Dragons: The New Chief

Chapter 36: It's Alright

Hiccup sat with his back to the headboard, one hand wrapped firmly around his valkyrie and the other stroking the divine beauty's blonde hair. The woman had both hands clinging to Hiccup's bare chest with her back hunched so it was pressing her head into the crook of his arm and hiding her face from view. Toothless still lay on the bed, with his head in Astrid's lap, snoozing softly.

It was now getting to be in the late morning, much later than when the chief usually popped out of bed, down to breakfast and out the door to get started on his duties. He felt exactly the same way as Astrid did much earlier that morning, uncaring. The chief was, however regretful to say it, depressed as well. He thought he was getting a child, that his wife was carrying his child, but she was wrong. Astrid had never been carrying a child, the symptoms were just those the correlate with a woman's natural bleeding. Hiccup wasn't too educated on the topic, he just knew the usual 'if a woman is bleeding she isn't with child and if she isn't then she probably is' type thing.

He sighed, stroking Astrid's hair softly. The man reached his extremely long arm to the other side of the bed and grabbed their furs that he had thrown off his body earlier. He covered up his wife gently, covering the night fury's head with it. Toothless payed him no mind since he usually slept with his head covered anyways. The chief huffed and leaned his head down onto Astrid's, closing his eyes.

At this time, Valka had been up and ready for a couple of hours, although she didn't pay much attention to the time. She was currently reading an old book she had found.

"Coming." She said not even a second after hearing a knock at the door.

She unlatched the door and swung it open.

"Mornin' Gobber." She said. "Come in."

The man nodded his head, wiped his boot and stepped inside. "Say, have ya seen 'iccup? Shoulda been out hours ago, but there's no sign of 'em."

The woman pursed her lips as she furrowed her eyebrows. "I haven't seen him all morning, I thought he was already up..." She put a finger to her lip. "I'll go see if he's still in bed."

Gobber waited patiently at the door has Valka made her way up to stairs and gave a tap on the door. Hiccup groaned.

"Who is it?" He called only loud enough for Valka to hear.

"Your mother." She said.

Hiccup pressed his palm to his face, rubbing his eye with it. "Come in." He said huskily.

Valka smiled at her son and trailed her eyes down to Toothless lying on the bed with his backside hanging off the end and then to the girl lying on her son. Wrinkles formed on her brow.

"Is she okay?" Valka asked, worryingly.

Hiccup nodded. "Just doesn't feel too good right now."

Valka huffed. "Shall I go get Gothi?" She asked, jutting her thumb towards the doorway.

Hiccup shook his head. "No, she's fine. It's just...woman things." He caressed Astrid's hair and let his hand fall to her upper back.

Astrid shivered at his touch, leading to Hiccup pulling the furs higher up her body to where they draped over her shoulders and left only her head visible. Valka smiled faintly at the sight. The way Hiccup was looking down at his wife sent joyful tears to her eyes that she had to fight back.

Valka's mouth formed an o. "Okay." She turned to leave, but turned back to her son. "Gobber is downstairs, said you should've gotten to work already. What should I tell him? Are you coming down soon?"

Hiccup pursed his lips. "You can tell him Astrid isn't too well right now, but I will get to work by midday."

Valka nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her. She wandered back down the stairs and explained Gobber that Hiccup would be a little bit before coming down. The man sent his condolences to the sickly Astrid before leaving to get started on his work at the forge. Valka, too, left to the stables to feed and fly both Cloudjumper and Stormfly as neither of them had eaten or gotten their exercise that morning.