4: Conversion
It had been a long two and a half weeks back on the Edge and Astrid felt that she had finally got things more or less back in shape. Admittedly, the twins and Snotlout had slacked off as soon as her back was turned but she had worked into her schedule an unpredictable time when she would come along and check if they were actually doing the task they had been assigned. And while they argued, there was an acceptance that she was Hiccup's unquestioned second in command and so they turned back to their jobs with a bad grace.
It didn't stop some of their shenanigans, of course. The boars had escaped the twins' boar-pit, stampeding through Fishlegs's tranquility rock garden, upsetting the husky Gronckle rider for almost a week as he strove the restore the crushed plants and replace and renew the smashed rocks and arrangement. Chicken had become broody and had stolen Heather's favourite top, leading to the spit incident where Chicken had been in real danger of becoming dinner. Tuff had been in a huff for three days afterwards-as had Heather, who was struggling to get the chicken droppings of her clothes. And they had finally retrained the Night Terrors to perch on the lookouts and alert them if they saw anything-much to Astrid's relief.
She was just doing the rounds to check the state of the repairs and considering letting them have a half-day off when Stormfly gave an excited squawk and as Astrid looked up, her eyes widened in delight-for in the distance but closing fast was the familiar streamlined black shape of a Night Fury. Hiccup was finally coming back. A weight lifted from Astrid's chest as she sat bolt upright, waving, then leaned forward and drove Stormfly on to escort their leader back in. But as they approached, he didn't slow and she had to spin round and scramble after the speeding Toothless as he soared down and put in a hard deceleration to land on the main platform by the stables. Stormfly screeched indignantly and Toothless raised his head and gave a weary croon of greeting, giving his toothless grin at the Deadly Nadder. Astrid stared at the shape of the rider, her eyes widening in shock as Hiccup straightened up-or at least, she assumed it was Hiccup because he was wearing some very unfamiliar fierce-looking black leather armour that concealed his head in a black leather mask and helmet, about an inch of dark auburn hair sticking out under the back of the helmet. He unclipped himself from the Night Fury, gently stroking the flattened muzzle.
"Hiccup!" Astrid called and ran to him, throwing a hug around him. He stiffened for a second, then returned it, the unfamiliar armour much harder then she has was used to and unyielding, making the hug pretty uncomfortable. The he pulled away, he flipped the blank face-mask up to reveal his tired face and glittering green eyes and then pulled the helmet off completely, ruffling his very tousled auburn locks.
"Hi Astrid," he said quietly and she stared at him.
"You don't know how happy I am to see you," she said in a rush. "The twins and Snot are just…them! And we've got the defences back up and running but I don't know what else you planned and…" She paused and stared into his neutral face. "I missed you," she added with feeling. "You're my best friend and honestly, I miss talking to you."
He stared into the glorious blue eyes and read her happiness and relief that he was back and gave a small smile.
"I think the others won't be so keen to have me back when they realised vacation's over," he said dryly and she stared at him, then burst out laughing.
"Oh, I gotta see this," she laughed, then looked him up and down. His black armour covered his torso, the pauldrons and vambraces making him look bulkier and more powerful. There was still a red Night Fury on his right shoulder and the face was Hiccup but his posture was different. And he was wearing several weapons, including Inferno and a conventional sword… "And new armour…" Her tone was admiring and he managed his familiar lopsided smile.
"Well, I needed a little more protection, Milady," he said with a small bow. "And my old armour was ruined…" Astrid smiled and walked alongside him as they headed for the Clubhouse, seeing him a little stiffer than before. But as soon as he walked in, the rest of the gang was on their feet.
"Hiccup! It's good to have you back!"
"The chicken is so pleased you're home!"
"It just wasn't the same. No one here cares at all that the Night Terrors are exhibiting an entirely new behaviour…"
"Yeah, maybe you can stop Astrid the Tyrant from working us all to death! Seventeen straight days on defences and patrols! Oh come on!"
"I'm glad you're back-now can we have a vacation?"
Hiccup smiled at his friends and looked around, seeing Tuff's latest offering over the fire-fortunately devoid of any questionable herbs or fungi-which they all promised to check after the hallucinating mushroom episode. He grabbed a portion and sat at the table.
"It's great to be back," he admitted, tearing into his food urgently. "I've been planning how we can improve our defensive capabilities and the coverage of the patrols…"
Snotlout rolled his eyes and took a huge bite of his roast yak chops. "…and Captain Tyrant is back," he muttered. Hiccup stiffened but inspected his food with a small smile.
"We'll see," he said quietly, taking another mouthful. Then he looked up with his old smile. "So Fish-tell me what the Terrors have been up to?"
oOo
Astrid was up early, stretching and washing quietly before braiding her hair and going out for a morning fly on Stormfly. Heather had done night patrol and was still sound asleep so Astrid went to great pains not to disturb her friend. The sun was just risen and the sky was still orange, though brightening to blue rapidly. But when she reached the stables. Hiccup was already there, scowling at the dragons and the only person arriving. He shook his head.
"Who is supposed to be on stable duty this morning?" he asked curtly and Astrid blushed.
"Me," she said quickly, "and I'm here, aren't I?" His cool emerald gaze flicked over her shape, his expression challenging.
"You were here for a flight, weren't you?" he accused her and she nodded, her chin lifted proudly.
"Of course-Mr Always-Goes-For-A-Morning-Flight-Before-Anything-Else!" she retorted.
"This isn't about me, Astrid," he told her firmly.
"And it shouldn't be about me either!" she snapped back. "I never shirk my duty-but Stormfly needs exercise which is why I'm here to finish my flight before the others are awake. Even I know not to try waking Hookfang until he's ready to get up. All that happens is he sets fire to something and then goes back to sleep!" He shook his head.
"And who was yesterday?" Hiccup asked shortly, his eyes focussing on the globules of luminous dragon poop piled in the corner of the stables. Astrid looked over and rolled her eyes.
"Snotlout," she muttered under her breath, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "I will…"
"I'll take care of it," Hiccup snapped. "Go and exercise Stormfly then get back here to do your duty. Meet me in the Clubhouse in one hour!" She stared at him but he had already turned and strode away. Unnerved, she let Stormfly out and looked into her dragon's face.
"If anything, it's gotten worse," she sighed. The dragon gave a little trill. "No, I don't know what to do. Maybe he'll calm down?" Stormy rolled her eye. "No, I don't think so either. He must have been more shaken up by the bounty hunters than we thought." She leapt onto her dragon. "I guess we'll just have to see how it goes and see if we can get our old Hiccup back."
oOo
By the time she had exercised Stormfly and made sure the dragons all had fish and fresh water, Astrid was late and had to scramble to the Clubhouse in a real hurry. She raced through the door and stood at the back as Hiccup glared at them.
"It's not good enough," he said sternly. "Your defences are sloppy, your watch-towers are inadequately checked and patrols are non-existent! I asked you to get the Edge ready for when I returned and what do I find?"
Astrid felt the criticism like a blow: she had set everything up as he had always wanted, shoring up defences, making it all safe and sound and as he had preferred it. She had even improved the western approach and it had almost killed her to keep the others in line. It felt like a personal attack on her competence as a leader and as a warrior and she folded her arms abruptly, glaring at him but didn't say a word. She didn't need to, because others were just as indignant.
"Hey-we worked our asses off!" Snotlout shouted, standing up. "Just because you were lying on yours, getting over being kidnapped like a little girl!" Hiccup's eyes flashed.
"You know, Snotlout, you just volunteered to do a solo sweep of the north of the island and check every single watch tower!" Hiccup told him sternly. Snotlout gave a laugh.
"Firstly, there is only one watch tower there-hah!-and secondly, who made you the boss of me?" he argued.
"Yeah-tyrant!" Tuff muttered loudly. Hiccup's brows dipped in a scowl.
"My father, the Chief sent us out here to the 'Great Beyond' to discover more about dragons and maybe find Dagur-and instead, we found a terrible enemy of dragonkind and of Berk," he said grimly. "The Hunters attacked us numerous times, they stole the DragonEye and took Berk's gold. Our people suffer because of them. It's time to fight back. And if you argue I am a tyrant-no, I'm not, but I was made your leader by Stoick the Vast. So stop bitching and do your duty to the Chief. Unless you're afraid…"
As expected, Snotlout leapt to his feet, proclaiming his courage, rapidly followed by the twins. Astrid rolled her eyes, refusing to rise to the bait because she was still unsure what Hiccup was planning. The way he was talking and behaving was very different to the optimistic, brilliant, brave but inclusive leader they all loved. He rolled plans out on the table and tapped the map of the Edge with his left hand.
"This is our current position and here are the defences," he began. He then lifted his charcoal pencil and drew greatly expanded defensive lines and armourments. "But we need much more. Our forward defences need to be bolstered all the way along the line and we need more ballistas here, here and here with smaller catapults every fifty yards along the line…"
"Question: who will fire all these catapults when we're fighting on dragon-back?" Heather asked thoughtfully. Hiccup stared at her.
"We need to have them available to cover every possible approach," Hiccup answered coolly. "So we'll start. Astrid-you're with Snotlout on this eastern section. Fishlegs-try to keep the twins in line on the sea wall, Heather-you're with me!" Astrid stared at him, glaring daggers. Generally, Hiccup knew to keep her from Snotlout because his cousin really irritated her but she guessed this was her punishment for not keeping him in line. Though, when she thought about it. he hadn't been able to keep Snotlout in line either. So she gritted her teeth, collected her axe and called Stormfly. Then, of course, Snotlout took ages to get Hookfang up, had his pants set on fire again and had spent the time they had travelled to their assigned construction work telling Astrid precisely how great he was and how he was much nicer than Hiccup, who seemed to have been hit over the head one time too many. And while she didn't agree that it was blows over the head-because Hiccup had been knocked out more times than she could remember, been in a coma, been delirious from fever at least five times and been struck by lightning-she could guess what had caused the change.
"I mean, I'm awesome anyway, babe and my skills in building defences…" Snotlout drawled on.
"…are as pathetic as your abilities to fly in formation, build an 'S' shaped house or stay awake on watch!" she finished, leaping down and beginning to cut down the first of many trees they would need for their reinforced defences. "Go find some useful rocks to buttress the second line," she told him. He leaned lazily back in his saddle.
"You're still fighting your attraction for me," he told her pityingly.
"No, I'm fighting my desire to chop you up-but if I did that, Hiccup would expect me to do your job as well as my own…" she snapped. He glared at her.
"Fine," he huffed. "But I'm only doing this because I wanna prove to Captain Hopalong that I am as good as him at building defences!"
"Whatever," she growled, not bothering to defend Hiccup against the comment, and continued chopping, listening with relief as the Monstrous Nightmare took off and headed for the nearest mountainside. For a long moment, she stared back in the direction of the Edge before resuming her work. She would put up with Snotlout for today-but she would need a break tomorrow. An she meant to talk to her friend about it. Silently she swore: Hiccup-you really owe me for this.
oOo
Heather shadowed Hiccup all day and what she saw concerned her. Hiccup was quiet, his eyes sweeping carefully across the defences, before accelerating up and getting a panoramic view of that section of the island. After about two hours of being totally ignored, she pulled alongside and shouted.
"Hey!" He started and looked at her, flipping his facemask up and nodding.
"What?" he asked. There was a pause.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. "Because I've never heard you be so quiet for so long. And if all I am here for is to even up the teams, I may as well be helping Astrid since she's got the worst job." His eyes inspected her coolly.
"Why do you say that?" he asked, causing her to glare at him.
"Are you for real? You know how annoying Snotlout is to her!" she argued. "You know how much she missed you and would really have preferred to stay with you on Berk? But she's already had over two weeks of Snotlout and the twins and she's ready to kill someone!" She glared at him but he didn't reply...until she made to peel away when he raised a hand.
"Hold on!" he ordered her. "You're not here to make up the numbers. You've been on your own for a while, have worked with the Hunters for some time and you are very capable of making decisive and ruthless tactical decisions, Heather. So I need you by my side at the moment to see if you can pick out any weaknesses I have missed!" He paused as she stared at him.
"But Astrid is far the best..." she began but he shook his head.
"Astrid...is limited," he said tonelessly. "She thinks like a Viking and is very predictable. She won't do everything needed to win. She has limits." He looked at her appraisingly and she felt a shiver run down her spine. "I don't think you do."
She peeled away then. Windshear dived and she lay low over her neck, arrowing down and away from the Night Fury, though she heard the whistle of air through great lack wings as Toothless roared after them. In moments, he had caught her up but she accelerated, dodging through the trees and between the rocky cliffs on this side of the island. Hiccup closed on her.
"You can't get away," he shouted after her, his voice muffled by the mask. "We played this game before, remember? And who won then?"
"And you forget something!" she shouted back. "I'm not from Berk-so I have no duty to obey you! And I can come and go as I please!" He urgently dodged as she fired a volley of spines at him and in that moment, she escaped up into the clouds, leaving Toothless hovering and staring at the silver missiles, embedded in the rock mere inches from his face.
What the Hel are you doing? he asked himself staring after the vanished Razorwhip. You've insulted her, you've made her feel unwelcome and uncomfortable when she is already struggling. Dagur was her brother and he's dead because of you. But she is so much better at subterfuge and thinks in a different way. She understands revenge! But none of them seem to understand! How can they? They weren't hunted. Everyone was after me! And Viggo is still out there, plotting. If I don't make us ready to face him, we'll all end up dead!
Toothless crooned and he automatically laid his hand on the dragon's flattened head, feeling the worried rumble through the contact. The Night Fury was deeply unhappy that his friend had flown away-and that he wasn't with his best friend, the Nadder, anyway. And the dragon was really unhappy because his cheerful, optimistic and kind Rider had changed and seemed to be pushing his friends away. For a second, Hiccup bowed his head, a deep breath sighing through him. His shoulder still twinged when he did extreme manoeuvres and chasing after Heather hadn't helped but for a moment, he welcomed the distraction.
It's no good. No matter how awkward it feels, I have no other choice. I have to get them battle ready and make the Edge secure before I can move onto Phase Two...and make Viggo regret ever starting this!