Chapter 7

Hiccup opened his eyes to see the ceiling of their tent. His head was pounding and he felt a dull aching all over. He tried to sit up but only made it half way before he gasped in pain and clutched his side. Feeling the bandage, Hiccup looked over to see that it was wrapped around his middle with a small blood stain showing through.

Just then Astrid started to crawl into the small tent after hearing him. She sat across from him and started to push him back to lying down.

"Don't move too much, you'll break your stitches," she told him.

He listened but not without trying to hide his pained expressions. "I don't think your flight suit is such a great idea solo," Astrid joked trying to lighten the mood.

"How long was I out?" he asked her.

"Well you fell this morning and it was sunset about an hour ago," she replied.

Hiccup sighed frustrated, "Great I wasted a whole day."

Astrid did not like the sound of that comment but decided not to address it. "I should have enough medicine for you for the trip home. It will help with the pain and-"

Hiccup sat up quickly flinching and interrupted her, "We're not going home Astrid, we haven't found Toothless."

"Hiccup," Astrid said half angry and half exasperated.

Hiccup gave her a serious look that wordlessly told her he was not kidding. As he tried grunting to climb out of the tent, Astrid decided she could no longer be corporative. Hiccup barely had his head out of the tent before something grabbed his medal foot and yanked him back inside. He yelped and was rolled over to be looking up at a very angry Astrid.

"Hiccup, I have been very supportive and helpful through all this but I can't keep my mouth shut any longer!" she yelled.

Stormfly heard her rider yelling and peaked her head in the tent before leaping backwards out to avoid her rage.

Hiccup was about to say something but she did not let him this time. "We have been out here for over a month and have not found a trace of Toothless! He does not want to be found. In the mean time we are flying to the coldest and most dangerous corner of the world. Toothless made the stupid decision to leave and I am not letting you, me or Stormfly die because of it!"

When Astrid became silent Hiccup was quiet too for a long moment. Finally he said quietly, "I'm sorry Astrid… I'm sorry I dragged you and everyone else into this. But I have to find him… I'll never be able to live with myself if it ends like this. I have to fix this or else life will never be the same for me."

Astrid started to calm down. "Hiccup."

"I want you and Stormfly to go home, I won't let you die because of me," he said.

Astrid sighed, "You're hurt you muttonhead. And even if you were healthy and had a dragon to fly I would not let you do that."

Hiccup sat up the best he could and kissed her passionately. When they pulled away he said, "Thank you for all your help Astrid. Just please go home. When I find Toothless I will fly with him back."

Astrid saw tears falling from his eyes and felt her own forming. "Hiccup please just give up for now. I promise we'll look again in the Spring. For however long it takes."

Hiccup shook his head slowly, "I can't…I just can't. There are so many things that could happen. What if Toothless gets hurt or breaks his tail?"

The couple was silent for a few minutes as they both stared at the ground. Finally Astrid spoke, "Three days."

Hiccup made eye contact, "What?"

"I will help you for three more days. And if we don't find him by then I swear to the gods we are heading back even if I have to tie you to my saddle."

Astrid saw Hiccup give a much overdue smile before kissing her, "Thank you."

Astrid smiled back before becoming serious again. "I mean it Hiccup. Three days."

"Okay but if you try to fly me back early I will jump off Strormfly," Hiccup replied.

Astrid gave a light hearted sigh before punching him in the arm. "Deal, now get some rest, we are not flying in the dark again."

The search next morning did not start until sunrise and Hiccup was very determined. His injury was extremely painful and was made worse by walking. 'It had to be the same side as my bad leg,' he kept thinking. Hiccup tried his best not to show it but that failed when he broke his stitches trying to climb onto Stormfly's back which could not be ignored. After Astrid cleaned him up with medicine and new stitches, he was more careful this time to mount the dragon before they took off.

Hiccup was determined to not show how much pain he was in to Astrid. He did not want her to try and take him back to Berk early. Whenever the pain was unbearable Hiccup would try and apply the medicine himself to keep from informing his girlfriend. He could not however give himself new stitches and as time progressed, they needed to replaced a few more times.

On the afternoon of the third day they were flying and Astrid felt something wet on her hip. She looked down to see blood and was about to yell at Hiccup for not telling her sooner. But when she turned her head she saw that Hiccup had passed out with his head resting on her shoulder. It was lightly snowing so Astrid landed Stormfly in a thick covering of trees to help him.

Hiccup looked paler than usual which was probably from the frequent loss of blood. He was still out when she stitched him up again and was shocked to find they were out of medicine. This was very bad, they still needed to go home and without the medicine, Hiccup would be in much more pain and at a greater risk of a life threatening infection. Sunset was approaching and she was dreading the talk she would have to have with him when he woke up.

Hiccup woke up over an hour later in the tent and told Astrid he was not happy about them not flying at the moment. Astrid was inside the tent as well since it was now snowing harder and the wind was picking up.

"Look I wan't going to continue with you unconscious and bleeding behind me. Besides I needed to send Stormfly to hunt, we haven't eaten in awhile," Astrid explained firmly.

Hiccup was very aware it was getting late on the last day of their deal and did not want to waste time. "Well is she coming back soon?" he asked.

Before Astrid could answer she heard her dragon squawking outside. She climbed out first before giving Hiccup a hand to do the same. They were surprised to see that the Deadly Nadder did not have any hunted animal. She always brought back food no matter how long it took.

Stormfly continued to squawk with anxiety and stomp on the ground which told the vikings she came back for a reason.

"What is it girl?" Astrid asked.

The dragon squawked again before kneeling down and looking at her back. Both vikings climbed on her back and she took off before they were even situated. With all the snow and wind it was difficult to see where they were going but Stormfly seemed to know so they trusted her.

Several minutes later they opened their eyes to see that they had landed in a clearing of trees. This clearing was different than normal. The partially burned trees nearby indicated that this was not natural. The both climbed down and Stormfly ran over to something. They followed her and Astrid gasped. Half covered with snow was the unmistakable form of Toothless lying motionless on the ground.