Chapter Six: The Birth
Hiccup paced in the lower floor furiously as he listened to Astrid's screams and shouts from their bedroom above. Up there with her were their mothers and Gothi, to help her out as much as they could. Three women were enough for this task, but still Hiccup wanted to be up there with her, but it was against Viking customs for the father to be present while the mother was giving birth. Still, as he heard Astrid upstairs, he just wanted to be with her and provide whatever comfort he could.
At the lower floor with him, were Astrid's father, Alvin, Stoick, Toothless, Stormfly, Midnightfire, and Sapphire. Despite the fact that Stoick and Mr. Hofferson knew that the baby was arriving early, they kept calm faces.
"Hiccup, pacing isn't going to make things any better, please try to relax." Stoick stated.
"My child is arriving two months early, and my wife is up there screaming at the top of her lungs!" Hiccup exclaimed.
"Heh, Astrid's always been a bit of a screamer. As a baby, if she wasn't sleeping, eating, or too focused with her toys, she was screaming." Mr. Hofferson stated, earning a glare from Hiccup.
"You were early too, Hiccup, and you turned out just fine." Stoick spoke.
"Two months!" Hiccup snapped.
"You come from a tough family, Hiccup, and so has Astrid. I'm sure that the baby will be fine." Mr. Hofferson stated. Astrid screamed again.
"Does it always take this long?" Hiccup asked.
"You're not even at the two-hour mark yet! Astrid took ten hours to come into this world." Mr. Hofferson replied.
"Ten hours! I may just break Viking customs!" Hiccup exclaimed.
"Been there done that, Buddy." Toothless stated.
"Hiccup, perhaps you need to distract yourself for a while. Take a look at the drawings pinned up on the walls." Alvin stated.
"On the walls?" Hiccup questioned. He finally paused his pacing and looked around and saw pictures pinned to the walls, and he didn't even notice them while he was pacing. He went over to take a closer look at them and found that they were mainly pictures of crude Deadly Nadders and Night Furies in several different poses and settings.
"Who drew these? I know I didn't, and Astrid has no interest in drawing." Hiccup said.
"They're my drawings, Uncle Hiccup." Midnightfire replied.
"Wow, not bad for a dragon who'd been human for only a few days." Hiccup stated.
A couple more hours passed and Hiccup had resumed his furious pacing. Until, finally, he heard Astrid shout: "I DON'T CARE IF IT'S AGAINST OUR CUSTOMS, I WANT HICCUP IN HERE!"
"YES!" Hiccup exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air, and he was upstairs at the speed to match a Strike class dragon. He rushed over to Astrid, not even taking note of the position she was in, nor did he really register the three other women in the room.
"Hey Astrid." Hiccup said nervously, as he took her hand in a firm grip.
"Come on, Astrid, push!" Mrs. Hofferson said.
"I told you to stop saying that already!" She snapped.
"Push Astrid!" Valka said.
"SHUT UP!" She hollered. She gave another push, with a scream this time, and then she finally did it, it was out! Hiccup looked over to their mothers and Gothi and found them standing straight up with quizzical expressions on their faces. Astrid didn't pay them any mind; in fact she just rolled onto her side and fell straight to sleep.
"That's a first." Gothi stated in a raspy voice.
"Is something wrong?" Hiccup asked. Valka bent down to pick up the baby, but what Hiccup saw wasn't exactly a baby…
…It was an egg.
The egg was the right size to hold a human child, and it had a softer shell when compared to a dragon, and it was translucent, so people could actually see the infant inside. Hiccup had mixed feelings about it, on one hand, he was glad to see that Astrid won't have to worry about a baby inside her, and she wouldn't be vomiting anymore; and he was also glad that the baby wouldn't be born early. On the other hand, how were they supposed to care for an egg?
"Umm, excuse me for a moment." Hiccup told the women. He got up and headed downstairs wearing an odd face and covering his mouth with his hand.
"What's going on?" Stoick asked him.
"Is the baby alright?" Mr. Hofferson asked. Hiccup couldn't hold it in anymore… He started laughing! Not only was he laughing he was really cracking up!
"Speak up, boy, what was going on up there?" Alvin asked.
"It was an egg!" Hiccup exclaimed through his laughter. The men looked at him like he'd gone insane, but then the women came down, with Valka holding the egg.
"Well I'll be damned, my daughter… laid and egg." Mr. Hofferson stated. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he hit the floor with a loud 'THUD'. Hiccup broke out into a fit of laughter again, making himself look like a lunatic, and he couldn't stop himself until he actually got the hiccups.
"I don't see the humor in this. What's so funny about an egg?" Sapphire asked.
Hiccup finally got a grip on himself and told her: "Humans-hic!-don't normally-hic!- lay-hic!-eggs."
"Then how're humans usually born?" Sapphire asked.
*HICCUP, the question startled Hiccup.
"I'll-hic!-tell you-hic!-later." He told her.
"First thing you need to do is figure out how to take care of this egg." Valka told him. She handed the egg off to him and strode out of the house with the other women. Alvin and Stoick also left, leaving Mr. Hofferson behind. Sapphire and Stormfly slowly approached Hiccup and the egg to check it out.
"We can help you take care of it." Stormfly told him. Hiccup smiled at her, still hiccupping, Sapphire took the egg gently in a gummy maw, and then curled around it.
"You can go back up to Astrid, I'll take care of the egg." Sapphire told him. So he did, and he spent the remainder of the day laying in bed next to her, only getting up to fix them some dinner.
An egg! How many of you saw that coming? Please review.