I have no excuses except that school sucks, boys suck, work sucks, and my life is full of too much fun. Really, this senior year has been great. I've been too busy with life to get to writing or drawing anything useful or substantial, and I'm really, actually trying to get my shit together. I know I've probably kept you guys on the edge of your seats for awhile (lol not really, I'm sure) but I apologize for my absence. I'm also sure some of you want to go ham on flaming me and I'm saying go for it because I would be mad too! Especially since so many of you love this story so far (AND I LOVE YOU TOO) and I really appreciate all your reviews and lovely words. And I always will. :)
DISCLAIMER: Here is where I bend history in a bunch of different ways that I'm sure are not accurate. I've done my research and to keep the timeline of HTTYD ambiguous, I've decided to keep out a set date in history. However, I've done my best to keep it within a range so it would make sense (and because I'm a freak for history) but I've also used certain elements to add to this story. To keep this story in THE Viking Age, I decided to set dates between 850-1000 AD. Big difference, I know, but I didn't want to add too much reality to this fantasy, animated children's movie. lol. So stick with me. And let me know if you have any questions, or I'm sure Wikipedia could answer them for you better than I can.
This chapter will be the deciding factor on whether you guys truly hate me or not for what I am doing. omg.
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Hands on Sunshine
Chapter Seventeen
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Hiccup was released from Svala's care two days later on the promise that Astrid would take care of him, taking some of the remedies and poultices with her to apply twice a day. This was also her idea of an excuse to be able to go his house and see him and for him to come with her places and just generally be together more often since that had been lacking.
Hiccup's left forearm was mottled with burn marks but the wounds would heal without scarring. His left temple still had bruising and cuts from the Nightmare's wing and that was healing nicely, but the claw marks on his torso would certainly scar and were taking a bit longer to heal decently. He couldn't do much work in the forge since his stomach muscles ached like no other, so Gobber took his place until he was healed again. Astrid took good care of him, going to his house where he was sketching, in the forge where he was doing the same thing, or going to wherever he happened to be to do her duty and clean his wound and apply more of the smelly poultice and give him clean bandages.
After doing her promised job while in his room, Astrid kissed him lightly on the lips and his cheek before smiling. "Come with me to the market, will you? You should get out of the house," she kept her face close to his, her arm slung over his shoulder and her fingers walking across his bare shoulder blades teasingly.
"Mmm...," Hiccup said in a way that sounded like he was still deciding. Astrid raised a challenging brow. "One more kiss," she laughed before doing what he asked without haste.
It was a beautiful day outside, the sun slowly rising in the sky as late morning passed and Berk became busier before the sun came to its peak in the hottest part of the day. Astrid brought a basket with her to buy some things her mother wanted her to pick up, casually strolling the stands with Hiccup close by her side. After Ingrid announced to them of arranging their marriage contract-that was more than likely going to turn into engagement-Hiccup and Astrid gave up trying to hide their relationship. He would openly kiss her cheek and she would hold his hand in public without fear and they didn't care when rumors of them actually being engaged floated around because it was bound to happen anyway.
Currently, Hiccup rested his hand on her lower back as they stood at the apple vendor, gazing at all the different colored apples and commenting on them. Hiccup bought one of each color and kept them for later so they could try each one and figure out if they tasted different by what color it was.
"The green ones are more sour, I know that," Astrid said as she shifted through heads of cabbage, finding the best one of the bunch.
"The dark red ones are weird tasting. Kind of old-ish," Hiccup noted, looking and examining said-apple.
"Old-ish? How can you use that to describe a flavor?" She asked, buying one head and moving on to the carrots a couple of carts down.
"I don't know, but it'll make sense once you take a bite," Hiccup said and sank his teeth into the apple, chewing and holding it out for her to bite into.
"Ohh. Okay. But it's almost sweet," she said through chewing, buying a dozen carrots and putting them into the basket she was carrying.
Hiccup paused, furrowing his eyebrows while Astrid walked ahead of him without knowing he had stopped. He stood in the middle of the market, staring pointedly in one direction. Astrid turned around when she didn't see him beside her and saw him looking like a hound, his arm full of six apples and another one in his other hand. "What're you looking at?" Astrid came up to him and stood next to him, following his line of sight to where he was looking out, down the road, to the ocean. "Hiccup?" she said his name when he didn't respond, his green eyes squinting critically.
He wiped his mouth with the outside of his hand, realizing that she was speaking to him next to her. "There are ships coming in," he said in a low voice, being careful not to point too blatantly to cause attention.
"They could be ships coming in from fishing," Astrid said with a shrug, seeing the tiny dots off in the far distance.
"No, ours would be coming directly from the east, these are coming south-southeast," Hiccup said, his jaw jutting out in a certain way that Astrid recognized as his Thinking Deeply Face. He would often get that look when he was wrapped in the throes of drawing things, too concerned with the sheet of paper and oblivious to the things going on around him.
"Soo... what are you saying?" Astrid asked, her voice raising in a suspicious tone.
He was slow to reply again. "They're ships that aren't ours," By 'ours' he meant anyone associated with the Hooligans, Meatheads and their brethren on the mainland and Astrid knew this. These ships were entirely foreign to them and therefore to be taken cautiously.
Hiccup dumped his apples into Astrid's basket and said he would be back quickly, more or less jogging out of the market place. Astrid hardly heard him, saying 'okay' before he went off. She walked down the street towards the bay where some people had already started gathering to gaze out at the quickly-approaching ships. She found Ruffnut standing among the people, holding her own basket full of laundry and other things, her brows knitted together curiously. Astrid stood next to her as men from the docks wheeled up barrows of fish and goods raided from far lands. Fleetingly, Astrid thought, maybe they've come to raid back, and a cold feeling wrapped around her heart. She had a sudden urge to run back to her house and grab her axe.
The ships who were swiftly and obviously sailing in Berk's direction had sails that Astrid couldn't recognize. The sails were white with a yellow shield decorated with what looked like blue stretched out cats with their claws drawn (12). She had never seen or heard of the designs on the sails, and even some of the men coming up from the docks had anxious looks on their faces as they whispered about them. The head ship that was leading raised a white flag on the mast and all their worries were put to rest. They were not coming to attack. Astrid shook her head, realizing that it would have been a dumb idea to anyway because it would be near impossible for them to successfully go up all the ramps leading up the cliff side.
It was a good ten minutes before the ships had docked, and by then there were groups of men down at the docks in case foreigners had decided to fool them and attack-but no one would be fooled. Stoick was down at the docks waiting and had asked a group of men to hide on top of the cliffs with weapons and long bows for safety precautions. The leader of the ships stepped off board and form Astrid's view, she could only make out that he was much smaller than Stoick (like mostly everyone outside of the Norse archipelago), had dark hair and was wearing a white and blue tunic with shining chainmail underneath.
"I wonder who they are," Ruffnut said with hints of curiosity to Astrid, one among the many whispers around them. Below, it was only the leader and two men who had stepped off with them and carried only their swords at their sides while the rest of the crew on the ships stayed on board. Some words were passed between Stoick and the captain and they shook hands and then Stoick started leading him up the ramps. Hiccup appeared next to Astrid at the end of the line of suspicious villagers where the ramps began, looking a bit less concerned than he was fifteen minutes ago.
"Their ships are nearly as fast as ours," he said to Astrid with his arms casually folded across his broad chest. Astrid nodded as a gust of wind made her knee-length dress shudder around her legs and tossed her long hair over her shoulder.
"That guy can obviously speak our language, soooo, I wonder... have we met him before?" Ruffnut asked, looking across Astrid to Hiccup, and a few other eavesdropping villagers turned their heads to see what Hiccup would say as they wondered the same thing. He was the only one out of anybody on Berk who had travelled extensively south and he was the chief's son in training to be chief, so it would be natural for people to look at him for answers.
However, Hiccup only shrugged. He had never seen the crest on the sails ever before in his life. "I have no idea. We'll just have to find out who they are."
The men Stoick kept in secret on top of the cliff were shooed away by Spitelout before the chief and the captain came up into view. A couple of yards away, Astrid could see the captain was young. So young in fact, he looked barely ten years older than Hiccup. He was tall and lean with dark, viciously wavy hair pulled into a short ponytail at the nape of his neck with haphazard, sea-swept bangs across his pale forehead. He had bright blue eyes (or so she thought from the distance she was at) set underneath thick black brows. On the left side of his face was a long brownish scar from just above his eyebrow all the way down to his jaw, and, Astrid wasn't quite sure, but she also believed she could see another scar from in between his brows that veered off onto the left side of the bridge of his nose, ending just at the bottom of his eye socket. His hair covered up most of his scars. On the front of his knee-length tunic was the same crest on the sails, possibly meaning he was some sort of ambassador to whatever place he was from. He had detailed chainmail for sleeves and a hood, his leather cap off to dangle behind his neck. He had leather bracers and metal-plated shins over his dusty but fine leather boots.
He didn't look much different than anyone else on the island but there was just a foreign air about him that Astrid or Ruffnut-or anybody, for that matter-had never truly felt before. It was almost apprehensive and anxious and curious.
As the captain came up the ramps, Astrid could see he almost did a double-take in her general direction. She set down her basket as the wicker was digging into her hip, but she furrowed her brows and continued to watch him as he approached, finding out that he wasn't looking at her, he was looked at Ruffnut. He looked intrigued, interested, besotted. "Hey, Ruff, he's looking at you," Astrid whispered to her, smirking. No way. This was not happening. This foreigner dude was staring at Ruffnut as he obviously approached them, veering off Stoick's path completely. "He's coming towards you, Ruff," Astrid said with hints of excitement in her voice, throwing Ruffnut off-guard.
"No, he's no. Oh, gods, he is," Ruffnut gripped nervously onto Astrid's arm, her basket at her feet, turning tomato red. Astrid could only snort and giggle at her reaction, the other surrounding villagers elbowing each other and snickering, watching the impending action to take place.
But, the captain did a very odd thing when he stood in front of Ruffnut (and Astrid, as they looked almost connected). Instead of simply introducing himself or saying something charmingly stupid as any other Berkian would have done, he bowed. In a flourish, with his arm out. Ruffnut's eyes were wide as he took her hand that had been in a fist in front of her, now lax in his gloved hand, bringing it up with him as he stood to kiss her knuckles.
"Hallo, milady," he said in Norse but laced with some sort of accent against her skin, grinning wolfishly. He let her hand go and followed Stoick, the chief's eyes wide in disbelief and almost laughing to himself, leaving the stunned crowd with a special smile the captain tossed over his shoulder to Ruffnut. Hiccup followed his father and the other important council members, leaving Astrid nearly joined to Ruffnut. As soon as the foreign men and council members were out of sight, Astrid burst out laughing along with most of the other people who had just previously been curious and now were laughing in complete bewilderment.
"Oh, gods!" Ruffnut shouted with an even more red face, covering it with her hands as villagers clapped the most unlikely girl on the shoulders and dispersed. "What just happened? Astrid, what just happened? I don't even know!" Ruffnut looked almost horrified, staring at her hand like it had been detached from her arm, but there were hints of a smile on her face.
Astrid shrugged. "He looked like a knight. And he totally just flirted with you big time."
"I know! I can't believe it!" Now, she looked excited, a totally different expression on her face though her face was still red. "A knight... we've only ever seen one once forever ago when people from the mainland came by. Dude... could he be a knight?" Astrid made an 'I don't know' noise. "Did you see that scar on his face?" Astrid nodded. "That looked so cool! I want to meet him. I want to know where he's from."
"Whoa, there, Ruff. Two seconds ago, you looked like you were about to run away, and now you want to chase him?" With her arm free of Ruffnut's death grip, she picked up her basket and started walking back toward the market.
"No, not even. But he just totally pulled that knight move with the weird hand-kissing, but, dude. He looked so. cool," Ruffnut picked up her own basket and started walking with Astrid to the market. Astrid rolled her eyes and laughed, preparing herself for a long barrage of rants concerning Mr. Foreign Knight guy.
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Later at night, Hiccup climbed up through Astrid's window once the very, very, very long meeting with the foreigners was over with. Hiccup had sat in Mead Hall listening to his father and the captain-ambassador talk since early afternoon until around eleven at night. Since his father didn't leave with him, Hiccup just walked right to Astrid's house and threw exactly two pebbles at her window before she welcomed him up.
He laid perpendicular on her bed with his arms stretched out wide and his eyes closed in exhaustion. It was a mentally trying day with keeping up along with his father and the rest of the intensely interested and active council. Hiccup sighed when Astrid ran her hand through his hair, scratching her nails gently on his scalp, sending pleasant shivers down his spine. They were quiet for awhile and Astrid didn't pester him about what he sat in on all day though she was dying to know. She knew Hiccup would tell her otherwise he wouldn't have climbed up through her window.
After fifteen minutes of playing with his hair and rubbing a tense spot between his neck and shoulder, she was dying to know and she didn't want to wait any longer. "So what happened after you go to the Hall? Who were those people? Where are they from?"
Hiccup fluttered his eyes open and yawned, forcibly pulling himself up to sit against the post of her footboard on her bed. Astrid still laid on her stomach holding her chin in her palms with her elbows in her mattress, looking expectantly at him. "They're Danish. Their leader's name is Søren and he's a duke-general from Denmark but he's been fighting in the Danelaw in England, " Hiccup explained slowly, looking clearly tired.
"Aenglaland," Astrid re-pronounced, finding the word familiar but she couldn't put a place to it. She's heard of it's use before, remembering Hiccup using it when he was explaining his two-year trip to her.
Hiccup nodded and looked at the tight and highly sensitive parts of his burned skin that were starting to peel and he had to resist the urge to pick at them. He started fingering the hem of his tunic instead, also resisting itching his wound. "Well, we've-meaning us and our allies and stuff-have been raiding along the east coast of England and Søren was sent to pretty much make sure we don't raid the Danish land holds. He's in control of portions of the Danelaw along the coast so his king sent him to Berk because we're one of the last outposts of the mainland, along with the Meatheads, but we can't really go any farther on this treaty-thing until the Meathead council comes, so it'll be a few days. My dad and the chief of the Meatheads pretty much have to okay Søren's treaty idea before he goes to the mainland to make it final. It's crazy," Hiccup brought a hand to his cheek and groaned. "And apparently our two island's ambassador is already gone on the mainland so it'll be a little longer until the Danes leave to finish this stupid treaty. Ugh."
Astrid paused, taking in for a moment what he said. "Kollr. He's Aislin's husband," she said in a light, cold tone, giving off the impression that this topic was done and over with.
Hiccup pursed his lips, turning over his left hand. On the outside of his wrist was a patch of burned skin that itched like no other so he gave in to the temptation and scratched at it. Without saying anything and moving soundlessly, Astrid gently took his hands so he wouldn't pick off the thin scabs. Hiccup looked up at her suddenness and saw that her eyes looked a little fearful, not from his itching but it was as if she didn't know she looked scared. Mixed in with her frightened mouse look he could see sadness shining through and it disheartened him to see it. She was still sad at just the mentioning of Aislin. It must still be constantly on her mind though she had hid it quite well from him, and he was a little upset at that too but he understood because he would have done the same thing. And he still is; his journals still haunt him though he tries hard to forget, but ultimately neither of them can forget. They just have to learn to live with it.
Hiccup pulled Astrid into a tight hug when her eyes started watering, running a hand over her hair, holding her head just beneath his chin so her head laid comfortably on his chest. She cried into him, soaking his tunic with her tears and he kissed her hair, rubbing her back. His heart ached, his eyes stung. He wanted to cry too. But he couldn't. He had cried too much over pointless things and not enough over the things that mattered and he didn't want to anymore, but he still couldn't cry-this was one of those important things. He had to be strong for her, help her fix this, otherwise he didn't know what they would come to.
Hiccup shut his eyes tightly. He so wanted this dark spell to pass. He wanted to be happy again, running naked through the woods, waking up from a hangover at the waterhole, going skinny dipping. And all those times were with Astrid, he realized with a start. She was with him at his happiest moments and now he was here with her at her saddest. It was an ugly, beautiful thing, that mutual whatever-it-was. He would always be there for her and she would be there for him.
Hiccup hugged her tighter and let himself go. A single tear squeezed itself out and hung onto his eyelashes until it slid down his cheek, soaking into her yellow hair.
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Early in the morning before the sun rose, Hiccup climbed out of Astrid's window before anyone else had stirred in the house. He was not about to get yelled at by Arnheim, or even Ingrid, which may have been scarier. In any case, he didn't want to ruin chances to marrying Astrid simply because they had slept in the same bed. They didn't even do anything; after he pulled her into a hug they both checked out for the night. He was just there to comfort her so she could fall asleep, but he ended up sleeping as well. He was awfully glad he was an early riser.
Instead of going right home, Hiccup made an important detour to the dragon stables. All the dragons were more than happy to see him, licking his face, ruffling his hair, playfully nipping his shoulders. Younger dragons from the previous winter rubbed against his legs, begging him to pet them and they pulled at his pants enough so he knelt and allowed them to lick his face and nibble his nose and ears, eating his hair and making happy chirps and some even yawned.
"Yeah, guys, no kidding," Hiccup said while he was yawning, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "It's an early morning, yes, so you little ones should get back to bed. Come on, now, go," he started shuffling the 'children' dragons to their respective pens with their parents, tripping over some because they didn't want to go. "Ooh-I'm sorry! Oh, geez, I stepped on your foot, didn't I? Oh, man," Hiccup apologized profusely, scratching the pained Gronkle's nose with extra fervor. "Alright, alright, go to bed. It's too early. Ugh. Okay. Who am I kidding," Hiccup wiped his face and let some of the dragons follow him down the stables to the far back corner. The Nightmare that had gone berserk was currently still tied up here with a band of leather over its mouth in between its complicated row of teeth, a chain binding it to a nearby post holding up the roof.
Hiccup had not gone to see the dragon yet, giving him a few days before approaching. He walked up to the Nightmare without fear but he made his steps cautious so he would not alarm the dragon, trying to smile reassuringly. The Nightmare lifted his head from the hay-strewn ground, watching Hiccup walk up to him. When Hiccup reached to pull off the leather strip, he jerked his head away and his eyes narrowed into slits. Hiccup sighed.
"Okay, then," he pulled up a short nearby stool to sit directly in front of the dragon. He sat down and put his elbows on his knees after wincing from a pain in his side where the dragon had scratched him, and looked the Nightmare directly in the eye as a show of respect. "I think you're one of the new dragons here. Your coloring is different than other Nightmares and your horns are shorter. You're from the south, aren't you?"
The Nightmare stared back. Good.
"Well, you're certainly welcome here, only on the conditions that you behave yourself and don't harm the other dragons, people, sheep, houses and aren't greedy with the fish. You'll enjoy it here, I know. It's better than being alone because you Nightmares can be solitary but you like showing off and socializing. You can get a human to bond with and they'll take care of you... you can have the coolest flights of your life... maybe even have a girlfriend," Hiccup winked and the Nightmare rolled his eyes and set his head back down on the hay, adjusting his folded wings.
Hiccup laughed. "Oh, come on, you know it sounds appealing. Having your own lady friend. Trust e, it's awesome. You can fall in love and have your own Nightmare babies-all on Berk! There's plenty of Nightmare females waiting for a cool, exotic new Nightmare like you to jump their bones," Hiccup burst out laughing again when the Nightmare made a grumbling sigh in the depths of his throat. "I hope you know I'm teasing and that I talk a lot to get dragons accustomed and comfortable, so you're going to have to bear it, buddy, seeing as that you can't fly anywhere," Hiccup nudged the chain on the ground, catching the dragon's attention again. "And, after a little while, I may just let you out. Give you an extra half basket of fish or two if you don't cause any trouble, and then I can show you the cool places around the island if you're nice. Toothless may knock you into shape too as I'll have him monitor you.
"Now, Toothless... he isn't as nice as I am, but he can be if you don't threaten to ruin stuff. He's awesome. He's my best friend, he helped me, changed my world-and this world-completely. Nightfuries and Nightmares get along pretty well so don't worry about that because I know you totally are," the Nightmare's eyes shut and he made the grumbling noise again. "Ah, well, you're exciting," Hiccup said sarcastically with an unamused expression. "As you probably already know, most of the dragons on the island live here in the stables, unless families have enough room in the house or a barn to keep their dragons, who are usually considered family members or best friends like Toothless is to me...,"
Hiccup talked to the Nightmare for a good, long while, touching on nearly every subject he could think of; to different dragons and their owners, what fish he thought was going to be the new Nightmare's favorite, what girl dragon would be best for him and now she had 'lovely eyes', to new inventions and how he can't get this project right, and he asked the Nightmare where he came from but he didn't get much of a response. Of course dragons can't talk but Hiccup was always able to communicate back, even the dragons he met on his travels. "You're very untalkative. I could bring in some other dragons so you can talk to them if you don't want to talk to me," Hiccup said somewhere during the long one-sided conversation and the Nightmare gave him a glare back, meaning 'don't you dare'. "Okay, okay, I was only offering," he held up his hands and asked him a few more questions, like what his small pack was like, why he came to Berk, what his preference on wood texture and appearance was, even what 'cool flying move' the Nightmare liked best. All Hiccup got back in response were apathetic or leave-me-alone glares or sighs or eye-rolling.
Hiccup sat on the stool with his hands between his knees and his eyes narrowed, his jaw characteristically jutting out as he thought. This was an awfully tough dragon to get through to, not to mention moody and slightly boring. Hiccup felt like he was literally talking to a wall. Well, he supposed all dragons were different in their own way, but never has one been so unresponsive. Dragons loved talking-or communicating-and sometimes Hiccup could never get one to shut up. So what was this Nightmares deal? Was he trying to tell him something or to make a point? It was really irking.
"Alright, buddy, if you're going to not talk, so be it. It's your choice," Hiccup shrugged. He could hear some villagers coming into the stables, talking, saddling up their dragons for the day or dumping over baskets of fish. Hiccup got up and went just outside the stables to the cellar where a ton of fish baskets were stored, both for the dragons and the village. He brought up one basket for the Nightmare in the corner, but set it a distance away from him. The only reason the Nightmare didn't lunge at it was because Hiccup walked right up to him.
"Now," Hiccup started sternly. "you, my friend, gave me some pretty nasty wounds. I scared my girlfriend half to death because of you and I don't forget easily. And she doesn't forgive often," Hiccup knelt in front of the Nightmare, talking in a voice that reminded him of a parent dealing with their child, or how his dad used to talk to him. He had dealt with unruly dragons before who might as well have been children, so he felt he could handle this well enough. "I'm going to take off your jaw bind. If you so much as to try to bite me, I won't be so hesitant to take this fish basket away and keep you unfed for another three days. Do you hear me?" Hiccup had asked that no one feed him since his 'imprisonment' only because dragon's food needs were not nearly as restricted as humans; three days without food was like a day without food for people. Hiccup waddled a finger and the Nightmare's golden eyes narrowed just a bit as he seemed to consider Hiccup's deal.
Hiccup raised his hands to the Nightmare's mouth and this time he didn't jerk away. Hiccup loosened the strap slowly, his eyes locked on the Nightmare's to foresee any other rapid movements, using his peripheral vision to keep check on the wings. Once the strap was loose enough so the Nightmare was able to open his mouth, Hiccup was pleased to see that he didn't attempt anything.
"Good," Hiccup didn't smile yet. He stood up and walked back a few paces to where he left the basket, keeping his eyes on him. Hiccup nudged the basket closer with his foot and the Nightmare still did not move for it thought he kept looking to the fish basket with hungry eyes. "There," he knocked the basket over and when the fish spilled out the Nightmare lunged for them, nearly inhaling the whole basket.
Now Hiccup smiled. "Good job, buddy. See, you get the best fish around if you're good," he waited about a minute until the Nightmare was finished. "However, you have to keep this on," Hiccup held up the leather bind. "Maybe in a few days if you prove yourself to be a tamed dragon, you can keep it off, but I'm not going to risk a little kid getting their arm bitten off," Hiccup knelt in front of the Nightmare again, holding up the jaw strap. "Close your mouth. Ow, you poked me with your tooth, pal. You think you're funny, don't you?" he could see the dragon was almost smirking as he wrapped the strap around his nose and tightened it. "Ha ha."
Hiccup stood up and brushed himself off from hay that managed to stick to his pants though the only part of him that ever touched the floor were his feet. He picked up the basket and watched the nameless Nightmare settle in more comfortably into his pile of hay, eyeing Hiccup as if saying, 'oh yeah, I'm hilarious'. Hiccup chuckled and shouldered the basket. "I'll be back tonight, probably. While I'm gone, you should think up some answers to my questions because I'm about to have more," he started walking out of the stall and just before he was about to step out, he heard a huff of air like the dragon was amused. Hiccup left the stables feeling very accomplished with his newly obtained standing ground with the Nightmare. Victory.
00
Mid-morning on Lagardagur, there was a huge chorus of knocks on Hiccup's front door. He had been eating some bread with strawberry jam for breakfast, working up the motivation to gather up all his clothes, when the knocking made him almost choke to death, his bite literally just swallowed. He coughed violently and stumbled to the door, trying to talk and gain his composure at the same time.
"Hold-on! I'm-I'm coming!" hack hack. He half-expected it to be Spitelout or someone of more or equal body mass by the way the door seemed to shake on the hinges. "Odin almighty," he whispered once he was able to breathe again, pulling the door open. Instead, who stepped inside was someone much smaller, someone with twice the temper and twice the ferocity. Astrid nearly pushed Hiccup back when she flew inside, breezing right past him with an empty basket and her mind clearly set on something.
"Whoa," Hiccup said airily with the door still open, surprised it was her who was knocking.
"I need your laundry. It's Lagardagur and your need your laundry done. Terribly," Astrid said without hesitation, then reached inside her basket and pulled out a tunic and a pair of trousers. "Change into these and give me the clothes you're wearing," she tossed them to Hiccup as soon as he shut the door, stunned completely into silence.
He held the clothes in his hands, utterly confused. "Whose are these?" he asked slowly, furrowing his brows.
"They're Brandan's. Come on, hurry up. I need you to get your dad's, too. My mom said she would do his," Astrid held up the basket on one hip with her arm, her hand impatiently on her other hip, looking incredibly keen.
"I'm not wearing Brandan's clothes!"
"Yes, you are! Hiccup, you need your laundry done. It's getting gross," she walked right up to him and for a second he thought she was going to punch him, but instead she pointed to a dark mark on his tunic on his chest. "That's from two weeks ago, Hiccup. I saw that happen. Come on, take your clothes off, I don't have all day," Astrid's voice started to get laced with anger so Hiccup rolled his eyes and complied and did what he was told. He handed her his clothes once he changed and then put his hands on his hips, feeling totally awkward in Brandan's clothes. But he really hoped Astrid couldn't see that.
She looked at him in a certain way that made him feel childish. "Go get your dad's clothes. I'm going to get yours," Astrid turned around and started walking to the stairs.
"Why?" Hiccup asked, making Astrid pause and turn around. Oh, bad choice, Hiccup. You just shouldn't have said anything, you idiot.
"I already told you. Your laundry is gross and dirty. And your dad doesn't do his, either," she said curtly. Just looking at him, Astrid knew he wasn't going to do it for some stupid guy reason because he wanted to act like he didn't need his laundry done by her. Oh, but he was going to do it, by Thor, or she'll have his head on a spike. She looked at him like she was going to do it, never looking away for a second.
Hiccup shifted from foot to peg, feeling his resistance instantly crumble. "I'll go do it," he said under his breath, lowering his head in defeat and nearly running up the stairs. Hiccup wouldn't realize this for a good year or two later, but in that moment, he caught a glimpse of his future wife, running the household by her rules. Funny, that.
Astrid smiled, liking this power over him. She could work with this.
Astrid gathered up all of Hiccup's clothes in the basket she brought and made Hiccup carry a basket full of Stoick's clothes to her house where he dropped them off. Hiccup walked back to his house mumbling things about women and 'attitudes'. Astrid couldn't help but laugh. Before doing laundry on most Laugardagur's-except for quite recently-Astrid and Ruffnut would meet at the hot springs and take baths together. But since everyone takes baths at the same hot spring location, the two girls usually went to a much smaller spring that only the other girls of the village knew about. It was actually Astrid who found it after being constantly spied on by other boys and chasing them half-naked to punch them (which she did so quite successfully). So it was a 'girls only' spring and everyone sworn to secrecy to never tell a single boy about it.
Astrid gathered up her strawberry soap and comb and a couple of sheets to meet Ruffnut at the spring, and she was actually very excited. Though she would not tell a soul, she missed the last two Lagardagur's though she's only ever missed one in her entire life. Astrid grew up with dirty boys and habits that she picked up on from their generally unclean village, but she was all about bathing and squeaky-clean-ness. She didn't like being dirty for long. Sure, it felt awesome to roll around in some dirt with smears all over her face, but after a while it got gross. And after three weeks without a bath and caking on as much rosewater as possible without swimming in it, she desperately was needing a good and long soak and everyone knew it. Thor almighty, she almost skipped to the spring.
Ruffnut was already unchanging when she got there, and to her surprise, it was only them. "No one's here? Huh," Astrid said, throwing her things to the ground and nearly pulling off her tunic.
"Yeah, which is awesome because I have to talk to you about stuff," Ruffnut said, naked and wading into the water, her long hair loose and wavy down her pale back. Bathing with women her whole life, from all ages, Astrid was really unfazed by naked women. It was basically like looking at herself, so she didn't feel self-conscious at all when getting stark naked to bathe with other girls.
Astrid waded in quickly because if she could have jumped into the shallow water, she would have, but evidently she probably would have killed herself. The water was only up to her waist when standing, but since there were some boulders to sit on underneath the water surface, the water went only up to her breasts. Astrid immediately dunked her head in, reveling in the hot, geothermal water.
"This feels awesome!" Astrid shouted when she surfaced, sighing contentedly, sinking herself neck deep to envelope her whole body. Ruffnut also got her hair wet and swam around for a bit, sitting underwater and relaxing. Astrid swam up to the edge of the pool after fifteen minutes or so and grabbed her strawberry scented soap as Ruffnut got her rosemary scented one, and they waded into the center again to hold their 'hot springs conversation'.
"So what stuff did you want to talk about?" Astrid asked as she rubbed her soap into her hair vigorously, working up a thick lather.
"Søren," Ruffnut said simply, also working soap into her hair. She sighed, staring off into the trees with a weird, lazy smile on her face. Astrid furrowed her brows, finding Ruffnut's expression peculiar. "He's been giving me letters. Well-,"
"What!" Astrid burst, bewildered. She paused scrubbing at her hair but kept her hands on her head, her eyes wide open. "Ruffnut!"
"What? He can give me all the letters he wants. I actually like them. I had a hard time reading his first one because he writes terribly in our language, so I had to go up and ask him what it said," Ruffnut laughed loudly and Astrid would have too if she wasn't so stunned. "But he's very... nice. That feels weird to say, but... yeah. Did you know he's twenty-three years old-and he's a knight? A knight! For the Danes! An actual knight. Do you know how cool that is?"
While Ruffnut was talking, Astrid had paused scrubbing her hair again but started up once she replied. "I guess. I don't know anything about being a knight."
Ruffnut, now with her hair piled on top of her head, saturated with soap, seemed to blush a little more red. "I asked him about it and he said he had to go through some knighthood training but because he was the son of some duke of some part of Denmark, who was good friends with the king, he pretty much got right in. But he's a master swordsman. His sword is so cool and it's shinier than the ones we have here. He says its steel or something. He has to wear the crest of the Danelaw all the time. And his chainmail!" Ruffnut explained while examining her bar of soap and watching it float in the water. Astrid listened, letting her hair also sit on her head while she used her soap to wash her body.
"Søren says he's never been this far north before and he told me he's surprised by how much bigger we are here-not fat, but taller, more muscular. He says he's tall back in the other lands but here he's nearly two feet shorter than everyone else. I also showed him Zip and Zap and he nearly peed his pants," Ruffnut cackled and washed her arms. "The dragons are also bigger here, he says, but we knew that already because of Hiccup. But, he owns a Terror named Mikail. He didn't get to name him because his sister gave it to him-,"
"Ruffnut?" Astrid interrupted gracefully without being too terribly rude, holding her bar of soap delicately in her hand while she thought of how to say what she wanted to. "Have you been hanging out often?" she laughed nervously, knowing it was a dumb thing to ask.
"Yeah. I had to explain to him today what Lagardagur was because he didn't know. They don't bathe often-," Ruffnut was about to go on another tangent but Astrid raised her hand to stop her.
"Does Fishlegs know? Because aren't you guys... kind of... going out?" Astrid asked awkwardly, brushing dripping soap from off her cheek.
Ruffnut looked at her while she thought, absorbing what she said because the question caught her on surprise. "Uhm...," she started after almost a minute, looking away to the milky-blue water. "No... he doesn't know. He's been busy with catching fish because his dad gave him a boat. But it wasn't really official; he never asked me. It just kind of happened," Ruffnut said and dipped her head back just so her face was above the surface and her hair under, washing the soap out as Astrid did the same.
Once they sat up, their hair snarly but clean, Astrid asked, "So... about you and Søren...,"
Ruffnut's eyes widened. "Oh, gods, we're only friends. I don't like him that way, it's only been, like, two days. Why would you say that?" Ruffnut wasn't offended and Astrid knew that only because she was her best friend, otherwise any other girl would be put off.
"Because he kind of kissed your hand you were hysterical about it," Astrid said, wading over and grabbing a smooth but slightly coarse rock form it's designated place on top of a boulder on the edge of the pool. She handed it to Ruffnut and turned around so she could rub her back for her.
"It's his knight's chivalry code. He's supposed to be 'chivalrous', whatever that means," Ruffnut said with a deep voice for emphasis, rubbing Astrid's back gently with the stone. "But what about you and Hiccup? People are saying you guys are engaged. My mom was nearly pulling her hair out because she couldn't think of a wedding present or you. Are you?" Ruffnut was suddenly excited toward the end, her voice dripping with it.
"Kind of. It's not official, but it pretty much is. All they have to do is decide on a dowry, but all my dad can come up with are ships and money, but the chief doesn't really need either. So they're stuck-for all I know," Astrid shrugged, tugging at the ends of her hair with her comb.
"No way! Odin's beard, Astrid! That is so crazy! You're going to marry Hiccup! Gods, three years ago you would have barfed and jumped off the cliff!" Ruffnut shouted with exuberance, throwing her arms in the air while still holding the rock. She did it so many times that Astrid had to tell her to keep scrubbing. "You're getting married, Ast. Married. I never thought you were going to be the first out of all of us. Well, you and Hiccup. Geez... that is so weird."
"Yeah... you're telling me," Astrid said quietly, hardly noticing she had stopped combing her hair, or that Ruffnut was talking to her.
"Astrid?"
"Yeah?"
"You're coming to my brother's wedding tomorrow, right? He was asking about you being there."
She had been so out of it, Astrid said in such surprise, "Tuffnut?"
Ruffnut burst out laughing so hard she fell off the boulder she was sitting on, clutching her stomach tightly. "No, you idiot! He would be the last one to get married! It's Oddr, He's marrying Birna? The milkmaid? Remember?" Ruffnut shook her head and continued gently scrubbing the stone in circles around on Astrid's back.
"Oh, yeah," Astrid blushed; gods she knew he was getting married! She knew that at the beginning of summer! I'm so stupid! I knew it wouldn't be Duff... ugh.
"Yeah, well, are you coming?" Ruffnut chuckled.
"Yes!" Astrid snapped, though she didn't mean it, she was just embarrassed.
And soon it would be her wedding, too.
00
(12) Currently, the Danish coat of arms has 3 blue lions on a gold background with hearts underneath a big crown. Because I couldn't find a Danelaw coat of arms in the 11th century, I'm compromising here with a more basic version of the current Danish coat of arms. Here, I've described Søren's crest and the sails on the ships to have a white background with 3 blue lions ('cats' as Astrid calls them, because she obviously has never seen an lion) in a basic shield shape.
Anonymous:
Queen NC: Thank you! I'm glad you like the use of Norse mythology in this story, and there's a ton of it! I love anything to do with religious studies (possibly one of my minors in college, I'm not sure) but I enjoy it thoroughly, so I like using it as much as I can! And yes, I realize that I had many verbiage mistakes but I'm trying better and I'm thoroughly editing them now, lol.
Bkil: Did it develop well enough? ;)
Adam: Thanks, dude! And nah, the Nightmare is just a bastard, as shown :) hahaha.
heywhatsup: Thanks! :D