Gone (HTTYD Fanfic) REWRITE [Book 5]

~8~

All is quite as they stare at the man in front of them. No one knows what to say, fearing that what they say could be the the wrong choice of words. All but Astrid of course as she smiles smugly at the others.

Gobber is the first to shake off the shock. "'Iccup? Is tha' really you?" Hiccup looks at Gobber. He looks confused for a moment but then nods. Gobber just stares, dumbfounded. "Ye got a lot of explainin' to do." Gobber says.

Hiccup looks at them all, not saying anything. When he looks at Astrid, she stares back, having missed those beautiful green eyes, thinking that she would never see them again.

Hiccup looks down to the ground and rubs the back of his neck. Even though it was all a dream, Astrid recognizes that as a sign that he anxious and/or nervous.

"Yeah... I um... I know I do..." His voice is rough, but Astrid is happy, knowing that she is able to see the one person that she loves the most in the world. Though she would never tell anybody that. She remembers all about "keeping her reputation in tacked." And she knows that if anybody notices her acting different, it will not be easy to explain.

"Um... Do you... um... remember when... I... um... told the..uh... village... that I... shot down a Night Fury?" Hiccup asks. Astrid remembers that morning vividly. As if it were a dream.

Astrid's mom had told her there was a dragon raid. She was woken up way to early for her liking. She remembers how much of a crab she was that day. She had hurried out with her axe but was told by the chief that she had to go around and help put out the fires that the dragons were starting. She reluctantly agreed. Though no one can really say "no" the the chief.

She remember seeing Hiccup running through the crowd and saw him running towards the Forge. She had ignored him and got to work. She remembers looking back at the forge window and not seeing the small Viking making weapons. Then she heard the scream. She saw how it caught Stoick's attention.

She saw Hiccup running from a Monstrous Nightmare. But she didn't go in and help. Stock had taken care of it before she could. She knew that if she toke care of the dragon, it would help her reputation. She had watched as the mess Hiccup made had made an even bigger mess, if that was even possible. She glared at him as him walked away with shame weighing him down.

She hadn't felt guilty about that at the time, but now she knows that he was just looking for his father's approval. And all he got was mistreatment.

"When I... um... left the forge... I really did... uh... shoot him down." Hiccup says. She looks at at him confused as to way he is stammering. The others seem to think the same.

"Why are you talking like that?" Snotlout asks. Astrid has the urge to punch him. He needs to understand that some questions could be uncomfortable to talk about. They should be lucky that Hiccup is explaining at all to them. Especially after their tense reunion.

Hiccup looks to the ground, as if he is ashamed. "I will... uh... get there. After I was... brought home by the... um... acquaintance of... Gobber, I snuck out... um... the back door... to try and... uh... find the Night Fury. I found... Toothless wrapped... in a... Um..." Hiccup trails of, trying to remember something.

"A bola?" Suggests Fishlegs, extremely confused as to why Hiccup couldn't remember.

Hiccup nods and smiles. He thanks Fishlegs and continues explaining. "Yes... A bola. I was... Uh... going to kill him... but when I looked... in his eyes, I saw... myself. He looked as... Um... frightened.. as me. So I cut him free."

Everyone is shocked about what he chose to do. Most Vikings -or all - would kill a Night Fury if they came across one like Hiccup did. No one in their right mind none cut it free. Though as proven from previous years and experiences, Hiccup never seemed to do what would of been asked of him to do.

"He didn't... kill me though. A life for a life. He could've... killed me then... and there. He... um... let me go. Seeing as... my dad and I... Uh... don't agree on... anything, I was signed up... for... Um... Dragon Training."

"Tha' would be my fault 'Iccup." Hiccup glares slightly at Gobber. With there past relationship, Gobber knows that it is a half-hearted glare.

"Why didn't you tell your dad that you didn't want to be in dragon training?" Ruffnut asks.

"Believe me... I tried. He never seems... to listen to me. So anyway, everyday... Um... after training, I would go to the... woods. I was trying... to... Uh... Befriend Toothless."

"Uh... Why did you name him Toothless? Because after all those times he was growling at us, I am pretty sure that I saw teeth." Tuffnut says.

Hiccup gestures to Toothless. He opens his mouth, showing them all his gums. They all jump when he shows his teeth.

"Well, that's still a stupid name because he obviously still has teeth. Do you hate him or something?" Tuffnut asks.

Hiccup rolls his eyes and doesn't answer him. Toothless who decides he is done with the humans, grumbles and goes to lay by the fire.

"When I saw Toothless... the... um... second time, I noticed that he was... Uh... missing his left tail fin. After the... last day of... training, I knew that... Uh... after bonding with Toothless, I couldn't... kill a dragon. So... I left."

"Yeah... We realized that." Snotlout says sarcastically. Astrid glares at him and Snotlout cowers away from her glare.

"But after we left... I realized what... was really behind the... Uh... raids."

"I'm lost. Who else is?" Tuffnut says and raises his hand. Tuffnut does the same.

"The nest. Toothless... flew me there. We saw a... Gronkle... Um... regurgitate a tiny... fish. At first... nothing happened. Then, an... enormous dragon came up... And ate the... Uh... Gronkle."

They all looked shell-shocked. No Vikings alive today have ever told a story of a dragon so big it ate a dragon whole.

"It ate the dragon... whole?" Fishlegs says nervously.

"Mhmm. We were able to... escape before it... saw us." That a big fat lie. The dragon did see them. It did almost eat them. Before the dragon could close its mouth around the two, a Zippleback had gotten in the way. But Hiccup didn't tell them for the sake that they would all start to panic and freak out.

"Well, why don't we go to the island and kill the dragon? Problem solved, right?" Hiccup looked at Snotlout for a minute before he spoke up again but a weak voice: "Right?"

Hiccup shakes his head. "Not possible... If it were to... land on... Um... Berk, Berk would... be crushed." Snotlout gulps and pales.

Astrid decides to try and steer the conversation somewhere else. "Are you going to come back to Berk?"

Hiccup pales and looks away. Astrid knows exactly what that gesture is telling her. She knows Hiccup well enough to be about to read him like an open book.

"Oh come on! Why not? Berk isn't the same without you there..." Astrid says. "We have all missed you..." Shglances at the others. "Well... Most of us." She says glaring at Snotlout. He looks away guilty.

"No... I... can't. Toothless... The chief..." Hiccup stutters.

"Won't hurt ye pet dragon."

"How do you... know?"

"Ye have us here for ye. We will protect ye both." Gobber reassures him. Hiccup takes a deep breath and looks at the others. They all smile and nod in agreement.

Hiccup signs and looks back down to the ground. Finally, after a tense moment of waiting, he looks up and hesitantly nods.