To mend a Valkyrie's heart (HTTYD fic)

Chapter 10

Astrid's POV

I hear voices in the hallway, and I blearily open my eyes. An unfamiliar ceiling greets me. As I sit up on the bed, and look at the dying embers in the fire pit I recall yesterday's events. The sound of "Yes darling, right away darling" could be heard from the hallway. I walk to the door, and open it to reveal Fishlegs, and Ruffnut talking, while Brigid is clinging onto her daddy's leg. I also notice Heather, and Snotlout trying to stifle their laughter, and a knocked out Tuffnut.

"Guys?" I call getting their attention.

"Auntie Astrid!" Brigid says with excitement, and runs to hug me.

The others greet me with the same enthusiasm. I'm simply happy to see that they are alright as well.

"What happened to Tuffnut?" I ask as I notice him regaining consciousness.

"Oh Astrid you should have seen it. Ruffnut knocked him out." Snotlout snickers.

"He should never have said that Ruffnut walking resembled that of a fat chicken." Heather interjects with a smirk.

"I'm hurt, I'm very much hurt." Tuffnut mumbles as he gets off the floor, and rubs his nose.

"Now as I was telling the others, I'm hungry." Ruffnut says as we began walking through the caves. "We were just about to head towards the kitchen."

"You guys know where it is?" I ask.

"Yeah, after we landed Ryder gave us a quick rundown of where everything was. He basically told us we could go anywhere except his room." Fishlegs replies. "He looked pretty tired when he showed us our rooms."

"Maybe I can make breakfast as a thank you." I suggest. Before I could say anything else cries of "OH THOR NO!!" were shouted by my friends.

"Astrid, so far only Ruffnut has been able to handle your cooking, and that is only when she was pregnant." Fishlegs says clearly thinking about the time when Ruffnut was pregnant with Brigid, and ate three of my fish pies.

"Yeah Astrid, the guy really helped us out. I don't think poisoning him is a good idea." Tuffnut casually states.

As we neared the kitchen I noticed the Night Fury behind us. I stop walking, which catches the others attention. They then also notice the sleek dragon approaching us. We stay out of his way as he passes us. A look of irritation could be seen on the dragon's face. With a paw the Night Fury opened the door to the kitchen, and enters. We peak in, and see the dragon take an empty bucket in his jaw, and dunk it in a water barrel. With a bucket full of water the dragon walked back out of the kitchen with determination in its stride.

We stand there silently for a minute to process what we've seen.

"Okay, that was...." Snotlout mumbles.

"That dragon opened a door, and filled a bucket of water. Maybe we don't know everything about them." I state, and begin to walk into the kitchen. The others are following.

"We were all thought that dragons were mindless beast, but this behavior actually shows that they have intelligence." Fishlegs says while lighting the fire pit.

"I wonder what that dragon will do with that bucket of water." Tuffnut questions.

Just then a scream of "TOOTHLESS!!! YOU USELESS REPTILE!!!" could be heard through the entire cave.

"Never mind, question answered." Tuffnut states.

Ruffnut, Heather, and I bring out various ingredients, and have Brigid shoo the boys out of the kitchen. "Alright, alright we're going." Snotlout huffs, and then asks Fishlegs, and Tuffnut. "You guys want to go take a quick bath?"

Hiccup's POV

I was snuggling into the warm fur blanket when suddenly cold water hit my face instantly waking me up. I sit up straight still dripping wet, and notice Toothless holding a now empty bucket in his jaw. He gives me a gummy smile, and his version of laughter, and then proceeds to run out of the room. "TOOTHLESS!!! YOU USELESS REPTILE!!!" I scream after him.

I stand up, now completely awake. My tunic, and pants are damp from the water. 'Might as well take a bath before breakfast.' I mutter, while grabbing a towel, and making my way towards the bathroom, which was essentially a large pool of flowing water.

As I enter the bathing area, I strip out of my tunic, and pants. The towel I lay on a rock near the edge of the pool, while I slip into the water. As my muscles slowly began to relax, I heard some chatter from the entrance. I turn from the rock I'm leaning against to check what is going on. From the entrance I see Fishlegs, Snotlout, and Tuffnut, who all stop in their tracks as the catch sight of me.

I see Snotlout's eyes narrow, and then fill with realization. To late I notice that I didn't have my mask with me. Snotlout is gaping like a fish, and then exclaims "Hiccup!!" with such astonishment. The others seem just as surprised at Snotlout's outburst. They look from Snotlout to me, and back again, and I see Snotlout fall down in a faint.

I quickly take the towel from the rock, and wrap it around my waist as I join Fishlegs, and Tuffnut who are trying to wake up Snotlout.

Snotlout's eyes suddenly snap open, and he sits up very fast, causing our foreheads to bang into each other as I was slightly hovering over him. I hold my head in my hands trying to reduce the pain of the impact, and see him doing the same.

Snotlout soon regains his senses, takes one more look at me, and girlishly screams "OH MY THOR!!! A GHOST!!!", while running down the corridor.

I quickly run after him while yelling "Snotlout get back here!!", but my cousin keeps on running. I hear the sound of rapid footsteps behind me. 'The others must be following as well.' I think.

Soon I catch up to Snotlout just as he rounds the corner to the kitchen. I jump on him, and tackle him to the ground, not noticing the other occupants. Snotlout is still screaming "GHOST!!", and wildly trashes about.

"Oh for the love of Frigga. Snotlout I'm not a ghost." I say with exasperation as I finally get him to calm down. "What even made you think I was dead?"

I suddenly heard "Hiccup?", and looked up to find Heather, Ruffnut, and Astrid gazing at me. I notice Ruffnut covering Brigid's eyes, and Heather covering her mouth, trying to hold in her laughter. Astrid was looking at me with an open mouth, and cheeks aflame. She gestured towards me, and I suddenly notice that the towel around my waist seemed to have slipped a bit.