory.
Eventually, he got bored of that, and decided for something different. He began sketching the people he met. He became engrossed in showing every detail of the person's features that he could remember, pencil scratching away at the paper.
But there was one figure he was the most cautious, most careful, most considerate. He didn't want to mess anything up, slowing down the usual scribbling and quick pace and taking his time. He wanted to make sure he got her hair right, face, eyes, ears, nose, everything.
Astrid.
He became so engrossed in drawing her, the time flew by. Before he knew it, it was time for him to begin the walk to his overwatch position, and he groaned in annoyance. He wished he had more time to finish, but duty called. He packed everything back up, grabbing his rifle and bag and walking down the stairs. "Toothless," he whistled, "come on bud. Time to go." Hiccup almost laughed as Toothless huffed through his nose, looking absolutely peeved his nap was disturbed, but nonetheless got up to follow Hiccup to the building. "Fine, when we get there, you can finish your nap," he said. The effect was immediate. Toothless' ears perked up, and he started to pant, almost as if smiling. Hiccup laughed at the sight.
The walk over was nothing special, only ten minutes, the occasional firing by the two guns from the artillery regiment having stopped at trying to find those pesky Ottoman guns that harassed the town earlier, and so it was silent. Hiccup looked up and saw the blue of the sky had turned to an orangish-red, with only thin wisps of clouds present in the sky, turning ever more blue as the sun get closer to the horizon.
Hiccup opened the door and walked up the stairs, hoping that the stairwell led him to the roof of the building. He had no idea where he was going, and since there was no map anywhere of the layout, he had to guess where to go when the stairs reached the top floor, but not the roof. Finally, he found a maintenance stairway that probably led to the rood. He noticed that the lock was laying on the floor, broken, and the door had some damage; it wouldn't latch properly. He shrugged his shoulders, walking up the stairs. Now we get to begin a long, probably sleepless night of staring out into a desert lit by the moon. Yay, he thought, walking out of the stairwell. All of a sudden, his breath hitched, looking at the figure in front of him, staring at the setting sun, the glow of it highlighting her hair and shining, illuminating her entire face. "Astrid? What…What are you doing up here? Wait…Did you break the door?"
"Yeah, sorry. I'll find the owner and offer to pay for it and-"
"I wouldn't bother, we usually don't do that."
"What?"
"Fix things. Well, fix things we break." He paused. "You know, property damage. We kind of just, well…We leave that to the civilians."
"That…That's kind of horrible."
"Yeah, I know. Wait, hold on, why are you up here? How did you know I was going to be up here?"
"Tuffnut kind of spilled the beans, I said I needed to talk to you about getting stuff from Aden, but I lied. I wanted to talk to you."
"Ok, well, Astrid, I'd love to talk to you but I am on duty and I have to…" he hesitated as she turned around, and upon looking into her eyes, Hiccup saw something odd. She was afraid of something, nervous, unsure of herself, and fidgeting. Astrid Hofferson fidgets, so this must be something serious, then, he thought. "Wait, why? What's wrong?"
"I…I don't know how to say this…"
"Wup, I knew it. You're breaking up with me."
"What? No, I didn't even-"
"I mean, it's ok, I really didn't expect this to last long given my-"
"Hiccup would stop, I didn't even-"
"-occupation and the fact that we probably wouldn't ever see each other that often-"
"Hiccup, that's not it. I'm not breaking up with you."
"What?"
"I don't want to break up with you. Not…Not yet, at least. You're pretty…neat."
"Oh, thank Thor, I thought you were just gonna call me pretty, like a girl or something." She giggled at his sarcasm, and he said to say, it made him somewhat happy to see her smile.
"No, I wasn't going to call you pretty. I don't call anything pretty, you know."
"Woah, not even flowers?"
"Especially not. I hate flowers."
"Why? They're so much fun! They grow in your yard all hodge-podge, people bring them to you when they like you, and ruin the green landscape by bringing more color into a hillside…"
"That's exactly why I hate them! Where did you hear that?"
"Remember that time, at school, we were both like…eight or nine, er, something, and Snotlout brought you a bunch of…What did he pick you?"
Astrid uncrossed her arms and brought a hand to cover-Was that a blush?- her face, "He brought me Burnet Roses, from the beach."
"Yeah, and you immediately stomped on them and declared to the world you hated flowers in the middle of Mrs. Ingerman's class!"
"I didn't want them! I didn't ask for them," she laughed as she tried to explain, "I just hated the fact that Snotlout liked me even then, so I was trying to ward him off at the time."
"I mean, you still went on some dates with him, so obviously you were charmed by him." He hoped she knew he was joking now.
"Ugh, don't make me yak. I only did that because my mother was worried I would end up with a reputation as a cat lady, and I thought Snotlout would stop asking me after those dates and the, like, three months of dating him."
"Wait, you dated Lout for three months?"
"Yeah, we, um…we didn't really do anything serious, I mean, so it wasn't like it meant anything."
"Oh?"
"I mean, um, I mean…" Gods above, is Astrid Hofferson stammering, this is great, "We just…We just went on a few dates and then kind of started, you know, hanging out and stuff for a couple of months. I ended it, but he stills treats me like I'm not his ex, you know? He hits on me like every other girl."
"Ok. When did you guys start dating? I mean, I just don't remember it happening…"
"It was…It was after you…left." She looked down at her feet, and suddenly the silence became deafening.
"Oh," was all he could say, and all he could comprehend. They both stood across from one another, and because of that Hiccup made the assumption this was what she wanted to talk about. "Is this what you wanted to talk about?"
"I mean…There were other things, but yeah, I do want to talk about this, too."
"Ok." He took a deep breath in, and breathing out through his mouth, "Ask away."
"Why did you leave? I mean, I know you left a note, but…why?" She asked that almost immediately, but he knew that was probably going to be the first question.
"I just…Didn't feel wanted, you know that. I've said this before."
"That can't be the only reason. Why did you join the army?"
"I wanted…I wanted to be important. I wanted to do something that mattered and helped people. Also, wanted to, kind of, well, have cool stories to tell like some of the older guys at the Great Hall."
"Did you get your share?"
"Oh…yeah, I guess," he paused to contemplate what he was going to say, "Look, I have to be on watch, so you-"
"Oh, I can leave, if I'm going to distract you."
"Oh. Well…I, er…" Don't do it, Hiccup you have to focus, "you could stay up here. I mean, but you'd help me. Keep watch. There is a lot of open ground to scan, and another pair of eyes would be great. Unless you have something to do…"
"No. No, I'm free. The local healers and the city doctors, with as many as there are, put us Red Cross workers out of work here."
"Oh. Interesting," he set his bag down and wrapped the tan scarf around his neck, picking up his rifle and aiming out towards the desert. "You can, uh…" he looked for a spot, "sit right there, your focus will be from your 8:00 tooooo… your 1:00. We got a wide field to cover." He pulled the bolt back on his rifle, an empty brass cartridge flying out and clinging against the ground. "Once it gets dark, keep your eyes near the spotlights. I know there's only two, but make the most of it. The moon should be full or mostly full tonight, so if there's no cloud cover we'll get the extra light. In the meantime, we can talk about the other things you wanted to talk about."
Astrid's POV
"So does this mean I'm being drafted into our proud army?" Astrid was somewhat excited and worried. She was on watch. Against the enemy. A real, armed, dangerous enemy and not some wild dogs or bandits.
"Technically, yeah. This what you wanted?"
"Eh, I'll take it. I mean, I'm working with you, so that's pretty cool." Oh god, am I being sappy? Don't be sappy, Astrid. Hoffersons are not sappy.
"Yeah, it is pretty cool." He smiled at her, the dying light of the Arabian sky covering his face with a orangish-red glow, making his air appear even more auburn. Her breath hitched in her throat.
"Yeah. Pretty cool."
Just then, a shout from below. "The smoking lamp is out!"
"Hold on, Astrid," Hiccup got up and slung his rifle onto his back, walking over toward the side facing the city, before shouting, "The smoking lamp is out!"
"What does that mean?"
"It means you have to put out any cigarettes so the enemy doesn't know your position." He sat back down in his original spot, again putting his rifle on the parapet.
"Wait, but in the trenches, don't they know you're there already?"
"More for the individual man. I'm a marksman, so at night when I'm on the board, one of the things I do is watch for an small light on the other side, because it's most likely from another person. If it's a cigarette, I shoot."
"Oh," she didn't know what to follow that up with, "that's…smart?"
"Ummm, yeah, I guess it's smart."
"Yeah," she paused, "So about the other thing I wanted to talk about…" Just then, Toothless, whatever his name was, came bounding up behind them and sat next to Hiccup. Out of character, Astrid may have yelped. Loudly.
"Hey, bud, got tired of that spot downstairs in the nice cool building, huh?" He was petting the loudly panting animal, not even afraid of the large, white fangs or the jaw strength that could rip his throat or the throat of livestock. Like the kind her father depended on.
"Ok, new question: How did you become friends with…him?"
"Whhhatt? Toothless? Oh, he's just a big softie," he ruffly began rubbing Toothless' head, who immediately gave some quiet growls and began teething Hiccup's attacking hand.
"Softie? Hiccup, he attacked men today twice his size…"
"Oh, that's just because he was protecting me," he began speaking baby-talk jibberish. Astrid did her best to restrain her fear of the giant dog, but she must have done it well enough because Hiccup looked over a few seconds later and said, "Oh. You're…You're actually afraid of him."
"Hiccup, look at him! He's killed people!"
"Ok, yes, that's true, but Astrid, look at the world right now. Almost everyone you know, definitely everyone that you knew from Berk, has killed someone." He took a deep breath, "I met Toothless outside Mons, after I left, but he was a wild dog. I knew that much based on the way he acted, which was similar to the way the ones in Berk were. Anyway, company commander didn't want any animals interfering with operations, but I was new and didn't see any harm in it, so I gave him food every once in a while," he put his hand back on top of Toothless' head, softer this time, before continuing, "until at one point, I decided to try to be friends with him. We were just digging in around the town, and no one really cared where I was going at that point. We still thought there would be a negotiation or a cease-fire early on, so we just thought it was a nice vacation from all the parades and the drills. After a little while, we finally became friends. I remember it clearly. I closed my eyes, and stuck my hand out, offering all my trust to him. In turn, he put the top of his face into my palm, and from that point, I knew we were gonna be friends. We spent a week or two hanging out more and more, but eventually that stopped. On August 23rd, the Germans attacked, and we were forced back to new defensive lines, before being forced to retreat again. We covered something like 400 kilometers in a few weeks, and I thought I was never going to see Toothless again. One morning, while I was on watch, I saw him walking through the morning dew, and he instantly recognized me," he chuckled a little, "well, I recognized him. The other private on watch didn't, and shot Toothless. My sergeant said he was planning on court martialing me after I ran out there to stitch him up. The only reason he didn't is because later that night Toothless caught a German scout, and that's when the sergeant realized he would be a good addition to the team. Ever since, he's gone with me almost everywhere. The only times he hasn't been by my side was in Italy and the first couple days in Paris when I was on leave. They needed him then to help with perimeter security but…let's just say Toothless doesn't listen to anyone except me."
Astrid was stunned. She didn't know what to say. Back in Berk, everyone hated the wild dogs that killed livestock, attacked lone hunters or children and essentially loomed over the town like a spectre of evil, preventing many people from journeying outside the town. Now that trains ran through the town, the latter was largely resolved, but they would still terrorize the people.
Here, however, there was a wild dog sitting right in front of her, obeying Hiccup's every command and while she didn't want to believe the story he just told her, there was no reason he'd lie to her about it. Did this dog really walk 400 km? She wanted to doubt that, but it was right in front of her. It wasn't like this dog could hop on a train, or catch a passing car or carriage. It had to have walked. All that distance just so he could see Hiccup again? Does it actually trust Hiccup?
"You look puzzled, Astrid."
"Yeah, well…I mean…it's all very new and unnerving. All my life I've had to help my dad fight off the dogs that come to kill our animals, I've seen them hurt or even kill people, but now you're telling me that these wild dogs can be tamed or even trusted? I know you're not lying, but it's just…It's too much. I'm not going to run away, but…it just goes against everything I've learned."
"Yeah, I get that," he turned to the dog, "it's ok, bud, she'll come around eventually."
A silence broke out between her and Hiccup, just in time for the sun to set. Astrid was amazed at all the color in the sky right now. The few clouds left in the sky were turning red, as the horizon turned more and more orange while the blue sky above became darker and smoother. She'd never seen anything like it. There was rarely a sunset on Berk not blocked by clouds, and even when the sunset on Berk was nice, it was never this nice. The amount of colors, orange, blue, red, yellow all dancing in the sky like some exotic entertainer fascinated her. She didn't think anything would even come close to being as beautiful.
I've never, and probably won't ever again, see something as beautiful as this sunset, she thought to herself.
That is, until the orange Arabic sun dipped beneath the horizon, and the sky lit up with the illumination of hundreds, thousands of tiny stars, all complimenting the pale glow of the full moon above. The dunes of sand in front of her had changed color from an orange-red mix to a pale blue, like an ocean of sand, the wind picking up waves of the small grains and washing over the surface. The mountains behind her were now only silhouettes, tall spires that blocked the glow of the stars behind them. It reminded her of Berk almost, but the skies around Berk were never this clear. There were no Northern Lights, but then again, she'd never seen a sky this crystal clear, or a landscape this…soft.
It took her a few minutes before she realized she was completely zoned out, and somewhat panicked before resuming her duty helping Hiccup on watch. He must have noticed, because he asked, "Something got your attention? The Arabian night, perhaps," chuckling.
"Ok, if you must know, I've never been South of Edinburgh before the War, and I've also never seen anything like this before."
"It's ok, Astrid, I'm just teasing you. You know, poking ya a bit."
"Oh. Sorry."
"It's ok, and you don't need to be stressed about being on watch, now. If the Ottomans wanted to attack and take the town they would have by now, and the tribesman siding with the Ottomans are probably not motivated enough to take any further action, so I think we'll be ok."
"Oh. Ok," she still needed to talk to Hiccup about earlier, but didn't know how to bring it up. "Is it ok if I stay up here for a little longer? It's…Just because it's really…pretty and I want to see it for a little longer. The sky, I mean."
Even in the pale moonlight she could still see his smile. "Yeah, that's fine. Don't feel like you need to keep watch though," he looked down towards the trenches, "it's about time the Aden troops started pulling their own weight."
"Ha, yeah," was her response but in all honesty Astrid was hardly listening to him. She was still caught up in the breathtaking sight of the night all around her, the air no longer hot and burning but instead cool and refreshing, not too chilly but not too warm either, just enough to give her goosebumps. I wonder what the rest of the world's sunsets and night skies look like, she thought to herself. Her mind was now wandering with the imaginative images of what it would look like in Europe, or Asia, or in the Americas. Naturally, the places she thought of most where France, Italy, and Asia Minor, which she realized with some guilt that she was only thinking of those places because Hiccup had fought there.
"Something bothering you, Astrid?"
"Huh? Oh, ummm…" come on, talk to him, you've been wanting to all day, "no, I'm ok." Coward.
"Let me guess, you want to talk about this morning?" What?
"How did you know?"
"Same thing happened with me my first time. I said almost the exact same thing, but I wanted to talk about it the whole time. So," he set his rifle down and turned to face her, "what do you want to talk about? What part, is what I meant."
"Oh, um…Just…I…the whole thing."
"Ok, can you be more specific?"
"I killed that man. The one that attacked me. It was in self-defense. I don't feel guilty about it, I don't think, but I still can't stop thinking about it. Everything about him keeps running through my mind, every moment in the fight keeps getting replayed, and I see a million different scenarios with different endings each time, and I keep thinking to myself, 'what if there was another way?'"
"That's always going to happen."
"What do you mean?"
"The running through the scenarios part. You subconsciously regret your actions in the sense that you regret that he attacked you, forcing you to kill him. It's normal, it means you care more than some people. You know that the life you took wasn't just some entity like an animal, no offense bud," he patted the dog's head a few times, "but another human being. It's nothing abnormal, you're not going crazy or anything-"
"But how long will this keep happening? Does it go away or…"
"I don't know, it's different for everyone. I wish I could tell you it gets easier, but it doesn't. For some people it doesn't ever go away, for some it just fades into the background of everything they're thinking about it. Every once in a while you'll meet someone who can kill another person and just sleep it off. Nothing's wrong with them mentally, they're not insane, but they can pull the trigger, take that life and sleep like a rock that very night."
"Oh. So, you don't know what'll happen?"
"No, but I assume you won't go crazy. This morning was a dangerous situation, and I doubt you'll be in something as dangerous as it again on the Western Front. Well, in danger of being overrun by infantry."
"What does that mean?"
"On the Western Front, aid stations are about a kilometer or two, most of the time more, behind the line. You'll only see injuries serious enough to require surgery or hospitalization.
"Oh. That's horrible, what about the soldiers that need help? Who's going to help them?"
"Most of the time, field medics, but sometimes they don't always get there or get there alive. Sometimes there aren't enough medics to help everyone, so us grunts have to provide first aid, which most of the time is only good enough to treat wounds that just incapacitate. If it's anything serious, we don't have the proper training to handle that."
"I do. Hiccup, I could try to-"
"No," his face became deadly serious now, voice deepening, and Astrid swore Hiccup's eyes had all of a sudden lost their brightness to be replaced by a stale green, although maybe it was the moonlight. "Astrid, it is exceptionally dangerous even for a veteran of trench warfare like myself, let alone someone who has no idea how to operate in no man's land. It is too dangerous, it's why the Red Cross doesn't recommend going into no man's land. Understand?"
"Hiccup, we were taught the basics, ok?"
"Astrid, it's too dangerous. There's artillery of all different kinds. Mortars, shrapnel, airburst, incendiary, poison gas, mines, snipers, enemy soldiers, barbed wire, booby traps, and absolutely no cover. Do you know how to handle all of those things if you came across them, Astrid?"
"Well, this morning I killed a guy, so that's one down," she spat back, perhaps a bit too harsh, but the words were already out of her mouth. Hiccup backtracked a little, looking a little stunned but also regretful himself.
"I'm sorry. It's just…Astrid, it's really dangerous, and I know you want to help, any way you can, but this isn't about being brave. We have to bury the brave ones. Only the smart survive, and even then survival isn't guaranteed. Ok? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up like that or sound harsh, but those are the rules. I need you to understand how dangerous it is. Ok?"
"Ok. And I'm sorry for being sassy. I know you're just trying to help me."
"Eh, that's ok, if Astrid Hofferson wasn't sassy it just wouldn't be the same, you know?" He smiled, and suddenly all of the cold atmosphere disappeared to again be replaced by the warmness spreading throughout her chest and arms, and she returned the smile in kind. "Did you want to keep talking about this morning? Or tell me anything else?"
"Oh, um…yeah. This morning, Heather lost a man on the table, and she was kind of having a breakdown over the man and asking what about his family and his life and all of this…"
"Ok, what about that?"
"It's just…The man I killed had a life before this, too. I just think about whether or not he had a life like mine or different than mine, or if he was good at stuff like hunting, or fishing, or…"
"Again, that's just normal stuff, Astrid, it's ok-"
"But how do I make it stop?"
Hiccup sighed, "It doesn't for most people very quickly. It only fades a little bit. It can go away years from now, Astrid, I'm sorry but this is something that'll probably keep crossing your mind every now and then. I wish there was more I could do, I swear, but I want you to know that what you did saved not only your life, but mine also. Even if you kill someone and it's justifiable, you're still probably going to keep thinking about it or looking for ways that could've ended differently. It'll go away on its own, but it might help to focus on other things, like helping people at the aid station or other things to stay busy. Don't let your mind wander too much, that kind of thing, you know?"
"Yeah, I got it," she thought for a second about another question, "will I have nightmares?"
"I don't know. I hope not, but if you do, don't hesitate to talk to Heather or someone else who's close to you, and sleep in places where you feel safe and comfortable, that can help."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"What if I want to talk to you about the nightmares?"
"Oh," it was obvious to her he didn't even think of that possibility, "I don't know if I'll be there in a close enough proximity for immediate help, but no matter where I am, don't hesitate to right me. Oh, hang on," he set his rifle against the wall and ran back to his small bag and began rummaging through it. "It's in here somewhere, just gotta find it. One second…Got it!" He walked back over and sat down before stretching a closed hand towards Astrid, handing her a small, black stamp. It had some sort of special pattern on it, but it was too dark to identify what the stamp was.
"What is this?"
"Whenever I'm away on assignment, I need orders sent to me at my location in that moment in time, so I'm placed on a schedule and any letters or orders that I receive are marked with a stamp, like that one," he pointed to the in Astrid's hand, "with that stamp, which is sent to the correct location. If I leave for somewhere on, say, the 21st, the schedule says that all mail would be sent to the new position a few days before, like the 18th or the 19th, so by the time it arrives, I'll be there, but for the most part it depends on where I'm going. This will allow you to send me mail no matter where I am."
Astrid was stunned. So many things were racing through her mind right now. Is this legal? Could I get arrested? Could Hiccup get arrested? How fast does this system operate? Can I send him letters to anywhere in the world? Do I even need to be put an address or just write his name or just stamp it? "How do I do this?"
"You just stamp it. It doesn't matter what you write on it, doesn't matter the address, the stamp is how they identify it. Each member of this section has their own stamp. This one is mine."
"Is this illegal? Hiccup, I really don't want to be accused of treason right now…"
"Relax, it's fine. If the letter is received opened, everyone who handled it is immediately detained and dismissed from government work pending an investigation. They all have to sign for it in a chain of possession document, so if something goes wrong they all get screwed. They won't know the difference between orders and a love letter if they can't open it, and can't prove it even if they think they did."
"Soooo…?"
Hiccup laughed a little and scooched over towards her. "Astrid, you'll be fine."
"Ok, just wanted to make sure! I'm very nervous about this kind of thing-," a breeze blew over their rooftop, reminding Astrid they were five floors up and she shivered.
"You cold?"
"No, it was just a slight breeze, I'll be fine," she murmured as best she could through chattering teeth.
"Here, come here, I got you," he said softly, closing the final few feet of distance between them and taking off his scarf and wrapping it around her neck. It was khaki, like the rest of what he was wearing, but smelled like him. It was oddly comforting, and even warmed her up a little bit. The two sat inches from touching one another, Astrid curled into a sitting ball while Hiccup still held his rifle, not even looking a bit tired.
Then, an idea popped into Astrid's head. What if I close the rest of the distance? Is he waiting for me to do that? I'll just move over more and more until he notices and then does something. Slowly, she inched herself to her right more and more until her shoulder was a finger length from Hiccup's. But he hadn't turned, and didn't seem to notice. Feeling defeated, Astrid was about to get up and walk downstairs back to the aid station until she felt something tentatively touching her left backside, recognizing Hiccup's hand and she moved right into him, forcing his left hand onto her shoulder and pressed herself underneath his left arm. "Ow," was his sarcastic response, still holding the rifle in his right hand but keeping the left one on her shoulder, holding her close.
Astrid liked it. A lot. She looked at Hiccup's face, turning the same time she did, and found herself entranced in those eyes again. She smiled and he followed suit, the lips of both mirroring the movement of the other like some sort of dance, before she rested her head on his shoulder, taking in the feeling the tense muscle and bone as well as the smell of his scarf and the sights all around her. She could breathe easy, for now.
Tonight, she decided, she would just spend it in Hiccup's arms, and although some back home would probably scowl at her for 'taking things too fast', she didn't care. This just felt right. This felt like the closest thing to home, or in some weird way, like it was home. Before she fell asleep, she decided to give him his reward for the day.
"This is for avoiding me all day," lightly slugging him in the stomach.
"Ow, oh, come on! If there are bad guys out there I gotta be ready!"
"Oh, calm down, you big softy or you won't get the next part." She smiled at the combination of grinning and blushing that composed his face right now. She didn't have to see the color of his face right now, just based on the way he looked she knew he was blushing.
Sitting herself up to reach him, she gave a quick kiss on the cheek. "That's for helping me, both this morning and tonight. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Probably not do well." She hit in the stomach again, a little harder this time, but still laughing.
"Ok, watch it, mister, otherwise I won't be so nice to you."
"You know, if I helped you twice today, does that mean I get two kisses?"
"Oh...mmmrrrrggg, fine," she gave him another quick kiss on the cheek, much to his delight it seemed. "Just don't push it, ok?"
"Push it? What do you mean? Why would I want the affections of the most beautiful girl in the whole of Britain?"
"Really? All of Britain?"
"You know what, all of the Dominions and the Realms, too."
"Ugh, I don't know about that, but thank you." On the inside, her stomach was tying itself in folds she didn't know existed, butterflies wreaking havoc with tornado force winds in her chest. She put her head back on his shoulder, feeling his arm still around her back, and underneath the picturesque, moonlit and starlit night sky, began to drift off, thinking of only how much she liked Hiccup and how long she was going to see him for before he left again.
Sorry this one took a bit longer to write! I want to thank you guys for your patience and your encouraging reviews and for the people that have favorited the story! This is more popular than I originally thought when I wrote the outline for this story, so I'm trying to take more time to fine-tune some parts of it and bring more of the characters personalities out in the dialogue! And to answer a review, yes Hicstridfan I did use the intro from that trailer, although I assumed it was paraphrased from "All Quiet on the Western Front" because it's very identical to something written in there. thank you so much you guys! Also had to fix something on the homefront chapter, just a bit of backstory because in that chapter i put the wrong number of people that served alongside Stoic. In that chapter, it said 3, but it's actually 5-6 Berkians that served with Stoic. If you like the story don't be afraid to leave a review or even if you don't like something about the story or are confused just leave a comment!
