So a bit of a shorter, more exposition-y chapter today, I wanted to explore the future rider's relationships a bit more and had to finish up this part before moving on with the plot. Consider it compensation for the monstrosity I released last time, balance has to be kept after all ;D
Again, I'm sorry for these haphazard hiatuses, but I really bit off more than I could chew with this fic, and I learned a valuable lesson for my future creations, I'm just sorry you guys have to suffer through these hellish updates. Anyways,
Enjoy
As Hiccup concluded his and Snotlout's part of the story, the others launched into praise and impressed whistles. Despite getting no sleep that night, the six riders seemed full of energy as they loudly commented on each other's retelling of their missions.
"I hate to say it, you two," Astrid turned to the twins, "but you've actually done a really good job for once."
"Please, Astrid, let's give credit where credit's due. We've done an amazing job," Tuffnut gloated.
"Dare I say even a brilliant one," Ruffnut added, proudly stuffing her face with yak jerky she brought from Thor-knows-where.
"A superb performance of utter and boundless mayhem," Tuffnut agreed, stealing said jerky to his sister's dismal.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. Just remind me never to let Hiccup set you loose on our Berk," Astrid huffed, quickly scooting away as the two Thorstons started declaring the great jerky war on each other, with Chicken Senior apparently trying to negotiate peace.
Pointedly ignoring this, the other three riders continued discussing Snotlout and Hiccup's escape from the forge.
"Letting the Terrors distract past Hiccup while you fled the forge was pretty risky, but at least now we know for sure that what little training we managed to give them was enough to get them to follow basic commands," Fishlegs mused.
"Uh, excuse you, we weren't fleeing, it was a tactical retreat! I voted to fight!"
"Snotlout, for the last time, we're not fighting our younger selves," Hiccup interjected with a sigh.
"Well we should! It would at least knock some sense into them, not to mention all the stuff we could teach them. Alvin, Dagur, Drago - those would all be a breeze after what we could put them through."
Hiccup blinked at the Jorgenson's surprisingly sound, mindless violence-lacking reasoning.
"That's... actually a fair point, but the fact stands that we shouldn't alter the timeline even more than we already have. Even if we're trying to do good, we have no idea how our intervention could affect the things to come."
As Snotlout turned away to pout, Fishlegs pulled a piece of parchment from his pouch and handed it to Hiccup.
"Well, while you guys were out, I've made some progress with Gothi's book. I've taken a few notes about potential leads, but most of them are a long shot at best, nothing about actual time travel so far. And at the pace I've been able to go through it, it would take me at least until the next ice-melting season to read the whole thing. Seriously, Gothi's predecessors' writing is harder to decipher than that drunken love confession Gobber wrote to his hook last Snoggletog. And not just because this time I'm actually trying to understand it."
Hiccup skimmed over the few short sentences Fishlegs had scribbled down and had to admit he was right. The things there didn't seem to have anything to do with actual time travel, they were more speculations about strange phenomenons their author had observed and chalked up to possible time travel or Odin's miracles.
From across the room, the twins, despite being locked in yet another fight, turned their attention to them.
"Man, wouldn't it be great if there was like a tiny book you could carry around with you that would store up the knowledge of everyone in the world, and every time you wanted to find something, it would tell you exactly that?" Tuffnut remarked.
"Yeah and maybe you could share your problems with others who have the book and they would help you find a solution, and you could help other people solve their problems too," Ruffnut agreed.
"Eh, I feel like that has the potential to bring to light some very unpleasant individuals."
"True."
Rolling up the parchment and handing it back to Fishlegs, Hiccup nervously cleared his throat and stood up to get the attention of his fellow riders.
"Ok, tonight and all reality-defying book ideas aside, there's something I wanted to talk to you guys about," he said, fiddling with the hem of his tunic.
"Oh this is gonna be good. Whenever he gets that nervous, he's one step closer to absolute Loki," Tuffnut laughed.
As all eyes turned to him, Hiccup took a deep breath and put on his best 'chiefly' voice.
"I've been thinking about this for a while and... I think we should leave Berk, and I mean as quick as possible," he fired off, more than surprised when no one interrupted him right away. Still, he didn't wait to see if they would change their minds and quickly continued, "It's true that we're safe here for now, but we're literally tiptoeing at the edge of shattering our entire timeline. We may have found the Terrors, but I doubt those would be able to get us out safely with half of Berk on our tail. Past Astrid and Hiccup are constantly on our tail and after today, it will only get worse. It's only a matter of time before others get suspicious too. "
Astrid looked away at that, feeling a mix of anger and frustration.
The rest of the riders seemed to mull the suggestion over, the twins soon moving a few topics away judging by their hushed conversation.
"Ok, let's say we consider it," Fishlegs started, "Even if we actually have a potential way off the island now, where exactly are we going to go if we leave?"
Hiccup, obviously relieved they weren't shooting his idea down right away, pulled out his notebook and laid it out in front of them. It was open on a miniature version of his ever-growing map, filled with red crosses and arrows.
"Well, I've been thinking about that, and I've had to rule out most of the Archipelago because right now it's either hostile to Berk, dragons, or both. And if we end up going beyond the Archipelago, it would be best if we could steer clear of any hunter controlled areas, but I doubt we'd be able to, since at this point they're pretty much everywhere."
"How about the Edge? There's nothing there right now, but we would at least have the Night Terrors to help protect us and a safe place from the hunters," Snotlout suggested, eyeing the island that would hold their old (future?) base on the map.
Hiccup shook his head.
"That was actually the first place I thought of, but we should leave it as a last resort. Without supplies from Berk it would be hard to build a permanent base there, not to mention the limited capabilities of our current bodies. I think our best bet is to head to any uninhabited islands near Berk and try to find and tame larger dragons as soon as we find any trainable ones. With that, we should be able to make the trip to a dragon-friendly village, preferably either the Defenders of the Wing on Caldera Cay or the Wingmaidens on Wingmaiden Island."
While the first name didn't do much, the second definitely made Snotlout flinch.
"Uh Hiccup, did you by any chance forget that both of these tribes tried to, oh you know, kill us when we first landed on their islands?!"
"To be fair, pretty much everyone not from Berk tried to kill or betray us at some point," Ruffnut remarked.
"Yeah and they usually become our allies in the end. Kind of weird isn't it?" Fishlegs added, his brows scrunching up as he recalled the surprisingly high amount of times that happened.
"That, and both of those groups tried to kill a bunch of adult dragon riders and/or trespassers, I don't think they would have the same reaction to literal babies," Hiccup said towards his cousin.
Said Jorgenson continued to grumble about not wanting to be a soup ingredient again, but quickly deflated when met with Astrid's glare. Hiccup looked around at the others, and was content when he saw all of them were at least thinking about what he suggested.
"Okay, so obviously our plan going forward still has some holes, but look at us! We're just made dragon equipment right under my dad's nose, and not even our past selves noticed!" he said, and the other riders looked much more confident at the realisation, "We could only do the things we did tonight because we decided to move forward, even if it was risky. If we stop now, it will have all been for nothing. So we should decide right now. Do we all agree to leave as soon as the other saddles are finished?"
A collective "Aye!" from the others was enough to put him at ease. It felt good to know they finally had at least some semblance of a plan other than 'Let's look around and hope we find a dragon.' He felt as though they were finally getting closer to finding a way home.
"Great, it's settled then. Now, I'm sure we're all tired after tonight, so I'm thinking we get Gothi to cover for us in the village tomorrow while we get some rest, and in the evening we can go and- Astrid, what's wrong?"
The other riders turned to see that the scowl Astrid usually reserved for Snotlout and the twins didn't disappear like it usually did after her focus shifted. Instead it grew into something worse, and her nails were digging into her arms. Hiccup's cheery mood was immediately doused and he hurried over to his girlfriend, the other riders also gravitating closer.
"Astrid, if it's something about the plan, you know I always want to hear your thoughts on them, so if there's anything-"
"No! No, Hiccup, it's not that, the plan is great, it's just..." Astrid looked up at her friends and caved, "I messed up, ok?! I had Sneaky lure her to the forest, she was actually listening to me, but I just had to slip up!"
The other riders' confusion quickly turned into understanding. Although Astrid was vague about the part of her plan where it all went wrong during her retelling, they could all clearly see she was bothered by the mistake that got her discovered."
"Astrid, you have nothing to be angry about. We all knew getting our past selves on our side would be almost as much of a miracle as convincing my dad. You got further with her than any of us could have hoped for," Hiccup tried to reassure her, but Astrid gently pushed him away.
"Yeah, I know that, but I just can't help thinking about all the things I could have said that would have pushed her all the way," she gave them a halfhearted smile, but her eyes didn't meet his.
Hiccup automatically reached for her again, but to his surprise, Snotlout was the one to stop him.
"Hey, let me handle this. Trust me," he added quietly after seeing his doubtful faces.
"This will either go surprisingly well, or there will be minced Snotlout for dinner," Tuffnut remarked as they watched the Jorgenson approach their fuming teammate.
"Snotlout, I really don't have the nerves for your yammering right now," Astrid growled when he stood in front of her.
"I don't want to talk. I want you to punch me."
The other riders, including Astrid, froze.
"W-what?"
"You heard me. Punch me like you mean it. But please not the face, I'd like my nose intact. Come on, punch me," he kept insisting when she didn't move.
"I'm not gonna punch you, Snotlout. Well not now at least."
"Sure you are. Come on, Astrid. Punch me. Punch me with all that anger you're bottling up. Or are you scared you'll mess that up t-!"
He didn't even notice the fist before it collided with his stomach, sending a wave of pain through his body. He doubled over just as Astrid went to kick his shin, which he thankfully managed to block. The next few punches also missed their mark, but his lucky streak ended when he got socked in the jaw. With a final furious scream, Astrid threw him over her shoulder, and he felt the air leave his lungs as he hit the ground hard.
She stood above him, both of them breathing heavily.
"Feeling better?" Snotlout asked between pants.
Astrid brushed her hair out of her face and helped the boy to his feet.
"Yeah, I do actually. Thanks, Snotlout."
"Any time, as always," Snotlout breathed in relief, suppressing a wince.
As they all settled back down around the fire, Tuffnut leaned over to him.
"I will never understand how you can willingly be her punching bag," he whispered.
Snotlout shrugged. This wasn't the first time he asked Astrid to a spar of some kind when she was angry. Surprisingly, it worked quite well most times.
"Yeah well, it gets a bit painful on her bad days, but the protection from her on-mission violent outbursts is worth it. And I also figured if she's going to become my chieftess soon, I'd better rack up some points with her to make up for our... less than ideal relationship in the past," he said, rubbing his sore arm.
With that bit, the conversation slowly wound down, and the riders descended into a comfortable silence. Then Astrid stood up again and headed for the door, causing the others to look at her.
"Don't worry, I'm fine," she assured them when she noticed Hiccup about to go after her, "I just don't think I can sleep after tonight. I'll be outside keeping watch."
"Oh, uh, I was actually just thinking the same thing so, maybe we can keep watch together?" Hiccup said, his awkward tone making it obvious that was only half of the truth.
"Thor's mercy, can't you two get a room? I won't be able to sleep a wink after not getting my evening exercise, and now we'll have hiccstrid flirting from outside, too?" Snotlout groaned, making the two turn a bright red.
"Yeah ditto. Sleeping after a full night of pranks? No gracias, señor."
"We still have 27 traps that haven't been triggered yet and we intend to see every single one of them go off," Ruffnut explained with a smug smile just as a scream echoed outside, "Make that 26."
"That was the one at Gustav's," her brother noted after peeking through the window, "The kid will never look at porridge the same."
"Well I was going to sleep, but I'll probably just do some more reading. Thor knows what those three would do to me without supervision," Fishlegs grumbled while rubbing his eyes.
Knowing full well that any alone time with Astrid was now out of the question, Hiccup once again called for the attention of his team.
"Okay then, I was going to leave this until morning, but," he reached for the sack he and Snotlout brought in, and after rummaging through it for a bit, pulled out a tangled heap of leather straps interconnected with various iron parts, "since it looks like most of us don't feel like sleeping, I think now's as good a time as any to go see what Sharpshot thinks of his new saddle."
It was the darkest part of night; the time right before the sunlight started peeking over the horizon but after the moon grew dim. Even the latest of night owls had gone to bed, leaving the village empty and quiet. The riders didn't even have to hide as they walked through the small stretch of the village that separated them from the forest. It was enough to almost make them forget this wasn't actually their Berk.
They decided to test Hiccup's invention outside the hut in case Sharpshot freaked out and started flying around or shooting fire. Burning Gothi's house to the ground was probably the last thing they could do to thank her for taking them in.
Before long they reached the small grove, and Hiccup let out a sharp whistle to call the dragons to them. Before long, the swarm of Terrors emerged from the shadows to welcome them with happy croons. Sharpshot in particular seemed very curious about the tangle of leather Hiccup was carrying, almost as if he already knew it was meant for him.
"So, Hiccup, how exactly is this supposed to work?" Astrid asked curiously when they stopped in a small glade far enough away from the village to not be discovered but close enough so they could find their back. Although Gothi made sure they all remembered her paths before allowing them to use the this part of the forest as a testing ground, none of them were confident enough to stray too far.
Hiccup mumbled something, but the words were lost in the strap he was holding between his teeth. He was bent down and securing his creation on the tiny dragon's body. Sharpshot started wriggling a bit, but otherwise remained surprisingly calm.
From what they could see, the 'saddle' looked nothing like any they'd seen before. There was no obvious seat for the rider, and two long straps that hung off the dragon's sides and pooled on the ground below his feet.
Hiccup quickly finished securing the harness in place and left Sharpshot to curiously sniff at the leather while he fastened a strange belt with loops that went around his legs and an iron ring at each side around his waist.
"Well, when me and Fishlegs were drawing the designs, we realised it would require a lot more time and materials to create an actual saddle for the Terrors because of how their wings are positioned and how weak their necks are. We needed to find a totally different way to fly them than how we flew any dragons back in our time, so..."
He reached down to grab the two long straps, and a glint of metal revealed an improvised clasp at the end of each of them.
"I figured if we can't fly on dragons, we'll just have to fly below them."
Before his friends' confusion could be transferred into words, he clipped the two straps onto his belt and whistled to Sharpshot. The little dragon stopped scratching at the harness and snapped to attention, chirping happily when Hiccup pointed to the sky.
With a powerful flap of his tiny wings, the Terror launched himself off the ground, squawking in surprise when he found a weight pulling him down. But he refused to give up, and centimeter by centimeter his distance from the ground increased.
"Oh my Thor, it's working! It's actually working!" Hiccup couldn't restrain his happy yells as Sharpshot lifted him higher and higher. His excitement quickly carried over to the other riders, and even the dragons, and soon happy shouts and chirping filled the forest.
In their elation, none of them noticed the silhouette of a scrawny, auburn-haired boy, that scampered away in the direction of the village.