Chapter 11
As he approached the training area, he already saw the shimmering silver scales from Windshear far before coming close enough to decipher the shape of Heather beside her.
"Thanks bud." He patted Toothless' snout for the quick ride instead of walking, even though he loved it as much as his human. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Hiccup walked over towards Heather, washing the scales of her Dragon, making them reflect the few rays of sunlight appearing over the horizon.
"Hey Hiccup." She turned and put her cleaning material away. "I wanted to talk to you about the housing thing."
Hiccup didn't know why this was so important to her, Heather's parents already came to him asking to stay and build their house somewhere on the outskirts of the now existing village. "Ok, do you want to live alone or why did you seek ask me personally for this?"
Heather tensed up, confusing Hiccup. "Actually, I decided to wanted to leave." She eventually managed to get out, barely loud enough to be heard. At the silence that befell them, she once again felt the fear of being on Outcast Island and having said something wrong.
Hiccup saw Heather press her eyes shut in anticipation and saw how much years of captivity had a toll on her. "That's okay." He answered making sure to sound as gentle as possible and trying to erase every doubt of him not accepting that decision.
Heather took a few seconds before letting the response sink in. After a minute or so, in which nobody moved, she spoke again, herself wondering why. "Don't get me wrong. Everyone here has been great towards me and I love it here, but after spending years huddled up in an underground prison, I just want to live free, roaming around the world as I want and making my own adventures." She explained her decision.
"Done with all this sentimental crap?" Toothless came up beside Hiccup, once again, desiring constant attention from him. Both of the teens looked at him and even without understanding what he said, Heather couldn't help but laugh at the intrusion on this important moment.
"Way to ruin the moment." Hiccup got out before joining in on the infectious laughter. "Anyway." He took some deep breaths, focusing on the matter at hand. "I have no problem if you are leaving. Did you talk with your parents about this?" He asked. After a short nod, Hiccup got another idea. "When did you plan to leave?"
Heather thought a bit. She wanted to ask about the whole leaving part before making final decisions like that. "I don't know. Maybe in a few days when I get better at flying." She made up on the spot.
"Okay. Until then, you can still use my room." He explained. Although having already started, the house of her parents was only half finished.
"I have to share my sleeping place even longer?" Toothless groaned beside him, focusing on what the conversation meant for him.
Hiccup began laughing again. "Oh come on you big lizard. You never complained before we build the house." He pointed out, making Toothless do something that could be seen as an attempt to pout.
With that settled, the two began with training, making a short repeat of yesterday before ascending in the air.
…
The next few days followed in the same way, starting with a flight, dealing with anything that came up in the village while he was asleep or training the day before, working on the forge, which was finally finished and he already had a high priority object in the making. Then going into the forest, running a few rounds around the cove or throwing some mediocre punches at Astrid, so that she could evaluate his skill and strength.
With some leftover steel from any scrap metal they'd gotten their hands on, Hiccup made a simple sword in what Astrid described as 'record time for an apprentice' and he restrained himself from telling her how he was actually out of practice and it took him way longer than it should have.
…
Since coming back from Outcast Island, two weeks passed and not much changed in the routine. The forge's backroom for Hiccup had been finished, which was a huge relief, making his main project in the forge so much easier to make. So even without building the place, he still worked a lot in his new second-favorite space on the Island, of course his home being slightly in front on the ranking.
Astrid went back to training everything she could think off, flying, fighting and surprisingly looking over Hiccup's shoulder while watching him work on a contraption that seemed like a new version of Toothless' saddle, without his safety cables and more streamlined to give him less wind resistance and some other reasons she didn't think she could or wanted to understand. With her self-designated need to help Hiccup done, she spent more time in the village and became good friends with Heather.
Heather still resided on the Island, helping her parents build their house and quickly becoming one of the best riders in the village. She had moved out of Hiccup's room a few days after she told him she wanted to leave, sleeping with her parents and Windshear. She grew more restless each day, but Hiccup asked her to stay a bit longer.
Now Hiccup found himself in the cove, clashing sword against axe. Astrid insisted that she told him sword techniques and he tried to use them against her, so they went to muscle memory rather than him having to think of them every time he has to slash or sidestep. In a real battle those few seconds could mean live or death. Literally.
Like he suspected, Hiccup did terrible these last few days. Despite all the failures and not even coming close to using any of the things Astrid told him correctly, she brushed it off and continued further.
As he lost his sword and picked it up again, a normal occurrence during these sparring sessions, he grumbled something about this being a waste of time. He turned to Astrid and put the sword back in his right hand and charged at her, although he knew it wouldn't be any different.
During the next pause, Hiccup pulled out his sketchbook and added some details to the design of something that looked like a sword handle with lots of parts and things Hiccup called gears. Astrid took a look at the complicated runes scribbled besides, most probably explaining some things, she still didn't understand. Only when Hiccup's hand blocked her view did Astrid notice something she should have remembered immediately after starting training.
"Okay. Break's over." She announced, stretching her arms behind her back and pulling up her axe from the ground. At Hiccup's inevitable groan, she got back to the Idea she had in while watching him draw. "I want to ty something new, so get up already." She scolded him and he reluctantly agreed.
He put his sword up once again, but instead of encountering the usual fighting stance from Astrid, she had her axe strapped to her back and watched his grip closely. "What." He asked, not knowing if he should be angry at her for continuing this or grateful she spent so much energy in trying.
"Do you notice anything about how you hold your sword?" She countered, clearly having picked something up he didn't and hoping he'd realize by himself.
He looked down, examining his hold and going back to what Astrid explained to him. Everything seemed ok to him, so what did she notice. "I really have no Idea. Can't you just tell me?" He whined.
Astrid gave a slight chuckle at Hiccup's antics which increased his mood by a bit. "Don't need to be begging." She joked. "You use your right hand, even though your left hand is clearly better, seeing as you do everything else with it." She filled him in and Hiccup looked from hand to hand, also wondering why he did.
"You used your right when putting the example, so I tried to mimic it." He reasoned. Now that he said it out loud, he realized how stupid that sounded. Putting the sword in his left, it didn't feel that much different, but how would it without actually using the sword.
"Now with that done, let's see how good you are with your dominant hand." Astrid said, filled with hope and excitement. She hadn't thought he would be hopeless from the start and now, she settled on his failures being based on the wrong hand.
Both got into their fighting stances once again, circling each other to look for opportunities to attack. Of course Astrid could see multiple in Hiccup, but he had trained for about a week, so that was acceptable and she had been on the defense the entire time, meaning he never saw her abuse those flaws.
After making a full circle, Hiccup decided on attacking. Using his dominant hand this time, the sword felt a bit lighter, having more muscles in his left from forging, and he could actually take a few slashes without losing his balance or missing his mark.
Hiccup brought his sword down from above, hitting Astrid's axe with a newfound strength, quickly, he pulled back stepping to the right and tried with a fake to her side. Astrid saw through the trick and stepped back instead of blocking, dodging Hiccups legs trying to take out hers from under her.
Seeing a smile on Hiccup's face as he continued using the tricks, she taught him with more and more precision and speed every time, Astrid couldn't help but feel pride.
Hiccup noticed a rush of adrenaline inside him as he remembered a technique Astrid showed him, but he never got with his right hand. Despite being in a fight and actually having fun, he didn't know if it was because he fought Astrid or because he fought and wasn't instantly losing, he risked it and made a dash forwards, pointing his blade at Astrid.
Having no shield, she side-stepped, but that has exactly what Hiccup wanted from her. He grabbed the handle of her axe just above her own axe, pulled it over his left hand still grabbing the sword and pulled the handle to his left while pulling upwards with the sword, twisting Astrid's wrist so that she had to let go of her weapon to get free.
Her arms still in the air and a shock in her at being disarmed by Hiccup, he took the moment she needed to gather herself and once again kicked at her feet, this time connecting and forcing her onto the ground.
He practically fell onto her, using his entire body to incapacitate her, holding his sword to her throat with enough distance that she couldn't hurt herself by resisting.
Both panting heavily, Hiccup grew a wide grin as Astrid stopped writhing under his mass and resigning. "Look's like you were right." He giggled in her face. "I am better with my left hand." Hiccup teased her, stretching out each moment of his victory.
"Don't get too cocky now, you just surprised me with that move and your sudden skill." She countered back, but had a hard time hiding her proud smile. This was the Hiccup she knew, a Natural in anything as long as he really wanted to and she knew somewhere deep down he only accepted this because she was the one who asked. This also got her mind back to how close she and Hiccup's face were to each other and how she could feel his chest rising with each exhausted breath.
Hiccup apparently must have saw her face turning to an unnatural red because he took his hand off her arms and used his elbow to take some of his weight off of her. He got his feet untangled from hers, from when he tried to stop her kicking him, and put them down on the ground, carefully avoiding her body. He pressed his full weight on his elbow, trying to stand up and with Astrid pushing against his still heaving chest, he slowly got up and held a hand towards Astrid to help her rise too.
"Do you want to end up on a high note or should we continue?" Astrid asked him cheekily. She knew exactly what Hiccup would say know that he found what held him back from getting better.
"Continue!" Hiccup nearly shouted with excitement, startling himself, though not because of the volume. Had Astrid asked ten minutes ago, he would have happily agreed to go and do something much more fun, but beating Astrid made him somewhat giddy with adrenaline and dopamine. He sprinted over to Astrid's axe and threw it at her, not like she would at trees, but like she would toss around from hand to hand.
She catched her favorite weapon with ease, getting ready for a round two. Completely disregarding all the sparring they'd done before that. To her that was like fighting a Scauldron on a mountain, which now finally got back to the sea.
…
After another round of play fighting, they looked up in the sky to see Northern lights appear in the sky, blending out the stars with bright blue, green, purple and different assortment of colors.
As much as that went through their head at seeing this natural phenomenon, like 'how long were we here?' or 'this is beautiful', or for the most definitely crazy thought process of Hiccup 'what would it be like to fly through them?' both mainly had one thing that lingered in the air, not needing to be said. This year's light would include one special day, though special for all the wrong reasons.
Aurvandil's Fire.
And by extension the Flightmare.
Both vividly remembered the last time Aurvandil's Fire appeared, ten years back when Astrid were too little to fight and her uncle Finn went out to scare off the beast.
They still saw each together without people judging Hiccup or Astrid, oh how great those time's had been. After Finn's 'disgrace' and death happened, she wouldn't open up to anyone and mostly sat in her room, being in denial or crying, trying to accept it. So Hiccup often found himself sitting in her room, letting his shoulder be an anchor fer her and gave her a chance to let go for a short time. When he turned six and people started realizing he wouldn't magically change into some Viking prodigy, he and Astrid distanced themselves from each other.
Now not focusing on tricks, slashes, sidesteps and Astrid's axe, Hiccup yawned loudly, prompting Astrid to do the same. Knowing how much Astrid either feared or anticipated the moment the Flightmare turned up, he had to take her mind of it somehow. "I think we should get back home. Look's like we've been at it the entire evening and I don't know how much of the Night."
She nodded absentmindedly and he had to literally drag her under some trees so she couldn't see the lights anymore, snapping her back to reality. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what happened." She started to apologize, but one look from Hiccup made her clear she didn't have to.
"As I said." He reminded her, not sure how much she got in her half trance state. "Let's go home first. We still have some time until he normally attacks on Berk, as long as he goes there before attacking us, that means at least three weeks of time." He told, hoping the Flightmare came from the North and their Island would be one of the largest.
Back on their way, in a mix between awkward silence from the depending doom and fond memories of the training that had transpired, Hiccup decided on trying to somehow distract Astrid from the first part.
As he moves closer to her, Hiccup waited a bit for her, to see if she would even notice him, but she was still in a trance from thinking about that faithful day she had lost one of the rare few who were close with her.
He inches even close, to the point that they are nearly brushing their arms against each other's while walking. Giving himself a little internal talk about all the possible outcomes, he finally manages to get enough determination.
In a flash of the moment he intertwines his fingers with Astrid's.
Despite his heart pounding at rates that couldn't be healthy, he held on, hoping she would at least don't kill him for it. Over the thumping in his ears, he thought Astrid to have made some noise, but didn't know what exactly.
Completely disregarding Hiccup's inner feelings, Astrid had a turmoil herself. She knew he mostly did it to reassure her that she still had people who were beside her at all time and offering support for the loss of her uncle, but her mind did not think about that for even a second. How could it when Hiccup held her hand.
'Okay. One step back:' She mentally scolded herself. 'Since when do I even care if someone holds my hand. My parents did it all the time and' she cut herself off. There was simply no way to deny the feeling in her stomach. It already took most of her self-restraint to hold back from tackling him to the ground out of affection, because that would surely give him the wrong idea and he would never do it again.
The entire rest of her had to hold back from melting into him at this point. Despite how undeniably sweet he could be, she had a damn image to uphold.
After some walking through the forest, which they could both navigate without thinking, because surely both would have tripped otherwise, Astrid settled on giving his slightly shaking hand a reassuring squeeze.
…
The next morning Hiccup awoke with the sun, climbing out of bed and feigning ignorance as his Dragon also awoke and told him all about yesterday Night when he stumbled in here, grinning like an Idiot.
If Hiccup is honest, he wouldn't even remember last Night because everything was a blur of happiness, if it had not been for the warm feeling in his palm. He didn't know what it came from, the training that had gone exceptionally well or the hand holding, which didn't end up with him having a sore spot in his shoulder or on the ground, so he would say equally good.
His only hope was that Astrid wouldn't come over to the forge more often now.
Okay, maybe not, but having her over made his project more difficult to finish. At least he was nearly done, only having a few hours until it was finished.
As he made a quick walk through the village checking if everything was okay, he saw Heather taking a stroll with her parents, on one side Windshear on the other her parents. Besides Ulf and Inga hovered a light blue gronkle, yellow dots at its bludgeon like tail and green under the maw. Inga absentmindedly patted the snout, making the Dragon give a pleased rumble.
He smiled, seeing the two interact with a Dragon that way. Heather's parents were the oldest on the Island and their beliefs were deeply rooted in their childhood, so if they could change why couldn't everyone?
A few blocks further Cami and Frida sat on a bench, most probably Flinch right besides them. Cami's new acquaintance, the purple Nadder he freed personally which followed him here, standing somewhere to the side watching a flock of birds with an unassuming sparkle of enthusiasm in her eyes. Like Cami, Deadstriker wasn't keen on following any norms and took a personal liking in hunting and consuming all the poultry she could get her fingers on.
Looking past the Dragons, or rather visible ones he saw that Cami had some of Frida's sewing equipment in her hands. He stood there for a few more minutes watching as she failed epically at sewing a hole in her shirt together, if he didn't know Astrid well enough, he would give her the idea to try it herself, but that would also mean ending up with at least one broken or bruised body part.
Every corner he rounded, people were patting their Dragon, doing their hobbies which looked a bit like they had actually assigned jobs or talking with their Friends. As he walked by most gave him a nod of appreciation or a short wave followed by "Hey Hiccup." As much as being the center of attention bugged him, he couldn't help feeling happy at the sight of a flourishing village with him as the Chief.
Okay, a few things. Some people may ask why i wrote Hiccup this good at sword fighting, or why the whole left-handed thing only came up after some time when they already trained before. I made the left hand decision because for me Hiccup has alwayys tried to imitate the adults in Berk to fit in, so it made sense to have him imitade Astrid with using his right hand, even though he is left-handed. The reason for him being good enough to actually compete with Astrid, is because he already trained hard with his right hand, so now switching to his better hand is like doing push-ups, except before you had extra weight holding you down. I just hope the fighting scene was good enough, because as I said before, this is my first fic so every new thing in it is my first time writing it.