HELLLOOOOOOOOOO EVERYBODY! :D So, I think there will be ONE MORE CHAPTER after this, and then we're done with the story! :D YAY! Thanks to all who read, review, fav, and follow! I love you guys! :D Enjoy chapter 5! :D
Hiccup was never sure what happened during the time he was sick. Most of it was a blur of mixed words and feverish dreams, followed by coughs and the endless feeling of nausea clawing at his stomach, offering him no break from it.
The thing he remembered the most were the delusions he had. Well, he didn't know they were delusions, only because they felt so real, but Astrid called them delusions everytime he woke up from one, so that's what he assumed they were.
That didn't mean going through them was made any easier, however. He still thought they were real. They still felt so real. He couldn't tell what was reality and what was a dream until he woke up and learned either way. He was pretty sure he never wanted to get sick ever again after this. It was never fun, but he was being reminded of how horrible Eel Pox really was. When he got it when he was seven, the only thing he remembered was being scared of dragons killing him or his father, along with his Dad taking care of him…
That was another thing. He wanted his Dad. He thought he overheard Fishlegs telling Astrid that Stoick was on his way sometime during his half-awake state, but for all Hiccup knew, that could have been another delusion. Nevertheless, he wanted his father with him. Having Astrid was a great comfort, but his father was...different. There was something comforting about having his parent with him that Hiccup couldn't fully grasp or explain.
He felt as though he were burning from the inside out, almost as if he were being roasted over an open flame. Heat rushed through his veins, but despite that, he was shivering. He knew it was chills, in the back of his mind, and he knew he had a fever, but that didn't exactly help him very much in the end.
Suddenly, the image in his mind's eyes shifted, and he was standing in the plaza of Berk. He didn't know how he got there, or whether or not this was a delusion...it felt real. Real, but at the same time, not real. He felt as though he were truly standing there, at Berk.
Only, the village was in flames. Not all of it: two or three houses, to be exact. Dragons swooped overhead, carrying livestock in their claws.
But we made peace with the dragons, didn't we? We shouldn't still be at war...what's going on? That was the problem: he didn't know what the heck was going on, what was real and what was fake...it was getting harder and harder to decide either way.
Villagers were looking at him with disappointment, and he could only assume that it was because of something he did. Again. He was always doing something wrong. He was always doing something he needed to apologize.
"Sorry...burning village…" he mumbled, wondering briefly why it was so hard to talk. "Again...sorry...my fault…"
Or, he assumed it was his fault. It normally was.
He felt something (or someone) touch his arm, and the scene faded. He didn't bother opening his eyes: his lids felt too heavy to do even that little bit. He sighed, letting himself relax.
I'm pretty sure that was a delusion, he thought to himself, although he really didn't know either way.
Then, he heard a voice, and not just any voice, but the voice of someone he knew. The voice of someone he had been hoping to hear. "It's alright, Hiccup," the voice whispered; the voice of his father. Hiccup sighed again in relief. His father was here.
Or was this another delusion?
No, he didn't think this was a delusion. It felt too real. He felt his father's strong yet gentle hand resting over his own. It was tangible; his father was there with him.
"It's alright," Stoick said. "Just sleep."
Hiccup didn't want to sleep, honestly. Although he was beyond exhausted and overly hot, he still wanted to at least open his eyes, maybe say something to his father, but his body obviously had other ideas. He wanted to get up, thank his father for coming…
But…
He was so tired…
He heard his father's distant voice: "He needs the cure soon, Astrid. His fever's gotten higher." Then, without his permission, he was whisked away to sleep.
…
He was standing in a field. A beautiful field, decorated with roses and tulips and some flowers he had never even seen before. Sunlight shined down on the field, giving it a glowing light that almost felt magical. The sun was shining, very few clouds in the deep blue sky. The weather was warm, different than what the Berkian was used to, but it felt good. Relaxing. Soothing, if you would.
But something felt particularly...off. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, but he knew it was there. A sort of...unsettling feeling that left him spinning around in a small circle, examining the land.
For a few moments, there was nothing.
But then, there was a scream, and it made his heart skip a beat, although he was unaware of it. The scream was familiar; painfully familiar, and it made his heart leap into his throat.
Astrid's scream. It was Astrid's scream.
…
"His fever's rising?" Astrid asked worriedly, setting the bucket of snow down on the ground beside the bed and putting her hand on Hiccup's cheek. Her eyes widened. "You're right," she gasped. "It hasn't been this high before…" She scooped snow out of the bucket hurriedly and put it on Hiccup's forehead. Then, she stood once again and raced towards the door. "I'll get Fishlegs!" she called over her shoulder as she ran. "Maybe he has some herbs!" Stoick hardly heard the last bit of what she shouted, because she was already gone, out the door and towards Fishlegs' place.
She returned minutes later with Fishlegs in tow. "He's getting worse, Fishlegs!" Astrid was explaining frantically as she practically dragged Fishlegs through the front door. "Do something! Help him!"
...
Before Hiccup even knew what he was doing, he was running towards the source of the scream, and as he was running, pieces of the field went from bright gold to dark blood red. The flowers seemed to turn into the red crimson liquid before his eyes, melting away like ice, which then served to paint the ground red. He didn't stop running all the while, and as he kept running, more of the beauty turned horrid.
He didn't stop running. If anything, he ran faster. He ran as fast as was humanly possible, and he didn't look back. As he ran, the sky turned from blue to a deep, blackish red, but he hardly noticed even that. He had to find Astrid. He had to do something, before he was too late.
If he wasn't already...
And then, he saw it. Dagur was standing over Astrid's body, holding a sword to her throat. She looked unconscious. That, or she was…
Dead.
…
"It's the Eel Pox," Fishlegs stated as he stepped away from Hiccup.
"Oh, gee, thanks, Fishlegs!" Astrid snapped. "Because we had no idea it was Eel Pox! We're SO GLAD we have YOU! Lucky us! YIPEE!" Although she was being beyond sarcastic, there was panic in her voice that didn't go unnoticed.
Stoick kept putting handfuls of snow on Hiccup's forehead, but it melted rather quickly due to his fever, and sooner than later, Astrid was scrambling to refill the now empty bucket with more snow. It was getting tempting to just dump the entire thing over the sick boy's head, but Astrid knew they couldn't do that.
Hiccup twitched in his sleep, his eyes screwing shut. "No…" he whispered, his head lolling against his pillow. "No...no, Astrid…"
Astrid's eyes widened. "No," she whispered. "No, not another one…" She shook her head feverishly, but she already knew the truth.
Hiccup was having another delusion.
...
No. Hiccup wasn't going to think about that possibility. There was just no way he was going to think about that possibility. She couldn't be dead. She was so...so...so important to him. She couldn't die. She just couldn't!
He drew his dagger and ran at the Berserker, slamming into him without a second thought. Both Dagur and Hiccup tumbled to the ground, and Hiccup wrenched the axe out of the Berserker's grip.
Funny, he was sure Dagur had a sword before...oh well. Hiccup wasn't complaining. He bashed the axe against Dagur's head, and Dagur went limp, to death or unconsciousness, Hiccup didn't know.
Nor could he bring himself to care. Picking himself up off the ground, he raced towards the still body of Astrid Hofferson.
…
"Stoick, I've never seen Eel Pox this bad before!" Fishlegs cried helplessly. "We have to do something, and we have to do something now!"
Astrid was sitting on the edge of the bed, cradling Hiccup's skull in her lap while Stoick bathed his son's face with ice cold snow. Fishlegs was being absolutely no help at all, which he often wasn't when he was terrified of something, and this terrified him very much so, and that fact terrified Astrid and Stoick.
"THEN DO SOMETHING," Stoick shouted; he was panicking as much as Fishlegs was. He knew how serious Eel Pox was, but for Hiccup to get so much sicker, and in such a short amount of time...
"He needs the cure, and he needs it fast!" Fishlegs yelped. "He won't hold out much longer...I've never seen anything like this before…"
"FISHLEGS!" Astrid shouted. "What do we do!? You tell us!"
"He's too weak!" Fishlegs said, panicking even more. "He hasn't been eating enough the past few days, and he stayed up that one night all night, and it's freezing outside...just keep him warm, and try to get his fever down."
"THAT'S HARD TO DO BOTH AT ONCE, FISHLEGS!" Stoick said. "There must be something else. Something else we can do!"
Fishlegs shook his head, and the exact moment he did, the door to the abode swung open, and, to their surprise and utter relief, Snotlout, the twins, and Gothi raced through it. Gothi wasn't running, instead walking slowly, stirring something in a pail that no one could make out.
By the smell of it, it must have been medicine, because only Gothi could make a medicine that smelled that bad.
"We came as soon as we could!" Snotlout shouted. "We even flew overnight, just to get here...oh Thor…" He gasped at the sight of his cousin.
"He needs the cure," Astrid said, trying to keep the hysterics out of her voice although she failed miserably. "NOW!"
...
"Astrid!" he shouted desperately, grabbing her shoulder and shaking it roughly. "No! No, Astrid, please no!"
She was pale, copious amounts of blood staining her shirt. She'd been stabbed by Dagur. That much was obvious. She had been stabbed, and now, she was...she was…
Hiccup pressed his ear to her chest, hardly daring to breathe.
...no.
No heartbeat. No pulse. She wasn't breathing. She was...she was…
"NO!" Hiccup wailed.
…
"NO!" Hiccup screamed in his sleep, and Astrid had to hold him down. Stoick grabbed Hiccup's shoulders, but it didn't stop his thrashing. "NO!"
Gothi poured the contents of the pail into a cup and handed it to Fishlegs, who instantly raced it over to Astrid and Stoick. "Here!" he said instantly, giving it to Astrid. Stoick and Snotlout held Hiccup down while Astrid pinched his nose shut, tipped his head back, and forced the contents of the cup down his throat. He coughed and choked, but his swallowing instinct was kicking in, and he drank most of it. His struggling ceased, and Snotlout sat back, sighing and breathing heavily in relief.
"Swallow, Hiccup," Astrid coaxed, still pouring the contents of the cup down his throat while trying to be careful so that he didn't choke on it. "Swallow it."
It took nearly five minutes, but at length, the contents of the cup were downed.
…
All at once, the image faded, and Hiccup found himself swimming in a small body of water, treading the water. He was swimming directly beside the docks, and on the edge of the docks sat Astrid, her legs dangling over the side of the wood.
She said nothing, and neither did Hiccup. Instead, she reached her hand towards him, and he grabbed it after little hesitation. She smiled, and pulled him out of the water.
…
Hiccup opened his eyes, blinking rapidly. He felt exhausted...too exhausted, perhaps, for it to be even possible. It was dark, and he was covered in thick blankets with a damp rag on his forehead.
"Hiccup?" Astrid's voice said to the left of him, and he turned to look at her. She looked back at him for just a moment before taking his hand in hers. "You're awake," she breathed. "Thank goodness you're awake…you passed out, just after we gave you the cure. You gave us all quite the scare."
He opened his mouth to say something else, but she shushed him before he even got a word out. "Shh," she whispered. "Don't speak. You're really weak, Hiccup. Rest for now. We'll talk when you're feeling better, alright?"
He nodded shakily, suddenly remembering how tired he felt. Astrid loosened her grip on his hand, but he tightened his own. "Stay?" he whimpered hoarsely.
Astrid held his hand tightly again almost instantly, and she sat down on the edge of the ebd again. "Yes," she said, brushing his bangs back off his forehead and rewetting the rag. "I'll stay."
Hiccup sighed in relief and shut his eyes.
