Alright, so a couple of things. Firstly, it has been extremely too long since I last updated. Real life caught me in a tizzy and I couldn't seem to find more than ten to twenty minutes of free time during the last couple of months. I apologize for the tardiness of this update. Secondly, I absolutely love Gobber's character. However, I cannot do him justice by writing his unique speech with his accent included in it. I have tried and it sounded more like Shakespeare than Scottish. So please look past his seemingly excellent grammar and punctuation. He is just as eloquent as he was in the movie, so just think of his actual voice and accent when reading his lines. That being said, I hope you enjoy this slight twist that I decided to throw into the story.
Gobber's smug face was obviously something that neither Viking wanted to see as soon as they escaped. For a moment, no one moved then Astrid pushed off Hiccup and stood up. Hiccup's already throbbing head didn't agree with being slammed back into the ground. He saw stars for a bit, but shook his head to clear them before getting up. "Well, it's a good thing I found you two so soon. Stoic sent me to find the both of you." Gobber's self-satisfied smile never left his face.
Hiccup decided that it would be best if he just stayed quiet. Acting under pressure wasn't one of his strengths…last time that happened, he lost a foot. Astrid, however, charged forward with a red face and an all business attitude. "Alright, did he say why he wanted to meet us?" She straightened out her shirt and skirt, then her slightly mussed hair. She didn't usually care what she looked like, but she had to do something with her hands and keeping them to herself at the moment prevented her explaining to the chief why Gobber got a black eye fetching them for him.
"Something about you wanting to kill your own father. Thor's hammer! I've never seen Angnir so shook up. What did you do to him, lass?" Gobber's curiosity had finally overcome his suggestive demeanor. "He had bruises all over him, like he got into a fistfight with a rockslide or the like."
Hiccup glanced at Astrid's broken door or rather lack thereof. He had only seen Angnir fly out of it, but it sounded like he missed the majority of the fight. He looked at the quickly escalating anger rising in Astrid and quickly got her attention. "Why don't we just go see dad and talk about it there?" Hiccup couldn't stop Astrid's rage, but he thought if his dad, Gobber, Angnir, Toothless, Thornado, and himself all worked together, they could keep the body count to a minimum. He started walking home, hoping they would follow. After hearing Astrid's soft footfalls and the clunk-step of Gobber behind him, he let out his breath in a relieved sigh. He looked over his shoulder to see Toothless start to wake up and look around for him. When the dragon caught sight of him he loped over to walk beside him with confused eyes. No doubt wondering how the both of them escaped. Hiccup grinned at him and scratched his ear before trying to break the silence, trying to build his courage through the closeness of his best friend. "Bruises ,huh? Must have been quite the fight." Hiccup glanced at Astrid and saw her smile.
"Nah. He just kept running, he wouldn't fight back." Gods how she scared him sometimes. He had to keep her talking. If he let her think on it too much, she'd no doubt kill someone on the way. Ok, so maybe that was an exaggeration, but to be safe, he'd keep her mind occupied. Not to mention his own mind was buzzing like a bunch of angry bees at the moment. He didn't want to think of what had happened just yet. He didn't exactly know how to interpret some of the things that were said while cocooned inside his night fury.
"Still, you knocked him straight through your front door. We built those things to withstand Dragons." He tried to sound impressed, but it came out shaky and sounded more like wonder and fear. He had made the metal bands to hold the door together himself and it still frightened him a little to know that she had the amount of strength in her to bend solid iron just by throwing someone at it.
"Yeah, I'm getting better at my unarmed combat." She grinned at Hiccup in what he interpreted as a menacing way. Hiccup gulped and saw his dad along with Astrid's standing behind him on top of the hill in front of the house. He gulped as he thought about what was about to unfold. Without realizing it, he had moved slightly closer to his dragon.
Gobber pushed past the two and greeted the chief. "I got them. You wouldn't believe what they were doing either!" He chuckled and both of the teens turned red. Astrid from anger or embarrassment, Hiccup couldn't tell. She lunged past Hiccup and punched Gobber in the arm. With a surprised yelp of pain, Gobber rubbed his arm then started laughing. "She's right, she is getting better at unarmed combat!"
Stoic shook his head and sighed, motioning for Astrid to calm down. "Peace, lass. We're here to talk, not to fight." Stoic glanced at his son behind the obviously upset girl. He was twitching again and he couldn't seem to keep his hands still. The chief moved his attention back to the girl. "Let's all go inside and talk in private, hmm?" And with that, he turned around and walked into his hall.
Astrid scoffed at the idea of no violence during this 'talk'. However, her chief had asked her to go into his own hall. Ever the dutiful Viking, she followed a humming Gobber into the bright hall and caught herself musing at how much bigger the hall was compared to her own family's hall. Apparently, being chief of the tribe allowed for certain benefits that extended to his family members. She looked behind her and saw Hiccup shuffling next to Toothless in a daze. He looked so pensive, like his mind just wouldn't let him stop thinking. He was always thinking about something but this time it looked like whatever was plaguing his mind was certainly affecting him. He never looked up as he grabbed the door and closed it behind Toothless and continued to run his hands around his arms or twiddle his thumbs. Astrid turned her attention forward, but continued thinking about the boy. She knew that something had happened that neither one of them could really explain. Something had shifted and changed and both of them was not sure what that meant or how to deal with it. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she decided to simply think of one problem at a time. Murder her father, solve problem with Hiccup. Yeah, that was the agenda that she would set for herself.
After finally arriving in the house and watching a very distracted Hiccup close the door behind them, Stoic launched right into the conversation. "Alright, now I'm sure that this must be something that is new to the both of you. But you have to listen to both of us before you go crushing skulls." He gave a meaningful look at Astrid. "Your father and I have been in discussion about this particular contract for a good while now and we have finally agreed to the terms just yesterday. We want to hurry this along and have you two married soon." Stoic ended with a happy smile that seemed to contradict Astrid's outraged and almost confused visage.
Astrid took a couple of breaths to calm herself. She was angry, yes. However, her anger wouldn't do her any good right now. She had to get to the bottom of this sudden contract between her and Hiccup. "Why do you want us married so quickly?" She looked pointedly at her father, who had regained some courage and smiled back at her in a fatherly way. It threw her off to see her father act so noble when they were virtually talking about pawning her off to another man. She wasn't an item to be sold to the highest bidder!
Stoic cleared his throat and proceeded. "As you know, before the village enters into the winter and it freezes very heavily, we have a lot to prepare for. That includes helping other villages and tribes in their preparations as well. Some of the more remote islands do not have as bountiful supply of food as Berk does. We are their allies and we trade with them for other goods."
"Stop chasing around the bush, you ninny. Get to the meat of the matter." Gobber finally slapped the chief on the shoulder. Astrid silently thanked Gobber for his lack of patience as it was getting more irritating to watch their rather large chief skirt around the subject.
Stoic sighed and then took a step towards Astrid, motioning Hiccup to come closer. He knelt down on one knee and looked both of them in the eyes. Astrid started to get a little nervous at seeing the intensity of his stare. "I want the both of you to look into my eyes. I want what is best for Berk and its people, yourselves included. Hiccup is my son and he is of age to be married. Now I want both of you to tell me that you dislike one another. That you can't see either of you ever getting married in the future. I want you to say it here and mean every word of it. Can you do that?" He waited patiently for their responses.
Astrid felt trapped. She wanted to reassure the chief that she was in no way interested in Hiccup. That she was going to remain a shield maiden for the rest of her life. She was perfectly happy with her dragon Stormfly and her trusty axe. But that would be a lie. She did like Hiccup. Maybe a little, tiny bit more than a friend. And she couldn't say that she hadn't thought of being married to him. Every girl has a dream or two about it sometime in their life. But she was a Viking! Vikings don't succumb to those picturesque scenes of love and niceness. No, they freeze to death in the winter by themselves and kill all of those that anger them or insult them for going soft. So of course she wanted to assure the chief that she wanted to be alone. But for some reason, her traitorous eyes decided to shift over and take a quick glance at the boy beside her. He looked shocked and nervous as his bottom lip was being chewed on and his fists clenched until they were white. His face shouted that he was scared and at the same time, he remained silent, squinting his eyes as if in pain. He was trying so hard to do something, she could see.
Her mind suddenly recalled what she had said to him inside Toothless earlier and her thoughts went into overdrive. She said that she didn't want to marry him. That she wasn't ready. Neither was he. Both of them had so much that they wanted to do, so many years ahead of them to accomplish their goals. So why was the chief saying that they needed to marry so early? She knew that Vikings tend to marry earlier in life, but that was due to the dragon attacks, now that it wasn't a problem anymore, she thought that all of this early marriage nonsense would fade away. So why-A sudden thought flitted across her mind that actually terrified her. Other tribes…they didn't know that the dragons had stopped attacking. They were still marrying young. And Hiccup was the son of another tribe's chief.
Astrid looked at Stoic suddenly, her eyes filled with understanding. He resolutely looked at her as if confirming her fear. She didn't know why, but the thought of Hiccup being married off to another tribe scared her. Her fears were not controlled by this gangly and short boy next to her. No, she was a Viking! Fear didn't exist for her! So why did she have to fight her body to keep it from shaking with dread. She understood why Stoic was asking them this. It was either marry Hiccup or have any chance of ever being with him taken away. She hurriedly looked back at Hiccup and saw slight traces of tears run down his face and blood come out his lip. He knew.
Hiccup opened his mouth and took a deep breath and looked determinedly at his father. "Dad, I dislike Ast-"
He was suddenly interrupted by a punch to his ribcage and a voice next to him. "Chief, I understand. I support the contract you have signed with my father." Astrid felt her knees go weak and an all new kind of dread fill her. She was giving away any sort of freedom that she could have to keep Hiccup from marrying someone else. She didn't really understand her decision at all and Hiccup's almost answer enraged her. She didn't know why he was going to say what he almost did and it made her act before she thought. She thought they were friends! How could he just throw that away! She blurted the first thing that came to her mind and now she was stuck. Stoic nodded once, then stood back up.
"Then we are in agreement! As I said, we will have the marriage after the storm settles. Preparations will start now and then we'll have something to celebrate before the winter comes!" He slapped Angnir on the back and punched Gobber in the arm. The other two men both had smiles on their faces and somehow produced mugs of mead from behind them, which they began to consume with gusto. Astrid sent a withering look at Hiccup and quickly exited the door. She had to find Stormfly and fly to the woods. Anger had boiled through her throughout the entire conversation, but for some reason when Hiccup went to voice his dislike for her to the chief, it made her see red. Her fury had consumed her and she made a rash decision on the spot. She wasn't going to go back there and take back what she said to the chief, though. Her word had been given and she would remain true to it. Even if she had to marry a boy she currently hated at the moment. Finally making it to her house after a mad dash through the village, she went out to the dragon stable and called for Stormfly.
The dragon was beside her rider in an instant. Her head was cocked to the side as if confused, but it went away as soon as Astrid saddled her and mounted her. "Let's go girl." Stormfly squawked an excited affirmation and then took off into the sky. On the way up, she vaguely saw Hiccup exit his house with his head down. Not that she was looking for him or anything, Valhalla no. She was just…checking to see if there were any fires that she had to put out before she left. Her years on the fire brigade had obviously made it a habit to her that she just now noticed, yes that must be it. She harrumphed in renewed anger and flew off over the woods to her usual killing grounds.
Hiccup felt absolutely horrible. His side hurt from Astrid's sudden strike, his lip was bleeding, his hands had gash marks in them from his own fingernails, but the thing that hurt him the most was the current muscle that was beating in his chest. He had seen the hateful glare of most all the villagers in the past, but he had never seen Astrid so angry at him and it devastated him. He didn't understand her anger this time, either. He was trying to fulfil what he told her earlier that very morning! He wouldn't let her get married to him if she didn't want to. Then, right as he was getting ready to set her free of marrying him, she jumps in and says that she is alright with it!? He was supremely confused on what she wanted. She told him one thing and then does the opposite of what she says later.
Toothless trotted next to Hiccup and just watched the different emotions play across his face. Until he finally became unamused by his rider's undoubtedly self-destructive thoughts and nudged his arm to get his attention. Hiccup turned to his best friend and looked at the lonely reptile. "Sorry bud, I didn't mean to forget about you. It's just that a lot has happened today and- *sigh* You know what. I think we need to go flying. That sound good to you, bud?" Toothless unabashedly let his tongue hang out of his mouth and smiled at his boy. Hiccup situated himself on the saddle and readied himself for the gut wrenching takeoff that Toothless was so accustomed to.
The Night Fury didn't disappoint, either. The ground left them abruptly and Hiccup was pretty sure that part of his meal stayed with it. Finally leveling out, he raised his arms to the sky and felt the wind caress his face in a pleasant cool rush. He would never get tired of this. The air had opened up so much possibility for Hiccup when he rode Toothless. On the ground, the plodding pace of walking felt mechanical and continued to remind him of his missing limb. The screeching metal that refused to stay oiled enough to be silent grated on his nerves and announced his crippled status to any and everyone that could hear him coming. In the air, though, he was free. The only sound that could reach him was the rush of the wind and the occasional whine or groan of his partner. Everything seemed so far away from him as he watched the tiny islands below him. Problems that seemed so large in every day Viking life just melted away and stayed on the ground where it was expected to be solved. Toothless could feel Hiccup's spirit come back to him and decided to accelerate in a fit of happiness.
The clouds rushed to meet them until Hiccup maneuvered his feet around into a dive. Speed was the one trait that defined both of them in flight and it was a very addictive drug that they indulged in on as many occasions as they could. The boy and his dragon watched as the ground continued to grow larger by the second and relished the feeling of the wind slicing its icy talons across their skin, leaving nothing but a screeching noise as the Night Fury announced his coming. With a quick repositioning of his feet and a flare of wings, Toothless and Hiccup were thrown into each other as they slowed to a more manageable pace and enjoyed the day at a leisurely pace. They could do this all day and not grow tired of it, but they both knew that Hiccup had things he had to do today. With a worried and inquisitive look, Toothless looked back at Hiccup. "It's nothing, bud." Toothless gave him a ridiculous look that could be summed up as the 'yeah, right!' look. "Alright, fine. I'm getting married soon and my future wife absolutely hates my guts. I try to make her happy and I revert back to my old tried and true of screwing everything up. I am seriously afraid of marriage by itself, but add Astrid with an axe into the mix and let's just say that I'm surprised I don't have wet shorts at the moment." Toothless shook his head and snorted. "Oh, like you are any better! I don't see you chasing after any girl dragons, Mr. Smooth."
Toothless huffs indignantly and circles back towards Berk. Unfortunately, Hiccup saw the horizon and his dad was right. There was a nasty storm coming from the ocean and it would hit pretty soon. Hiccup couldn't see the end of the clouds that were coming and silently thanked Thor for that. The longer that this storm put off the wedding, the better the chances were that Astrid would come to her senses and cancel the contract.
Shifting his thoughts from marriage, Hiccup went back to thinking how it was nice that he got the last line in before when he argued with Toothless. The dragon hardly ever let him win an argument. Hiccup was feeling pretty good about himself, that is until Toothless decided to take a slight detour and flew him over the woods. "What are you doing, bud? I got a lot to do today." Toothless grumbled a bit. "Ok, fine. One quick lap around the woods, then we head back, deal?" Toothless grunted an affirmative and then took off a bit faster. The young Viking let the wind wash his worries away and just closed his eyes for a bit. He trusted Toothless and he knew that he wouldn't fall off. His slight acquisition of peace was interrupted as his best bud finally spotted what he was looking for and began to dive. Hiccup gave a yelp and held on for dear life as the trees suddenly reached up to him.
Toothless came out of his dive and landed with a thump, causing his rider to move forward a bit and unlatch himself from his saddle. Then, the reptile went over to an outcropping to talk to a certain Nadder in the vicinity.
Hiccup hit the ground with a thud and blearily got his bearings before he stood up and rubbed his back. "Ha ha, very funny. Get back here, you useless re-" Hiccup finally turned and saw something that scared the crap out of him. A certain blonde haired Viking with a battle axe raised and ready to throw. "Gah!" Hiccup dove for cover and barely dodged the incoming projectile.
"What are you doing here?" Astrid's voice drifted over to him from his right and she didn't sound happy.
"Working on my reflexes?" It was the first thing that came to his mind and although he meant it as a joke, he saw the glint in her eyes that promised pain if he didn't answer correctly. "Uhh… I mean… I came here because apparently Toothless likes watching me lose things." Astrid sighed at her bad luck and went to retrieve her axe. On her way there, Hiccup stood up and dusted himself off. "So did you throw the axe before or after you knew who I was?"
Astrid jerked her weapon from the tree with a grunt and turned to him, still brandishing it at the ready. "After." Hiccup felt the air distinctly chill after that and immediately went on the defensive.
"Oh. Well, that…that is…not good." Hiccup felt like mentally slapping his head. Out of all the responses he could have used, that's the one he answered with? What was he? Snotlout? "I mean, I…uh… probably deserved that."
He shifted from foot to metal foot awkwardly when he heard a sound that he knew too well. Both him and Astrid looked up towards where their dragons were and watched both of them run off towards Berk at top speed. "Great, just great." Hiccup's sarcasm dripped off of his words as he turned to look at Astrid quickly becoming enraged.
"You planned this, didn't you!" Astrid made two steps forward and shoved her axe head into his chin, forcing him back into an outcropping of rock behind him.
"I had nothing to do with this. You can thank Toothless for all this. Honest." Hiccup pleaded with her.
Astrid gave one last shove with her weapon before turning and letting out an angry groan. "Why couldn't it have been anyone else but you? Why did you have to come in here and try to tick me off even more? Do you like getting the crap beat out of you?" She was pacing back and forth, obviously angry with him.
Hiccup sat down and tried to look as unassuming as possible. He didn't think that it could get much worse than an angry Astrid out in the woods alone with him. After all, if she did decide to kill him, she could easily get away with it and say it was a bear or something that got him. He gulped and tried to shake off the nervousness brought on by his ever present pessimism. Well, at least now that all the bad luck has settled in, maybe good things will start to happen.
No sooner than he thought this did it start to rain. "Ah. The gods hate me."