They darted through the woods, most dragons avoided the rain since they couldn't shoot fire as well during it that was Berk's saving grace from dragon attacks, it snowed or rained more often than not.
They weren't even that far from civilization but to a pair of 7 year olds it might as well have been the next archipelago over, especially soaked to the bone.
They ended up in a cave, because Hiccup had remembered that bats lived in caves. They had found nothing inside but a smidgen of shelter from the rain.
Meanwhile back in Berk, Snotlout was pacing nervously. Where was Hiccup and Fishlegs? They surely couldn't have actually gone out there. He was going to be in so much trouble. Plus it wasn't as if he was rooting for Hiccup's demise.
Astrid was also getting antsy, she had never been incredibly close with Hiccup but still the storm was getting pretty brutal, perhaps they had gone to another house but she highly doubted it.
After they had waited quite a long time they decided to find them, Astrid went first because Snotlout was being a baby.
( "I was not, Astrid!" interjected Snotlout, nobody was listening. )
Out they stepped into the torrential downpour, rain streaming down their faces, after getting into the cover of the trees where it was slightly less they began shouting.
"Hiccup! You stupid nusicance where are you!" yelled Snotlout.
Astrid shot him an unimpressed glare, "Not helping!"
Snotlout ignored her because he was Snotlout, "Fishface! You wimp! Where are you!?"
Astrid gave a long, long sigh before moving onwards, the worst of the rain had died down, they were just left chilled to the bone. Snotlout planned to strangle Hiccup when he found him.
Because Astrid is so amazing, she was able to track them down just by following a trail of muddy footprints, like the goddess she is and she did this all for me because she was in love.
( "Snotlout!" yelled Astrid and Hiccup together.
Snotlout had the gall to look offended, "Jeez Hiccstrid! Can I not compliment people?" )
There the annoying buggers were! Cozy in a cave while we were drenched. Argh.
"Hiccup what the hell!?" screamed Snotlout flipping his hair in an attempt to get some of the water off.
Hiccup turned around fast causing the stack of rocks and rubble + Fishlegs that he was standing on reaching for the ceiling to topple over and crash to the ground in front of him. Snotlout looked down at him, unimpressed.
"What the flip are you doing?" asked Snotlout haughtily because Snotlout.
( Snotlout in the present crossed his arms and muttered vague curses. )
Hiccup struggled from beneath two rocks, still despite his rather pathetic situation his voice was proud, "We found a cave full of bats, see, and we are bringing them back to shove in your face, actually we'll just do it now! Ha! See we aren't afraid of any bats."
The ceiling was lined with darkly covered shapes clinging to the rocky edges. Their malevolent red eyes staring back at Snotlout, seemingly to almost glow in the darkness, all of a sudden Snotlout didn't feel so sure, he wasn't about to admit that though. "I bet I could catch more bats than you!"
Hiccup accepted the challenge. Only problem was that Hiccup was still stuck under those rocks, and while it would be hilarious to catch bat after bat in front of his eyes Astrid probably would contradict every time he boasted about it. Besides Hiccup was so useless anyways who cared if he was trapped or not he'd still lose.
So with Astrid's help they pushed the rubble off of Fishlegs and Hiccup. Fishlegs looked even more traumatized than Hiccup despite being hardly effected.
"Lets go." said Astrid almost sounding bored, "You two okay?"
"We can't go yet." protested Hiccup, they were oh so close, the bats were right there.
At the same time Fishlegs exclaimed, "Yes please! I can't wait to head back!"
They turned to stare at each other. Fishlegs quietly mumbling, "Maybe we could wait till the storm is over."
"Nono!" said Hiccup quickly, "If you want to go home lets go home."
This continued on for a couple of minutes before Astrid just said, "Let's work together and catch one bat and then we head home." As the only one wielding a weapon everyone felt inclined to agree with her.
So that's what they did running around the cave like little maniacs and trying to reach the roof. Eventually Astrid was able to snag a drenched one coming back in, and Hiccup being a girl immediately took off his own vest and wrapped it around the little bat.
When they returned Hiccup was shivering like a leaf, because he was absolutely tiny, he was supposed to be 7, he looked like he was 5, and compared to Fishlegs or anyone else you'd assume he was 4.
There he plopped down his carefully concealed new bat friend, closed the window so nothing else could fly in and drowned it in blankets. "It's so cute, what do you want to call it Astrid?"
Astrid blinked.
"You uh caught it, I figured you should name it."answered Hiccup awkwardly.
"Oh right," she said back just as awkwardly, "I don't know. I don't really name stuff."
"Snotlout, duh." said Snotlout.
Nobody wanted that name.
They settled on Storm, and that was how they had a pet bat until Stoick forced us to let it go. Hiccup was asbolutely devastated and had managed to keep it for a month longer than intended. Fishlegs had been there for the release of the bat back into it's natural habitat Astrid had grown attached as well, and when nobody was looking would feed it yummy scraps from her plate whenever it came to sit on the table. Snotlout secretly got attached.
