HEY GUYS! I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack! The story is baaaaaaaaaaack! I've decided I'm going to pick where I left off. Please remember to review and give ideas or advice, complaints, comments, thoughts, whatever :) Have a great day, and enjoy the new (and very overdue) chapter!
"So what I'm thinking is-"Hiccup started.
"Wait a second, wait a second, why are we letting you be leader?" Snotlout protested.
"Because you asked me and you're an idiot. So what I'm thinking is that I go down and distract the Outcasts since I'll be on foot. Meanwhile, you guys take the dragons and storm the cave and get everyone out!" Hiccup exclaimed, his eyes dancing with excitement.
Astrid eyed him warily while Snotlout chortled meanly.
"Hiccup you can't do that," Astrid said, her brow creasing worriedly.
"And why not?" he asked, dodging a flying stick as Roughnut and Toughnut dashed by.
"Because they'll get you too! You're hurt," Astrid argued.
"Besides," Snotlout pointed out, stretching lazily by the fire, "we don't even know where this cave is. Heck, we don't even know if they're in a cave."
Hiccup pursed his lips in frustration, and fought back an urge to snap at the hulking man by the fire. Astrid, sensing his frustration, placed a hand on his arm and shot him a glance that clearly read not now. As she placed her hand on his arm, she forced herself to keep her hand in place as she realized with shock that Hiccup was ice cold.
"I know where the cave is, and it doesn't matter if I get caught so long as the village is fine and you guys are fine," Hiccup stated with a huff.
Fishlegs, who had been sitting quietly to the side listening finally found his voice.
"That's stupid, Hiccup," he stated, his dragon growling in agreement.
"Why?"
"Because you can't honestly think we'd let you be the bait!" Astrid said angrily, nodding at Fishlegs in agreement.
"But it doesn't matter anyways. Besides, they won't catch me and right now this is all we've got," Hiccup argued, shoving his dark hair out of his eyes.
The sun had long since risen over the horizon and the sunlight was filtering through the leaves of the trees, casting a green hue over everything. It would almost have been a calm scene if not for the twins, who were wreaking havoc on everything they touched. Hiccup seemed to deflate as the meaning behind his words hit him, and the green light made the already pale boy look even sicklier. Snotlout felt something twinge in him.
Sure, he and Hiccup had never been the best of friends, but Snotlout cared a little for the guy. He looked horrible, and his obvious disregard for his own life was scary. Something had happened during the invasion, something he hadn't told them. Suddenly Snotlout realized that maybe he had told Astrid. After all, she had been there before him. With no small amount of thinking, Snotlout decided that he would get Astrid alone under the pretense of collecting firewood.
Ya, that'll work. Then she'll see what a caring and good person and I am, as well as handsome, and she'll come right back to me. He thought.
With a heavy sigh, he hauled himself off of the log he had been lounging on and dusted off his pants.
"It's freezing up here, and I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to be a popsicle. I'm going to collect firewood. You want to come, Astrid?" he announced, putting his plan in motion.
She looked at Hiccup, who waved her away.
"I'll be fine, I've been on my own for a few days. I'm not completely helpless. Besides, Fishlegs and the twins are here," he said.
"Oh that's so comforting," she replied, ignoring Fishleg's indignant hey!
"Are you coming or what?" Snotlout urged, anxious to get under way.
"Ya, ya I'm coming. Don't get your helmet in a twist," she called, turning to follow him out of the camp, her ax swinging by her side.
They had been walking for a while when Snotlout finally spoke up.
"So what's the deal with Hiccup?" he asked bluntly.
"Hmmm?" Astrid replied, paying no attention at all.
"I said, so what's wrong with Hiccup?" Snotlout reiterated more loudly.
"Wrong with him?" Astrid echoed lowly.
"Ya. He's acting weird, and he's walking weird, and he says weird things. I mean I've only been here a few hours and I've noticed. You've been here a whole day and half so surely you've caught on…," he trailed off as Astrid fixed her steely blue eyes on him.
"What's wrong with him? I don't know, Snotlout, what might be wrong with him? It's not like he watched his entire village be captured. It's not like he was thrown into a wall by a dragon. It's not like he's been living out here alone, injured, for three days. It's not like he's been starving and trying to conserve food. It's not like he waited for days for help that seemed as if it was never coming. I have no idea what could possibly be wrong with him," she hissed through clenched teeth.
Snotlout was dumbfounded. He hadn't expected that at all. Stammering, he tried to apologize to the fuming blond, but she would have none of it. Swinging her ax threateningly from shoulder to shoulder, she dared him to say another word. Gulping down his pride, out of sheer terror, he tried to explain himself.
"Look, Astrid, I didn't know. I didn't know any of that," he stuttered.
"Ya, well now ya do. It ain't pretty, and I don't want to talk about it anymore. We have one more night of rest and planning before we try to break everyone out and quite frankly I don't want to deal with whatever is actually wrong with Hiccup until after this is all over," she stormed.
"So you admit something is wrong with him," blurted Snotlout, unable to stop himself.
Astrid heaved her ax back and sunk it deep into a nearby tree, drew it out, and did it again. Snotlout, thinking the conversation was over, followed suit. He began hacking away at a tree for firewood only to hear Astrid from behind him mutter something.
"What was that?" he asked, pausing in his work.
"I said, of course there is something wrong with him," she muttered again, but more loudly this time.
"What do you think it is?" Snotlout asked, curious.
"I don't know, and I really don't like not knowing. C'mon, let's finish up here and head back to camp," she said, ending the conversation.
They continued the rest of the task in an uneasy silence, and as they headed back to camp through the densely wooded forest, their thoughts began to wonder. Snotlout was worried about his family; the problem of Hiccup was long forgotten- he couldn't think of more than a few things at once. However, Astrid's mind was racing.
She needed to know her family was okay and that the village was okay. She wanted to know what was wrong with Hiccup, because something was horribly wrong. She wanted everyone to be safe tomorrow as they broke the villagers free. She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't even notice as a large, hulking figure raced towards her. She didn't notice as Snotlout yelled in surprise and drew his weapon. Only when the figure had drawn to a stop in front of her and she blatantly walked into it did she notice.
"Snotlout!" she exclaimed in annoyance, only to look up into a face that was most definitely not Snotlout's.
A bushy, unkempt blond beard that sat beneath a fleshy nose and twinkling blue eyes set in a face riddled with scars looked down on her. A metal leg protruded from beneath a baggy trouser leg, and a metal nub covered the stump where a hand obviously used to be at the end of a brawny and scarred arm. Astrid swept her gaze over the muddy, torn, and well-worn clothes, taking in every detail of the man. Finally, her wide eyes met the man's.
"Gobber?" she asked in shock.
"Aye, it's me, Lass," he said roughly.
"But, how?" she asked as Snotlout made his way over, equally dumbfounded.
"I'll tell you late, but right now it's important that we get back to wherever you all are staying. I need to tell everyone everything. It's a lot to take in, and you'll most likely want to be sitting down, Lassie," he said roughly, his eyes shining momentarily with unshed tears.
"Gobber? What's wrong?" Snotlout asked in as gentle a voice as he could muster.
"I'll tell you later. Unless, of course, it's just the two of you?" Gobber replied solemnly.
"No, no we brought the twins and Fishlegs back, too," Astrid assured him, "C'mon follow us."
A few minutes later they were at the campsite. Chaos had erupted in their absence, and the twins were throwing themselves at each other while Fishlegs tried desperately to calm the agitated dragons skirting the camp. Hiccup's back was to the group, and he was trying, in vain, to calm and shut up the twins. Hearing Astrid and Snotlout's voices, Hiccup turned to greet them, a relieved smile on his face.
"Thank Thor you two are back, I was beginning to think you'd left me here with these two idiots," he laughed.
"I can't say that the thought didn't cross my mind," said Snotlout as he crossed the camp to meet Hiccup who had hurried over to help with the fire wood.
"Here, let me help," he said as he grabbed a few large pieces of wood and hauled them over to the fire, "Astrid, are you going to bring your wood or…" he trailed off as he turned back around.
Gobber was standing at the entrance of the camp and staring at Hiccup as if he had seen a ghost. The color had drained from his face, and he was standing stock-still, frozen, just staring at Hiccup from across the camp.
"Gobber?" Hiccup asked in surprise, starting to make his way over to the man who was like an uncle to him.
"G-get away from me," Gobber stammered, fear and anger flooding his voice, "Get away from everyone!"
He roughly shoved Astrid and Snotlout behind him, causing Astrid to stumble and drop her load everywhere. Astrid and Snotlout exchanged worried glances behind the enormous man, then peeked out from either side of his body to see Hiccup who, to their surprise, was looking at Gobber calmly.
"Gobber? What's gotten into you?" Astrid asked nervously.
"It's what I was going to tell ya. Hiccup's dead," Gobber growled forlornly.
"No he's not, he's right there," Astrid insisted.
"Gobber, I'm right here. I'm not dead, and I'm not a ghost," Hiccup said, taking a few steps towards them.
"Stay away from me! How dare you impersonate that boy! Be gone, spirit!" Gobber bellowed angrily, throwing his arms into the air.
Hiccup flinched, but he continued towards Gobber, holding one arm out.
"Gobber, I'm not a ghost, and I'm not an evil spirit. Here, feel my arm! I'm as real as anybody else here," he urged, the hurt showing on his face.
"Gobber, he's telling the truth," Fishlegs called from across camp as he finally settled the dragons; the twins were still too busy hitting each other to notice anything had happened.
"Not you too! Fishlegs, come here! Roughnut, Toughnut, come stand behind me you blumberin' idiots," Gobber replied.
"I'm real!" Hiccup insisted.
A chorus of yeses sounded from behind Gobber as all the teens agreed.
"No, you're not. Hiccup is dead," Gobber replied coldly.
"I'm Hiccup, and I'm very much alive," he countered, but he had stopped moving towards Gobber in the hopes that the frenzied man would calm down.
"No, you're not, boy. You may think you are, but you're not," Gobber replied, but this time his tone was gentler.
Maybe he's lost. Maybe the poor boy's spirit is confused and thinks he's still alive. Someone has to tell him, he thought to himself sadly.
"Gobber, I'm alive," Hiccup insisted, but he looked more tired than upset that Gobber refused to believe him.
"Hiccup, you're not alive. You died when the Outcasts invaded," Gobber started with a sigh.
"Gobber, stop it! You're freaking me out," Fishlegs whined from behind him.
Ignoring him, Gobber continued, "We were all fighting remember? They let loose that dragon and you tried to calm it?"
"He hit the wall and was knocked unconscious, when he came to you all were gone," Astrid finished in frustration.
"Oh ya? And who told you that, Ms. Smarty Pants?" Gobber said, turning to her.
"Hiccup…," she whispered uncertainly.
"I'm sorry Lass," he said sadly, turning back to face Hiccup, "You hit the wall and you broke your neck. You're dead, Hiccup."
Hiccup closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly thinking hard about whatever he should say next.
"I should be," he said finally, "but, I made a deal with Death."
"What?" everyone yelled at the same time.
"Hiccup, what have you done?" Gobber whispered.
The teens rushed forward from behind Gobber and surrounded Hiccup in a worried mass.
"You what now?" Astrid exclaimed angrily.
"Let me explain," he started.
"What will your father think?" Gobber asked.
"I was hoping he wouldn't find out," Hiccup said sadly.
"That's why you wanted to be bait!" Snotlout exclaimed.
Everyone was yelling and arguing while Hiccup tried to answer everyone and explain all that had happened. Finally, he threw is arms down by his sides helplessly.
"Everyone shut up! Let me explain," he yelled over the chaos.