Berk, meet the Red Death. Red Death, meet Berk. And a very unlikely chivalry …
Warning: some (mythical) animal cruelty.
Berkian Eddur - 1
Becoming Lífþrasir
What Jörmungandr Wrought
Stoick couldn't believe what he was seeing.
When they'd cracked the mountain open, and all the lizards had fled, he'd thought their victory had been an unexpectedly easy one, and he wasn't one to argue with the gods over a gift given. But their victory cries had barely stopped echoing the first time before the roar caught them unawares, and then the mountain had cracked open, and that ... thing had emerged. Immediately, the ranks had broken and panic had spread wildly as people tried to get away. Brave soldiers stayed as close as they could, trying to bring it down with flung rocks from the machines, but when the monster had taken one of their catapults in its jaws and reduced it to tinder, it was a madman or two who stayed behind.
"Get to the ships!" someone yelled.
"No, NO!" the bellow burst out of Stoick almost before he knew what he was saying, but to his horror he saw it was too late as the monstrous creature opened its mouth, aimed at the ships and-
BOOM
The beast rocked on its massive feet with the force of the shot – of what seemed to be dragon fire. Stoick, with Spitelout, Gobber, and the younger Vikings around them, found themselves staring open-mouthed as five dragons flew around the larger one, looking like gadflies, and began attacking it in earnest.
"Isn't that… That's Thuggory and his wife!" Spitelout suddenly said, pointing towards the nadder and the thunderdrum. All of them winced in unison as the thunderdrum began concussing the larger dragon from one side, and the nadder used the distraction to shoot its spines into its eye on the left side of its face. After an angry roar, it opened two more eyes and snapped at the nadder, only to find itself with a mouthful of acid and melting teeth as a changewing came out of nowhere.
"That's the Bog Burglar heir!" Gobber yelled, pointing his hammar hand up at what seemed to be an impossible scene.
"Move, Dogsbreath!" someone yelled, and when the gronkle had finished depositing lava onto the creature's left foot after the thunderdrum dizzied it up some more, an unmistakable sound was heard.
"NIGHT FURY!"
"GET DOWN!"
Stoick and Astrid where the only two who didn't shelter themselves behind the shields, and like a drugr out of Helheim, a streak of blackness fell out of the sky and an explosion of blue fire almost blinded them.
"Stoick!" Gobber gasped beside them, quickly throwing his shield aside. "That's a night fury." His head swung around to follow the creature's movements in the sky, but it was almost too fast for the eye to follow. The figure on top – by Thor, the night fury had a rider too – began pointing, yelling half-heard orders, which the others all obeyed without question. The changewing winked in and out of sight, every time only to deliver a shower of acid or to save another rider and dragon from being bitten in half. The nadder made use of its fire rarely, but effectively, once intervening when the gronkle and its rider fell to the ground and were almost trampled as they had been caught in the cross-fire of the thunderdrum's roars, which were almost constant.
"He's leading them, Stoick!" Astrid yelled, eyes never leaving the battle as her white knuckled hand gripped the axe. "This isn't just a sudden thing. They know what they're doing, and the one on the night fury is telling them what to do!"
"So what!" Snotlout said angrily, hefting a hammer and suddenly looking enraged. "This is our battle, our glory! They're mad, and he's no Viking! I'm going in there and showing them how it's done!" He was promptly clobbered on the head by his father.
"Go for the wing joint in its back! Heather, spines – Cami, be ready with it RIGHT as it hits!"
Two female voices yelled in assent, and moments later the half-blinded, bleeding beast roared again as both the joints on its back were broken and acid had been poured in the wounds. The night fury whistled into another attack, this time aimed at one of the monster's back legs, and the creature stumbled, but didn't fall.
"Thor damn it all, we need more fire power!" Thuggory yelled, then yelled some more as what was left of the ten foot teeth tried to take a bite out of him and his mount. The nimble sea-dragon swerved out of the way and returned to give the creature a roar full in the face with Thuggory barely holding on. It groaned, and the night fury made another pass at is front legs. Though the blow threw it on its side, the massive dragon got up again, this time giving a roar of its own before it started shooting streams of fire fifteen feet across, swinging its head haphazardly and unpredictably.
Screams erupted. All the dragon riders scattered like started flies. Some of the ships caught fire. The rider of the gronkle was almost taken into the fire, crashing literally in Stoick's lap as gravel flew everywhere. The night fury and its rider fell out of the sky, and suddenly there was large black barrier between them and the torching flames. Stoick looked up, having not even realised that he had taken Astrid's head down and crouched behind his shield as sparks and smoke rose, to find that both dragons had placed themselves as a living shield in front of their riders, and thus conveniently in front of them, too. He heard Astrid gasp and Gobber swear, but the dragons merely shook off the fire and turned to their riders again. Or at least, the gronkle did.
"Loki's balls," the taller one hissed angrily as what appeared to be a saddle smouldered. He slapped it until it smoked, ignoring the burns that had to be forming on his hand.
"Is it usable?" the gronkle's rider asked.
"Damn it all, the connecting wire!" the other hissed back, voice distorted by his helmet. Quickly, he took a new rope from a pouch on the intact saddle side and began hastily cutting charred rope and replacing it. "GO! Go help the others! Tell Heather and Cami to repeat performance on its legs – go for a knee or elbow joint! I'll be back up as soon as I can!"
"What orders for me, Cattongue?"
"You're the only one who can hover – keep clear of the head, but keep close enough to distract this thing off any of the others if they get too close. Back of the head should be a blind spot by now because we've taken all the back eyes out – oh for Thor's mercy, Thuggery's stopped! Go up there; tell him to start Fanghorn blasting again! We have to keep it dizzy, the dizzier the better!"
"How can we help!" Stoick suddenly roared, standing at his full height. The gronkle rider hesitated for a second before his leader yelled at him to go, turning to Stoick. A chill went down the Hooligan's back as cold green eyes turned to him through the slit in his mask, and the dragon turned eyes of the same colour on him as well. He felt himself being weighed and measured, and for a terrifying moment, he thought he'd be found wanting.
"We want to help!" Astrid came up beside him, and both sets of green eyes turned to her. The dragon looked just as untrusting, but the eyes behind the mask widened. Looking back towards the dragon, he nodded, and Stoick thought he was seeing things when the black beast gave him what seemed unmistakably to be an incredulous look, before the man put a hand on its head, hissing trust me.
"Do you have any catapults left?" he asked, turning to him and Astrid. Stoick turned to take stock, and saw one, half-charred on one side but still functional. "Load it; use it to try to distract it. Don't aim for the dragon because you may hit one of us, but make noise, throw them at its feet or near its tail, try to help us hit it while its attention is elsewhere. And for the love of Odin, do not draw its attention to yourselves!" He hissed so powerfully that it was startling. There was real anger in his voice, and disappointment, both emotions incongruous to a stranger.
"Right! Snotlout, Fishlegs! Call Tuffnut, let's go!"
Before Stoick could utter a word, Astrid and the youngsters were racing across the skittering gravel towards the war machine. After following them with his eyes, the night fury rider went back to his ropes with quick and nimble fingers and moments later he was leaping back onto the dragon.
"Wait!" Stoick caught his arm and both heads whipped around. He found himself the sudden focus of two sets of green eyes again. "Who are you?"
There was a beat of silence, the battle raging behind them almost smothered as both sets of eyes considered him.
"Friends," he said simply, breaking the spell, shrugging Stoick's grip off and leaping upwards into the sky with such strength that the Hooligan chief was thrown on his back. Gobber and Spitelout helped him up.
"Come on," He told them. "Let's do our part." Both nodded back at him, and they raced to try to help the youngsters man the catapult.
=0=
Thuggory would never admit it out loud, but he was having, simultaneously, the best and worst time of his life. Every time he saw Heather dip in and out of range of those massive teeth or claws his heart did a somersault into his stomach. But when he was the one taunting death and peeking at the gates of Helheim between those jaws, it was the moment he knew eddas would be written about him in days to come. After all, they were battling Jörmungandr, and they were winning.
Well, ok, maybe not winning, but they were certainly keeping it at bay.
A rock flew up in a lazy arch and hit the gravel off the right side. The monstrous creature whipped its head around and snapped at air. Cami promptly emptied a new acid load onto its left front leg. An ear-splitting whistle later, the acid was on fire, and their opponent began bellowing as its scales began to flake off.
"Not so fireproof after all!" yelled Hiccup triumphantly. An echoing roar came from behind them, and Thuggory pointed Fanghorn's nose up, then turned him around to look. Hooligans were working like ants a good two hundred feet away, manning a catapult and filling it with large rocks and gravel. Another group seemed to be labouring to push another surviving war machine into position.
"What they hell do they think they're doing?" he yelled at Hiccup.
"Following orders. They're going to help you distract it. Now get back in there, we need Fanghorn!"
The dragon beneath him puffed up. "You hear that, boy? Let's go show them how it's done!"
Three roars later, the mountainous thing was trying to spread its wings, and it simply wouldn't go down.
"We're not doing enough damage!" Dogsbreath said, voicing his thoughts.
"We will now!" Hiccup yelled. Thuggory found himself smirking; when Hiccup used that tone, it meant he'd lost his patience, and that meant he was done being nice. And when someone with Hiccup's brain stopped being nice – "Cami, Heather, go for all the joints in the wing! 'Breath, you flame the left wing, I'll take the other. Thug – get behind its crest and have Fang go at it with everything he has, then hightail it out of there at my signal, everyone! Get into positions!"
The dragons flew them there almost before they could direct them, and they all waited – one tense, never-ending second – until Hiccup, who was looking down, clenched his fist and went, "NOW!"
Heather let lose first, hitting her mark as she and Clover always did. The dragon didn't have time to bellow that Cami and Sting didn't follow through with fresh acid into the new wounds, emptying all her reserves, then Dogsbreath and Hiccup lit the fuse which went up like it was Snoggletog, and Fanghorn opened his mouth, aiming at the back of its head.
"Hold!"
The monster bellowed, trying to drown out Thuggory'd thunderdrum and not quiet managing. Hiccup circled upwards and swung his arm, and after half a second yelled "OUT! GET OUT!" with all his strength. All of them directed their dragons up or to the side, and within a moment, they all discovered why.
A cascade of rocks left one of the catapults and landed directly at the monster's feet. It almost screamed, scrambled back, tried to open its wings, screamed again. Then Hiccup swooped in one last time, hitting it with night fury fire in the back of the head – almost gently – and the creature did the stupidest thing Thuggory had ever seen anything do – it hit itself on the head with its own bludgeon tail.
Making a noise like a dying yak, the creature wobbled, then keeled over on one side. Hiccup circled once before landing beside one of the catapults, and Thuggory quickly followed, as did the others.
"… have to be quick, it won't be long before it comes to again. Gather everyone as quickly as possible, and sail out of here immediately"-
"We'll only get lost in the fog," a blonde woman stepped in. "We only made it here because the terrors led us– I let them loose before it all started."
"I'll lead you out," Hiccup said, "but we have to hurry, we don't have much time! There are people who ran all the way to the other side of the island, and we have to get them here before we sail!"
"We'll get those," Cami said gamely. Hiccup shook his head.
"It won't work. They won't come with you. We have to have someone on a boat before we can try to find them, or someone has to come with us on the dragons that they can recognise. They never would listen to us."
"I will come with you," Stoick said at once. The blonde girl interjected again.
"We can both go. That way, two people can do the round up twice as fast, and Gobber and Spitelout can direct things back here."
"Good plan, lass," the chief nodded, and looked around. Hiccup swallowed uncomfortably then turned to the other riders.
"I'll take her," he pointed towards the blonde. "Heather, can you please take Chief Stoick? Our dragons are the fastest; we'll cover most ground. 'Breath, Farthog's strength will help load things quicker. Please do that. Thug, Cami, keep an eye on that thing. If it wakes up, get Fanghorn to call as loud as he can, we'll come screaming back."
"As you say, boss," Cami said with a mock salute, but got into position right away. Hiccup and Heather mounted up. The blonde woman got behind Hiccup with little problem, while Stoick needed some help (and convincing) to get on Clover. Within moments, however, they were gone.
Quick as enterprising termites, the Hooligans who were left on the beach began loading the longboats that hadn't been smashed, burned or turned into chew toys, salvaging what they could for the return journey as quickly and efficiently as possible. Nobody was making any noise, as much as they could, but the creature lying prostrate on the gravel still stirred and grunted occasionally, standing Thuggory's hair on end. All their dragons were tired, and he knew Sting was out of acid.
Flames were still licking the wounded dragon, rising from the its wings and sides where the acid had been lit. That it was still alive was a testament to how hardy it was. Fanghorn scuttled carefully over the gravel, his slim legs sinking between the stones unsteadily, before he took to the air with an annoyed huff and landed beside Sting.
"That was some fight," Cami said with pride. "Totally a win for the Bog Burglars."
"And the Meatheads and UglyThugs," Thuggory replied huffily. Cami shrugged.
"And the Hooligans too, though they don't know it." They both looked back at the people scuttling up and down the boat. "Idiots have no idea."
"Do you think he's alright? With that Hooligan girl so close, I mean," Thuggory said with a frown, "it mustn't be too comfortable for him."
"Oh, I'll bet," Cami said, turning to look at him with a leer. "In fact, if I'm right about certain things, and I'm almost sure I am, he's stiff and uncomfortable, in a variety of places."
"…what?" he answered, perplexed. Damned Boggies, they could never give you a straight answer.
Cami looked at him like he was an annoying three year old. "Don't you remember the girl he fell for hard when he was 11?" she said impatiently. "You can't have forgotten! Dear gods, if I didn't see Heather walk funny, I'd still think you were a virgin!"
"Oi, it's not like almost ten years haven't passed since"-
Their conversation stopped short when a bellow came out of the downed creature. They turned their heads, and Thuggory's eyes opened at their widest to see it looking back at him; it was awake again.
"Loki's stinking shit!" he hissed, and clenched his reins to pull Fanghorn up. Before he could, however, the dragon open its massive jaws, displaying missing teeth and bleeding, melted gums from their attacks. "Out of the way!"
The mounted riders quickly rose to the sky, diving to remove Gobber from aboard the ship while all the others ran screaming as the massive dragon sucked air in. As they gained altitude, and luckily everyone was clear, it let loose.
"What the …"
Ash and green dust came out of the dragon's mouth, coating everything in front of it until it disappeared from sight, only reappearing when the dust had settled. It gave a bellow, dragging itself to its feet, and then began walking back to the crack in the mountain, wings hanging uselessly and making tracks in the gravel behind it.
"It's retreating!" a shrill-voiced man said, a younger man who looked remarkably like him joining in the cheers and knocking helmets with him.
"We can't let it go, now's the time to strike it down!" someone else said.
"If we attack it now, we'll"-
"Die," Cami said nonchalantly as she and Thuggory landed, Gobber helped to slide down the changewing's back safely. "It's still got more than enough fight in it, and our dragons are almost wiped out. In fact, who's to say that stuff isn't poisonous?"
"True," Gobber said. "Someone go take a look at the fish, see if there's any belly-up before you touch anything. Damn it all for these being our last sea-worthy boats."
"You can always come back on dragons," Cami said, and evil smirk in place.
"If there were any around," Gobber said, waving his hand in a wide arc. It seemed, in fact, as if all the smaller dragons had flown as fast as their wings could carry them as far as they could. Dragon island was all but deserted.
"They'll come back," Thuggory said.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Cami murmured as she looked towards the retreating giant, tail wet with its own blood from its blow to the head.
=0=
"There! Everyone, head back! Quickly!"
Astrid yelled as hard as she could, shifting her grip on the man in front of her from shoulder to waist as she waved frantically at the large number of people below. Some readied their weapons, but once they heard her, they came running towards them.
"Astrid!" one of them yelled, and Astrid was relieved to see her father and two of her brothers. She almost slid off the night fury in mid-flight, but the rider angled the night fury downwards. It landed with a near-silent thump, and Astrid ran to hug them all instantly. "Thank Thor and all the halls of Asgard."
"Head back the way you came," the rider said impatiently. The night fury beneath him seemed to feel it and trampled the ground in agitation, but a palm on its head calmed it down. "We need to move forward to make sure no one else is ahead."
"Who are you to tell me what to do!" one of Astrid's brothers quipped. The rider stiffened, and the night fury growled at the offender.
"No one. Do whatever you like," he replied evenly, still rubbing the dragon's head, "but we've neutralised it temporarily, and that thing can come around at any moment. The boats will be leaving as soon as they filled up.
"Are you coming?" he asked her, voice flat as he turned to her. His eyes stared at her through the mask with something close to detachment, but not quite unfeeling coldness. Something sparked in the back of her mind, but she blinked and it was gone. "We have to circle around until we meet Heather, and then bring up the rear to make sure we didn't miss anyone. We've no time for this."
"Coming." She ignored her brother's protests. "Go find Gobber and Spitelout, they could use a hand with everyone to evacuate!" The night fury rose rapidly, and she waved before she had to hang on again.
Something wasn't quite right with what she had just seen, though. Between looking for people beneath them (and desperately ignoring the fact that she was on a dragon), Astrid catalogued the attributes of the man in front of her; he was tall, tall enough to look almost all the men, even Stoick, in the eye. He had wide shoulders that tapered off into a slim waist – in fact, he had slim everything. His legs and arms were hard to touch wherever she'd hung on, but there was not a lick of fat on him, which meant that he'd grown up seeing hard times, or that he was naturally this lanky.
She banished the thought of another lanky boy she knew. There was no time to think of that, even if she caught herself fingering her amulet every few seconds. The ride on the dragon nobody had ever seen was dizzying, and she was too occupied trying to signal every soul she saw and making sure she missed no one to stop to think on it, which she didn't want to anyway.
Soon, they could see no one else, and eventually passed a bright green nadder, whose rider circled her around much like the other rider did his night fury until they were facing one another in mid-air.
"We pointed them back to the boats!" Stoick bellowed. Astrid smiled. The man in front of her nodded and answered.
"It's best if you go bring the rear that way and I do the same on this side, now. That way both crowds will have seen their chief at least once."
"Roger that. See you at the bay!" the girl, Heather, replied. Astrid's eyes lingered on her as they flew in different direction until the rock face hid them from view.
"To think, only a few days ago she was dressed like a bride," she said, and then could have stabbed herself for having sounded almost wistful. Sitting up straighter, she quickly clarified. "Must be good, to know you'll still be allowed to fight."
"Thuggory couldn't keep her down if he tried," he snorted in reply. The dragon seemed to enjoy the comment and sniggered – or Astrid was just very tired and very concussed. Still, she had enough brain left about her to catch the opening.
"You know them well, then," she asked. The body under her fingers went stiff as iron.
"They're friends."
He had clammed up, slammed down almost immediately with deathly force. This only made her more curious.
"I see." She hedged for a moment as the dragon's flying pace slowed once they caught up with the crowd. "Keep walking!" she yelled once they were spotted. He hadn't spoken to any of the villagers directly since her brother had confronted him, she noticed, but every time he spoke to anyone, there was a quiet authority of someone who was used to giving orders, or at least instructions. She catalogued that fact with the others, wondering if Stoick had also noticed. After another moment of silence, and a few halloos to the people below, she attacked again. "So they asked you to come help us here?"
"Something like that," he answered. Evasive again. Time to be direct.
"And yet," she asked with a grin, "you were leading them. You're their leader."
Their flight faltered and he yelped. The night fury slapped his thigh with one of the flaps framing its head. "Yeah, yeah, I'm on it." He turned to her and gave her a beady eye. "Miss, can we leave the questions for later? I have to steer here."
"Don't think so. You're not going anywhere up here." His eyes widened and he looked forward again, mumbling something to himself that was distorted to gibberish by the mask. "Don't lie. You were the one giving orders, and almost all those people there are clan heirs; they don't take orders from just anyone. You have the best dragon of them all." The night fury gave a puff of smoke, and Astrid blinked. It seemed to be able to understand norse, and was … preening? Who knew. "Who are you, and why did you come to help us? If you want something in return, be warned; we don't have much except the clothes on our backs and the food on our tables. You're welcome to both, for this, but not much else."
"I … help people, miss," he said hesitantly. "I met the others that way, and taught them about dragons. That's all I do."
Time to be more direct. Astrid punched him in the side, causing him to wince and yelp.
"Ow!"
"Stop evading my question! Why did you come to help us!"
"Because I knew you'd all be slaughtered!" he hissed back, his elbows closing around his ribs for protection. Wuss. He looked back at her and she motioned with her head for him to continue, at which he signed in resignation, much to her satisfaction. "Toothless brought me here, once, soon after we … met. That giant dragon has a call that draws the others in when they hear it, and it caught Toothless this one time. So I knew what was here."
"Toothless?"
"Him." He gestured to the dragon. Astrid looked at the man incredulously. "What?"
"That's a lousy name. Tooth- even for a Viking! He deserves better! A night fury, for Thor's sake!"
"It's Viking tradition, miss!"
"Talking about names, stop calling me that! I'm not a snot-nosed little girl." Someone hollered from below. She waved, and yelled for them to follow the others.
"Ah, I'm sorry. You must be married, of course." Astrid's eyes narrowed in annoyance as a feeling she did not like to acknowledge pushed its way up her chest. She punched him, this time harder, on the shoulder. "OW!" His shoulder pad absorbed most of that. He really was a wuss.
"Are you blind or is the dragon just the smart one between you two?" She was sure the reptile actually sniggered this time. "Is my hair up? I'm even wearing my kransen still!" She huffed at him when he shot her a rather abashed look through the helmet. She sighed then, looking down at the people scurrying beneath them. It all looked so strange, from so high up and flying so fast. "Well, I am engaged," she conceded, cutting him some slack. "But he is … missing."
"Ah." She really was imagining things, because the dragon beneath her suddenly went stiff, and the rider's voice sounded tight. Was she seeing things that weren't there in her attempt to understand this very bizarre stranger, or where his behaviours really there, and simply for reasons she had not yet discovered and understood? "I am sorry, miss. I hope he is found, soon."
"Hmm," she replied. "I need to tell him some things he needs to hear," she murmured darkly, thinking of how many times she needed to apologise to Hiccup for his forgiveness before realising what she was saying to someone she did not know, and honestly could be her enemy, or barking mad for riding a dragon. Not to mention, men were always uncomfortable with talk of this sort. She decided to wrench the subject back on track; she needed to learn about him, and the less he discovered about her beyond the basics, the better. "And don't call me that! Just Astrid will do!" He gave her a swift uncomfortable glance. She huffed. "Or Hofferson, if you really must."
He nodded. "Hofferson, then." She huffed at him again, annoyed beyond words at his forced formality. It didn't bode well that the one leading this group of, apparently, heirs to the rest of their allied tribes wanted to remain so detached and aloof. "Oh, no."
This snapped her attention right away; even more so when she felt their dragon mount descending and then landing on a wide ledge a few feet up a rock side. It became immediately clear that his dismayed tone had had good reason; a Viking's foot could be seen from behind a rock, only visible because they had spotted it from their higher vantage point. The night fury and his rider climbed quickly and nimbly up, Astrid following on their heels. He vaulted over the rock before her, and as soon as she crested the outcropping, let out a distressed groan.
"Oh no, Sven," she muttered, hauling herself up. "He has three little ones back home."
"He's alive, but not well." Her companion was suddenly all business, calling the dragon to him without words and bringing out aid supplies from one of the surviving saddle pockets. "I think that arm's broken; he must have fallen from there." Astrid looked up at a tight, winding rock path she hadn't seen which led a short-cut to a safer ridge on the other side, and farther away from the monstrous dragon's mountain breach. Poor Sven had been trying to lead everyone to safety faster.
Quickly and efficiently, while she looked at the terrain, the dragon rider had bound the injured arm and splinted it. She stood back to watch him work, and he seemed an old hand at this. "Here, let me help," she offered after a few more moments, and quickly began checking Sven's legs for more injury while the rider checked his head and chest. "He's bruised, but ok."
"Then we need to bring him to the healer. You did bring one, right?" Was he … sarcastic? Really, did he think now was a good time for sarcasm? She scowled at him, unsheathing her axe and twirling it.
"Don't get all fresh, you," she muttered, waving the axe around menacingly before catching the dragon's wary eyes. With a sniff, she holstered her axe again, conceding to herself that perhaps this wasn't the time for that, either. "What do I call you, anyway? I can't just keep saying 'you'"
"Cattongue," he replied, prying his eyes away from her axe and turning back to look at his dragon consideringly.
"If you're going to address me by my clan name, I might as well return the favour," she said. He gave her a long look before shrugging.
"I don't have a clan name," he muttered, turning towards his dragon. She mentally swore at herself; way to bring him to the Hooligan's side! Making him admit he was clanless and shaming him in the process!
"You weren't born into one," she said, quietly giving him an out. He didn't take it.
"No. I wasn't … needed, there." He shrugged, still fumbling with his saddle in what she thought was discomfort. In all honestly, she was uncomfortable herself; being thrown out by your clan made you an outcast – she was suddenly even more unsure whether he could be trusted. "Ah, finally!" With a few clicks, a hammock gurney suddenly appeared from underneath the dragon, where it had apparently been folded into the saddle. Without another word, he lifted Sven into it, proving that he was stronger than he looked, and mounted back into the saddle carefully.
"You coming?" he asked after a moment, holding his hand out to her. "He doesn't seem to be in danger, but I'm no healer. And we'll have to fly slowly as it is because Toothless will be unbalanced." Looking at him analytically, she took the hand he offered and they lifted off, leaning to one side all the while to try to balance the flight, as he murmured to his dragon reassuringly.
There was something about this evasive man who called himself Cattongue, who led and ordered clan heirs into battle, rode a night fury, but tried to seem unassuming that didn't add up. And Astrid was not a woman who let things lie. If their tribe was going to be in his debt she had to discover what sort of person they had incurred such a deep and long-standing obligation towards, and whether or not he would be honourable about it, or whether Berk had just landed itself in deeper trouble than it had been in when the monstrous dragon breached the mountain.
=0=
1) The debt Astrid speaks of here is a blood debt in Viking Law. Hiccup has pretty much saved the entire tribe, and now they owe him, and he can mention any price, because the debt is so big. It will be further explored in the next chapter.
2) Jörmungandr is sometimes a dragon, sometimes a sea serpent, and it battles Thor during Ragnarök and ends the world in the process.
-Next up; count down to the end of the world…
A special thanks goes to my Guest reviewers, as I cannot contact them via PM. I would also like to note once again that Becoming is complete. Updates occur regularly every Friday because I'm only editing. Suggestions and hints are appreciated, and speculation is part of the fun, however, the story is already written, so please no one get offended if your ideas don't appear. Some of those, however, I would love to read, (I'm looking at you, Bysantian Guard Guest) so please write them, you who have suggested!
And to Savvy Guest: Finally someone has looked the word Lífþrasir up on google! But to be honest, I was expecting that, so obviously, it is not the literal meaning. Or maybe it is, and all of the archipelago shall go up in flames, and the only two left will be Gobber and Astrid. How do you know how sadistic I am? *evil grin*
For all those who asked: no, sorry, there will be no love triangle with Hiccup, Astrid and Cami. Frankly I utterly detest the things (love triangles, I mean. I am a refugee from the Inuyasha fandom, after all), and Cami is rather more interested in other ... prey. If you ask me, these other two are the perfect, perfect destructive match.
And yes; Hiccup is keeping his identity a secret from Berk. How long can that last? You will see...
The next update will be Friday February 21st '14.