A/N: This chapter may seem a little random but it is here for a purpose!
Also there is an overall plot that will be coming in the next couple of chapters, but I wanted to introduce the characters and make them a little closer first
Thanks to everyone who reviewed/faved/followed, I really appreciate it!
Hiccup skips down the path to Gobber's, he's nearly an hour early for his first class, care of magical creatures, but Hiccup doesn't care he feels more at home with the animals then people.
"Hey there, Hiccup!" Gobber shouts, his arms full of meat for the Thestral who was about to give birth to twins! Most people assume that thestrals lay eggs, but they're more like horses in that they give birth.
"Hey, Gobber!" Hiccup calls back with a smile, "how is she?"
"Oh, Ruby's doing great, do you want to see?"
"Can I?" Hiccup asked, surprised, Thestrals tended to be untrusting when it came to birthing.
Gobber nods "you were around her a lot last year, I think with a little reminder she'll be fine with you there."
They made their way over to a small stable hidden in the forest made for situations like this.
Ruby was laying on her side heaving, as Hiccup took a step forward her head snapped to the side sniffing at him.
"Hey girl," Hiccup soothes "it's me, Hiccup. Don't you remember, I fed you that yummy meat almost every morning last year." Hiccup keeps whispering nonsense until he's close and reaches out and touches her back. Ruby lets out a sigh. Hiccup continues to stroke her stomach, feeling the wide girth of it. The slimy skin was comforting to Hiccup, being back among the animals that aren't trying to kill him.
The stomach ripples underneath his touch and Ruby whimpers. "Hiccup…" Gobber stops.
"Gobber?"
"Hiccup I think she's starting to birth," Gobber says quietly stroking along her stomach with Hiccup, settling a comforting hand on her snout.
As if to confirm his words, another shudder ripples through her.
"Hiccup, there's a brown leather bag in my house with the Berk crest on it, please go get it," Gobber says, still speaking soothingly so as not to startle Ruby.
Suddenly Ruby convulses and one of her claws slice through Hiccups bicep.
"Hiccup, now!" Gobber whispers furiously.
Hiccup takes off running. Running through the forest he checks his arm, it was bleeding down his arm, and it looked pretty deep. But not life threatening, so Hiccup ignores it.
Hiccup dashes through the trees to find the rest of his class standing there, they all turn to look at him.
Hiccup ignores it and runs to the little hut that Gobber lives in, looking around furiously and knocking a few things over he finds the bag.
Running back outside he hears people whispering "what's he doing?" "What happened to his arm?" "What's in the bag?" But Hiccup ignores it all focusing instead on getting to the stables before anything else happens. Thestral birth can take anywhere from twenty minutes to twenty four hours.
The birth turns into a long one, after nearly eighteen hours of contractions, convulsions, and heat strokes (thestrals tended to be on the colder side), a head finally started to appear. After that it was fairly quick work with me desperately trying to keep Ruby cool by patting her down with wet towels, and Gobber encouraging and helping her push them out.
Gobber heaves a sigh "19 and a half hours, that was a doozy."
Hiccup smiles, sweaty, covered in blood and other fluids he didn't want to contemplate and he was happy. Happier than he'd been in a long time.
Jack was a little worried; Hiccup hadn't been in transfiguration and he had that cut on his arm. Jack takes off towards the hospital wing sure Hiccup would be there, but in his worrying he runs into someone.
Looking up he finds himself staring into those big green eyes.
"Hi," Jack says.
"Sorry for running into you," Hiccup saying pushing matted hair out of his eyes.
Jack finally takes in Hiccups appearance, the dirty robes, bags under his eyes, and the arm wound, it was wrapped in a dirty white cloth.
"What happened to you?" Jack asked, cocking his head.
Hiccup blushed "a thestral gave birth and Gobber needed my help," Hiccup looked down seemingly afraid of Jacks reaction.
"Cool!" Jack exclaims, Hiccup looks up in shock, "man that would have been awesome to see!"
Hiccup smiles, "yeah, it was," he says quietly.
Jack looks down at the auburn haired male, and realizes this is my chance! "I was just heading down to the kitchens, if you've been there all day then you must be starving!"
"Y-yeah," Hiccup stutters out, that smile was gorgeous, his soft looking lips curved around snow white teeth, and the pure joy in his eyes. It all took Hiccups breath away.
"Cool!" Jack looked down at the boy and noticed that his blush went all the way to his ears, it was one of the most adorable things Jack had seen, after those freckles of course.
Hiccup smiled crookedly, "lead the way."
A/N: up next: hijack fluff and the big four meet all together!
Reviews=quicker updates!