Somewhere in the Barbaric Archipelago
In any other life, Heather would have found her current predicament as a welcome escape from the daily routine of her life. Waking up on an uninhabited island that was teeming with all the necessities one needed to survive if stranded. Plenty of wild boars, deer, and birds to hunt. A river winding down from the peak of a mountain at its center, providing fresh, clean drinking water for any creature that visited its banks and an abundant supply of fish. And if that wasn't enough, there was always the sea to fish from too.
And any sane, reasonable person would have begged the question as to why this lush, hidden paradise in the Barbaric Archipelago was uninhabited. Heather believed she could answer that question rather easily.
Because she's seen the reason every time she walks out of her tent for the last two weeks. Today, he happened to be gutting a freshly killed deer by the firepit at the center of their little camp.
Oh, and the dragons. This island was infested with dragons.
Did she forget to mention her host was a Jormung?
They arrived at the island at dawn after who knew long. The Screaming Death deposited them at their camp. Well, deposited was a kind word. The Jormung tossed her over his shoulder and leapt down, kicking up sand into her face before unceremoniously dropping her on the ground. He spoke to the dragon and she watched the beast disappear into a massive sink-hole, that she just noticed, was right next to the camp. The Whispering Death that had been following them, also flew down, retreating into the shade of a nearby clump of trees for a nap. "This is going to be your new home. I'll set you up with a tent first, then we can go over the ground rules." The Jormung had said back then. He already had the tent equipment ready, meaning he just didn't decide to kidnap the sister of the most deranged Viking in all the Archipelago on a whim. Within an hour, her living arrangements were set up and he proceeded to go over the rules.
"First, don't even think about trying to escape. This island is swarming with dragons who'll be keeping tabs on you and they are under orders to not let you leave the island. Second, you are free to roam and do whatever you want to do. The dragons won't harm you-"
"Like I believe that."
"They won't. We're the only two humans on this island so they'll know you're off limits."
"Right. 'Humans'" she emphasized the word with air quotes.
"Continuing where I left off before I was rudely interrupted, the dragons won't attack unless attacked first, so just keep your distance and you'll be fine. Third, seeing as you are a capable person, you can hunt and cook for yourself. There's a river to bathe in and don't worry, I'm not the lecherous type to spy on girls in the middle of bathing. Those are the basic rules of this island, so yeah. Go ahead and familiarize yourself with the place." He gestured to the tree-line behind her and went about his way.
Few words were spoken between them since. And it wasn't like she wanted to learn about him anyway. He kidnapped her. And even if it was a taunt toward her brother, he threatened to rape her. There was no way on Odin's green earth that she was going to open up, much less entertain conversation with a monster like him. So, rather begrudgingly, she took his advice and began exploring the island. She set out from the camp towards the shoreline, and began making her way along the beach, glancing between the tree-line on her left and the sea to her right. It wasn't long until she came across the mouth of the river he mentioned. Looking behind her, she saw the camp wasn't in sight anymore, but she guessed it wasn't too far from where she was. Seeing the river as a good enough boundary for now, she began making her way along its banks inland to see what the interior of the island had in store.
She realized he wasn't lying when he said that this island was full of dragons. The usual Deadly Nadders, Gronckles, Nightmares, and Terrible Terrors. But what she hadn't expected was them to be completely ignoring her.
They noticed her, considering the eye-contact they made, but then went about whatever they were doing, not even sparing her a second glance. She really was a prisoner here. All of them would be keeping tabs on her and reporting any suspicious behaviour back to him if they thought she was up to something. It was somewhat demoralizing. There was no way she could toe-to-toe with that Jormung in a fight. She was surrounded by dragons that would be watching her every move and even if help did arrive on the island's shores by chance, there was a high probability that they wouldn't survive.
There was no escaping her situation. She'd be a prisoner here until the Jormung allowed her to leave.
No one would have blamed her if she felt a sense of hopelessness. Kidnapped and held against your will by an unbeatable opponent watching your every move would have broke even the toughest of warriors. But Heather took her predicament in stride. She was quick to accept there was nothing she could do, without risking the ire of her host and she definitely did not want that. So the best she could do was to occupy herself with exploring the island; getting a lay of the land, committing to memory the different animals and birds she could hunt, scoping out potential fishing spots along the banks of the river, as well as bathing spots. Deciding that that would be enough exploring for one day, she returned to camp. Her host and the Whispering Death were nowhere to be found, but what caught her attention was the hunting equipment she found propped up against the entrance of her tent - a bow, arrows, hunting knife, rope, and fishing rod. Part of her was thankful that she wouldn't have to build her weapons from scratch. But another, much larger side of her, was highly frustrated and angry that she was given this equipment. The message was clear. He didn't see her as a threat. And the extremely annoying part was that he was right.
At best, she could possibly land a tiny little slash on him. And that wouldn't be with the hunting knife, but her most favoured weapon, an ax. Pushing her depressing thoughts aside, she collected the weapons and equipment, stored some of them in her new accommodations, slung the bow and quiver over her shoulder, fastened the hunting knife to her belt and stepped out to hunt for her first night's meal.
Fast-forward two weeks to present day, however, Heather was struggling to find activities to occupy herself with. She was able to improve her archery thanks to the bow and arrows he gave her, but one quickly grew bored with shooting arrows at animals and trees. Plus, a bow and arrow, were far from the ideal weapons to vent out with. What she really needed was an ax, or sword, or anything she could picture driving into that Jormung's skull with. But alas, her days were limited to lounging in her tent, staring up at the yak hide, wandering the now familiar island, and bathing in a secluded spot by the river.
She suspected time would have flown by more quickly if she had someone to talk to. But considering her 'neighbor' was her captor and couldn't give two dragon shits about her, conversation partners were non-existent. And she wasn't in the mood for idle chatter with him either. But as she righted herself up, and swung her legs over the edge of her bed and stared down at her clothes, that would soon be changing. When he had first brought her here, she was wearing nothing more than her undergarments, long-sleeved tunic, leather skirt, leggings, with some leather armour for her upper half and leather vambraces for her forearms. Hunting wild boar, deer, climbing trees to scavenge eggs had left numerous tears and in her clothing. Not to mention the collected dirt, grime and sweat from the past couple of weeks. She did her best to clean them whenever she went for a dip in the river, but it left longing for other options. Mostly a clean set of clothes. And considering she'd occasionally see him flying off to gods know where, she definitely had the means to get what she wanted.
Question was whether the Jormung would entertain her request.
'Well, I'm not going to get anywhere just sitting here.' She thought, before standing up and walking out into the afternoon sun. Doing a quick survey of the camp, she found him lounging in the shade of a clump of trees near his tent, and strode over to him. If he noticed her approach, he didn't give any indication.
"Can we talk?" She broke the silence as she stood before him, arms crossed over her chest.
"No I'm not taking you back." He retorted, eyes still closed, but this time crossed his arms behind his head and settled even further into his relaxation. Heather merely rolled her eyes before she gave a gentle kick to his side to get his proper attention. That was the first sign of discomfort she had ever seen on his face and she smiled at the little victory. "Did you really kick me?" He asked, incredulous look and all as he gazed between his ribcage and her.
"Yes."
"You know that I could break one of your limbs as payback right?"
"But you won't."
"And how do you know that?"
"Because if you really had any ill-intentions towards me, you would've followed through with them by now. And I'd be helpless and powerless to stop you from doing so."
"How are you related to Dagur again?" His attempt at humour fell on deaf ears. "Sorry. Too soon." He raised his hands in appeasement as he stood up after, dusting his pants of sand and dirt. "Alright, what is it that's so important that you had to kick me?"
"I need some new clothes." Ripper waited in silence, as if there was more to the request.
But then he asked, "Is that it?"
"Well since you asked, I'd also like an ax, a sword, some new armour, new sets of-"
"Okay, okay. Sheesh. New clothes. Got it. This couldn't wait till, I don't know, not now?"
She scoffed. "I'm sorry my wardrobe concerns are at the bottom of your concerns, but unlike you, I don't have multiple tunics, pants and shoes in stock."
"Okay. How soon do you need them?" This caught her by surprise. She didn't think he'd be so willing to hear her request, but for him to go as far to ask how soon?
"The sooner the better. How soon can we leave?"
"I'm sorry, 'we'?"
"Yes 'we'. I'll be damned if I'm letting you pick clothes for me. You don't even know my sizes." She immediately became self-conscious of her figure as he did a quick lookover of her.
"I'm pretty sure I can manage."
"Oh no. I am going with you. No if's, and's or but's about it."
"See, how do I not know you're going to try and escape the moment we enter a village?"
"Because you'll threaten to massacre the entire village if I even think about escaping." She stated it in such a matter-of-fact tone that it even surprised Ripper.
"You catch on quick. Besides, I wouldn't have to kill anyone in the village. Even if you do succeed in giving me the slip, I'll find you pretty quickly. I've memorized your scent." Okay, now she was definitely self-conscious about her body. "Oh don't give me that." Ripper chastised when she put her hands over her chest and took a cautious step back. "Being the only other human on this island, you really think I wouldn't have become familiar with your scent by now?"
"If you're referring to my stink there's only so much I can wash off without soap-" He waved her comment off.
"That's not what I'm talking about. Every living creature in this world has their own unique smell, or scent. Like how Vikings can tell each other apart by their looks, us Jormung can go a step further and tell each other apart by our scent. We don't have to, but we can. It comes in very handy when tracking animals or dragons, or Vikings and other Jormung."
"So you'd be able to find me by my scent alone?" She asked carefully but he held a hand up.
"Don't go getting any ideas about masking your scent once we get there. Otherwise, I will have to start killing innocent people."
"You really are the worst." She muttered under her breath, knowing full well that he probably heard it.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. That was the other part of him that bothered her. How could he have no respect for human life? Her current interaction with him would have painted him as a decent, normal human being. But then he'd go and casually mention massacring an entire village as if it was an everyday occurrence and not think twice about it. She wasn't sure if she was hoping he didn't live up to the horror stories of Jormung passed down across generations, but standing before him right now, talking with him, it was safe to say those tales of the Jormung were all true.
"I'll head out tomorrow and scout potential villages. Ones that do not have posters of you or me. That sound good with you?"
And just like that, he seemed like another, ordinary, sane human.
"Yeah. Sounds good." Like she had any choice in the matter.
000 (Berk - 5 Days After Hiccup's Second Lesson)
"You're really giving this your all, huh?" Toothless commented. It was another, surprisingly beautiful day on Berk. The temperature was just right. Not too hot, a nice gentle breeze blowing through the forest, helping Hiccup keep relatively cool during his morning sword exercises. He took a pause in his strikes, wiping his sleeve across his brow as he gazed up at the afternoon sun. For the past five days, he'd been waking up at the crack of dawn, diving right into his sword training for about an hour, take a breather by heading out with Toothless for their morning flight and supper, before resuming his training once they returned, practicing well into the evening before exhaustion finally caught up with him and he'd relax for the night, reading through the remaining pages of Berk's History that Astrid had graciously lent to him a while back by the campfire while dinner roasted cooked in front of him.
"I am serious about this, bud." He replied, strolling over to his friend who was lounging by the pond. Hiccup knelt down, cupped his hands and dipped them by the water's edge, splashing his face with the cool pond water to clean the sweat he had accumulated during the past couple hours. "I can't half-ass this. And, I really want to be able to defend myself, and not rely on just you if we ever find ourselves in hairy situations going forward."
"Hm, are you sure this just isn't you trying to impress her?"
"You're never going to stop, are you?" Hiccup already knew the answer to that question, despite asking it. "No. I want to do right by her. She's risking her life meeting me out here, bud. She's making time to train me when she shouldn't. She's making time to learn about us, dragons and Jormung, when she could have just turned us in. I'm never going to take her kindness and time for granted." He dried his face with the hem of his shirt. "Besides, don't act like you don't like her yourself." He smiled back.
"I will admit, it is nice to have another person here. Viking or dragon." His ears suddenly perked up, and turned his head to the edge of the Cove.
"She almost here?"
"Yeah, she's almost here, but you might want to brace yourself."
Hiccup gave him a questioning look. "What do you mean?" But before Toothless could reply, Astrid appeared at the Cove's edge and waved at them. Hiccup smiled and waved back, noticing the satchel she had across her body and a wooden sword in her other hand. But he also began noticing something else. And it only became noticeable when she appeared. "Afternoon, Astrid." He greeted when she reached them. With her close proximity, it was definitely noticeable now.
Was it- Oh.
Oh.
"Hey yourself dragon boy." She smiled, immediately noticing the sword that she had left behind for him to practice with in his hand and his lightly drenched shirt. "It's nice to see you putting in the work."
"Well, if you haven't heard, I have a very demanding instructor." He figured it shouldn't be a huge problem.
"Oh, do you now?" She played along. "Careful, I happen to know this instructor very well. Wouldn't want any unpleasant comments making their way back to her ears."
"Far from it. I'd never dream of talking behind her back. In fact, if you can pass it along, I wish we had more lessons together." But he was beginning to doubt that statement the longer he stayed in her presence.
She laughed at his not so subtle request. "Careful what you wish for, Hiccup. Before you know it, you'll be wishing you saw less of me." And the funny thing was, for just today, a small part of him was wishing she'd come at a later day. But he couldn't tell her. Not yet, anyway.
"So, what's the plan for today?" He asked. Maybe today's lessons and training would take his mind off of it.
"Today you're going to show me the fruits of your labour from the past five days." She removed the satchel and placed it by the log at the campfire and raised her own sword towards him. "You're going to come at me."
He blinked. "What?"
"I want you to use what you've been practicing on to try and land a hit on me. And I'll be completely on defense. I won't try and hit you back. I'll just be parrying and dodging. Sound fair?" She walked away from the campfire and the pond's edge into the center of the Cove, leaving themselves enough room to play with for this session. Once Astrid felt they had enough space, she got into her stance.
"Yeah. No problem." Hiccup followed her to the open space and got into his stance. Astrid was pleased to see that his stance had improved greatly from when she first showed him. It looked normal, unforced, and comfortable. Hiccup lunged forward, his long arm with sword in hand reaching for her forearm but Astrid side-stepped the attack but quickly brought her sword up when Hiccup quickly followed up his initial strike with a slash directed to her abdomen. She skillfully brought her sword up to block the attack and instead used it to direct Hiccup's momentum passed her. Hiccup, however, wasn't going to be easily beat. His momentum was taking him past her, but he stopped it with a quick plant of his right foot, turning his body to face her and brought his sword down for another strike, this time to her thigh, but as he expected, she jumped back, dodging him once again. Their eyes met for a brief time and she smiled, a twinkle of pride in her eyes. To be honest, she didn't know what to expect when she'd decided to to spar with him today. It definitely wasn't this. His quick reactions to her counters, his footwork, his focus, his tenacity, his strikes, the fluidity of his body; it was clear he had taken her lessons to heart and had practiced every single day for the past five days. Experiment, incorporate, combine, repeat. He experimented with his footwork, his strikes, his motions; incorporated any movements, blows and footwork that felt natural to him, combined them together, creating decent attacks, and repeated the motions so they'd become second-nature to him in no time.
He aimed a strike to her foot this time, trying to get her off her foundation. As he predicted, she took a step back to dodge the strike, and quickly took a step towards her as he collected his earlier strike into another swipe, aimed for her abdomen again, but once again, she brought down her sword to block the attack and stepped around it, directing him away from her at the same time. However, unbeknownst to Astrid, who was enjoying the sparring, Hiccup had to keep focusing harder and harder on his tactics and attacks because of the growing metaphorical dragon between them. The longer they sparred, the more they sweated, and considering they face-to-face, Hiccup was getting an immense face full of it. He really needed to get that hit on her, otherwise he'd start to lose focus.
But strike after strike, dodge after dodge, parry after parry, he was no closer to landing a hit on her than when they started. And with each passing minute, Hiccup's mind was slowly becoming a tiny bit more muddled than the previous one. And it began to show. His movements were slowly becoming more sloppy, his steps less calculated, and and more force behind his strikes; mainly due to his growing annoyance at his clouding mind and in the hopes of catching her off-guard. Of course, she was quick to notice his drop in performance. "Okay, that's enough." She put an end to their spar, the two out of breath. Hiccup more so than her, which she thought was weird, considering Jormung were famous of their stamina.
"Is something wrong?" She asked, genuinely concerned. She didn't fathom the sparring session would leave him this exhausted, even if he was going up against her.
"Yeah." He breathed out. "I just need a minute. Or ten." He said, hunched over, hands on knees. He then straightened up, looking up at the sky, taking in long, deep breaths, which was a double-edged sword right now. He was slowing his heart rate, but he was also breathing in huge amounts of it which was having the opposite effect on his effort of slowing down his heart rate.
"I didn't expect you'd be this tired. I'm sorry, Hiccup." She tried to apologize but he quickly waved it off as he brought his eyes down to meet hers.
"Don't worry about it. Maybe it was something I ate or I didn't sleep as well as I thought I did last night." He came up with quick excuses. But then he noticed the sheen of sweat on her forehead, her cheeks, her neck, and his eyes began trailing down with a snail's pace, finally landing on the rise and fall of her chest. He didn't know how long he had been staring, and he didn't know if Astrid knew what he was staring at, but if she didn't bring him out of his reverie, he might have made the situation more awkward.
"Hiccup, are you sure you're okay? You really seem out of it." She watched Toothless come up and nudge his rider, crooning at him with what looked like mild concern.
"Yeah, yeah I'm good. Maybe we should just call it a day here, huh?" He suggested, turning to go grab his waterskin by the campfire, but more importantly, putting space between himself and her.
"Sounds good to me." She agreed, much to his reluctant joy. "You've really improved a lot. And I mean really improved. I don't think I'd be able to beat you bare-handed anymore."
"Oh, hardy-hah-hah." He said through a gulp of water. "You know, I was this close to landing one on you." He pinched his fingers, leaving a speck of air between them.
"Do keep in mind I wasn't countering you at all that entire fight." She smirked as she also made her way to the campfire, much to his dismay. But with his heart rate sort of slowed down, and a little bit clearer head, he was better able to tolerate it. "May I?" she gestured to the waterskin in his hand and he promptly handed it to her. The moment she raised her head to drink from it, Hiccup turned his head away. He just steadied his pulse. He didn't need to watch her throat covered in a thin sheen of sweat while she drank coupled with it...and there went his heart again. "By the way, I brought something for you." She handed him back the waterskin and reached for her satchel, undoing the flap and pulling out a book. "You're in luck. This is an extra copy of Berk's Book of Dragons that I found in the archives. Not a lot of people visit them apart from a handful of people, and almost everyone knows what kind of dragons there are, which I'm sure you do too. I just figured I'd bring it to you for, you know, something else for you to read when you're not training." She handed him the book, which he accepted with both arms, staring at the cover.
"First the food basket and now this. Are you growing soft on me, Milady?" He quickly received a swift punch to the shoulder.
"Don't hold out any hope on that." She smirked. "Next time, we'll focus on defending, parrying, and countering. Essentially everything that I did when facing off against you. Add them to your practice and we'll go over it next week."
"At your behest, Milady." He saluted, and quickly stepped back to avoid another jab.
"Fast learner." She remarked.
"I learn from the best."
"And don't you forget it." She winked at him before turning to head off. "Oh, and I do hope you feel better dragon boy. Gods know you'll need to be on your game for next week." She said looking back at him.
"I'm sure I will, and thank you Astrid." He waved after her. He and Toothless watched her leave, and waited an extra couple of minutes even after she was out of eyesight. "By Hallfred's beard." Hiccup slumped down onto one of the logs by the campfire.
"I didn't think it would have affected you this bad. I mean, it's only been a month since we got here." Toothless said worriedly, coming to sit by his friend.
Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose, finally coming back to his complete senses. "I mean, it didn't help that we sparred. If it was going to be something like last time, then I would have been fine. But she sparred too."
"Hiccup, if it was this bad now, it's only going to get worse the closer you grow to her."
"I know bud."
"No, you don't. If she comes again like this, you will have to explain it to her."
"I'll manage, Toothless." But the Night Fury was having none of it. He grabbed the back of his friend's shirt with his teeth and pulled him off the log, making fall flat on his back on the ground while he loomed over him.
"No, you will not be able to manage because this is the first time it's happening to you. And if you're not able to control yourself-"
"Don't bring that up." He quickly got to his feet and stared his friend in the eyes. "I'd never do that. I'd never do that to her." He pointed in the direction Astrid had left in.
"Then you'll have to explain it to her the next time this happens. And it will happen, Hiccup. Because you will only grow more attached to her from here. It's only a matter of when you decide to open up to her about it."
Hiccup knew deep down that his best friend was right. But he wasn't willing to ruin his growing friendship Astrid over it. He'd get it under control. He was sure of it.