million_points_of_light

Entry tags:

astrid,
hiccup

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Characters: Hiccup and Astrid

"Hiccup, I think we're lost."

Astrid banked Stormfly hard to the left and sort of circled Hiccup and Toothless, shading her eyes to scan through the smazy fog that clung to the air above the water.

"None of these rock formations look familiar," she said, a little worried. "Are any of them on your maps?"

She enjoyed these flights of fancy, as it were, with Hiccup, but she didn't so much like getting lost, especially when the sun wouldn't be up but a few more hours. She was confident the dragons would be able to get back to Berk--they had a pretty reliable sense of direction, it seemed--but she wasn't too keen on the idea of being somewhere unfamiliar and so far from home after dark.

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"What?" By his estimates, they were only ten clicks north of-- wait. He checked the map he'd scrawled in his notebook, then the position of the slowly setting sun. Somehow, they'd gotten oriented... south by southwest, and that was basically the opposite of what they wanted. He shot an accusatory look down at his dragon, though he knew it was probably his own fault for getting distracted. He always got kind of distracted when Astrid was around.

"Hold on." He checked his map again. "Looks like we got turned around somehow. Let me see where we really are. If we've actually been going southwest this whole time, then..." His finger trailed off the page. He flipped it, and the wide blank space greeting him confirmed exactly what his visual memory told him: he'd never been out this far before. "Uh, we're... not lost. We're definitely not lost. We're just-- exploring in a new direction!" He gave his best grin, but it quickly faded when he noticed a thick line of thunderclouds on the horizon. If they were supposed to go back towards Berk, they'd have to fly through those. And that was definitely not an option.

He called out to Astrid and Stormfly. "I'm not going to suggest we rough it out on the nearest rock 'til the storm's gone, but we should rough it out on the nearest rock 'til the storm's gone!" Toothless murred in response, not a fan of thunderstorms in general; there was a reason dragons didn't usually raid when there was thunder and lightning and rain going on. Bzzt.

Edited 2014-07-18 05:04 (UTC)

She knew something was wrong when he started turning his map this way and that. Exploring in a new direction?

"Hiccup that means we're lost," she grumbled, rolling her eyes. "Call it whatever you like, but we are in unfamiliar territory, and there's a great horde of all of two of us, and two dragons. Against anybody we might run into on any of these rocks. I don't like those odds."

He had a point, though: staying in the air during a thunderstorm was an invariably bad idea. Invoking Thor's wrath could be deadly, especially this high up. She liked the odds of surviving a lightning strike even less than the odds of running into someone on the islands. With a heavy sigh--how did Hiccup always seem to get them into these sorts of situations?--she nodded grimly.

"I think I saw a cave cut into the side of one of the big islands," she said, banking Stormfly again as the wind picked up. "Come on, we can probably hole up there to let the storm pass."

Edited 2014-07-18 07:02 (UTC)

"The good news is that we've got dragons. It's not like there's a hundred other tribes out there with the same idea. That I know of. A-anyway, that's not the point." He had a bad habit of rambling, especially when he was nervous, and he was a bit nervous. It'd been a while since he ended up stranded. That time was with Astrid, too, actually...

Ahem, anyway. "Right, I saw it, too. Let's go, bud." He wouldn't tell Toothless to follow Stormfly's lead. He'd get all competitive again. Which was fine, you know, except when they were in unfamiliar territory with a storm approaching. Playtime could wait. He set his mouth in a resolute line as they turned. The fin made a satisfying flap as they glided toward the cave.

Well, it looked big enough for a couple dragons. Maybe they'd be okay after all.

Toothless landed perfectly upon the ledge, then slipped back into the shadows some to give Stormfly room. Hiccup was cautious, though. He slipped off the saddle and dove into his in-flight storage. He pulled a torch out of the saddlebag, his other hand resting on the hilt of a short sword at his waist. Without looking, he held out the torch to Toothless, which he kindly lit with a little puff of sparks. "Thanks, bud."

The cave stretched beyond the light of the torch, but there were no paintings or scratches on the wall to indicate anything had been here recently. The deep, deep darkness was disconcerting, though, and Hiccup was wearing the same expression his father did when faced with a problem. Brows furrowed, lips pressed into a line, standing firmly... Though Hiccup was more likely to be bowled over by something than Stoick, for sure. Toothless' frills angled backward, tail swishing impatiently.

"I'd give it about a six out of ten for creepiness. Needs more giant spiders or human skeletons for emphasis."

It was less a hundred other tribes with the same idea and more a hundred members of any given tribe against two people who happened to have the advantage of dragons, but she knew it was mostly useless to argue specifics like that with Hiccup. He was very dear to her, but his idea of the big picture tended to be a little different than hers. His was usually far more optimistic.

Slipping behind Toothless as the Night Fury descended to land on the ledge, Stormfly hovered a moment while Toothless made room for her, then lanted quietly beside him. Dismounting, Astrid followed Hiccup's lead, digging into Stormfly's saddlebag, but pulling out her axe. Well, they only needed one torch, and between the two of them she was far more likely to cleave any opposing skulls.

The light of the torch flickered against Hiccup's features, and she traced the lines of his face a moment, a soft smile rising unbidden to her lips. His twiggy frame really did belie his strength, she thought: he was strong in ways she couldn't imagine. What he lacked in muscle he made up for in pure and simple courage of the heart.

But he promptly ruined any idea that he was kind of cool with some well-placed sarcasm. Rolling her eyes, Astrid shoved him with her shoulder.

"If there were giant spiders you'd be screaming like Fishlegs," she accused.

She was kind of nervous, though. If there was anyone in here, they either had a dragon, or they were some kind of cave-dwelling weirdo; any villages on this rock had to be far, far inland, and it would have been a long, cold walk underground to get to this cave. Frankly she would have preferred it be someone with a dragon. At least in that case Hiccup could probably do his dragon whisperer schtick and they'd come out of it with a friend instead of an ambush.

"It feels like the air in here hasn't been disturbed in a year," she said with a shiver. It wasn't any colder in here than it was outside, but it felt bitter and biting, like the chilly darkness was clawing at her bones. "Do you think there's anything living in here?" Besides potential spiders or skeletons, of course.

Hiccup shot Astrid a mild look of exasperation. "I would not. I'd be-- telling Toothless to roast them. While I stayed, uh, out of range of any... freaky spider poison! That's exactly what I'd be doing."

Probably.

"Well, we should probably make sure there's nothing in here before we go calling it home." He hated saying that, but it was true. They were probably going to be stuck here until the late night, unless they wanted to fly by cover of darkness. Which was fine, but the dragons needed rest, too. Hiccup could navigate by stars just fine. However, that was useless when there were clouds about.

Showing none of the hesitation with his balance that he did a year ago, Hiccup started forward, torch in hand. Toothless shuffled along behind them, protective and watching. He could certainly see better in the dark than Hiccup could, so Hiccup depended on him for any kind of early warning.

As they trotted deeper into the cave, there were various stalagmites and limestone formations. Some of them had an opalescent sheen that kicked the light around and made it seem wondrous and frightening all the same. There weren't any giant spiders, though. "Just how far back does this cave go?" Whatever had lived in here was certainly big enough to smooth the ground, though there was no sign of it anymore. There was a thick layer of dust and dirt beneath their boots, and nothing had been disturbed for a while.

Hiccup caught something with the edge of his harness as he investigated a particularly big stalagmite. "Man, seriously? I work hard to make sure I can fit into small spaces, it's one of my few good traits, and now I'm getting stuck on rocks?" He struggled to pull free, casting the light this way and that. Toothless purred questioningly, stepping forward as if to help.

It wasn't needed. Hiccup yanked himself free, only to be greeted with a skeleton dropping from above. He cried out and cartwheeled backwards, dropping the torch as he fell back against Toothless, who was also a bit freaked out by the yelling. Toothless couldn't breathe fire with Hiccup clinging to his face, though, so he thrashed uselessly as he tried to figure out what had just happened.

"I dunno that I'm interested in calling it 'home' at all," Astrid muttered, a little too on-edge to really play into the joke. "It could use a good scrub, that's for sure; you could draw in all the dust on the ground."

The stone floor had a carpet of dust, and though the rock formations that dotted the floor were beautiful the way they shone, this whole place gave Astrid the creeps. She hoped they wouldn't be here too long waiting for the weather to pass. She was pretty convinced she wasn't going to get any sleep.

"It's huge," Astrid breathed as Hiccup commented on the depth of the cave. She cast her eyes up as the ceiling recessed away from them, higher than houses, and she almost wanted to shout to see how much of an echo would return to her.

She turned to frown at Hiccup then as he tried to tug himself free of the rock. Managing a smile, she stepped forward and reached for the torch--

--only to yawp in alarm as something ambushed them from above. Hiccup hurled the torch and pinwheeled madly, and as soon as he was out of the way Astrid brought her axe down. Stormfly leapt backward with a squawk as the blade fell. There was a shnnnk! and the ring of steel against stone, and then there was nothing but the echo of impact and the sound of her heart beating like a drum in her throat.

That was when she realized it had been a skeleton that had 'attacked' them. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought Hiccup had planned this. Trying to slow her racing heart, Astrid brushed her hair out of her face and set her axe down before reaching for the dropped torch. She shone the light over the skeleton, noting she'd actually severed the head quite cleanly, and then offered a hand to Hiccup.

"You were saying?" she grumbled, hefting him to his feet before turning her eyes back to the skeleton. It was wearing clothes not unlike theirs: another viking, not a foreigner. She wondered who he'd been... "I think this place just got upgraded to a strong 8 on that creepy scale," she said, rubbing her arm with her free hand before handing the torch back to Hiccup. "Maybe we should make sure this guy doesn't have any other friends lurking around before we settle in."

Edited 2014-07-18 09:25 (UTC)

Hiccup accepted the help gladly, though he was a bit embarrassed. He took the torch and held it so the light shone on their attacker, making sure to give it an accusatory glare. "Definitely an eight." Toothless made a noise that sounded kind of like laughter. "Don't even start," he mumbled, and dusted himself off as best as he could.

"That was a nice... clean... decapitation there. He sure is dead two times over. Good job." Astrid was way better at these things than Hiccup could ever hope to be. He was lucky if he could swing an axe on a good day, let alone actually hit anything without falling over first. He felt better having her as his travel buddy.

It wasn't that he didn't like the other teens in the village. It was more like... they weren't terribly dependable. Ever. Astrid was always there, though, and always willing to deal with the others and round them up if something happened to Hiccup. She was also willing to decapitate creepy zombie skeletons, so that was a plus. Oh, and she was really cute.

He finished gathering up the pieces of his dignity and started forward again, this time making sure he had his sword drawn against any other uninvited party-crashers. As they sneaked deeper into the cave, it didn't get any smaller, but it did get shinier. There were small puddles of water on the ground, tiny little bugs that flickered in strange colors. The lit up the cave in pieces, like a fractal. Every stone surface looked to have been carved by some god's hand to a beautiful crystalline surface.

"Wow," he whispered, unable to keep his comments to himself.

Edited 2014-07-18 20:59 (UTC)

Astrid managed a soft laugh with Toothless, grinning sidelong at Hiccup.

"I was wrong, you don't scream like Fishlegs," she said. "You're actually higher-pitched." She picked her axe back up and hung it in her belt, looking a little proud of herself. "Hey, just because you're already dead, that's no excuse to jump out at people."

They headed deeper into the cave, the soft shuffling footsteps of their dragons behind them, and Astrid found herself equally as taken with the beauty of this place. The rock formations were wasted in the dark, and the way the firelight cast uneven shadows across the ceiling was both spectacular and a little creepy.

"I'll say," she said as Hiccup breathed a 'wow'. "This place is beautiful. Look," she said, pointing to a particular stalactite that hung low and heavy near the far wall. "See the way the light reflects off that one? It's full of sunstone!"

Astrid was far from girlish in most ways, but even she had an appreciation for pretty things, and natural stones were something she had always found beauty in.

Edited 2014-07-19 03:40 (UTC)

Hiccup followed the motion of her arm, but he got lost somewhere between that and her face. There was something undeniably warm and fond about the way he watched her. He wasn't even aware of the way his eyes softened, and his lips turned into a quiet smile, with no trace of the sarcasm he wore like armor. "Yeah..."

Astrid really was beautiful. Whether she was framed by her dragon's wings or outlined by an explosion, she was incredible. They hadn't really talked about those couple kisses from when he was fourteen winters, and he wondered if she'd moved on. But they were also fairly young and busy with taking care of the village, and he wasn't sure how he'd even go about dating someone.

He wondered if he should ask his dad, then immediately struck the idea from his mind. He really, really didn't want to have that conversation with Stoick. Nope. Nope. Not a freaking chance.

The moment was ruined by the growling of thunder, distant but threatening. Hiccup straightened a bit, not because he was scared of thunder or anything, but because he didn't want to be caught staring and possibly end up like their friend back there.

"Storm's here," he noted, glancing at the torchlight playing across the stalactites above. "We should, uh, probably consider going back to the cave mouth. I don't think we'll find anything else in here."

Hiccup's gaze went unnoticed for the moment, but her thoughts had meandered down a similar path as they lingered there in the cool, damp recesses of the cave filled with sunstone. Her mind had snagged on something, like a sleeve caught on a sharp stone. She hadn't hesitated to bring her axe down when Hiccup was potentially threatened. She had swung the blade as hard as she could, with all the precision she could muster, to cleave the skeleton's head from its body, even before fully realizing what it was.

What did that even mean? She hadn't waited for an introduction, hadn't even considered it, for that matter. She had just seen a figure lunge for him, and she'd reacted.

Astrid cared about Hiccup a great deal, and those kisses hadn't been forgotten, but she really had no idea what to do with her feelings anyway. She saw Hiccup every day, and they spent a good deal of time together... maybe it was enough. She was mostly convinced that if she mentioned to Hiccup that she thought about him often, he would think she'd cracked her head. Astrid was a force to be reckoned with, and she knew it as well as everyone else in the village did, but it seemed that her trigger-happy nature was on ultra high alert in certain company. She hadn't hesitated to decapitate that skeleton, hadn't questioned it, because something happening to Hiccup was simply not an option.

The rumble of thunder jarred her from her thoughts then, and she met Hiccup's eye, clearing her throat a bit awkwardly.

"I dunno," she said, "I kinda like it in here. I mean, sure, Skeletor there wasn't exactly the best welcome wagon I've ever encountered, but... we won't get rained on or zapped this far in, at least." Another thunderclap shook the rock, and a rain of fine dust wafted down from the ceiling. Astrid lifted her eyes to the sunstone again, then looked back to Hiccup. "If there were people in here, there might still be some supplies," she said. "Maybe we can build a fire and wait things out with a nice view."

It was better than being stuck in the wind and the rain at the mouth of the cave, at least, right?

Hiccup and Toothless both squinted up at the ceiling, the former shielding his eyes from the dust. He wasn't sure this place could hold up, but then again, it'd obviously been here for a long time. Thunderstorms were depressingly common where they lived. Thunderstorms, ice storms, snowstorms, rainstorms, wind storms, dragon storms... At least the latter was somewhat easier to deal with, now that the monstrosity at the dragon's nest was done.

Astrid was obviously taken with this place, though. It was hard to say no, and she had a point about being rained on. Zapping probably wouldn't happen if they were in a couple feet, but the wind would carry the rain. Why couldn't caves come with built-in corners?

Another boom of thunder shook Hiccup more than the cave, which was obviously sturdy enough to withstand it. "Yeeeah, okay. It'll be warmer in here for sure. And wet dragon really isn't something I want to deal with right now." Hiccup glanced at Toothless, who blinked back curiously. The dragon didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with shaking off water right next to people trying to stay dry.

"I brought a spare torch. We can just... move in a circle around this part of the cave, so no one gets lost." Even though it was hard to lose a dragon of several stones, he wasn't about to stretch his luck. Especially in the dark.

Stormfly nudged Astrid in the back, between her shoulders, and she laughed softly.

"I think Stormfly agrees," she said. "Wet dragons aren't happy dragons, unless they're fishing.

"Gimme that spare torch," she said then. "You go one direction, I'll go the other, and we'll just meet in the middle on the other side." There didn't seem to be any major obstructions in the large room in the center of the cave. There were several rock formations, but even if she lost sight of Hiccup behind them, the light of the torches would illuminate the walls. She was pretty sure that if anyone was alive in here, they would have been alerted to intruders when the skeleton incident had happened. "It should be safe," she said, pretty sure Hiccup was still nervous about this whole thing. He was always a little nervous, it seemed. "Your bony friend back there was the only sign of life that I can see anywhere; the dust on the floor hasn't been disturbed in a long time."

So if the skeleton had died in here, long ago enough that it was only bones left... who was he? What had he been doing here? Astrid couldn't deny she was curious. They had nothing else to do until the storm passed anyway.

Hiccup sheathed his sword. "Sounds good to me." He reached into his bag and dug out the spare, had Toothless light it as before, and held it out for Astrid to take. Of course he was nervous; it was in his nature. But he did trust Toothless and Astrid to protect him if needed, just like he'd... try to protect them.

Protecting Astrid, though? She didn't need protecting. Plucking from the air, yes, that happened sometimes. But that wasn't quite the same as protecting.

"Let's see if he left his stuff behind. Maybe we'll get lucky and find something more useful than a bunch of rocks. Like firewood. Or a map with a giant arrow pointing toward Berk. Honestly, I'm not picky." He distantly wondered what had killed their skeleton friend. It was very possible that it wasn't predatory, judging by the relatively whole state of the skeleton. That just left... bandits, starvation, disease, or getting too cold. Hiccup decided that he didn't want to find out firsthand, and he sure as hell wasn't going back to look.

"All right. Meet you in the middle," he called, then turned to Toothless. "Come on, bud. This way."

Astrid moved quietly along the edge of the cave, watching the shadows dart away from the light of the torch as she did so. Stormfly crept carefully behind her, and she found herself amazed all over again at just how silent something so large as a dragon was capable of being. Of course, that also made things a little unnerving, because that meant there could easily be a dragon in this cave that didn't appreciate visitors. She didn't think that was the case, really--based on the condition of the skeleton they'd found, there was nothing predatory here. Or at least, there hadn't been when the skeleton had been a live person.

She cast her eyes across the width of the cave to check for the light from Hiccup's torch, then looked over her shoulder at Stormfly.

"If there was anything here, you'd know about it, right, girl?" she asked, and Stormfly chirped reassuringly. Yeah, if there was any danger to be found, she was pretty sure the dragons would have sensed it.

As they walked, she picked up some scattered sticks and twigs, figuring they could be used for kindling. They would need a fire if they were going to stay here for very long. Nearing the middle where she and Hiccup would meet, though, Astrid discovered something else: along the wall there appeared to be writing and drawings. There were sketchy lines etched into the rock all along the edge of the room, and Astrid reached up to run her hand over one of them, a drawing that looked an awful lot like a Whispering Death.

"Are you seeing this?" she asked when Hiccup was within earshot. "It looks like whoever was in here was studying dragons.

Hiccup had come to the same conclusion. When he'd found the unmistakable silhouette of a Timberjack, he'd gotten excited. Toothless didn't quite understand what the big hubbub was about, but Hiccup was nearly breathless when he met up with Astrid again.

"Yes! Isn't it amazing?" He came to look at the wall beside her, his own torchlight illuminating another etching of a Whispering Death. This one was bigger, though. It had a different shape. He tilted his head, studying it for a moment, and then glanced back at Astrid.

"These drawings don't look familiar. I thought maybe they were left here by Bork the Bold, but they're nothing like what he put in the Book of Dragons." Somewhere close by, Toothless chuffed up a cloud of dust, making Hiccup frown. "I know, bud, but we can't leave right now." Not with the thunderstorm still raging outside, and definitely not when there were dragon researchers to... uh, research.

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