Coming back to Berk was like coming out of a dream. Astrid and Hiccup had waited another day or two until they were sure that nobody had found their little island before flying back, and honestly Astrid had never felt so at peace. She watched him unravel in front of her, inch by inch of his old personality dripping away to show the person he probably would have been had he grown up on Berk, but still very much himself. She'd watched him trap and kill a wild boar for their dinner without mercy for Thor's sake, but afterwards he'd been so sweet and tender...
She shook herself out of those thoughts. Hiccup had said Excellinor was likely pouring all the Outcast warriors into the search for the dragon's jewel in order to cover more ground, which wouldn't have been much of a problem to do - even with the ones that were on his side, Heather's charm speak would have them completely in her thrall and willing to do anything she wanted.
Gothi didn't seem that surprised to see them when they showed up on the steps outside her door. She gave them a knowing look before her lips quirked up into a small smile, gesturing both vikings inside, leaving Toothless and Stormfly to wait out around the bottom of the stairs leading up to her cottage.
"You've been expecting us." It was Hiccup who broke the silence first as she ushered them into the den, shuffling over to where a small pile of sand lay in the middle of the room. She inclined her head in a way that said maybe she was, maybe she wasn't, but if the way she smirked was any indication, she had been expecting...something. "Then you know what this is about."
I know many things, boy, but only what the Gods themselves decide to bestow upon me. Gothi turned her attention to Astrid, her brow furrowed. You've been gone for a week, child.
"They knew I was coming." Astrid pursed her lips together, glancing out the corner of her eye at Hiccup, who reached to take her hand. "I was knocked out of the sky. I have no idea how long I was out."
"Heather wasn't taking any chances where you were concerned," he said, his own eye narrowing. "'I think she did something to keep you knocked out for a couple of days. Some kind of drug. I only know they weaken the mind." He cussed under his breath. "I should've done somethig."
"Hiccup, you said it yourself, there wasn't anything you could've done without blowing things." She squeezed his hand, giving him a small smile before she smirked. "Besides, I think we shook things up enough for them to have kept her busy."
As he shared her smirk, Gothi's eyebrows raised to the ceiling. So I take it the two of you have procreated? The bluntness of her statement made the two of them splutter, their cheeks going red with embarrassment as she laughed silently, shoulders shaking with mirth. I wouldn't worry about it much, dears. No, you are here for a reason, and that is not the reason.
Recovering from the redness in his cheeks, Hiccup shook his head, his hand dropping from Astrid's. "We're here because we need to find out more about Grimbeard the Ghastly. He was the last known holder of the dragon jewel. Would you happen to know...?"
Your great-great grandfather was a particularly vicious man, boy. She shuffled around the room, picking up various bits and pieces around it before she found what she was looking for. Hiccup suddenly became aware of the ticking sound coming from it as she wandered back over, clearing the sand with the hook of her staff and beginning to write again, the ticking thing clutched between gnarled fingers. He left his son, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the second, on the side of a mountain to be left to the wilds. Gothi watched his eyes widen out the corner of hers before she continued, letting it sink in. That Hiccup was raised by dragons and survived. With his brother, the dragon Furious, he came back to Berk with the dragon jewel, organizing a peaceful rebellion to show Grimbeard the truth about dragons, much in the way you have shown the village, dear girl. She turned her head to look at Astrid before she wiped the sand clean to make room for more writing. His eldest son, Thugheart, convinced Grimbeard that it was a trick and lied about Hiccup's intentions, and it led to a massacre that ended with the death of his son and his own madness.
"That's so horrible," Astrid said, her hand leaving her side to wrap her fingers through Hiccup's, glancing at him. His face was paler than usual, green eyes impossibly wide and it was her touch that drew him out of it, almost as though he'd been seeing the past.
As things were back then. Gothi shook her head sadly. Thugheart is the reason we were at war with the dragons for three hundred years. The dragon Furious, in his rage over the death of his brother, ordered the deserting of dragons and their masters. I believe the dragon you faced the previous summer to be an offspring of his, Astrid, who kept a particularly nasty hatred for vikings, no doubt from the stories her father told her. Furious is asleep somewhere deep in the Wrath of Thor, no doubt from the food coma he acquired after the rampage he went on after Hiccup's death. Thugheart was sentenced to Outcast Island for his treachery.
"He became the first Treacherous." Hiccup's voice was soft, his throat a little dry, and he licked at his lips, looking out the corner of his eye at Astrid when she looked at him. "Fath...Alvin was his grandson. I knew some of the old stories but I'm sure some of them were exaggerated a great deal. Thugheart became the chief of the Outcast tribe and his brother Chucklehead became the chief of the Hooligans. Grimbeard spent his final years in insanity, burying his treasure, but not before getting rid of the dragon's jewel that had started it all." He closed his eyes. "That's the reason why I had to get rid of Stoick and his brother, as well as Alvin. The dragon jewel brings out the worst in humans while bending dragons to the wielder's will. I didn't want to meet the same fate as Hiccup the second."
"You won't." Astrid turned him to face her, tilting her head to look at his face before he opened his eyes to look back at her. She smiled softly. "Because I'll be there to smack you out of whatever spell the dragon jewel will put you under."
"Gee, I feel so loved."
Gothi rolled her eyes before rapping them both on the head with her staff, bringing them to turn their attention to her. It'll be a dangerous journey, she warned, passing the ticking thing to Hiccup, who opened the hand that wasn't occupied to accept it. Looking at it, the ticking thing had a few numbers, one needle moving, an N at what appeared to be the top of the circle. That will lead you to whatever it is you desire. How the Hysterics found the land to the West, if I recall. It's been many years since I received it as payment.
"Thank you, Gothi." Hiccup tilted the ticking thing, and the needle spun around, getting used to the boy's touch before it slowed down, pointing somewhere to the North-East. He was about to open his mouth again when her door opened with a flourish, making the three of them turn to see Fishlegs standing there, looking out of breath.
"Fishlegs!" Astrid left Hiccup's side to cross the distance over to her best friend, her brow furrowed, a worried look on her face. He looked like he'd run all the way up to the top of the stairs that led to Gothi's cottage, and she wrapped an arm around him, bracing her hand against his chest before Hiccup jogged over to help her with him. Gothi frowned, but she gestured them to place him in one of the seats in her den.
The large blond doubled over once he was sitting down, wrapping his arms around is stomach with a mumble of "ow", fighting the stitch in his side as he gasped for air before he looked up at them. "They're looking for you," he said, fear in his eyes as he sucked in a breath. "I saw...I watched her. Snotlout, he...it only took her a couple of minutes of talking to him and..."
"Heather," Hiccup hissed out, fingers clenching around the ticking thing in his hand as his upper lip curled into a snarl, shoulders tensing.
Astrid looked up at him before she glanced back to Fishlegs where she was kneeling next to his chair, stroking his hand. "How did you get up here?"
"She must have been too busy placing the rest of the Hooligan men under her control to care about one escaping," the Outcast chief said, beginning to pace the room as he cursed under his breath. "I should have killed her."
There was a tap on the floor of the cottage and the three vikings turned to look at Gothi, watching her write in the sand scattered about her floor. You should leave. When they looked at her like they were about to protest, she opened her mouth, mangled tongue rasping out "Go!"
Astrid and Hiccup shared a look before the dragon conqueror stood reluctantly from Fishlegs's side, her hand still touching the back of his before they sprinted out of the cottage, down the stairs and, as though in sync, swung their legs over their dragons' backs. Stormfly and Toothless, as though sensing their riders' urgency, kicked off without hesitation.
By the time Heather approached the cottage, green eyes narrowed when she saw two specks on the horizon. She looked over her shoulder at two of the burly vikings under her command, snapping her fingers. "You two, follow them. Make sure you stay on their tracks," she snapped, before she used her foot to nudge open the door to the cottage.
Fishlegs nearly dropped his cup of tea when the door creaked open, swallowing deeply behind it as the girl sauntered in like she owned the place - which she may as well have. Half the population of Berk was under her control right now, in the middle of locking up the female half down in the caves underneath. Gothi raised an eyebrow at the rude intrusion, pointing the tip of her staff at her, voice croaking. "You have rudely set foot on sacred ground, girl," she rasped, wise old eyes narrowing before a light began shining from them. "Leave."
"Hello to you to, Gothi. Grandmother sends her regards." Heather's lips quirked into a smirk before her own eyes narrowed, looking at the old soothsayer with her hands on her hips. "I think no. Berk is under my control after all, part of the contract brother dearest made you fools sign all those months ago." The unearthly light momentarily left Gothi's eyes, shock appearing on her face that only made the girl laugh. "He was right. You Hooligans are so easily fooled."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
She turned her attention over to Fishlegs, smiling at him sweetly as her eyes turned a sickly green, and she crossed the room over to him, leaning her hands on the armrests of his chair. "Oh, sweetie, you needn't worry your pretty little head. Now...sleep."