I'm so sorry for the long waits and complications, but I think everything is fixed. I have so much to publish, so enjoy a boatload of the story!
Hiccup grips his sword, a small grimace of his former hatred for Rye shows as he takes a look at the man. All of the sudden he sees that Rye is upset. His face shows sadness weakly hidden by dead set glare.
I see it now, everyone has deeper emotions. Everyone has a hiccupy side to them. I'm not the only one who's frightened and scared. The way Astrid is gripping that axe, she wants to run away and join Belle for an escape! And Fishlegs is biting his lip in worry! Snotlout's twitching his ankle, his subtle way of showing fear, the twins are silent, Gobber's deadpanning through this!
But now the glances are returning, different sets of eyes are on me, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, future chief, defender of Berk, Warrior of the Red Death. All these faces showing such fear of Monstrous Nightmare's, dragons that shouldn't even be frightening to us! Everyone seems so scared, and I'm not. I'm their protector, the one who is supposed to pull the through this, I've been their leader for years. And now I know what fear truly is.
It isn't being afraid, it's having the people around you frightened and looking towards you for courage.
All at once a sound erupts from Hiccup, minutes of silence, waiting for the Nightmares to appear from the sky and set everyone including the dragons into attack. One noise has everyone's heads turn.
'hiccup' the sound comes from the one man, standing in the middle. It continues again, 'hiccup hiccup hiccup'. Snotlout smirks and replies to the noise coming from their leader, "Hiccup has the hiccups." Everyone laughs, as much as Hiccup hates these hiccups, the tension and fear around them is going away. Things might be better.
I meander Zip around to the back of the island, I touch down to the ground as I see the rest of the village waiting on this beach. Some dragons ready and waiting for escaping the island if needed. As daughter of the chief everyone scrambles to assist me because of my "specialness". At this moment, with dad away with the Berserkers, and Hiccup's uncertain fate, I'm the highest office of authority. And carrying the possible future chief! NO! Of all things I am NOT going to be chief! Or have my child become chief! I will gladly help elect a new chief, but becoming one? No. No matter how much people pressure me.
Spitelout holds out an arm and I use it to climb down, everyone's eyes carefully watching my belly. Am I that important? I whirl back around, my hair flying so I can look at all the villagers. I look straight at Spitelout, Snotlout REALLY resembles his father. "Spitelout." The man straightens up in pride at his name, "Shouldn't you be helping the future chief and your son defend the village?" I say loudly, I can hear people snickering and whispering about attitudes, and true men. This is so amusing.
Spitelout looks a little angered and flustered. "I would be, but these villagers needed someone to lead them as we wait this out! And you, a young, expecting, ridiculous woman are not able to lead all these people." He says. Some people look mad, who knows which side they're on. "Not capable? What makes you think that?" I retort.
The slightly scary looking man steps closer to me, the sand flying back with every step. A knife dangles from his belt, almost cutting through its pouch. He opens his mouth and replies loudly.
"You're expecting a baby, your brother is a weak hiccup, your father is soft, your boyfriend is a traveling coward! Snotlout really should be the next chief, if the Haddock's keep ruling, Berk'll be so soft we'll be destroyed!"
My anger floods my body yet again today, was my argument with Hiccup really just earlier today? I snap my head into a stiff placement. "How about I rule the villagers until the attack is over? Then you can see how a weak, hiccup, Haddock, who is a woman can lead people." My voice is stern but calm.
Spitelout rolls his eyes. "Fine! Go ahead! Ruin this tribe! I don't care! Your family name is already got a bad reputation!" He yells. He walks off back towards the edge of the woods. The entire village fixes its eyes on me.
"Well, let's make a camp. Six fires need to be built, someone get a dragon to catch some fish for roasting. I'll take care of the children." I state. Everyone looks at me, but obeys and drops off the children. Gustav stumbles after me and my parade of kids heading for a corner of the beach. I sit everyone down and we form a ring. Gustav, who I've known for such a time, is standing awkwardly behind us. I motion to him with a smile and he takes a seat beside me. Wait, why did I just volunteer to take care of nearly forty children!
I take a deep breath and smile, I see familiar kids sitting close to me. Hildegard, Gustav, a small girl named Esther. "How about a story?" I ask all the children, they scoot closer, most of them nodding yes, others confused.
I think quickly and decide to alter a fairytale from my future for the kids.
"Once upon a time, there was a young girl. Her name was Azalea," The children's eyes are full of delight and wonder, and I'm barely beginning the tale. "She had a very nice mother and father who loved her so much! But one thing that was different from other little girls, was that Azalea had very long hair. It touched the ground and draped behind her like a dragon's tail does on a dragon. It was an amazing color, such a bright blonde! And because the hair was so amazing, a very mean person decided to steal Azalea away!"
I'm interrupted by a little boy thin black hair and amazing blue eyes. "Who was the evil person?" He asked me. I looked at all the children, can't use witches, I fluster for a moment but then reply to them all. "Loki." Looks of fear crowd the children, but they all sit to hear the tale.
"Loki had made himself look like a woman. With brown hair and eyes so dark they were nearly black. He locked Azalea away in a tall tower, and because she was so young, she couldn't remember her parents after a while.
Azalea grew up, her hair became so long she could throw it out the one window of the tower and people could climb it. But Loki, still disguised as the woman, wanted no one to find the girl. But one day while he was away, a young viking man climbed up the tower and found Azalea. He hid in her tower for many days, and Loki never found out. Eventually, they decided to run away together, and Loki found out when he discovered the tower was empty. He burnt it to the ground in anger and went back to looking like himself. Thor came down from above and took Loki away from here. And Azalea and her viking lived happily ever after together in a village. The end."
All the children were entranced by my story of Rapunzel, Err, Azalea. A few minutes later of watching all the children gather sticks and shells, and one girl giving me a flower, the adults called everyone back to eat fish. I watched as the children scampered off, I shot a quick glance behind me to see Gustav standing there.
Before I could talk to him a little girl came up to me, hair nearly the color of the moon it was such a light blonde.
She placed a little hand on my stomach, okay, I should be used to this... "When 'ill you baby come?" the little girl asked in the most adorable voice imaginable. I can't help but smile, "Not for almost another half a year. But when it does, I'll let you see it, okay?" I reply to her question. The girl gives a giggling okay and dashes off.
Gustav stands beside me, watching the children go to their parents, some of them holding little toddlers and babies. Someday that's going to be me.
"Do you love that baby? Do you want it?" He asks me all of the sudden.
My jaw moves for a minute, as I think hard about this. Gustav is only about fifteen, he's got his own dragon, but why on earth would he ask me this?
"Yes, I do. The baby wasn't planned, and I didn't want to have a baby so early, and before Hiccup and Astrid, but, I do. I love this baby and I want it so much. I would give anything to feel it move. But I have to wait before anything happens. Now, what's wrong? Not normal for you to ask something like this." I answer to his asking.
He nods and looks up at me to reply.
"Good... The thing is, well, my parents, in a few years they want me to travel. They want me to go to another tribe and marry a girl from another tribe. No one in particular but someone. And I've got to obey this, but they want grandchildren a plenty, and I've heard tales and been to a few, of tribes where most of the women don't want the children and end up killing themselves, they're just rumors but it sounds terrible! If I have to become a father I want my future wife to love the baby!"
Gustav rants about his fate.
I'm touched at his want for his wife-to-come to love their future child. He will be a man like Hiccup, not like Snotlout. As I expected...
"Well, they sound like terrible tribes, probably like Outcasts or something. I'm sure no matter who you marry, you two will love your child." I respond sweetly.
He smiles, "I hope." He says. I look at him, then at the sky. The sun is setting. It must be much later then I thought...
We eat our fish in silence, and soon it is time to put the children to bed. They all lay down on beds shaped from the sand, with vests and loose garments for coverings and sheets.
A plan has been made for the adults to rotate through watching for dragons or trouble.
All the children are frightened from going to sleep, the dark has made it easier to hear occasional roars in the far distance, and smell smoke or see a glow of fire from a dragon. I walk between them, dodging their mothers, a young boy, frightened and crying grabs my clothing,
"Will you 'ell us a stowy?" The young boys asks, all the children look at me with wide eyes dampened with tears. And the mothers seem to be biting their lips and looking at me in hope of getting the little ones to sleep.
"How about instead of a story, I'll sing? Okay?" I reply. The kids give me nods and quiet okays. The mothers go and sit nearby, taking yet another break from their children.
"Alright, let me start with this one." I say and cough to clear my throat.
"Hush little child don't you cry, mama's gonna buy you a real nice axe. And if that axe breaks to fast, mama's gonna buy you a big black yak.
And if that yak's milks to sour, mama's gonna get you a dragon with lots of fire power. And if that dragon doesn't fly away, you're going to have a real nice day.." I stop singing, the children have layed down and are falling asleep, but eyes are still open.
I clear my throat for one more song.
My voice is soft and high, surprising for me. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy! When skies are grey, you'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please, don't take, my sunshine, away..."
The last note is peaceful, and I can feel dampness brimming in my eyes as I hear the lullaby flow from my lips.
All the children are asleep or very close to being, I slowly stand up from the sand and brush off my clothes. Gustav looks at me from a bit away, his face seems peaceful. Everyone seems peaceful, singing soft gentle songs must not be quite as common as I thought.
I go and make myself a place to sleep, my eyes close, and the tired feelings drift me into slumber.
Hiccup plunged his weapon into a dragon, the sword stopped the beast dead. His hiccups continued through the night, it must have been so late, he was tired and it seemed like he was fighting in his sleep, when a scream startled him. A dragon had Astrid by the waist, its giant scaly paw with long claws wrapped around her body. He heard a blood curdling scream come from Astrid's paling face. The dragon was squeezing her hard.
Hiccup stumbled up and started trying to slice through the dragon, but the creature swayed and moved, missing his every strike.
"Help..." Astrid said as she gasped for more air. Hiccup was taking a blow at the dragon's foot when everyone heard a loud snap and crunch. Astrid was crying and screaming, the dragon had so much pressure on her, he was cracking her ribs.
Hiccup wasted no time and finally drove the sword into the dragon, it roared, breathing hot fire, and dropped Astrid to the ground. Why a Monstrous Nightmare would crush a human is beyond Hiccup's mind, all he wants right now is to save Astrid.
He dodges flames and helps Astrid up, "Owww! Aaahh!" She cries as Hiccup puts an arm on her. He can see now a bone has poked through her skin, and something is wrong with her chest.
"Tuffnut! Take a dragon and fly Astrid to safety with the rest of the village!" Hiccup calls out through the noise. Tuffnut appears in the smoke with Fireworm behind him.
Hiccup places Astrid gently on the dragon. Tuffnut makes one leap and takes off, they swing around, high up and head for the direction of the rest of the village. Hiccup goes back to his fighting, he hates murdering dragons, but there is no time to train all of them without being killed.
Fireworm touches down on the beach, everyone scrambles to them.
I'm woken up by the racket of everyone. I see someone in pain.
Tuffnut goes quickly after dropping off Astrid with the simple words of, "She has broken ribs and something wrong with her chest. Help her."
I stumble over and see it is Astrid. She looks at me, eyes glossed with tears from pain. A bone juts out beneath her shirt. It hurts just to look at it.
Asvor and Terri come over, seeing the problem they hurriedly start to help her.
My lips pucker and my teeth grit. My mouth is dry at the gory sights of Astrid's pain.
A long time ago, or should I say a long time in the future, my mother told me childbirth would be the worst pain I would ever know. Worse than broken, jutting out, fractured bones. My hand flies to my stomach as I think of an excruciating pain that giving birth to this baby might be.
And then it comes, I can smell it. I can smell the blood, my sense of smell had gotten so much more intense since the start of my pregnancy. The smell of the blood make me grit my teeth even more.
I dart off to the edge of the woods, the little amount of fish I had eaten lands in a pile near my right foot. I go back and speak a few words of sympathy to Astrid then try to go back to my bed and sleep.
But I keep reliving that dream in my head. I was back to my future life, with my parents, and my name was spoken, "Isabella Mallory Lane." It had said. I barely remember having a different name. Then the dream swung over to the day and night before I woke up on Berk.
I was playing outside, I lived in a valley, with farms and lots of trees and cows. To my parents the weather felt amazing, but something was off. The wind was different, it swirled in a cold and brisk away, unlike the usual warm breezes. And the air smelled sort of like fish and saltwater.
That night I felt like I no longer loved my parents. Like my bond was ripped away the second they said goodnight. I fell asleep, just an innocent, typical twelve year old, and I woke up on Berk.
And I never want to go back.