— Aster —
It was obvious that Hicca had never spent any time around people.
While vikings are a rowdy and often dirty group of people, seeing the other gender in anything but clothes is social unacceptable. It has something to do with one of the gods, he can't remember which one as he doesn't really care for the gods. But one thing is very prominent in his mind; he should not be seeing her in only her wraps.
He edged farther away, trying to avert his eyes from her as his face burned.
Though, as he is a male in his twenties, his eyes couldn't help but flick over to her. She had a nice body, lean with absolutely no fat anywhere to be found. Her chest was rather large for her petite size and freckles flecked her shoulders and legs like they did her face. The wraps were a crisp white, wrapping around her chest and the lower half of her stomach to the tops of her thighs.
His blush only intensified.
"Something wrong?" she asked and turned to him, apparently finding nothing wrong with the situation as she began to walk over to him.
"Well, uh," she was now right next to him, standing on the very tips of her toes to feel his forehead.
"You're face is hot, though you are, blushing." she used the new term.
"Well, in viking custom, people of opposite genders aren't supposed to, uh, see each other in, uh um, only their under clothes." he offered and edged away from her. He could hear his mother screaming at him in his head, accusing of taking away this girl's innocence.
"Really? That's a pretty retarded rule." she noted before walking back to the edge of the water. "If you want to come, you can. If you don't stay here. I just need to check something."
A sudden emotion that he perceives as panic and curiosity shoot through him. "Just give me a minute." he says and quickly sheds his vest, shoulder pads, shirt, pants, and boots so that he's also only standing there in the wraps that cover the lower half of his body and the bandages that wrap around his ribs.
"Humans are awkward." he hears her mumble before she begins to wade into the small pool.
He follows her in, causing the pool to ripple as he plunged into the cold water. It wasn't as cold as the water usually is on Berk, though it was still fairly cold. She didn't seem bothered by it, dunking under the water and swimming further into the falls.
"Where are we going?" he called to her as she surfaced again. He still stood in the shallows, reluctant to let the water above his waist.
"Just come on!" she yelled before diving under the water and swimming behind the waterfall so he couldn't see her anymore.
He hesitated a bit before plunging into the water. Needles pricked all over his skin but it felt nice and he felt more alert than he had in a while. Opening his eyes, he was a bit surprised to find that it was fresh water and so he was able to look around in the pool.
Hicca was no where in sight, the pool was empty and clear, so he continued swimming forward. The waterfall splashed above him, creating white little bubbles which he swam under until he surfaced behind the waterfall.
"Good, you're here." he heard Hicca say so he followed her voice to see her. She was standing on a rock ledge that fed into a cavern.
She was still only in her wraps which were soaking wet as was her auburn hair, droplets of water clinging to her skin in a very- Nope. He shouldn't go down that path. Not while he's only in his wraps too.
"Again, for the however many times I've asked, where are we going?" he demanded as he kept himself aloft in the water.
"Nope. Now c'mon." she said and extended her hand over the water. He turned his gaze from her, though he accepted her hand and she pulled him up with strength that shouldn't be there.
"Let's go!" she smiles so that he can see her canines and follows her into the mouth of the cave.
While they descend further in, he's able to observe her a bit more without her cloak getting in the way. She really is different, from the way she keeps her hair short to even just the way she walks. Maybe he's just noticing it because she's in her wraps or something but he notices that her hips sway slightly with each movement. Not much, like Snoutlout when she's badly flirting with him, but ever so subtly, like she doesn't know she's doing it. Most people in Berk walk with heavy steps and keep their bodies rigid or lazily slumped over. There's no reason not to, vikings are naturally large people with wide and large frames. But not Hicca. Her frame is small, her shoulders narrow and sloping. Her feet pad almost silently compared to his large clomps and make him feel conscious of himself and so he actively tries to be more silent.
"Walk on the balls of your feet." she calls back to him, knowing his intent as she shoots him a smile but continues on.
"How did you know?" he asks.
"When someone goes from clomping along to taking cautious steps, there's either two reasons. One, there's an enemy around, which I know there's not. Or two, they're trying to be silent." she tells him and comes to a halt, turning around.
"Want to finally tell me why we're here?" he asks.
"Yes." she finally says.
"Finally!" his exclamation echoes around the cavern.
— Hicca —
He seemed really excited, and maybe it wasn't too nice to keep him in the dark for so long. Oh well.
Without warning, I stepped backwards and fell into one of the deep pools that riddled the hatching cavern. It was deep like a well and I pushed myself up through the water to surface again.
"We're here to do some more swimming?" he asks and crosses his arms over his chest.
"No! We're here to meet someone. Just one second." I say before diving back down again.
Swimming around through the warm water, I look for the rough brown lump that I know is hiding somewhere in the pool.
Spotting a lazy eye crack open, I smile and a couple of bubbles escape my mouth as I swim towards him, waving and pointing up as I do so. Grump reluctantly detaches from his perch and wiggles towards the surface. I catch hold of the end of his tail and he pulls me up quickly.
"Hicca." he replies as he breaches the surface. "Why is there a human looking at me?"
"A new experiment. I thought I'd introduce him to you first." I answered and climbed atop of him before jumping next to Aster who was staring at Grump with a bit of awe and shock.
"Aster, this is Grump. He's a Forger, though he likes the water." I reply and shake out my hair. "Now c'mon. He can make the water really warm." I grab his hand and drag him into the water.
"Do I really have to warm the water again?" he complains but points his head downwards and lets some of his lava like fire trickle through the water. It sinks to the ground and bubbles begin to rise and the water gets noticeably hotter.
"What did he just do?" Aster asks cautiously, floating in the water not too far from me.
"Forgers have a special type of fire that isn't put out by water, but the thing is that it's more like lava than fire." I reply, keeping myself afloat with my arms.
"Lava?" he asks and his hand brushes Grump's side. He retracts his hand as if he'd been hurt and Grump chuckles sleepily.
"He's not gonna kill you yanno. But lava, um. It's kind of like rocks, but heated up so much that it melts." I explain badly.
"That's possible?" he asks and I nod. "Gobber would love to see that." he mutters.
"Who's Gobber?"
"Oh," he pauses. "he's the forge master back at Berk. Actually, he's best friends with our chief, Stoick the Vast." he informs me but I freeze at the mention of my… father.
He seems to be able to tell the shift in my mood as he swims a bit closer towards me.
"You okay?" he asks and I nod.
"Yeah." I say and push myself a bit further from him. "Grump, does he smell like dragon blood?" I ask the large dragon who looks as if he's about to fall asleep.
"What? No, not really. He smells like you do, but not as metal like." he replies and begins to drift off.
"Thanks, you can go back to bed if you want." I tell him and the instant I do the water swallows him whole, startling Aster which makes me laugh.
"What?" Aster yells.
"You're startled by the weirdest of things." I shake my head and begin to pull myself out of the water.
"So, why did we come here again?" Aster asks and follows my lead as chills erupt on both of us from the cold air.
"W-wanted to make sure you don't smell like b-blood." I chatter.
"Wow you're cold." he raises an eyebrow.
"Why are you so surprised? I rarely take off my armor. And, winter is approaching." I reply, shrinking in upon myself while trying to warm me up.
"Plus you have no body fat." he says and I nod. He seems a bit shocked of what he says, why, again I cannot fathom, and his ears blush.
"C'mon! I'm cold!" I say and break off into a run. I don't realize how fast I'm going until I hear a large clatter behind me and see Aster sprawled out on the ground, palms skinned and heaving.
I dart back towards him, kneeling next to him to check out his rib which I'd ended up forgetting about. Again.
While I'm bending so close to him I notice how warm he is but I focus on my task. My hands work fast, unwrapping the gauze to see that the puncture had reopened some.
"And, this is my fault." I mutter and stand up again.
"Can you stand?"
"Yeah, I've been through worse." he says and smiles up at me. "It just hurt a bit." he says and stagers to a standing position, grasping my forearm for a bit of leverage to stand up.
"Are you sure?" I ask and he nods, though his face pales as we begin walking. Well, he has a slight limp but walking all the same.
The cold seeps into my bones and I can't stop my muscles from quivering. Aster seems just fine with the cold, his face gaining a bit of color as he continues to walk, getting used to the pain.
"H-h-how are y-you s-s-s-so c-comfortable in the c-c-cold?" I chatter and pick up the pace towards the mouth of the cave.
"I live on Berk. It's cold nine out of twelve months. What about you? You kind of live in an ice fortress." he says.
"I-It's always w-w-warm h-here. Or, I-I'm w-wear-ing m-m-my a-arm-mor." I reply, the cold getting worse as I feel my fingers go numb so I flex them to keep the blood flowing.
"Why did it get so cold in here? It should be just about noon." he observes.
Then I'm struck with realization.
"G-g-god-d-dammit!" I growl. "Knock it off Blizzard!" my yell echoes around the cavern.
"Aw. How'd you know it was me?" a voice replies and soon I feel the cold draft arrive and look up to see Blizzard. She's a young dragon, just out of her hatchling stage and she loves making it cold. She's a Frost Wing, her scales glimmering like ice and is pure white, her eyes a startling dark blue.
"It doesn't get so cold in here for no reason, now shoo. I'm super cold." I tell her. Thank the gods it's practically impossible to chatter while speaking Dragon Tongue because of the harsh sounds.
"Aw, fine. Hey WAIT! Why is there a human?" she growls and circles her way around my legs as the top of her head barely reaches my thighs and her eyes narrow at Aster who is also now chattering.
"It's fine. He's actually a good friend and means no harm. In fact, could you do me a big favor and go get Toothless?" I ask her and she nods, eyes still narrowed at Aster before she takes off.
It gets marginally warmer the second that she leaves.
"What was that for?" Aster asks and stops shivering.
"That was Blizzard. She thinks it's funny to make the temperature drop suddenly around others and it's gotten her in trouble with more than a few." I tell him, though I'm still cold.
"Ah." he says and we continues to walk towards the mouth of the cave which isn't too far off. The sunlight is streaming in through the waterfall and I see a rainbow forming.
"So what are we going to do now?" he asks. "Wait, let me guess. Be patient?" he says and I laugh.
"Glad you're learning." I reply as we reach the mouth of the cave. Quickly we reach the bank we started at and I plop down on the bank, the sun hitting me from above.
"Well that was pointless." Aster says and sits down a few feet away from me.
"No. If you walked into the nest smelling even a bit like dragon blood, you'd be dead where you stood."
"Then why did you take me to see a dragon? Wouldn't he have also killed me if I smelled of blood?' he asked, suddenly outraged.
"As if. Grump is too lazy." I say and stretch back. "Why are you mad?" I ask.
He pauses for a second, gears clicking in his head. "Just for some stupid reason." he mumbles and quiets down, his rage stoked.
"Good." I say and lounge back in the sunlight.
Seconds go by before I see a black dot in the sky, circling above the island. Knowing Toothless could find us with ease and continue to sit down as the black dot zeroes in on us and eventually Toothless lands next to me.
"Hey bud." I say and scratch under his chin in greeting.
"Can we go flying now?" he asks and jumps eagerly.
"Once our wrappings dry. And then we can take Aster to see the King." I say as he sits down in between Aster and I so that I can no longer see him.
"Are your wraps dry?" I ask Aster after a bit.
"Yep, though my hair is still wet." he replies and I get up, him following me.
"Then let's get dressed." I say and begin to pull on my clothes as he does the same.
"Why do you have so much gear?" he asks.
"Well, one, I need my armor as often times I get into fights. Two, I need my gadgets. Three, I'm around dragons most of the time which equals fire and I can be burned easily you know. And four. Well." I pause, a bit scared of saying my final reason. "Most people don't like seeing a girl with the eyes of a dragon."
My eyes involuntarily flick up to where he is staring down at me, mid action in pulling his shirt on over his head.
"I like your eyes."
For a second it's as if the words were never said. They slip through my head and fall out the ear. But then I replay them. Again. And again. Wait. Really? Someone who has been trained to kill dragons since he was a baby, likes a girl with the eyes of the beasts he's been fighting against? Oh yeah. He's definitely different. And, there's another thing but I push that away as fast as I can. Too quick to identify the feeling.
"Thanks." I mumble and I feel my face blush again and Toothless snickers to the side of me.
"Ah shut up you lizard." I say and duck under his tail, pulling on my greaves.
I pull on my knee pads and chest plate before finally fastening on my belt and pulling my pack on. The cloak is last, it's weight familiar though I usually don't wear it when I'm home.
"Ready to go?" Aster asks, now back in his regular clothes.
"Yep, now get on." I say and land onto Toothless's saddle.
"Wait," Aster paused for a second, "you're going to allow me to ride him?"
"Sure. You've proven yourself trustworthy." I shrug and adjust myself, a bit uncomfortable in the situation.
"Yeah but," he stopped for a moment, hanging his head. Silence filled the air as I waited for him to say something.
"I've killed dragons." he spurts down, almost as if a protest. A breeze flits by, pulling at the trees before it fleetingly leaves.
"My mother once told me something." I shock myself with my words but I've already said something so I continue. "She said that while everyone wants an eye for an eye, if that were to be true then we'd live in a world full of blind people."
I look back up at him again to see him staring at me, almost in disbelief and shock. "Thanks." he mumbles and steps towards us, climbing onto the saddle behind me.
Sorry everyone that I didn't update sooner! The internet has been down recently (it was hell) and I'm honestly not sure how I survived. But yes, hope you like the chapter, reviews are loved and appreciated and thanks for reading!
Also:
Kyuubi's Death: Thanks, and yeah that does make a lot of sense :D
: I'm sorry but I don't know why your name never appears when I try to type you a response but no I've never watched that anime, though I have heard of it. Might start watching it soon but idk
EXTRA NOTE: Sorry that I accidentally posted the chapter twice but I think there's something wrong with my computer (it's been acting up lately) and I haven't had time to check the chapters but thanks to everyone who reminded me in the comments section trying to help so; Thank you all!