"Toothless!" Hiccup whined as his dog insisted on covering him in a thick layer of saliva, "Would you stop that?"
The dog threw him a gummy grin before obediently sitting back. The black Labrador's tail flew back and forth as he excitedly waited for Hiccup to hurry the hell up and take him on a walk.
"I'm coming, okay? Patience" he gave his dog a stern look before retrieving his scruffy vans from the front door and slipping them on. He grabbed the house keys and Toothless' lead of the hanger before opening up the door. His dog sped past him, nearly knocking Hiccup to his feet. He waited patiently at the bottom of the garden path by the gate. "Good boy" Hiccup praised, glancing over his shoulder and smiling as he quickly locked the front door.
His dad had only stayed around long enough to quickly make himself dinner before he had rushed out the door, barely saying goodbye to his son. Hiccup didn't know where he had went but he presumed his dad had had some meeting or other equally boring event to attend. The community respected Stoick (or as they knew him, Sandor Haddock) and he played a big part in bettering Berk.
Hiccup exhaled as he set out on his walk with Toothless.
The sun was low in the sky, the colours from it lazily lay and spiralled across the skyline. Hiccup thought that winter sunsets were the best ones but it was only the beginning of August and this sunset was as equally stunning. Toothless happily plodded next to the boy, falling perfectly in time with his steps. Hiccup swung the lead from his hands, he always took it (his father's orders) but it just never seemed to make its way to Toothless' neck, Hiccup didn't have the heart to constrain his best friend like that. Why shouldn't Toothless get to walk freely? It's not like he'd do much harm if he did decide to attack anyone, the dog has no teeth, only gums. He had lost all his teeth to a periodontal disease a few years back but hadn't seemed too bothered about it. I mean, now he has Hiccup running after him all the time; making sure his food is pureed or broken up enough and that he's never in any pain or discomfort. It's like Hiccup's become the dog and Toothless the owner. He can hardly complain about being mollycoddled.
"It's a beautiful night isn't it?" Hiccup murmured to his dog contentedly.
The pair had crossed the road and were snaking down a path that lead to the beach which could be seen from Hiccup's bedroom window. Hiccup may not exactly love living in Berk, what with everyone knowing everyone's business but one thing he did indeed like was the beautiful beach that was only a five minute walk away.
Toothless looked behind him at his owner, asking permission to go and sprint into the sand dunes, whilst his tongue lolled out his mouth happily.
"Away you go have fun Toothless" Hiccup grinned before plonking himself down on the sand. He sat back and took in the view around him. The night was calm, the waves lapping gently and hypnotically. The long grass behind Hiccup rustled ever so gently in the very slight breeze. Both the sounds were enough to make anyone fall asleep but Hiccup was too fixated on the beautiful colouring of the sky to be lulled into the world of sleep. The grains of sand felt smooth and cold and delicate beneath either one of Hiccup's palms. The pinks and oranges in the sky were vibrant and cheerful.
Hiccup bit the inside of his cheek as his thoughts wandered to his mother. She had usually accompanied him on walks and they both shared a love for sunsets yet here he was alone, guiltily enjoying the setting sun and greedily gulping the fresh air like it was the only air left in the world. But Hiccup had to do this, he had to feel the sand in his hands, feel the breeze ruffling through his hair, hear Toothless barking happily in the distance...
He had to otherwise he'd be sure that he was dreaming.
This was the only time when he could feel alive, that he could feel whole because it felt like she was here with him. Laughing delightfully as Toothless would soak them in water or knock Hiccup over and attempt to bury him in sand. He closed his eyes and could see her long hair cascading over her shoulders and dancing in the wind, her voice soothing...
"Hiccup isn't this wonderful?" and she'd sound so alive and happy even when the waves were crashing and the air frosty.
Hiccup was sure he was about to cry but before he could call over Toothless to tell him it was time to go, or even open his eyes for that matter something slammed into his chest causing him to hurl backwards into the sand.
"Oh my god! Stormfly!"
Hiccup was bemused for a moment before realising that the heavy object keeping him down was a dog.
"Hey" he kindly greeted the white and dusky brown Tibetan terrier, the dog was gorgeous and had only intended to introduce itself to the boy not knock him down into the sand.
"Stormfly!" a shadow feel across Hiccup and the dog was lifted from his chest, "God, I am so sorry"
Hiccup sat up, dusting the sand from his arms and chest.
"She's just kind of overly social" a girls voice explained in a rush, clearly embarrassed and profusely apologetic.
"Hey, it's okay" Hiccup finally looked up, as did the girl for the first time and her eyebrows lifted in surprise. Hiccup vaguely recognized the blonde girls face but he couldn't for the life of him remember why or from where.
"You're Hamish right? Mr Haddock's son?" she asked, her tone suddenly changing from sincerely sorry to questioning and inquisitive.
"Ugh, yeah that's me" Hiccup was always caught off guard when people he didn't know, knew him. But that's Berk in a nutshell for you. "I recognize you? Your..."
Hiccup trailed of and felt rude as her name failed to come to him.
"It's Astrid. Astrid Hofferson." she told him, a scowl slowly forming on her face. "I was at detention earlier today..."
Remembrance flashed across Hiccup's features as he finally knew why he recognized her, "Ah, you're the girl I bumped into right?" he laughed nervously remembering her reaction, "Is this karma?" he gestured to her dog who he had heard her call Stormfly.
A whisper of a smile ghosted across her lips, "Maybe"
Silence descended which was soon broken by Toothless bounding up to the three of them whilst barking animatedly.
"Um, I better go..." Astrid made to leave, setting her dog back down. Toothless and Stormfly shared a few moments of sniffing each other's bums before Hiccup nodded.
"Yeah.. it was nice to meet you" Hiccup gave her a small smile which he hoped was friendly enough.
"You too" she returned the smile, and then left, calling over her shoulder to her dog to follow when it stayed with Toothless and Hiccup for a moment longer.
Hiccup watched her walk along the beach, her form becoming smaller and smaller the further she walked away. Her hair had been tightly plaited and dangled across her shoulder effortlessly. Her eyes had been a startling blue, Hiccup had definitely noticed that, they had looked ridiculously beautiful.
Toothless nudged Hiccup's side, wakening him from his dreamy trance and by the look in Toothless' eyes he had thought Stormfly was beautiful too.
So this chapter is considerably smaller than the last two and that wasn't intentional. I had written about another thousand words but I took that part out for just now as I'm not sure I want it happening so soon in the story – or happening at all. I'm really split in two minds as to how this story should go. I have two potential sub plots that I could write and I had started to introduce one in this chapter but decided at the last minute to not to put it in yet. Instead of just not uploading tonight I decided a small kind of useless and not very interesting chapter tonight would be better than nothing!
I hope you enjoyed and pretty please leave me reviews they make me so super duper happy!
(p.s. Backies is like a back road/path/alley that is a shortcut. It is a slang word that is used from where I come from – which is Scotland yay – but I just decided to incorporate it anyway! I do apologise if I use any more slang or Scottish words which you don't understand, just give me a little shout and I'll explain what it is!)
p.p.s I listened to Jonsi on repeat whilst writing this, his music is soooo good