Another unedited chapter ):
Enjoy anyways!
"Major Haddock. Major. Hiccup?" Hiccup blinked wearily, wincing at the light and waking to the world. The smell of bandage and slave burned his nose. Drearily he rubbed his eyes.
"Are you feeling better now Fishlegs?" He asked straightening his back, he adjusted the chair he was sat on. The boy was lying in the same clinic bed that Hiccup had when he first arrived. His face still had an unhealthy sheen to it, but he had pulled through.
"Yeah." His voice was hoarse. He didn't turn his head to face Hiccup, just stared at the ceiling. Hiccup swore he could see tears forming in the corner of his eyes.
"That's good then isn't. Are you okay?"
"I'm sorry Major. I couldn't even take that one man out. I put us all in danger. I shouldn't have a dragon, I- I shouldn't be a soldier." Fishlegs whimpered, a tear spilling from his eye.
"Nonsense! Fishlegs you are so great, you relationship with your dragon is masterful, and you're still just a cadet! You have so much time to improve."
"But you're the same age as us and you're a Major already! And… and I saw you fight. The man who downed me you took out in a single swing!" The tears trailed down Fishleg's cheeks.
"Look, Fishlegs, There's a reason I can do stuff like that and I sacrificed a lot that I honestly did not want to for something I can't really say I'm proud of. If you try you'll someday become what you are meant to be, and that doesn't necessarily mean killing people really fast though. It's not something you canbrag about."
"Then why did you learn?" Fishlegs asked, finally facing Hiccup. He brushed tears from his cheeks.
"Loyalty."
"You're very patriotic then." Hiccup didn't reply, closing his thoughts. Soon Fishlegs had fallen back to sleep, he looked much more peaceful. Hiccup felt himself drifting back to sleep when the door swung open. Astrid tip-toed in.
"Is he still asleep?"
"He was just awake. He's feeling better." Astrid smiled, she looked relieved. Hiccup looked to the corner sheepishly. "I'm sorry for getting mad yesterday."
"No," she waved her hands frantically, "I should've listened. You were the commanding officer and the more experienced one. Your orders might have saved his life."
"You saved his life Astrid. Don't sell yourself short. Your amazing." Hiccup felt heat in his cheeks as he realized what he said.
"Thank you." She replied, looking down at her shoes. Suddenly her head jerked up. "Do you want to help us decorate town for the Sun Festival?"
"That's today? I didn't even realise." Hiccup sighed internally, he had planned to report his findings to his clan immediately. Yet he figured that disappearing on such an important day might rise suspicions. It could wait a day. "I'd love to help."
"Great! I was thinking that we could do something with the dragons. Since Berk was lucky to get them lots of the towns folk want to see them."
"We could paint them."
"Paint them? Would they let us?"
"Let's see shall we." Hiccup laughed. He had painted Toothless on occasion, mostly for the clans celebrations. They celebrated the sun festival as well and always painted the dragons and had flight shows. Although Hiccup doubted they could put together a good flight show in time they could paint the dragons and just fly around.
Astrid led the way back to the arena, the other cadets were around town setting up other decorations. The twins were balanced precariously on ladders and Hiccup winced when they jumped down fearlessly to join them. Snotlout was helping some of the older men carry water to the area where they would have the big bonfire, he seemed more then happy to go paint dragons.
Banners were hung across the cobbled stone streets and streamers adorned the houses. Several kids ran about wearing black trousers and yellow shirts, holding candied apples in their hands. Berk certainly was a festive town.
Hiccup stopped at a shop to grab the paint, the cadets all went down to the arena to let the dragons out. He picked up a few cans, which he embarrassingly struggled to lift. He was halfway down the road when Astrid appeared, it only took her second to see him struggling to burst out laughing. She walked up to him and grabbed to cans, smiling slightly to herself, "come on."
Soon they rounded the corner to the arena, where the rest of the students had their dragons out and were giving them a rub down.
"Hiccup! How is Fishlegs?" Called Tuffnut, they had all been worried since they had admitted him to the hospital the other day. They hadn't let anyone but Hiccup and Fishlegs parents into the room the night. And in the morning the students had been to busy and tired to visit.
"He's doing better, the wound didn't hit anything vital, he just needs a dew days to heal. On a more cheerful note, Astrid came up with the idea of us doing something for the festival so were going to paint the dragons."
Hiccup had plied open each can of paint and the students got busy painting, or throwing paint at each other. As time ticked away the others settled down and started to take the painting seriously. They decorated their dragons with their own personal flair. The glowing yellow paint Hiccup had chosen really did shine like the sun.
Toothless was excited to get his done, and Hiccup took his time using his fingers to paint the solid dancing lines along the dragon. He had done it so many times that he quickly zoned out as he was doing it. He was almost done when Astrid yelped.
Stormfly looked surprised as well. The spikes on her tail stood out from her scales. It took Hiccup a second to figure out what was happening.
"You've never seen that before?"
"No. What is it."
Hiccup left Toothless who had found himself a spot in the light to dry, and walked over to Astrid. "It's a hidden talent, lot's of dragons have them, you just need to know the right way to pull them out. Toothless has one to increase flight stability. Stormfly here can use those spikes to attack."
"What about Barf?"
"And Belch?"
"In battle," Hiccup walked over to the Hideous Zippleback, and gentle rubbed it's heads, "they can bite there own tail and form a flaming wheel to knock down opponents."
"What!"
"Sick!"
"What about Hookfang? What can he do?"
"Well," Hiccup thought for a second, "he can light himself on fire."
"That's not very hidden." Snotlout mumbled, Hiccup heard the hint of disappointment in his voice, and so could Hookfang.
"Sure it's not very hidden but it's still freakin' awesome right?" Hiccup asked.
"Yeah. Of course he's awesome you don't need to tell me that." Snotlout thought for a moment, then smiled gleefully. "All the other dragons have to hide their finishing moves but you so powerful you don't have to worry do you?" Snotlout said pridefully to his dragon. Hookfang looked up too his partner with a glean of pride in his own eyes.
When they had finished, and the paint had dried, they all worked to get the dragons saddled. They had all mounted their dragons and were about to take off when Astrid suddenly called out.
"Wait just a second I have an idea." Soon she returned pulling a wagon filled with several wicker baskets. Hiccup smiled when he saw what was in them.
"V-formation!" He called out and they took to the sky, wingbeats thundering out in the sheltered arena. They flew over the town, on Hiccup's single they all opened the wicker baskets they had been given. A whirlwind of yellow confetti fell to the town and excited cheers could be heard as they flew on.
Hiccup smiled, it had been awhile since he had celebrated on the back of a dragon. He looked to his left, where Astrid rode on Stormfly. She had a huge smile on, yellow strips of paint crossed her nose and both cheeks. She was leant over the side of her dragons waving to people watching from below. Her hair whipped back in the wind and she moved with her dragon so perfectly. They had built a solid bond over the course of training.
When the baskets ran out they continued to fly, dancing around the town and splitting up. Soon everyone but Astrid and Hiccup had gone their own direction.
"Hiccup?" Astrid called out, pulling up beside him.
"Yeah?"
"I was wondering, well if you could, uh well would want to go and…" She paused and took a huge gulp of air. "Do you want to watch the lantern lighting at the cliffs with me?"
Hiccup blushed, and covered it up by looking at his hands, "I would like that very much actually."
"Great then let's meet up just before the lighting okay?" She didn't wait for his reply, instead she zipped off to hide her joyous smile.
Below him Toothless chirped.
"Shut up."
Toothless landed in a small clearing near the cliffs, even from here Hiccup could see the boats pulling out of the harbour. Astrid had yet to arrive.
Hiccup walked out to the edge of the cliff, cautiously sitting down, feet dangling off the edge. Toothless curled up beside him, resting his head on Hiccups lap, the yellow streaks of paint seemingly sparkling. Except for the rhythmic crashing of the waves below the night was silent. Even the breeze that traced the billowing trees made no whistle. The two sat like that, lost in quiet contemplation and simply content in the other's presence.
Astrid approached from the trees, she had left Stormfly behind since she seemed sore from the long trip. She knew the mountains of her home town well enough to make her way with out an aerial view. When she finally arrived she was glad she had walked.
Unaware of her presence she could see the two, sat on the edge of the cliff, silhouettes outlined by the glaring moonlight reflected from the dark ocean. They were so peaceful. And Hiccup. His tousled brown hair shaking in the wind, his head angled slightly up gazing at something only he could see.
She took a step forward and cleared her throat. His head snapped back, she watched the trace of blankness fall from his face replaced by the ever familiar smile.
Hiccup stood up and walked over to Astrid, she leant against a tree arms crossed.
"Sorry I was a little late."
"They haven't set the lanterns off yet so your good." He sat down at the base of the tree she was leaning on, Astrid slid down the trunk and sat beside him. The boats were in clear view now, and on their decks they could see the tiny golden lights starting to glow.
They watched as a trail of glowing lanterns raced into the sky, the cheers of the others could be heard even on the cliff. Astrid starred up mesmerized by a sight she saw every year, yet it seemed so much brighter this time. She set he hand on the ground to lean forward, she felt it land on of Hiccups. Neither of them made a move to pull away.
With a shuddering breath she decided to do what she had come to do. She turned towards Hiccup mouth open to compensate for the flurry of words that rushed to her mind, she was startled to see that Hiccup was already looking at her. Her mouth hung open for a moment.
Hiccup scrunched his eyebrows and tilted his head, "fly catching?"
"I forgot what I was saying." She hissed, she had lost her nerve though. Hiccup only gave her a boyish smile in retaliation, but she noticed, subconsciously at least, that his eyes strayed from hers and flashed with a more troubling look.
Astrid looked back up at the sky. It twinkled with golden lanterns and flickering stars.
"They're not this bright in the city." Hiccup remarked, he spoke in a wispy tone as if the words were an escaped thought.
"The lanterns?"
"The stars."
"Oh," she had never really spoke to him about his past or personal life, not directly at least. Her mind wandered to the other night, the way he had taken out the soldier that injured Fishlegs. It had been impressive certainly but, she couldn't help thinking, just maybe, that the cold that haunted his eyes in that moment was something he actively hid from them. Constantly hid from them.
"Did you always live in the city?" She asked.
"No, I lived in a rural area, I guess. But I moved to the city as soon as I got accepted into the academy."
"Did you have relatives there?"
"No. I stayed at the dormitory during training and when I started working I just rented a room. I wasn't on the ground much anyways."
"It must have been lonely." She said, a single lantern flickered, falling from the sky and away from the others. She turned to look at Hiccup, who was staring wide-eyed at the display before them, that single lantern reflected in his eyes.
"Perhaps," he mumbled, "but I have a really great friend who doesn't give me time to be lonely." That really great friend was currently edging closer and closer to the border of the cliff, leaning over as if trying too give himself vertigo. His black and yellow tail swishing back and forth.
Astrid felt the nerve return. She spoke before the tendrils of doubt snatched it away again. "Hiccup, I-I I like you." She said in a rushed yet stuttered jumble. Hiccup looked at her, wide eyes growing even wider. He opened his mouth the closed it, taking a second to gather his thoughts.
"Astrid I…" His eyes darted from her again, then returned with a newfound clarity, "I think that is very inappropriate. I am your teacher and rank above you several times over." He reached up to put a comforting hand on her shoulders. She stepped back to avoid it.
"I don't feel that way towards you at all," he continued, "And I'm being blunt so that there is no misunderstanding later on okay, do not have any hopes of us happening. You should try and find a person more suited to your status."
Astrid was mortified, she could feel the blood draining from her face with every word, heart beat slowing to the sound of each syllable. She couldn't move, she just stared at him paralyzed from embarrassment, his eyes flickered from her face to the forest behind her again and again. The world stoped all at once.
His voice broke that spell. "I think you should leave now." The world started spinning again. She whipped around and dashed into the forest, letting the trees shield her from his view and the echo of her heavy steps cover the sound of her tears.
Hiccup watched the shadow of the forest step into the moonlight. The man's grin went from ear to ear, only dropping when he let out a low whistle. "Helloo Mr. Heartbreaker!" He said in a cat-call way.
Hiccup glared daggers at the burly man, Sloan was only a few years older then him but his father was an official on the council. He had used his rank to be a bit of a pain throughout the years. Even the prince was not spared.
"Hello Sloan. Why are you here, trying to destroy my cover?"
"Nah, I'm here to tell you, my Royal Highness Supreme Ruler Lord, that the clan has chosen it's side, you're spying days are over, much to your dismay it seems," He jeered.
"You've chosen sides? Why was I not called to this meeting! Ughh, have you already alerted the Vitikean army of our alliance then?"
"I never said we joined the Vitikean army. Drago sent his son, Dagur to officiate a treaty with our clan. They've promised a dragon utopia for our help in winning the war."
"No."
"Yes."
"No! No, you don't understand I overheard that he was making deal with Eret! Dargo is buying and selling and kidnapping dragons! We can't side with him if that's how he treats the dragons."
"That seems like something you should've mentioned right away." Sloan's tone rang of disbelief and Hiccup bit is tongue in annoyance.
"I know, I just! Ughhh! Why didn't you get me for the meeting, I'm the prince you can't leave me out of something this big."
Sloan just rolled his eyes and whistled for his dragon, the Monstrous Nightmare crawled up from where it had been hanging on the cliff. Toothless trotted over to Hiccups side.
"Not much we can do about that now," Sloan mounted his dragon and took to the air without waiting for Hiccup, "and clean that gunk of your dragon so no one sees us fly away."
Astrid was stomping her way back up the cliff. Something was wrong. Hiccup wasn't rude like that, and if he was he was about to get a piece of her mind. She reached the cliff just in time to see the two dragons flying towards the lanterns.
The Nightfury, decorated in the careful art of his rider tucked in his wings, collapsing from the sky and into the ocean. Astrid gasped and ran to the edge of the bluff. She watched as they stayed under the water, the seconds slowly ticking by. After some time she could see a spray of water rising from the ocean. But no longer could she see the dragon and his rider, the warm yellow that highlighted the sky had been washed away and the final festival lantern wavered and went out.