I cannot express how sorry I am in taking forever to update! This summer has been nuts, guys, and I haven't had much time in sitting down and writing, not to mention I was in a huge block before writing this chapter (and I still kind of am, but I'm trying to push through it!). So, I'm really sorry. I give you lots of hugs. And I tried making this chapter longer but I still couldn't get past the 8,000 word marker, damn it. Well, I hope you guys are having a great summer, and here's to Chapter 20! Whooo! I can't believe I've made it this far. holy cow. And all thanks to you guys! :) My awesome reviewers *sniff* :D
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Hands on Sunshine
Chapter Twenty
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Hiccup walked to the forge early in the morning a few days later in a light sprinkle with a blanket of grey clouds cast overhead. He started the fires while eating a near-stale hunk of bread for his breakfast and started his work not soon after, tying his apron on and pumping with one arm while he finished the last of the bread. The coals grew hot and burned a bright red with each old grandfather wheeze of the bellows and he threw on some scraps of metal to fashion into spearheads. Hiccup fell into his work like nothing was different, his hammer only an extension of his arm as he folded the metal and pounded and pounded and pounded until it was a brutal shape and let it hiss angrily in the water only to pound on it some more. Before long, the sun was shining and sweat poured down his forehead and cheeks in clean, wet streaks on his dirty face. And once the sun was out and the night dew dried up, there was a line of customers at the window.
Flustered and confused, he took weapon after weapon and hastily wrote down orders, breaking more than a few pencils. Someone wanted this sharpened, this realigned, that rebalanced, a fresh handle, new bolts or a new weapon altogether. Villagers came and went, buying new axes, hammers, spears, picking up their fixed weapons from that wretched pile that only started to grow just today. They spoke of a tournament being staged within a few days, called something like the Heathens Brawl, but Hiccup had not heard of it so he could have cared less because he found himself with more than twenty weapons that needed fixing and two hundred thousand rings to make for the mailer. He was in far over his head and he felt himself panicking, and quickly.
"Gobber!" Hiccup rapped his fist on the front door frantically as if there were trolls at his back, jolting the old warrior from his afternoon nap on his favorite arm chair. Fil, his pet sheep and recently shaven for wool, leaped from his lap with a startled balk, prancing into the other room. "Gobber! I know you're there! GOBBER!"
"What d'ya want, ya fool! Thor almighty, I was 'avin' a fantastic dream, I was. I was ridin' a moose-bear wit tha fairest maiden ya ever did see," Gobber heaved himself from his chair and hobbled over to the front door until Hiccup slammed it open.
"Moose-bears don't exist!" he shouted at his master, his voice nearly cracking with all the stricken panic he put into it. His eyes wide green coins, Gobber would have laughed and cuffed his ear if he didn't come walking into his house. "Gobber—I don't know what to do! Everyone decided to come to the forge today all at once with a million things to do! What's going on! The 'Heathens Brawl'? What is that!" Hiccup walked around Gobber in circles, clutching at his hair.
"Boy, naow, who said't yeh could just stroll right in, eh? Not me! Not Fil! Not even teh gods—," Gobber tried saying, but he was cut off by Hiccup's more urgent voice.
"I can't do it myself! You need to come to the forge—now! We need to get these done in two days! Two! Two!" Hiccup held up two fingers to Gobber's face and Fil's as well when he came back into the room. Gobber rolled his eyes and hit Hiccup over the head with his hook. "Ow!" he shouted and held his head and ducking to avoid another swing. "What was that for!"
"Ya stupid blabberin', bonehead! Calm yarself daown some, boy, or I'll do it again," Gobber snorted and spit on his own floor. "Aye, it's the Heathens Brawl, and eye, it's in two days—I see them fingers you showed me, Hiccup, I did, and I knoow. Ya say yeh need me at the forge? Alrigh', I'll come. Ya don't 'ave to com whippin' in like a sea storm in me own house and shoutin' like both yar left and right socks were stolen, naow, do ya?" He looked sternly at Hiccup, but the younger smith only furrowed his brows and pursed his mouth in a straight line. "No, I think not. See, yeh scared Fil half ta death with your cries and curses," Together they looked over where Fil stood chewing some rushes from across the floor, eyes half lidded and looking like he could lay sideways and sleep.
Hiccup looked back at Gobber and guffawed. "Wow, he looks terrified. I know I'm scary, Fil, and I sincerely apologize," Hiccup said to the sheep with a heavy coat of sarcasm to disprove Gobber's point.
Gobber put his fist and hook on his non-existent hips and puffed out his barrel-sized chest and eyed the boy with a crooked grin that Hiccup knew he meant to scold him. He put his own hands on his hips and puffed out his own chest, hardly a comparison to the seasoned and burly older smith, but more in humor to mock his master. "Boy," Gobber said in a low, gritty voice. "that mouth of yars will arn yeh another wallop!"
Hiccup smirked and stuck out his jaw like Gobbers own, angering him even more. "What are yeh waitin' farr?" he said in a thick accent, and narrowly dodged Gobber's hook swinging at him before he bounded out the door, hooting. Just as Gobber stepped outside the door to chase after him, he stood on the porch and let out a mighty laugh, his mouth open to the sky and his rotund belly shaking.
"Hiccup, lad, yer gettin' better by tha day. Someday, you'll even look like me too, and that lass of yars will 'ardly be able to resist yeh," Gobber clapped Hiccup on the back and made him nearly fall over even now at eighteen.
"She can hardly now," Hiccup joked along, walking with Gobber back to the forge, each with their signature hobble.
Gobber bellowed once more and told Hiccup about his maiden he had so valiantly saved while astride a moose-bear the short distance back. Gobber, with his stories, could take an hour to tell which would have taken five minutes, but he had to add every detail and his own two coins. Hiccup enjoyed hearing his many stories though some he's heard too many times, but he didn't mind because he loved to be his company though he would never admit it outwardly. He would drown and immerse himself in Gobber's tales; smelling, tasting, feeling every detail described, and when he was younger, it helped to save him from his reality he was reluctant to face. He had always considered Gobber to be an uncle-figure and an old friend. Oftentimes, he looked forward to Gobber's stories or the gossip he picked up from the older women to make the forge work go by faster, and easier, nonetheless.
"When did this tournament thing start, anyway? I haven't heard of a tournament since dragon-slaying ended," Hiccup said over the loud scratching from the grindstone where he stood, his arms feeling the pricks from the sparks but he was far used to it.
Gobber was making rings by the handful; it took him no longer than twenty seconds to cut a perfect sized strip of wire-thin metal, bend it into a circle, and throw it into the box next to him at the table. "Ohh, aboot two years ago. You were gone by then, doin' yar little adventure," Gobber replied.
"Research, Gobber. It was far from an adventure. Big women forced me to run up mountains and hacked at me with wooden swords until they made me hit them back. I was chased by pirates, chased by dragon-thirsty mobbers, caught in the middle of more pub brawls than I care to count, and once where I almost got my throat slit," Hiccup replied amiably, pulling the axe away from the grindstone to check the sharpness with his thumbnail. Deeming it sharp enough, he set it down in a crate a third of the way full with sharpened weapons and reached for a longsword in another crate. "Ransomed for money I didn't have and attacked by more unusual dragons than you've ever seen. No simple adventure, Gobber," Hiccup chuckled.
"No, lad, those are the best ones! The ones that'll scare yar breeches off, prove yar valor, fightin' far yer life! Ohh, 'ow I miss me adventurin' days. Great times they were, oh yes," Gobber said with a far off look to his eye, remembering all his adventures and the tales he told about them, nodding his head approvingly.
Hiccup smiled. "I suppose it was like an adventure, though I did more exploring and preaching than research. It was… exciting," he remembered for a moment, a familiar feeling flushing over him, almost seeing the places he had been, almost tasting the food he ate (and the tightness in his stomach when he didn't). He could have done whatever he wanted, and he had to use his wits to get him out of sticky situations and he remembered the scared-ness he felt and the swift, exciting rush after. He could see the hills and the greenness that blanketed them, the bluest oceans, the most beautiful dragons, the ugliest women, all those accents and different languages. The monasteries with their endless books and herbs, the crumbling homes, the vastness of the wheat fields, the dirty children hidden under thatched roofs. All those pretty girls who would smile at him, some with crooked teeth or flaming red hair, and he could remember his blush crawl up his neck. I was leagues and leagues away only months ago. Where was I years ago?
He wanted to show Astrid all those things, the beauty of the world beyond this island. She had never left it, he realized, not even to go to Meathead Island and he wondered why. She seemed to be more eager than he about everything, why hadn't she left? He decided then that he would show her. He would. He had to give her a taste of the open ocean and open fields, to feel the dirt between her toes as a warm rain fell, and the softest and greenest grass beneath her hands. Hiccup wanted to show her it all; all those dragons and villages and everything. Everything. He would pack her up and throw her over his shoulder if he had to, but he knew it wouldn't have to come to that because she would go with him. He would bring her before they had children together or after they married. Hiccup was excited and anxious and he wanted to tell her—but, no, secrecy was best. Yes, far better. He wouldn't tell her, and that way she wouldn't be expecting it.
Hiccup grinned. Yes, she'll love me for it.
Both Gobber and Hiccup stayed at the forge well past nightfall, bantering back and forth for hours and tossing weapons deftly to each other, and some petty arguments erupted here and there. By the time Gobber shut the doors to the fire, they had finished more than half of the weapons brought in from the morning and Hiccup was nearly falling asleep where he stood. Gobber pushed the boy out the door and Hiccup gladly went.
He came back early the next morning despite his short sleep schedule, determined to get the weapons all done before noon so he could train himself as he saw others doing all around the village. He had hardly touched his sword since he came back and he found himself missing the steel in his hand. Iron was the metal of Vikings since no steel could be found or fashioned this far north, and he missed the lightness of his sword. He felt strong and powerful with it in his hand and at his side, not to mention awesome with Toothless next to him, he thought. We were pretty cool together down in those cities and villages.
Not soon after the whole village was out and about enjoying the warm sun did Astrid come to the window with Ragna holding her hand. Hiccup grinned at her from the anvil and threw off his gloves, going outside to hug her and kiss her cheek despite his dirty clothing. Astrid hugged him with one arm because she held her great heavy axe, Ragna hiding behind her legs childishly.
"I've missed you," Astrid said into his ear and gave him a quick peck on the lips before releasing him.
"And I you," his eyes sparkled a little brighter, and then he noticed Ragna's wide light green eyes staring at him. He knelt and leaned sideways a little to see around Astrid. "Well, who's this?" he asked kindly, knowing full well it was Ragna with her eyes and dark hair and spattering of freckles. She looked just like Aislin as well as Hiccup knew and remembered her.
"Ragna, say hello to Hiccup. Why are you so shy? C'mon," Astrid moved sideways to stand against the outside of the forge so Ragna wouldn't hide behind her again, leaving her standing in her roughspun beige dress, a few flowers in her curly hair.
"Hi," Ragna said in a low voice, looking wide eyed at Hiccup's face more in curiosity than fear.
"Hi, Ragna, I'm Hiccup. It's an honor to meet you," he held out his hand and Ragna put her own hand in his gingerly, and he lifted up her hand to kiss her dimpled knuckles. Ragna giggled sweetly and pushed her other hand to her cheek.
"Taking after Søren?" Astrid laughed, looking at him like she couldn't believe what he did.
"Do you want me to bow?" he spoke to Astrid, his eyes white against his dirty face.
"Yes!" Ragna declared, hopping.
"Well, alright, then," Hiccup stood up and dropped into a bow, making Ragna giggle even more. He felt his stomach flutter a little, glad beyond his wits he wasn't scaring her or making a fool of himself to get her to laugh. Astrid punched his shoulder when he stood, laughing along with her niece.
Astrid held up her axe as a gesture. "Hey, can you fix this? It isn't throwing right," Hiccup took it from her and gripped the leather handle tight, twisting it around and holding it sideways to inspect it.
"Of course. It'll only take a second," he smiled. "Feel free to come inside, but keep Ragna close; there's things strewn everywhere," Hiccup led them inside while Astrid took Ragna's hand and told her to be careful.
Hiccup winched open the vice quickly and held Astrid's old axe in it to close it shut. He twisted some loose bolts and shook the handle around gently while Astrid struck up a conversation with Gobber. Ragna pulled on one of his long mustaches and giggled hysterically when Gobber made a honking noise, and a pig snort when she did it again, and another noise. Hiccup tightened the bolts and straightened the axe head to re-align it, and winched open the vice again when he was done. He held it up and swung it once, finding it suitable for his lovely girlfriend.
He brought the axe to her and handed it to her hilt first. "There, all finished." Astrid took it from him and let go of Ragna's hand to swing it around some, and grinned widely at Hiccup when she had deemed it fitting.
"Wow, thank you, it feels great swinging it. I'll have to see when I throw it, but it's perfectly balanced now. Thanks, Hiccup," It was obvious the blush that came to his cheeks. "Do you want to par a little later for the tournament? I still have yet to see you with your sword and I intend to fight you with it," Astrid asked with a spark of challenge to her voice.
"Yeah, of course. I just have to fix some of these weapons, but—,"
"Go on, boy. I can finish 'em. I'm not as old as you think I am, and I'm still faster 'an you," Gobber waved Hiccup off with a crooked smile and threw him a rag to wipe his face off. Hiccup gladly caught it and ran it through his dirty hair as well; later, he was definitely going to take a bath.
Astrid and Hiccup conceded to meet back up in the fields by Hiccup's house for the grazing sheep, all suited in their armor to practice. Hiccup was waiting for her, sitting on a rock and sharpening his sword with a whetstone. Hiccup had made his sword himself, plain compared to some knight's own swords, but decorated enough for him. The hilt was worn brown leather and on the ends of the crossguard were red dragon teeth he plucked from a skull somewhere, and the blade was near-white steel. It was his favorite thing he had ever crafted, however the sword itself was still nameless. His family's swords all had names, but he had been unable to name this one. Nonetheless, he treated the sword with care and sharpened it enough to so even the air sounded like it was being sliced in two.
When Astrid came around, Hiccup stood up and laughed when Ragna came bounding up the stairs, her aunt looking resigned. "I told her she couldn't come, but my mom insisted she watch, at least," Astrid shrugged with half a smile before she noticed Hiccup in his own armor. "Where did you come from? Certainly not from our islands!" she let out a bark of laughter.
Hiccup looked down himself and looked down Astrid, truly seeing the difference between them. Astrid wore a thick boiled leather jerkin with old silver buttons, rock-hard leather shoulder pauldrons surely lined with metal and with her signature spikes around the edges, chainmail beneath her woolen tunic and dark leather arm bracers and fingerless black leather gloves. She wore woolen breeches and leather boots up to her knees cross-crossed with bands of more leather. Leather, leather, leather. She even had some hardened cloth pouches on the back of her spiked belt probably filled with throwing knives, though she wouldn't use those on him. He hoped.
"Yeah, I suppose. I made all this in Ireland and England, so it's different," Hiccup said, swinging his sword in arches. "But better," he added with a cocky grin.
He was working for a smith that made armor for a lord who was at the time gearing up for battle, so Hiccup would view and observe all the armor that came in and out of the forge and helped to make much of it. Though he could have made himself armor more like those in England and Ireland, he wanted to make his better. He had a steel gorget at his throat with thick leather attached to lay against his chest, a thick and quite heavy leather vest with small steel plates sewn in between two layers and straps across so he could buckle it closed, a woolen tunic that was faded blue and heavy chainmail beneath, and boiled leather arm bracers up to his elbows with supple black leather gloves, a shin plate on his good leg and another smaller one over the mechanics of his peg, and a heavy leather boot.
Brandon had praised him for his armor while he taught Hiccup some sword techniques in Dublin with some archery tips, and had commissioned Hiccup to make him some things for a hefty price. Broke because he spent most of his money making his armor and buying food for both him and Toothless, Hiccup gladly accepted, and squeezed all the value out of that money for the remainder of his trip.
"With all that on?" Astrid guffawed. "No, I don't think so, dear. I'll be faster than you any day," she boasted, and quietly told Ragna to sit and watch and walked over to the Hiccup while twisting the axe handle in her hand.
"Oh, I know it. I've fought many like you," Hiccup held his sword with his left hand and stood slightly sideways. His weapon was mostly one-handed but the hilt was just barely long enough to fit half his right hand for powerful strikes. "Because of my lame half-leg I can't ever be as fast as you, but I am stronger. You'd never think it by how small I was hardly three years ago, Astrid, but you'll see."
And with that, Hiccup leaped forward and swung a strong swing at her belly that she just barely parried away. Astrid screamed and swung at him but Hiccup took a wide side-step and avoided her strike. Quickly, she changed her swing and went to his shoulder but Hiccup stopped her axe and shoved it aside. Astrid took some more wild and rapid swings, irked every time Hiccup avoided her blows or knocked them aside. Of course she wasn't aiming to hurt him, but at least to get him where she could hurt him was her goal, and clearly his as well. Astrid narrowly avoided swift jabs and swings, and she did find out how strong he really was. Blocking his sword repeatedly time after time, after awhile her arms started shaking, and when he pushed down to tease her once or twice she thought she was near to cleaving her own head in two. She was strong as well, but she mostly relied upon her speed and agility to tackle an opponent, but Hiccup was not quite slow either, though not extremely quick. He just always seemed to know where she was.
While Ragna clapped and screamed from yards away, watching wide-eyed in awe, a few villagers stopped to watch the chief's son and the youngest Hofferson daughter par and fight, spinning around each other. They had never seen Hiccup fight since he had returned in a larger form of his previous boyish self, so many were surprised and astonished to see him fight to well to hold his own. One blushing girl brought Hiccup a skin of water when he sat down on a boulder to rest and though he kindly took it, he didn't fail to see Astrid sneer at the girl and shoo her away with her axe. Ragna found a stick and started swiping at the air clumsily, accompanied by exaggerated noises, and Astrid playfully parried with her and pretended to die when Ragna sliced at her stomach.
Astrid and Hiccup started parrying once more but instead of actually parrying, they mostly wrestled and fought each other off, hooting and laughing. Astrid jumped on Hiccup's back and he spun around, holding onto her legs tightly until they fell into the grass, laughing and rolling around, shoving grass into each other's faces. Ragna joined in and Astrid and Hiccup swung her around and tickled her silly, making her feet kick and her face pink. Ragna was climbing on Hiccup as if he was a tree and when Astrid said it was time to go home because of the setting sun, Ragna demanded Hiccup take her home via piggy-back, and so he did with a grin on his face.
Astrid shooed Ragna inside and shut the front door, leading Hiccup around to the back of the house to bring him to the back of the shed, and she shoved him against the wall and hungrily took his mouth. Astrid breathed in the smell of him; the grass, his sweat, the dirt, how the wool and leather smelled on him and she loved it. She ran her palms over his chest and down his stomach, feeling the rough wool and the soft chink of his mail when he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and gently tugged her braid.
"I like your hair down," he whispered in a raspy tone before she could demand another kiss from him, gently tugging on her long rope of a braid as an indication.
"I like it up," and she kissed him again, sinking into his body and feeling his strength that made her heart thrum.
They kissed for awhile until it was dark and moonless outside and Hiccup was nearly pushing Astrid away from him, telling her she had to go inside. "I don't want toooo," she pouted defiantly, holding onto his vest tighter.
"You have to, though. Your father will hunt after my head if he finds out what we're doing," Hiccup, having all the common sense, said with a bit of a sad smile. Why did he have to do that? Astrid narrowed her eyes and punched him.
"That was for being too strong today," she said, stepping away and crossing her arms.
"And?" Hiccup said expectantly with a grin.
"And what?" Astrid replied with a fox-like smile.
"Aren't you going to kiss me?" he held out his arms, looking like he was left up to dry. Astrid laughed and threw back her head. "Oh, come on. This is tradition. You can't ruin tradition," Hiccup leaned forward to tempt her, puckering his lips too much to even be tempting as a joke, but Astrid only giggled more.
"You look ridiculous," she said and finally gave him a quick peck. "And that was for being pretty good."
"Oh, yay," Hiccup said with a silly smile. "Does that make me an awesome Viking?"
"Quite awesome," Astrid laughed as he took her hand and led her to the front door.
"The best sword-wielding, most handsome and dashing and fiercest Viking in all of Viking history?" Hiccup flexed his arm and made growling noises to enhance his demeanor and theory.
"Maaybe not that far," she laughed," but definitely the handsome-est and dashing-est," together they laughed and Hiccup let her go on the porch, walking back to his house as she watched with her axe by her side.
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All around the Kill Ring were shouting and hooting and screaming Vikings, shaking chains and drumming on the metal bars, clapping and shoving, and many other noises Hiccup couldn't decipher as he was paraded through the crowd with thirty other eligible warriors for the Heathens Brawl. Astrid was somewhere with Ruffnut along the column as they walked through the parting crowd to the gate that led to the Ring in the ground. Hiccup walked alongside Tuffnut with Snotlout behind them, the burly Viking waving and screaming back and flexing his arms. Hiccup waved back to the crowd awkwardly and stumbled once or twice when he got hearty slaps on the back.
They descended into the Ring and stood along the walls, making a huge circle on the glassy stone floor. Hiccup didn't much like it here. It reminded him of Toothless' head getting slammed into the ground by Spitelout and getting tied up like a misbehaving, feral dog. He had the saddest look in his eyes that broke his heart, Hiccup recalled. And though the crevices shut off with different opening doors were no longer used to house captive dragons and were instead used to store rations, Hiccup still felt uneasy. Too many dragons had died here, he could feel it. The floor of the Ring was turned into a glass-like sheen from all the fire that licked it, and the fire that also killed plenty of Vikings. The healer still lived closest to the Ring.
Snotlout punched his arm and woke him up from his reverie. "Aren't you excited? 'Bout to kick some ass! Whoo!" he shouted excitedly and whistled. Hiccup smiled weakly and nodded, not too entirely psyched for a fighting spree. He didn't really hear the announcer when he strolled to the center of the pit to shout out the rules of the Brawl and how it was to go about. Hiccup picked out bits and pieces, his thoughts continuously clouding his hearing.
There was to be a melee between all thirty Vikings until there were ten left standing and then there would be eight matches until a victor was decided. All the fighters were required to have blunted or wooden weapons, but most chose the blunted variety. Everyone was required to also don mail and leather though helmets were optional, and not to be used as weapons. Then, the announcer disappeared into the tunnel and a loud horn was blown, and the melee began.
Women and men alike charged into the center of the Ring and the song of iron hitting iron filled Hiccup's ears like a familiar melody. How the thirty would be reduced to ten was when the fighters could no longer fight; that could mean injury—serious or not—a yield, or death. Hiccup put that thought aside; he wouldn't die. No one would dare kill him, he was the heir to the chiefdom—Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, and he had fought few men fiercer than the likes of his fellow Vikings and he still lived. Odin had not called to him yet.
He gripped the hilt of his blunted longsword and charged in headlong with the rest of the men.
He blocked the first overhand swing that came his way, and shoved the man away with his shoulder to face another pretend foe. They parried twice and Hiccup ended it with a hard strike to the shoulder that brought the man to his knees, and would have cut off his arm had he a real sword. Hiccup narrowly dodged a hammer to his head and used his boot to kick him square in the chest to fall back into other men. A woman came on him next, a shieldmaiden with a healthy girth, and swung at him with her broadsword. Hiccup shied it away and tried a cut at her thigh but she knocked it and attempted a slice at his chest, but Hiccup blocked that and then she was shoved away by someone else and Hiccup was left foe-less.
Soon enough, he could feel the sweat dripping down his back under his wool, leather and mail armor and into his eyes, his hair sticking his forehead. Hiccup took a hard blow to his right bicep that left his hand tingling, and even got punched once, right in the nose so blood ran into his mouth. He kept going on, however, and found it easier with time. It could have been twenty minutes or an hour before ten withdrew from the melee, some screaming with broken bones and others simply bested. Hiccup found Astrid once in the tangle of people and grinned at her wickedly with blood between his teeth and covering his lips, and she had her own gash across her cheek and a bloody temple, sweating just as much as he.
Astrid didn't spare him one bit like she had while they sparred the other day, and Hiccup didn't expect her to. He blocked and deflected all her blows and made some of his own until Hiccup was tripped from behind, his peg slipping out from under him. He fell to one knee and held Astrid's axe with his sword before looking over his shoulder briefly.
"Hiccup! Cousin!" Snotlout said cheerfully. "Ast, spare him a minute. Let me fight him."
Astrid laughed and lifted up her axe, leaving them to go take down someone else. Hiccup pulled himself up, all his muscles aching in the effort, and passed his sword to his right hand so he could stretch out the fingers on his left. "Not very honorable to attack an enemy while his back is turned," Hiccup said and rolled his shoulder. Fewer than twenty men remained and fought around them now. It had to be at least an hour past.
"You're not my enemy, are you? Family, more like," Snotlout gripped his sword tighter. He dribbled in his own sweat and it looked like he had blood from the corner of his mouth and a few cuts on his meaty, hair-covered arms. He grinned crookedly at Hiccup and pushed his sweat-soaked hair back, right before swinging cruel and hard at Hiccup. He blocked it but his sword fell away with the force of Snotlout's blow. Hiccup swung upward to hopefully land a blow in his chest, but Snotlout spun around him, and Hiccup had to fluidly pivot so he could block his next swing, which didn't end in his favor. Snotlout's blunted sword somehow ended up hitting his wrist and he could have dropped his sword if he hadn't also been holding the hilt with his right hand. Hiccup grimaced, but didn't let the slight hinder him; he swung hard and swift at Snotlout and advanced, making him step backward a few paces. Hiccup lifted up his sword with both hands and struck down so quickly that Snotlout barely had time to lift up his own sword to deflect it. Just as Hiccup was about to attack again, the horn blew and the crowd cheered even louder. Hiccup had forgotten that there were even people outside the Ring, or even watching. The ten fighters left paused and let their weapons fall.
Snotlout caught Hiccup's eye and laughed, flicking his hair from his eyes. "You fight well. For still being a toothpick." They grasped forearms and Hiccup laughed heartily.
There was a half-hour break before the first of the eight matches began. Hiccup, Snotlout, Astrid, Ruffnut and six other Vikings of various ages that Hiccup somewhat knew remained, all receiving cheers and 'congrats!' as they left the arena to soak themselves with water as if to pickle themselves.
Gobber nearly tackled Hiccup he was so excited. "Hiccup, ya really fought out there! Good job, lad! Great job! I'm sure if Stoick were here, he'd be so proud 'o ye! Thor's beard, I am!" He hugged his apprentice so tightly he lifted him off the ground
"Ow-ow! Gobber, thanks, but—ow—I'm in pain," the bearded Viking let him go and had the sense to look bashful.
"Oh, righ', o' carse. Git yerself over to a barrel, boy, and drink a skin full of water. Do it, or I'll have ye hammerin' out chains for a week." Gobber gently pushed him away and did as he was told.
He was a little bummed that his own father couldn't be here to see him actually fight to put the past to rest. He wanted his father to see him be a Viking, fighting, proving himself for all his worth. But, as chief, he had duties to fulfill. He had sailed off with a small fleet with Søren close behind to sail for the mainland about the proposed treaty since Kollr had perished in the sea, only yesterday. But, there would be another time, another Heathens Brawl, and Hiccup wasn't too miffed. He was aching and it felt like his throat was nearly shrinking with lack of water and screaming at him.
He was handed a big skin of water and slapped on the back before he sat down on a bench in a heap. He swallowed a good quarter of the water before breathing again, pulling away and panting. Astrid walked over to him with a skin of her own and a tired smile on her face, coming to sit down quietly. Her braid was messy and strewed but she still looked beautiful, pushing her sweaty bangs out from her flushed face.
"How's it going?" she asked, her thigh up against his comfortably.
Hiccup sighed, holding his water skin between his knees. "Alright. You?"
"Well," she smiled confidently. "I took down Helsplitter and Tuffnut, by the way. It felt pretty nice."
Hiccup chuckled. "I bet."
Someone came by and congratulated them both and handed them a small cloth to wipe their faces before he walked off. Hiccup and Astrid both ran the cloth over their faces, dabbed at their wounds with water, and Astrid helped Hiccup plug up his swollen nose before a river came pouring out of it. Together, they sat and relaxed a bit and said shy thank you's to those who gushed at them, and drank their skins empty and each were handed a full one, kindly. Soon enough, the half hour was up, and Astrid was called to fight first up against an older Viking by the name of Ramshackle.
Hiccup made his way to the dome of metal bars and chains and watched his girlfriend kick ass. Within ten minutes the match was decided and Astrid moved up a bracket. Two other Vikings fought next, the girthy shieldmaiden Hiccup had faced not an hour ago, and a man named Snark the Eater, so named for some odd reason someone next to Hiccup told him. The match lasted longer but was ended when the shieldmaiden was knocked out by Snark the Eater's shield. It was announced that Hiccup and Ruffnut would duel next, and Hiccup sighed a little, but he supposed it would have to happen.
Ruffnut's blunted spear was still a little bloody from when she had 'accidentally' stabbed it into someone' thigh during the melee and her shield had splintered on the edges. Hiccup walked into the arena with her, surrounded by waves of roars and whistles. In the center, they faced each other and Ruffnut smirked at him with a cocky glint in her eyes, and he simply smiled.
"Let's not kill each other, okay?" Hiccup said as he withdrew his blunted sword.
"Agreed, if you don't spare me because I'm a girl," Ruffnut replied, quirking her eyebrow. Her braids swung around her messily, her leather armor that was similar to Astrid's stretching as she moved side to side.
"No worries," Hiccup said, and quickly started the match by jabbing at her ribcage.
Ruffnut deflected it with her shield and with her other hand attempted to strike Hiccup from overhead, stabbing downward with her long spear. Hiccup swung it aside and spun around her to get around her shield, but she whirled her spear around and blocked his thrust with the hilt. Hiccup used his peg to shove against her shield to push her back, making her stumble a bit. He didn't spare a moment, taking fast swings at her that sometimes hit her shield and flew away with splinters, and some she had to duck to avoid. Ruffnut fought back, poking at him from behind her shield but she continued retreating until her back hit the stone wall.
Hiccup hit her shield away and it slid across the ground, and he pressed the blunted side of his sword to her throat. There were loud roars from the crowd screaming 'Hiccup!' and Ruffnut narrowed her eyes, and before the horn could be blown, she kicked him in the groin. He jumped away from her and yelled, nearly dropping his sword in pain while parts of the crowd laughed. Ruffnut joined them and shoved him with her boot to make him fall onto his back. Hiccup narrowly avoided her stab to his arm by rolling away and pulling himself up to block another of her blows. They came in quick succession, one after another, sometimes with the spearhead or the butt end of the long hilt. Hiccup stood his ground and avoided the blows, dancing around each other as they parried back and forth.
Sweat had long ago fell in sheets down their faces, the few lazy clouds in the sky sometimes drifting to block the hot sun, but by long, Hiccup and Ruffnut were both panting with exhaustion. Ruffnut had hit Hiccup in the stomach with the end of her spear to knock the air out of him, and Hiccup had elbowed her in the eye so she had a forming bruise around it. They were beaten and tired, but they fought on proudly. Finally, Ruffnut had attempted a stab at his hip that he sidestepped and Hiccup managed to swing down with his sword hard enough to cut off the spearhead entirely.
A horn was blown shortly after to signal the end of the match with Hiccup's victory. 'Haddock' went around the crowd and Ruffnut dropped the headless spear hilt and smirked at Hiccup. "Good match, Haddock," Ruffnut raised her hand and Hiccup high-fived her, smiling in relief.
"I'll make you a new spear," he told her as they limped together out of the ring.
"Good. It better be better than that piece of shit you broke. I want the staff to be a stronger pine wood," Ruffnut said with a raspy voice but with a carefree, glittering look on her dirty face. Hiccup rolled his eyes and laughed, putting a friendly arm around her shoulders as they entered daylight.
The next two matches went by quickly but Hiccup didn't watch them, instead opting to sit lamely on a bench and gorge himself with water, chatting happily to a few people. He was to fight Snark the Eater, and the fight went well enough until Hiccup was hit in the head a few times by his shield and he decided he didn't care about winning as much as he initially thought. Laying on the ground, his head bleeding, Hiccup raised up his arm and yielded. Snark the Eater pulled Hiccup up by the elbow and lead him out of the Ring.
As he was getting his head wrapped up, Astrid and Snark the Eater were to fight the Champion match. Snark had to have been at least two heads taller than Astrid and twice her size but she didn't falter one bit. Since he missed her last match, Hiccup felt obligated to watch, so he sat at the foot of his father's reserved stone chair and he could see pretty well into the Ring from his perch. Snark's war hammer was big and heavy but he wielded it as if it was nothing, swinging at Astrid who he must have thought to be a pesky mouse by her size. She danced around him swiftly like this was her first match of the day, screaming at him while she knocked his hammer aside and swung a hard kick at his knee.
Snark bellowed out and staggered and blocked Astrid's swing of her axe with a loud clang of metal. While their weapons met, Astrid pulled out a knife from the pouch on the back of her belt and held the point to Snark's throat, hiding underneath his shadow. With his barrel-sized chest heaving and beginning to shake with deep laughter, he dropped his war hammer and splintered shield in a yield.
Hiccup jumped up and cheered and clapped and whistled with the rest of the crowd in her victory as the horn was blown. Astrid raised up her arms with a grin and walked to the center of the arena to swim in all the cheers and hoots, absorbing it all up. People swarmed into the Ring to circle her, presenting Astrid with a pewter axe on a wooden pedestal, the prize for winning the third annual Heathens Brawl, but she was also to earn nearly three hundred penningar. Astrid was paraded around the Ring on Snark's shoulder, pumping her fist and screaming, jostling the award around. Hiccup grinned, so very proud of her, and he was happy to have her win. She deserved it.
Astrid was carried to Mead Hall where the night's party immediately began. Hiccup accompanied Astrid and held her award while she chugged ale tankard after ale tankard, horns of wine, skins of mead and beer, all presented to her by everyone who came to congratulate her and roar in her victory. By supper time Astrid was slap-happy drunk and pulling off her armor, piling it in Hiccup's arms until she was in her undertunic and breeches, throwing her boots across the crowd of people from atop the table. Hiccup's stomach had started to hurt from all the laughing, not to mention the punches he received there and Ruffnut's spear. But, he couldn't have enjoyed Astrid's victory drunkenness anymore, even if he was completely sober. It was just hilarious to watch her. Astrid was kicking goblets off the table while she swung her elbows and sang along merrily to a pub song. She missed more than half the words and made up a quarter of them, but she was too drunk to even care to know what she was saying.
Ingrid and Arnheim came over to 'Astrid' Table'—so declared by herself—and her father threw her over her shoulder without a word, ignoring her slurred protests. Ingrid had found Astrid's boots and took some of her armor out of Hiccup's arms so he could carry her pewter axe award, her mail, and the sack of penningar. Astrid yelled nonsense at her father as they left, leaving behind a wake of claps and last-time congrats. Once they were down the steps, Arnheim removed his daughter from his shoulder and set her down, but because of her wobbly knees and her incessant giggles, he held her up until Ingrid was able to help him walk her home.
Hiccup quietly walked behind them, listening to her parents laugh at Astrid's poor attempts at speech and he chuckled to himself, but didn't say anything lest he draw the attention of her father. However, halfway there, Arnheim threw Astrid over his shoulder again to carry her the rest of the way back.
"Thor's beard, she drinks like a fish, doesn't she?" Arnheim said over his daughter-less shoulder. Hiccup didn't know he was being spoken to until Astrid started making fish faces at Hiccup.
"E-especially when she wins something, it seems," Hiccup replied back.
Arnheim let out a bark of laughter. "Best not let her win too much, there, lad, or you might break your back sooner than you'd think," he said as he adjusted Astrid on his shoulder.
At the Hofferson's house, Ingrid collected Astrid's things from Hiccup except the axe award. "Bring that up to her room, will you?" She asked and then walked off into the kitchen. Hiccup brought the award upstairs, and just before he was about to enter her room, Arnheim emerged from the darkness and he laid a huge hand on Hiccup's shoulder before moving past him to go down the crooked steps. He paused a moment, trying to recall if his hand was ever there at all. It was a small gesture, but it left an impact on Hiccup, leaving him surprised but relieved; it seemed like Arnheim approved of him, and he felt glad. Or as close as approved could get from Arnheim. He didn't seem to hate him, at least, and that was good enough.
Hiccup walked into Astrid's room, dark except for a square of dim light across her bed where she laid underneath the sheets and a light fur pelt, snoring. Hiccup set her award atop her dresser and walked over to the edge of the bed, suddenly noticing the tense ache behind his eyes. He sat down on the edge slowly, watching her chest rise and fall slowly. He brushed a bruised and dirty hand across her forehead to move her bangs, and he smiled gently at her sleeping face still flushed with drink and excitement. Hiccup bent and kissed her forehead with dry lips and sat and watched her for while until his eyelids felt like anvils. He left her room and shut the door quietly. Ingrid and Arnheim said goodbye to him before he went out the front door.
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