Chapter 18
Having just received message from Heather, Hiccup and Astrid both were relieved to know Heather would be checking in on their parents, even if said parents wouldn't know and probably wouldn't care since they betrayed the entirety of Viking culture.
Nonetheless, both couldn't get too relaxed, still having to guide the main force of their attack, stepping up their game in hand-to-hand combat, even though it wouldn't really help and still trying to figure out what they should actually do.
So that's how they found themselves thinking over a plan in the great hall together with Arne, Cami, Asfrith, a general map of the Nest from top view laying before them, the teens to adults sitting in a circle around it.
Being the main five leaders of their respective groups, the five decided to keep it small so that nobody had to scream for silence and everyone got to say what he thought about every plan they could develop together.
"First off, what do you know about the queen?" Arne asked, trying to make all the fact known before starting to plan. He looked over to Hiccup and Astrid who were grimacing at recalling the events but knowing they had to go through this.
"We have only seen her head, but that alone is the size of maybe three Nightmares." He started. Even though they always stressed the enormous size of her, hearing it compared to something they knew well enough still forced gasps out of all the other members present. "The Island in itself is a volcano with her living right inside the smoldering magma, so she is accustomed to insane heat. She has at least some control over Dragons, but not bonded ones." Hiccup finished. They really didn't have much going from, but agreed not to go back before the attack in apprehension of angering the queen or losing one of their tribesmen.
"These are only consumption, but she probably rarely if ever left the Nest since she hatched. Most major things we know about Dragons probably apply to her too, but that doesn't mean giving that thing a bit of Dragon Nip will work. Besides, we have to kill her either way." Astrid butted in, hoping these additions could help.
After a solid minute of silence, unexpectedly Cami spoke up first. "The biggest Problem are probably the Dragons under her control. We won't even get the chance to do any of our plans if those are constantly attacking us." She explained, to which everyone gave their agreement.
"Could you get Toothless over here?" Asfrith asked Hiccup, wanting to ask the Dragon something.
Hiccup nodded shortly before putting his hands to his mouth and producing a whistle Toothless recognized to be his, which they used as a signal.
"What?" Asked the grumpy Dragon, not wanting to attend one of these boring human meetings.
"How much do you know about the queens control over Dragons?" Asfrith asked bluntly, knowing the Night Fury could perfectly understand human speech.
"Not much. I know that she can change how much she controls the Dragons. For me, she mostly used it lightly since I am the best at controlling my own speed and strength, so I could make out most of what happened while I was raiding or at the Nest."
Hiccup of course translated everything for them, still being one of the only three people to speak Dragonese fluently enough. In the past two years, Cami, Arne and Gorm picked it up, with Heather understanding her Dragon without words.
All off the humans stayed silent so he could tell them more. No Dragon really talked about the queen since barely any that were on the island came from her control and Toothless as well as Stormfly were horrified of her.
"Most feared her enough so she had a light bind on them. If ones were stupid or egotistical enough, she would take complete control over them and put them in a haze where they couldn't move without being told to." The mighty 'incarnation of Lightning and Death' shuddered at the thought. He had once seen it happen on a fellow Timberjack and swore to never defy the queen too much.
Astrid this time translating, since she didn't want Hiccup to have to do all of the boring work alone, went right along Toothless speaking the sentence as he was.
"So how did you or Stormfly get free of her control?" Arne asked this time, clearly also having a few questions towards Toothless.
"For me, once she realized I was crippled and couldn't fly, she let the control go which is why I didn't kill Hiccup the first chance I got. As for Stormfly, she kept her for a bit after being captured in hope of getting her free. Two or three raids, it's hard to keep count of anything under her control, she decided it wasn't worth it and released her control as well as the attempts to free her."
Hiccup translated again, thought this time with a sad tinge that everyone, especially Toothless, noted. Even though everyone had forgiven him for shooting Toothless and ripping his Tailfin off in the process, he couldn't. It wasn't that he disliked the turn of events that followed, but if he could make them happen with Toothless still able to fly on his own, he'd do that any day of the week.
His thought process was brought to a halt as Toothless put his head on Hiccup's lap, contempt with sleeping on his human for the time being.
"So, the only thing we are able to do is knock them out or make the queen lose her control over them." Cami summed up, making it easier to work with.
It was clear they weren't going to cripple hundreds of Dragons and even then, if they were close enough, the queen still might use them for firepower from the ground and keeping them contained for long enough on an active warzone was near impossible.
This time, Hiccup focused more on the map, now having all the facts that they knew laid out before him.
He pointed to one side of the Island, with a slightly thicker mountain wall and a small stony beach. "We could take a few ships with us and anchor them there so they won't get destroyed."
Once again, the idea was accepted by the entire group.
Arne spoke up again. "What if we take a few catapults with us on the boats and get some Dragons to set them up over there." He quickly made an X on the map to signal where he meant. "so that we can crack open the mountain and fight some of her minions without using our firepower?" He proposed.
Quickly adding that to a mental list of ideas, they continued making up strategies.
"These stones could be used as ammunition for the catapults."
"We can blind her by taking out the eyes."
"If we attack from all sides, she can't attack us all."
"But there's also less firepower concentrated on singular target spots on the queen then."
"With a few changewings, even fireproof scales shouldn't be a problem."
"Two or Three Thunderdrums could take out her hearing."
"If we take her to this part of the island, we can even get a few Scauldrons in there."
"But There barely enough space for only the first division to attack, let alone the second and catapults."
"On this side, there is a good niche to hide when it gets dire."
"I don't think that'll work, if she finds us there, we have no way to escape and we also can't even see if there is anyone hiding there."
"This looks stable enough to set up a good central camp."
And so half the day passed, with everyone getting new ideas and proposing them, mentally savoring them or sometimes even writing them down.
Eventually, with all of the everyone having said their piece of mind, partly general and partly what could help their own division, the five decided to finally let it be and make a more complete strategy tomorrow.
Hiccup chuckled a bit when everyone, even the Dragons, had to stretch their muscles after that long of sitting, talking and thinking, before inevitably falling for the trend himself.
…
With the meeting over, Astrid once again found herself in the worst possible scenario.
Alone with her thoughts.
Having to think of multiple strategies and then some made her forget at least for a few hours about the damn emotions inside her.
While she had the same impassive face as always, inside of her raged a storm that wasn't for her to control.
And of course, all of this revolved around Hiccup.
She saddled Stormfly who, inexplicably, could perfectly notice her rider was angry and so she flew to the new cove, accustomed to watch her kill a few trees when she didn't know how to release her pent-up tension else.
Astrid put the axe out of its holder and began her assault on the trees, making sure she was still as good as ever before going into her mind.
She felt confusion from her own emotions, not knowing how to handle them.
Another tree
She felt unsure of what to do next and especially if she should tell Hiccup anything of what he did to her.
Another one.
She felt pure anger. Astrid Hofferson was not unsure. She always knew where to go, what to do and especially she would not be so massively distracted from the end of a 300-year war because of a simple boy.
Third one.
Okay, not a simple boy. He rides a Night Fury, most elusive Dragon in the Archipelago, is chief of a tribe he formed himself that stands for something completely different than any other. He's seen something nobody ever thought of. He made Astrid Hofferson betray her 15-year beliefs with a simple flight and reconsider what her future should involve.
Fourth hit.
He's sweet, creative, has brains for his newfound brawns, lean, tall, not overly Viking, considerate, humble, caring, a kind of stupid you can only adore him for, desperately searching for acceptance and love since his father never showed any and he said, though barely conscious, that he loves her.
Fifth one and this time it went in a little bit shallower, unbeknownst to her due to her latest thoughts.
Weirdly, she felt happiness from thinking about the slowly growing man and also a kind of feeling reserved only for her parents, so much the same as it was different.
Sixth hit.
Randomly, thinking about family and Hiccup in the same instance made her giddy. She began imagining how he would be with kids, giving them all and everything they asked for, probably making the things himself. How he would shower his wife with adoration the entire day and make everything he can for it all to work out, for himself to be better than his past experiences. How he would be scared due to it and at the same time a kind of happiness he's never felt before.
Seventh hit. This time, she didn't walk over, pull the axe out and swing at the tree before taking on the next.
Where did that come from?
Deciding that wandering in her mind and slashing the thoughts with an axe also wouldn't help, she retrieved her axe went back to Stormfly.
The Nadder perked up at her rider being finished, but grew a bit worried when she saw the look on Astrid's face. "Did it help." She asked, knowing fully well it didn't.
Astrid knew lying to her Dragon was: one, impossible and two, completely stupid. "No.". Even thought she wouldn't lie to Stormfly, expanding on her thoughts also didn't seem enticing, so she saddled up and directed Stormfly for a short fly without any destination.
…
Hiccup and Astrid once again sat on their new spot Hiccup showed her before the raid.
Sitting there, Astrid in Hiccup's lap, both content with the world around them. They had often went here in the last week, forgetting about responsibilities, the war and everything but the natural beaty the view provided.
Okay, maybe Hiccup zoned out that much, gently caressing Astrid's hand with his own while staring into the sky.
Astrid though, could never fully focus on the heartwarming view, when she constantly had to think about the even better view behind her, leaning more and more on his chest every time they did this.
Unfortunately, even with the view or the presence of each other, none could fully relax, since from, the letter they received two weeks prior, Heather should be coming any day. From then, she would have one day to greet everyone, get a good nights rest as well as everyone else and the next morning the chosen plus Heather would start their way towards Dragon Island, wanting to go especially early since they still had to row a few boats with.
Truly speaking, one Dragon wouldn't do that much additional damage and if their strategy worked out, they wouldn't need her to be there, but having a Dragon with an experienced rider, who spent more time flying than walking, more went appreciated by everyone.
Even with the anxiety of ending a war or their tribe and the exhilaration of waiting for one more of her friends to join in their dangerous cause, Astrid couldn't strip her mind completely of the boy, by now even a man, who so carelessly threw her entire body into a frenzy every time he did anything that was previously very normal in their close friendship.
"Hiccup." She near whispered, her eyes closed to the sky, her other senses therefor amplified to feel Hiccup behind her. Therefore, she could easily feel him shift a little, his face tearing itself away from the view to look at the pack of blonde hear he would certainly be seeing from his perspective.
"Yes milady?" He answered still oblivious to the light flutter in her stomach that nickname induced.
She didn't know what had made her call out to him, if it was the need of hearing his voice or wanting to have an actual conversation. She eventually settled on settling this once for all. "The Night of the Raid," she began slowly and considerate.
Hiccup had of course noticed over the days that her behavior towards him changed and upon searching for when it started, it was directly after the night of the raid. Not knowing what happened for their easy-going friendship to alter, he could only hum in agreement, wanting to know.
"How much of it do you remember?" She asked, uncertain if her actually remembered declaring his love or just acting oblivious.
We'll, that certainly didn't answer any of his questions, so he resulted on stating everything he remembered. "We came back from the raid, I was once again near a mental breakdown, you consoled me and we went to sleep. Why are you asking?"
Astrid bit her lip. 'How can I answer now? He doesn't seem to remember or it's not important enough to recall. I don't want to say it, but maybe I have to.'
Even though she had voiced loving him in the past, back then, she had felt desperate and frankly impulsive, wanting to get away from a war only she and him knew were infinitely more wrong than believed. That combined with feelings of a confused teenagers quickly led to rash decision and half-felt confessions.
Now, she was once again confused with her emotions, but learned to take a slower approach and look at it from all perspectives. This time, there was nothing to flee from where Hiccup was her only option, this time, she knew nearly everything about the man and no inclination towards an unknown new side of him.
'Okay, so no desperation, no curiosity and no new development to make me interested' She thought to herself. 'So what is it with this boy that I can't get him out of my head'. She resigned herself to maybe, after all these years, she actually fell for a boy, and quite hard at that.
Taking her silence as all the wrong things however, Hiccup had one of his legendary mental spirals. 'Why isn't she answering? Did I say something wrong? What could have happened for her to act so weird these past weeks. Did I forget something about that Night? I can't really recall anything after going to bed.'
Both not knowing how long they actually sat there in silence, the prolonging of it only making their spirals worse and worse, but at the same time not able to break it.
Fortuantely for them, or unfortunate, depending on who you would ask, that was when both noticed a spot in the distance, having stared absentmindedly while deep in their mind.
Even in the slowly approaching dark of the Night, the shining Dragon could be seen well, not camouflaged in favor of steel sharp scales.
Heather was now flying slowly towards their Island and both were ecstatic that something broke the heavy silence.
"So," Astrid drawled, not satisfied at trying to resolve this for once and then being first confused and then interrupted. "I guess we should get down and greet Heather?" She prodder and Hiccup gave a reluctant nod, also not approving of how the evening went.
Hiccup awkwardly tried put his left hand on his neck, his right still on Astrid's never having left. "Yeah, I guess that would be best.". He tried to sit up, then noticing it would be impossible with Astrid still in his lap and leaning against his chest.
They ended up a tangled mess of limps, luckily having been sitting a few yards away from the ledge this day.
Hiccup had to pry Astrid away from him, her face heating up at the sudden closeness and mind practically steaming.
Awkward, hastily and silent, they went back to their Dragons, who, despite their riders incredibly bad ability to communicate, had talked secretly and exchanged their rider's story, therefore knowing the full context.
Stormfly and Toothless gave each other blank looks, both agreeing this was getting ridiculous, but also understanding that intervening would be unwise.
A few minutes later, they both stood besides their Dragons on the edge of Drakvill, waiting for Windshear and Heather to arrive and greet their long-distance friend.
I hope you liked the chapter. Once again, a lot of confused teenagers and angst, but maybe with a literral war on the doorstep, we'll have more action next Chapter? Untill then, have fun with your lives.