Chapter 7 The cat, dog and the pirate owl
Hiccup had his eyes casted to the ground as if the grass he was walking on was much more interesting then everything around. Really, it wasn't, but after the first few hundred feet he had stepped inside the village, he saw everyone look his way. Perhaps theirs, as sometimes it seemed that they were looking at Astrid. He wasn't sure if it was because of him as a person being here, the whole trial had much of a giveaway people didn't want him here, or the two dragons that were trotting behind them, both warry.
The moment they had entered the village, Astrid had stopped talking to him. Something Hiccup didn't understand. He was glad when she finally came to a stop at one of the houses. Hiccup studied the building and looked around to make sure he knew where it was, only to quickly look back to the grass when he saw some people giving him a glare. This time Astrid seemed to have seen his behavior.
"Ignore them," she told him.
"But… you stopped talking the moment we got back to the village. How is that ignoring it?"
She sighed as she pushed open the big doors of the building next to the house.
"Because I didn't want them to hear what we are saying. They can easily overhear things and use it against us."
She walked inside the building, Hiccup following her, finding out it was in fact a barn. Stormfly and Toothless came inside as well, looking around. Toothless sniffed at the pile of hay, giving it a grin, jumped right in and rolled around.
"What… is he doing?" Astrid asked watching the playful dragon acting like a little puppy dog.
"He likes hay. This is nothing, you should see him when there is dragon nip grass. Takes you hours to get him away from there," Hiccup stated as he watched his scaled friend making himself a comfortable nest.
Astrid watched him with widened eyes.
"Wh-what?" he asked uncomfortable not understanding why she was looking at him like that.
"You remember?"
"Remember what?"
"You just said something about dragon nip grass and Toothless likes to roll around in that."
Hiccup gave her a deadpanned look as he tried to understand this himself. How did he know that? He ended up shaking his head a minute later, in which Stormfly had inspected the hay and said it was indeed rather comfortable. Toothless also warned her about it being rather flammable and that he had learned that the hard way.
"I guess I remember some facts… things… I dunno," Hiccup mumbled to Astrid.
Astrid nodded that she understood and walked back to the door.
"I'm going to get some fish for them. You make sure they understand the consequences of using flames in this building," and with that Astrid left.
Hiccup sat down next to Toothless, petting him absentmindedly. Minutes later he noticed Stormfly's intense stare.
"Wh-what?" he uttered.
"I'm just curious as to how you got controlled by the queen, but I guess you don't know either," Stormfly said.
Hiccup shook his head to which Stormfly laid her head down in the hay.
"You are an interesting person though, being able to talk our language and such. You found a good friend in him Toothless."
Toothless ears perked up when he heard his name. He gave Stormfly a questioning look.
"Why didn't you attack him? Or even kill him?" Stormfly then asked him.
"I…" the black dragon started and looked to Hiccup, who probably didn't remember a thing of that day. He seemed a little confused about the question, but also curious about the answer. Toothless let out a sigh.
"When we first met, I was caught in one of those rope with rocks weapons. Completely tangled up. I had been trying to free myself for hours, but without success. Only got more tangled up in them. By the time Hiccup found me, I had already given up. I knew no-one was going to look for me or even cared about me being hurt. I was only any good for quick hits and causing distraction, not that valuable to the nest at all," Toothless started telling with a solemn yet sad sound and looked at the boy he called his best friend.
"At first you tried to kill me," Toothless almost whispered as he didn't like telling this to Hiccup. The boy seemed shocked, just like he had expected.
"You were saying something like how everything was going to be alright and shouted you were a Viking, but it seemed like you were convincing yourself into believing that instead of me. The next thing I know is you changing your mind and cut the ropes. As every other dragon I leaped straight at you with the intent to kill, but… I changed my mind too. You were like me. Searching for a place where you belong."
Astrid closed the door and sat down at the table, collecting her thoughts on everything that had happened that day. From the trial, to the things in the dragon ring and the way back her. How everyone suddenly gave her judging looks as if she had betrayed them. How people rushed away from her. At first she thought it was because of Toothless and Stormfly walking shorly behind her, but if it really had been that why would they give her the glares they were giving her. Or even the things she heard them say as she passed them. True, a lot of them also gave Hiccup the same treatment, but to get these eyes full of hate glancing at her, being for her, was new.
Her mother, seeing the frown on her daughter's face, left the dishes she was doing be and joined her.
"Where's Hiccup?" she asked as she sat down on a chair across her daughter.
Astrid rolled her eyes. Her daughter looks somewhat miserable and the only question she can ask was about Hiccup. The boy wasn't even her son. Then again, her mother had always seemed concerned about Hiccup and Astrid had to admit she was too. He could partly remember things, like that small thing about Toothless liking dragon nip, whatever that may be. Yet he had no clue who he really was, what had happened to him. At the same time he acted like the kid she had known. Avoiding eye contact with anyone, unsure of himself.
"The barn, with Toothless and Stormfly. He's fine," she mumbled as an answer and lay her chin on her arms on the table.
"If nothing is going on with Hiccup, then what are you frowning about?"
"You think I was…" Astrid sighed and burrowed her head in her arms.
She mumbled something, but her mother couldn't hear her so she said up straight to repeat her words.
"It has nothing to do with Hiccup. It's how everyone seems to avoid me or is talking about me behind my back and may I add it's not exactly softly. I can clearly hear them!"
"I'm pretty sure they aren't just talking about you, but Hiccup as well."
"Urgh!" Astrid let out frustrated and banged with her head on the table, "You're right, you are now and you were back then. I can remember people talking about Hiccup in a not so nice way to put it lightly. I'm pretty sure Hiccup heard them talk too."
Astrid felt her mother hands on her shoulder.
"I'm glad you finally understand."
"I understood years ago… but not to this extent. To think people would think so terrible about him. He's the son of the chief… then again apparently Stoick wanted to banish him…"
Astrid sat up straight and looked at her mother.
"The moment he remembers who he is, he's gonna run."
"I'm afraid so," her mother agreed with her with a sad expression.
Astrid watched her mother, wondering why she cared so much about Hiccup in the first place. They weren't related, not even good friends with the Haddock family. She had been wondering about it for years, but never asked, she didn't really cared about her mother's reason. That was until now.
"Mom, why do you care so much about this?" she heard herself ask.
Her mother looked at her with surprised but sad eyes before standing up, returning to the dishes. For a while they both remained silent. Astrid patiently waited for her mother at least give some sort of reply, even when her mother would say there was no need for her to know. Yet what he mother said next was not something she had ever expected her mother to say.
"I used to have an older brother," her mother started.
It was brand new information. Astrid thought her mother only had one younger sister. Why was an older brother never mentioned before?
"Like Hiccup, he didn't really fit in. He tried, but even my parents would give him glares. He was only good in using a small pocket knife and tried whatever he could to fit in. I always was amazed how well he could use that pocket knife, but I was probably the only one," her mother continued and Astrid could see the similarities between her mother's brother and Hiccup.
"What happened to him?" Astrid carefully asked when her mother remained silent for a while. She studied her mother's back, finding her shaking a little.
"He took his own life with that pocket knife," her mother finally whispered.
Astrid's eyes grew a little wider. Understanding her mother's fear now, she stood up and walked to get the plate from her mother's shaking hands, placing it on the shelve with the other plates.
"Hiccup is not like your brother. He ran, he didn't kill himself."
"No Astrid, you don't understand. He didn't just kill himself, he killed our father in a fit of rage. He snapped… I saw him snap. Only once he saw our father dead in a pool of blood he understood what he had done and killed himself."
"Mom, calm down. I really don't see Hiccup killing anyone."
"You don't know him anymore Astrid. He has been gone for years, you don't know if he maybe already killed someone… in a fit rage even. And even if you did know him, I thought the same about my brother, that he wouldn't kill anyone."
Asrtid had never seen her mother this freaked out before, but in some way she could understand. Although Astrid knew Hiccup was capable of killing someone, after all she had seen him carry a bloody sword. He had probably killed tens if not hundreds of those Beserkers she had seen being carried off to the nest. But he was controlled by the queen. Yet…
She shook the thought off.
"I don't see Hiccup kill his family," she said, also trying to convince herself and then walked to the basket where the kept their fish. She got two of them and dragged her mother along outside.
"Astrid, where are we going?"
"The barn. Since Stormfly and Toothless are going to stay there you should at least try to be friendly with them. They will accept you if you give them something to eat."
"What kind of nonsense is that?" her mother stated in disbelieve, sounding as if their previous discussion had never happened.
"It's not nonsense," Astrid growled and went inside the barn again.
Three pair of eyes looked at them of which two of them belonged to dragons. Astrid pulled her mother, who seemed nervous, along and pushed a fish in her hand before placing her in front of Stormfly.
"Mom, this is Stormfly. She saved my life actually. Now would you please thank her by giving her the fish?"
Astrid watched her mother, still looking somewhat baffled about what she just said, but eventually held the fish up to the dragon. She heard soft dragon whispers coming from Hiccup, wondering what he was saying, she saw Stormfly take the fish carefully and swallow it whole, then giving a content purr. Hiccup had probably assured Stormfly it was alright to take the fish.
Her mother was admiring the deadly nadder, but she pulled her sideways a few steps so she was standing in front of Toothless.
"This is Toothless, a night fury, he saved Hiccup," Astrid started but was interrupted by Hiccup.
"He did? How? When?" Hiccup said and looked questioning at his dragon friend.
Toothless looked a little baffled and in return gave Astrid a questioning look as if to ask 'how do you know'.
"By being your friend," Astrid stated and then grinned, "though I do think he also saved you a couple of times from near death experiences."
This time her mother seemed a little more courageous and held out the fish for Toothless. The black scaled dragon looked from the fish to Hiccup who nodded back to the fish, before finally carefully opening his mouth.
Astrid stared at the toothless mouth and started grinning.
"So that is why you called him Toothless," she said.
Toothless took the fish, swung it in the air, let his teeth show again, caught the fish with ease and swallowed it whole. He then said something to Hiccup who gave him a face of disgust.
"That's disgusting! I'm sure I threw up right after you made me do that!" he suddenly shouted at the dragon.
Toothless gave the boy a glare saying something back to which Hiccup replied with an even more disgusted face.
"Don't ya dare doing that now."
Astrid and her mother had no idea what was going on or what the conversation was about, but apparently something revolting.
"Hiccup, what did he say that you look so disgusted?"
Hiccup looked away from Toothless to Astrid who gave him a curious look.
"Apparently he threw up part of the fish I gave him and made me eat and I was crazy enough to actually do so too."
Astrid had to admit that sounded disgusting indeed. It was then her mother announced they should get inside the house, so they bid the two dragons goodnight, Hiccup making sure they knew about the consequences of breathing fire in here.
As the three left the barn, Felman, Astrid's father came walking to them with a grumpy expression crossing his face. The moment he saw his daughter he it lightened up.
"My daughter, the dragon trainer," he grinned.
"Well actually… I just did that because I saw Hiccup being friends with a dragon," Astrid replied and saw her father look over to Hiccup, who seemed to be rather uncomfortable with the man's stare.
Falman slapped Hiccup on his shoulder, making him almost fall forward.
"You might have forgotten who you are, but it seems you are still the same," Felman grinned and pushed the young man inside.
Astrid and her mother followed.
"Ingrid, I agreed with him staying here, but where do you plan on letting him sleep?" Felman asked as he sat down.
Hiccup was looking around not knowing what to do until Astrid gestured him to sit down as well, so he did. Astrid took the chair next to his. She planted her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands. Ready for interrogation. She was sure her parents wanted to know everything.
Neither parent however asked any of it and Astrid's mother closed the door behind her as she came in.
"Why Astrid's room of course," she said sounding like her husband had asked a stupid question.
"What?!" came from both Astrid and her father.
Astrid gaped at her mother in disbelieve, no longer leaning her head on her, while her father slammed both his fist on the table. Astrid felt the table shake under her arms.
"No boy sleeps in the same room as my daughter!" he shouted infuriated as he stood up from his chair, almost knocking the chair over.
"And here I thought you wanted your daughter to get married some day and get grandkids, " Ingrid deadpanned.
"Mom!" Astrid now shouted with a slightly flushed face.
"Fine, no boy sleeps in the same room as my daughter unless he is married to her," Felman rephrased whilst glared at his wife and sat down again.
This made Astrid face only getting redder in embarrassment.
"I'm not ever getting married, ya hear me!" she pretty much shouted and glared at both her parents, who completely ignored her and bickered on about Hiccup staying in Astrid's room or not.
"Woman you are out of your mind. Who knows what he will do to her!" the argument went on, much to Astrid annoyance.
"Quite frankly I think she could easily do something to me instead of me doing something to her," Hiccup mumbled, expecting no-one to have heard, but they all turned their face to him.
Ingrid was grinning, Felman wasn't sure of what expression to make and Astrid… well Astrid seemed to completely embarrassed for some reason Hiccup could not follow.
"Don't make things worse," she mumbled between her teeth.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Hiccup asked confused.
"What are you planning daughter?" Felman asked as he looked at Astrid with a serious face.
"I'm not planning anything!" Astrid shouted at her father and kicked the man from under the table, "stop thinking stupid things!"
Her father turned his attention to Hiccup, "What about you. What are you planning to do to her?"
Hiccup had no idea how to answer that question and just gave the man a dump and confused look.
"No sex," Felman said sternly.
Astrid slammed her head on the table at how bluntly her father had put that, while Hiccup lost track of this conversation completely. He gave the man an even more confused look, who's brow then furrowed.
"You do know what that means… right?" he asked, sounding not so sure Hiccup did.
Astrid dared to look to the boy next to her, who carefully and ever so slowly shook his head, looking somewhat embarrassed for not knowing. He looked even more ashamed of lack of knowledge when she let out a soft snicker, that turned into laughter soon after.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she managed to utter to Hiccup and turned her attention to her father, "seriously, dad. Still think he's gonna do things?"
The man looked somewhat defeated, but he was a Hofferson, so he didn't give in too quickly.
"I just think it's a bad idea you have a boy in your room," he huffed.
"Oh, would you stop the whining about that already, Felman!" Ingrid snapped at him.
Hiccup and Astrid watched the heated discussion. Hiccup with a feeling of guilt that his presence had caused this fight. Astrid with embarrassment, for the discussion mostly involved her being around boys in a more tomboyish way than feminine. Her eyes were locked on the table as she wished Hiccup wouldn't think weird of her because of everything that was being said.
All of a sudden it went silent, it got the girl curious and she looked up. She wish she hadn't when she saw her parents lip locked. Her mother placing her father under a spell as he complete seemed to have forgotten the fight the moment they parted. Astrid shuddered when she heard her mother whisper seductively to her father. After all these years and they still were like this, it was somehow sickening to see. Especially since Vikings aren't known for being lovely dovely as those two are. Making Astrid wonder more and more how on earth these two even managed to get together. Mere luck? It was highly annoying to watch as well and Astrid could only hope she would never end up like that crazy couple that were her parents. To her surprise however, her father completely dropped the issue of Hiccup sleeping in her room. Not that she herself was really fond with it, but then again the boy had just proven that he had absolutely no intention of doing anything. Not like half the adolescence male population of Berk that is. Hel, boys were annoying… well could be. The thought of Snotlout being at the top of the list was interrupted by her mother calling out her name.
"Huh? What?" Astrid replied not having a clue what her mother just said.
"You still have some explaining to do," she stated.
Astrid sighed, but nodded. She at least owed her parents that much. So she started with the dragon raid, how she launched a bola at some dragon who turned out to carry a human on his back. How she had tracked down, but had been stupid to get caught herself. That part was the most humiliating, a Hofferson doesn't make such a basic mistake. So she quickly went to the next part where she found out about the person being Hiccup. Hiccup looked a little depressed when Astrid told he thought he was a dragon, that change to horror when she told he was trying to kill her. They all were confused, Hiccup included, that he release Astrid in a game of cat and mouse. Both her parents' eyes widened when she told she went into the kill ring without a weapon. Of course they were surprised to hear the dragon, Stormfly, didn't attack without remorse. It was completely the opposite of what everyone was taught. She continued with how she fell of Stormfly, leaving out the fact that they almost got hit by thunder, instead said it was strong wind. There was no way she would give her parents any hint of how she might have enrage Thor. She also skipped the part where she saw Hiccup leading a flock of dragons carrying dead people. This had two reason, number one was the story about her mother's brother. She couldn't bring herself to scare her mother even more than she already was. Number two was Hiccup's already horrified face. He looked even more troubled when she continued with the part where he still thought he was a dragon and ran off after something Stormfly had said.
"And that's when I got them out of the air and the rest you know," Astrid ended her story. Her throat felt a little sour from all the talking and she took a sip of the cooled down tea her mother had made when Astrid had started the tale. It was soothing. Her mother gave her a worried look and then looked over to Hiccup.
"Is something wrong?" he asked sounding uncertain.
"I'm just worried. What if you fall under that dragon queen's control again," Ingrid sighed and turned to look back at Astrid, "Make sure that doesn't happen. No offence, Hiccup, but you sound rather dangerous under that queen's control."
"No, it's okay," he mumbled whilst playing with his muck which was already empty, "I agree."
Astrid swallowed her last bit of tea with guilt. She had to tell him about the part with the Beserkers, just not with her mother around. Her mother then stood up and disappeared into another room, only to come back a minute later with a pile of furs and blankets. The pile was pushed into Astrid's arm and then she and Hiccup were shooed upstairs. Astrid saw her father about to protest once again, but he was quickly to occupied with… something else that made Astrid shiver and run for it as quickly as her legs would let her.
Hiccup followed her, hitting his head on the way up and again when he tried to enter Astrid's room.
"Oh come on," he muttered as his face was leaking that he was in pain.
Astrid shook her head grinning. She placed the pile on her bed and walked over to boy who was rubbing the painful spot.
"Let me look at it," she stated and already pulled his hands away.
It was then she noticed how tall he had actually gotten. He was now taller than she was.
"And?" he asked.
Astrid checked the spot, it looked somewhat red and perhaps you would get a bump, but he didn't walk into something that scratched him open, luckily.
"You'll be fine," she smiled at him and walked back to her bed.
He rubbed the spot some more as he seemed to be annoyed with himself. Astrid didn't give him a lot of time to think about his own stupid… or rather careless behavior and threw the two blankets to him.
"Let's get your bed ready," she announced as she twirled around so her back was to her door in order to search for a good spot for Hiccup to sleep.
Her room wasn't very big. Her bed was in the middle against the wall on her left, with a nightstand on the right where her candle was. Her desk, which hasn't been used a lot the last few years, was all way in the back of her room. All that was on it was one single book, a pencil and three sheets of empty paper. Right across her bed, against the wall, was her chest, with on the left of it her weapons. The only empty spot that seemed big enough was right next to the door.
So Astrid spread out the furs so the floor wouldn't be too hard.
"There, sorry, can't make much more of it," she said as she looked at the sad sight of the improvised bed.
"It's fine enough," Hiccup shrugged and sat down on the furs, placed the blanket at the end and started getting rid of his boots. Astrid sat down on her bed andwatched him for a while after he lay down. His back was towards her. She had an inner argument about tell him about the Beserkers or not. She eventually convinced herself into telling when she said to herself he should know exactly how dangerous he could be if he were to fall under the queen's control again.
"Hiccup?"
"Hm?" he only let out, but rolled around so he was now looking at her.
With a soft voice she continued, so her parents downstairs wouldn't hear a word she was about to say.
"I left one part out, so my mom wouldn't freak out."
This caught his full attention and he sat up as he looked alarmed and uncomfortable at her.
"When I went to find you, you and Toothless came back from a raid. You… killed people… Vikings," she said so softly she wasn't sure he had heard, but the expression of fear that now crossed his face told her he did.
"I don't know how many, but I saw you carrying a sword covered in blood. Your hands were covered in blood too."
He now looked at the blanket with guilt for something he couldn't even remember. Astrid immediately regretted telling him. With a sigh she stood up from her bed and kneeled down next to him. Never in her life would she have guessed she was ever going to do what she was just about to do.
"Hiccup," she whispered and grasped his hand to get his attention, "you were controlled. It wasn't your fault."
"But…" he started, looking up from his blanket, but saw her shake her head a little.
"If you ask me, you did everyone favor. They were Beserkers. Besides dragons, Beserkers are the biggest thread to everyone in the archipelago. Them and outcasts that is. Just don't think about it, okay?"
He let out a sorrowful sigh, but nodded eventually.
"Just…" he started, as he had started staring at his blanket again, "I shouldn't get my stuff back… you know… the things they took from me before they pushed me in prison… Also I think it's better to take away Toothless prostatic tailfin and you should hide it somewhere. In case I do get under her control… that way I can't, well… leave."
Astrid gave him a smile and said to do that in the morning, but they should go to sleep first. She got up, walked back to her bed, kicked her boots off and wished Hiccup goodnight.
Hiccup wondered how long it had been since he heard Astrid's parents go to bed. There had been some loud noises for while after that, he wanted to ask Astrid, but she had fallen asleep as soon as her head made contact with her pillow. He didn't want to wake her so let it be and the noises downstairs were gone eventually. He wondered if Astrid's parents had continued their argument, then told himself it was none of his business, until he reminded himself he was the reason of the argument. They also had a weird way to deal with an argument he thought.
Frustrated the boy stared at the ceiling, unable to get to sleep. Aside from the argument shortly before going to bed, his mind was filled with questions. For example how did he remember Toothless liked dragon nip? He remembers what dragon nip looks like and he could vaguely recall a black blur rolling around green grass, but he couldn't place it anywhere on a timeline. He had no idea when it happened.
Then there was that thing Toothless told him, he had tried killing the dragon. This he couldn't remember at all, no matter how hard he tried. To top it off there was this feeling he had towards that black scaled creature that told him it was his best friend, but he couldn't explain why.
Not to forget he had actually killed people, sure Astrid didn't know how many and neither did he, but the knowledge that he had haunted him.
He was startled out of his thoughts by loud thunder, followed by rain pouring down. With a sigh he tried finding a comfortable position so he could give sleep another attempt. However, in his twisting, turning and rolling around he ended up hitting the back of his head hard against something when he wanted to roll on his back. Not only did the hit in itself make a loud noise, it moved the object away from him a little followed by the sound of several other items falling down.
Astrid shot up from the sudden noise, crawled to the end of her bed and found her stuff, sword, knifes, axe, books and what more, spread over the floor. Next to her chest that was filled with old books and toys from her childhood she found Hiccup clutching the back of his head with both his hand as he grumbled in pain. Not a minute later both her parents were standing in the room to check what in the world was going on, both staring down at Hiccup, who started apologizing for the noise.
The boy sat up straight, explaining that he hit the chest when he rolled to his back.
Astrid tried not to laugh at this, especially since he seemed to be near tears, he must have hit the chest really hard, but this was so typical Hiccup that she just was glad typical Hiccup was still in there.
She had no idea when her father went downstairs, but when he got back he put a cloth, probably filled with ice, on Hiccup's head whilst chuckling. Hiccup looked between embarrassed and annoyed by this, mixed with a hint of gratitude for the ice when it was placed on the painful spot.
Her father then left as her mother tended for Hiccup and she got out of bed to clean up the mess Hiccup had made. How typical, Astrid thought with a grin as she placed her stuff to the furthest end of the room, far away from Hiccup.
"What is it with you and hitting your head?" she couldn't help ask.
"Oh you know, that's how ideas come to me," Hiccup mumbled as a sarcastic reply, to which both women laughed a bit.
"That must have been quite the wakeup call," she heard her mother say as she was moving the chest, the cause of all this.
"Actually… I was not asleep," Hiccup mumbled.
Both Astrid and her mother gave the boy a questioning look, making him look at the blankets.
"I-I couldn't," came from him almost inaudible.
Astrid saw her mother shake her head with a sigh as she sat down on the end of her bed.
"I'm not entirely surprised with everything that has been going on," Ingrid said as she watched the boy looking at the blankets in shame, "you have to stop thinking and asking yourself question you cannot answer right now, Hiccup."
"I know," he mumbled, and she was sure he did know, but simply couldn't help it.
Not that she could blame him for that. She could only imagine what was going on in that head of his. He was the complete opposite of his cousin and had always preferred thinking over doing, even now with his amnesia he still had this characteristic it seemed.
Ingrid thought of how to help him get to sleep, but her mind was tired as well and all that came to her was a bedtime story she used to tell when Astrid was restless and wouldn't go to sleep. Not coming up with something else, she proposed the idea. Her daughter's reaction was expected.
"Nope, I'm out now. Goodnight. Hiccup, please try not to knock things over again."
And with that Astrid had turned her back towards Ingrid with the covers pulled up higher than normal. Hiccup looked a little hurt or perhaps ashamed by it.
"Ignore her, do you want to give it a try?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders, "trying won't hurt I guess."
Ingrid nodded and instructed him to not think of anything else but the story. Meaning he could imagine what the scene looked like, but he shouldn't start asking questions or think too much of the details.
Hiccup nodded an lay down, closing his eyes as Ingrid threw her daughter a look. Of course Astrid was still awake and she was bound to hear the story. The covers weren't soundproof. Just to tease her daughter a little Ingrid decided to go with one of her daughter's favorite stories when she was six, but with some minor changes, mainly less violent and no dragons. She started talking about a cat, who left his home because he found it boring. How he got on a ship and started venturing the world. How he would befriend a dog who first tried to catch him and sell him as a slave for the dogs, but in a weird turn of events the cat saved the dog's life.
Ingrid was just about to start telling how the cat and dog got in trouble with a pirate ship lead by an owl when she saw Hiccup was asleep. She wasn't sure for how long he had been, being caught up in the story herself, it had been ages and she really did like telling stories. The good thing was that it had worked.
She gave her daughter a look. Astrid too was asleep and was mumbling something the pirate owl would have said later in the story. Ingrid couldn't help but smile, to think that after all these years her daughter would still remember the story to the detail. Silently she left the room.
AN:
A little shorter than normal, sorry. If I went any further then it would have gotten too long. I wanted to display the relationship between Astrid and her parents a little and go a little deeper with what Hiccup remembers and what not. Actually I only touched the surface there. I hope you like it.
When I planned this chapter out, my body thought it was fun to let me go through what Hiccup was going through... well sorta, I did fall asleep but woke at 4.30 and couldn't go back to sleep. So a little personal experience there (including the hitting head part actually, but I was asleep when I did that). I'm sorry Hiccup!
Please let me know if you spot a spelling or grammar mistake. I'm not English and on top of it I have dyslexia so I don't always spot the mistakes. My beta also currently busy.