Lightning And Death Itself Chapter 5

A/N "Muspelheim" is the mythical Norse realm of fire.

o

"Toothless, you... you're giving your life away so we can be dragons?" Hiccup shook his head in shock. "No! It doesn't have to be that way! We can bring you food, we can look out for you –"

"Don't believe him, Hiccup! He's lying somewhere." Astrid glared at Toothless, who looked back with an unreadable expression.

"Why are you saying that?" Hiccup asked.

"We already know he told one lie! He said they only transform the brave and the strong. So what are you doing here?" She hated to put it that way, but she had to have an answer.

"You don't even know him," Toothless interrupted, almost sadly, it seemed to Hiccup. "Strength and courage can't always be seen with the eye. There is a strength in him that you've never seen. How else could he have stayed true to himself all these years, against a village that wished he would either conform or go away?"

Astrid had no answer. She gestured with her head that she wanted to talk to Hiccup privately. Toothless took a drink from the lagoon as they stepped away.

"He really must hate us, to pay that high a price to get us like this," Astrid spat.

"No, that shows how important this is to him," Hiccup said. "He's not lying about his own condition; that's obvious. And if he'd pay that high a price to transform us, then the rest of his story has to be true, too. Why is it so hard for you to believe him?"

"Because he's a dragon!" she exclaimed. Hiccup didn't laugh, but his eyes sparkled the way they did when he was about to say something sarcastic. "Is this some kind of a joke to you?" she demanded. "Our parents just became at war with us. Figure out which side you're on!"

"I think we're all on the same side here, Astrid," Hiccup said. "And if you can't believe Toothless because he's a dragon, where does that leave you and me? Just in case you didn't notice, we're dragons too."

"I am not a dragon!" she exploded. "I'm Astrid Hofferson, and I'm a Viking and I'm a warrior, and I'm stuck in the wrong body, thanks to your mystical dragon, but I still know who I am! Do you? I didn't ask for this! Did you? How can you be so ready to trust him after what he's done to us?"

"Two reasons," Hiccup answered. "One, I've already trusted him with my life several times, and unlike us, he hasn't changed. Two, he's proved it to me."

"Proved it? How?" Astrid demanded suspiciously.

Hiccup suddenly walked up close to her. "Look in my eyes for a second." She did –

She wasn't expecting an open window into Hiccup's emotions, but that's what she got. She saw his longing for home, his love for Toothless, his attraction to her, a mix of fear and curiosity about his new dragon body, his ongoing hurt that his father didn't love him and his friends didn't like him and his village didn't accept him... she saw it all.

Hiccup was physically knocked backwards by the impact of her emotions. She was a cauldron of hate for all dragons, resentment against Toothless in particular, the beginnings of mistrust toward Hiccup, fear of not measuring up to the village's expectations of her, homesickness, a desperate longing for her own body, utter disgust for her current one, and a growing terror that she might be stuck like this for life.

"Whoa." She blinked and steadied herself. "What was that?"

"Toothless calls it TrueSight. He says it's something dragons do all the time. He did that with me, and that's how I know he's telling the truth. If you still don't believe me, he'll do a TrueSight with you, and then you'll know."

"I can't do that. Not with him," she said decisively. "I mean, he's not a person, not like we are. He's not getting into my head like that. Hiccup... is it really that bad? The way we all treated you in the village, I mean?"

He hung his head. "I kind of got used to it."

"It didn't feel that way to me just now," she said. "It was more like an open wound. How can you live like that?"

"What other choices do I have?" he asked with a touch of anger. "Should I run away? Jump off a cliff? Run through the town reciting Beowulf with nothing on but my helmet? None of those is going to make the village wake up one day and say, 'Oh, Hiccup, we were wrong about you! You really are a Viking; here's a nice little sword, just your size; come be a warrior with us'!" He stopped to take a breath, and shook his head. "It's a shame I can't walk into the village looking like this; I might get some respect for the first time in my life! But while we're asking personal questions, why are you starting to mistrust me?"

"Who said I..." Her voice tapered off when she realized he'd seen her heart as clearly as she'd seen his. "There's just something wrong about this whole thing. I feel like I'm walking through Muspelheim barefoot, and you're just, 'La-di-dah, I'm a dragon now.' You're getting over this too easily. Maybe Toothless cast a spell on you?"

"I can't disprove that," Hiccup said slowly. "But I trust him; he's already earned it ten times over. If you won't trust him, then you have to trust me, because if you don't trust either of us, then you're all alone in a world that you don't understand. I know how it feels to be all alone. You won't like it."

She considered that. "There isn't anything I could say to that. But if you ever do that TrueSight thing to me again without warning me, I will hit you so hard!"

"What's the matter? You're not used to being so honest?"

She whacked him with her tail. "That's for... I don't know why!" She stalked off into the shadows.

"Boys, girls, I hate to spoil your fun, but it's been a long day," Toothless interrupted. "I'm going to get some sleep, and you should, too, because we're going to be busy tomorrow."

"Should I hang from a tree branch, like I saw you do that first night?" Hiccup asked.

"That's one way, but it takes some getting used to. You might prefer to curl up in the fork of a tree instead," Toothless said. "Caves are good if you can find one. Your last choice is to stay on the ground."

"Astrid, did you hear that?" Hiccup called. "Astrid?" He began to look for her, but Toothless dropped a paw on his tail and held him back.

"Let her be. She has to come to terms with this, her way. I knew you'd adjust quickly. Be patient with her."

"How did you know I'd adjust quickly?" Hiccup asked.

"You adjusted quickly to being friends with a dragon. You adjusted quickly to flying. You're strong like the grass that bends flat in a strong wind, but stands up straight as soon as the wind dies down."

"It's so weird, talking to you and understanding what you're saying," Hiccup said. "Weird, in a good way. Before we go to sleep... can we do that TrueSight thing again?"