Important author's note: So this is basically a microchapter, and it's like two weeks late, and the reason is that I've been in the midst of some major mental health issues that I am still dealing with, and since the second half of this chapter refuses to be written, I am giving you the first third of it to let you all know that I'm still alive and that I'm taking a little bit of a writing break while I try to pull myself together. I'm not abandoning this story. Ever. I'm just dealing with major depression and anxiety right now. I'm going to the doctor next week to talk about adjusting my medication. Until then, I just need to step back from this story for a week or so.
So here's essentially the first third of what is supposed to be this chapter so you all know that I'm alive and that this story is not being abandoned. Sorry it's such a short update and that it ends in a weird place.
Chapter 23: Mother
"Wake him for me, would you?"
Astrid stared, completely lost for words, at the woman glaring down at her. The woman was tall and thin with brown hair streaked with grey and wore the strangest armor Astrid had ever seen; it looked almost to be made of wood. She looked to be in her early forties, perhaps. There were lines around her eyes but other than that not much in the way of wrinkles.
She raised an eyebrow at Astrid and gestured again at Hiccup.
Astrid shoved blindly at Hiccup's shoulder, and he grumbled and tried to pull the furs over his head. "Hiccup," she said weakly, then slapped at him harder. "Hiccup!"
Hiccup whined again and finally she heard him pull the covers off as he snapped, "What?" and then, "Oh, shit."
The woman rolled her eyes. "Lovely to see you again too, dear."
Astrid looked to Hiccup for explanation, but found him rubbing his eyes and yawning. "It's too early for this." He didn't seem the slightest bit perturbed by the presence of their unexpected guest, nor the state she had found them in.
"A bit hungover?" The woman asked, and Hiccup returned her glare.
"No, actually. I'm not."
"Good, then I don't have to keep my voice down," she said, and her volume rose threefold when next she spoke. "What in Thor's name have you done now?! WHO is this? It's bad enough you running into towns and sweeping impressionable young girls off their feet while you leave poor Toothless alone in a forest nearby where he could easily be discovered and killed! Are you bringing your whores here now?"
Astrid's head whipped back to the woman. She didn't know who this stranger was, or why Hiccup seemed so familiar with her, but she knew she was not going to stand for being called a whore. She'd had quite enough of that lately.
She opened her mouth to protest but Hiccup beat her to it. "She's not my—look, some things have happened since the last time you decided to remember I exist."
The woman sighed. "Please, Hiccup, don't be so overdramatic."
Astrid looked to Hiccup, who scoffed. "Overdramatic? We had one fight and I don't hear from you for months! Not since, what, last summer?"
The woman's gaze dropped to the floor. "I've had things to do, and you weren't exactly happy with me the last time we spoke. I thought it would do us both some good to have some time apart."
Hiccup gave her an incredulous look while Astrid shrank into herself between them. "Oh, and nearly a year is your definition of 'some time apart'? I didn't hear from you on Snoggletog, or my birthday, which was actually on my birthday this year, so I would have thought you'd at least have sent me something then. I mean, really Mom?"
Astrid's eyes grew wide. "Mom?!" She nearly shouted, and looked back and forth between Hiccup and the tall woman. Those high cheek bones, those vivid green eyes…oh gods. "Mom?! But…your mother's dead!"
Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck and winced. "Yeeaah, there, uh, there's a few things I haven't told you."
"You think?!" Astrid yelled, and then became very aware of the fact that she was naked in Hiccup's bed in front of his mother. Oh Thor strike her dead.
"Oh don't feel too bad dear," the tall woman said, addressing Astrid. "He lies to most of the girls he beds. Although he's not often stupid enough to bring them here!" Hiccup cringed at the woman's yelling. "What do you think you're doing?" she started, her voice echoing off the stone walls. Hiccup rolled his eyes at her shouting and reached over the side of the bed for a shirt. "Bringing someone here, I'm assuming on Toothless, are you out of you mind? Do you have any idea how much trouble you could be putting yourself in? Putting Toothless in? Putting this poor girl in?"
Astrid didn't understand a thing that was going on, but she did know for certain that she wanted to hide under the blankets and never come out. She held her blanket up to her chin and glared at Hiccup. "Hiccup, what is going on?" she hissed, just as the tall woman started yelling again.
"Honestly, you're putting yourself in enough danger sneaking into villages and bedding whatever ridiculous girls you can charm into lowering their self-worth for a night. If I could I'd confiscate your cock until you learned to use it responsibly."
Hiccup dropped his head into his hands and groaned. "Okay, can I have five minutes to put some pants on before we do this? I've got stuff to tell you and stuff to tell her and hopefully by the end of it everyone can stop being so pissed off at me."
The woman huffed a sigh. "Fine. Make yourself decent. I've got more screaming to do." She turned on her heel and marched out of the room. Astrid watched her go, still frozen to the spot with shock and humiliation. Beside her Hiccup sighed in exasperation and got up. Astrid turned still-wide eyes onto him as he found and pulled on his clothes.
"That's your mother?" she asked, her voice dangerously low.
Hiccup gave her a sheepish smile. "Yeah, so—"
"Your mother is still alive?!"
"Well, yeah, and—"
"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?!" Astrid shrieked, her blanket still clutched to her ears even though Hiccup's mother—his mother!—had left the room.
Hiccup winced again and rubbed the back of his neck. "I was going to, but there was never really the right time."
"But, but, but," Astrid spluttered. "Your mother is dead. She's been dead for years. She was, she was, what, carried off by dragons, wasn't she?"
"Yes, she was," Hiccup said, his voice somewhat muffled by the shirt that was halfway over his head.
"She was carried off by dragons, and, and…" Astrid's frown started to fade as it all began to sink in. "And they didn't hurt her. Of course they didn't hurt her."
"They took her back to their nest," Hiccup said, having finished fighting with his shirt. "Not the same one we visited though, another nest. She's been there ever since."
Astrid frowned. "But, she's been gone, what, twenty years? They took her back to their nest and she just…stayed there? For all these years? But what about her family? What about your dad, what about you?" Hiccup kept his gaze averted as he picked up her clothes and started tossing them to her. "Oh." Hiccup still wouldn't look at her. Astrid curled into herself. "She's the person you told me about; when you said there was someone you hadn't heard from, someone you thought you meant more to."
"Yeah," he mumbled.
"I take it things between you two aren't great?"
"She abandoned me when I was a baby, what do you think?" Hiccup ran his fingers through his hair. "Okay, I gotta go talk to her." He bent down to kiss the top of her head. "You might want to stay in here."
Astrid had no intention of staying out of the way, not when Hiccup's mother was here and alive and here and apparently living with dragons and also here. As soon as Hiccup left she was pulling on her clothes and cursing Hiccup's ability to turn her hair into a tangled matted mess as she tried to wrangle it into something halfway presentable. She finally managed a frizzy braid and took off down the tunnels, wondering as she did where exactly she was going.
It didn't take long to figure it out; she could hear the shouting already.
