And as a pleasant surprise, I'm back early. Reading the reviews given was a nice pick-me-up after work the other day and the next part rolled off my fingers before bedtime. Responses to specific reviews will be below the story post. As always, only the plot-line and shadowy thing in the snow are mine.
Dawn rose and with it, Hiccup. For a long moment he held still for although he was stiff and sore, he was warm and for a brief span of time that was enough. Then his thoughts of the night before and the worries of the world caught up and he sat up. Shivering as the heat of Toothless left his back he thought for a moment longer. Something was missing and it struck him all of a sudden. There was no howling wind battering the shutters. Struggling to his foot with the help of the closest table he rose to a shaky stand and turned to look. Sunlight leaked through the shuttered windows and the first real hope he'd felt since the storm began in earnest snuck into his body.
Then of course, hope and sun being far too much good luck for the morning, someone who was looking the other way ran right into him and sent him crashing to the ground. Luckily, he rolled with the landing and gained but a sore elbow for the trouble. Looking up, Hiccup strained to see just who was at fault but the busy person had long since gone on their way without realizing what they'd just done. Sighing, Hiccup marked another point up to the fates and since he was sitting once more, scooted over to where his leg had lain next to his Nightfury all night. Of course, it had to be freezing cold despite the padding he'd given this newest version and wishing he'd grabbed a thick woolen sock to pull over his stump before heading over to the Bunkhouse for the night, Hiccup slowly did up the lashings on the leg. Soon the leg was secure and it was time for the second task of the day and perhaps the most difficult- waking the sleeping lump next to him.
"C'mon bud, it's morning. Rise and shine." Hiccup watched in wry amusement for a moment as Toothless cracked an eye, grumbled softly, and then rolled to the other side and back to sleep. He was about to tease the dragon when urgent matters caught up once more, and firmly he shook the dragon's shoulder. "Toothless, Astrid's still out there. The snow's stopped and we can head on out."
The dragon rolled over again, both eyes open and serious. Gaze met gaze for a long searching moment and then with a slow but purposeful movement Toothless stood and began stretching- rather like a cat. Satisfied that his dragon would be ready in a few minutes for the daunting task ahead Hiccup walked over to a table and set his mind to work. When it came to searching he had a general direction to start out with. He knew the location Astrid had left from, knew the direction that she was headed in, and knew the speed, if roughly, of her Nadder. Based on that, he could try and guess the time they'd had to turn back and with all that information find a point of origin for his search.
As he began scratching out the math on a piece of paper on the table, the realist whispered that this was all guesswork, and that the missing pair could have made turns at any point in their flight to take them off his imaginary course. That also went for the return attempt which most certainly had gone off course. He comforted himself that he'd accounted for the last bit as they'd run a search grid back and forth for as long as the light lasted and the weather held so that no place could be missed. With all luck they'd spend a day at this and come back in the evening to find Astrid back home with a good story to tell that night over dinner.
Looking over his now sketched plan Hiccup couldn't help but hope this was the case and that the searching was just going to be a lot of boring flying that came with a happy ending. However, he had to plan for the worst and grabbing a second piece of loose paper he quickly wrote out a list. Such things as dry food, wood, fire starters, two blankets, a basic aid kit, and winter gear all went on this list. He'd likely not end up using any of it, but Astrid hadn't expected to be out for the night either. Reading over everything again he felt something bump his shoulder and looked up to see Toothless peering at his writing, inspecting the plan.
The dragon nodded to himself, as though he could read the words on the paper, and Hiccup got the feeling that approval had been given with a second nod and a look that said, 'Well, are we going or what?'
"I need to get a few things first, supplies just in case. C'mon." He stood slowly, and closing his eyes for a moment at the aching pain that was his leg slipped out from the bench. One hand on the dragon for support as he got his balance, the two strode off to get everything ready.
Dawn some great distance away was equally welcome, if not more so. Astrid was awake as light began streaming across the horizon and was coherent enough to be thankful that the snow had stopped as well. She'd given up on movement sometime that night after propping herself up against one of the cave walls. The girl still couldn't find a place that didn't hurt in some manner and had more or less stopped shivering as well, which she knew was a bad sign. Still, she strove to look on the bright side through the haze of pain and veiled fear. It was daylight, she was alive, and she'd not have to fear dehydration. She'd already eaten some good bit of snow that morning and had enough of a sense of humor left to wish for breakfast to go along with the drink.
Inwardly she figured that she'd be ok through the day. The sun would warm the land enough to hopefully dispel freezing and if the shadow in the snow from yesterday stayed away, Hiccup should find her before dark and they could-well they'd be able to do something. Shaking her head slightly, she knew that she wasn't thinking straight. She'd not be able to do anything for a good long while. Anything that could be done would be by Hiccup and Toothless and the most she could hope for was a blanket, and maybe a bit of a fire if he brought the right supplies. Then it would be a gods-cursed ride home and the sufferings of the Healer who hopefully- oh please Thor- hopefully wouldn't cut anything off. This thought on the top of her mind, she reflected that it was odd that someone who had no problems fighting with all sorts of weaponry and accepted the risks that came along with them should be afraid of a person who was meant to heal. However, there was little defense against the Healers saw, and perhaps it was the helplessness in that which scared her the most. Not that she'd ever admit such a thing of course.
Sighing heavily, she settled back to wait, thanking whatever gods were watching out for her that the wind had shifted. Early in the morning before the sun had risen it'd been blowing right into the cave which had been miserable. Now it was parallel again, coming from the North again she supposed. The sun rose higher in the sky and so she waited.
An aerial search is one of the hardest operations to complete successfully and yet one of the easiest. Hiccup found this paradox frustrating, and as he rode Toothless to the point he'd been sitting at yesterday he compared the pros and cons in his head. On the plus side, one could cover vast amounts of ground efficiently with a minimum of energy expended. You could work grids that slowly but surely narrowed down the options raising the chance of success with every passing lane. Best of all if you had multiple searchers ground could be covered ever quicker and more thoroughly. This in mind, he'd gone to round up the other four people he could call friends and fellow riders. He'd found them in bed and when he'd gone to rouse them had been soundly repulsed no matter what he'd said. They must have been up late telling stories to scare each other and only gotten to bed when the wind died down. He could have persisted, or better yet, have set Toothless on them, but the fact that time was passing kept nagging on him and he abandoned the attempt. He'd left a note with instructions for when they finally came around to assist in the search. Hopefully before noon he'd have a full flight of dragons searching and a happy finish soon after.
The leather satchels of supplies behind him, tied down to Toothless indicated the pessimism that reigned in the back of his mind however and as they passed over the cliff he'd sat at the other day he kept running down a list in his mind, hoping he'd not forgotten anything. A rumble by Toothless got his attention, and scanning the horizon he put the dragon's noise to words.
"This is it, we'll fly straight for a good while, I'll tell you when we start running lanes." He saw the dragon nod his head, and scanning the rolling whitecaps briefly turned his thoughts to the cons of aerial searches. For one, as he was quickly finding out, it was going to be almost impossible to pick out details at the height they were flying now. They'd have to slow down and lose altitude to stand a chance at seeing a snow cave or outcropping of rock that could indicate a shelter. It would be so easy to miss that one critical detail and mark an area as searched, leaving behind Astrid to freeze- No, he couldn't think of that. Shaking his head, he noted a change in the wind as did Toothless. Thinking a moment, he set their tailfin another notch down, angling the device so that the freshening wind didn't adversely affect his dragons flight.
Another rumble indicated Toothless' agreement with this move and with long wingstrokes the two moved onwards closer towards their goal. That something else might be sharing the sea and sky along with them went unthought-of. The wind bore silent witness to the beginning of the search, staying steady in its course and occasionally strengthening in speed. Blowing past the pair it wound its way across the ocean to a island village where several old women stood huddled on the heights. One slowly licked her finger and held it to the breeze for a long moment.
"From the North, and freshening. It'll be another one before the sun sinks below the horizon. I was wrong about last night's but this- gods help anyone out in this one.
As always, I love comments and constructive reviews. They make me write faster. You can expect the next bit of this on Friday, for no matter how fast I write, I won't have an internet connection that lets me upload stories until then, unless someone rolls into town and I hitch a ride.
Voldyne : Thanks, we'll have to wait and see what if anything they pick up in a days searching.
Lord Anubis: You've stumbled upon to my bad habit. I'll do my best to change my ways for the rest of this tale, but it may have to wait until I finish and go back and edit.
Underthesea: Thanks for the thoughts you've given, thats just the thing I'm after. I gave a clue as far as time lapse goes in the first part, mentioning it'd just been a few weeks. That's the basis of why Hiccup is still having the devil of a time with his leg and the like. And yes, Hiccup still is rather young to be training people, but he's the expert. Never said the job had to be easy, right?
Givinglight: Ask me no questions and I tell no lies. =) I will say that somewhere out there is something still, and that it might rear it's head soon. Also, as far as development in either the story or characters goes, it should start picking up in the next post or three. Also, fluff is not promised but we shall see.
Romance and Musicals: It is safe to assume that 50% of the pair is definitely *not* ok.
And that's all for now folks. I promise the next update is going to be lengthy, we've gotten all the chores and starts out of the way. Into the ice and snow until next time!