Long title: If You Aren't Sure That Plan 'F' Will Work, Make Sure There's A Plan 'U'
Summary:
"You…" Astrid sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "Fine, you drop your weapon and shield. Now what?"
"I want to get to the pressure point under the chin," Hiccup said, miming his plan, "drop it where it stands."
"So you want to get close enough to touch a nasty, angry dragon that can set itself on fire, with your bare fingers, very close to its teeth." The other hand came up to cover Astrid's face before she dragged both hands downwards and then clasped them behind her neck with a resigned groan. "This isn't going to work, Hiccup."
During the final dragon-training test, the only methods that Hiccup appears to use to calm down the Nightmare are to appear unthreatening and to use the jawline pressure point - effectively doing his best Steve Irwin impression. So what if he developed a backup plan that used the other dragon-training methods, with the help of a certain blonde someone? How would the final test play out and what would be the reactions of the spectators, Stoick in particular?
Covers the time period from the 2nd half of the romantic flight - after Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless escape the nest - up until evening on the day of the test. Hiccup and Astrid friendship only.
Author's notes:
Many thanks to vala411 for looking over this story for me and for her suggestions when I had trouble finding an official beta-reader.
"How To Train Your Dragon" is the property of Cressida Cowell and Dreamworks Studios. No money is being made from this story, nor is there the intent to make any money.
I used a few Old Norse words in the story. A glossary is below:
- átt, áttir (plural): a unit of time equivalent to one-eighth of a day, or 3 modern hours.
- the Norns: Three gods, equivalent to the Greek Fates, that were said to govern the fates and destinies of humans.
- dagmal: day-meal, equivalent to breakfast.
- náttmal: evening-meal, equivalent to dinner/supper.
- Máni: the Moon.
- blót: a religious ceremony.
- ǫln, alnar (plural): a unit of length equivalent to the distance from elbow to fingertips (a cubit).
- seiðr (anglicised 'seidhr'): magic, generally practiced by women and generally not practiced by men. The practice of seiðr by men usually carries connotations of ergi/argr (see below).
- ergi (noun), argr (adjective): homosexual or more specifically, the more submissive man in a male-male sexual relationship (as far as I can make out - see the Viking Answer Lady for more).
There are also nautical terms I used but aside from backboard (archaic term for port), other terms should be easily looked up.
Finally: the title is not meant to be suggestive (...OK, maybe just a tad). The roots of the title come from the 'Futhark', the name for the Norse runic system. Just like we get the name 'alphabet' for the Latin writing system from the first two letters - what were once called 'alpha' and 'beta' - so the name 'futhark' comes from the first six runes: F, U, Þ (Th), A, R K.
Hiccup sighed. Toothless gave a soft croon, picking up on his Viking partner's feelings.
"- worker bees, foraging for food," Astrid explained from her position, sitting behind him.
He should've known that the wonderful mood of the early flight wouldn't have lasted, the giant nest with dragon-eating-dragon notwithstanding.
"No, I'm telling you," Hiccup replied insistently. "They're thralls, that monster of a dragon has enthralled them."
The argument had started as soon as they were clear of the mists of Helheim's Gate, and Toothless' frantic wingbeats had calmed into a steady glide.
"I'm telling you, it's like a beehive," Astrid replied, just as insistent. "You even called it a Queen."
Hiccup should've known - Astrid was as determined and competitive in a verbal argument as she was in a physical fight. Better yet - he should've remembered. There had been a time not that long ago where he could've described, in detail, exactly how Astrid looked, dressed, moved, and talked, what she liked and disliked - at least, as much as he could see in public. He was astonished at how quickly his obsession with Toothless had driven all that out of his mind.
"Did you see the other dragons shrink back after the Gronckle got eaten?! They were afraid of it!" Hiccup protested; surely, she had seen them as well as he had, right?
"Yes, I saw them react," Astrid replied testily, "but how do you know for sure that they were acting out of fear? You can't be, Hiccup!"
"Yes, I can, and I am sure!"
"How?"
The question made Hiccup pause. Surely the answer was obvious - almost all of his spare time outside of dragon training had been spent with Toothless, learning how he behaved as he helped the Night Fury fly again, and seeing if the other dragons did the same thing. Wasn't that why Astrid hunted him down, to find out why he had become so good at - er, training the other dragons? Then after thinking about it a bit more, he guessed that Astrid must not have quite made all the links yet; after all, it had only been about an átt since Astrid had first been introduced to Toothless - and the idea of Hiccup being friends with Toothless.
He blinked as his thoughts registered. Had it been an átt already? It felt like they had only just taken off from Berk, but he was starting to realise how long they had been flying by how weary he was, especially in his left leg.
"How can you be so sure, Hiccup?" Astrid repeated.
"Uh - it's a long story…" And truthfully, it was. Hiccup was also no longer sure how long ago he'd freed Toothless from the bola - was it two weeks ago? Four? It felt like they'd been together for ages. He guessed the habit of working nights that he'd unfortunately fallen into made the problem worse.
"I've got nowhere else to be at the moment, Hiccup, so start talking," Astrid demanded.
His head whipped around to stare at her once the snark registered, and she snickered at his wide-eyed astonishment. "You're not the only one who can be sarcastic, Hiccup. You should hear what I say to my mother," she remarked.
The thought of perfectly poised, determined Astrid talking back to her parents simply compounded Hiccup's astonishment, and her smirk faded into a scowl as he stayed mute. "Answer my question, Hiccup," Astrid demanded, patience wearing thin.
He sighed again. "Okay. The short answer is everything we know about dragons is wrong."
There was a moment of silence, then the expected exclamation: "What?!"
"Yes."
"Everything?" Astrid exclaimed again, then spluttered as she struggled for words. "So - so - I mean, all the things in the Book of Dragons -"
"Well, okay - not everything," Hiccup conceded. "The various attack methods and dangers of the individual types of dragons are probably correct, but the whole 'Extremely dangerous - Kill on sight' stuff is, ah, a little bit over the top -"
"How do you know that?"
"From all the time I've spent with Toothless over the past weeks, Astrid," Hiccup replied, a little testily. "All the 'tricks' I've been doing with the dragons in training? I've learnt them from observing him."
"But he's only one type of dragon!"
"Yes, but the - 'tricks' - dammit, I need a better word - worked on the other dragon types in the ring, which come from several classes. And they also work on wild Terrible Terrors."
Astrid scoffed. "Okay, so you've observed a few dragons - one type we've never seen before, and the others are the smallest of the dragons we know of. And yet you think you can apply that to all dragons?"
"Well, sure, there's going to be slight differences between the types but in general, certain behaviours should remain the same for all of them…" Hiccup trailed off, realising that he was beginning to ramble and sensing her growing irritation. "Astrid…please - just trust me on this."
"One dragon - yes, I guess I'll trust you," Astrid conceded. "But all of them? Hiccup, I'm not just relying on the Book of Dragons. I'm relying on my own experience, which tells me that dragons have raided our village since we've both been alive - and longer! - and only fighting back has stopped them." She paused briefly, enough time for Hiccup to realise that Astrid hadn't recognised Toothless as a Night Fury. "And are you sure you know everything about your dragon?" she continued. "He took us towards the nest without you knowing, and when you tried to tell him to steer us out, he ignored you."
A ball of ice suddenly congealed within Hiccup's chest. Astrid was still talking but he didn't hear what she was saying. Instead, what was running through his mind was every time that he thought he had the answer…every time that he had tried to help…every time that he had tried to prove himself worthy of the title 'Hope and Heir' - and had failed.
Was this instance, this encounter, destined to be the same? He thought he knew what dragons were like…did he know enough?
A tremor ran through him at the thought of failing again. Was this the thread that the Norns had spun for him? To forever fail his tribe? To never live up to his father's expectations? To always be the 'hiccup', the mistake?
He shook his head briefly. If he was honest with himself, he had concluded - well, not exactly the same, but he had been prepared to leave them all behind, convinced that he could never fit in. Actually, he knew that he could never fit in the moment that he'd spared Toothless (and he wasn't regretting that decision one bit). In one sense, he had failed his tribe and his father at that singular moment, all those days ago. No, what he had realised after the bout with the Gronckle was that he couldn't bridge the gap between the two - he couldn't remain a dragon friend and fit in with his dragon-hating tribe. And as Astrid had challenged him earlier, he had chosen a side - and it was with the dragons.
Until the freak opportunity had presented itself, with Astrid barging in on the secret space he and Toothless had built for themselves, in that hidden clearing. There had been no careful plan, there had been no time for one - it had all been seat-of-the-pants stuff, first trying to make sure that Astrid wasn't able to warn the village in time, then the audacious idea to give her a taste of flying on dragon-back; it had changed his perception of the world, could it do the same for her? And if he could convince obstinate Astrid of the truth about dragons - she being one of the few of his peers that the adults saw true potential in - did that mean that he could then convince the rest of his tribe, with her help?
And for an átt or so, it looked like it could work.
Before the Norns reminded him of the thin stay that they had spun for him to tread upon. And once again, he was terrified of losing his balance.
Toothless growled, and he snapped out of his morose trance. Ahead of them, he thought he could just see the top of Troll Peak beginning to appear out of the gloom - they were nearly back at Berk. And behind him…
Astrid was silent, one arm around his waist, her cheek pressed against the back of his shoulder and the other hand gently clasping his upper arm, her thumb moving slowly back and forth. He couldn't recall the last time he had been the recipient of such a soothing, intimate gesture and he'd never have imagined receiving it from Astrid. He gently shrugged his right shoulder, testing to see if she was still awake - she was, and her head lifted quickly with a questioning sound.
He pointed ahead of him. "Do you see it?"
He felt her shift slightly as she gazed ahead. "Is that…?"
"Yep," Hiccup confirmed, "That's the top of Troll Peak. We're almost home."
Astrid made a soft sound of acknowledgement, then leaned forward until he could feel her gentle, warm breath against his ear. He shivered involuntarily at the sensation.
"How did you meet him?" She gently asked.
"Wha-"
"Your dragon - uh, Toothless," she said, one hand letting go to pat said dragon, at the same time rolling her eyes at the incongruous name Hiccup had given the black beast - she had been made very aware earlier that the dragon had plenty of teeth. "I'm pretty sure you two just didn't say 'hello' to each other in the Great Hall one dagmal."
His head didn't snap around to stare at her like the last time, but there was a brief pause before he shook his head, as if he couldn't believe that she could be as sarcastic as him. She had to bite her lip to stop a giggle from escaping at his reaction.
"Well," he began, "do you remember the last time the dragons raided us? Where I claimed that I had shot down a Night Fury?"
"Yes," she replied flatly - how could she forget that night and the destruction that he had caused? Hiccup remained silent, though, just looking at her over his shoulder, and her irritation began to rise again. "Hiccup…" she said wearily before a soft repetitive sound drew her attention.
Hiccup was now patting Toothless, and - oh.
She leaned back and looked at the jet-black dragon she was sitting on. When she had first seen the dragon in broad daylight, she had realised that she wasn't familiar with the type at all, but that had not been that much of a worry to her - she had figured that there were many other dragon types out there that Vikings hadn't encountered yet. But now it clicked into place.
"He's…he's a Night Fury?!" Astrid exclaimed.
"Yep," came the droll answer from Hiccup.
"The one dragon no one has seen and that everyone fears."
"Yep."
"The one where the Book of Dragons says, 'Hide and pray it does not find you'."
"The 'unholy offspring of Thor and Hel', yes, and you're riding him."
After a few seconds, she realised that her jaw was hanging open. She closed it and tried to say something in response - anything - but her mind seemed to be wading through mud. The only thing that escaped her lips was a weak, "How…"
"Well, the Mangler was a real paradigm shift from my earlier attempts at a bola-thrower, so that meant that I had to approach the development very carefully and methodically. Even then -"
"Hiccup."
" - compounded by the fact that the material which would give me the best strength-to-weight ratio -"
"Hiccup!"
"- but I found that it was the manufacturing of the release mechanism that caused the most -"
"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted and thumped his shoulder for good measure.
"Owww," he whined, rubbing the spot where he'd hit him. "What was that for?"
"Hiccup," she said again in a tone that pleaded for patience. "What I meant was - well - " How are you not dead? She couldn't quite bring herself to ask it.
"Ohhh! Of course, how we met," Hiccup finally cottoned on. "Well, I went hunting for him the next morning all over Raven Point. Eventually, I found him tangled up in the ropes of my bola and…" He trailed off here, as if the memory was painful. "Well, eventually…I cut him free."
"You cut him free."
"Mm-hm," Hiccup murmured in agreement. "And then he roared in my face and flew off. Or tried to, really."
Once again, Astrid found herself speechless. "How…," she found herself weakly asking again. Hiccup replied, but she didn't hear him, because the question had been mostly rhetorical.
Dragons were mindless killing machines. Every Hairy Hooligan knew that. Even Hiccup knew that - he'd been to the same training classes with Gobber that she had and when the smith had remarked that dragons "Always go for the kill", she had been sure that Hiccup had heard and understood since Gobber had said it to his face - never minding the Gronckle that had nearly burnt his head off just beforehand.
So how had un-Viking Hiccup been able to free a Night Fury - after shooting it down, no less - and not only lived to talk about it but then managed to tame the dragon to the point that it could carry a saddle and rider?
She rested her forehead against his shoulder as her brain worked. At a minimum, everyone would have to revisit their estimations of Hiccup. Even she had dismissed him. Sure, she hadn't belittled or bullied him like the others had; she had always felt that it wasn't worth the effort and instead, she had made sure to be polite to Hiccup whenever they interacted (she discounted her sharp rebuke of him during their first training session with the Nadder as caused by frustration).
But nor had she made any effort to get to know him, other than the general village perception of him as the walking disaster initiator and/or the less-than-Norse son of the chief. But now…he was the only Viking that she knew of who had been able to bring down the elusive Night Fury - effectively defeating it in 'combat' if you squinted and titled your head. Who had found the still-living dragon, set it free and then by some astonishing Gods-given blessing, had not been killed in return but instead had tamed the dragon.
If he could do that, what else was Hiccup capable of?
"…So I left it there." The voice of the subject of her musings brought her back to the real world.
"What?"
"Astrid? Were you listening?" Hiccup queried, a bit of sharpness in his tone.
"Uh- yeah, I was. I just didn't hear the last bit," she fibbed. She thanked the Gods that Hiccup couldn't see her warming face.
"With the shield?"
"Ohhh, that was you!" She had wondered why that shield had been there earlier that day. She felt him shrug his shoulders and she figured that he'd have one of those endearing, disarming half-smiles on his face. (Wait - since whendid she think of Hiccup's smiles as endearing?)
"So, you did listen to Gobber during dragon training," she remarked. Hiccup stiffened and Astrid got the sense she had been caught out but couldn't figure out by what. "So…you had to leave the shield when you went to confront the Night Fury again," she continued, eager to dissipate the awkward silence. "Don't tell me you were completely unarmed."
"Well, no…" Hiccup answered and trailed off, but she sensed that there was more. Surprisingly, glaring at the back of his head worked just as well as if they were face-to-face. "I had a knife...but I had to throw that away too," he eventually confessed. Her wide-eyed look of astonishment gave way to a groan and her forehead came to rest on his shoulder again. "Hey, it was the only way to get Toothless to trust me!" Hiccup protested. "Well, that and the fish-sharing."
"...fish…sharing?"
Hiccup laughed nervously. "Uh, yeah…um…the fish I brought for Toothless? I, uhh, I, um - Ihadtoeathalfofitraw."
It took a moment for Astrid to decipher the garbled end of the sentence. "You ate raw fish - eurgh!" She pulled a face. "I should call you fish-breath," she continued, but in a teasing tone of voice.
"Fishbreath is Fishleg's younger brother and I look nothing like either of them." This time, Astrid couldn't help herself - Hiccup's dry reply made her snort in amusement and he turned his head briefly so that they could see each other's faces. He seemed pleased that he got her to laugh.
"So, that's the way to train a dragon? Share your lunch with them?" she asked, still amused.
"Uh…it's a start, but there's more to it…" Hiccup answered, then continued the tale. Astrid vowed to pay better attention, but as soon as Hiccup mentioned 'annoying Toothless', her mind went wandering again, obsessed with the question of how? How could Hiccup walk away from annoying a dragon with his hands still attached (she surreptitiously checked, causing Hiccup to flinch a bit), never mind his head still on his shoulders? He was a hiccup!
A thought that had crossed her mind earlier that afternoon resurfaced, the first time she realised that Hiccup was riding the dragon and it had a saddle (how did he get the dragon to accept a saddle and tack?!) - maybe the strong dragon-fighting blood of the Haddock family had finally deigned to appear, although Hiccup had given it its own form (of course, because who else would break the dragon like a horse instead of killing it?).
She focused her attention on what he was saying again - he was telling the story of how they met after all, maybe that would give her an explanation. However, she found herself completely lost - all she could figure out was that he was recounting the part when he was making something in the forge…something for the dragon. Something that the dragon had lost.
What?
Once again, she didn't hear what the boy was saying as her mind spun, trying to figure out the answers to questions she'd never thought she'd have to ask, although she did sense that whatever Hiccup was doing for - with? - the dragon, he was happy about it…
She stared out into the blackness around them, mind working. There was…something else there, she was beginning to realise. Something deeper, although she couldn't quite figure out what.
She was brought back to the present again when he abruptly flailed his arms in the air. "Hiccup! Hiccup!" she yelled, and he quickly brought his hands back to the saddle.
"Astrid! What's wrong?" he asked.
She blinked. "I - that's my question."
"Huh?"
"Why are you waving your arms in the air?" Belatedly she realised that the dragon had been as steady as a ship in harbour over the last few moments or so. She felt Hiccup stiffen again and curl his body in slightly, before realising that he was embarrassed.
"You weren't listening." The tone of voice, however, was accusatory.
Briefly, Astrid thought of protesting, but then realised that she was being rude - she'd asked him for the story in the first place. "Sorry, Hiccup," she said instead and gave him a brief squeeze. "You made me think."
"Odin's eye, a thinking Viking!" Hiccup replied sarcastically and Astrid went rigid at the insult. Another awkward silence descended, and Astrid distracted herself by looking at the view of Berk as they circled around the north side of the island to Raven's Point.
Finally, Hiccup sighed. "I'm sorry Astrid. That wasn't called for," he apologised. "I guess, if I'm making you think, it can only be a good thing." She made a small sound and rubbed his upper arm again to indicate her acceptance of his apology, and he squeezed one of her hands in response.
They were descending towards the forest and the sunken clearing now, which had Astrid's mind skidding back to the encounter in the nest - and what they both needed to do once they were back on solid ground. "I still think the hive explanation works best," she said, feeling a twinge of remorse for souring the mood between them again. Hiccup's response was to groan in frustration.
"No, no, it's the only thing that makes sense - it's like a giant beehive, that's their queen, and they're the workers." Hiccup was silent as he paid attention to the landing. "It controls them," she finished, although not as passionately as before. She jumped off the dragon as soon as they stopped and started running for the ravine that led out of the sinkhole. "Let's find your dad."
"No, no!" came the call from behind her but she only stopped when Hiccup put himself in her path, hands up. "Not yet," Hiccup continued, desperate worry on his face. "They'll kill Toothless." She looked back to the dragon in question. "No, Astrid, we have to think this through carefully."
"Hiccup, we just discovered the dragon's nest - the thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here!" she exclaimed, stunned. Hiccup didn't look at her as he walked back towards Toothless. "And you want to keep it a secret?" she continued, voice rising in astonishment. "To protect your pet dragon - are you serious?!" Astrid couldn't believe that Hiccup could be so selfish when they had an opportunity to end the dragon threat forever.
The look that Hiccup gave her was one Astrid couldn't quite recall seeing on his face before - at least, in her presence. There was no uncertainty or second-guessing - just determination. "Yes."
And faced with that, her own sureness just folded, surprising even her. "Okay." Despite her retreat, Hiccup turned away, doubt creeping back into his expression. "Then what do we do?"
"Just…give me until tomorrow," Hiccup replied, unconfidently. "I'll figure something out."
"Okay," Astrid said again. Then she punched his shoulder. "That's for kidnapping me," she snapped.
Rubbing his bruised arm, Hiccup turned to Toothless and shrugged his shoulders in bafflement; the response the dragon gave could be interpreted as I have no idea either. When he turned back though, she seemed to be very unsure of herself - it was not something Hiccup ever thought Astrid could be.
She suddenly reached out and grabbed the flight harness. Hiccup tensed in anticipation again but was thoroughly surprised to receive not another blow, but a quick and gentle kiss on the cheek.
"That's for…everything else," Astrid said softly. Then she turned and headed for the ravine, only stumbling briefly as she ran into the basket Hiccup had brought with him that afternoon.
Hiccup watched Astrid go, arm tingling from the punch and cheek tingling from the kiss, thoroughly confused and disbelieving what had just occurred to him. Toothless' head appearing by his side snapped him back to reality. "What are you looking at?" he snapped at the dragon before he let go of his irritation with a sigh.
"Oh, Toothless - what do I do?" he asked, pressing his forehead against Toothless' warm hide as the dragon purred. Could he walk the tightrope? Fulfil the expectations of and duties to his father and his tribe, and keep Toothless and other dragons out of harm at the same time? Or should he just leave, as he had intended to do so earlier - and cowardly leave Astrid with the burden of destroying the nest and stopping the threat of dragon raids?
One thing was for certain: he wasn't going to give up Toothless. Not at all.
She was out of the ravine and moving through her practice area in the woods before her brain realised the significance of the basket she had run into, snapped itself out of the loop it was in (she'd kissed Hiccup. She'd kissed Hiccup. She'dkissed Hiccup. Why did she do that?) and remembered what Hiccup had been saying when he'd arrived with the basket earlier that day.
He'd been talking about leaving. Forever.
With a gasp of panic, Astrid quickly backtracked to what she thought was the ravine into the clearing but when the rock walls parted, she found herself not at the bottom of the sinkhole, but instead on a rock shelf that was about halfway up the wall, giving her an excellent view of the whole sunken clearing. Although she hadn't run that far or fast, her heart was pounding as she strained to see in the half-moon's dim light. Thankfully, she could just hear soft murmurs over the sound of the waterfall and that allowed her to locate Hiccup and his dragon, still standing by the edge of the pond.
She thought she was quiet, but the dragon must've heard her sigh of relief that they hadn't flown off because its head popped up to look right at her. Despite having flown on the Night Fury's back for an átt or more that day, old reflexes were slow to die and she froze, a frisson of fear snaking down her spine.
"Toothless? What- Oh!" Hiccup turned to face her perch. "Astrid?"
And then for the second time that day, Astrid had a face-full of Night Fury heading towards her quickly. Also, for the second time that day, she found herself with her arm in its paw, feet above the ground as the dragon picked her up off the rock shelf. The difference was that this time, the dragon wasn't as stable in the air - she could feel it in the way she was being shaken about, and in the way the surface of the pond was rushing to meet her-
Her scream was cut off as she was plunged into the cold water and she heard the dragon crash into the pond as well - thankfully, not right on top of her.
There was an unintelligible gibbering sound filling the air when she got her head above water again, but she was too busy swimming to the shore to pay it much heed. Only when she was wading through the shallows, squeezing water out of her braid as she went, did she realise the noise was coming from Hiccup.
" - ruined everything! Don't look at me like that, you stupid reptile, you knew that wouldn't work! Astrid! Oh, Astrid, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I- I swear, I don't know what came over him! Ohhhh, this is bad, this is really bad, I'll make it up to you however you want, just - please...Toothless! You bad dragon! Why would you do that?!"
Astrid stopped as soon as she stepped out of the water to pull off her boots and drain them. Becoming aware of a presence behind her, she turned around and found the luminous green eyes of the dragon gazing up at her, pupils wide and square. Máni gave her just enough light to see that the wings were tucked tight against the body. It was the closest thing to a contrite expression that she thought a dragon could produce.
Her stillness must've been taken as a sign of acceptance because the head came up and nudged her with a warm snort. She held her ground and levelled a glare at the beast, who ignored it in favour of a stronger nudge, one that made her lose her balance as she shoved back against it and she found herself flopping over the dragon's head with a yelp. Whilst damp, the scaly skin was pleasantly warm, almost enough to make her stay there as she began to shiver from the cold but instead, she pushed herself upright with the dragon…helping her? And it gave a series of short repetitive rumbles as it did so…
She stared at it in astonishment. Did the dragon just laugh at her?!
The stare turned into another ineffectual glare before a rustling sound made her turn around to find Hiccup rummaging through his basket for something, with bits and pieces scattered on the ground around him. Directing a sarcastic "Thanks for your help" at the boy, Astrid reached for her boots before stalking up towards Hiccup, the dragon trailing close behind. He found what he'd been looking for just before she reached him and he stood up and turned around to face her, just in time to…
…drape a fur around her shoulders?
That action drew them closer together and Hiccup's smile disappeared into a wide-eyed blush that matched Astrid's own as they both noticed their relative proximity at the same time. Any motion to separate themselves was undone, though, as Toothless all but shoved Astrid in the back, forcing Hiccup to embrace her with a squelch to keep themselves upright.
Their complementary blushes intensified as they locked gazes. Then a slight breeze caused Astrid's shivers to intensify, and her embarrassment collapsed into annoyance.
"Hiccup - control your dragon!" she snapped at him.
He gave her a half-smile - half-pleased, half-terrified - then stepped around her. "Hey, Toothless! C'mon, let's help Astrid out."
"No thank you!" Astrid shouted. "I've had enough of that damned dragon's help tonight!" She pulled the fur tighter around her as her shivering got worse.
"Yes, I know he's been infuriating - and I don't know why and I'd really like to know too - but I promise, this'll help," Hiccup said. Given that her teeth were beginning to chatter, Astrid decided not to reply as she continued her attempts to warm herself up.
The hissing roar of dragon fire behind her aroused her curiosity, but it was the sharp pop! and following yelp from Hiccup that made her turn around. The dragon was standing in front of a rock - it might've been the same one she'd sat on to surprise Hiccup, Astrid thought - and Hiccup himself was off to one side, seemingly dancing a one-legged jig and announcing "Ow!" with every hop. She and the dragon looked at him in confusion before he yanked off a boot with a final "Ow!" and tipped a small stone out of it.
"Hot," he explained, which just confused Astrid even further. It meant something to the Night Fury but Hiccup just shrugged at the dragon's growl. "I know, but we have to," he said as he replaced the boot on his foot. The dragon tossed its head at the boy, who obediently moved towards where Astrid was standing, before opening its mouth and directing a jet of fire at the rock.
The brilliant flash of light was too much for Astrid's darkness-adjusted eyes and she turned away - which was just as well because the only warning she had was another sharp pop! before there was an even sharper crack! and she felt small, hot pebbles hit the back of her head and legs. A loud, close cry of pain from Hiccup made her involuntarily try to jump back up from the crouch she'd ducked into, and she ended up sprawled on the ground instead.
Rolling over onto her back, she found Hiccup dancing another jig of pain just beyond her feet, limbs flailing as well. Of course, he wasn't looking where he was going so -
"Hiccup!"
- despite her attempt to warn him, he tripped over her legs and landed with a thud and a groan. If her teeth weren't chattering so hard, Astrid would've sighed. Same old Hiccup - no Horrendous Haddock involvement there at all. And from the sound it made, the dragon didn't seem to be impressed either.
"I know, I know," Hiccup complained, getting back to his feet and then helping Astrid get to hers. "But I'll point out that you got her into this situation," he continued - she guessed that was directed at the dragon - as he led Astrid to the just-flamed rock.
"H-h-hi-c-c-up-p," Astrid tried to threaten, wary of more flying pebbles but then she was in front of the fire-blasted rock and in her chilled state, the warmth emanating from it was fantastic. She kept the fur wrapped around her at first - the rock was still hissing and whining like a pork chop in a pan - but after a short while she adjusted the fur to expose the front of her body to the heat and had to swallow a moan of bliss. Absently, she realised that the ground under her bootless feet was also pleasantly warm.
She wasn't quite sure how long she stayed there, but when the noise of the Night Fury's fire breath got her attention again, she was aware that she wasn't shivering anymore and the front of her tunic and leggings were a lot drier than they had been. Unfortunately, her back was still damp and cold and the rock was cooling down fast. She turned around anyway and re-draped the fur around her front before all but leaning back against the rock, thinking that yes, this idea of Hiccup's was, in fact, a good one and she ought to apologise to him - Toothless was obviously a lot more independent than she had first thought, and not a lot of what had happened to her since she returned to the sinkhole was really Hiccup's fault.
She opened her eyes and turned her head a little to see what the dragon was doing and spied Toothless settling himself onto a scorched patch of ground. Once it looked like he had made himself comfortable, the dragon looked at her and then made a slight gesture with his head. She blinked.
"Huh?"
"Toothless wants you to lean up against him - he's quite warm," Hiccup explained, reappearing beside her with a hide wrap in his hand. "Also, I've got something for you to eat here."
Astrid suddenly realised just how hungry she was and eagerly opened the proffered wrap. Inside the hide was some flatbread, salted fish and a pouch containing some dried fruits and nuts - travel food for someone who had to pack quickly. And only enough for one person.
"Hiccup?" She called out to him.
"Hm?"
"What are you going to eat?"
Without looking up from the basket he was sorting through, Hiccup waved another hide-wrapped pack in the air. "I'm all good!"
Astrid nodded at his reply and realised her lips had twitched into a slight smile. Inadvertently, she and the dragon locked gazes, and Toothless gestured with his head again - more insistently and accompanied by a slight grunt this time.
"I'd just do what he asks," Hiccup commented, now sitting on the closed basket and opening his own wrap. "If he has to get up to drag you over physically, he is not going to be happy and he will make you very aware of it."
Still looking at the dragon, Astrid bit her bottom lip in thought. Behind her, the stone only had a little bit of warmth left, even with her leaning on it, and her back was still quite chilled. Finally deciding that the potential warmth of the dragon outweighed his potential nuisance factor, she pushed herself off the stone and made her way over to Toothless. The big wing lifted and the dragon watched as she settled herself against his belly with a sigh. Hiccup was right; not only was Toothless pleasantly warm but so was the ground underneath.
"Thank you," she said, half out of habit, closing her eyes and leaning her head back, only to jerk it forward when she felt something other than dragon-hide behind her head. She reached up with her hand to touch it, stilling when she recognised the rope, before tracing her hand along it until she reached what felt like a pulley - it was hard to imagine what else it could be.
"You're welcome," Hiccup replied, and she turned her head forward again to find him beaming with satisfaction - to be replaced with a frown when Toothless looked at him and gave him the same head gesture and grunt. "What?"
In a sudden flash of inspiration, Astrid had an idea about how she could start apologising to Hiccup. "Toothless is right," she said sweetly as she could (although it just sounded awkward to her ears) and left the puzzle of the rigging to pat the ground to the left of her. "You should come over here - we'll make this a proper náttmal."
"Uh- uhm- uh…you…" Hiccup opened his mouth but no sound came out and he stared at her with wide eyes. "You…you want me…me…" he pointed to his chest, "to sit with - you?"
"Hiccup," she replied with a sigh and an eye-roll - trust him to be obstinate when she wanted to be nice to him. "I was hugging you throughout our flight."
"That was different," he countered. "You had nothing else to hold onto and there was no extra space on the saddle and - and - as you said, I'd kidnapped you -"
"Hiccup," she said, more forcefully, and Toothless backed her up with another grunt.
"Oh-kay," Hiccup relented and gathered up his meal and a waterskin. "You still won't tell me what on Midgard you were trying to do, grabbing Astrid like that," he directed at Toothless. "You know you can't fly without me. What made you think you could?" The dragon's expression changed from obstinate to abashed at his accusation.
"Wait," Astrid said as Hiccup's words registered. "What do you mean, he can't fly without you?"
Hiccup came to an abrupt halt and his lips thinned. "You really weren't listening."
Astrid felt horrible. "I- "
"Why did you ask me about how I met Toothless when you weren't going to listen anyway?" Hiccup continued in a sharp tone, and she could see the beginnings of genuine anger on his face. Behind her, she felt Toothless shift slightly.
"I know, I know, and I'm sorry Hiccup!" Astrid all but wailed, arms coming up in a protective gesture. "It's just…when I said that you made me think, I really meant it." The angry expression on his face faded, but otherwise, Hiccup stood as still as a carving.
Astrid gulped a breath and continued, words tumbling out over each other. "I mean, Gobber says that dragons will always go for the kill - always! - and you not only live after setting free a dragon that you shot down, but you manage to tame it - him. Somehow."
Her arms retracted against the fur resting on her chest. "And I have no idea how," she admitted, voice small.
Hiccup hadn't moved from where he had stopped, except to look at Toothless' face.
"I mean, how you managed to do it," Astrid continued, voice still small, eyes focused on her hands clasped on her chest. "Out of everyone else who's battled dragons on Berk, you - Hiccup - you somehow manage to do the impossible."
For a few moments, neither of them spoke.
"Funny that you should mention what Gobber said on that first training day, Astrid," Hiccup finally said, voice low and soft. "That's what got me thinking about what Toothless had done - what he hadn't done. I shot him down and…and then I set him free. And he pinned me to the ground and I thought I was dead." He paused, gazing intently at the dragon that hadn't killed him when given the chance. "But instead he roared in my face and then tried to fly off."
Once again, there was that mention of trying to fly, not succeeding. Hiccup chuckled mirthlessly as he saw Astrid mouthing the words tried to.
"Yes, tried to, but only got as far as this clearing," he remarked.
"But - but - we flew," Astrid replied, mystified. "Toothless was flying…we were flying." She pinched herself - yes, it hurt, this couldn't be a dream, but yet again, she didn't understand what Hiccup -
"Show her, Toothless," he commanded.
The dragon's tail swept around, causing a lot of movement in the ropes and pulleys above her head. When the tip of the tail was in view, one of the fins at the end opened - but not the other one. "That rope above your head?" Hiccup indicated to Astrid. "That - a bit to your left - yep, that one. Pull it and see what happens."
To Astrid's astonishment, as she pulled on the rope, the other fin finally opened, and she could see moonlight glinting off the ends of the ribs in the fin. They're metal, she realised. Toothless twisted his tail back and forth slightly and all of a sudden, Astrid realised that the whole fin was - something else. Not natural.
Man-made.
"When Toothless crash-landed after I shot him down, one of his tail fins got ripped off," Hiccup explained. He appeared to be uncomfortable - neither looking at her nor the dragon, hands fiddling with the waterskin. "They affect his stability in the air - he can get himself airborne, but without that fin, he can't control his flight well enough to go anywhere. In particular for Toothless, to leave this sinkhole that he'd landed in."
His eyes flickered up to hers.
"Remember when we were having náttmal on the watchtower with Gobber?" he continued. "He said 'A downed dragon is a dead dragon'. And I'd brought Toothless down…"
Once again, his gaze focused on nothing.
"When I went back to look for Toothless, the day after I set him free, I found him trapped in this sinkhole, unable to escape and not really able to feed himself. The next day after that, I came back with a fish for him to eat and…"
He paused as he hunted for the right words.
"…I guess, we began to understand each other?" He shrugged. "Anyways, when Gobber said that thing about a dragon's wings and tails being their weak points that evening, I realised that I had to try and help Toothless fly again. I mean, it felt fair - I'd made the mistake of shooting him down, so I felt obliged to fix it."
A torch flared into flame in Astrid's mind.
"Oh, so that's why you shot off that night!" She exclaimed, putting the chain of events together. At Hiccup's querying look, she explained further. "The others were discussing something stupid, and I'd realised you'd left your fish behind and disappeared. So I got up to see where you were going…"
She paused, remembering that night and her brief moment of indecision - about whether to follow Hiccup or stay and finish her meal. She wondered how things would have turned out if she'd been a bit more curious - a little less dismissive - and had followed Hiccup that night.
She turned around to inspect the various blocks, pulleys and ropes that wrapped around the dragon behind the wings. Whilst she knew the basics of ship rigging - as all of her friends did - she could hardly fathom the imagination required to come up with a completely new form of rigging, for a completely different type of sail.
"You built all this in one night?!" she asked incredulously.
Hiccup chuckled. "No way! I managed to get just the fin done that night, but all the rest of it took quite a while. And after that, I had to learn how to work with Toothless to control it."
Another block of the puzzle slotted itself into place in Astrid's mind. Hiccup had developed the (then-infuriating) habit of showing up to dragon training looking like he'd barely slept and only kept upright by excitement alone, done his by-then-usual habit of magically controlling the dragon of the day (and whispers of seiðr were beginning to go around the village now) before disappearing again. Now she knew - as he said earlier, he had been spending all his spare time either with Toothless or in the forge making things for Toothless.
This led to another memory surfacing in Astrid's mind. "That other night, when I saw you outside the forge…"
"And I got pulled through the shutters?" Hiccup chuckled ruefully at the memory. "So, I had my flight harness on" - and his mention of that made Astrid suddenly realise that he'd taken it off at some point (was that a good sign?) - "which is attached to the saddle with belaying lines, and one of the hooks for the lines got jammed closed when we were practising flying together that afternoon."
Astrid felt her mouth curl up into a smile as she realised what that meant. "So, you and Toothless were stuck together…"
"And the tool I needed to un-jam the hook was at the forge - so we both went together." Astrid's eyes widened - somehow, Hiccup had snuck a dragon through Berk, all the way to the forge, without anyone noticing (except her, of course) and back out again - so much for their patrols! Then she put everything together, and her smile grew wider.
"So, when you were outside the shutters, Toothless was in the forge -"
"- And we were still attached by the belaying line." Hiccup paused briefly, the corners of his lips twitching up. "So whilst I was talking to you, Toothless got distracted - by a sheep, I think."
The memory of Hiccup being somehow dragged back against, then up against, then through the shutters against his will replayed itself vividly in Astrid's mind. But now she knew the other half of the story…
She gave a snort of amusement, but this time it was like a cracking dam, and it was shortly followed by giggles, which soon turned into outright laughter - which then had Hiccup joining in until they were both gasping for breath.
Whilst they wiped the tears from their eyes, neither of them realised the precarious position Hiccup had put himself in. Now the Night Fury struck - the tip of his tail swept up again to give Hiccup a shove in the back. He stumbled, hands flying out to brace himself against the dragon's belly - just in time to stop himself from falling onto Astrid. Once again, Astrid and Hiccup found themselves looking into each other's eyes with complementary blushes on their faces, close enough to feel each other's breath against their faces, but this time with the dragon's chortle in the background. Slowly, both of them turned to look at Toothless' smug expression.
"I don't believe it," Astrid murmured. "He's been trying to get us - to- togeth-"
"You've got to be kidding me," Hiccup interrupted, but this seemed to be directed at the dragon, whose expression only got more smug. Sighing, he pushed himself back upright again as Astrid lowered her arms and legs from where she'd been ready to catch the boy. "I'm really, really sorry about this, Astrid -"
"Hiccup," she cut him off and then patted the ground next to her again. "Please."
Hiccup looked down at her with wide eyes, swallowed nervously and then slowly and cautiously took his seat next to her, arms holding his knees. Astrid all but slapped the hide he'd dropped on her into his chest, forcing him to grab at it and also forcing him to lean back against the dragon's scales, before lightly pressing herself against his side. He tensed up initially at the contact, before eventually relaxing and straightening his legs. Astrid gave a satisfied sound before eating some more of her meal, and soon Hiccup began to eat his.
With a satisfied rumble of his own, Toothless brought his tail around to encircle the pair of Vikings before drooping his wing over them and finally laid his head on the ground, eyes closed. For a minute or two, the only sounds in the grove were the waterfall, the dragon's purring breath and the sounds of two children eating.
"Thanks for the food," Astrid said between mouthfuls. Hiccup waved a hand in acknowledgement, as he was too busy eating himself. Taking a sip from the waterskin, Astrid leaned her head back against Toothless' scales. As she was finally feeling better - warm, almost dry and no longer hungry - her mind wandered. That was a mistake, as all the events of the last few áttir came back in a rush and she hardly knew where to begin. A multitude of questions to ask pushed to the front of her mind and in the confusion, she blurted out the first one that formed coherently.
"Can you and Toothless talk to each other?"
"Huh?"
"Earlier, you said that Toothless wouldn't tell you what he was doing. Like, you two can understand each other?"
"Oh! Uh, not in the way you and I are talking," Hiccup replied with a gesture between them. "I think he understands some Norse, and maybe dragons have their own language?" He shrugged. "If they do, I don't speak it." He smiled at the dragon. "I think Toothless and I have figured out what we're saying to each other -" the smile faded. "Most of the time."
He took a sip from the waterskin, before turning to look at her. "Can I ask you a question?"
Astrid blinked - she hadn't expected this. "Uh…yes," she replied cautiously.
Hiccup took another sip from the waterskin and swished it around his mouth before swallowing. "You left us after we landed, but then came back," he said softly. "Why?"
Astrid froze. Trust Hiccup to ask a difficult question first up. She gnawed on one of her knuckles as she rolled the answer around her head.
"Because…you said that you were going to 'think of something' before tomorrow's exam," she eventually answered, her voice just as soft. "I realised that 'something' could include you leaving the island."
It was a bit difficult to tell when they were sitting side-by-side, with only a half-moon for light but Astrid had a feeling Hiccup was wearing a wide-eyed expression on his face, judging by how tense he suddenly became.
"Why- why would you think that?!" he squeaked.
Astrid snorted. "You were talking about a 'vacation, forever' when you arrived here today."
Put on the spot, Hiccup didn't reply for a few moments, before the tension left his body with a sigh.
"Yes," he admitted, "I was going to run away."
A shiver went through Astrid at Hiccup's admission. Despite his reputation in the village, he was still the Hope and Heir of the Hairy Hooligan tribe - and yet, he had been fully prepared to leave it all behind. She knew just as well as Hiccup that the next in line for the chieftainship after Hiccup himself was his cousin, Snotlout Jorgenson - and if Hiccup was the epitome of un-Vikingness, Snotlout was the complete opposite, at least outwardly. Not only that, Snotlout had begun making insinuations that the tribe would be better off if he - Snotlout - were Hope and Heir instead, to eventually become the chief.
The thing was, there were other, internal ways in which Snotlout was the complete opposite of Hiccup. Especially in the intelligence aspect - for example, Astrid was completely sure that Snotlout would've been blissfully unaware of his potential to be chief if his father Spitelout hadn't pointed it out to him. Another aspect where Snotlout and Hiccup were polar opposites was in their approach to courting - she wouldn't have realised that Hiccup had a crush on her if not for Ruffnut telling her, as another example. Snotlout, however, made no attempt to hide his advances and was the main reason why she took to wearing her hereditary, normally-ceremonial-occasions-only kransen on a day-to-day basis, despite her mother fretting about the potential for damage to it.
And of course, the chief and the heir got preferential treatment in many things…
Anger flared in her as potential futures made themselves clear, due to Hiccup's selfishness. "Why?" She snarled.
Hiccup flinched away, then sighed in resignation. "Because I felt I couldn't lie to anyone else any longer - not to you, not to my father. Toothless has become my friend - yes, I have a dragon as a friend - my only friend!" He sniffed. "And in the eyes of everyone else, I was getting ready to become the best dragon-killer Berk had seen in a generation."
He paused and swallowed before continuing. "I couldn't do that."
Astrid could feel the temptation to take Hiccup's final statement as a reference to the lying, but she got a sense that there was another meaning to it. "Couldn't do what?"
"Kill a dragon," Hiccup admitted readily. "I couldn't do it back then; I couldn't do it now."
"Back when?"
"Back when I first found Toothless, in the woods. Tied up in the bola." He stood up and moved forward a few steps, staring out into the moonlit clearing. "I was going to kill him, to show my father that I could be a Viking." He spoke so softly, that Astrid had to strain to make out what he was saying. "I- I thought that if I did so, it would solve all my problems in one go."
"Problems?" Astrid asked - it wasn't really necessary to get him to explain, she figured that she could guess his answers, but for some reason she didn't quite know herself, she wanted to hear him say what she thought he would say, out loud.
"You know," Hiccup said with a flicker of his hand. "My whole un-Vikingness. The fact that I couldn't please my father. The fact that I couldn't be one of you guys. The fact that -" He stopped suddenly, then sighed and pushed on. "The fact that I couldn't get you, Astrid, to notice me."
All of a sudden, Astrid realised that she was on the verge of having her most important question answered. The how - how had Hiccup managed to survive, to tame - no, make this Night Fury his friend.
"Why didn't you?" she asked him.
Hiccup turned his head towards her, not quite looking over his shoulder. "Why didn't you kill him?" she repeated. Hiccup straightened his head slightly but otherwise didn't respond.
"I remember, after that last dragon raid had finished," Astrid began, "that you declared in front of all of us, including your father, that you were absolutely intent on killing a dragon." She cleared her throat, then continued in a nasal voice: "'I can't stop myself! I see a dragon, and I have to just -" she made a twisting motion with her hands like Hiccup had that night - "- kill it!'"
Hiccup whirled around so fast that he overbalanced and fell to the ground with a thump. Astrid couldn't stop the giggles from escaping this time either.
"I don't sound like that, do I?" Hiccup asked, staring wide-eyed at Astrid.
With a little effort and another attempt at clearing her throat, Astrid composed herself before continuing. "You were so set on it that you went and made a machine that did what no-one else could do," pointing at Hiccup for emphasis. "And you just said - killing the dragon would show everyone that you weren't the 'hiccup' we all thought you were. So why didn't you?"
Hiccup shrugged. "I don't know. Because I couldn't."
"That's not an answer."
Hiccup leapt up from his seat on the ground, agitated. "Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?" he snapped, striding a few paces away and causing Toothless to stir with a growl.
"Because I want to remember what you say, right now," Astrid retorted.
"Oh, for the love of-" Hiccup whirled to face her, irritation on his face. "I was a coward. I was weak!" His hands moved up and down for emphasis and his voice became louder still. "I wouldn't kill a dragon!"
Astrid leaned forward, bracing her arms on her knees. "You said 'wouldn't' that time," she remarked in a mild tone.
"Oh, whatever! I wouldn't!" Hiccup shouted back. "Three hundred years, and I'm the first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon!" He glared at Astrid briefly before turning away again.
More pieces of the puzzle fell into place, but there was one missing. "First to ride one, though," she pointed out. Hiccup didn't respond. "So…"
"I wouldn't kill him because he looked as frightened as I was," Hiccup replied softly, turning to face her. "I looked at him, and I saw myself."
And she finally had her answer. Hiccup didn't see the dragon as a mindless beast - he saw in Toothless a creature very similar to himself and chose compassion.
And - she suddenly realised - Toothless, a Night Fury, a dragon, had responded in kind.
"So, yeah," Hiccup said with a shrug. "To answer your earlier question - why was I planning to leave? Remember you told me to choose a side? I chose the dragons." He turned away and went over to pat Toothless on the head, the dragon welcoming the attention with a warble.
And all of a sudden, Astrid was lost in her memory again - in her own words. Our parent's war is about to become our own - figure out which side you're on! And back then, it had seemed so simple and obvious. But now…
But now, thanks to Hiccup, she had been shown that the reality of the situation was more complicated. Much more complicated. And her earlier idea of the dragons in their nest being like bees in a hive was probably not correct - if one dragon could respond to compassion in kind, then there was a good chance that others could, too.
One solution was easy - keep on doing what they had always done, kill the dragons as they came to raid, and suffer the consequences as they did battle with them. Only this time, Astrid would have to live with the guilt that she would be battling, maiming and possibly killing creatures that didn't want to be attacking them.
That could…maybe…coexist with them? Perhaps…be friends with Vikings like herself? Like Toothless and Hiccup?
Was there another way to possibly solve this problem?
She looked at Hiccup, who was murmuring to Toothless again, too softly for her to hear. Was he just reaffirming his friendship with the dragon? Or was he making other plans?
Was he still planning to leave?
"Hiccup?"
He stilled for a moment before turning around, a wary expression on his face. "Yes, Astrid?"
"Now that you've seen the cause of the dragon raids - and I've seen it too - what's your choice now?"
Hiccup shot her a look. "I'm still siding with the dragons."
"I never doubted that, Hiccup," Astrid responded in a placating tone. "I meant, about your choice to leave." His eyes looked away from her. "Do you still think that's the best thing to do?"
"I don't know," Hiccup said with a shrug. "Maybe."
"I don't mean, 'the best thing for you', Hiccup - I mean, the best solution to this problem of the dragon raids. Do you think that by leaving the island - by leaving your birthright behind - you are going to help the other dragons? Going to help your father?" She paused, biting her lip. "Do you think that leaving is the best thing to do, to help me?"
There was not a sound from Hiccup.
Astrid took a deep breath, then plunged on. "You said earlier that 'everything we know about dragons is wrong'. I was wrong, Hiccup. And you're the first to ride a dragon, but it looks like you know how to tame many more, just from what you've learnt with Toothless." He was staring into nothingness again, a hand idly stroking one of Toothless' ears.
"Could I tame a dragon, Hiccup?" she asked. The hand went still.
She leaned forward. "Could I ride one - I mean, not just riding with you, but by myself?"
She stared intently at his face in the dim moonlight, trying to figure out what he was thinking. What would his choice be?
"Maybe…" Hiccup drawled after what seemed to be an eternity, and then his head came up, eyes bright, the corners of his lips twitching up. "Do you want to learn how?"
She felt a smile break out on her face. "Sure."
"Okay then," Hiccup answered with a smile of his own, clapped and rubbed his hands together, then came over to where she was sitting (she'd swear later that he all but danced over to her), grabbed her hands, pulled her to her feet and began to lead her over to Toothless' head. The Night Fury looked at them warily.
"Don't worry Toothless…trust me, this won't hurt," Hiccup soothed.
"What - right now?!" Astrid squawked.
"You have an already-tame dragon in front of you to practice on; why not?" Hiccup replied, and Astrid couldn't really argue against that.
He guided her hands to the scales just behind the Night Fury's neck crest. "So after taking the saddle off Toothless one day," Hiccup began to explain, "I decided to give the scales here a bit of a rub." He demonstrated, and the dragon responded with a rumble of pleasure. "So that intensified until I was giving him a good scratch…" He did as he said, and Toothless arched his back into Hiccup's hands. Hiccup persisted for a few more seconds before stopping and backing away, and Toothless grumbled in protest. "Don't worry Toothless, the pampering will continue shortly…" He made a 'go ahead' gesture to Astrid, who copied Hiccup's movements after a moment of hesitation. Soon Toothless was purring in ecstasy again, and Astrid found herself grinning.
"Sure, the dragon likes it," Astrid commented, "But Toothless doesn't look like he's going to drop to the ground anytime soon."
"Try scratching under his chin," Hiccup suggested next. She did so, and Toothless promptly collapsed in a content pile of dragon. Astrid jumped back in surprise as he did so.
"So that's how you did it," Astrid exclaimed in a tone of wonderment as she looked at her fingertips. Her bare fingers - and she made a huge dragon collapse with just a touch. She whirled to face Hiccup with a beaming smile. "That's how you knocked the Nadder out!"
"Yes, that's how I knocked the Nadder out," Hiccup confirmed, "but before I did that, I did something just as important - I dropped my weapon."
The smile on Astrid's face was immediately replaced with a scowl. "What?"
"One of the key things you need to do before you can approach a wild dragon is to not be a threat," Hiccup lectured. "Remember, I said that when I first approached Toothless with a fish, he wouldn't come closer than three or four alnaruntil I threw my knife away."
Astrid had had her heart set on being a warrior and she had figured that a warrior should always have their weapon within reach at all times, ready to use. Even though she was only allowed to be on fire-fighting duty during dragon raids, she still had her trusty axe close at hand, and it was this part of her that recoiled at Hiccup's statement - disarm herself? Whilst approaching a dangerous dragon? Madness!
But yet… She turned to look back at the just-stirring Night Fury, with Hiccup continuing to pet him. She had just caused a dragon to fall to the ground using nothing but her fingers and knowledge of where to put them, without the dragon realising what she was about to do. And earlier that day, Toothless had attacked her the moment he'd noticed her present and with axe in hand - although, she realised, that might've also been due to the punishment that she had just inflicted on Hiccup. She also remembered that Hiccup had deliberately pulled the axe from her hands and thrown it away when trying to calm the dragon down.
Still, the 'no-weapons' thing would be a bit of a hurdle to get over, Astrid realised with some foresight, if they wanted to train more people than themselves. "You're going to have a tough time convincing the rest of the village to approach a dragon without a weapon," she muttered to herself, absentmindedly wondering just where her axe was.
She must've spoken louder than she thought she had, because Hiccup froze, before looking at her, eyes brighter than before. "Yeah…" he agreed in a soft voice, before continuing: "Unless I show them first."
Uh-Oh, Astrid thought. "How would you do that?" She dared to ask.
"Tomorrow, in the ring. With the Monstrous Nightmare," Hiccup beamed.
Astrid had always wondered what went through Hiccup's head before he embarked on one of his crazy, disaster-inducing ideas and it looked like she was about to get a ringside seat to the process in action. "Hiccup - you haven't been up against that dragon before," she protested. "None of us have! Do you really think you can just…" She waved her hands in a vague gesture. "Tame it? Just like that?"
"I have to try," Hiccup responded in a determined voice. "If I'm going to convince everyone else that dragons - well, dragons that aren't Queen-sized - are not a threat, tomorrow's the best opportunity."
Astrid sighed - it appeared that she was now stuck in the middle of the development of a Hiccup plan. "So…tell me - how are you going to do this?" She asked.
"Well…" His hand came up to the back of his head in a sheepish gesture.
Astrid scowled again, arms folding across her chest. "You don't have a plan."
"I don't have a plan, yet," Hiccup retorted, one finger in the air. "Give me a moment, Astrid, you've put me on the spot."
"You won't have a moment, Hiccup!" Astrid exclaimed, pointing for emphasis. "I'll set the scene for you - you're locked in the ring with your shield and your weapon. The Nightmare is out of its cage, very angry, with fire all over its body, and it's approaching you, ready to burn you to a cinder. What do you do?"
"I- uh… I-" Hiccup's eyes darted around, as if he could find the answer somewhere nearby.
"The angry dragon is getting closer, Hiccup!"
"I know! Just- OK, OK, I drop the weapon and the shield," he said, miming his actions.
"You…" Astrid sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "Fine, you drop your weapon and shield. Now what?"
"I let the dragon approach - no sudden movements, I don't want to startle it." Now he was acting out the scenario, side-on to the imaginary Nightmare, one hand out and up in a placating gesture. Toothless looked on in puzzlement. "I need it to see that I'm not a threat."
"What exactly is your goal here, Hiccup?" Astrid asked in a tone of frustration. "Aside from losing a limb."
"I want to get to the pressure point under the chin, drop it where it stands."
"So you want to get close enough to touch a nasty, angry dragon that can set itself on fire, with your bare fingers, very close to its teeth." The other hand came up to cover Astrid's face before she dragged both hands downwards and then clasped them behind her neck with a resigned groan. "This isn't going to work, Hiccup."
"It's an idea - if I just think a little more about it, try and refine it -"
"It's a stupid idea, Hiccup."
"OK, fine. Let's hear your idea - and no, you can't attack the dragon!"
"I wasn't-!" Astrid bit back a curse and whirled away, fists clenched at her sides, fighting the urge to thump him.
Why did he have to act like such a yak all of a sudden?! She admitted that she was wrong about dragons, she asked him for help and then he insults her by asking 'Oh, so how would you do it?'
She stared out over the pond, palms itching for her axe. Gods forbid that she point out the holes in his cobbled-together, half-formed plan! Suuuuure, he makes it look easy, taming dragons left and right with just a gentle touch here and a wave of his hand there, or simply-
Astrid's thoughts crashed to a halt like a Terrible Terror running head-first into Stoick's fist.
"Hey, Hiccup?"
There was a pause before he answered: "Yes, Astrid?"
She turned to talk over her shoulder. "How did you deal with the other dragons?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, did you use the same chin-scratching trick on all the dragons? I distinctly remember that you didn't touch the Zippleback."
"The Zippleback? No, I used an eel for that." Hiccup chuckled. "That's actually a funny-" He broke off abruptly. Astrid turned to find him facing the other way, as still as a rock again.
"Hiccup?" She approached him cautiously. "Hic-"
"THAT'S IT!" Hiccup cried with a jump, his hands flying up above his head and Astrid jumped back herself with a startled squawk as he whirled to grab her by the arms. "Astrid, you're amazing!" he beamed at her.
His smile was so infectious that she found herself smiling back at him involuntarily. "Uh, thanks…how?"
"Eels and dragon-nip! I should have thought of that from the beginning!"
"Wha- wait- what? What?" Astrid blinked and shook her head in confusion. What on Midgard did eels have to do with dragons? And what was 'dragon-nip'?
Hiccup began to speak so quickly that she had to focus completely on his face to understand it all. "I mean, being able to tame the Nightmare by being unthreatening and giving it a scratch on the jaw is a silly idea if the whole village is there and being their usual loud and Viking selves, I might not be able to control it, buuuuut…" One of his hands was still holding her upper arm but the other was loose and flapping all over as he rambled on. Quick as a snake, Astrid grabbed the flailing limb and Hiccup's eyes snapped to hers.
"Hiccup, what are you talking about?"
There was a pause as the determined expression slid back onto his face. "You're right, I need a different plan - a plan U." Then his eyes unfocused for a moment before the determined look was replaced by a stricken one. "But it won't work! Gaaaah…"
She finally gave in to temptation and thumped him on the shoulder again.
"Owww! Why would you do that?!"
"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted, grabbing Hiccup's shoulders and giving him a shake for good measure. This caused him to cringe back, hands coming up to protect himself. That action immediately reminded Astrid of the last time he'd done that in front of her - just before she'd thrown him to the ground - twice! - and dropped the butt of her axe on him.
Oops. She paused in the middle of shaking him again and let him go. She had kind of lied to herself earlier about not bullying him - except, of course, when he upstaged her in dragon training, and she got so upset that she tried to beat the truth out of him. She'd just got him talking about how he'd managed to train his dragon, she didn't want to drive him away again.
His arms lowered slightly so that she could see the trepidation on his face, mixed in with something that she interpreted to be an expression of second-guessing. The word alone suddenly leapt to the forefront of her mind, and it all became clear.
"Hiccup," Astrid began, retreating a step and holding her hands up in a hopefully placating gesture. "I know that you're used to doing this sort of thing on your own and that you've never really had to explain to anyone else what you're doing, before you do it. But please - please - explain what you're thinking to me, right here and right now!"
He gave her a wide-eyed look. "Uh…."
"Hiccup," she said again, her voice a bit softer. "I want to help. Really. But…you've learnt all this stuff about dragons that I have no idea about. I can't help you if you don't tell me what you're thinking. And…" she shrugged her shoulders, "I want to know what you've learnt."
"Astrid," Hiccup replied, before reaching out and grasping her upraised arms at the wrists before gently pushing them down. "Thank you. But…" one of his hands went to scratch the back of his head nervously. "Give me a moment, please?"
She folded her arms over her chest and gave him a smirk. "First time having to do something like this?"
"Explain dragon training? Yes."
"I realise that," Astrid replied with a bit of tension in her voice and forced herself to relax. "No, I meant 'first time having to explain your thinking'."
"Well, no," Hiccup admitted, "It's just the last times were usually explaining to Gobber…or my Dad." The expression on his face added the subtext usually after a disaster of my making.
"Oh," Astrid replied - she could see that neither of those would've been pleasant. "Need a hand?"
"An open hand, or a closed fist?"
"Hiccup…" Astrid groaned with an eye roll. "Fine. What is 'dragon-nip'?"
"Oh!" He immediately perked up before pulling a small sprig of half-dried grass out from the cuff of his boot. "It's a plant that dragons love. It grows in a meadow just over there," he explained, pointing to a place above the darkened rim of the sinkhole, before approaching Toothless again. "Watch this," he announced.
Astrid, curiosity aroused again and following Hiccup closely, nearly ran into his back when he stopped abruptly. "On second thoughts…" he muttered before he grabbed one of her hands and dropped the sprig into it. "Off you go," Hiccup announced, indicating an alert Toothless with a sweep of his arm.
Astrid brought the sprig close to her face but the moonlight was too dim for her to figure out what type of grass it was. She gave Hiccup a look before extending the hand holding the sprig towards Toothless, who took a couple of deep sniffs. Astrid took his dilating eyes to be a good sign and took a cautious step forward - only to jump back with a yelp as the dragon lunged.
Her retreat was stopped as she backed into Hiccup, one of his arms going around her waist as Toothless homed in on her hand holding the sprig, urgently sniffing at it. "Rub it against his nose," she heard Hiccup murmur into her ear - she did so and the Night Fury purred and squirmed in delight. Toothless dropped to the ground, rolling over a bit and Hiccup let go of her as she followed, continuing to hold the sprig to the dragon's snout. She unexpectedly giggled at Toothless' antics, which was answered by Hiccup's laugh to her left.
She looked up to see him with a delighted smile on his face to match hers as he crouched next to her, watching her use the dragon-nip and complimenting her by rubbing the dragon's head with his hands.
"I used this on the Gronckle," he explained, and her smile grew wider as she remembered the big dragon tumbling over with what seemed to be a wave of his hand - and now she knew why. She laughed again as she re-focused on Toothless and redoubled her efforts with the dragon-nip, causing the dragon's eyes to start rolling back into its head.
"Okay, I think that's enough pampering, you useless reptile," Hiccup affectionately chided before taking the sprig out of Astrid's hand and tucking it away again. Toothless responded with a sour look at him, which Astrid echoed. Hiccup rolled his eyes in response.
She reached out to stroke one of the dragon's ears like she'd seen Hiccup do earlier. "And the eels?" she asked, then snatched her hand away as the dragon abruptly withdrew its head, eyes narrowing.
"Toothless!" Hiccup chided again, then held out a hand to guide Astrid back to her feet. "Dragons don't like eels," he explained, gesturing to Toothless as the dragon snarled in response. "Oi! Toothless, enough." The dragon stopped hissing but continued to glare warily at Hiccup.
"See what I mean?" Hiccup said to Astrid, before holding out his empty hands to the dragon. "Don't you worry, Mr. Suspicious - I haven't got any eel on me. Besides, you would've smelled it long beforehand."
"And the Terror followed that spot of light that you made with the shield," Astrid recalled. Hiccup turned to her with a bit of a surprised look - she returned one that said I'm not as dumb or as clueless as you may think - before that endearing, lopsided smile appeared again.
"So, how is this plan going to work, Hiccup?" she asked. The smile on Hiccup's face disappeared with a sigh.
"It'll have to be in two parts," he began, the hand going up to the back of his head again - something which Astrid was beginning to associate with Hiccup being nervous. "Remember what Njal tried a few years ago? Gobber now makes sure to check inside the ring for anything that's not supposed to be there before the trial begins."
Astrid nodded seriously - it was hard to forget Njal's misadventure. Being banished to Outcast Island straight afterwards had made just as strong an impression on her ten-year-old self. Gobber had reminded them all of that episode a score of days ago, plus given them a strong warning not to try anything as stupid. She hadn't realised, though, that Gobber did an extra inspection of the ring - she figured that Hiccup was aware of it because he was apprenticed to the two-limbed smith.
"That means that I can't sneak eels or dragon-nip in beforehand, so Plan F has to be my first idea - trying to knock down the Nightmare with a chin scratch," Hiccup continued. At least this time he looked embarrassed about the idea.
Astrid sighed, but she could see his point. "I guess, if it has to be like that," she conceded. "And Plan U is…what?"
Once again, Hiccup looked uncomfortable, eyes darting around and hands trying to find anything to fiddle with.
"Does Plan U involve eels -" she began but Hiccup interrupted her
"Yes! Yes it does, and 'nip too," he blurted out, sounding desperate. "I - ah…" He trailed off with a nervous swallow, staring at her with wide eyes. Astrid gave him a quizzical look back as she tried to figure out what he was nervous about.
Finally, she decided to take a guess. "I can help out if you want."
"R- really?" Hiccup said, a beaming smile once again spreading across his face. "Great!"
Astrid found herself mirroring the smile. "So, what do you need?" she asked.
"Ummm…" Hiccup looked around the clearing in thought, finger on chin, before making his way towards his basket; Astrid followed him, picking up her boots as they passed by them. "Do you think you could bring a basket of fish and eels to the ring tomorrow?" Hiccup asked over his shoulder.
"Sure can," she answered, pulling on her boots with an unfortunate squelch. "When do you want me to bring them?"
"Just before the beginning of the test will be okay, I think," Hiccup replied, kneeling next to the basket and flipping the lid open. "If you're happy to be my backup," he continued, turning to look her in the face.
She nodded solemnly and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I am," she confirmed. Hiccup smiled at her again before turning his attention back to the basket. "What about the dragon-nip?"
"I'll harvest that tonight, put it in this basket and stash it in the back room of the forge," he said as he began to remove his things from the basket. Then he stopped as his head came up in thought. "Actually, do you think you'd be able to pick up this basket as well? I'm going to be occupied with all the ceremonial stuff beforehand."
"No problem," she replied, as she stepped away from the small pile beginning to form next to Hiccup, hands on hips as she thought out loud.
"So I can fit an eel through the holes in the gate, but I wouldn't be able to throw them to you, Hiccup." She tapped a finger against her lips, the other arm folded across her chest. "And with the dragon-nip - I think you should make little bundles of it, so I can push those - whoa!"
Hiccup had suddenly jumped up and shot past her, giving her a quick "Sorry!" over his shoulder as he did so. She followed what he was doing briefly - something with the fur - and as she turned around, her foot brushed the small pile of things that Hiccup had removed from the basket.
She looked down at the collection and the pair of small, thin books caught her eye immediately. She quickly snatched both of them up from the ground. Paper and books were expensive, and she had been taught to always treat them with respect. She brushed the little bit of debris from the covers as she turned them over in her hands, puzzled.
"Sorry, Astrid, what were you saying-" Hiccup's voice alerted her to his return, but it was the sharp intake of breath that made her look up. The expression on his face was…well, not a scowl, but it wasn't a friendly expression. And he had his hand out.
She handed the books over. "Sorry." The contrite expression stayed on her face for a second before curiosity took over again. "But why take books with you?"
Hiccup paused for a moment before taking one of the books, flipping it open at a specific page and wordlessly handing it back to her. Both leaves had a sketch of Toothless on them, one showing the dragon at rest, the other having him looking quizzically at his tail - the moonlight was not bright enough for her to make out the details, but she guessed that one of the fins was the artificial one.
"These are amazing," she murmured, and meant it. She'd had a peek at Hiccup's drawing ability when she'd inadvertently stumbled into his little nook at the back of the forge whilst he had been fiddling with her axe, but she'd never seen his work up close before. Even under Máni's weak light, she could tell that the drawings were good.
She gently closed the book and handed it back to Hiccup. "Thank you," she said, just as Hiccup muttered a "thanks" under his breath as well. His head popped up in surprise. "Wait, what?" he said, turning to face her.
"For letting me see that," Astrid replied. "I didn't realise how private they were…" she shrugged. "I just saw expensive books on the ground, and I've always been taught that they should be treated better than that." Hiccup looked at the book in his hand as Astrid tried to keep her jealousy from showing. In her entire life, the most paper she had ever had at one time was five sheets and she had used those sparingly, scrap by scrap until what was left of them was covered in charcoal. The only actual book she had seen was the Book of Dragons - and Hiccup had two books of his own, even if they were small. But she figured that was one of the privileges of being the son of the chief.
"You're right," Hiccup said, "I should treat them better." His gaze flicked up to meet hers. "I guess I would've learnt that pretty quickly if I'd left." Her heart leapt at his use of past tense - that meant that he'd permanently decided not to leave, right?
"But it's not just because they're expensive," he continued, looking down at the book again. "My father gave- givesthem to me." This appeared to have much more significance to Hiccup than Astrid realised because otherwise, he seemed to be stating the obvious - she didn't think that he could purchase them himself, chief's son or not.
"He and Johann ha-…have an arrangement - I found out on Johann's last visit, last season," he continued, finger delicately tracing over the cover of the book in his hand. "He brings along paper and sometimes books - if he can get them - and my dad bought… buys, definitely, buys all of it."
Astrid knew that Johann had already visited twice this season, once on his way north from Alba, and again on his way back from Ísland. She also remembered that he had a surplus of paper to sell on both legs, and she'd grabbed two large-ish sheets of it, the most she'd been able to trade for.
Hiccup gave a shaky sigh. "Every now and again, I'd come down from my bedroom in the morning and there would be paper, or a book, lying on the stairs." He gave a decidedly wet-sounding sniff. "Of course, he'd never give it to me in person -" the next bit was muttered, but Astrid thought she heard yelling at each other and doesn't listen "- anyways." There was another sniff.
Another memory of hers surfaced - Stoick's very public berating of Hiccup after that last raid. Whilst the other kids had snickered and teased Hiccup, she had sat silently behind them. At the time, she'd agreed with what Stoick had said, just not the fact that he wasn't waiting until they were in the privacy of their hall. A little bit later, once she'd had her dagmal and had wound down from the excitement of the raid, she'd thought a bit more about what Hiccup had done and realised that on that occasion, none of it had really been his fault. The Nightmare could've burnt down that torch pole chasing after somebody else. It was just the fact that it was Hiccup and he'd earned himself a reputation by that point…
She glanced at him; he'd straightened up and was staring off into the distance - no he wasn't, he was looking intensely at his dragon, who was looking back just as intensely.
Toothless made a whuffing sound and that broke the spell; Hiccup shook his head and blinked a couple of times. "Right," he said, before putting the books down amongst his other stuff on the ground (and she quickly picked them back up again; they'd looked at each other before he rolled his eyes and muttered "whatever").
"So, that fur is drying off -"
"How?" Astrid asked, looking at Hiccup. He looked up at her, then at Toothless again; she followed his gaze to see the fur draped over the Night Fury's back with steam rising from it. She snorted in amusement before she and Hiccup locked gazes again. "Dragon," they both said nonchalantly, and that caused them to break into giggles.
"How are you going to harvest the grass?" she asked, unconsciously shifting her feet as she did so, causing her boot to catch on a leather strap jutting out from Hiccup's pile of things. As she lifted her foot clear, the strap shifted again, and she noticed the decorated blade-holding sheath attached to it. Curiosity got the better of her again and she reached down to pick it up.
It turned out to be a leather belt, with two leather scabbards attached, each holding a small seax and all richly decorated. "Wow," she breathed, running her thumb over the intricate patterns etched into the belt. Her parents owned some clothes with similar patterning, but nothing this detailed.
"Where did you get this from, Hiccup? I've never seen anything this well - oh, you made this!" She realised, and she looked up at him with a wide-eyed smile. "This is fantastic!"
Other than being equally wide-eyed, Hiccup's expression was hard to make out. His hand was twisted in the hair at the back of his head again and his mouth didn't seem to know whether to smile or scowl or do something else. "Uh- yes, yes, I made that. All of that," he admitted hesitantly. "Uh, there's a small machete in that pile that I can use-"
"This thing?" Astrid asked, handing the books back to Hiccup before picking up the tool in question, without letting go of the belt and the daggers it held. She pulled a bit of the machete blade out of its sheath — well-made and sharp like all of Hiccup's tools were, but this was purely functional — before pushing it back home again and brusquely handing the tool to Hiccup so that she could get back to studying the belt and daggers. She took a couple of steps away from him in the direction of the moon, as if that could increase the light, she could use to study the amazing piece of work in her hands.
Satisfied with her examination of the leatherwork, she turned her attention to the blades within them. She carefully worked one of the daggers loose so that she could see the blade. It was as well-made as the machete she had briefly looked at, except that there was some more intricate knotwork along the flat of the blade, towards the spine, and the edge appeared to be wickedly sharp - she resisted the urge to test it with her thumb. As she rolled the seax around, she could feel the decorations on the hilt and she turned her attention to them next.
She made out the bird motif easily enough, but the moonlight was not bright enough to allow her to make out the details. Frustrated, she turned her attention to the other seax which also had a bird motif on the hilt. She spun the dagger she was holding until the two hilts were next to each other, straining to make out the details -
"Huginn and Muninn!" she cried, the answer leaping into her head. She looked up at Hiccup who was standing a few paces to one side, still with the wide-eyed look on his face and hands clasped together nervously. "They're Huginn and Muninn, right?"
"Uh- ye- uh, yes, yes - that's right," Hiccup confirmed. "Astrid-"
"These are amazing," she said once more, giving the exposed blade another quick look before putting it back in its sheath, but she still kept hold of the whole assembly. "Who did you make this for?"
"Um- er…" Hiccup swallowed nervously. "I- ah- I- I made it…ah…I guess…" He gave a palms-up shrug. "For myself?"
She gave him a sharp look at this. "What do you mean, for yourself?" There was one way to test that - she and Hiccup were about the same size, and she quickly wrapped the belt around her waist, noting how well it fit. "If you made all this for yourself, how come I've never seen you with it, even at a thing or a blót?"
"Well- er…" Hiccup chuckled nervously. "I- ah, I made them as a test. Yes, as a test for myself."
"To see what you could do?" Astrid asked, and Hiccup nodded. She unwrapped the belt from her waist and held the assembly out in front of her again. "Why take it with you?"
"Because it would be a quick and easy way of demonstrating my skills to another forge master if I went looking for work somewhere," Hiccup replied, then sighed and held out his hand. "Astrid…"
She gave his hand a look of distaste. She didn't want to give back the belt and the daggers it held; they seemed to be a perfect fit for her - she'd even noted how well the hilts suited her hands! Still, Hiccup held his hand out, unwavering, and with a grumble she handed them back.
"I want to have another look at them in daylight, Hiccup," she demanded, and he misstepped briefly as he returned the belt and daggers to the pile of his belongings. Returning to where she was standing, he brushed the front of his tunic with his hands as he looked up at Máni, took a couple of steps to the side, and then did a double take. "I didn't realise how late it was," he remarked. That made Astrid take her own look at where the moon was, and she gasped.
"Mother is going to kill me!"
Hiccup yelped and cringed at her pronouncement, his fists coming up under his chin. "Oh! Astrid, I'm really sorry - I should've realised how late it was getting! I'm sorry I kept you here, I should've let you go-"
"Hiccup!" Astrid reached for his shoulders before stopping and reconsidering what she was trying to do, then gently grasped his wrists and pulled his arms down, taking his hands in hers as she did so.
"Hiccup, you are not to blame for me staying too late," she said, looking him in the eye. "I chose to stay here." She hesitated a moment, then grabbed him and wrapped him up in a hug. He yelped, hands finally settling around her shoulders after a few moments where he didn't seem to know where to put them.
"And I'm really glad I did so," Astrid murmured into his ear. She gave him a squeeze and then let him go, pleased to see the endearing smile back on his face again, which she returned.
"So, one basket of fish and eels for the ring tomorrow - you're sure that's all you'll need?" She asked and Hiccup gave a firm nod.
"And the basket of dragon-nip," he reminded her.
"Of course," she confirmed. "In the back room of the forge?"
"Yes, in the back room. Because Gobber will be busy preparing the ring, you should have no trouble getting the basket out." He frowned. "Are you sure you're going to be OK dealing with your mother?"
Astrid shrugged. "I'll figure something out," she replied with a lopsided smile, echoing his earlier statement. Then she gripped his shoulders firmly. "Don't you stay out too late either; just get the 'nip and come back," she admonished. "You'll need to rest up before tomorrow." He smiled at her, one of his hands coming up to grasp one of hers.
"Thank you," he said softly, "for being understanding."
Astrid's smile grew wider, then she threw caution to the wind and kissed him on the cheek again, before giving him one final squeeze and letting go. "Good night, Hiccup!" she said, then with a final wave (which Hiccup returned shyly), she made her way out of the sunken clearing and up the ravine, feeling as though she was floating across the ground.
Astrid stood next to the south gate of the training ring the following afternoon, anxiety twisting her insides. She had promised Hiccup - she couldn't fail him now.
Unfortunately, she hadn't escaped her mother's ire, although she'd managed to successfully sneak back into her hall the previous evening. The next morning though, her mother had roused her at their normal waking time and after some rather intense questioning about where she'd been all of yesterday afternoon and evening, promptly put Astrid to work doing the chores she'd missed the previous day. This meant that a chance for her to slip down to the fishmongers for a basket of fish and a selection of eels, and sneak it over to the training ring, became less and less likely as the sun continued to rise.
By the time dagmal had come around, she was starting to get worried. The sight of Hiccup at the High Table in the Great Hall, dressed in ceremonial finery, merely increased her fretting. Then a stroke of luck had fallen her way…
"Hey, Astrid!" Ruffnut had called as she had sat down next to her with a bump. "Where did you disappear to yesterday?"
She wasn't sure if it had been a genius idea or a product of insanity, but it had taken little work to convince Ruffnut to grab the fish and eels on her behalf - especially when she had sold it as a chance for her (Astrid) to upstage Hiccup's 'crowning glory' and 'remind him that he's only a hiccup'. Neither Thorston twin could pass by the opportunity to create a little chaos, so Ruffnut had readily agreed. Astrid couldn't bring herself to look in Hiccup's direction once their 'scheming' had concluded, although she had felt his eyes on her back as she had left the hall after finishing her meal. Now she kept an eye out for the boy as well as Ruffnut as the rest of the village streamed excitedly towards the training ring. There was a lot of speculation about what the Hope and Heir would do to the Monstrous Nightmare.
Boy, are they sure in for a surprise, Astrid thought. Then she yelped as someone bumped her shoulder from behind and she spun around, only to release the fistful of furs that she had grabbed when she recognised Ruffnut.
"Easy, Astrid, easy!" Ruffnut soothed, then dropped the basket she was carrying between them before flipping up the lid. "This what you were after?"
Astrid looked into the top of the basket and saw what appeared to be a dozen black-and-yellow eels, on top of lots of fresh fish. Perfect.
"This is just what I wanted, Ruffnut!" Astrid exclaimed. "Thanks - I owe you one!"
"No worries, Astrid," Ruffnut replied. Then she spied the similar-looking basket sitting behind Astrid. "What's that?"
"That's my own contribution," Astrid said in a guileful tone. She gave Ruffnut a wink and received a sly smile in return before Tuffnut appeared at their shoulders.
"Look out - Hiccup's on his way," he warned, and there was a flurry of movement as they made to hide the two baskets from the approaching boy of the moment. They all smiled and waved at Hiccup as he passed them, descending into the main south gate - Astrid hoped that her smile looked less forced and deceitful. As Hiccup disappeared down the slope, Astrid turned to Ruffnut.
"Time for me to set this up," she announced. "I'll leave these up here until he enters the ring." She indicated the baskets they'd tucked under the viewing platform, behind the stairs flanking the main entry.
Tuffnut and Ruffnut nodded, sharing conspiratorial smiles. "This sounds like it's going to be spectacular!" Tuffnut crowed.
"It'll be like nothing the tribe has ever seen before," Astrid promised, feeling relief that she could at least tell the truth for once. Then she turned and made her way down the ramp of the gate to where Hiccup was standing, helmet in hand.
He only saw her at the last moment, but his startled turn changed to a semi-relaxed half-smile once he noticed who it was. Something about her looked a bit off, Hiccup thought after a moment - she did seem a bit more off-kilter than she normally was, and he hoped that their late evening yesterday wasn't the cause (if he remembered it correctly). Then he realised that her kransen had been replaced by a plain leather thong. He mentally shrugged - he figured that she had left the heirloom behind to avoid it getting damaged.
"H- Hi Astrid," he said, quashing his nerves about talking to her. "How are you feeling?"
"Ugh," she replied, taking her head in her hands and giving it a shake. "My head feels bent and twisted inside."
"How come?" he asked, mentally commiserating because his head felt the same way when he thought about yesterday evening.
"I got it from my mother this morning," Astrid explained, "Which meant that I couldn't get the fish and eels myself, so I drafted in Ruffnut to help."
"Ruffnut?" Hiccup queried with a raised eyebrow. "How worried should I be?"
"I convinced Ruff that this is all a set-up for me to get back at you for 'stealing my honour and glory'," she sighed. "Do you know how difficult it is, to convince the village's two Loki-worshiping mischief-makers that I'm scheming against you when I'm really using them to help you instead - without them knowing?"
Hiccup couldn't help but snicker at that; no wonder she looked out of sorts. "I can see why you feel that you've bent your brain," he remarked with a grin, feeling brave enough to tease her a bit. "If you come by the forge after this is all over, I'll see if I can beat it into shape again."
She let out her own snicker in turn. "I feel that it'll probably take Gobber's help to do that," she teased back.
"Maybe," Hiccup conceded, "but I'll be gentler on you than Gobber." There was a moment, then he risked bumping a shoulder of his into hers, which she returned with a smile of her own. This helped convince himself that his memories of the previous evening with her weren't part of a fantastical dream.
Their moment of silent bonding was broken by Snotlout's voice from the top of the ramp, loudly proclaiming how Hiccup was going to "pulverise that Nightmare!". Both of them looked up to see Hiccup's cousin pass by on his way to the viewing platform on the other side of the gate, then looked at each other.
"I don't know what's more embarrassing," Hiccup admitted. "Snotlout proclaiming that I won't amount to anything, or Snotlout proclaiming that I'm going to be the death of dragon-kind in Midgard."
"I'll raise you one - it's more embarrassing for me to realise only now that Snotlout has been praising your dragon- uh, 'handling' abilities, not putting you down, and I was around to hear most of it," Astrid conceded, realising that her obsession with Hiccup's improbable and then-unexplainable successes in dragon training had blinded her to what was going on in the wider world around her. Hiccup took a look at her remorseful expression and once again, gave her an endearing half-smile, which Astrid couldn't help but match. The smile quickly disappeared, however, when Stoick got up onto the dais and began speaking.
Astrid felt her fists clench as Stoick's speech continued. Here the elder Haddock stood, effectively announcing to the whole village that Hiccup had previously lost his trust and had only regained it now that he seemed to show some dragon-fighting prowess. The boy's decision to run away no longer seemed as outlandish as it had been the previous night. She glanced to her left and on seeing Hiccup's tense expression, reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. He gave her a look of thanks.
Stoick's speech ended with cries of "Hiccup! Hiccup!" from the crowd, and Astrid squeezed his shoulder. "Be careful with that dragon, Hiccup," she said softly.
"It's not the dragon I'm worried about," Hiccup replied, as he watched his father take his place in the chieftain's throne.
"Are you feeling up to this?" she asked. He nodded, a little nervously.
"I have to put an end to this," he said with determination. "I have to try." He turned to look at her fully.
"Astrid, if something goes wrong…just make sure they don't find Toothless," he pleaded. Astrid nodded, then wrapped him in a hug.
"If something goes wrong, I'll be here for you - I promise," she murmured into his ear, then released him after a quick kiss on the cheek. He nodded as she held his shoulders.
"It's time, Hiccup," Gobber said as he came around the corner, indicating the interior of the ring with his good hand. "Knock 'em dead!"
With one last look at Astrid, Hiccup slowly put the helmet on his head and stepped into the ring, Gobber pulling the gate down behind him. As Hiccup made his way towards the weapons stand, Astrid split her attention between him and Gobber and once the burly smith had exited and shut the top gate and headed to the right, Astrid darted back up the ramp. She pushed against the closed top gate, knowing that it would need a bit of effort from her to budge, but gasped in surprise as it jerked open a lot more easily than she expected. She blinked to see Ruffnut and Tuffnut at the top of the ramp, one hand each on the gate and shocked expressions on their faces.
"I know sometimes I really need to act to sell an idea," Tuffnut announced, "but that looks like taking it a bit too far."
"Shut it, Tuffnut," Astrid hissed, "there's no time! Quick, give me the baskets." Both twins complied without another word, and she soon had both baskets at the bottom of the ramp, but Astrid was so focused on preparing for her role that she missed the twins remaining at the top of the ramp, wondering what she was about to do.
Back in the ring, Hiccup selected his armaments: a shield, and to everyone's surprise, a small knife. "Hm," Stoick muttered to Gobber. "I would've gone for the hammer."
The cheering quieted down as Hiccup took a deep breath, preparing himself. Even knowing that Astrid was helping out behind him couldn't quell his nerves…not only because he was facing a Monstrous Nightmare, but because he was about to reveal himself to the whole tribe - and his father. "I'm ready," he finally called out.
The windlasses clattered into motion, drawing out the pins securing the doors to the last and heretofore unopened pen. There was a brief pause, then the doors all but exploded outwards in a shower of flame, revealing the very, very angry, Monstrous Nightmare of a dragon, fire wreathing its body.
Hiccup watched, not daring to move a muscle as the snarling, flaming red dragon scrambled up the wall of the ring to his left, letting out a blast of fire through the cage that the spectators had to evade in a hurry. The Nightmare continued up the links to the roof of the cage where it finally noticed the tiny boy below, and stopped.
Despite all his experiences with Toothless and the other training dragons so far, Hiccup would admit to feeling a bit fearful of the Nightmare as it descended from the top of the cage to the floor in front of him, and slowly advanced as Hiccup began to back away. The crowd fell silent in anticipation, eager to see what the Hope and Heir would do to strike the fearsome beast down.
None of them were expecting the Hope and Heir to simply drop his seax and shield to the floor of the ring, least of all his father. "What is he doing?" Stoick asked, unsettled.
One spectator, however, was expecting this, and Astrid watched on in trepidation as she crouched by the baskets, one hand on the lid that would reveal the eels. She'd spent a few frantic moments as the dragon had been released tying up a couple more bundles of dragon-nip to add to what Hiccup had done the night before. "Come on, Hiccup - you can do this," she murmured under her breath.
The Nightmare also wasn't quite sure what sort of trap the young Viking was setting for him, and continued to advance slowly, snarling all the while. "Hey, it's okay," Hiccup reassured the dragon, "it's okay." Carefully, he lifted his hands to his helmet and removed it from his head with a look up at the surrounding crowd. "I'm not one of them," he announced, mostly to the dragon, and flung the helmet aside with a clang. The Nightmare took a look at the discarded helmet, then back at the Viking boy, puzzlement growing. There were gasps around the ring, and Astrid was frozen in her crouch, transfixed at the sight. Up on his throne, Stoick leant forward, his unease increasing. "Stop the fight," he ordered.
"No!" Hiccup exclaimed from the floor of the ring, growing more and more confident as the Nightmare's snarls tapered off. "I need you all to see this," he announced, carefully extending a hand towards the dragon's snout. "They're not what we think they are," he continued, hand inches away from touching the dragon's scales. "We don't have to kill them."
More gasps arose from the watching Vikings, who then turned to see Stoick's reaction. The chief didn't disappoint. "I SAID STOP THE FIGHT!" he bellowed, jumping up from the throne and bashing his warhammer against the bars of the cage for emphasis.
The clang echoed through the arena, startling the Monstrous Nightmare who promptly took a snap at Hiccup's outstretched arm, before following up with a blast of fire. Screaming, Hiccup jumped back and ran away in a panic, the enraged Nightmare in hot pursuit. "HICCUP!" Astrid screamed, then hurried to start shoving eels through the gaps in the gate, cursing herself for not paying closer attention. Up on the viewing platform, Stoick turned and began pushing his way through the crowd, once again heading to his wayward son's rescue and hoping that he could stop the past from reoccurring.
In a small sunken clearing to the northwest of the village, another dragon was alerted to the cries and immediately began scrambling to find a way out of the sinkhole.
Hiccup was doing his own scrambling around the ring, barely managing to keep ahead of the fearsome red dragon, cursing his panicked jump away from the south gate where Astrid was waiting. Hearing the girl calling his name, he turned towards her voice, belatedly realising through his panic that she had put his backup plan into action, with a pile of eels and some bundles of dragon-nip now on the ring side of the gate, whilst she was busy levering up the gate with a borrowed axe. Lungs heaving, Hiccup sprinted towards her, dodging another blast of fire as he did so. He didn't dare stop running and instead crashed into the now partly-open south gate at near-full-speed with his shoulder and hip, before quickly picking up an eel from the small pile and flinging it in the general direction of the charging Monstrous Nightmare.
As luck would have it, the dragon unleashed another fiery blast at the same time and the eel ended up passing through the flame. The stench of cooked eel suddenly permeated the arena as the blackened fish landed on the end of the Nightmare's snout, just in front of the short horn and right over its nostrils. The dragon recoiled and flung the distasteful burnt eel away, only to have another two fresh eels fly through the air, one landing behind its head and the other smacking into its eyes.
Roaring at the insult, the Nightmare backed up another few steps and shook off the offending fish, trying to find the source - but not before another eel landed on it, this time impaling itself on a tooth. The dragon bucked and reared, desperate to get the slimy thing away from its mouth, demolishing the weapons stand as it did so.
"Wow, good shot Astrid!" Hiccup cheered. Astrid, now also standing in the ring with another eel in hand, ready to throw, merely gave him a cocky smile as they watched the Nightmare thrash across the floor of the ring, preoccupied with removing the previous fish. "I think it's time to change tactics, though," Hiccup muttered, reaching for a bundle of dragon-nip.
Having finally removed the eel from its tooth, the thoroughly irritated Nightmare shook its head and looked around to find the Viking that annoyed it so. Seeing not one, but two of them standing near each other, the dragon inhaled and unleashed a blast of fire in their direction, mainly aiming towards the one holding another odious eel. As it did so, however, the dragon felt something enter its mouth and a strong, soothing, numbing fragrance filled its nostrils from the inside as the thing caught fire.
Astrid scrambled back to her feet after dodging the stream of fire, quickly seeking out the Nightmare to anticipate its next move. She didn't quite expect to find a cross-eyed beast, smoke streaming from its nostrils, staggering around as if it was drunk and she watched, frozen in astonishment as the dragon crashed into the eastern wall of the ring and slumped to the ground. Hiccup, however, had anticipated this and was trying to scramble under the partly open south gate to get at the fish basket when the gate suddenly retracted upwards. He let go of it with a yelp before the gate dragged him into the roof with it and when he was on his feet again, he found himself facing Ruffnut and Tuffnut, with Tuffnut wearing the most serious expression Hiccup had ever seen on his face. Behind him was Fishlegs, who was sharing confused looks with Ruffnut. Snotlout's eager commentary floated down from the top of the ramp.
Tuffnut pointed an accusatory finger at Hiccup. "Explain yourself, young man!" he demanded.
"I'd love to, but sorry," Hiccup apologised whilst grabbing a pair of decently sized fish from the basket. "I've got a dragon to tame. 'Scuse me," he finished with a genial half-smile, before darting out the gate again, swiping another bundle of 'nip as he did so.
"Hiccup!" Astrid called out as he passed by but he ignored her, focused on the slumped red dragon as he trotted up to it. Whilst it seemed to have shaken off the most intense effects of the dose of dragon nip, he could see that its pupils weren't fully slitted - a good sign. He slowed down when he was a few alnar away from the Nightmare's snout.
"It's okay," he murmured, holding up the pair of fish. "Want something to eat?"
The dragon took a couple of sniffs, then extended its snout towards Hiccup. Slowly but firmly, Hiccup stepped forward as the fang-lined mouth opened up, then carefully deposited one of the fish inside. The mouth snapped closed and as the fish was quickly swallowed, Hiccup transferred the other fish to the hand holding the 'nip bundle and gently placed his free hand on the Nightmare's snout. There were shouts from the spectators above, and someone gasped off to his left - he wasn't sure if it was Astrid or one of the others.
He stayed there for a moment, not looking directly at the dragon but slightly to the side and downwards, although he made sure that he could see the dragon's eyes out of the corner of his own. When the Nightmare slowly closed its own eyes briefly and its pupils expanded to their full extent, he let out the breath he didn't realise he had been holding.
"There we go," he said softly, giving the snout a brief rub. "Want another fish?" The dragon purred in answer, and the second fish was deposited in the Nightmare's mouth and swallowed as quickly as the first. Hiccup felt himself smiling as he continued to rub the warm snout, the buzzing purrs shivering up his arm.
Astrid stood still as she watched Hiccup gently pet the dragon that only moments ago had been trying to kill the boy, eyes and mouth wide and arms limp. She didn't dare blink or breathe as she watched Hiccup slowly move up the dragon's snout until he was next to the dragon's jowl, then apply his fingers to the pressure point and give it a gentle rub. Slowly, the Nightmare closed its eyes and laid its head down on the ground, and she swayed as she remembered to breathe again. Hiccup turned and gave her a smile and a wave, one hand still stroking the pressure point, and she gave him a lopsided, relieved smile and a wave back - unfortunately, with the hand still holding the eel.
Suddenly, a rising, whistling shriek filled the air, one that she had heard before but struggled to place for a moment before it suddenly came to her. Night Fury!
Hiccup heard it too, and his elation turned to despair. "Oh no…" he moaned, leaning against the now-rousing Nightmare.
There was a sudden flash and concussion from the top of the cage and red-hot bits of metal flew out in all directions as black and dark-red smoke enveloped the centre of the ring. From the middle of the smoke cloud came a furious, familiar roar and Hiccup scrabbled to keep his fingers on the Nightmare's chin as the red dragon struggled against him.
The smoke cleared enough so that Hiccup could recognise the dragon that had arrived and as he had feared, it was Toothless. His scaly companion spotted him, then recognised the Nightmare behind him and the Night Fury's eyes narrowed in anger as he adopted a fighting stance and bellowed a challenge. The Nightmare finally shook Hiccup loose and opened its mouth to roar its own response, accompanied by a warning spurt of fire, but Hiccup took that opportunity to throw the spare bundle of 'nip into its mouth and the Nightmare collapsed once again in a cross-eyed stupor. Toothless, observing the incapacitation of his target, advanced through the thinning smoke with a snarl.
"Toothless, NO!" Hiccup commanded but the enraged black dragon ignored him, slowly prowling closer. "ASTRIIIIID!" Hiccup cried in desperation.
"HEY, TOOTHLESS!" Astrid yelled at the top of her lungs and the black dragon paused, swinging his head around to figure out the new voice that was calling his name. He spied the young Viking girl that he had gotten to know last evening, dismissed her as a problem and turned his head back towards the true threat, growling a warning for his Viking companion to get out of the way. Astrid looked around in desperation for a weapon and shield - maybe she could make some noise - until she remembered that she was still holding an eel.
"Toothless, STOP!" Hiccup shouted and the Night Fury paused again, puzzled as to why his stubborn Viking wouldn't move away so that he could attack the other dragon. There was another shout of "HEY, TOOTHLESS!" from the side, just before an eel struck the black dragon in the head.
Toothless whirled around to face his impertinent attacker - the Viking girl again! He snarled at her but she was undeterred, lobbing another foul eel at him. He flung it away with a flick of his head and roared a warning at her.
"That's right - you can't dismiss me that easily!" Astrid taunted as she threw another eel at the black dragon. "You pay attention to me now!"
Toothless barked at her, unleashing a blast of purple fire in her general direction as a warning shot. It struck the corner of the south gate, causing hot fragments of rock to fly out which all the children dived away from. One of the fragments bounced into the small pile of 'nip bundles, causing them to begin smouldering. Smelling the strong fragrance, Astrid snapped her head around to look, then jumped over to the pile and grabbed a pair of burning bundles.
"HEY, EEL-LOVER!" she yelled at Toothless again and when the dragon opened his mouth to answer, building gas to burn, she threw one of the smoking bundles of 'nip into his throat.
A fireball billowed out of his throat and a startled Toothless closed his mouth with a snap. Smoke jetted out from his nostrils and his eyes crossed as the burning dragon-nip took effect, and he took a few staggering steps before crashing to the floor of the ring, the tip of his tongue sticking out of his mouth. Astrid nearly doubled up in laughter and she could hear Hiccup giggling too.
"Oh, Toothless, you silly dragon!" she called out, before throwing the other burning bundle in between the two dragons where the fronds separated and scattered about, spreading the strong-smelling smoke everywhere. Still laughing, she turned back to the baskets in the south gate, grabbed a pair of fish, took a few steps to where Hiccup was standing by the Nightmare, threw the fish and a fresh bundle of 'nip towards him, before going back for another pair of fish and a bundle of 'nip and heading to where Toothless was slumped.
The black dragon was still out of it when Astrid got to him. She waved a fish in front of his snout without response, then used the fish to prod the snout with the same outcome, before shrugging and dropping both fish in front of his mouth and putting the bundle of 'nip right in front of the dragon's eyes. Still giggling, she ran her hands over the scales of the dragon's head until she reached the back of the crest. She dug her fingers into the scales for a scratch, then turned towards the Nightmare where Hiccup was doing something similar. She gave him a wave and a grin, which he returned. That was too much for her, and she slumped to the floor of the ring as she broke into peals of laughter, Hiccup following suit.
The rest of the tribe watched the tableau in baffled silence - two dangerous dragons, more-or-less resting peacefully on the floor of the ring, and the children that had brought them down sitting beside them, laughing their heads off.
In the south gate, Tuffnut shared a wide-eyed, open-mouthed look with his twin sister, whilst Fishlegs was busy examining the contents of the baskets. "What in Niflheim just happened?" he asked no one in particular. "Whatever it was, it was awesome!" Snotlout crowed behind him with raised fists, and all of them gave the Jorgensen boy a puzzled look.
And in the west gate, Stoick stood stock still, borrowed axe in one hand, his other hand on the back of his head as he asked himself a very similar question to Tuffnut's. He'd rushed to Hiccup's rescue many, many times before, just like he'd been rushing this time around, but improbably - unfathomably - Hiccup had managed to rescue himself. Sure, he'd had Astrid's help, but he hadn't been cowering behind her - he'd been in the thick of the action, fully participating. The thing was, all Stoick could say with confidence about the way the two of them had gone about stopping the dragon was that it was wholly un-Viking-like.
The bit after the two of them had stunned the Nightmare was the difficult bit, because…well, because…actually, because it was so unbelievable, Stoick thought that he must be dreaming. Yes, he must be, because surely he didn't just see Hiccup trot up to a Monstrous Nightmare and pet it on the snout? Perhaps that was why he thought there was a Night Fury in the middle of the ring as well, brought down by brave Astrid in a similarly un-Viking way after the never-before-seen black dragon smashed its way into the ring in broad daylight. Yes, he must be still on the boat coming back from the nest, delirious from lack of food and sleep, dreaming of his son taming dragons in his un-Viking-like manner. He closed his eyes and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, willing his mind not to fly apart like one of Hiccup's contraptions.
A step-thump sound intruded into Stoick's thoughts and blew them away like smoke in a gust of wind, and he became aware of the solidity of the stone under his boots. The stream of invective accompanying the sound of the peg leg confirmed that the approaching person was the burly smith - his good friend that he had left behind on Berk to train up his son, and others. Surprised, the chief turned to look at Gobber…then he realised that Hiccup was the target of his friend's ire and he unwittingly turned to look in the same direction as the smith.
Two dragons lay slumped on the floor of the arena, one black, one red, and his son was calmly seated by the red one. He was back on Berk, standing in one of the gate portals to the training ring, trying to figure out what he had just witnessed.
Stoick turned to look at the smith, eyebrows raised in astonishment. "Gobber?"
"That son o' yours is nothing but trouble!" Gobber announced. "He doesn't listen! He doesn't do as he's told!"
Stoick blinked in surprise at the complaint he'd heard - and uttered - all too often, before resignedly rubbing his brow with his free hand. "That is standard Hiccup procedure, yes," Stoick replied, "I suppose a wholesale change in how he goes about things is a gift even the Gods cannot grant." He let out a long-suffering sigh. "So aside from all this," and he indicated the ring with a sweep of the axe, "what's he done now?"
Gobber pointed an accusatory hook at the black-and-yellow eel that was lying a few alnar away from the gate, where it had landed after the Night Fury had flung it away. "He's used aids! I specifically warned all of them - and Hiccup especially - that aids were forbidden. Students can only use the equipment we've set up for them in the ring for the final test." Good hand on hip, the smith fixed the chief with a gimlet-eyed glare. "And I can't make an exception for the Hope and Heir."
Stoick looked from Gobber to the indicated eel, then back to Gobber, then to where Hiccup was seated next to the dozing Monstrous Nightmare. Stoick lifted the axe to indicate the ring and opened his mouth to speak…but found that he couldn't think of the right words for what he wanted to say. He closed his mouth with a snap, squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. Opening his eyes to look at the inside of the ring again, he tried once more but it was still a struggle. "Aids? But…but…what Hiccup did - I - I've never seen -"
"Oh, that?" Gobber said, looking over to where Hiccup was sitting with the Nightmare, then dismissed it with a wave of his good hand. "That there is now also standard Hiccup procedure. He makes the beastie of the day fall to the floor and then just stands there, not fussed at all about it."
The head-flying-apart feeling was back, prompting Stoick to squeeze his eyes shut. He put a hand on the wall to steady himself and took a couple of deep breaths before pushing himself upright and stabbing the axe in his hand at where Hiccup and the Nightmare were, on the opposite side of the ring.
"Hiccup was running from that dragon a few moments ago…" Stoick began.
"Aye," Gobber confirmed.
"Just like he ran and hid from that caged Terrible Terror a winter ago!"
"Aye, I remember that."
"Just like he ran from another Nightmare a few weeks ago!"
"Aye, Stoick…" Gobber agreed patiently - he remembered going through the same thing Stoick was currently experiencing, not that long ago.
"But he…he actually approached that dragon and…" Stoick trailed off. Hiccup had always run from dragons, despite his boasts about wanting to kill them. Even yesterday, he'd waited for the Gronckle to approach him, just like he'd waited for the Nightmare to come closer today instead of rushing to strike it. Stoick had resigned himself to the fact that Hiccup's newfound prowess with the beasts was, in reality, a bit short of the stories Gobber had regaled him with.
But then his son had actually, willingly approached the stunned dragon…and then he'd - he'd…
Stoick screwed his eyes shut and rapped the flat of the axe on his helmet a couple of times, before shaking his head, opening his eyes and looking out into the ring again. No change - there his son was -
"Hiccup's sitting with it like Sven sits with his sheep!" Stoick exclaimed, axe pointing at the duo again. "And that Nightmare lets him! It was trying to kill Hiccup earlier, and now that dragon lets the boy use it as a backrest!"
"Welcome to the new and improved Berk, Stoick," Gobber remarked with a healthy dollop of sarcasm, still scowling at Hiccup. Stoick gave the smith an incredulous look, half wondering if his friend (or maybe the whole village) had been visited by Loki whilst he was away, before turning to look again at the Nightmare, and his son sitting next to it.
"I don't think I've ever heard of a dragon behaving anything like that, ever," Stoick said in an astonished tone.
"I have," Gobber grumbled. "In fact, I've witnessed it - every time Hiccup ever dealt with the beasts, bar the first two instances. Although I was more impressed when I didn't know he was using aids!" The smith looked at the chief and raised an eyebrow. "You've seen it too, yesterday."
"What?" Stoick exclaimed, looking Gobber up and down - he must've been touched by Loki! Then it twigged. "You mean, when Astrid and Hiccup went up against the Gronckle?"
"Aye," Gobber confirmed. "Hiccup dropped the Gronckle with just a touch of his hand."
"But Hiccup hit that dragon with an axe!" Stoick protested, then scratched his temple as he remembered his thoughts about his son's performance. "I mean, it seemed to be a fairly weak blow to me, but he definitely hit it."
"He was holding the axe in his weak hand, Stoick!" Gobber countered, waving his right hand in the air. "You know how Hiccup favours his left hand over his right!"
"He's still doing that…" Stoick grumbled as he cast his thoughts back to the preliminary fight with the Gronckle. It had been so quick, he couldn't really figure out just what had happened - only that when the Gronckle had charged in Hiccup's direction, Hiccup had barely moved to bring the dragon down, with the force of the Gronckle's landing causing Hiccup to lose his weapon, shield and helmet and leaving the boy clinging to the nearest barricade. Actually…had Hiccup used his axe to hit the dragon, like he had first thought? Or had he only touched the dragon with the hand that had just been holding the axe, as Gobber insisted? Stoick stroked his beard as he tried his best to remember exactly what he had seen. The feebleness of the blow had made him doubt Gobber's boasts about what his son had become capable of - but it had still made the dragon drop out of the air.
Goober's voice intruded into his thoughts again. "Ach - I'm sorry, Stoick, it's my fault." Stoick gave his friend a puzzled look as the smith continued the self-criticism. "I should've paid more attention to him, making sure that he wasn't doing anything dishonourable. Instead, I was just glad that he started performing instead of being…well…"
"A hiccup," Stoick finished the sentence for Gobber, then turned to look at the eel on the ground again, before stepping over and picking it up with the point on the end of the axe-handle. He turned it about as he walked back to the west gate, giving it a thorough examination. To him, it looked just like an ordinary eel.
"Most unusual aid I ever saw or heard of," Stoick remarked. Gobber was giving the eel a side-eyed look. "Nothing like Njal tried a few winters ago."
Gobber sighed. "Aye, it looks just like an ordinary eel, and just like the one I removed from the Zippleback's pen - after Hiccup had pretty much scared the beastie back into it." The smith's good hand went up to scratch his head. "Oddest damn thing too, seein' this great big two-headed dragon cowering in the corner from a dead fish on the floor."
"Oh?" Stoick queried, looking up at Gobber. He hadn't mentioned that part about the eel when recounting the tale earlier. "Did you always suspect Hiccup of using aids?"
Gobber sighed again, continuing to scratch his head. "Aye, I did, at first - there was the Zippleback and the eel, of course, then there was the Gronckle - remember I was sayin' that it was the softest punch I'd ever seen anyone give, but the Gronckle reacted like he'd been struck by Mjølnir?" Stoick nodded, remembering the skald-like tale Gobber had spun of Hiccup's second bout with the rock-eating dragon. "It was only after that I realised that Hiccup could've been holding something in his hand," Gobber continued. "So I searched him before the second round with the Nadder."
"And did you find anything?" Stoick asked.
"Just a tuft of grass tucked into the cuff of his boots," Gobber replied, stroking one side of his braided moustache. "He protested that he didn't realise it was there. I took it off him, of course, and made sure that he had nothing else on him other than his ordinary clothes."
"And then he goes and brings down the Nadder with…his bare hands?" Stoick queried, unsure if he was remembering the story right.
"As near as I can gather," Gobber confessed. "I clearly saw Hiccup drop his mace as the Nadder came charging up, and the beast just…stops. Right in front of him too, and Hiccup wasn't in its blind spot, either." The smith shrugged in bewilderment. "Then Astrid makes a second attempt at it but before she can get there, the Nadder just drops to the ground - again, like Hiccup had been wielding Gram itself instead of his empty hands." He gave another shrug. "It was after that that I started believin'."
"Then there was the Terror," Stoick recounted the series of stories Gobber had told him about Hiccup's new-found prowess with the dragons.
"Aye, then there was the Terror," Gobber confirmed with a sigh. "Again, I search the lad before I let him in, only this time he does use one of the provided shields - but like it was Svalinn. He uses it to - urge? Guide? Suggest? - that the Terror let go of Tuffnut and go back into its pen and the wee thing obeys - but at no point does Hiccup or the shield touch the dragon." He sighed again. "The second go with the Zippleback was the only time it looked like he was going to be in trouble, but he eventually managed to bring the beast down again."
The smith's good hand went up to rub his temples before he dragged it down his face. "I don't know, Stoick. I…I just -" He broke off with an exasperated sound. "I know it's bad, the Hope and Heir dishonouring 'imself before the Gods, but we can't make an exception for him. We just can't," Gobber finished. The chief didn't respond, instead continuing his inspection of the eel on the end of the axe-handle. "Like I said, Stoick, I'll put my hand up for failing to keep him in line," Gobber offered. "It's just that…this is the only time it's become absolutely clear to me that he's used aids."
"I understand how you feel, Gobber," Stoick responded in an even tone, "but I won't accept it. Hiccup has become too adept at hiding his plans from us until it's too late. You do not have to answer for that."
"Thank you, Chief," Gobber answered a bit more formally, turning away with a sigh of relief. There was a moment, then Gobber looked at Stoick again, eyes narrowed. "Y'know, Stoick," he remarked, "you're taking this a lot better than I expected."
"Oh?" Stoick replied.
"Aye," Gobber said, pointing his hook at the chief. "You're not nearly as upset about Hiccup's dishonour as I thought you would be."
Stoick gave Gobber a look out of the corner of his eyes. "Yes I am," he responded, but without any emphasis behind it.
To Gobber, that sounded too much like an automatic answer. "No you're not," he challenged back.
"Yes I am," Stoick repeated, still without emphasis.
"No, you're not!" Gobber exclaimed and turned away in exasperation with a shake of his head. Bloody Haddock men,he thought to himself…then he realised what the answer might be, and he turned back to face the chief.
"You're just glad he's alive," he pronounced softly. Stoick gave Gobber another sideways look and then sighed.
"Aye," he agreed softly, then shook his head. "Fourteen winters, Gobber. Fourteen winters she's been gone! He's got no memory of her, except what we've told him, and yet -"
"Aye," Gobber agreed - he'd also picked up on it when Hiccup had made his pronouncement. "It was uncanny, just how well he managed to sound like her."
"It was unnerving, is what it was!" Stoick exclaimed.
"And you thought history would repeat itself," Gobber surmised, and Stoick nodded in agreement.
"Of course," Stoick began, throwing his hands up in exasperation, "Hiccup has to go do his own thing by proving his…point?" He trailed off, then shared a wide-eyed look with the smith as Gobber came to the same conclusion. They both then looked at the eel that was impaled on the axe-handle, then into the ring where the dragons were both lying peacefully, as they had been since the children had subdued them.
"Stoick…" Gobber began slowly, but the chief didn't answer. The smith looked over to find Stoick staring intently at the eel again and frowned - he knew that look.
Once people outside of the tribe - especially non-Vikings - got past the whole stereotypical-Viking-chieftan image, Gobber knew that most people thought of Stoick as a determinator - someone who had goals to meet and by the Gods, he was going to achieve them. Stoick, of course, didn't do much to dispel the notion, but the flip side of this image was that people (again, especially those outside the Hairy Hooligan tribe) also thought of Stoick as stubborn, someone who wouldn't change course once he had plotted it - someone who shied away from new, non-Viking ideas, perhaps because he was too stupid to understand them.
That wasn't quite true, Gobber knew. Stoick was stubborn - actually, the better descriptor was perhaps unyielding, because he had to be, bringing up a boy like Hiccup on an island that was teeming with danger - and that was before one added in the dragon threat. But, Stoick could change his mind. Oh, the chief would challenge the person who came to him and said, I think your current idea isn't going to work, what about this?, just like he'd done when Gobber first proposed that Hiccup join the dragon-training classes. He'd poke and he'd prod and ask to see the new idea from every angle because that was what he had to do as chief. Gobber was well aware that the chief didn't get many opportunities to say oops, that didn't work - let's think it through again because the decisions he made often set into motion long chains of events that couldn't be unwound once unleashed. So 'standard Stoick procedure' was testing and challenging any new idea until he was confident the idea would work, otherwise he'd go back to the tried-and-true Viking way of doing things which he knew would work - which was a position that Gobber fully supported (most of the time).
And this was really at the heart of Stoick's strained relationship with Hiccup, Gobber had realised a long time ago. The Hope and Heir was so bright, so imaginative, so creative and bursting with ideas that anyone put next to him just seemed slow - even Gobber, and especially Stoick. And if Stoick preferred not to take risks with un-Viking thinking, Hiccup seemed to delight in doing so - not deliberately, Gobber believed deep down (and strongly hoped). It was just that Hiccup's curiosity got the better of him at the best of times. Coupled with a desire to make his mark in the tribe that was as strong as his father's desire to keep him out of trouble and one had a recipe for disaster.
As Gobber looked on, Stoick slowly peeled the eel off the spike on the end of his axe handle. He twisted the black-and-yellow fish this way and that as he looked it over, catching the attention of the Night Fury in the middle of the ring as he did so and the dragon lifted its head to watch the chief's actions. Gobber heard Astrid's voice get louder from where she was behind the dragon as the black beast's movement alerted her. The murmuring from the watching villagers hushed as the dragon stirred.
However much Stoick was uninterested in un-tested and un-Viking ideas for the most part, he was not as slow-witted as outsiders thought he was - one did not lead a village of dragon-fighting Vikings for over fifteen years by being stupid. And Gobber knew that Stoick knew how to recognise opportunities as they came along, and how to seize them - sometimes a bit too forcefully, if Gobber allowed himself to be critical of his chief.
Quickly, Stoick wound up and flung the eel straight at the Night Fury, which reared back to avoid it. There was a cry from Astrid as the leaping dragon pushed her out of the way, but she was back on her feet and by the dragon's side before the dragon could finish roaring its challenge to Stoick. Gobber heard her call out something that sounded like "Toothless!" in a chiding tone, one hand rubbing a spot on the beast's back that seemed to make it calm down. She looked around, spotted the eel and looked over to where Gobber and Stoick were standing, before murmuring something to the dragon that caused it to pad back to its previous lounging spot with a snort and a head-toss. As the black dragon settled back down on the floor of the ring and Astrid disappeared behind it, movement on the far side of the ring caught Gobber's eye and he looked over to see the Nightmare's head also lowering back down, with Hiccup also rubbing a spot behind the red dragon's crest. Up above the ring, the muttering from the spectators increased again.
Gobber looked over at Stoick to see him with a hand stroking his beard, deep in thought. If the Hope and Heir of the Hairy Hooligans and the most promising young shieldmaiden of her generation had conspired to bring down two of the most fearsome dragon types they knew about - one of which no one had seen in broad daylight, until now - without a drop of blood being spilt in the process (not even from the dragons) and found a way to keep them under control afterwards, then Gobber knew that Stoick would be quite keen to know more - once they realised what the two had actually done, of course.
Wait a moment - Astrid, conspiring with Hiccup to tame dragons? "Hang on," Gobber muttered.
Stoick, who looked ready to stride out into the ring, stopped and looked at Gobber. "What is it?"
Gobber tugged a leg of his moustache as he thought, trawling through his memories of the last few days. "I remember…the last bout with the Gronckle. Hiccup won, and Astrid…"
"Looked ready to take Hiccup's head off," Stoick completed as he also cast his mind back to the bout again, but this time focusing on Hiccup's competitor.
"Aye," Gobber confirmed. "And, she was going to take on that dragon the Viking way. Like she did with all the other dragons in training."
"Aye, she was acting a right Valkyrie when she charged the Gronckle yesterday!" Stoick chuckled as he remembered the bout. "And how confused she looked when Hiccup - wait -"
Stoick's head snapped back around to stare at the Night Fury again, behind which he could just make out Astrid's blond hair. Gobber pointed at the duo with his hook.
"That's the first time I've ever seen Astrid do what Hiccup does," the smith remarked.
Stoick turned to look at Gobber. "Absolutely no sign of anything like this," and he indicated the ring with the axe, "before today?"
Gobber shook his head. "Not one skerrick. And I know that she didn't know what Hiccup was doing because she was going batty trying to figure out how Hiccup was upstaging her." He failed to fully suppress a chuckle as he remembered the aftermath of the Terrible Terror lesson; Tuffnut's offhand remark of Hiccup being better than Astrid ever was had cut the girl deep, judging by the thundercloud over her head as they exited the ring. Gobber had given Astrid a hearty clap on the back and told her that there would be a next time and in response, he'd been the recipient of a furious, frustrated tirade about possible ways in which Hiccup's sudden and unforeseen improvement could have come about, all of them nefarious. He'd responded with something about Hiccup growing into his birthright and then let it go, eager to talk to his apprentice - but the boy had also developed a knack for stealth as well as dragon-handling over those weeks because he couldn't find Hiccup anywhere. Astrid, he last saw stalking into the woods, fuming like an iron fresh out of the fire. That reminded him…
"Stoick," he began. "Remember what Hiccup told you about where he was yesterday afternoon and evening?"
Stoick snapped his fingers. "And what Ylva said about where Astrid was last night," he supplied. The two men nodded together in understanding.
After the ceremonial blót and dagmal, whilst Hiccup had gone to change into more suitable dragon-fighting clothes, Stoick and Gobber had been approached by Ylva Hofferson, Astrid's mother. She'd relayed to them that Astrid had been out unusually late last night, returning only after Ylva and her husband Harald had gone to bed. Ylva had given her daughter a grilling in the morning, but Astrid had been reticent to say exactly where she had been, only that she'd managed to hunt Hiccup down around Raven Point - and Gobber recalled hearing the girl mutter something about 'find where that yak-brained twerp is hiding' after Hiccup's success with the Gronckle the day before. After Ylva had left, Stoick had remarked to Gobber that Hiccup had also been out late as well last night - although it wasn't unusual for the boy to be so caught up in something that he missed náttmal. But when Stoick had queried Hiccup about where he'd been, the boy had also been vague and evasive, only supplying that he'd been unsuccessfully hiding from Astrid.
"I reckon Astrid and Hiccup were together yesterday afternoon," Stoick stated.
"Aye - and she successfully learnt his methods of dragon-handling, too," Gobber agreed. "After she lost the Gronckle match yesterday, she said that she was going to beat Hiccup's secrets out of his head!"
"Hiccup doesn't seem to be any worse for wear," Stoick remarked, looking over to the far side of the ring where Hiccup was still sitting against the Nightmare. "And she was clearly keen to help him earlier."
"Maybe he learned some Astrid-handling tricks in return," Gobber slyly suggested with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Stoick gave a half-amused snort at the suggestion.
"I strongly doubt it, Gobber," the chief replied. "I know he's been sweet on her - so are half the boys in the village! - but she hasn't paid them any attention, least of all Hiccup." The chief hoisted the axe onto his shoulder. "Anyways, I'm interested to see just how the two of them did it. Coming along?"
"Of course!" Gobber replied, a tad insulted at the suggestion that he wouldn't be interested. He took one last look at the two quiescent dragons as he made to follow Stoick out into the ring - and then nearly stumbled over his peg leg as he realised what he was seeing.
Stoick walked around the perimeter of the ring towards the south gate, going slowly partly so that Gobber could catch up after his stumble, and partly so he could observe how Astrid and Hiccup were handling their respective dragons. Both black and red lizards were flat on the floor, eyes half-lidded but definitely not asleep. The boy and the girl were calmly seated beside their dragons, Astrid with her legs folded and Hiccup with one knee bent up and the other leg out straight, but neither of them seemed to be any bit concerned about the dragons possibly acting up. Aside from a conversation of charades between the two, the only movement Stoick saw was when Hiccup spotted him and drew his other leg up, arms wrapping around his knees. Stoick found himself frowning a bit at this, without quite understanding why. Up on the viewing platforms, the rumble of conversation from the spectators increased at his appearance and there seemed to be some sort of argument going on a few rows back, somewhere around by the east gate.
The sounds of talking from the other children resolved into the sounds of grumbling as Stoick approached the south gate; a few steps later he was able to identify the grumblers as the 'Terrible' Thorston twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Stoick stopped an ǫln short of the gate, one hand waving behind him to slow down Gobber as the smith came stumping up behind him, muttering under his breath. Stoick turned to look at the smith in silent query, but he was distracted by a clear voice ringing out from the south gate.
"- can't believe that Astrid would trick me like that!" came the distinctive voice of Ruffnut.
"Yeah, I knew something was up when we caught Astrid clambering all over Hiccup, kissing him everywhere," Tuffnut answered loudly and sourly.
Wait, what? Stoick turned to face Gobber, a surprised look on his face. Gobber replied with a leery grin, eyebrows waggling up and down. Stoick switched his gaze towards the centre of the ring where the young girl in question was now on her feet, glaring at the gruesome twosome with hands on hips, having clearly heard what Tuffnut had said. The Night Fury seemed to have picked up on Astrid's mood because the dragon had raised its head and focused narrowed eyes on the south gate as well. Over by the lazing Nightmare, Hiccup was frantically trying to get Astrid's attention without resorting to shouting across the ring. Up above, there were titters from some of the women and guffaws from some of the men but the muffled argument behind the east gate was growing in intensity, and Stoick could see it drawing the attention of some of the front-row spectators.
"If only she'd told us the truth about the eels," Ruffnut continued. "We could've picked up some of our own and contributed to the fun!"
"Too right!" Tuffnut agreed vehemently. "I am all for someone else instigating some chaos, but only if I get a piece of the action too!"
Stoick decided that this seemed to be a good moment to interrupt and he strode into the mouth of the gate, Gobber at his back. "I should've guessed that you two had some involvement in this debacle!" he boomed and smiled inwardly as both Thornton twins jumped with a yelp and whirled to face him, backed up by cheers from the north-end spectators at his pronouncement. Behind them, Fishlegs and Snotlout quickly plastered innocent expressions onto their faces, although Snotlout seemed to still be in an unhappy mood about something. Briefly, Stoick noticed faces peeking around the edge of the top of the ramp.
"Th- That's not true!" Tuffnut exclaimed, drawing Stoick's attention again before the boy pointed at his twin sister. "She was the brains behind it!"
"What?!" Ruffnut exclaimed, then belted her brother over the head. "It was Astrid who asked for the eels and fish, you moron!" She then turned to face Stoick and Gobber directly. "I was simply doing a favour for a friend! She claimed that she had followed Hiccup yesterday afternoon and had discovered some of his dragon-training secrets, one of which was that eels affected dragons."
Stoick shared a look with Gobber - their suspicions about Hiccup's and Astrid's joint whereabouts yesterday afternoon were appearing to be more likely.
"Yeah!" Tuffnut interjected. "She wanted revenge on Hiccup after he stole her honour of being the first of us to kill a dragon!"
A dangerous growl sounded from the centre of the ring, but disappeared as soon as Stoick heard Hiccup urgently say "Toothless!". He briefly looked back over his shoulder to see the black dragon on its feet, head-butting a protesting Astrid who was shooting glares at both the dragon and Hiccup, who himself was making soothing gestures at the pair. Stoick had a thought that the growl had maybe not come from the black dragon.
Stoick turned back to Tuffnut, a serious expression on his face. "I'm going to ignore what you just said for the moment, Tuffnut," he announced gravely and the boy seemed to realise the mistake he'd just made, making accusations about dishonour and revenge thereof in front of the chief, particularly when it involved the Hope and Heir. Stoick looked at him for a moment longer until he was satisfied the boy could keep his mouth shut, then turned his attention back to the baskets. "And what about this one?" he asked, pointing to the open basket that was filled with what appeared to be grass of some kind.
"Dunno," Ruffnut answered. "Astrid brought that one along by herself. She said that it was her 'own contribution' but didn't explain any more."
"Fishlegs?" He asked the stocky boy, who had been examining one of the bundles - the young Ingermann knew his plants, along with lots of other useful things. Fishlegs shrugged.
"I think I've come across it before. It's got a distinctive smell," he replied, and Stoick nodded at that - the not-unpleasant scent from the burning grass had filled the ring earlier, overpowering the earlier stench of burnt eel.
"Can you remember where?" Gobber asked and Fishlegs frowned in thought.
"Somewhere to the northwest of the village?" he offered tentatively with a shrug. "It's not one of the usual plants Gothi asks us to gather when we're out, so I didn't make a good note of where we could find it."
"Thank you, Fishlegs," Stoick said with a nod and the boy smiled, then frowned in thought again. "I've just remembered," he said half to himself, then froze as he seemed to realise who he was talking to. "It's all right," Stoick soothed. "Unlike some of your friends," he said with a glare at Tuffnut, "I believe I can trust you to think before speaking."
"Thank you, chief," Fishlegs replied with a beaming smile, before frowning again as he continued reciting his memories. "It's just that, about half an átt before the trial started, I was headed to the forge to see Hiccup - you know, give him some encouragement before his big day." Snotlout, who had made sure to be uninvolved up until now, gave an obviously fake smile at this point and nodded at Stoick to indicate his agreement with his friend. Fishlegs took a breath and kept going. "As I was heading up there, I passed Astrid who was coming the other way. She was carrying a basket like this one, but I thought it was empty."
Stoick stepped over and lifted the grass-filled basket experimentally - as expected, the grass didn't add much to the weight at all. "What are you trying to say, Fishlegs?" Gobber asked, and Fishlegs shrugged.
"Astrid wouldn't be coming from that direction unless she was coming from the Great Hall, or the square, and the only other place that she would likely visit in that part of the village on a day like today would be the forge," he explained.
"She definitely didn't come from the Great Hall," Snotlout chipped in. "I came from my hall and met Fishlegs at the forge," he continued, indicating Fishlegs with a hand and getting a nod in reply. "I would've seen Astrid if she'd been coming down from the Great Hall or had been hanging around in the square."
"Thank you, Fishlegs, Snotlout," Stoick said again and gave Gobber a nudge. When his friend looked up at him, he made a motion over his shoulder with his head and the two men retreated out the gate and stepped over to one side of it.
"What do you reckon?" Stoick asked Gobber in a low voice, keeping their heads close to each other as the sounds of urgent whispering emanated from the south gate.
"I reckon that basket of grass did come from the forge," Gobber said in an equally low voice. "The boy could've stashed in the back room some time ago - I don't go in there too often, Stoick, the lad needs his thinking space, and today all my focus was down here."
Stoick nodded. "So, we have Astrid and Hiccup spending an átt or two together yesterday afternoon and evening. Agreed?"
"Agreed," Gobber said with a nod.
"This morning, Astrid gets help from Ruffnut to get the eels and fish, and retrieves the basket of grass from Hiccup's space in the forge - and we know now that they're very effective tools for controlling dragons," Stoick continued, sticking out fingers as he made his points.
"Up until now, Astrid has shown no signs of being able to do what Hiccup does to the dragons," Gobber remarked. "So she had to have learnt whatever Hiccup knew, from Hiccup himself."
"And we already know that up until yesterday afternoon at the latest, Astrid was not inclined to help Hiccup whatsoever, if we go by how she reacted to Hiccup beating her," Stoick replied.
"Aye," Gobber said. "So something changed yesterday evening between them. And Astrid learns the same techniques to control dragons that Hiccup figured out - so that she could be his second during this bout," Gobber realised, giving Stoick a poke as he did so. Stoick's eyes widened as he made the connection.
Before he could reply, however, he was distracted by a shout from above. "Stoick!"
Both of them looked up to see Spitleout leaning through the bars, an urgent expression on his face. Belatedly, Stoick realised that the earlier argument had become even louder. "What is it, Spitelout?" the chief asked, but his second-in-command wasn't looking at him any more - his attention was focused on what was happening by the east gate. Stoick turned to look in the same direction, where someone was insisting on getting through to the front of the viewing platform, accompanied by a strident cry of "Seiðr! Witchcraft!" Gobber acted on both his and Stoick's behalf when he covered his face with his good palm. "Oh, Mildew…" he moaned in frustration.
"It's witchcraft I tell you!" Old Mildew pushed his way to the edge of the cage covering the ring, utilising the handle of his glaive to clear a path. "No dragon would submit to a mere hiccup of a boy like this one did! It had to be seiðr!" He spotted Stoick across the ring and accusingly pointed his glaive at the chief. "Your boy is argr, Stoick!"
There was a gasp from the crowd at the insult and Stoick bristled. "That is enough, Mildew!" he roared across the ring, hefting the axe.
"No, I say enough is enough from you, Stoick!" Mildew shot back. "You should've done what we always do to hiccups and left him for the sea to claim!" The crowd around Mildew began to mutter as he continued his rant. "No - you had to keep him, had to coddle him, had to turn a blind eye to his many, many mistakes!" The glaive pointed downwards towards Hiccup. "And now this is the result! He is ergi, Stoick, your son practices seiðr and this is the result!" The glaive shifted targets to Astrid. "And she seduced him into it!"
"What?!" Astrid yelped, scrambling to her feet again. "You have no proof of that!" she yelled back at the old man, fuming with fists tightly balled. Toothless moved to curl himself around her in a protective gesture, a low growl rumbling in his chest and narrowed eyes focused on the shouting Viking above. Leaning against the Nightmare, Hiccup craned his neck to look up at where Mildew was standing above him. He could understand why he would be accused of practising seiðr but he couldn't understand - and was uneasy with - Mildew's grief with Astrid. So long as the insults were directed at himself, Hiccup was OK - well, accusations of being ergi stung badly, but it wasn't like he had a great standing in the tribe to begin with - but he wasn't sure if he could bear Astrid's name being dragged through the mud as well.
Mildew indicated the ring with a sweep of his glaive. "The proof is right here, in front of us! The feared Night Fury, the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, appears when she trespasses upon the sacred conflict, and shedemonstrates her mastery of it! Did you all not see how the devil was calmed by her touch?"
There were murmurs of half-agreement around the ring at this pronouncement and Astrid blanched. She hadn't thought about how someone could misconstrue - or twist - her sensible actions to calm Toothless down. She saw Hiccup climb to his feet as well, a determined expression on his face, and she made a waiting gesture with her hand. He saw it and frowned but nodded slightly, one hand on the Nightmare's neck.
Sensing an opening with the crowd, Mildew pushed his advantage. "Observe: these dragons have not been felled by the blade, the seiðkonur and seiðmaður here have resorted to Loki's trickery to bring the beasts under their spells! With dragons submitting to them, who knows what destruction they'll bring to the tribe! In fact," Mildew said with an evil sneer, "they've already started! Didn't your boy bring down the fire tower in the last raid?"
"That was an accident!" Astrid shouted back, infuriated on Hiccup's behalf. "Trust you to defend your argr lover, wanton girl!" Mildew snarled in reply. That prompted a furious "Hey!" from Hiccup and a dragon-worthy growl from Astrid, one which Toothless matched.
"MILDEW!" Stoick bellowed, axe pointed at the odious man and silence fell around the ring. Slowly, Stoick lowered the axe until he was holding it upright beside him, the butt of the handle resting on the ground. As he did so, a smile grew wider and wider on his face and he began to laugh. He knew how to counter the old coot's nonsense.
"Mildew!" Stoick called out again. "This is one of the few times that the rest of the Hairy Hooligans tolerate your presence, so you should be paying attention instead of indulging your crazy imagination!" There were murmurs and nods of assent around the galleries.
"I was paying close attention, mark my words!" Mildew shot back, pointing his glaive at the chief. "And I know what I saw!"
"Do you now?" Stoick replied. "Then you should've seen me use 'Loki's trickery', as you call it, to force the Night Fury back!" He indicated at one of the nearby eels that were littering the arena floor and Gobber went and retrieved it for him. Switching the axe to his left hand and holding it upright again, Stoick took the eel and held it above his head.
"Look at them, Mildew!" Stoick announced, using the axe to indicate both dragons, who were now warily focused on the eel in Stoick's hand. "They were both content to ignore me before, but not now!" He grabbed the eel by the tail and swung it lazily around his head as if winding up to throw it; both the Nightmare and the Night Fury began to growl, with the Nightmare also clambering to its feet. Astrid and Hiccup maintained contact with their respective dragons, murmuring under their breath and sharing an apprehensive look.
Stoick flicked the eel first in the direction of the Night Fury, then the Nightmare. Both times, the dragons retreated, then advanced back to their original positions with growls escalating into hisses and snarls, but neither beast came any closer to Stoick as he continued to spin the eel above his head. Stoick saw both Hiccup and Astrid reach for each dragon's jowl with their hands and he gave a slight shake of his head; both children drew their hands back, Astrid tucking hers behind her back and Hiccup dropping his to his side, where he clenched and unclenched his fist. With a thin smile and a nod to both of them, Stoick lowered the eel and tucked it behind his back. Both dragons lapsed into silence and their postures became less tense, although both beasts still kept wary gazes focused on Stoick.
The chief turned the full force of his glare on Mildew, who was looking somewhat disconcerted. "So," Stoick announced into the now-quiet arena, "You have seen me - once again - use a 'technique of Loki', as you say, to control dragons." Mildew's expression turned to bewilderment and apprehension. "Are you going to accuse me of being argr, Mildew?" Stoick challenged, and there was a collective inhale from the watching Vikings.
The old man remained silent, but his mouth twisted into an angry sneer as he jabbed the point of the glaive through the cage bars in Stoick's direction. Suddenly seeing an opportunity, Stoick quickly whipped the eel out from behind his back and threw it so that it landed just below where the blade attached to the handle, catching on the dragon's teeth hanging there. A startled Mildew looked at his glaive in dismay as the rest of the crowd erupted in laughter. "Now you too can practice Loki's tricks!" Stoick roared with a grin, right fist on hip and left hand still holding the axe upright. Frustrated, Mildew tried to shake the eel off the glaive but it remained stuck to the teeth. Both dragons had followed the eel's flight and were now wholly and warily focused on the old man and what he was doing with the dreaded fish.
"I believe you owe Astrid and Hiccup an apology for your insults!" Stoick roared as the jeering laughter from the crowd continued. "Or will they have to demand satisfaction in the holmgang?"
"I will happily take them on in single combat!" Mildew challenged back, increasing his attempts to shake the eel loose. "My advanced years are no matter when I'm up against a weak, little argr hiccup like your son!" He jabbed the glaive with the eel still attached towards Hiccup for emphasis.
That was too much for the dragons. Toothless let out a thunderous roar and unleashed a fire blast at the glaive, striking it and shattering it to pieces. The Nightmare followed up by raising its head and sending a stream of flame upwards at the offensive old man, who was pulled back from the edge of the ring amidst the stench of burnt eel, missing his eyebrows and most of his beard.
Stoick watched with satisfaction as a smoking and smouldering Mildew was hustled through the jeering crowd whilst someone started beating out the flames and embers. "Is that Ylva Hofferson?" Gobber asked.
Stoick squinted as the beating sound continued from the northeast side of the ring, accompanied by yelps from the old man. "I believe it is," he answered, then grinned at Gobber. "That could be one stubborn fire."
"Aye," Gobber agreed, "but it sounds like she will be quite happy to continue until she's sure that there's no chance of Mildew catching alight again."
"Especially if Harald helps her out," Stoick mentioned Ylva's husband with twinkling eyes as the sound of a second set of fists striking flesh arose. Still chuckling, he turned his attention back to Spitleout, who was also grinning from ear to ear.
"Aye, Spitleout!" Stoick called up in greeting. "Was that all?"
"That was most of it," Spitelout answered, "but there are a couple of other things people are keen to know."
"And what are they?" Stoick asked.
"First is, what do we do with the Night Fury?" Spitelout said, pointing at the black dragon. Stoick and Gobber turned to see Astrid using a bundle of grass to - well, it may have been an attempt to calm the dragon down, but the dragon was enjoying whatever she was doing too much and rolled onto its back as they watched. Astrid threw her hands up in frustration with a cry of "Tooth-less!"
"And that's the other thing," Spitlelout said from above, causing both Stoick and Gobber to look at him again. "We've heard Astrid use that word 'Toothless' with the Night Fury several times now, and we can't figure out why she's using it."
Stoick and Gobber blinked, then turned back to look at the Night Fury rolling on its back, with Astrid playfully rubbing its chin. The Monstrous Nightmare, by comparison, was lying flat on the ground, half-asleep once more, with Hiccup leaning up against it as he watched Astrid and the Night Fury with a smile.
"She's acting like it's a pet," Gobber remarked. Stoick started, then directed a glare at the smith as his words registered. Gobber countered with a shrug. "I'm just sayin', that's what it looks like!" he explained.
Still frowning, Stoick turned back to Spitelout. "We're not letting the devil go if that's what people are wondering!" he pronounced.
Spitelout gave his chief a semi-amused half-smile. "No, nobody's suggested that! It's just, do we kill it or keep it?"
Kill it or keep it? Stoick looked back at the black dragon once more. The beast was lying upright again, eyes half-closed as Astrid gave it a good scratch behind its crest.
"I mean, if we kill it," Spitelout's voice came from above, "We'll be absolutely sure that it can't trouble us again."
"Hmm," Stoick murmured as he stroked his beard in thought. This had been a strange day; normally he would've answered without hesitation - a dead dragon was a good dragon. But now, here he was, mulling over whether to kill the most fearsome devil they had ever done battle with.
Except that it hadn't looked that fearsome a few moments ago, had it?
Out of instinct, he glanced over to his son, to see an expression of trepidation on his face as he looked back at the three of them. His frown deepened in puzzlement. What could Hiccup be worried about?
Stoick finally turned back to face Spitelout, but there was an odd expression on the chief's face as he did so, like he was still making a decision. "We'll…keep it," he finally pronounced slowly. "We'll learn all its secrets first."
Spitelout's face betrayed no expression at Stoick's decision, merely nodding in obedience. "So, what are you going to do now?" the second-in-command asked.
Stoick made a vague gesture with the axe to the two children. "Find out how they did it," he announced, then with a come-along gesture to Gobber, he headed into the middle of the ring.
Stoick hadn't got more than a few paces before a tug on his shoulder forced him to slow down, and he turned to see Gobber pull close. "So, who first?" the smith asked.
"Astrid," Stoick said. "Mildew may have been talking mostly bunkum, but he's right in one aspect - Astrid really understands how to control that Night Fury." Stoick turned his head towards Gobber a bit more. "Or do you have other thoughts?"
"No, no, I fully agree," Gobber said lightly, then lowered his voice further. "Especially as the Night Fury is wearing a saddle."
"A what?" Stoick stopped fully and turned to face Gobber. "A saddle?" Gobber nodded in response. They were a few alnar away from the Night Fury now; Stoick turned his head to look closely at the black dragon, specifically at its back.
At first, Stoick couldn't see anything, but then the Night Fury turned its head a little, exposing what could only be a leather saddle just in front of its wings. Eyes tracing down the sides of the beast, Stoick was able to pick out stirrups.
He turned back to face Gobber, eyes wide. "'Acting like it's a pet'," he quoted the smith's own words. His eyes darted from side to side - an explanation started to come together. Astrid's familiarity and control over the Night Fury, for one. How easily it had been subdued -
"No, no, that doesn't make sense!" Stoick muttered to himself.
"Chief?" Gobber queried.
Stoick shook his head, looked off to the side for a moment, then sighed and scrubbed his free hand down his face. "All this thinkin' is giving me a headache," he moaned, before taking a deep breath and blowing it out. "Enough," he growled, before turning back towards Astrid and the Night Fury. "I want some answers."
Stoick had got to within a couple of alnar of the pair and had just raised a hand in greeting when he was startled by an exclamation from the smith. Turning around, he saw Gobber holding his head in his good hand and hammering his hook on an invisible table as he cursed. He finally let go of his head, only to shake his fist and snarl at Hiccup, a thunderous expression on his face. Hiccup cringed back against the Nightmare at the gesture.
"Gobber?" Stoick asked.
"Nothing!" Gobber replied. "Just that damned son o' yours…" He shot Hiccup another sulphurous look out of the corner of his eye and growled. "'Toothless' is a name."
Stoick blinked. "A name?" His mind started whirling again. "But who would want to name a dragon?" he asked no one in particular, but because his hand was covering his eyes, he missed Astrid's guilty expression and even guiltier look she shared with Hiccup. Gobber didn't, however, and glared at the young girl with hand and hook on hips.
"Aye," Gobber growled. "Just who would name a Night Fury 'Toothless', eh?!" That caused Stoick to shoot another look at the smith, who simply pointed his hook at Astrid. "Get on with it, Stoick; I want to hear this," he remarked in an impatient tone.
Stoick gave Gobber a final confused look, then shrugged and faced the girl and the black dragon again. "Astrid," he stated by way of greeting.
"Chief," the girl replied warily. Stoick noticed the unfriendly look the beast was giving him, and Astrid's hand on its back; it appeared to be the only thing tempering the dragon's mood.
"First of all, Astrid, I want to offer you my thanks, gratitude and appreciation for saving my son, the Hope and Heir of the Hairy Hooligans from the - ah, this Night Fury today," Stoick stated formally.
"Thank you, Chief," Astrid replied, but it was in an oddly embarrassed tone. She blushed, but had the oddest expression on her face - like she was being thanked for something that she did not do. And she kept on shooting looks in Hiccup's direction, too.
Stoick took a breath before continuing in a slightly less formal tone. "The skills you've shown in handling this dragon, I can't recall seeing before." That earned him a surprised look from the girl, who then glanced at Gobber and then Hiccup. That's right, he remembered, Hiccup has been demonstrating them for weeks. "How on Midgard did you manage to learn them?" he asked.
Astrid gave the chief and the smith a plaintive, wide-eyed look, before directing her gaze in Hiccup's direction. Stoick turned to follow and saw his son give a slight nod, a look of trepidation on his face. Slowly, Astrid raised a hand to point at Hiccup.
"You learnt them from Hiccup," Gobber stated. "Yes," Astrid confirmed.
Stoick and Gobber exchanged looks - one of their suspicions confirmed. "How long have you two been trainin' together?" Gobber asked.
Astrid shrugged. "Just yesterday evening?"
"Just yesterday evenin'," Gobber repeated, as he made his way down the left of the dragon until he was abeam of the saddle, sharing another look with Stoick as he did so. "That's remarkable skill, learnin' how to train a dragon in an evenin'," he continued. "I've taught a few apprentices - some are fast learners, some a bit slower - " and he shot a look at Hiccup " - but I've never expected anyone to learn much but the basics in an evening."
"I'd agree, Gobber," Astrid replied. "I guess I had a head-start, in that Toothless - errr…" and she trailed off as she realised she'd said too much.
Stoick and Gobber exchanged yet another look before Gobber indicated with a head tilt that it was Stoick's turn. "'Toothless' is the name of the dragon here, isn't it?" the chief asked Astrid in an unsurprised tone. Nervously chewing on her lip, Astrid nodded.
"And it was Hiccup who named it," Gobber more stated than asked. Surprised, Stoick gave the smith a querying look, who shrugged in reply. "Once I'd figured out it was a name, it wasn't hard to figure out just who, on an island of dragon-fighting Vikings, would name the unholy offspring of lightning and death 'Toothless'." All of them turned to look at the boy, who shrugged and gave them an embarrassed grin in return.
"Before you ask, no, I don't know why he named him 'Toothless',", Astrid stated with a sigh. "I did learn a lot from Hiccup yesterday, but I never got the answer to that question."
"And my son got the idea to name a dragon…because - no, don't tell me - it's some sort of a 'pet', isn't it?" Stoick asked, disbelief and a bit of disgust colouring his sarcastic tone. Years of fighting the lizards made him recoil at the notion of ever having a dragon as a pet, like it was a favoured dog or yak.
Astrid opened her mouth to reply, but then seemed to reconsider her words and closed it. She thought for a moment before attempting her answer again. "Hiccup was the one to tame this dragon, yes," she answered.
Stoick and Gobber were sharing a look and nodding, mainly automatically, before exactly what Astrid had just said percolated into their heads, and the look became one of astonishment. Hiccup had managed to tame a Night Fury? More than just control the dragon, actually tame it?
"Err…" Gobber, like Stoick, was wide-eyed and slack-jawed. "Sorry, you said Hiccup tamed it?"
"Yes," Astrid replied evenly.
"Tame a dragon?!" Stoick blurted in a thoroughly disbelieving tone. Dragons couldn't be tamed - anyone silly enough to try would be dead before the first stund had passed!
"Yes," Astrid confirmed again, then continued after a pause. "I observed Hiccup command this dragon to stop as it charged me - and Toothless obeyed."
"The dragon obeyed Hiccup," Stoick said, still in a tone of disbelief.
"Half a moment," Gobber said. "The Night Fury charged you, but it obeyed Hiccup?"
"Yes," Astrid said, then elaborated. "This was yesterday afternoon. I'd followed Hiccup after our bout against the Gronckle. I…wanted to know how he got so good against the dragons." She glanced at Hiccup before continuing. "I found them - sorry, I found Hiccup first in a sunken clearing near Raven Point. I was…ah…I was attempting to, er, persuade him to tell me his secrets to dragon-training. That got the attention of Toothless, who rushed to Hiccup's defence," she finished with a nervous smile.
"Soooo…" Gobber mulled over Astrid's story. "It wasn't the two of you with the Night Fury from the very beginning?"
"Not at all," Astrid confirmed. "Yesterday was the first time I met Toothless, and it was obvious that Hiccup and Toothless had been together for at least a couple of weeks."
Stoick opened his mouth to speak but yet again, couldn't find the words to utter. He closed his eyes, shook his head and tried again. "So…how, just how, does Hiccup - of all people - come into the possession of not just any dragon, but a Night Fury that can be tamed?" he asked in astonishment. The phrase tame dragon kept on running around his head, upsetting everything as it did so. It went against everything he knew.
Astrid opened her mouth to answer but was stopped by Hiccup softly calling her name from where he stood beside the Nightmare. They all turned to look at him, as he made a switching gesture with his hands. Astrid looked at Stoick, who nodded and Astrid jogged over towards the Nightmare as Hiccup slowly walked over towards the Night Fury, shoulders slumped and head down. They met in the middle, where Astrid grabbed Hiccup's shoulders and briefly said something to him which caused him to straighten up a bit. He smiled at the girl before they parted, shoulders back a bit more and head a bit higher, but his face still betrayed nervousness as he came closer.
A low growl from the Night Fury drew Stoick's and Gobber's attention and they both looked down at the black dragon, whose suspicious glare had intensified. Stoick gripped the axe tighter and glared back before a soft admonishment of "Toothless!" from Hiccup distracted all of them.
The dragon made a soft sound, almost like it was asking a question. "Enough, Toothless!" Hiccup replied, and the dragon snorted before turning back to face Stoick, its glare mollified a little - but it didn't look too happy about it. The phrase tame dragon cavorted a little more excitedly through Stoick's thoughts.
Hiccup gave a nervous laugh as he reached the dragon and placed both hands on its back. Toothless immediately calmed down further. "Sorry about that!" the boy remarked. "I haven't really introduced him to other people yet."
"I wonder why," Gobber remarked sarcastically, before he was distracted by a gaggle of people - no, children - appearing in front of the Monstrous Nightmare.
"Hiccup," Stoick announced, drawing Gobber's attention back, but he then put his hands over his eyes with a frustrated sound. Giving his head a slight shake, he put his hand down, straightened up with a deep breath and refocused on his son again.
"Hiccup," he tried again. "How -" and he broke off again with another frustrated sigh, looking at his hand as if the words he wanted to say were written in the palm. After a moment, he clenched his fist, sucked in a lungful of air through equally-clenched teeth, held it for a moment and then let it out slowly, before once again looking at Hiccup. "H-
"How did I, er… 'get' the Night Fury?" Hiccup proposed then took a deep breath after Stoick's answering nod. "I shot him down a few weeks ago - just before you left for the nest," he finished.
Stoick's eyes unfocused as he searched through his memories, then widened as he realised when that had been. "That was during the last raid!" he remarked. Hiccup nodded in answer.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Gobber asked and Hiccup gave him a sour look. "I did tell you - all of you! - but no one believed me," the boy answered in a hurt tone.
"Aye," Stoick breathed in acknowledgement, remembering how he'd reprimanded his son for the destruction that night. A retort about Hiccup's previous empty-handed claims bubbled up from his chest but he bit his tongue, looking to the side as he did so and ending up momentarily distracted by the argument Astrid was having with the other children in front of the now-awake Nightmare.
"That can only be half the story," Gobber picked up the line of questioning and drawing Stoick's attention back. "You shot it down that night, aaaand went hunting for it that morning, I gather?" Hiccup nodded. "And then you found it." Another nod from the boy. "And I don't suppose that the offspring of lightning and death, freshly downed and entangled in ropes, is going to be amenable to be trained by the first hiccup to wander along, is it?"
"No," Hiccup answered. "I…" and then he trailed off with a nervous swallow.
"Well?" Gobber inquired. That only seemed to make Hiccup's nervousness worse, and Stoick's patience shorter.
"Come on, son - out with it!" Stoick commanded. "By all accounts, you've managed to do what no other Viking has done - Odin's eye!" Stoick exclaimed as the realisation hit him. His son had downed a dragon - not just any dragon, but a Night Fury - and then tamed it! The chief reeled as the implications hit home.
"Aye, he has too!" Gobber said as he also realised, but managed to recover first. "So how did you do it?" he asked excitedly.
Hiccup, a bit surprised by the change in tone but also heartened by it, managed to find his voice. "I- er, I cut Toothless free."
"You did what?!" The bellowed exclamation from both men made Hiccup throw his hands up in front of his face and startled everyone within the arena, Viking and dragon alike. Toothless reared back then lowered his head, teeth bared and wings spread, until Hiccup stepped between the black dragon and his father.
"Toothless - stop!" he commanded, then turned back to his father and mentor. He sighed and then repeated the admission in a disheartened tone. "Yes, I cut him free after I found him. And, yes, he immediately pounced on me as soon as he could do so."
"And you fought it off?" Stoick asked excitedly but pulled up when Hiccup frowned and shook his head.
"I couldn't fight him off - I'm nowhere near strong enough." The boy turned to look at the dragon that had spared his life, in return for him sparing the dragon's life. "He let me go."
Once again, Stoick and Gobber were both wide-eyed and speechless, along with everyone else who had been listening - except Astrid, who had heard the story before and used the opportunity to belt Snotlout a couple more times.
"Wait a bit." Everyone turned towards the speaker, who turned out to be Fishlegs over by the east gate. "Gobber, didn't you say that dragons always go for the kill?"
"Aye, I did," Gobber confirmed, then turned back to face Hiccup again. "So why didn't this dragon kill you?"
"That's what I asked myself after the first lesson," Hiccup recounted. "All Toothless did was roar at me and then fly off."
"But if the Night Fury flew off," interjected Ruffnut, also standing by the east gate, "How did you two manage to find each other again?"
"Toothless was injured, he couldn't fly very far," Hiccup answered, gaining a bit more confidence again. "I found him stuck in a sinkhole nearby."
"And yet, the dragon flew in here today," Stoick remarked, arms folded over his chest.
"Yes, that's got me puzzled too," Hiccup said distractedly, "because I was sure he couldn't fly far without me - hngk!" He made a choking sound as he realised what he'd just inadvertently admitted.
"What did you just say?" Gobber asked.
"Can't fly, without you?" Stoick queried. Hiccup just laughed nervously.
"What part of the beastie was injured?" Gobber piled on the next question, examining the black dragon with a practised eye and quickly narrowing in on the dissimilar pair of tail fins. He stumped as quickly as he could towards the tail of the dragon, reaching for the fins with his hook before both fins and the rest of the tail were snatched out of his reach with an angry roar. He tottered on his good leg with pinwheeling arms as he spun to face the upset Night Fury, before Hiccup's admonishment of "Tooth-less!" caused the dragon to calm down a fraction.
"I'm sure Gobber wasn't going to harm you; he was just excited, that's all," Hiccup explained with a hand on the dragon's head and a look at the smith that said, you'd better not make a liar out of me. Gobber nodded at Hiccup with a nervous grin. "That's right - niiiice dragon," he said, attempting to appear as non-threatening as he could be.
"His name is 'Toothless'," Hiccup reinforced with a slight smile.
"And how does a Night Fury gain the name 'Toothless' and a Viking-made fin?" Stoick interrupted from where he was standing, looking down at the wood, metal and canvas left tail fin, which contrasted with the still-intact black right tail fin.
Hiccup sighed as he looked at his father. "I started calling him 'Toothless' because when I first went to, ah, feed him, it appeared that he didn't have teeth."
"Not quite sure how you came to that conclusion, Hiccup, but anyways…" Gobber remarked, because moments ago the Night Fury had demonstrated that it had plenty of teeth, and they all appeared nice and sharp. "And the fin - wait a moment." Gobber's eyes narrowed as he remembered his last puzzling stocktake of the forge. "You made the fin!" he accused, hook pointing at Hiccup. "And the saddle, too!" Hiccup confirmed his suspicions with a dejected nod.
"Fine!" The infuriated shout from Astrid caused them all to turn in her direction, where she was picking herself up off the floor of the ring. Facing her were Snotlout and Tuffnutt, standing amidst scattered fish and bundles of dragon-nip. "If you want to get yourself eaten or burned, be my guest! Just don't come asking for help from me!"
"Why?" Stoick asked brusquely as he turned to face Hiccup again. "Even though you missed the opportunity to kill it earlier, this dragon was as good as dead anyway if it wasn't able to fly. So why make it fly again?" he finished, a note of suspicion colouring his tone.
Hiccup shrugged nervously. "T-that was the point," he said, voice weak and not meeting his father's gaze. "I- I'd shot him down and injured him to the point that he couldn't fly." He looked off to the right - away from the dragon and away from his father. "I felt that since I caused it, I had to fix it."
"I don't understand," Stoick said uncomfortably, brows lowered. "Hiccup chose compassion," Astrid's voice came from the other side of the dragon and all three of them turned to face her - Stoick unsettled, Gobber puzzled and Hiccup surprised.
"He chose to help Toothless fly again because Toothless spared his life," Astrid continued, coming up to the other side of the Night Fury and placing a hand on the black head. "Because Hiccup spared Toothless' life." She looked at Gobber. "Hiccup asked the same question you did - why didn't this dragon kill him?" She shrugged, then looked down at Toothless. "Maybe because Toothless realised that Hiccup was as afraid as he was." She paused as the dragon twisted his head to look at her. "Maybe Toothless looked at Hiccup and saw someone like himself."
"But you said that you only met Hiccup and the dragon yesterday," Stoick pointed out. "So how do you know all this?"
"Hiccup told me," Astrid answered. "Yesterday, I had the same questions that you do, so I kept on prodding until I got the answer." The two children looked at each other across the black dragon's back, sharing half-smiles; Hiccup's gaze turned to focus on his father and he gave a confirmatory shrug.
Laughter from the direction of the east gate got their attention and they all turned to see Snotlout standing in front of the Nightmare, one hand on the snout, beaming in delight as he looked into the purring red dragon's eyes. He laughed again and gave the snout a bit of a rub and the dragon lowered its head, allowing the Jorgensen boy to move around and gently rub its lower jaw. The dragon closed its eyes in bliss, prompting another laugh from Snotlout. The other three children were watching with varying degrees of astonishment, amazement and envy.
Gobber and Stoick exchanged an astonished look. "It - it's that easy!?" Gobber blurted out.
"Pretty much," Hiccup confirmed with a half-smile, "although it took a bit longer with me and Toothless." As the black dragon moved out of the way, Astrid stepped closer to Hiccup and shared a wide-eyed look with him. "Are you sure that Snotlout with a dragon is a good idea?" she hissed at him.
Hiccup shrugged with a frown. "I wouldn't dare try to separate them now," he murmured back. "And I've got a feeling that they're going to be suited to each other; I think that the Nightmare was bored with me." He tilted his head closer to Astrid's ear. "Besides, this is only the beginning - we're going to need the whole tribe on dragons if we're going to have any hope of beating the Queen." Astrid felt her eyes grow wide as she remembered the other half of the previous evening.
"So - dragons are apparently easy to tame," Gobber announced, fiddling with his moustache.
"I don't suppose that they can be made to attack their own kind?" Stoick asked, observing Snotlout and the Nightmare interact with folded arms. Hiccup's nervous laugh made him turn around to fix his son with a glare. Hiccup swallowed and tugged the collar of his tunic.
"Er…we, ah- that is, Astrid and I know why the dragons attack us," he confessed.
"Yep! There's this great, big dragon that controls all the other dragons," Astrid jumped in, excitedly. "She sends out the other dragons to get food for her because she's stuck in this mountain."
Stoick blinked in realisation, then rushed forward to grab Hiccup. "You've been to the nest!" he said urgently. "Where is it?"
"Ahhh…" Hiccup gave his father a wide-eyed look. "I don't actually know, exactly? Somewhere around Helheim's gate, I think."
"Then how did you get there?" Gobber asked.
"We flew there, on Toothless," Astrid answered, and Stoick looked to Hiccup for confirmation.
"That's right," the boy confessed. "It's probably the only way to get to where this, ah, queen dragon is."
"On dragon-back," Gobber said, nonplussed. Both children nodded in confirmation.
"On dragon-back," Stoick repeated, turning his head to the left to give the Night Fury and the saddle it wore a disquieted look. Suddenly, there was a shout to his right and he turned to find Snotlout sitting astride the Nightmare's neck, hands grasping a pair of the dragon's horns and a demented grin on his face. The Nightmare roared, flicking its head and clambering to its feet.
"Boyo! Get down right now!" Spitelout called from the gallery, before clambering down into the ring; several thanes followed him. Together, they charged at the red dragon but it nimbly leapt out of the way, heading around the ring to the north. Stoick, Gobber, Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless all turned to watch their progress with concern.
"Look at me, dad! I'm a dragon rider now!" Snotlout called out from his perch, before tipping his head back and letting out a maniacal laugh, the Monstrous Nightmare letting out an imperious snort of fire at the same time. He looked down and finding Astrid, leered at her. "How about that, Astrid?"
Astrid looked at Snotlout as if he was something foul that she'd stepped in. "I did it before you," she announced, then pointed at Hiccup with a straight arm. "And he did it first!"
"He might've done it first, but I'm going to be the best," the Jorgensen boy boasted, then pointed at the breach in the cage. "Hi ho, Hookfang! Away!" he called out and the Nightmare obediently jumped up, climbed through the hole in the bars, reversed direction and clambered on top of the chains over the ring before spreading its wings and lifting off, with Snotlout's yell of elation and terror accompanying it into the afternoon sky.
Hiccup slapped a palm over his eyes, shook his head and then ran for Toothless. "C'mon, bud, let's go save that pair of muttonheads from themselves," he called out to the black dragon and Toothless stooped to let his Viking clamber aboard. Hiccup stopped abruptly, though, when he automatically went hunting for his belaying lines - and then realised he wasn't wearing his flight harness.
"Hiccup," came Astrid's voice from his right, and he looked to find her holding out a thin piece of leather in her hands - the same thong which had been holding her hair back. She looked at him through the now-unrestrained fronds of her hair. "Be careful," she said softly.
Hiccup blinked, then smiled at her before taking the thong from her hand. "I'll make sure I come back with all my limbs," he announced to her, then turned and looked at the distant Nightmare. "I can't give any guarantees about those two."
A loud bellow of "Hiccup! Wait!" made him pause in the act of tying the thong to his belt and an eyelet, and Hiccup looked up to see his father approaching him…but not with an angry expression, like so many other times before, but with a look of…worry? His father, worried about him?
"Hiccup!" And the stern look was back on his father's face. "What are you doing?" the chief demanded.
Hiccup blinked in surprise, then pointed in the general direction of where Snotlout and the Monstrous Nightmare - Hookfang, it seemed - had disappeared to. "Er - going after them?"
"How…" And Stoick trailed off, as if he still couldn't comprehend just what Hiccup was about to do.
Hiccup sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes, Dad - by flying on dragon-back." He finished knotting the thong to the eyelet and leaned back, testing its strength.
"And what are you going to do when you reach them?"
"Er…" Hiccup wondered if this was a trick question. "Bring them…back here?" He leaned forward to look past his father and observe a fretting Spitelout. "I'm pretty sure Snotlout's family wants him back, even if I'm a bit ambivalent about the idea." He leaned back in the saddle again as Astrid came running back with a bundle of dragon-nip, which Hiccup shoved into his belt after a bit of deliberation about where to secure it.
"And what about yourself?" Stoick rumbled, arms folded over his chest.
Hiccup froze. Other than Astrid, no one knew a thing about his earlier plans to leave…or so he thought. He caught Astrid's eye, and she shook her head slightly. He switched his gaze back to his father and looked him firmly in the eye. "I'm coming back here, too," he said.
"Hiccup…" Stoick protested, a hand reaching out, and Hiccup shifted his body away, causing Toothless to move over too.
"No, Dad!" Hiccup insisted. "What other options are there? We can't reach them with the catapults, and even if we could, it could hurt or kill Snotlout. And unless someone here has Thor's chariot stashed away, as well as Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr grazing in a back paddock, the only person here who could possibly catch them right now is me with Toothless!"
There was a pause, and then Stoick retracted his arm, folding them back over his chest again. He gave Hiccup a stern look and nodded once. "Be safe, son."
Hiccup blinked, then favoured his father with a smile. "I will, Dad." Then he leaned forward until he could see one of his dragon companion's eyes. "Let's go, Toothless!" he shouted, and the Night Fury quickly followed the same route out of the ring before taking to the air as well, with the cheers of the spectators following them.
Astrid stared at the black dragon until it was another indiscernible dot in the sky. A sigh to her left made her realise that she had been bracketed by Stoick and Gobber.
"He'll be back," Astrid said, without looking at either of them. "I'm sure of it."
"He shoots down a Night Fury, spares its life, befriends it, fixes the dragon to the point that it can fly again and learns how to ride it," Stoick rumbled, also following the dot that was Hiccup and Toothless, then sighed again. "The most un-Viking boy on Berk. My son." Astrid thought that she heard a bit of pride in Stoick's voice.
The chief sighed once more, a hand going up to rub his forehead. "It's going to take some getting used to."
"Aye, that it will," Gobber answered to Astrid's right, before turning to face Astrid fully. "Soooo…these 'techniques' that you and Hiccup demonstrated…"
"Hiccup said that he learnt them during the weeks he spent with Toothless," Astrid supplied and Gobber gave an 'ahhh' of realisation and understanding, nodding as he did so.
The smith favoured Astrid with a broadening smile and she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Whilst we're waiting for Hiccup to return with his wayward cousin, I don't suppose you could explain to us with a bit more clarity, how to train a dragon?"
"Hiccup?" Astrid called softly from the door of the forge. There was no answer.
There was a rustle from the blue dragon behind her, causing Astrid to look at it with concern, but she relaxed when she realised that it was simply preening itself, again. The Deadly Nadder finished scratching under its wing, then looked around the village square before turning to gaze at her with a cocked head, its soft squawk sounding like a question. She gave the dragon a puzzled look, before reaching out a hand and giving the nose horn a rub. The blue-and-gold dragon responded by fully folding its wings, and its legs lost the appearance that they were ready to push the dragon into the air.
Astrid paused, blinking in surprise. Did the dragon just relax at her touch? She rubbed the horn again and the Nadder gargled happily. She found herself on the verge of a smile. Who knew that after a few weeks of sparring with each other, the two of them would begin to bond so quickly?
Well, Hiccup, most likely. And Astrid couldn't find the boy or his Night Fury anywhere.
It hadn't taken the two of them that long to return, but since Astrid had spent the whole time retelling what she knew of Hiccup's time with Toothless, plus answering the myriad of questions that Gobber and Stoick had launched at her about how to train dragons, to her it had felt like yonks. But they'd finally arrived, dragging a protesting, smouldering Snotlout back, along with the Nightmare, and then Stoick and Gobber had announced a change to the final test: the four children without a dragon would compete to see who could train a dragon the fastest. Surprisingly, Fishlegs had won, charging the Gronckle with one fist filled with dragon-nip and the other with the biggest fish that could be dug out of their basket. Also surprisingly, Astrid hadn't minded not winning this competition, because she'd been so busy getting to know the Nadder that she had decided she needed to train. Afterwards, Hiccup had strongly suggested that everyone feed their dragons, organised some baskets of fish and then just…disappeared.
He'd already had an infuriating knack for vanishing into thin air but to do so with a big black dragon by his side…oh. That's right, the Night Fury also had a knack for not being seen, Astrid realised with a sigh.
She looked into the forge again. It was dark and cooler than normal, although a wisp of smoke from the hearth told her that hadn't been quenched - that would've been unusual, she knew how long it took to get to forging temperature. Other than that, there was no sign of occupation.
"Hiccup?" Astrid called again and after briefly patting the Nadder again with a whispered "Wait here," she stepped into the forge. Everything was neat and orderly - well, as much as she could make out. There were swords and blades and poles that looked like they had been put wherever there was some space, but the tools were on their pegs or in their holders and the anvils and benches were clear. There were no workpieces, large or small, that looked like they were half-finished and waiting for a smith to come back and continue shaping them.
She moved deeper into the forge, unconsciously stepping as softly as she could, ears pricked and eyes peeled for any sign of a small russet-haired boy. She stepped closer to the curtain that divided Hiccup's small nook from the rest of the forge and was reaching a hand out to pull it back when the Nadder suddenly squawked again, much louder this time, and she could also hear a Viking voice as well. She darted outside to see Hoark in the middle of the square, half-turned towards the forge with his empty hands displayed, looking at the Deadly Nadder who appeared to be in an alert-but-defensive position, head low, legs tense and wings half-spread. Astrid stepped in front of the Nadder and gave its crest a rub, and she could feel the tension leave its body as the wings folded again.
"Sorry Hoark!" Astrid turned to the man and called out. "I'm sure the Nadder didn't mean to startle you!"
"That's okay, Astrid," Hoark replied, also relaxing and lowering his hands. He looked at Astrid and the dragon for a few moments, before lifting a hand to scratch his head and making a thinking sound.
Astrid, who had been busy rubbing the Nadder's neck and soothing her, popped her head up again and looked at the nearby man. "Sorry, Hoark, did you say something?"
"I didn't, but…" Hoark trailed off, thinking further for a few more moments before his hands went to his hips and he looked out to sea. "I was thinking, that we're all going to have to get used to some very big changes around here." He turned to face Astrid and the Nadder and indicated towards the dragon. "Having a dragon just walking around the village, not attacking, not burning anything, not stealing food…and here I am, standing in front of a dragon in the middle of the village, and my hands feel empty without my axe."
Astrid replied with a soft "Yeah", eyes not looking at anything in particular, remembering a similar conversation with Hiccup the previous evening.
Hoark sighed and scratched his head again. "The thing is, I was a bit startled by your Nadder here. But after you came out, I realised that the Nadder had also been startled by me." He paused, briefly looking away before focusing on the two of them again. "And I realised that this dragon is also getting used to being around Vikings."
Astrid blinked again as Hoark's words lit a torch in her head - the dragon was nervous. Just as Vikings were nervous about unrestrained dragons being allowed in the village (and the Thorston Twins' Zippleback was confined to the meadow just above the training ring for that reason), the dragons - well, at least her Nadder - were nervous about being around Vikings which normally attacked it on sight.
"I was pretty impressed by the way you went about taming this dragon," Hoark continued, fishing around inside his fur vest for something.
Astrid gave a half-smile and shrugged. "Hiccup did something similar when he first approached Tooth- the Night Fury," she explained.
"And from what I understand, he and the Night Fury had an earlier encounter where neither of them were trusting of each other," Hoark continued, pulling out a leather wrap. He flipped it open and pulled out a couple of strips of dried meat, sticking one of them in his mouth. The Nadder took a couple of deep sniffs as Hoark re-wrapped the rest of the meat and tucked it back inside his vest.
"Whilst Fishlegs may have been declared the winner because he tamed the Gronckle the fastest, I think you did better with this Nadder," Hoark said around the stick of meat in his mouth, before ripping off the free end and chewing on the other. He looked at the Nadder and held the other stick of dried meat up, the corners of his lips twitching up as the dragon sniffed some more and focused in on the food in the Viking's hand. He took a step forward and the Nadder ducked its head down with a gurgle, causing Hoark to freeze with a glance at Astrid. She stepped fully into the Nadder's view and gently rubbed its cheek, which caused it to lift its head again, and she turned to Hoark and nodded. He took another cautious step forward, then another when the dragon didn't move. Flicking the stick of meat in his hands so that it was pointing towards the dragon, he continued to step forward until he was in arm's reach of the Nadder's head. All the while, Astrid gently rubbed the dragon's crest scales.
As Hoark stepped into the blind spot, the Nadder twisted its head so that it could keep the other Viking in sight. Hoark stopped and held up the meat stick, eyebrows raised in a silent question. After a moment's pause, the Nadder opened its mouth and Hoark carefully deposited the strip of dried meat on the dragon's tongue, although not without a slight tremor in his hands. Just as carefully, he withdrew his hand and the Nadder slowly closed its mouth, savouring the food for a moment before swallowing. There was another moment where Hoark and the Nadder looked at each other before the Nadder suddenly jerked its head towards Hoark's beard.
"Ho, dragon!" Hoark cried out. "What are you doing?" he continued, taking a half-step back and holding his hands up again. He froze along with the Nadder before remembering what he'd seen in the ring, then relaxed and lowered his hands a bit whilst looking the Nadder in the eye. After a brief moment, the Nadder twitched its head towards Hoark's beard again and began to groom it.
Astrid giggled as she watched Hoark get his beard tended to, and he shot her a smile. "Just like it did to you," he remarked, then reached up and smoothed an errant scale on the Nadder's chin, which prompted another happy croon from the dragon.
"You've just made a friend for life," Astrid giggled as the Nadder redoubled its grooming efforts on Hoark's beard. He chuckled, then reached out to rub the nose horn - like he'd seen Astrid do - and sighed.
"I guess I have, but only because you befriended it first," he said. "Idunn told me about the history you have with this dragon in the ring," he continued, mentioning his wife. "I don't think I could've been as brave as you were, lowering your shield and weapon. Especially after catching a brace of quills with it."
Astrid felt herself blush uncharacteristically and she looked away. She hadn't been quite sure what prompted her to choose the Nadder before the dragon had been let out, the reason only becoming clear once the two of them had stopped to face each other.
"We'd had a couple of goes at each other," Astrid murmured, repeating what she'd said in the ring. "And we've come out even." She looked at Hoark. "Just like Hiccup felt that he had to repair his relationship with Toothless - more or less," she shrugged, "it felt right that this Nadder and I, well, come to terms with each other." She shrugged again. "Try to be partners."
Hoark nodded. "It seems you're well on the way."
Astrid sighed. "But we need some direction, I think." She looked at Hoark. "Do you think you'll be OK with the dragon for a moment?"
Hoark blinked, then nodded. "I believe I can manage - where are you going?"
Astrid pointed to the forge. "I have to find our resident dragon expert, and he's become really good at hiding." She gave the Nadder a brief pat on the cheek, then ducked under its head and strode into the forge and up to the curtained-off room, pulling the cloth aside in one quick stroke.
The room was empty and dark, save for a bit of late afternoon light coming through a small shutter at the top of the back wall. Her eyes flickered first to a familiar shape - her trusty axe, leaning in the far corner - then down to the desk, where there were sheets of paper scattered all over the place, many decorated with pictures of Toothless. A more detailed drawing caught her eye, and she reached down to move away some of the other bits of paper covering it.
"Huh," she murmured to herself - it looked to be a very detailed schematic of a mechanical tail fin, probably the same fin that was now strapped to Toothless. She studied it for a bit more, then looked at the other bits of paper to see if they would give her a clue as to Hiccup's whereabouts.
There was nothing obvious. She huffed and folded her hands over her chest, one foot tapping on the floor as she thought. Sounds from the Nadder and Hoark's voice outside caught her attention, and she sighed once more, figuring that she'd have to try another method of tracking down the wayward Hope and Heir. Although her search in the room wasn't totally fruitless - she stepped forward to grasp the handle of her axe but when she pulled it away from the corner, something behind it moved and caught her eye.
She stopped, then reached down to pick up the half-hidden object, which turned out to be the belt and dagger set that she had been admiring the previous evening. She paused for a moment, examining it again, before making an exasperated sound - the light in the room was hardly any better than what Máni had provided last night. She was about to put it back and collect her axe when she had a thought, then put the axe back in the corner and headed back out with the belt in her hand, pulling the curtain closed again as she did so.
She found the Nadder very insistently grooming Hoark, despite his chuckled protests. She paused for a moment at the door of the forge, watching the pair's antics with hands on hips and a half-smile, before Hoark caught sight of her and pressed a hand against the Nadder's nose.
"Whoa there, dragon," he said to the Nadder before turning to look at Astrid. "No luck?"
"He's not there," she remarked, then hefted the belt in her hand. "But I have an idea." She strode forward towards the Nadder's head and Hoark stepped back to give her room.
"Hey there," she whispered to the dragon, holding the belt up to its nose. "What do you smell?" The Nadder took a small sniff, then pressed its nose forwards, sniffing the belt more intensely before lifting its head and sniffing the air. It gave a warble and flapped its wings, bouncing up and down on the spot. Astrid and Hoark hurriedly stepped back as the Nadder trilled excitedly again, before lifting into the air with a powerful sweep of its wings. Hoark and Astrid threw their hands up to shield their faces from the gust of wind before looking at the Nadder climbing into the air.
Astrid's elation briefly turned to despair, before she folded her arms over her chest with a disgruntled huff. "Well, it sort of worked," she remarked to no one in particular, watching the blue dragon wheel above the village, before suddenly realising that the dragon was circling back to the square and descending.
She watched with wide eyes as the Nadder deftly touched down but kept its wings spread before it lowered its head with a shake and a chortle before looking at her.
"You want…you want me to ride you?" Astrid asked the dragon, scarcely believing her luck, then jumped on the spot with an elated crow of "Yes!" and started running towards the dragon. However, a call of "Wait!" from Hoark made her pull up short and he turned to face him.
He was just inside the door of the forge, looking around for something before he stepped further in briefly and emerged with a coil of rope. With an exclamation, she darted towards him as he trotted towards the dragon, meeting him halfway.
"I think it'd be better if you had something to hold on to," he remarked to her as he stepped up to the Nadder and Astrid solved her problem of not having enough hands by strapping the belt around her waist. The two of them paused for a moment, tossing out ideas about where Astrid should sit and where to tie the rope, before Hoark flung an end of the rope over the Nadder, behind the wings. This caused the dragon to dance from foot to foot and flap its wings, chattering agitatedly before Astrid soothed it with a rub on the chin.
"Easy, there," she said in a gentle tone, looking in the Nadder's eye whilst Hoark continued his work with the rope. "This is so I can hang on to you."
Hoark finished the final part of the bend, making sure it was extra tight, before pulling the rope around until the knot was up top. "There you go," he remarked, brushing off the palms of his hands as he stepped back. Astrid gave the Nadder a final rub under the chin before darting back to where the rope was, using it to haul herself up. Settling astride the dragon's spine, she looked down at Hoark and gave him a beaming smile.
"Thank you Hoark!" she called out with a wave of her hand.
"Not a worry, Astrid," Hoark replied with a smile and a wave of his own. "Just be careful - Bucket reckons we'll have a storm tonight and I doubt you or the dragon will want to be flying in that."
"Hopefully I'll find Hiccup well before that," she replied, then turned her attention to indicating that she was ready to fly. After a few false moves, she tugged back on the rope and the Nadder obediently spread its wings before leaping into the air.
Despite knowing what was coming, and despite being the one to instigate it this time, Astrid still couldn't control the scream emanating from her lips as Berk fell beneath her feet. Her scream was finally cut off when her stomach briefly rose into her chest as the dragon levelled off and she took a few moments to catch her breath and attempted to loosen the white-knuckled hold on the rope that her trembling hands had. The next few moments after that were spent dealing with unforeseen irritants flapping in the breeze - she was set up for fighting, not for flying! - and then she felt settled enough to look around.
If she thought that Berk looked beautiful in the night, it was nothing compared to the view in the late afternoon, with the village bathed in golden light, contrasting with the deep shadows on the eastern side of the island. If she looked further to the south and east, though, she could see the towering clouds of the threatening storm in the distance extending out to the horizon, blinding white on top transitioning to gold shot through with silver and then deep, dark grey-black at the base. Her sightseeing was interrupted as the Nadder jerked abruptly and then descended rapidly towards a rock platform to the west of the village. She began screaming again as the descent steepened to a near-dive and she leaned all her weight back on the rope.
"No, no, no, NO!" she called out as the ground rushed towards her, before being thrown forward as the Nadder abruptly began to level out. The sound of the wind briefly disappeared into muffled ringing and the bright orange spinal scales faded into colourless grey but then her stomach popped back into its proper place and she found herself gasping for breath as the dragon did a slow banked turn. A voice from the ground got her attention and she looked down to see a sleek jet-black dragon on the platform with a tiny-looking Viking next to it, both looking up at her.
"There they are!" she called and pointed excitedly and then immediately regretted it as the Nadder spiralled steeply down, only pulling up to land at the last moment. She briefly saw stars as her head collided with the dragon's back and then spent a few moments just sitting still, propping her body up with trembling arms as she took deep, slow breaths, willing her stomach to stop churning.
"Astrid?" Came a concerned voice from below and she dared to move her eyes over, but she couldn't see much except Hiccup's red-brown hair and a slice of pale freckled forehead. "Here," she called weakly.
A gentle hand grasped her booted ankle. "When you're ready to come down, I'll give you a hand," Hiccup called up to her and despite her weakened state, she gave a snort of laughter.
"Hiccup, you're still a hiccup, in case you forgot," she said, hopefully not sounding too harsh.
"Yes, but I'm a hiccup with a dragon," Hiccup answered back, his hand not letting go of her foot. Astrid sighed, deciding that she shouldn't jeopardise their new relationship by brushing off his offer to help her and instead began to slowly slide over to his side. His hand held onto her boot all the while, guiding it to…a rock? No, she realised, it was Toothless' head!
Hanging onto the rope, she looked down to find the Night Fury right up against the Nadder and Hiccup leaned over his back, concern on his face, one hand still on her left boot and the other hand reaching up towards her. Carefully, she let her left hand go of the rope and grasped Hiccup's hand with it, before dragging her other foot over the Nadder's back. It wasn't elegant at all and despite both their attempts she all but fell off the dragon, crashing into Hiccup and both of them bouncing off of Toothless and onto the ground, accompanied by cackles and chortles from the two dragons.
Astrid lay there for a moment, eyes almost closed, head pillowed on Hiccup's chest before Hiccup tapped her between the shoulder blades and she reluctantly levered herself up slowly to keep the head spins to a minimum. Once she was supporting herself, Hiccup dragged himself from underneath her and sat up.
"Sorry," he mumbled and she looked at him in surprise.
"What for?" She asked and he shrugged. She flicked her free hand at him in a 'never mind' gesture and then slowly began to stand up, Hiccup bouncing to his feet and giving her a hand. Once she was upright - partially by supporting herself on Hiccup - she looked him in the face and smiled at him. "Thanks," she said softly and he gave her one of those patented Hiccup half-smiles back. Then she turned and began to move towards the Nadder's head, her steps becoming more sure as she went. Reaching the head, she held onto one of the crest spikes as she looked into the dragon's eye.
"Thank you too," she said, left hand reaching around to rub the nose, "but next time, remember I'm only a Viking, not a dragon." She smiled weakly at the Nadder, gave it a final pat on the nose and then pushed herself away, turning to face Hiccup.
"How did you -" he began, looking her up and down but then stopped when he noticed what was buckled around her waist. His head dropped and a hand came up to cover his eyes and she thought she heard him say "For Frigg's sake!"
She folded her arms over her chest, feet planted wide, and gave him a mulish look. "What?" She challenged.
"Never mind," he replied with a wave, turning away and heading towards the cliff edge. She followed him and sat down beside him, taking in the view of Berk draped in the early-evening sun. They stayed like that for a long few moments, not speaking, the west wind ruffling their hair.
Astrid broke the silence first. "Been here before?"
Hiccup glanced at her. "Nope."
"Not even - before…"
"Nup." He used his head to indicate to the left, and Astrid turned in that direction to see a sheer rock wall a bit beyond some dense scrub. There was no sign of any paths through the vegetation.
"Sooo…you decided to use your dragon to go to a place on the island where nobody else could reach you, unless they also had a dragon."
"I didn't plan it that way, I…We were flying around, and I saw the view," he indicated the view with his hands, "and I decided to land here for a while."
She made a non-committal sound, then fell silent again, watching the distant village, trying to see if she could recognise any of the specks of people.
"I mean, it's a nice view," she said after another long few moments. Hiccup made an agreeing sound, then looked at her out of the corners of his eyes.
"So how did you find me?"
"Ah!" She exclaimed with a broad grin and then went to unbuckle the belt around her waist. "With this thing," she explained, pulling it out and draping it over her lap. Hiccup just gave it a puzzled look. Astrid snickered at his expression.
"Turns out that Nadders can track," she said, waving a hand in the general direction of her dragon. Hiccup briefly turned to look at where Toothless and the Nadder were slowly getting to know each other, then turned his gaze back to the belt and daggers.
Astrid used the better light to examine the decorations more thoroughly - the dim moonlight of the previous evening had only given her a hint of the richness of the work. Once again, she pulled out both daggers and compared their hilts, the raven motif clear and artfully flowing into the structure of the hilt. She flicked one of the daggers into the air to test its balance but when she caught it, she also caught a glimpse of the uncomfortable expression on Hiccup's face and she slowly sheathed the blades.
"You really don't like me handling this, do you?" She softly asked him but was puzzled when he turned away instead of answering her. She stared at his profile, trying to glean what was going on in his head…
…were his cheeks red? He was blushing?
Astrid looked at Hiccup for a moment longer, thoroughly puzzled, before gently bundling up the belt and daggers and offering it to Hiccup. He didn't notice at first, so she scooched over a bit until she could just brush the elbow that was being supported by his knee. He flinched back at the contact, head whipping around to look at her, then at the belt, and then give her another confused look.
"I'm sorry," she said gently and sincerely, offering the coiled belt again. "I won't ask about these again."
The expression that Hiccup gave her was unreadable, save for his thinned lips. Then he slowly reached out with his left hand and took the belt, gently depositing it in his lap and looking at it. Astrid blew a breath out through puffed cheeks and leant back on braced arms, looking up at the dimming sky. She waited as long as she could until the heat of her curiosity evaporated her patience.
"Why did you come here?" she asked, a bit of irritation in her tone. Hiccup's head popped up - seemingly surprised - and he gave a long, drawn-out "Uhhhhhh…" Astrid simply looked at him, her irritation mixed with amusement.
"Because…I was getting to know Toothless better!" Hiccup finally blurted out, turning to point in the general direction of the dragons. Astrid's unimpressed look didn't change, however, so after a few moments, Hiccup dropped his arm and smile in defeat.
"That was a miserable lie," Astrid remarked, her tone disgusted.
"No it wasn't!" Hiccup answered indignantly, before jumping up and heading towards the dragons. "Hey, Toothless!" he called as he went. "Come here for a moment, bud?" Astrid stayed seated for a moment but when the black dragon started heading their way, she pushed herself to her feet, brushing off the moss as Hiccup returned with the Night Fury.
"See these marks here?" he said, pointing to some lines on Toothless' neck. "These are from where the rope was wrapped around him." Astrid looked at the marks for a moment before reaching out to gently trace a finger down one of them.
"Anyways, come and look at this," Hiccup announced and beckoned her towards the dragon's tail. After giving Toothless a quick scratch above his eye, she wandered back to where Hiccup was standing, just behind the small side fins. There was an obvious rope scar here, but as she kept looking, she noticed fainter lines surrounding the fresh scar, lots of them…
"Another rope?" she asked somewhat to herself as she traced the faint lines.
"That's what I gather," Hiccup said, keen to share with her. "Remember this past spring, when I was convinced I'd hit a Night Fury?"
Astrid rolled her eyes at the memory. "You wouldn't shut up about it, except when we couldn't find the dragon anywhere on the island." Hiccup didn't respond to that, except to indicate the older rope scars. Astrid looked at him in puzzlement until it clicked.
"Oh! You did hit Toothless, but not in an area that could bring him down!" she exclaimed. Hiccup's eyes went wide in shock but Astrid failed to notice. "And he stayed away from Berk for a few weeks until he could burn it off and recover or something," she continued, "but boy, did he return with a vengeance!"
Hiccup turned away slowly and limply as Astrid recounted the destruction. "I think I lost count of how many times the catapults were rebuilt. And then there was that hit on the great torch! Oh, and the time that longboat was sunk." She ran her hands over her head and whistled. "I don't think we've ever had a raiding season that intense before. Still," she said, turning her head in Hiccup's general direction, "it gave you a reason and time to finish your new weapon. And now we're here," she continued, broadly indicating the two dragons. "And it's all your fault," she finished with a teasing tone, turning around to face Hiccup fully - only to find him seated on the ground, hugging his knees. Slowly, she took a seat herself right next to him. "Hiccup?" She gently asked him.
The boy let out a wavering sigh. "You're right," he answered morosely, "it is my fault." He sniffed. "All the mess I caused…"
Astrid felt her mouth dry up. She hadn't meant to make Hiccup feel bad. She gently placed a hand between his shoulder blades and rubbed his back. "I didn't mean it that way, Hiccup…"
"I know," he replied, "but you're still right." He sighed again, forehead resting briefly on his arms, before turning to look at her.
"Every time I think I've done something right for once," he began, "I almost immediately undo it by stuffing up again." He sniffed, then pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "I shoot down Toothless, and then I destroy half the village running away from a dragon. I realise that I don't want to kill dragons, and then Dad puts me in dragon training. I fix his tail fin, make him fly again, and then place first in a dragon-fighting competition I didn't want to win." Another sniff. "You see my point?"
"But…you've just won beyond what you could ever imagine," Astrid countered. "You've managed to convince your father - and most of the village too! - that dragons can be trained. I was looking for you at the forge, and I had Hoark making friends with my Nadder whilst I was doing so. You know why dragons raid us, and I'm damned sure you'll figure out a way to defeat the Queen."
"But when is the other boot going to drop?" Hiccup asked. "The Norns always remind me of my fate, usually at the worst possible time." He hunkered back down with a huff.
Astrid didn't answer for a long moment, instead just looking at the boy, before pressing herself against his side. He lifted his head to look at her in puzzlement before he was distracted by a black dragon's head on his right side.
"Hey Toothless," he softly said, unfolding himself to press himself against the top of the Night Fury's head. Astrid watched with a smile, before reaching out to poke Hiccup in the side and he looked at her.
"Hey," she said. "Want to hear a secret?" He looked at her, before shrugging and straightening up. Astrid settled herself, folding her legs and bracing her elbows against her knees. She looked at Berk highlighted in gold and pink for a few moments before turning to face Hiccup again.
"I don't believe in the Norns," she announced.
Hiccup looked at her in shock. "What?"
She made a face. "Well, that's probably a bit too strong," she backtracked a bit, rocking a hand back and forth. "But I certainly believe that they don't have our destinies fully woven out; I believe that we've got some control."
"Okay…" Hiccup sceptically replied. "Gobber and my Dad have made it a point to tell me that I'm destined to be chief," he continued, a hand scratching his head, "and that there's nothing I could do to escape it."
"But you were going to try anyways," Astrid pointed out. "You were going to leave?" she explained at Hiccup's confused look and had to struggle not to smile at his eyes popping open in realisation.
"Anyways," she continued, "if I had accepted my fate as the daughter of the village miller, what would I be?" She shrugged, and a surprised Hiccup looked away as he mulled over the possibilities. "Busy learning how to run a household, I imagine - cooking, baking, making clothes. Domestic stuff," she finished with a shrug. Hiccup's brows furrowed as he attempted to imagine Astrid doing domestic stuff - it was a real struggle.
"So," Astrid said, "I think that the next time you have a setback, just think that it's not the Norns dictating your fate." Hiccup gave no response, not even looking at her, but she wasn't deterred. "It's just a problem that you have to overcome. And you're good at solving problems." She made an expansive gesture at the rigging woven around Toothless' tail. "I think you're the only person on Berk who could've figured out how to build this. I mean," and she reached over to pluck at the rope that ran down the right side of Toothless' tail and was tied off just in front of the tail fins. "This rope on his good side? I have no idea why that's there, but it's obviously required to make this work."
"That's part of the tension compensation mechanism," Hiccup replied without looking. Astrid paused for a moment, then shrugged. "Whatever that is-" she began, but Hiccup cut her off suddenly.
"It makes sure that the fin extension and…" he paused, extending a hand and moving it up and down at the wrist "…fin…whatsit…angle ropes remain tight when the tail flexes to larboard." He suddenly got up and began pointing out elements of the rigging. "So when Toothless bends his tail to backboard, these ropes are going to go slack. Since the fin relies on this rope to remain extended against the airflow, it needs to remain tight, but I can't keep it at tail-backboard tension all the time because if the tail flexes to steerboard, the rope will be too tight and it might snap or damage some other part of the mechanism, sooo…" He trailed off as he looked up at Astrid and saw wide-eyed befuddlement on her face. Realising that he'd stopped speaking, she locked eyes with him, then jumped up as his expression began to fall.
"No, no, no!" Astrid cried, grabbing him by the shoulders as he turned his head away. "Hiccup - that was fascinating," she reassured him. "Really! It's just that…it's things I've never had to think about before." She smiled at him. "And I think it proves my point." His eyes flicked up to meet hers and a shy smile appeared on his face.
"So, like I was saying, the next time you come up against a really difficult problem, remember that you do have some control over your destiny," she said, getting back to her earlier topic. "And besides, you won't have to tackle them alone."
Hiccup's eyes widened in surprise. "I - I won't?"
"Nope," Astrid confirmed, then embraced him in a hug. "Because we'll be here to help you," she murmured into his ear. She held the hug for a few moments, then pulled back to hold Hiccup by his shoulders again.
"Besides, we need your help," she told him seriously. "You know the most about training dragons. We've given them something to eat and started to get to know them, but what do we do after that?"
Hiccup gave Astrid another wide-eyed look, before turning his gaze to the Nadder and running a hand through his hair. "Uhhhh," he said, thinking hard, before shrugging. "I don't know - I'd say, 'learn to fly' but I guess you need a proper saddle for that - everyone needs a saddle - ugh, I need to make five saddles…" The other hand came up to fist itself in his hair too.
"Hiccup," Astrid said, grabbing his arm to get his attention and his eyes snapped to hers again. "Tomorrow, we'll get all of us together and go over what we need to do, right?" He nodded. "And we'll see if we can help you out so you're not doing everything."
He nodded again, his arms dropping to his sides, then smiled. "Thank you."
Astrid grinned at him. "No problem!" Then the grin turned sly. "And we'll also work out a plan to get you in fighting trim."
"What?" Hiccup exclaimed. "'Fighting trim'?"
"Of course," Astrid replied, putting her hands on his hips and looking him up and down. "If you're going to take on the big dragon, you'll need to be able to fight like a true Viking."
"But Toothless-" Hiccup began, indicating the black dragon, but was cut off by a slashing motion from Astrid's hand.
"But what if you're separated from Toothless somehow?" she countered. Hiccup froze in his pose, eyes unfocused as he thought, before he sighed and his hand dropped to his side.
"You've got a point," he conceded, then folded his arms across his chest. "So who'll be training me - you, O Lady of Týr?"
"Lady of Sif, thank you," Astrid corrected, indicating her blonde hair. "Miller's daughter, remember?"
"Of course, milady," Hiccup replied, sketching out a bow.
"And yes, I'll be training you," Astrid confirmed. "You're such a babe in the woods, I don't think anyone else will have the patience."
"And you will?" Hiccup snarked, then held his hands up in retreat when Astrid raised a fist. "OK, OK, I apologise," he said, then muttered "Pain! Love it," under his breath when the fist was lowered.
Astrid shot him a look, arms folded across her chest. "Babe," she teased him again, and Hiccup rolled his eyes in response before looking at her mulishly, hands on hips. They stayed like that for a moment, before identical grins broke out on both their faces. Suddenly, a strong breeze ruffled their hair and both dragons looked up at the sky.
Hiccup and Astrid followed their gaze towards the clouds blocking out the sky to the southeast, tops yellow and orange with streaks of silver but dark and threatening underneath. Astrid swallowed nervously.
"Uh - I may have forgotten that there was a storm approaching?" She said in an apologetic tone.
"Not to worry," Hiccup said with a confident smile. "We have dragons!" The moment after he said that, however, there was a brilliant line of lightning that leapt from the jutting top of the closest thunderhead to a point lower down the cloud column. That increased the dragon's agitation, even before the thunder arrived, and the Nadder loudly squawked once before leaping into the air, heading post-haste for the village. Astrid looked on in dismay, then felt an arm around her shoulders - Hiccup.
"She's still getting used to being with you, I guess," Hiccup said softly. "She'll probably be waiting for you at the ring."
"How do you know that the Nadder's a she?" Astrid asked and Hiccup suddenly realised that he didn't know, it just seemed to fit. He shrugged. "Fifty-fifty chance of being right?"
They both turned to watch the Nadder wheel over the village, heading to the ring beyond, silhouetted against the towering clouds. "Stormfly," Astrid suddenly murmured.
"Huh?" Hiccup asked, and Astrid turned to face him. "Stormfly," she repeated, a soft smile on her face. Hiccup smiled back and shrugged.
"I think it fits," he replied. Astrid's smile widened, and then she turned to the Night Fury.
"Better than 'Toothless', huh?" She asked the black dragon and got a querying look back, along with an indignant "Hey!" from Hiccup. She smirked at him as they headed over to Toothless.
"But 'Toothless' fits him just as well!" Hiccup protested as they walked, Astrid detouring to pick up the belt and daggers.
"Like Gobber said earlier today, only you'd name the offspring of lightning and death, 'Toothless'" Astrid retorted playfully.
"Because it seemed like he had no teeth the first time I went to feed him!" Hiccup continued his protest, then turned to the dragon in question. "Show her, bud?"
Toothless gave him a look of 'do I really have to?' and Hiccup sighed, rubbing the dragon in front of the crest. "I'll make sure I get the biggest, meatiest fish just for you when we're back at the village, okay bud?" he bargained, and Toothless gave him a silly grin, tongue lolling out, before snapping his teeth back into his gums. "See?" Hiccup turned and indicated to a surprised Astrid.
"What the…" she breathed, stepping closer to look for herself as the teeth snapped out again. She paused for a moment, one eyebrow raised, before straightening up again, a nonplussed expression on her face. "Okay then," she remarked with a hands-out shrug, then went to hand Hiccup the coiled belt once he was seated on Toothless. Hiccup put a hand on it, then paused before pushing it back.
"Just wear it," he said to her, and she looked at him in surprise. "I had you in mind when making them," he confessed with a blush, prompting Astrid to grin at him as she buckled the belt around her waist. Then she clambered onto the back of the black dragon behind Hiccup.
There was another bolt of lightning from the approaching storm and the thunder followed closer behind, and louder. A stronger gust of wind whipped around them and Hiccup sighed. "I think we'll get back to the ring OK, but I don't know if we'll make it from the ring to the village in time."
"Just go," Astrid urged. "The longer we wait here, the less time we'll have at the ring before the storm hits!"
"As milady commands," Hiccup pronounced, then prompted Toothless into the air.
A brilliant flash of lightning accompanied the creak of the opening front door, silhouetting the rather small figure who hurried inside as the thunder crashed and rumbled around. The figure gamely tried to shove the door closed as the sound of the first fat drops of rain rattled against the roof shingles, but every time he made progress, another gust of wind would push the door open again. After a few moments, Stoick sighed, put down the ladle he was stirring the stew with, went over to the door and with one immense arm, shoved it closed.
The small figure remained pressed against the closed door for a few moments, gasping for breath, before looking up at Stoick. "Thanks for that, Dad," Hiccup said earnestly.
Stoick held his son's gaze for a moment. How many times had he been in a similar position over the last few winters, looking at his only son as he had entered the hall and feeling disappointment and bafflement? But not this time. Instead, he was feeling…acceptance? And pride?
He found himself giving his son a slight smile. "Come on," he said, indicating the table with his other hand. "Get some of that stew into you and warm yourself up."
Hiccup stayed by the door for a moment as his father moved over to the pot hanging over the hearth, watching him ladle the stew into a couple of bowls. Who was this person and what had he done with his dad? He couldn't remember the last time his dad had greeted him with a smile…wait a moment…yes he could. When his dad had returned and come to see him in the forge, after learning about how 'well' he'd been doing in dragon training. That had ended rather awkwardly, hadn't it?
He was still standing frozen by the door when his father moved over to the table with the bowls of stew. Stoick put a bowl down in front of him and the other bowl on the opposite side of the table. He looked up to where Hiccup was standing, next to the door, and gestured to the bowl of stew. "Son," he simply said, still smiling slightly. Hiccup took a look at his father, at the seat being gestured to, and looked back to his father again, before sighing and morosely making his way over to the table.
Stoick watched as his son reluctantly seated himself. Once again, he'd seen Hiccup do the same thing so many times and he realised that his son was expecting another variation on the same lecture he'd given so many times. Well, náttmal tonight was going to be a bit different, wasn't it?
He seated himself down and helped himself to a few spoonfuls of stew as Hiccup wolfed down his portion. Hopefully, if his son was that hungry, it meant that soon he'd be beginning to grow up and become a man. His son wasn't one for being on time - he was early into the world, so what if he was a little bit late growing up? Then he blinked - hadn't he gone to Gothi earlier in the season, seeking advice on what to do with a son who stayed small and weak?
Hiccup finished the bowl of stew and, chuckling, Stoick gestured to the pot. "Help yourself," he said and Hiccup didn't wait to be offered twice, quickly hopping down and heading to the pot. Stoick tore a hunk off the loaf of bread in the middle of the table as he watched his son. "I'm not surprised you're feeling hungry. You barely touched the dagmal we put on for you, and then…" he gestured expansively. "What a day!"
Hiccup glanced at his father with a wry smile as he refilled the bowl. "I guess it was."
Stoick barked with laughter at his son's nonchalance, before biting a large chunk out of his bread. It meant that Hiccup had retaken his seat and torn off his own portion of bread by the time Stoick could speak again. "Son…in all seriousness, we do have some things to discuss, especially given what's happened today."
Hiccup froze with his spoon halfway to his mouth before his eyes flicked up to meet his father's. "Uh…" he said, lowering the spoon down again. "What sort of things?"
Stoick sighed and clasped his hands together; he wasn't sure how this would go. "Before I left," he began, "we discussed a deal."
Hiccup blinked, searching his memory. "A deal?"
"Yes," Stoick confirmed. "I said you could join in dragon training, and -" He broke off as Hiccup went stiff, the colour draining from his face.
The Deal. How could Hiccup forget? He'd said that he couldn't kill dragons and his father had driven straight over his protests. You will kill dragons…you walk like us, you talk like us, you think like us…no more of 'this'.
"Hiccup," his father rumbled, concerned for his son but it came out in the same way as what Hiccup had dubbed 'the triad'. His father would call his name, then call it again, building in intensity and volume…and then the third time he called, it would herald the eruption. And all Hiccup thought upon hearing it was, I have to get out of here.
He scrambled off the bench, yammering something…anything…some excuse to leave. His mind wasn't on what his mouth was saying, it was busy making contingency plans on the fly. He could get to Toothless at Raven Point - wait a moment, there was a storm outside, it was bucketing down…
"Hiccup," his father said again, louder, more intensely, and his panic increased. He'd need an oilcloth, probably a woollen blanket as well…his stuff was in the back room of the forge where he'd unpacked it, why did he do that?! He should've waited…but it'd be a roundabout way to get from the forge to Raven Point where Toothless was - wait, Toothless was at the ring, with the other dragons!
He was ascending the staircase to his room when he heard his father make another sound, but it wasn't the explosion he was fearing. Instead, it was…a sound of…despair? He stopped and peeked around the edge of the staircase. His father was still seated, head in his hands, softly saying something to himself. Against his better judgment, he crept back down the stairs, straining to hear what his father was saying. He'd never seen him like this before.
He was abeam of the hearth when he was finally able to make some of it out. "…Oh Val…I'm a terrible father."
Hiccup blinked. His father hadn't mentioned his mother of late, except when he'd been given the breastplate helmet. He knew that she'd been taken by dragons when he was very young and that his dad had loved her…but she'd been looked at sceptically by a good chunk of the tribe.
He shifted his weight slightly, causing a floorboard to creak and his father's head shot up to look straight at him. He looked surprised to see Hiccup still there. Then he was scrambling to get out of his seat and Hiccup took a step backwards.
"Hiccup!" His father called, throwing a hand out towards him in a 'wait-there' gesture. "Don't go - just let me get something for you." And then he disappeared into his bedroom.
Curiosity warred with evasion within Hiccup; now was the perfect opportunity for him to leave, but his innate inquisitiveness kept him in his place, unable to go without not knowing. He could hear his father muttering away as he moved through his room before a sound of triumph heralded his return.
"Between those damned Lava Louts and Birger and Ivar's malarkey…" Stoick muttered as he made his way back to the bench. He seated himself at the end and let out a breath as he looked at the objects he was holding, before his eyes lifted to meet Hiccup's.
"I was only able to catch Johann just before he departed south, this season," Stoick began to explain. "Then there was that stupid attempt at a raid…what were they thinking?! They know when the dragons are at their worst!" He dropped his forehead into his hand and sighed, then looked up at Hiccup again, who hadn't budged an inch from his spot.
"I'm making excuses - enough of that," Stoick stated, before holding out the objects towards Hiccup. "I'm really sorry that I didn't give these to you earlier, Hiccup." Bewildered, Hiccup kept his gaze on his father's face for a moment longer before looking at what he was holding.
Books. His father was holding a pair of thin, small books in his hand and offering them to Hiccup. Not leaving them on the table in the morning, or on the stairs for Hiccup to find - personally offering them to Hiccup.
Without realising it, he found that he'd moved to be right in front of his father, such that he could reach out and take the offered books from his father's hand, which he did. He turned them over with trembling hands, struggling to believe what his father had just done. There was a pressure building up in his chest and his throat felt tight, his eyes prickling with hot wetness - he wasn't going to cry in front of his father, he wasn't!
But he couldn't handle the kindness that his father had just shown him, not when he was expecting the opposite.
He sensed rather than saw his father shift position, and then Stoick's wide, strong arms were surrounding him and his head was buried in his father's soft beard. Hiccup took a couple of deep, trembling breaths and squeezed his eyes shut, desperately trying to maintain control of himself.
"Oh, Hiccup," his father gently said. "Oh, son. I'm so proud of you." And Hiccup couldn't hold it back any longer.
He wasn't sure how long he wept, except that his father was there for every moment of it. His hands didn't retreat, his voice never hardened; he just held him and murmured reassurance and gently stroked his hair and his back as Hiccup cried into his chest. Finally, he felt like he was back in control and lifted his head enough to wipe his face with a sleeve. "Sorry, Dad," he said through sniffles.
"Hiccup," Stoick said gently, softly running a hand over his son's head. "I'm the one who's sorry. Trying to squeeze you into what I thought you should be…You've managed to do what no one else on Berk has done before, by being yourself." He sniffed himself; Hiccup wasn't sure, but his father's eyes also seemed to be bright. "I am proud of you, son, just as you are," Stoick affirmed.
Hiccup felt a shaky smile grow on his face. "Thanks, Dad," he all but whispered.
Stoick nodded, then sighed. "The deal."
The smile fell from Hiccup's face and he made an effort to straighten himself up. He quickly wiped the remaining moisture from his eyes and then looked directly at his father, who had…not a stern expression on his face, just a serious one.
"Hiccup," Stoick began, "When we were discussing the deal, before I left for the nest, you said that the conversation was very one-sided - and you were right." Hiccup swallowed and gave his father a wide-eyed look.
"So, I'm going to - we're going to alter the deal, alright?" Stoick said, and Hiccup nodded. "Good," his father pronounced, then blew out a breath before continuing. "The dragon raids need to stop for Berk to survive. If this… 'queen' dragon…is the instigator of these raids, then we need to defeat it. Do you think you could do that?"
It took a moment for the words to register, but then Hiccup's eyes grew even wider. "Me!?" he yelped, pressing a finger into his own chest.
"Yes, you," Stoick confirmed with a nod, "because I took my shot with three Karves and came back with barely one. We need to do something different."
"And…because I've figured out how to train dragons…" Hiccup began, a thinking expression on his face, hands making vague gestures. "You…think…that…"
Stoick gave his son a half-smile and shook his head. "No, Hiccup, I'm not expecting you to wave some of that special grass in front of this dragon, or dump a load of eels on its head." He put a hand on his son's shoulder. "I'm expecting you to put that brain of yours to use. We couldn't defeat this queen dragon with our ordinary Viking ways, so we need some un-Viking ideas for how to deal with it."
The other hand came up to Hiccup's free shoulder. "My promise to you, Hiccup," Stoick said solemnly, "is that I will support you, as will the rest of the tribe. We'll consider all your ideas and help you develop them further, so long as they're not too outlandish."
Hiccup looked at his father with narrowed eyes. "Are ideas involving Hooligans riding dragons outlandish?" he asked.
Stoick chuckled and shook his head again. "Not at all, Hiccup, especially as six members of my tribe are already training up to be dragon-riders. If it has to be, we'll have everyone on a dragon, if that's what's required to defeat this queen and secure Berk's prosperity, once and for all."
Hiccup's expression didn't change, but he folded his arms across his chest. "Even you?"
Stoick took a breath, then held it as the thought registered; the discomfort was plain to see on his face. A few moments passed, and then the expression changed to one of acceptance, and Stoick nodded as he let out his breath. "Even me, Hiccup. Even me." He sighed again, then looked directly at Hiccup and held out his right hand. "Deal?"
Hiccup considered his father and his offer for a moment then unfolded his arms and took his father's right hand in his own, looking at Stoick square in the eye. "Deal," he said.
End note:
First of all, the elephant in the room: what's become of The Expedition. That story badly needs a re-write and unfortunately I lost my inspiration, particularly after watching 2 films of the sequel trilogy. I had hoped that watching Andor would re-inspire me but I never got around to watching it, because...
I discovered How To Train Your Dragon about a year ago and whilst rewatching the movie and plowing through the cornucopia of fanfiction, the problem-solving bit of my mind suddenly pointed out something:
Hiccup had at least four dragon-training methods at his disposal: eels, dragon-nip, the jaw pressure point and bright spots of light. So why did he just choose to use the jaw pressure point (or I assume, he was going to use the jaw pressure point)? What would happen if Hiccup could use/had used the other methods as well?
And this story is the result. This is my first HTTYD story and it's the first that I can say I've finished - I set out to complete and post this story in one go rather than chapterise it whilst I thought through my writer's block.
So I hope you enjoyed it! Constructive critiquing is most welcome, I'm keen to see where I can get better.
