16 It Aint No Secret
"YOU KNOW!?" Astrid yelled at Olvor.
"Oh I'm not the only one. Stoicks defiantly noticed and Gobbers been making the occasional sly comment. So come on girl, tell me all about it; has he kissed you yet?" Olvor knew she was prying but did not care at all.
"N-no" Astrid stammered "he hasn't kissed me..."
"Oh... so you've kissed him then. That's surprising; I always thought that he was the one with the massive crush, while you seemed to be quite aloof and distant with him." Olvor finished wiping Astrid's feet and stood up to get her 'doctoring bag' as she like to call it.
"Well... that's kind of how it was between us, but a few days ago things changed when he kidnapped me."
"Hmmph... that is a surprise; I've known Vikings to kidnap girls from other tribes, but never one who lives just a few houses away, and Hiccup never seemed to be the girl snatching type. I mean, even Stoick was just a romantic in his younger days."
"Really, Stoick?" now it was Astrids turn to be surprised.
A Viking surgeons professional life consisted mainly of cutting off badly damaged limbs and sewing up deep wounds with the occasional fang, claw or splinter removal, so the contents of Olvor's doctoring bag consisted of nothing more than a sharp knife, a bone saw, two needles, cloth patches, some woollen pads and her flask of alcohol (now smashed and replaced with a bottle), but down in a small side pocket was her one acknowledgment to her gender; a hair brush.
"Oh yes" Olvor continued the conversation as she began to untangle the wild animal that was Astrids hair "He would sing beautiful songs of love to Hiccups mother before they married and treated her like a princess afterwards."
"What's a princess?" Astrid asked.
"Oh no ya don't; I want to hear about this kidnappin' not get sidetracked on to other things... so what happened?"
Astrid recounted once more about her discovery of Hiccups secret, and the romantic flight through the clouds that had changed her mind about his dragon. She went on to tell of how Toothless had taken them to the giant beast, and shown them it was this creature that was the source of all the trouble between the Vikings and the dragons; it was a story she would be asked to tell many times during the next few weeks.
"When we arrived back on Berk I wanted to tell everyone about our discovery, but Hiccup stopped me and I could see the torment in his eyes; he cared so much for the welfare of the dragon, but he also cared for his father and his tribe and he just could not see how it was possible to make everyone understand. After all, he had to force me into seeing the truth and he couldn't do the same with everyone; I didn't listen and neither would they." Olvor stopped brushing as Astrid sighed "My heart went out to him... and that... that was when I kissed him."
"Ahem"
The two ladies jumped to their feet in surprise as Stoick entered the cave and the brush fell to the floor.
"Forgive me for listening, I err... came to see my son and... well... thank you... Astrid for helping me... to understand."
Stoick walked over to the bed and placed his hand on Hiccups head.
"Rest well son... and when you wake up, don't blow it. She's worth the effort."
Turning back to the women, he smiled and nodded to Olvor and then gave Astrid huge bear hug.
"Thank you" he repeated and left the cave only stopping to say over his shoulder "There's plenty of fish... if you're hungry."
Olvor and Astrid just stared at the cave mouth as the huge man departed; their faces bore the same look they would have had if one of the fish had started singing sea shanties.
"I think you have his eternal appreciation." Olvor was adamant.
"I'm not exactly sure what that really means" Astrid exclaimed.
"It means that he will always trust your opinion; also I believe that you may have just become one of our Chiefs youngest advisers, but don't let it go to your head."
"How can I advise the Chief? I'm only fourteen years old."
"Only for a few more days and besides, it only means is that you should be honest when asked, and don't rush to speak when not. Follow his orders and you'll find it's easy; I've been doing it for years.
Astrid thought of how she would soon turn fifteen and suspected that this would be a time in her life that would take some getting use too.
"And I thought puberty was a hassle" she sighed.
The camp had changed considerably by the time the Vikings sat down to enjoy the mid day meal; the main fire outside the cave had been totally redesigned, which was a strange thing to do to a fire. It was now an amazing new kind of dragon fired cooking area that consisted of a shallow pit about six feet across filled with smooth rocks from the seashore. Slightly taller rocks also sat in the pit forming a horseshoe shape near the edge onto which flatter rocks and salvaged iron plates had been placed. Snotlout's Nightmare had been employed to heat the pit upon its return from Astrid's Island, and many fish had already been cooked on the flat rocks and iron plates.
The fire to the side where the dragons had formerly sat was now Gobbers work area, where he and several assistants were doing their best to get anything constructed or repaired that the Vikings required. But with only a limited amount of time, tools and resources, he was developing quite a backlog of orders. The furthest fire from the cave now resembled a little village with the bows of several longships now inverted and lined up on either side of the sail frame, turning them into crude shelters.
Olvor and Astrid left the cave and went to sit near the cooking fire; Astrid noticed Toothless and Stormfly sitting together with a small pile of large fish so she went and sat between them, petting each one. Although Stormfly seemed very happy to be surrounded by admirers and food, Toothless was more morose and Astrid was sure that he was pining for his friend lying in the cave nearby. Odd came over carrying a small piece of plank wood with a side of cooked salmon on it and handed the meal to her. Like many of the Vikings, he was still a little nervous around the dragons but did not want it to show; especially in the presence of a young girl who had just hugged a Night Fury.
"I've been hearing a little about your adventures" he told her "well done lass." And he returned to his meal.
In between mouthfuls of fish, Stoick addressed the group.
"Well I am very happy to say that we will all soon be totally fed up with the taste of fresh fish."
All who heard him laughed in agreement as they filled their bellies.
"I'm just glad there is no more pickled herring for Gobber" shouted Sigrid "Whew what a pong."
"Watch yer tongue young lady" Gobber warned as even louder laughter ensued.
"So how are we going with the longship" Stoick asked "will we be ready to bring it up today?"
"Should be ready for the first attempt about an hour after lunch" Sigrid replied.
"Aye Chief" Thorfinn added "the new Fishlegs fishing method has given us some ideas that may help."
Stoick was a little confused "What new method?"
"Well Chief, almost all of these fish were caught in one haul." Fjori told the amazed Stoick.
"One haul? You're kidding me."
"Nope I kid ye not; you see Chief we was having a slow time of it, when Fishlegs has the idea to fly the net out on his dragon and drop it right on top of the fish, and this is what we haul up."
"Well done Fishlegs" said Stoick proudly.
"Indeed" Thorfinn picked up the story as Fjori now had a face full of cod. "So we figure that we could do something similar to get more lines on the ship so we don't tear it in two when we start to pull."
"Well done everyone, err... more fish please."
After the big meal, the beach became a hive of activity as the tribe readied themselves to bring up the ship from its, hopefully not final, resting place. The main rope was wrapped around and tied to the bow with thirty six Vikings ready to pull while a large loop with a rope on each side had been dropped by a hovering Gronckle over the stern of the longship with the left rope harnessed to the twins Zippleback and the right rope, to Snotlout's Nightmare. A final line looped around what was left of the mast, with the other end tied to a small floating log of wood.
"I think we're ready to go Chief" Sigrid said with anticipation.
Stoick strode down to the centre rope and called for attention.
"Right then; don't forget to listen to every instruction... and be ready to run if things go wrong." Stoick grabbed the rope making thirty seven Vikings on the centre line before he gave Sigrid a nod to begin the operation.
"All lines take the strain!" she called.
The ropes creaked as Vikings and dragons tensioned themselves to pull.
"Go Astrid!"
Stormfly and her rider lifted off the beach and flew out to the floating log. Stormfly picked it up in her powerful claws before beginning to fly from right to left and back again, over and over."
Sigrid looked over the scene and continued "Okay pull slowly everyone, and dragon handlers; don't get ahead of the centre line."
The ropes tightened and the Vikings strained as Stormfly continued to move back and forth attempting to break the suction hold that the sand held on the ship. Thorfinn stared intently at the black rag that hung from the centre line ready to signal Ruffnut when the rope attached to the ship, began to move while on the opposite side Spitelout readied to give the same signal to his son.
Astrid was sure that she and Stormfly were moving a little further with each change of direction and her anticipation rose while back on the shore the Vikings continued to strain against the rope with every one of them turning slowly pink and then onto red.
"That's it everyone... pull" Sigrid encouraged.
Spitelout and Thorfinn both saw the black rag move six inches back, so they both called to the dragon handlers nearby."
"Now!" they shouted as Ruffnut and Snotlout led the dragons forward.
Astrid could feel the ship begin to move so she redirected Stormfly to change direction toward the beach. She continued to pull on the mast rope giving Sigrid an excellent gauge as to the ships position below the surface. The two dragons on shore risked damaging the rear of the ship if they moved too fast so Spitelout and Thorfinn continued to keep an extremely close eye on the alignment of the black rag and directed the dragon handlers appropriately, when suddenly the Vikings on the centre line felt a new resistance on the rope as the bow of the ship came into contact with the wooden frame that rested on top of the rocks under the water. As the ship moved up the frame, it lurched forward due to the lower friction of wet wood on wet wood and several Vikings fell over backward, but remembered to roll sideways before they were trodden on.
"Not too fast" Sigrid warned "get the rollers."
Those who had fallen quickly got up and ran over to small piles of round poles and began to lay them in the beach on front of the Vikings who continued pulling back on the centre rope. The poles were not really rollers as they would not roll in the pebbles but they would prevent the keel from digging in and being damaged, as well as keeping the ship high for inspection and repair.
Almost simultaneously the bunt off mast and the figurehead broke through the surface of the water and soon after, the ship was sliding over the rollers and up the beach.
"GET TO THE STAYS" Sigrid shouted final order; she was very pleased to see that their preparations had proven to be so worthwhile as the operation came to a satisfying end.
Snotlout and Ruffnut slowed their dragons to a halt while the Vikings rapidly placed wooden props down both sides of the ship along the waterline to hold it firmly upright. This pleased Astrid greatly as Stormfly certainly could not keep it balanced all night. As the props went up at the stern of the ship, the dragons on the side ropes were untied and allowed to roam at their pleasure once more, while Stormfly lowered the log and rope onto the deck before flying off up the beach.
"WELL DONE EVERYONE" Stoick bellowed as Gobber and Thorfinn began their survey of the damaged hull.
"One more task complete, and now one more to begin" Gobber imparted his wisdom too no one in particular.
I know that I've said it before, but I AM NOT PSYCHIC. I first wrote the line "He would sing beautiful songs of love to Hiccups mother" months before the second film came out, so I knew nothing about the song 'The Dancing and the Dreaming'. It was just one of those crazy things that can happen to writers sometimes. At the time I was thinking of how cute it would be to imagine BIG TOUGH STOICK serenading his lady love with a Ukulele outside her bedroom window like some kind of big bearded Romeo or Cyrano de Bergerac...
...weird huh?