The Night Rider: Book Two

Chapter 24: Home

HICCUPS POV.

All the riders landed outside Hiccups house. The cold night air nipped at Hiccups exposed chest and feet. He was carrying his helmet in one hand and Heathers horn in the other. Every rider and dragon were moments away from falling asleep exactly where they stood. All the riders dismounted tiredly, the twins stumbled when they did and slammed their heads against one another's. Causing a short shouting match which ended in a standstill.  

"You can stay here until the morning." Hiccup mumbled lazily. 

"Are there stables that our dragons could stay in?" Fishlegs asked. 

"No, this island is safe. They can find a place to sleep and return in the morning."  Hiccup said. The riders began to shoo away their dragons. Stormfly took off and fluttered to the roof of his house and landed, shaking out her wings before she sank into a ball and closed her eyes. Meatlug fell onto her side and immediately began to snore. Snotlouts, Monstrous Nightmare and the twins double headed destruction dragon both took to the sky and flew off to find somewhere to sleep. Toothless stayed by Hiccups side. 

Hiccup walked up to the front door and opened it. The interior of the house was dark and cold. He put down his helmet and the horn and walked over to the fireplace and put in a few dry logs. "Toothless." He called. The dragon walked over and fired a small purple plasma blast into the logs sending them to flames. A dim orange light filled the room and heat began to fight against the cold. Toothless curled up in front of the fireplace and fell asleep quickly. 

Hiccup turned around and saw the blood-stained table that he had put Heather on when she had been injured. The other riders all saw it and looked at it slowly. They all new that Heather had been injured, maybe they assumed it was from him trying to help her, or they were too shocked by it that they were scared to ask. Either way, they didn't. Not even Astrid, but she looked at him curiously. 

"Follow me." He said. Hiccup led the group up the stairs which entered into a long hallway. The hallway had four doors. Each one was a bedroom. The closest door on the left wall was the bedroom Astrid had used when she had been taken here after his dragons tried to rescue him from Berk. Further down the hall were two more doors on the right which each led into two more small bedrooms. And finally, farthest down the hall to the left was his bedroom. "Twins, you can sleep in there." He said pointing towards the first door. 

The two entered the room but quickly walked back out. "There's only one bed in there." Ruffnut said.

Hiccup gave them a board look that made them retreat back into the small room and shut the door behind them. "Fishlegs, Snotlout. You can each have one of the bedrooms on the right. Astrid, you can sleep in my room." 

"Where will you sleep?" Astrid asked as the other two men went to their respective rooms. 

"I'll find somewhere else." He said and he saw something flash across her face. Was it...disappointment? No, it couldn't be. 

"Okay." She said before turning around and walking down the hall and entering the room. 

Hiccup walked back down the stairs to the first floor and silently opened a cabinet. He was tired, probably more tired than any of the other riders or dragons. But he still had to bandage his new wounds, curtesy of Ryker. He reached in and pulled out a small basket filled with rolls of clean bandages. Hiccup placed the basket on a counter and grabbed a dry rag and walked across the room to another door. He opened it and walked down another hallway that had more doors. He opened one of the doors that had a large pale of water in it and dipped the towel into it. He walked back into the main room and back to the basket of bandages and placed the wet rag down beside it.