Under Pressure

Chapter Sixteen: Even

This couldn't be happening. Hiccup couldn't be dead. After everything they had gone through, everything they had faced, every tear they had shed together, this couldn't be how it ended. Her husband dead in her arms, his warm blood soaking her clothing. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

The cry that came from Astrid caught everyone off guard. No one had ever heard a cry so anguished, so devoid of hope. No one wanted to watch her sobbing, her limp husband in her arms.

The Meathead's healer, a woman named Oona, rushed forward, a few of her helpers and apprentices running behind her with a mat. Before Astrid could even react, she pushed her aside and immediately began to place her fingers on Hiccup's neck and up to his mouth. And then she did something that made Astrid gasp with horror and Toothless lunge forward. She slapped him. His eyelids fluttered in response and his body jolted again.

"He's alive." she put a hand on the young woman's shoulder. "We have to get him to my house right now."

She motioned for her entourage to put Hiccup on the mat. Astrid didn't want to let him go but she knew that he needed urgent care. She and the others carried her husband to a thankfully nearby house. Toothless followed, limping behind them, and curled up outside the house, unable to fit through the door. They burst through it and lay him down on the bed. His blood seeped through the mat, creating crimson stains on just about everything it touched. Now that she could see him in a proper light, Astrid caught sight of his stomach weakly moving up and down. His arms and legs trembling. He was breathing. He was alive.

Gobber came bounding through the doorway seconds later. Astrid had never seen him looking so worried.

"He's alive?" he asked, his eyes boring into Astrid's.

She nodded. Gobber, though still tense, seemed to loosen up a bit. He sat down on a nearby chair as Oona and her assistants tended to the wounded chief. They cut away the leather coat to reveal the flight suit underneath. The dagger was sticking directly into Hiccup's heart... but there was a lump on the chest. The blood coming from beneath the strap seeped slowly, almost like the cut wasn't very deep. Oona decided to take the risk and extract the dagger.

The moment Astrid saw the it, her legs gave out and she collapsed onto a chair. Only the dagger's tip was dripping with her husband's blood. Oona cut away the strap and out fell a doll in a blue nightgown with a missing arm and leg and, now, a gaping hole in its center. Its back was covered in blood. But now the injury was revealed... it was shallow. Only about a centimeter deep, if that. Astrid covered her face with her hands, an explosion of relief and terror all coming out of her at once. Their little girl had saved her daddy's life.

"We're going to have to stitch this up." Oona said in a businesslike tone. "Josie, Cleo, you get the stitching materials and start working on his neck. Gobber, get a few of the stronger Hooligans to hold him down. Astrid, talk to him. We can't let him pass out." she clapped her hands once. "Move!"

Instantly, there was a flurry of activity. The assistants named Josie and Cleo ran around, picking up the materials they needed. Oona pressed down on Hiccup's injuries to try to slow the bleeding while she waited for them. Gobber ran out the door, was gone for a few seconds, and returned with Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Snotlout going over and holding down Hiccup's arms while Tuffnut and Gobber held down his legs. The moment Josie and Cleo returned with the materials, they slowly started working on Hiccup's neck. Hiccup gasped at the sudden pain. Astrid knew that there would be a scar there for the rest of his life. Oona applied a thick bandage to his chest and another to his left arm and hand. The cut on the arm also needed stitching.

Astrid, meanwhile, leaned over him, blocking his view of the procedures. Hiccup's eyes were half open and unfocused.

"Wh-what? I... I can't... why can't I..." Hiccup whispered, incapable of raising his voice.