The rotund form of the cheerful Viking blacksmith squeezes through the slim doorway.
"Wow Gobber, you're actually on time." Phlegma feigns shock while chuckling.
"Phlegma, always a pleasure." Gobber mock bows, lightening the mood further.
They all wait and chat for a few minutes as steadily, more Vikings pile into the long room.
"Is this everyone?" Phlegma asks the chief.
"Think we're still waiting on the Ingerman's." Mulch pipes up from midway down the table.
Stoick nods his confirmation, "It's unusual, Sköld is rarely late."
In the Chief's hut further up the village, the gangly form of a teenage Viking stirs.
Toothless, sat beside the fireplace of the Chief's living area, perks his head up eagerly.
The Night Fury trundles over to the side of the bed, warbling quietly.
He snorts, blowing a light gust over Hiccup's face and rustling his scruffy auburn bed hair.
Watching as Hiccup's eye's flutter, Toothless places his paws up on the edge of Hiccup's bed and tilts his head to one side.
Hiccup groggily open his eyes and looks blankly at his scaly friend for a few seconds while he gets affectionately nudged.
"Hey Toothless, I'm happy to see you too bud" he says, reaching up towards the dragon. He faintly registers a thumping noise starts up, but disregards it for the moment as he starts getting his face cleaned.
He playfully pushes the dragon away as the sandpaper-like tongue scrapes across his cheek. The repetitive thumping noise gets slightly faster and he chuckles as he realises it's Toothless waggling his tail about in excitement.
But as he leans away from Toothless, the cruel, relentless beast follows him to continue the onslaught - inadvertently treading on Hiccup's abdomen.
Hiccup exclaims in discomfort and Toothless jumps backwards off of him, now no longer impeding his view of their surroundings.
"Uh- What, uh– I'm in my house?" The weary Viking looks around his old living room he shared with his dad.
"Uhhh, You're in my house!"
Toothless spins around and proceeds to start jumping off columns, knocking into furniture and jumping straight through the small fire.
"Does my Dad know you're here?" Hiccup queries wearily.
"Ahh bud, oh- ok ok. Toothless!"
Sighing, he watches as his energetic dragon clambers up onto a crossbeam, looking over it to see him.
"No no, ah, Toothless. Aw come on–"
Pushing himself forwards to swing out of the bed, his voice falters and stops.
He sits back onto the bed, taking a deep breath before pulling aside the fur blanket covering his lower half.
Toothless carefully jumps down off of his perch, now unable to keep Hiccup distracted with his antics from why they are here.
Gingerly stepping around the knocked over cooking pot and the few pieces of furniture he hit, Toothless makes his way over the the side of the bed where Hiccup has just swung his real leg out over.
It's soon followed by an unfamiliar clunk as the metal foot of his prosthetic leg hits the wooden floorboards.
Hiccup is breathing heavily and steadies himself on the edge of the bed, fingers gripping the sheet tightly.
Toothless gently nudges Hiccup's arm with his snout to comfort him, and Hiccup grits his teeth before using a bedpost to stand up on his new leg for the first time.
Spreading his arms out to balance himself, he manages to take a half step forwards without any assistance. On his second attempt however he trips over on the new leg.
Toothless leaps forwards, catching Hiccup's falling body with his head and supporting him back to standing.
"Thanks bud" he mutters, one hand now holding onto Toothless' shoulder as they hobble towards the door. The prosthetics cup is not secure enough around the bandages on his stump so moves slightly as he walks, which already is noticeable to Hiccup through the other pain.
"I'm going to need to make some improvements to this leg" Hiccup chuckles to himself in an attempt to make light of the realisation. "But until then, Gobber's rushed woodworking and smithing will work for now."
As he smiles, he instinctively reaches his hand behind his head to attempt to sort out his hair, and as he brushes his fingers through his brown locks he makes contact with a particularly tender spot of his scalp.
He winces, holding it lightly as they continue to walk towards the door, "Must've hit my head pretty badly. Good job I don't remember it, I suppose."
They make it to the door, and Hiccup opens it, causing the bright sunlight to blind him momentarily.
Below them, various groups of Vikings were slowly milling around the village going about their day. Hiccup notices a couple of them had stopped just outside the long hall, but before he can wonder as to why - he registers someone coming up the stairs.
Sköld walks up the stairs to the Chief's hut, Fishlegs not far behind. "We'll just have a check on Hiccup and then head down to the meeting." He tells his son while watching the steps beneath his feet.
As he reaches the top, he looks up to see the open doorway.
"Excuse me Hiccup, can I jus-" his words cut off abruptly and his eyes go wide in realisation.
"What is is Dad?" Fishlegs asks, stepping to the side of his dad to see what's stopped them.
"HICCUP!" he yells, attracting the attention of a few nearby villagers.
"Hey" Hiccup smiles wearily.
This lead to a chain reaction of Vikings hearing the commotion, coming over to the foot of the stairs to the Chief's hut. Then upon seeing Hiccup leaning heavily on the doorway, they would in turn exclaim their relief.
But not all were as mirthful about Hiccup's awakening. While Sköld was talking to him about his amputation and what activities to avoid and how long it will take to heal, Hiccup was watching the people below.
The distance and Sköld's information drowned out any chance of accurately hearing anything the villagers were saying, but that didn't stop Hiccup's imagination.
Two older fisherman walked by shaking their heads slightly, and to Hiccup they surely must have been talking about the two fishing boats that had been sunk since he came back to the island.
'Can you believe Hiccup has been back on the Island for 4 days as himself, and he's already lost us 2 perfectly good fishing boats!' Hiccup's imagination fills in the unheard conversation, souring his already fragile mood.
He closes his eyes momentarily, takes a breath and tries to push it out of his mind to listen to Sköld.
"—and that's why you should be avoiding walking where possible. Luckily for you, you have a dragon you can sit on to alleviate some pressure on your leg." Sköld finishes up, knowing he probably took none of the information in.
"Let's get you down to the Chief, I'm sure he'll be glad to see you awake."
A/N:
Happy Thawfest and Easter to everyone!