Let's watch our main Character be completely emotianally unexperienced and actively trying to end a war that had been raging for 300 years, while they are mere teenagers. Anyway, completely kids show right?
Chapter 17
Astrid's logic of letting her confusion and anger flow a bit more into the training had one fatal flaw.
Someone had to tend to the bruises and Hiccup, with his incredible lack of self-preservation, surely as hell wasn't going to.
So here she was, applying the standard bruise paste all over him, which certainly didn't help when he got some impeccable abs in the past years and she still didn't want to think about any of the emotional stuff.
Why did Hiccup have to grow up into such a gorgeous man gods damn it?
Speaking of the devil, Hiccup sighed, feeling the unusual strength and tenseness in her administration. "Astrid, what's bothering you?" Seeing she was startled out of her thoughts and opened her mouth to retort, he quickly added more. "And don't even think about denying it, I personally felt you've got something on your mind." He flicked his head at the multiple bruises on his stomach.
"I'm-" She stopped short considering whether or not to include him in this. On one side, he was the problem, while on the other side, she hadn't seen him fail to find a solution to anything and he seemed much better on the emotional side. Ultimately, Astrid's pride won over and she quickly diverted his attention. "I'm thinking about my parents. I want to believe Berk got better at defending, but we only have real evidence for the opposite and with less food to go around, are they still in a good place?"
Hiccup looked a bit guilty, not wanting for her to feel like she had to voice her suspicion, but also a bit prideful, being allowed to hear her personal problem, which she normally locked behind multiple walls to appear perfect and indestructible.
"I know they are still fine. Hoffersons are warrior enough to make it through nearly everything." She said, getting a sad smile at the motion of talking about her family. Truly speaking, while this wasn't what clouded her mind earlier, she still had it in the back of it as a nagging thought. "I think what really upsets me is that they are getting worse and I can't do anything. I mean, what would they say would I appear over the horizon after two years on the back of what caused their problem?" She cried out, though not waving around her arms due to having moved from applying the paste to weaving little braids in Hiccups slightly shorter hair.
Hiccup relaxed at her touch, having resigned himself to the braids that come with them and even slowly growing on them, being a physical representation of his friendship with Astrid. "Maybe you can't help them directly," He started and Astrid stopped for just a second looking curiously over his face. "But you can indirectly. Think about it, they suffer because of the raids and if we defeat the queen, the raids stop."
Astrid smiled at his logical reasoning. "Small correction. When we defeat the queen. Not if we defeat the queen."
Hiccup also gained a smile at her determination. "Oh, I have and idea." Astrid nodded, urging him to continue. "What if we explain the situation to Heather and get her to check out Berk?" He proposed, happy to have found an idea that could help Astrid in her inner turmoil.
"Are you sure." She grew a bit skeptical. "Do you think it's safe enough to have her snooping around?" While Heather barely spent enough time on the Island to make any practical friendship, Astrid and her managed to uphold one regardless and she didn't want her friend in danger only for her sake.
"She's already been there." He answered. "She stays there overnight sometimes in her travels and I think she already stole some of my thing out of my room for her own use." He explained, a slight chuckle leaving his lips at the last part.
Astrid pondered for a few moments before finally deciding. "Okay, but only if she wants to." She conditioned.
"As if I could force her to do anything. We barely even know where she is at any time." Hiccup joked, glad the depressing conversation could be ended. "But I really do need to get up now." He reminded her of the training that had yet to be done with the village residents.
Before they went to train, Hiccup quickly wrote a Note to Heather briefly explaining everything about the Nest, Astrid's problem and the upcoming plan of fighting the queen, before asking her to check on Astrid's parents and if she wants, to come back and fight with them.
Attaching the Note to Sharpshot and telling him to find Heather, they left, knowing the Terror could somehow find a track of them and find the duo.
…
On their way to the arena, Hiccup's eye was caught by a charred silhouette and the pair to which it belonged.
"Wait a minute." He said to Astrid and unclasped his hand from her.
She made a protest, but after seeing what got his attention, she made little effort to stop him.
Noticing his arrival, the husband of the two turned around and gave a nod of appreciation. "Hello, chief Hiccup" He greeted, formal as always.
"Please, Hiccup is enough." He recounted the multiple conversations which began exactly like this, so him taking that advice to heart was incredibly unlikely. "I wanted to apologize for the destruction of your home."
Hedvig Karlson looked back at him with a surprised expression, as if he barely knew for what Hiccup was apologizing. As realization dawned on him, he began lightly shaking his head. "It's okay. If the thing really is as big and bad as you say, I understand if you wanted to stay far away from that topic. Especially for a young lad like you."
Hiccup thanked for the understanding Viking, even though he barely felt like he deserved it.
"Still, if you need help rebuilding, I'll gladly help." He reassured with a smile.
Hedvig smiled back. "That's not necessary. Arne already offered to help and I'm sure Needle, Twinkle and Muzzle would like to help if he does." He recalled, Needle, Twinkle and Muzzle being three of Arne's closest Terrors that followed wherever he went.
"That's good to hear." With that, they shared their goodbyes and Hiccup went back to Astrid, intertwining their hands once again.
Astrid didn't mind of course, but with the usual feeling of safety and warmth, now followed a confusion of her feelings for him.
The walk to the arena was short, the entire village about half as big as Berk since Dragons apparently take up a lot of space and only a third of it in numbers, if you include ever Dragon on the Island.
Cami, Asfrith, Aslak, Arne and a few dozen other people already waiting for them, with their Dragons right beside them.
"Good to know there are more people with an apparent lack of self-preservation skills." Toothless piped in from behind Hiccup where he and Stormfly followed their humans.
"Haha." Hiccup and Astrid said in sync, used to the sarcasm the reptile adopted from his friend.
The first few now noticed their arrival, whispering to the people next to them that their Chief had arrived.
"Since you all are already here, I say we begin with the selection." With that, the volunteers saddled themselves on their Dragons and ascended into the air for general flying maneuvers.
Cami was quickly the first chosen for accompanying them to the Nest with Asfrith and Aslak also chosen, but only stepping into the fighting as a last resort, since having them hurt during the fight would mean they essentially lost their healers.
With Cami helping as a judge, having a relatively good reference to the standard of the village for training them if they wanted to improve their flying, the three quickly chose who got to fight, who would come with as support if things got dire and who would stay behind for their own safety.
From the 64 people who appeared, only ten were so unstable on their Dragon that taking them with was simply too much of a risk for them and their Dragons. Two were Asfrith and Aslak, meaning they would stay out of the line of fire and tend to the wounded, seventeen other led by Cami would be more at a distance and gradually shoot the queen while Arne and his terrors could keep watch over the different Divisions, helped by four others who'd then step in if anyone needs help. All of the remaining thirty, Astrid and Hiccup would be on the front trying to take the giant Tyrant down.
With all of them in their Individual groups, everyone trained for their own field. Asfrith teached Aslak a bit more in the field of healing, especially on more heavy wounds, since a fight with big, scary and angry Dragon results in a lot harder to treat things than colds and slight burns.
Arne and his group made a full system with everyone having a Terror with them to notice Arne if they have to step in so he could account for it and remake the plans. If whoever needed their support was safe and optimally being treated by the healers, they would then check by Arne to notice him of who was taken out, which he'll keep track of so that the mid-range units can grow more offensive if the main attacking group fails or the other way around. Following that, they'd once again take the Terror from Arne and repeat the cycle.
Cami trained the mid-range Units in keeping out of immediate danger and hitting their targets from a distance or in a fly-by. Together they developed multiple formations ranked by Dragon Species, which can do what best and general confidence on Dragon back.
Hiccup and Astrid basically did the exactly same as Cami, though since more people were fighting in their part and they were closer to danger than anyone else, they had the most intense training, Hiccup taking over the maneuvers and extreme accident parts with about half, while Astrid teached more about attacking and formations with the rest.
"I didn't suspect that many people to want and fight the literal worst Dragon to ever exist." Toothless called from below as they flew above the town, basking in the moonlight and relaxing from the second most stressful day in months.
Hiccup sighed a long breath, absentmindedly patting the head of his best friend. "Me too bud. But you have to remind yourself that they've never seen her. They don't know the Horror she is."
"Yea, but without them we couldn't win." The Night Fury said, not feeling the usual anger at his strength being undervalued, since the queen really was something else.
"I know. That's the only reason I support this plan. If there was a way where we could do this without endangering anyone else, I'd gladly run in there even if I may not come back, but I don't see any way where me going alone is ending in certain death to the queen and going there just to die isn't helping anyone."
The Night Fury turned his head to glare at his rider. Feeling the shist, Hiccup tore his eyes from the sky to look at Toothless who was giving him the 'you said something incredibly stupid' stare.
It took a few seconds for Hiccup to understand what had upset his Dragon, before it clicked. "Okay, Okay. I'm sorry big baby boo. No Plans that are sure to get me killed since the Flightmare." He talked in a way that said he couldn't regret saying it less, raising his hands in an innocent manner.
Not really satisfied with the answer from his rider, but also aware of the fact he can be the most stubborn Person on the entire Island if he wishes, Toothless decided to do this the Dragon way.
In a few seconds, Toothless had Hiccup holding on for his life, while doing the tailfin positions for spins, rolls, straight dives and rises absentmindedly. Hiccup knew this maneuver from two years ago when Toothless did exactly this so that Astrid would apologize.
"Okay, I'm sorry, for real this time" He screamed, so that the Night Fury could hear him over the screeching winds. Toothless took pity on him and decided that this was enough. "Overgrown Lizard." Hiccup added under his breath and apparently forgot Dragons had superior hearing. Okay maybe not enough for today.
…
She had meant to make a short stop at an uninhabited Island for her Dragon to take a sip of water, maybe search for a few berries and check if they were edible and then fly on from there.
Turns out, that plan wouldn't be followed when she heard the flatter of wings behind her.
Immediately on Alert, she pulled out her Axe, extending it when she couldn't see the source.
Her Razorwhip also noticed the sound, but continued drinking. Having spent a long time with her Dragon, she trusted Windshear with everything, so Heather collapsed her double axe into one and rested it on her back, closing the buckles around it with the same movement.
The sounds turned louder until she could her a tiny screech from right over her and looked up to see a small green Terrible Terror flying overhead.
"Well, Hello There Sharpshot." She greeted, now fully relaxing at knowing what had interrupter her pause in traveling. "Now why did you search for me all the way out here?" She asked, slightly amused since the Terror apparently didn't mind that he had flown even beyond the borders of the known archipelago to search for her.
She extended her arm, Sharpshot landing on it and licking his still opened eye. Never having liked this specific trait of she quickly looked down at his leg and saw the expected message. Even spending years in the presence of her own Dragon, which she could read perfectly, the croons and squawks still didn't translate to Dragonese for her, so normal writing it is.
Hello Heather,
I don't have a lot of time to explain, so here is the short form.
Drakvill was raided rather recently, depending on when Sharpshot gets to you. I don't know if you found the Nest in your recent travels, but if you didn't, there is a giant Dragon, the size of maybe our entire great hall, if not more. She serves as a Queen in the system and orders all the Dragons under her control to raid villages for feed and eats the Dragons themselves if she doesn't get it.
Astrid and me found it the day before we began searching for a new place. From everything our Dragons told us, the only real way to defeat her is either killing her directly or cutting off her supply, which involves a bit more cutting on innocent Dragons.
You can probably guess what our decision was and we are either currently training, fighting, happily living or dead depending on the time of when you read this and how the fight ended.
Here comes the part where we need your help. That the queen attacked us means she isn't getting enough food from elsewhere and we think it's because the other Villages have less food than usual. If you could check on the other Island and give us a report, mainly the Bog Isles and Berk, we would be very Grateful. Astrid's been really stressed about how her parents are holding up, so if you want, it would be nice if you investigate them and Gobber for any signs of distress or hunger.
PS: I know you like to fight for justice and we really need every hand and Dragon for this fight, so if you're up for it, come back to Drakvill after you got the Info and we can plan from there on.
H3
Heather read the letter a few times, taking in every major thing slowly. While she didn't visit the Nest herself, she could easily recall the conversation she had with Astrid the day after she was saved by them, in which she got the short version of the Raiding System with the queen at the top.
From everything she heard, the monster truly couldn't be rivaled by any other and that they decided to try and take her down did surprise Heather.
The next part was really the only thing that didn't surprise her. The first time she came back from her travels to have the company of parents again, Hiccup told her about his past and how he and Astrid came to searching for a new Island. This followed by a short explanation of who Gobber is, so that she could check on him whenever she visits Berk.
Reading the PS note got a little chuckle out of her, glad he knew exactly she would fight with all of her being and Windshear's if something unjust can be stopped and a tyrant forcing an entire species to mindlessly raid villages, putting themselves at risk and indirectly bad-mouthing them so that every Viking tries to kill them on first sight did sound a little unjust.
Turning over the message and pulling out the pen she always carried around for these situations, she quickly wrote her own Note.
Thanks for the message.
I am currently about one and a half week from Bog, then a half week to Berk and another half to Drakvill. That means Sharpshot would approximately arrive at the Island about one weeks from now, meaning I'd only need about one and a half week more before arriving.
I hope that will be quick enough to arrive before the battle, but don't wait for me if you have the feeling you can already stop the war with your forces.
I'll gladly check on Astrid's parents this time too, it's no trouble really.
Heather
Rolling the parchment up and reattaching it to Sharpshot with the string he brought the previous message with, Heather sent the Terror to search his master again.
A few short minutes later Windshear had enough water and the two began their track back towards north where their first target laid.
Hope you had fun reading this Chapter. It is a few hundred words shorter than the last few, but hey I managed to actually upload it on time, so thats one plus. Tell me what you think of having Heather back in the Story, since it's been a bit since she was last mentioned.