Chapter 6: Almost Awake - Day 5
He tried to see, but his vision had somehow failed him and revealed only muted colours and indistinguishable blurred figures before going back into one of his repeated cycles of black and unknowing. He would try to remember himself only to come back empty handed; his head felt like a mason jar which someone had cracked open and spilled the precious contents. He tried to speak, inquire as to his whereabouts or to utter some exclamation of tortuous pain but somehow only managed impotent grunts and clouded mumbles. His fevered dreams were tormented and his brief moments of half consciousness were terrifying and ineffective at giving him either answers or comfort and so he existed for five days, surviving on broth brought by the girl who had found him that first night and had brought him safely to her home. She had brought the healers and assisted them when they worked together to frantically stop the bleeding and get every wound as clean as possible, apply stitches where necessary and to finally get everything covered with bandages. Hiccup had been placed in a bed and laid to rest but with as much damage as he had sustained, people had been left to watch and tend to him constantly at first to allow him his best chance for survival in those first few days. Ardala sat next to the bed when she was not required to be elsewhere. As the chiefs daughter she had responsibilities of her own though the dark haired girl made as much time as possible to spend by his side and made the chicken broth fused with healing flowers which she gently fed him when he seemed to drift into consciousness.

"Thank the gods, you're awake!" The girl who looked at him seemed both relieved and surprised. He saw that her green eyes were full of concern and her long dark hair was unkempt as though she had been neglecting in its care as of late.
His mouth was parched and he croaked when he tried to utter a single word, "water?" He groaned slowly and was mildly surprised at how eager his benefactor was at his request. She reached over and held his head with one hand while gently put the wooden cup to his lips with the other. He weakly submitted and noted the stiffness he seemed to possess throughout his whole body.
"Is that better?" She asked once the cup had been replaced to the little table by the bed.
He nodded slightly and tried to take inventory of his surroundings which seemed utterly foreign and soon gave way to preoccupation. He could see the beams in the wooden ceiling, a small hole near its centre to allow smoke from the cheerful fire to escape harmlessly. There were ornate designs carved on everything that would take them and added charm to the dwelling where he lay. Near his resting place was the small sturdy and carved wooden table with the earthen picture and small wooden cup.
He tried to get up to see more but was thwarted in the attempt when his battered body betrayed him. "GAH!" He choked as every torment asserted itself at once. His eyes winced shut and he ground his teeth as his head bore a deep indent in the pillow in a vain attempt to escape the internal onslaught.
"Oh no!" The girl next to the bed seemed panicked at his movement, "You need to rest. You probably won't be able to get out of bed for a while."
"What happened?" He panted as the pain once again began to subside. His jaw unlocked and he slowly relaxed, his breathing evened out gradually while his muscles eventually unclenched.
"What do you remember?" She asked him instead and waited patiently for an answer as she poured more water from the picture into the same wooden cup. She gently dabbed a cloth in a steaming bowl of water and dabbed it gently on his forehead. That hurt him too, but the warm cloth soothed the aggravated laceration as it cleaned.
He had to think about her question and felt his heart quicken when he realized that he genuinely did not know. His eyes grew wide and he looked about the room though his focus was instead on searching his brain for some inkling as to what happened. He finally gave up as there was nothing to grasp in the empty vessel which was his conscious mind. "Nothing at all. I don't remember. Everything's gone... What happened to me?"
"Dragon attack." She replied in a tone which held only finality but earned her no reward only the empty stare of the boy in the bed. "I'm serious!" She entreated but he still just stared. Sighing she tried a different approach. "I'm Ardala." She gently patted his hand instead of shaking the appendage which was bound and apparently attached to a broken arm.
"Like the flower." He observed, but surprised himself because he realized immediately after he said it that he had no idea how he knew that little tidbit of information.
"Yes, exactly." She nodded enthusiastically. "Now, do you remember who you are?"
He thought but again came up blank. "I heard someone calling out in my dream. I'm sure they said my name." He frowned, "I can't remember who it was or what they were calling so sorry, but no."
"No, don't be sorry." Ardala smiled sympathetically. "You've been through a lot. When I found you that night and saw the damage..." She had trouble looking him in the eye as if reliving the gruesome spectacle. "I thought you were dead and I was scared that I wouldn't be able to bring you to the healers in time if you were still alive."
There was a brief silence until he finally dared to break it in an effort to ease the tension, his mind racing with multitudes of questions that seemed to have no end or order to which they should be asked. "So what is it?"
Ardala looked up from her cream and maroon dress where she had been absently staring, its hem gathered haphazardly on the floor as though she had not considered the expensive looking fabric. "Sorry, what?"
"My name." He actually found it in him to smile faintly once their green eyes had once again met. "What's my name?"
"Oh! Right!" She cried, and then smiled in turn, "It's Hiccup."
Hiccup scrunched up his nose as he said the syllables. "Hiccup... Not much of a name." He shrugged as best as his body would let him "I guess it could be worse."
Ardala chuckled, "You have no idea."
"So..." Hiccup tried to ascertain what to cover first now that his name was known. "How did we meet?"
Ardala blushed and allowed her hair to cover the left half of her face as she looked at the floor. She would have probably been adorable if her features had lacked the shadow of responsibility placed on her by her title. It made Hiccup wonder when she had last had fun. "Well, technically we didn't meet in person until now." She saw that he looked somewhat confused and so explained. "As the daughter of the chief, some of my learning includes travelling to other places to observe diplomatic situations with other tribes. We were visiting your tribe for a trade agreement and treaty signing about oh…" she looked up at the ceiling briefly, "three summers ago and I had seen some kids playing while my dad was arranging things with the chief. I had heard it all before so I slipped off to see what kids from a new tribe did for fun."
"And that's when you saw me?" Hiccup asked.
"Not at first." She explained, "The kids went to the forge, which I thought was a bit odd, until I saw they were picking on the boy who was tending the fire. They called him horrible names and when he didn't give into their taunts, they took his tools and tossed them to each other. The poor thing tried to get them back but one of the boys was almost twice his size and just laughed, then pushed him into the ash."
"Ah," Hiccup reasoned, and nodded his head slowly in resignation "so that was me. It Figures."
"I'm Afraid so." Ardala nodded. "They were so mean to you, but I think you're strong because you got right back up and went back to work without a sound." Hiccup noticed Ardala had started to wring her hands and nipped her lip with one of her teeth as she went on without looking directly at him. "I wanted to run up and talk to you but the forge master came back and my dad was calling for me. The treaty was signed and it was time to head back here. I'm glad I did get to meet you, though it's too bad that it had to be like this." She patted his leg under the blanket gently, "though I'm glad you're alive."
Hiccup warmed at the thought and let it process. He supposed that he really only had two options; either figure out his life and go back to it, or make a new one in Auroros if the first idea failed. "How far away is this village of mine?"
"Oh, weeks away." Ardala looked at the ceiling as she reminisced. "We practically lived on the boat for almost two seasons just to get there and back." She paused to smile at him, looking him directly in the eye this time, "it was worth it." She reached over to the small table again and this time brought him the familiar chicken broth. She gently spooned a small amount into his mouth and watched as he allowed the flavour to spread over his tongue. The taste was heavenly and he eagerly consumed more as it was offered.
"Alright," Hiccup was subtly trying to asses various parts of his anatomy by testing what could be flexed or wiggled even on some minute scale and was met with personal opposition throughout the process. "Inventory." He stated, "how much trouble did I get in? I better had been doing something awesome to end up like this." He waited but Ardala looked confused. Hiccup added, "Well I didn't fall off a roof did I? At least tell me it was something cool. What?"
"Hiccup," Ardala said with an edge of concern. "I told you already. Dragons did this to you. There were bite and claw marks all over you, not to mention the burns. I think they must have tried to eat you and then somehow managed to drop you which is when I think you got the broken bones. The right arm was broken in two places, two of the ribs, bruising on the legs and four more ribs. We had to stitch part of the left arm, chest and stomach. The rest of the damage was minor by comparison. You have scratches and bruises just about everywhere. We think you may have also fractured your skull."
Hiccup was dumbfounded by this news and was not sure how to respond. "I can't feel my toes on the left side. Did I break my leg too?"
Ardala looked at the sheet with regret. "I'm not sure how to tell you this," she started slowly, "but that leg was missing before the rest of this happened. You were wearing a prosthetic when I found you." she looked sympathetic at the unreadable expression on his face. He could not wrap his head around what he had learned though on reflection he knew it was not much at all. There was so much about himself he did not know or the place he came from, if he had friends or a family waiting for him and exactly what sort of life he had been living until that moment. He may as well have started out his existence that night in the Ardala field since everything prior to that was simply gone.
His head had started to cloud again though he did not want to give in to the lulls of sleep. He realized that he had been afraid of not waking when he had drifted before. He tried to fight it but soon found his eyes heavy. It was a little too unreal; how had he lost his leg? He could not focus on it anymore and it was one of the only places that were not giving him pain and so he let himself close his eyes for a moment and not dwell on it. His eyes felt so heavy...
"That's enough for now Hiccup." Ardala said gently as she had him take one more sip of the broth. His eyes were already closed and his mouth was beginning to slacken. "You'll feel better soon." He could hear the bowl touch down though the sound suddenly seemed muffled and far away. He felt afraid then, as if transitioning into an unknown that still held the possibility of no return. "Please..." He mumbled, "...don't want to be... Alone...~*" His voice trailed off before he could hear Ardala's response.