Hi lads and lasses supersandman with another chapter to wet your whistle on. I'll make this short, just so you know between the 26th of august till the 5th of Septemberi'll be off to Sweden, visiting friends so no chapters will be published, although i might get one more out before i go and hopefully see about getting another chapter of ironfury out too. so anyway...enjoy
Chapter 20-The things I do for love (corny I know)
Normal PoV
Hiccup and the gang head around the heavily wooded area behind the Bog village searching for their companion, Fishlegs and the twins had a good idea where she was but was still reluctant to tell Hiccup where Astrid was, he had to see for himself. But after ten minutes of slow walking, again not trying to rely on Toothless to carry him as he gets used to walking with a peg leg, yep stubborn to the bone, they make it to a clearing and straight away Hiccup could tell, well more see, that his Girlfriend's been around here due to the amount of slash marks and hacked off branches of the trees around the area. Realizing they were at their destination, Fishlegs and twins suddenly stop in their tracks and hide in a nearby bush, Hiccup seeing this follows suit and squeezes between his fellow teen, thank Thor he was small otherwise this would be really cramped.
Hiccup follows their gaze as he sees Astrid, in a fit of rage as she attacks the nearest tree with an axe, Hiccup keeps a close look at all this, her anger, the tears in her eyes, her usual pale skin red and her usual tidy blond-hair in a mess indicating she's been doing this for a while, but what caught his eyes more than anything else was the weapon she was using.
It wasn't her usual axe, the one he made her nearly two years ago, but a common battle axe. Seeing the look on his face, Fishlegs tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention before pointing at axe laying next to one of the tree stumps.
"This is strange" Hiccup said as the three teens look at him "she always uses her axe when killing trees, why would she use another axe inste..." he stops himself mid-sentence as he goes wide-eyed before turning to the others "guys...what was exactly used to amputate my leg back at the nest?" he asks. All three began to shrink not really wanting to tell Hiccup but they knew he wouldn't let the question go unanswered, even if Ragnarok happened, so gulping loudly, Fishlegs spoke first "w-well you see Hiccup there was, hot water, dragon fire, Astrid's band and her..."
"...axe" Hiccup finished earning a reluctant nod from the large teen. Hiccup knew what the problem was but was surprised what happened next.
"It seems that Astrid's first fatal strike with her axe was to the one she loves the most" Tuffnut said making Hiccup and Fishlegs look at him dumbstruck.
"I concur with you hypothesis dear brother, a physiological thing , she is afraid of using her axe again in case she hurts someone she loves again, any warrior can suffer from this" Ruffnut concluded before the twins looked at the two teens before shrugging "what?" they said in unison shaking Hiccup from his shock first "you know guys really scare me how smart you can be sometimes and mutton heads the other" the twins merely chuckled silently not trying alert Astrid of their presence. But this still left a dilemma where Astrid is not using her axe, but as he silently thought about it longer, calculating something in his head, he comes back to reality and smiles at the teens making them look confused "I have the most brilliant idea, and may I dare say it, the most stupidly crazy idea ever for this, but I need your guys help on this one" he said as the three teen knew when Hiccup had a plan in his head, he'll see it through, so they all nodded to accepting the mission he had set for them.
"Okay first I'll need Stormfly, Toothless and Meatlug for a bit in the forge, some more minerals for making Gronkle iron, some silver and gold and a lot of time" Hiccup said checking off his list in his head before looking at his fellow teens "okay here's what I want from you guys. I need you to distract Astrid for as long at you can until I say it's safe, she can't be allowed to come to the forge, agreed?" the three teens look to each other before looking back at their leader "agreed" they said in unison earning a smile from Hiccup. With no time to spare he sets off to get started on his mission, only glancing back at Astrid and giving her a small smile before whispering in her direction "don't worry milady, your dragon boy will sort this out"
Hiccup PoV
I got back to the village as fast as my one leg could carry me, not very fast, and made my stump painful and sore but I'll ignore it as I head deeper into the village towards the forge where I spot Gobber looking at one of my designs trying to make heads or tails of it. Trying to suppress a laugh I cough to get his attention, nearly giving him a heart attack, making him drop the piece of paper in his hand "ah! Shite Hiccup! Don' sneak up on someone like tha!" Gobber shouted, trying to straighten himself up, making me smirk and shake my head. With that over and done with I was still curious at what he was looking at so bent over to pick up the paper, straightening it out, I take a good look myself and smiled at what I saw.
It was my design for my scimitar gauntlets, I remember when I designed this, with the crazy designs such as the gear mechanism, the folding blades and the way it was concealed, I did redesign the blade recently to the Gronkle iron, it was something I was proud of besides Astrids axe. It also reminded me that they were damaged during our escape from Berk and the attack on the Red death. And that gave me an extra idea to my other one. Laying the design on the nearest desk, I turn to look at Gobber with a grin on my face making him raise his eyebrow "I know tha look Hiccup, ye always had tha look when yer had a crazy idea" he said but with a grin showing off his stone tooth "oh yes Gobber my fellow blacksmith, the craziest" I replied as I held my grin in place "I'm going build Astrid a new axe" I concluded, this made Gobber seem confused until I explained what was going on, after that he understood why recalling several Vikings suffered the same way. With the explanation out of the way I started rummaging through my bags looking for the right design. After some time I managed to find it, a little torn but still recognisable as the axe, including all the measurements from then, I carefully lay it out on the table next to the other one before searching around the forge for a charcoal pencil and some blank paper, as well as redesigning this, I'll need to remeasure it too considering she grew in them last two years so a perfect opportunity to give it a good overhaul. What did surprise me though was Gobber "well if ye going te do tha..." he said pointing at the old designs "then ye'll need another pair o hands, in this case, a hand an hook" I turned around to look at my former teacher and father figure noticing his genuine smile and his right hand held out, this brought me out of my shocked expression and made me smile too. I held out right arm to grasp his as we made our silent agreement. With the pleasantries out of the way. Gobber clapped his hand and hook together, getting himself prepared "righ' Hiccup, wha's the first step in all this" he asked me as I put my pencil down to address him "okay, I need to redesign both sets of weapons. What we need is materials, gold, silver and leather are the main bits, I'm sure trader Johan should have bits like that..." but Gobber stopped me there, leaving me confused "lad, Johan left two weeks ago and won' be back fer another three months remember" he explained leaving me to smack my head in realisation as I remember trading him a sword for some squid ink as I just ran out, surprising him on me being here and telling him to keep my location a secret in exchange for how I lost my leg, this left him more than intrigued, so much so he told me he'll remember this as one of the many stories he tells on his travels and promising to keep my identity a secret too. Although remembering that, I realized with out the stuff the weapons won't be done. However before I could get any idea what to do, Gobber butted in again "bu' if ye give me a bit Hiccup, I might have an idea" he said before hobbling out of the forge and towards the great hall, I simply shrugged and carried on with the new design. Looking back over the original axe designs, I realized something, I can't give her the same design, a battle axe yes, but something needs to be different, something unique, something she can proudly say 'yes my boyfriend made this'. Thinking about this for a while, letting my eyes wonder by themselves, they laid upon my scimitar gauntlet design... wait, that's it! Smiling as the idea formed inside my head, I quickly got my pencil and started drawing the design, everything from the blades to the handle, even what details to go for and metals will work well with it, the main metal being dragon steel, I just had a feeling this new metal will be even tougher than Gronkle iron, particularly if I something extra to it to make it even more unique, but for that I need Stormfly.
Speaking of which, I briefly look outside the window to see Fishlegs followed by Toothless, Stormfly and Meatlug walking towards the forge, guess Fishlegs told them that I needed them. Looking closer, I see Fishlegs talking to Meatlug about something, most likely still wanting more information on the bolder class dragons. But what caught my interest was Toothless and Stormfly, they seem so, how should I put it, attached to each other recently, remembering last week while Toothless was in the forge with me, the blue Nadder walks by and Toothless perked right up and went after her. Then there's time's where I catch them nuzzling each other while purring. I started to smirk when I came to me that these two are in fact a couple, oh I'm so going to have fun teasing Toothless about this later, but one thing at a time "hey guys" I say still trying to get the last details into the axe. "So Hiccup what, invention you coming up with now that you need three dragons for?" Toothless growled as he enters the forge before looking over my left shoulder "oh, I see" he simply put it as Stormfly looked over my right shoulder, getting a bit crowded in here "oh is that for..." Stormfly chirped as I nodded know who she was referring to before she turned her head to look at me "so what you want us for? The fat brainy one just said you needed us three for something" she finished off ignoring Fishlegs shouting "hey! I'm not fat, I'm husky!". I turned around in my chair to address all three dragons as Fishlegs walked off, mainly to follow his mission, another part was not to get insulted again "okay here's the plan, we're making Astrid a new axe so I need the following" I said before pointing at Meatlug "Gronkle Iron" I then pointed at Toothless "your dragons fire for keeping the forge going and the to make the changes to the molten iron" Toothless complied with a nod, knowing what I meant from last time, this left Stormfly "okay girl, I need several things, first of all, your lose scales, several of your spines and finally your magnesium flame to melt them considering how tough they are to melt" Stormfly seemed confused at first but complied, if it meant cheering up Astrid, smiling I clap my hands together as we all get to work as I get my hammer and chisel out and star doing the casts I need to make the weapon how I want it to be.
Half an Hour Later Normal POV
Smoke was rising from every window of the forge as the first batch of Gronkle iron was being made, even though it only takes a few minutes for Meatlug to consume the rocks and minerals to create the lava itself, it take a while for it all to mix in her stomach, this gave Hiccup enough time to get the casts ready for the process, and even luckier for him Gobber arrived back ten minutes ago with and impressive array of gold, silver and even gems of all sorts of colours to boot, Hiccup did ask how he managed to get them so quick only for him to shrug and say he has his connections. Hiccup decided to drop the questioning for now as this part of the process required his attention, the fire Toothless produced needed to be maintained as he blasted it into the Gronkle lava, gradually changing its properties, so it left Gobber to collect the fallen Nadder scale off the ground and carefully pick up the spines, lucky enough that Gobber has handled dangerous dragon parts in his, and messed with a few too, but that's a tale for another day. Finally, after a while, the dragon steel is fully ready, the gold and silver is slowly melting down altogether in one basin and the scales and spines, minus the poison barbs, are set in their own basin ready while Stormfly starts to blast her extremely hot fire, melting the two materials together while Meatlug decides to head off outside where's it's quieter so she could rest, and maybe get some granite on the way. Toothless remains to keep an eye on the fire while curiously watch his human brother work his inventive magic in creating something for his mate. With the dragon steel ready, Hiccup sets up two identical axe blade casts in place, most would wonder why Hiccup is using two axe head casts instead of a battle axe head cast knowing full well Astrid signature weapon is a battle axe. But not many can grasp what goes on in Hiccup mind, not even Gobber who taught him everything about making weapons, but even this was beyond him. Still, the old blacksmith smiles remembering Hiccup being this focused on an weapon since the one he made Astrid two years ago. It must have shown how happy he was when he started singing a familiar song Hiccup knew about when Gobber was happy as he was pounding away at one of the axe heads while Hiccup pounded the other.
"I got my axe
An I got my mace
An I love my wife with the ugly face
Because I'm a Viking through and though!"
This made Hiccup smile as he starts to join in too.
"Well I got my club
And I got my rope
And I smell like a yak because I don't use soap
I'm a Viking though and through"
Meanwhile with the Others Riders...
The twins and Fishlegs told the plan to Cami and Thuggory about keeping Astrid distracted until Hiccup says its time. They didn't know what to make of it, but if it was anything like one of Hiccups old ideas then it was bound to be fun, sure he never came up with the idea of stealing all the chiefs underpants during the tribal gatherings but he was the one who knew how to pull it off, so initially they agreed.
Eventually after a while Astrid finally returned from the forest with her own battle axe on her back, not even used, and the one she had been using, what was left of it, the handle was snapped in two and the head was completely cracked all the way through. She stopped to look at it and wished she could use her own axe, but every time she swung with it she's get flashbacks of Hiccups leg and the blood that followed after she did the deed, even though she told herself and even the other teens told her that it was to save his life she still couldn't let it go.
She felt guilty.
Guilty for chopping her boyfriends leg off, guilty for not thinking another way to save him without it resulting in amputation and guilty because this was the axe Hiccup made her, every time she refused to use it felt like she was kicking Hiccup in the nuts, she didn't know what to make of it.
And worse still, their second year anniversary was coming up in less than a fortnight and they're bound to have a fight like last year, something she looked forward to. But now she was worried, how would Hiccup feel if she didn't use her own axe in battle. Would he hate her? Would he feel disappointed in her? She didn't know what to make of it. She needed to talk to someone, she needed to talk to Hiccup before it was too late. But as she approached the village, she noticed Toothless and Stormfly outside the forge cuddled up next to each other, putting aside the reason to that for now, she realizes that Hiccup would be in there. But before she could approach the door to the forge, she is stopped by the other riders ,blocking her way to the forge "what do you guys want?" she asked with an annoyed tone in her voice but that didn't seem to faze the other teens three of them who know what she's like, even if Fishlegs is a little nervous at the confrontation until Ruffnut elbows him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him causing her brother to chuckle. Cami simply rolled her eyes "well I just realized I've been a bad host and not given you guys a tour around the island, and it's way overdue" she replied casually like it was no big deal. But before Astrid could respond, Cami grabs her hand and drags her around the village, and away from the forge, followed by the others.
Throughout the week, every time Astrid tried to go anywhere near the forge, she would get dragged away from it by either the teens or the dragons, this is really starting to piss her off as she really wanted to talk to Hiccup before their anniversary came. Meanwhile during the week Hiccup and Gobber, mainly Hiccup, worked effortlessly to build both sets of weapons, Hiccup taking pride in the axe, in its design and the way it would function, even testing out for strength, to which he found wasn't a waste of time as he slices through a regular broadsword like butter. Finally came the designs and patterning, to which he was using the gold and silver for, carefully etching symbols and runes into both sides of the axe as well as the handle, once that was done he, polished the weapon and gave it a good sharpening. Hiccup lifts up the weapon, checking for any imperfections, after a short while of inspecting every last inch of the bladed weapon, he smiled and gently placed the weapon down on a large piece of cloth draped over the nearby table before carrying on with his other weapon. It had been a very productive week, not only did he create two unique, well one nearly complete, he also finally redesigned and built his prophetic for his leg and for Toothless' tail fin, he turns towards the said dragon, showing him the new fin, this got Toothless excited knowing that soon they can go flying. And that'll be very soon.
Later that night
Hiccup and Toothless stick their head out of the forge entrance, looking left and right to see if the coast is clear Hiccup nodded "okay bud, looks like everyone's asleep" Toothless sniffed the air before nodding as well "not a sign of life Hiccup" knowing they weren't going to get ambushed or followed, Hiccup climbed upon Toothless' saddle as the Night fury stretches out his wings for what seems to be a very long time. Hiccup meanwhile does his own checks, mainly his harness and to see if his new leg can operate the tail fin properly. After a few motions of pushing his leg backwards and forwards, he smiles when the fin moves with him. So far the new prosthetic has proven very well, wearing it while he was working got him used to the feel of it while walking, that was the first test. The second test is to see how well it did while flying. To say he was nervous was an understatement, he still had doubt at his inventions on how well they actually worked, but as Gobber always said 'learn on the job' so taking in a deep breath, he smiles as he locks the tail fin into position and looks straight in front of him "okay bud, lets do this" and with that Toothless started running, gaining speed every second, and with one flap of his outstretched wing, takes off from the ground in one swift motion propelling dragon and rider up into the air and into the sky within a blink of an eye. Hiccup and Toothless felt excited, not only was both prosthetics working perfectly but the pair were back where they belong, in the clouds, feeling the cool wind hit them as they decide to test out the prosthetics even more with crazy stunts, twist in the air and even jumping off of Toothless who caught up to him, Hiccup was in his element and he loved it. But eventually and sadly for the pair, they had to eventually land, as Hiccup still had one more test to perform before morning came.
Hiccup stretched his limbs and back hearing them crack, it had been a while and hoped he wasn't too rusty from lack of practise for the last few months, but he'll see. Hiccup crouches down readying himself as he looks as Toothless who was also crouched down readying himself too. And within a flash, Hiccup bursts into a run, followed by Toothless who was quickly gaining ground. Hiccup ran as fast as he could, once in a while giving a quick glance at his fake leg as it hit the ground worked with what was left of his leg, it still ached but eventually he'll get used to it, but he wanted to see how much durability it had, and this exercise was the way to do it. Suddenly he the light of a plasma blast coming directly towards him, deciding his options quick, he changes direction slightly as the blast misses him. But he didn't have time to admire his dodging skills as another plasma blast was heading straight towards him, but again he dodged that too by bouncing off a nearby tree to change his direction. This carried on for a while, as each plasma blast came his way, Hiccup dodged them all till eventually he ran out of trees and cover altogether as he comes to an open field. Hiccup kept his guard up, knowing his attacker could come at any direction. Suddenly Hiccup saw the dark shadow jumping about all over the place, Hiccup tried to keep it in his sights but it was too fast, but the one thing he did notice quickly was the plasma blast heading his direction again, he quickly spun his body narrowly avoiding the deadly projectile, unfortunately that left him wide open to physical attack to which the dark figure took advantage of this as it collided with the small teen, pinning him to the ground, this is when the dark figure did its worst attack ever.
It licked Hiccup with it large tongue!
"Oh eww Toothless!" Hiccup laughed trying to stop the Night fury from covering him with saliva. Toothless eventually let go of Hiccup so he could get up. Hiccup wasn't amused, he struggled to get the saliva of him "you know it doesn't wash out" he groaned as Toothless started to laugh "I know, but it's always funny to see your reaction" he barked as he struggled to contain his laughter, that was until Hiccup got his revenge by throwing a big glob of Toothless' saliva right back at him, stopping the dragons laughter and making him glare at Hiccup, who by this point knows its time to run, but he needs a head start so decides to pull the oldest trick known to any one, he points in the other direction and shouts "oh look! Fish!" this caused Toothless to turn around to look but saw nothing so when he turned back around, he sees the auburn-haired teen running off towards the village, to which he chases after growling "I'm going to get you toothpick!" this made Hiccup laugh as he responds "well come and get me you overgrown pussy cat!" while they were running back, Hiccup was thinking about how well the leg worked under pressure, and with that he knew what needed to be done next.
The next morning in the great hall
The teens, minus Hiccup, were sat around enjoying the morning with whatever they could, mainly talking about their dragons, about what they did last night or in most cases, stories from Cami and Thuggory and their crazy antics they used to get up when all three heirs used to get together. Yes all the teens were enjoying the morning, except for one. Astrid was down, she tried so hard to talk to Hiccup and now the day had come, she was worried at what he might say, that she could no longer use the axe he made for her, it'll break his heart, it was breaking her heart just thinking about it.
Suddenly the door swung open, everyone, except for Astrid looked at the newcomer only to discover it was Hiccup. But he looked different, he was wearing his black leather armour, fully repaired as you can see where the new leather was attached, he even had both his leather boots on with confused everyone in the hall as they knew Hiccup lost his leg so how had he got two boots on? They also noticed Hiccup with gauntlets on his wrists, Fishlegs and the twins looked thinking he repaired his scimitars, but upon closer inspection revealed them to be entirely different, these ones were longer going all the way up his forearms and highly decorated in gold patterns all over them. Hiccup simply ignore the stares as he made his way to the teens table, more specifically, towards Astrid. At this point Astrid was still lost in thought at what she was going to do that was until...
Bang!
She jolted upright and looked at the fist slammed upon the table, she follows the arm until she sees the owners stony face, no emotion whatsoever on Hiccups face, this worried Astrid as she looks directly at him "H-hiccup? What's going o..."
"Duel...outside...now!" Hiccup said sternly interrupting Astrid mid sentence, this left everyone shocked to say the least, but again Hiccup ignored that as he walked outside waiting for Astrid to follow.
Little did anyone know about the surprise Hiccup had in-store for Astrid.
Astrids POV
What just happened?
One minute I'm wondering what to tell Hiccup when he bursts in and demands a duel with me. Did he find out? Oh gods what am I going to do?
I feel my chest hurt as I struggle to breathe, wait? What am I doing? I'm a Hofferson! Hoffersons don't panic, we take it like warriors, whatever happens.
So as I control my breathing, I stand up, feeling my axe on my back, hesitant in using it but I'm not going to let it beat me...I hope not. I slowly walk towards the large doors of the hall followed by the others who looked nervous as well, least they're not the centre of attention. I head outside and had to blink at what I was seeing. The whole village was outside, creating a large circle around a waiting Hiccup who at that point looks up at me, still stony faced before he speaks "about time Astrid" was all he said as I make my way into the circle, looking how big it was, I guessed it was plenty of room for a duel, so we are doing this 'okay Astrid, no turning back, I can do this' I think to myself as I pull out my axe and prepare myself for the fight. But as I look at Hiccup, his expression changes to, confusion? "Astrid, what are you doing with that axe?" he asks making me confused now, but before I could answer him, he was walking towards me with something cover behind his back. As he gets close to me, he gently grabs the axe off of me and throws it to Fishlegs as he places the large covered item in my hands. It feels familiar, but lighter. That's strange. As I look up to Hiccup, he makes a gesture for me to unwrap it, which I hesitantly do, but when I did, I was shocked.
It's a battle axe, a beautifully designed battle axe, I looked at the head first, or should I say heads, upon closer inspection it was two axe heads attached together, but both had the same exact details as it counterpart, both heads were made from some sort of shiny dark blue metal, I've never seen anything like it, they only shiny metal I ever saw come close was Hiccups scimitars that were made from Gronkle iron but this, was beyond that, it makes me wonder what he used to make it like this. Looking over the details I saw straight away a mixture of silver and gold etched into the heads, both identical designs, both identical pattern and, if my eyes are deceiving me, in the centre where they both meet up is a detail design of a dragon, it was a Nadder, I turn the axe around to look at the other side to see the exact detailing, including another Nadder design etched into the head.
But the beauty never stopped there as I look down to the large, but easily holdable handle and noticed straight away that it wasn't made of wood, but something else, a mixture of white, blue and yellow, it kind of reminds me of Stormfly, wait, looking even closer I notice the yellow and blue shine a lot more than the dullness of the white, are they scales? I walk over to Stormfly as I compare both the handle and her scales, they are her scales! I'm surprised to say the least.
How did Hiccup managed to craft something like this in such a short time?
But then it dawned on me. All last week Hiccup had been avoiding me and when I tried to go and see him, I was dragged off by others. Was that all planned? Was he using that time to make this? For me?
My thoughts are brought back to reality as I hear a familiar chuckle, I look from the axe to see the genuine smile of Hiccup "you figured it out yet milady?" he said with a gentle tone "I saw you in the woods killing trees with a regular axe as your own was resting against another tree" he continued doing his trademark gesture with his hands "so I put two and two together and realized that was the same weapon you used to do this" he pointed to where his left leg used to be, although I'm slightly confused, because from my point of view, and many others by the looks of it, he seems to have two legs instead of a foot and peg leg. Hiccup rolled up the trouser on his left leg to reveal something that made me, and everyone else, look in awe. It was a fake leg, but Hiccup designed it to look like a real leg, taking a closer look I see a lot of weird contraptions inside of it including those gears he use for he scimitar gauntlets as well as some rods and some that coiled around themselves.
Hiccup attaches the prosthetic back onto his stump and rolled the trouser back down over his boot before looking at me again, this time with a look of determination as he gets into his fighting stance "well milady, no backing out now, unless you're scared" he said taunting me. I give he a wicked grin as I adjust myself into my stance, getting the feel of the axes weight, which still seems light but fits perfectly with me "it's on dragon boy!" I reply, but all the while I can feel the smile still upon my face as I charge towards Hiccup.
My Hiccup.