"He pushed you off a cliff?!" Ruffnut laughed right in Astrid's face as Tuffnut rolled on the floor with laughter. Even Snotlout was laughing at her!
"Realistically, it was the best way to get past the guards." Astrid huffed. "I just wished he would have given me a warning."
"He probably thought you wouldn't listen to him." Cami chimed in, once again. She had been making snide comments all throughout Astrid's story, constantly mocking her and pushing her buttons. Astrid gave the Bog girl a glare, before finishing off her story.
"I'm just surprised you trusted a random guy in the cell next to you?" Fishlegs was baffled by how easily she trusted the, then, stranger.
"I figured if he was a jerk or I thought he was gonna betray me I would have left him behind." Astrid shrugged. "It's not like I had any other choice."
"I can't believe you were planning to leave Hiccup behind. Hiccup would never betray anyone." Cami added in, obviously annoyed at Astrid saying she might have left him behind.
"I didn't know Hiccup was even alive, let alone the guy in the cell next to me!" Astrid shot back. "And I only would have ditched him if he was a jerk. Are you saying Hiccup is a jerk?" She doesn't know what Cami's problem was but the Bog-Burglar Heir seemed to have an issue with anything Astrid said.
"How dare you twist my words!" Cami yelled getting right in Astrid's face.
"You twisted mine first!" Astrid yelled back, getting so close to Cami's face that they almost smashed heads. Cami looked like a child next to Astrid, who was taller and broader than the shrimpy Bog-Burglar, Astrid figured she could easily take the other Heir out.
Astrid and Cami were both about to reach for their weapons when they were pulled apart. Thuggory grabbed Cami while Astrid was held back by Fishlegs and Snotlout. The twins were chanting 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' in the background.
"Knock it off Cami!" Thuggory yelled as he dropped her. "These are Hiccup's friends, we should treat them with respect!"
"Ha! Friends? You know as well as I do they are not his friends!" Cami was picked up by Thuggory again. He carried her, kicking and screaming, over to his boat for a talk.
Astrid hated to admit it, but Cami was right. None of them were really Hiccup's friends, they were all just lumped together cause they were in the same age group. One look at Fishlegs and she could see he thought the same thing.
"What is she talking about?" Tuffnut looked confused, even a bit insulted.
"Yeah, we always liked Hiccup." Ruffnut agreed causing the rest to look at them. "What? We talked to him all the time, even hung out with him during dragon training."
"Before he got top of dragon training." Fishlegs clarified.
"Yeah! Wasn't everyone friends with Hiccup?" Tuffnut looked around at the others.
Now that Astrid thought about it the twins didn't treat Hiccup any different than they did anyone else. They treated everyone that rough, even Astrid had to deal with the twin's pranks and occasional rough housing. Hiccup was just smaller so it looked worse.
"I'm pretty sure we beat him up a couple of times." Snotlout added.
"So? You and Tuff beat each other up all the time." To prove his sister's point, Tuffnut jumped on Snotlout and started whaling on him.
Once again, they had a point. While Snotlout was obviously going after Hiccup to bully him, Tuff and Ruff joined because that's just how they are.
"But…but weren't you guys always trying to steal his stuff?" Fishlegs was looking for anything to prove they had been just as mean to Hiccup as the rest of them had been. Without them that means it was just Fishlegs and Astrid that stooped down to Snotlout's level, and being similar to Snotlout was not something to be proud of.
"Uh yeah! His stuff was awesome! All the destructive possibilities and we were just supposed to leave his stuff alone?" Ruffnut said like it was obvious.
"It needed to be brought out and used for the world to see." Tuffnut yelled from under Snotlout. The twins really did consider themselves Hiccup's friends, which only made Astrid feel worse about constantly giving him the cold shoulder.
Thuggory brought Cami back over not long after that. Thuggory forced Cami to apologize and Fishlegs forced Astrid to accept. Astrid still didn't understand why she was being singled out by the short, blonde, burglar. Cami wasn't treating the others this way. Hel, Cami ran off to show Tuffnut a few fighting moves on Snotlout!
With her story over and the sun finally setting, Astrid went to find an axe to sharpen. She still had a lot on her mind and she did her best thinking when she was sharpening an axe. After finding her axe, packed by Fishlegs, she sat down and started sharpening while Fishlegs and Tuffnut got dinner ready. Thuggory and Cami were at the other end of the hull watching over Hiccup, constantly whispering to each other.
Cami and Thuggory had nodded when she mentioned Hiccup went to free the dragons, claiming that he likes to do that to mess with Alvin. They also admitted that Alvin and Hiccup have a feud going on, but wouldn't tell her why. Astrid figured it must have something to do with the dragons, seeing as Hiccup admitted to being petty when Alvin took the dragons Hiccup had trapped. She had left the Nightfury out of her story, simply because it didn't make sense to her. Hiccup had been in that cage, how did he get out unscathed if there was a Nightfury in there. Unless, the Nightfury was the one that hurt Hiccup!
No. Astrid told herself. He looked injured in the tunnel. And it looked like a sword cut, not a dragon scratch.
When she tried to ask Cami and Thuggory about their time with Hiccup they wouldn't say much, only that he travels a lot and still makes his strange inventions. They were hiding something, and the last secret they kept changed the past five years of her and Berks history. She couldn't think of any answers on her own, the questions only led to more questions and it was starting to give Astrid a headache. Needing a break from from her own thoughts, she finished sharpening her axe and turned to talk with Fishlegs and Tuffnut as they made dinner.
"Yeah, they are definitely hiding something." Fishlegs agreed. "But I don't think it's a big deal."
"Did you see how they looked at each other when I said Hiccup told me he traps dragons? Like I wasn't suppose to know." She was frustrated by all the secrets.
"They are acting weird, but even Stoic said they had always been very protective of Hiccup. Maybe they're just worried about him?" Fishlegs answered while he rifled through the food supplies.
"Cami seems pretty cool." Tuffnut butted in while chopping potatoes. "I think she can be trusted."
"You're just saying that caz she put Ruffnut in a headlock when we first ran into them." Fishlegs looked back at Tuffnut with a brow raised.
"Haha, yeah. That was awesome."
"I say we confront them. I don't like being out of the loop, especially with those two! They know a lot more than they're telling us." She couldn't help but blame the two Heirs, even if they didn't know Berk thought Hiccup was dead. It was just easier to direct her growing frustration on to them.
"They wanted to talk this through with Hiccup first, they probably just want to be respectful of his privacy." Fishlegs was right, but that didn't mean Astrid had to like it.
Dinner was served and everyone piled on the table in the hull, except for Astrid who wanted some more time by herself, so she sat eating two plates of food on the deck and watched the evening sky. The last twenty four hours had been exhausting, and that was on top of being kidnapped, and in a poisoned coma for three days. The wind blew by and Astrid wrapped the blanket tighter around herself. She had changed into some clothes her friends packet for her, slightly warmer and clean. Astrid could fall asleep at any minute she was so tired, but her mind wouldn't let her. It was constantly going through, not just the day, but the last five years. Hiccup was alive, unconscious sure, but alive.
"I just keep starting at him." Astrid spun around to see Ruffnut crawling out of the hull. "He looks exactly the same, yet completely different!"
"Yeah." Astrid breathed out a laugh. "I think it's the jaw and the hair that throw me off."
"Right! His hair looks so fluffy! And the peach fuzz he's got coming in is kinda hot too."
"You do realize you just called Hiccup hot?" Astrid pointed out, not willing to admit she's been thinking the same thing.
"Eh, he's all grown up now, and he basically came back to life! Ohh I'd make out with him in a heart beat!" The smirk fell off Ruffnut's face for just a second. "Don't tell Fishlegs I said that."
Astrid laughed at her friend. "So you'd make out with Hiccup solely because he came back after we thought he was dead?"
"Yeah! He's got Dead Man's Charm!" Ruffnut looked at Astrid's confused face and continued. "You know, when a warrior goes out to fight and is presumed dead but then comes back home. Dead Man's Charm! It's like when you think there's no more yak meat, but then your mom surprises you with some and you get so excited!"
Ohh. Astrid thought. It's just a weird thing that happens.
She was relieved she wasn't actually falling for Hiccup. It was just this Dead man's charm thing. It made sense, you don't truly appreciate someone till their gone. And if someone did come back it would make people obsess over them, even if it's only for a little bit.
"How long does this charm last?" Astrid asked.
"I don't know, depends on how cool the person is. Or how cool they became. We'll have to wait till Hiccup starts talking, then we'll probably get over it." Ruffnut chuckled. "All though, he did push you off a ledge and that's pretty awesome!" Astrid rolled her eyes as the Thorston girl laughed at the mental image she'd come up with.
"It wasn't that awesome." Astrid mumbled, causing Ruffnut to laugh a bit harder.
Astrid shoved her friend over, then stood up and stretched. She went into the hull, leaving Ruffnut to her guard duty shift, and announced she was heading to bed.
"I'll be leaving first thing in the morning." Thuggory announced right after. "I'll go meet up with Stoic and tell him you're safe."
"Stoic?" Astrid looked towards her friends.
"He's on his way to meet up with Alvin while we rescue you. He knows he can trust Snotlout with any and all dangerous quests…" Snotlout continued on about him being amazing and a hero or something. Astrid looked to Fishlegs for more answers.
"They're gonna meet at the edge of Dragon's Nose cliff in a few days. Possibly to negotiate, most likely to fight." Fishlegs answered while Snotlout was still singing his own praises in the background.
"Maybe we should go as back up?" Astrid was itching for a fight. She wanted revenge on the Outcasts for catching her off guard.
"No can do. Our orders were to get you back home." Tuffnut said.
"Besides, we need to get Hiccup home. We can't bring him to a fight in his condition." Once again Fishlegs was the voice of reason. Astrid agreed, even though all she wanted to do was destroy the Outcasts. Hiccup was the true Heir and Stoic's son. She needed to focus on Hiccup right now.
"Don't tell Stoic about Hiccup." Astrid asked Thuggory. "We'll tell him when he gets back to Berk. I don't want him getting worked up while he's out at sea. He'd try and rush back home and get careless." Or he'll think it's some kind of trick and attack you. Astrid kept the last part to herself. She's worried Stoic would work himself into a fit of anger and attack the Meathead messengers.
"Okay. I'll make sure to send him home quickly." Thuggory stood up and held out his arm. She knew what he was asking. 'No hard feelings about keeping Hiccup a secret, right?'
"Thank you. For looking out for Hiccup." Astrid clasped Thuggory's giant forearm. As angry as she was at the two Heirs, she knew they cared about Hiccup a lot and he obviously trusted them if he was willing to meet up with them when they asked.
"Yeah, well, I'll still be here." Cami inserted herself between the two once they shook hands. "The Bog-Burglars are going to be escorting you back to Berk."
Astrid was about to refuse her offer when Tuffnut slide up next to Cami.
"Hey thanks! I was just telling Ruffnut we should spend more time with the Bog-Burglars!"
Astrid watched as Tuffnut chatted up Cami, the two completely ignoring her. Astrid just shook her head and went to bed, too tired to deal with this. And dealing with Cami for another two or three days wasn't the worst. Still Astrid would rather Thuggory stay and Cami leave. Astrid last thought as she cuddled up in her cot was of seeing her parents again, she couldn't understand how Hiccup never missed his dad enough to go see him.