A/N: Honestly, the reviews everyone left me made me so happy and it warmed my heart so much like aww I love all of you!
If any of you want, I'm thinking about posting the chapters on Tumblr as well, or at least have other HtTYD things on my dash. Follow me on FeyreArcheronVevo!
Chapter Two: Presto
Fishlegs could only watch as Astrin shook Hiccup's unconscious body, more and more panic etching onto his features with each passing second. Toothless nudged the girl with his snout, each small push increasing in force every single time; Snotlout stood close by, jaw just about hitting the floor and eyes wider, and the twins were nervously blubbering words that only caused the other teens to feel more anxiety with each passing second.
"Oh no, what if she's dead?" Tuff wailed in near hysteria, bouncing on his feet in trepidation.
"Wait, she's dead?" Ruff exclaimed. "Oh my gods. Hiccup's dead! What-oh no-"
"Shut up!" Astrin just about screamed, glaring daggers at the Thortsons. "She's breathing, got it? She-she'll wake up, okay? Just watch."
Fishlegs knew that Asterin was only trying to reassure himself.
It had thrown everyone off guard and in a frenzy when a sudden burst of wind came from the end of the temple - opposite of the entrance - and knocked Hiccup off her feet and onto the ground, passed out with her skin paler than normal. Everyone had ran towards her immediately, although the teens were laughing and poking her sides at first. But she hadn't woken up, and remained unconscious even when Tuff had yelled into her ear and her cousin dropped gold pieces and gems onto her chest. After that, Astrin knelt down and begged the girl to wake, shaking the body.
And still, her eyes were closed, breaths shallow and chest barely moving.
"What do we do?" FIshlegs asked, trying with all his strength to keep his head.
"Scream at her until she wakes up?" Snotlout suggested, shifting his weight.
"She's barely breathing, Snotlout," Fishlegs snapped, watching the chief's daughter carefully.
"Got anything better?" Snotlout challenged, "I don't know if you've noticed, but we don't have a lot of options."
He had a point (for once in his life). They were at least a day's ride away from Berk, and that didn't even take into account breaks for meals and rest – they couldn't fly the whole time. They hadn't found any settlements on the island so far, and although the twins - specifically Ruffnut - had knowledge when it came to herbs, they hadn't brought any with them.
In their defense, they hadn't know that Hiccup would just faint out of nowhere! The trip was supposed to be quick and without incident!
Toothless had none of everyone's panic, whether it internal or external, and gave the chief's daughter a long stroke of his tongue on her cheek. Then another one. And another. The Fury's eyes were wide with worry, waiting for his human to make some sort of move.
Everyone's hearts just about leaped with joy when they heard the girl groan uncomfortably.
"T...Toothless?" she breathed, blinking heavily and tiredly.
Said dragon crooned in joy, pouncing on Hiccup and licking her even more.
"Wha-ugh! I'm awake, I'm awake!" She exclaimed, bright, green eyes finally snapped wide open. Her arms were folded over her face, blocking all the affectionate licks given to her. "C'mon bud, you know that's disgusting!"
"Hiccup!" Astrin nearly sobbed out in relief, tackling said girl in a hug as soon as her dragon gave her some breathing room. "Oh my gods, don't do that again! We were worried sick! You were hardly breathing and-and – oh gods – just don't do it again!"
"Huh?" she hummed, glancing at all of her other friends over the Hofferson's shoulder. They all were laughing with new found ease, all talking at once, making it difficult to know what, exactly they were going on about. The only words that she was able to catch were "fainted" "dead," "scared," and "oh gods." "Wait – what did I do? One at a time, please!" she quickly added the last part once every single person opened their mouth.
"We don't really know," Fishlegs said, glancing around the temple, as if someone unknown was only lurking around the corner. "You just...you passed out all of a sudden."
"And we kept shaking you and calling your name but you didn't wake," Astrin explained, loosing his grip and pulling back slightly to see Hiccup's raised eyebrows and thinned lips. "And you were hardly breathing!"
The realization hit her then.
"Y-you thought I was dying?" she asked incredulously, blinking at her friends.
"Well, you were pale as death and barely breathing so yes, we kind of did think that," Tuffnut huffed.
The teens expected the Haddock to apologize, or to start worrying herself over about what had happened and if it would happen again. But to their surprise, the girl tipped her chin back and laughed, her shoulder's bobbing at the motion.
"What? You think this is funny?" Snotlout scoffed. "We were worried sick! It's not funny at all!"
Astrin normally disagreed with Snotlout on just about everything, but not on a subject like this.
"Thanks for the concern, guys," she calmed her chuckles, an easy grin on her face, "but really, I'm fine. I probably passed out from lack of sleep or something. I didn't sleep much last night. Because, you know, you refused to wake up for your watch and I had to do it most of the night," she directed the last sentence to Snotlout, who just glared at her.
"But there was this wicked burst of wind!" Ruffnut chimed.
"Yeah, and it didn't come from outside! The wind came in from the other way!" Her twin swung his hands wildly at the temple doors.
"And you passed out as soon as it hit you! Like this!" Ruff fell back on the floor, arms splayed out and legs pointing in abnormal directions, with her eyes closed and tongue sticking out.
"I doubt I looked like that," Hiccup snorted, accepting the hand Astrin reached out to hoist her up.
"Yeah, Ruff! Hiccup looked more like this!" Tuff landed besides his sister, face peaceful and fists resting on opposite shoulders. Much like a corpse getting prepared for the boat.
"Okay, I really don't believe that-"
"Look, the point is that one minute you were fine, suddenly some wild wind comes in, and the next minute, you were knocked out. And we have no idea how!" Astrin crossed his arms over his chest. "And don't say that you passed out from lack of sleep! You didn't see what we saw!"
"I'm telling you, it's magic!" Ruff sprang up from his pose.
"Yeah!" the other twin shouted, "Mag-!"
"What do you remember doing before you fainted?" Fishlegs asked the green-eyed girl, ignoring the glare a certain blond twin threw his way. "Maybe something caused it."
Hiccup hummed in thought, glancing around the temple in thought, her green eyes gleaming with light. Her pale, freckled skin looked nothing like the sickly white skin she adorned during her slumber, instead now ignited with color. Strange...how could she be looking close to death one minute and alive and well with no trace of illness the next. Fishlegs didn't even know if that was physically possible.
"Toothless found something in the back of the temple, and we went to check it out..." she drifted off, eyes landing on the back wall before making her way over.
"Okay...did you find something?" Astrin questioned, him and the other teenagers following closely behind.
"We found a cavity in the wall covered up with stone, so I got it out and we looked inside," she continued. She stopped her strides once reaching the wall and said hole, kneeling down to peer inside.
"Did you find something inside it?" Fishlegs inquired.
"Yeah, a ring," she muttered, frowning. "I remember touching it, and then I remember Toothless slobbering all over me, and then you guys were surrounding me. It's like...nothing happened in-between."
Astrin curved his lips down. "That's odd...Is the ring in there?"
She nodded, shifting slightly before hesitantly reaching her hand inside, her other hand gripping the stone wall, knuckles white. Her tongue darted to her lips to lick them nervously, throwing a glance at her dragon. He crooned behind her, gently bumping his head into her side.
Everyone held their breaths in anticipation. Fishlegs saw Ruff grab her brother's arm in his peripheral vision. Snotlout even slightly yelped when Hiccup tensed, eyes snapped open, the ring undoubtedly in her grasp.
A tense silence followed.
"...well, I'm not knocked out, so that's a good sign," Hiccup commented lightheartedly, pulling her hand back. Resting on her fingers was a band of pure gold, glittering amongst the torches on the walls. All around the ring, minuscule pieces of gems none of them had ever seen before were beaded in. Designs similar to vines swirled and looped around, and Fishlegs wondered in awe how someone could create so intricate, beautiful, and flawless.
"...I call dibs!" Tuff punched his fist in the air, ready to pounce.
"What? Nuh-uh, I want it!" Ruff seethed, poking her brother's chest.
"If anyone's gonna get it, I'm gonna get it!" Snotlout pushed them both out of the way, a hungry gleam in his eyes.
"Woah, woah, woah!"Astrin cried, blocking all three of them, arms held out to shield his friend. "Hiccup was the one who found it, so Hiccup should be the one to keep it!" he glared at the twins and Snoutlout.
"What?" They yelled out in unison.
"But I want it!" Ruff.
"That's so not fair! Do you see how shiny it is?" Snotlout.
"Okay, but I probably, like, want it ten more times than Hiccup does. Want me to prove it?" Tuff.
They kept going on and on. Eventually, to the surprise of no one, they had started arguing with each other, Snotlout even tugging on Ruff's helmet and Tuff getting ready to kick whoever got in his way.
"Astrin's right, okay?" Fishlegs spoke up, ignoring the glares he received. "All the other treasure you find here is yours, isn't that enough?"
They seemed to consider, exchanging glances, before nodding resolutely. "I guess," Ruffnut said, releasing the hold she had on Snotlout's neck.
"Thank you," Astrin breathed. He looked down at Hiccup, who was still knelt on the ground and examined the ring. Upon feeling his gaze, she looked up and smiled. "Thanks, Asterin."
"Eh, it belongs to you anyway," he grinned, extending a hand her way. She took it graciously and got on her feet. "So, you touched that and you passed out, huh?"
"I guess?" she shrugged. "I don't know what happened, exactly. Did we check those berries for poison?"
Astrin snorted. "Yes, we checked. And even if we didn't, everyone else would've passed out too."
"You've got a point there," she grinned toothily. "But seriously, I probably passed out from lack of sleep. Or maybe there's some poison on this ring."
"But you're not knocked out now."
"Maybe I am and this is all a dream."
He rolled his eyes and (somewhat) gently slapped her arm. She shouted out "hey!" and glowered at him, hand now covering her hit arm.
"What matters is that you're alive and well," Fishlegs chirped, followed by nods from the others. "Let's not worry about it now."
"Even though it was definitely magic," Tuffnut announced.
Cue sighs Astrin, Hiccup, and Fishlegs, and grunts of agreement from Ruff and Snotlout.
They lost track of how long they stayed in the temple, but by the time they came out, the sun was setting and their stomachs were rumbling with the need for food. Deciding that they wouldn't get to their campsite until dark on foot, they hopped on their dragons and took off before the last of the sun would disappear.
The twins were laughing and grinning to themselves, looking at all the riches they stored in their helmets. Snotlout (after being hit in the head by Astrin) was dejectedly rounding up large enough sticks and branches to use for a fire. And Astrin, Hiccup, and Fishlegs were talking about what food to get.
"We have some fish, but the dragons will undoubtedly eat a lot of them," Hiccup explained, "if not all of them."
"We could go fishing, then," Astrin said.
"Did we bring fishing lines?" Fishlegs inquired.
"One, I think," Astrin sighed. "So one of us can fish. What else can we do, just in case we don't catch enough?"
"We can go looking for berries," Hiccup suggested. "The bushes aren't too far from here, and we know how to check which ones are poisonous or not."
The three exchanged glances then nodded.
"I'll do the fishing." Astrin made his way to one of their bags.
"That leaves us with berry hunting," Hiccup said to Fishlegs. "I'll take the left side of the woods and you can take the right."
"Okay." Fishlegs nodded.
She turned around, about to tell Toothless to get moving so they could finish and start eating early, but frowned when she found her companion asleep. "Of course, you lazy reptile," she huffed. She would have to go by herself, then.
She plucked a stick from Snotlout's firewood pile and walked over to the closest (awake) dragon, Hookfang. "Could you light it for me, Hook?" she asked politely.
The Nightmare blew a puff a fire towards the stick, igniting the tip.
After thanking the dragon by patting her nose fondly, she took off to her side of the woods, that gold ring safely tucked in her tunic.
"Is that seriously all the fish you caught?" Tuff raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest.
Astrin's victorious grin flattened, a scowl surfacing on his features. It had taken him forever to catch the three fish that now hung from his grasp by the tails. "Oh, you think you can do better? Because all I see you doing is lounging around!"
"Uh, I can definitely catch more than three fish," Tuff proclaimed. "Hand me your fishing line and I'll show you how the master does it."
Astrin scoffed. "The master? Oh, please."
"Yes, the master. Now hand the line over."
"Didn't you get the hook stuck in your nose one time when we went fishing?" Ruff poked at her twin tauntingly, a wicked smirk adorning her lips. "I remember you running home crying."
"Uh, so not true!"
"You're such an idiot! I'll do the fishing!"
"No, I will!"
"No, I will!"
A growl that just about shook the ground cut them off.
Astrin blinked, as did everyone else, as they turned their attention to Toothless. Said dragon was rigid, pupils turned into black slits as he sniffed the sand and grass, head twitching from side to side.
"...Toothless?" Fishlegs asked cautiously, watching the Fury slowly trot on the shore, walking closer and closer towards the forest. Towards where Hiccup left.
"Is...is it Hiccup?" Astrin asked, breathing catching in his throat when the sleek black dragon grunted in affirmative.
Hiccup...Hiccup was in danger.
Her scream that closely followed that thought confirmed it.
"Hiccup!" Astrin cried, heart frozen and a cold sweat breaking across his body. "Hiccup!"
Toothless took off in a sprint, leaving a cloud of sand that Astrin choked on.
"C'mon!" he ordered past his clogged throat to the others, not even bothering to look behind him as he blindly bolted through the forest.
With the sun now officially down and the night reigning, he constantly bumped into trees and stones and scraped his arms a number of times. But he didn't feel any of it. All he could feel, hear, and see was Hiccup's previous scream, so full of terror. All he could think about was how no matter how many times he or the others yelled her name, all they were met with was silence and the sound of their boots crunching the grass under them.
Why wasn't she answering them? Why wasn't she letting out another scream to let them at least know that she was alright? What had changed?
What if she was...
"Hiccup!"
No, he wouldn't believe it. Not when Hiccup was one of the most stubborn vikings he ever knew. The girl had faced just about the largest dragon in the whole damn world without a hint of fear in her eyes!Surely something had frightened her, and nothing else. Maybe a dragon had snuck up on her, or she just tripped, or maybe...
All thoughts flew from her head when she saw Toothless, no longer running, a panicked glint in his slits when as he sniffed at the dirt and grass. By him was a forgotten torch, its flames licking the grass, a fire that would've spread to the whole forest if Meatlug hadn't stomped it out.
All of the dragons had come. Most likely they flew when they heard Hiccup's scream.
But Hiccup...she wasn't here, and if Toothless and the other dragons were sniffing the ground, this was the last place she was.
How...?
"She brought that torch with her while looking for berries," Tuffnut's winded voice floated to Astrin's ears. It was then that he realized that they had all stopped their sprinting when they reached the previously burning torch and the sniffing dragons.
Toothless released a whine. He nudged his snout against a pile of scattered berries.
She was here...
"Hiccup..." Astrin breathed feebly. A prayer, a plea.
She was gone.
Hiccup was gone.
So there are things I totally forgot to clarify in the first chapter, so I decided to just clear it up now before I forget, or else I'm like totally never gonna put it.
1-The events are loosely based off of a book series, brownie points if someone is able to guess it later on
2-So the reason I'm not really in love in Hiccstrid is because in the first movie, their relationship just gives off the whole "hero gets the girl vibe" and it makes no sense to me how one minute Astrid hates Hiccup, then the next she loves him. It seems more like a "I-don't-really-like-you-but-I'm-in-love-with-the-thing-you-have/did" relationship at the end of the first movie, and I was kind of upset that it didn't show some sort of buildup. I know that RRTE shows them as just friends and will probably end with a romance between the two of them, but it still just shows everyone hating Hiccup one minute then liking him the next. It makes no sense to me. None.
But in HHTYD2, I felt like Hicstrid's relationship was tastefully done, so I didn't mind it so much then. That being said, I know Hiccstrid has potential to be a wonderful pairing, which is why I'm willing to include H/A in Stormerki. I'm trying to stay canon to what happened in the first movie, so their kiss did happen, but they are currently just good friends and nothing more (will be explained later). Their relationship will blossom, but as mentioned last chapter, it's not the main focus, and there won't be anything like heated kissing and all that
Until next time!