úlfheðnar, httyd

xix. Coming Back Around

𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟
╰───►chapter nineteen; hiccup
❝ coming back around! ❞

     WHEN Hiccup woke, he thought he was dreaming. He was in pain━quite a fair amount of it, actually. It ached at his back, and his head, and his arms and his legs. Against his neck was something soft, and underneath something flat, wooden and rough. By his face, a breath tickled his cheek and brushed his hair. A little warm, smelling a lot like a day-old herring left in the sun. There was a warble, and Hiccup's eyes fluttered open. 

    The first thing he saw was Toothless sitting over him. When the Night Fury saw that his best friend was awake, his eyes widened, the flaps on his crown fell back and his hind legs shuffled in excitement. He propped up onto the bed and Hiccup managed a weak smile, raising a hand to cup his best friend's snout as he nudged him tenderly in the cheek.

    "Hey, Toothless," murmured Hiccup in a hoarse voice in need of water. Toothless shuffled closer, nuzzling him and warbling, his tail wagging like a dog. Hiccup laughed, "I'm happy to see you, too, bud," he winced when he licked him, but was beyond happy. They had both survived.

    Then Toothless accidentally stepped on Hiccup's stomach and he shot up with a painful, "Ow!"

    Toothless jumped back, startled, and Hiccup only just realised where they were. He knew he must be dreaming, because if he was correct (and he usually is), then that fire pit, those support beams and that chair were all from a place he'd last expect to see Toothless in. "Uh ..." Hiccup looked around, eyes widening, "...I'm in my house." Realisation started to hit. His gaze fixed back on his excited dragon. "You're in my house!" Hiccup tried to think, but his head was muddled like it was still filled with ash and smoke as Toothless bounded around the house, knocking over the fire stoker and some of his father's weapons. His father━

    "Does my dad know you're here?" Toothless wasn't listening. He knocked over the cooking pot. It clattered to the ground. Thankfully, there was nothing inside. "Uh ... what? Oh, okay, okay━" he watched him jump up onto the support beam, "━Toothless, no. No, Toothless." He hung over, tongue hanging out and grinning. "Toothless!" He stopped grinning, tilting his head as if to ask, what? Hiccup sighed, realising how much this was going to backend on them, "Oh, come on━" he went to move━

    Hiccup stopped. His stomach dropped down low to his gut, and maybe his heart, too. The fingers gripping his fur blanket faltered as he slowly began to realise he could only move one foot. There was something scratching tender, healing skin on his left knee, and only now did he realise the strong aches he felt all pinpointed down to a single spot ...

    With a shaking hand, Hiccup pulled away his blanket, and his heart lurched. 

    There, where his left foot should be, was a small, hinged metal leg. 

    Hiccup sat there for a second, taking a deep breath. He refused to be sick, he refused to close his eyes and reopen them again, wishing that this was all a dream. But it wasn't. He didn't want to move it, not sure how it would feel, whether it would hurt━he didn't even know how he'd walk without a foot. How he'd fly. How he'd just get to his house door. 

    But if there was one thing Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was, was stubborn and very━very brave. He was the son of Stoick the Vast, and while his stature may not make him seem like it, his heart and his courage made up for it. 

     He had to keep going. He was a Viking, and Viking's do not give up.

    So, with another deep breath, Hiccup heaved both legs over the side of his bed. He winced at the sudden pain that shot up his left thigh, but pushed through it, setting down both foot and metal prosthetic onto the wooden floor. It clunked as it settled in, the wooden stump settling down against the metal, keeping his weight.