Part 3
Darkness. That's all there was. A neverending peaceful oblivion. I wasn't unconscious, but I wasn't awake. I was an odd in-between that felt like I was floating. I couldn't move, but that's okay. I didn't want to go anywhere.
I can't remember how I got here. I don't even know where here is. How much time had passed since I got here?
I have no clue if I'm even alive at this moment.
There was something I was doing before and I know I should remember it. I had to tell Dad something important, I think. What was it?
What was it? What was...
~Defiant one~ Part three~
"I stopped the bleeding." A man's voice says. It's very faint, but it still manages to cut through the darkness, breaking the seemingly unending silence.
"Bleeding? Who was bleeding?" I wonder.
"Do you think he's going to be okay?" Another voice asks. This time the voice is louder and I can tell who's talking as I come closer to consciousness. Astrid. She sounded worried.
"He should be alright. He's survived worse than some pulled stitches." Gobber tells Astrid. "He's stronger than he looks."
I can hear her sigh. But, I don't hear her reply. I'm suddenly hit with a wave of pain that I had been too out-of-it to feel before. This is the thing that finally pulls me out of the darkness.
I open my eyes and the room slowly comes into focus. I'm in a house. My house. I recognize that roof. This is my room. The silence in the room worries me. The only time my house is quiet is when it's nighttime, which it wasn't, when nobody is home, and when someone is hurt. I know that people are here. So, who was hurt? I had to know. Part of me knew that I was not going to like the answer, but I asked anyway.
"W-what's... going on?" I ask, not liking how quiet my voice sounds.
The silence of the room is suddenly broken as three people, and one Dragon, yell "HICCUP!?"
~Defiant one~ Part three~
Astrid's face comes into view. "Hiccup?" she says again, this time a little quieter, "How are you feeling?"
I groan and reply "Like I've been sat on by Meatlug." Which was entirely true. I felt awful, but I manage a small smile, despite the intense, burning pain in my chest, and try to sit up.
Astrid gently helps me sit up. Trying to avoid touching the freshly stitched wound on my chest. Oh Gods, it hurt to move. But I don't let Astrid know that. We're Vikings. Vikings don't show their pain.
"You should drink something," Gobber says as he fills a mug with water and slowly hands it to me. As I take the mug , I suddenly realize just how dry my throat is. Before I can stop myself, I swallow the entire cup in almost one gulp. Once more a cry of "Hiccup!" rings through the room as I cough and cough, unable to breathe. My chest burns as I struggle to catch my breath. It takes a few moments, but my coughing eventually calms to the point where I can breathe properly again.
"That was a bad idea," Astrid comments,"You weren't supposed to drink it in one gulp."
"Thank you for summing that up." I retort as soon as I fully catch my breath, my throat and chest still tingling from the coughing.
"How long was I out?" I ask as Gobber refills the mug and hands it back to me.
It worried me that he didn't respond right away. It was like he was trying to find a nice way to break it to me. Dad had a weird look on his face and Astrid looked nervous. Gobber took a deep breath, then told me "A week."
"What!?" I shouted."A week?" The mug slipping from my hands and falling to the floor. The water spilling went unnoticed as I sat in shock.
I couldn't believe it. I had been unconscious for an entire week. Toothless must have been so worried. Oh, Gods. The last time I was unconscious this long was when I lost my leg. This was horrible, a week is a long time. So much can happen in a week.
It was in this moment that I suddenly remembered the important thing I was supposed to tell my Dad.
"Alvin probably thinks I'm dead by now," I voice my thought out loud, "He's going to come for the Book of Dragons."