Heir and Pride

Chapter Fifty Two

Fifty-Two:

Astrid stared at him for a whole minute, shocked from her exhaustion and eyes narrowing in anger.

"What?" she demanded. Hiccup gave a small grin.

"I. Am. Going. To. Steal. A. Forge," he repeated very slowly. "Look, we need weapons and other metal goods and I..."

Astrid closed to a few inches from him, her eyes flashing.

"Hiccup," she growled through her teeth, her azure eyes flashing with irritation, "there are more important things that we need before a forge. Food, for example? Warm clothing? Seeds? Livestock? Tools..."

"A forge will..."

"HICCUP! Devastating Winter is coming!" Astrid snapped, jabbing him in the chest with a finger. "We are isolated and alone here! We don't have a tribe to protect and support us and the temperature is dropping really fast. If we don't make preparations soon, we won't survive!"

"We have the dragons and I..."

"Can't you take anything seriously?" she growled. "We have to start preparing now, rather than flying off on some mad, stupid quest of your so you can play around inventing useless devices that don't do anything except cause destruction!"

Hiccup stilled, eyes widening and staring at her in shock, his face hurt.

"Is that what you think?" he said hoarsely. Suddenly realising what she had said, Astrid back up a pace, her anger evaporating.

"No, no! I didn't mean that!" she said urgently. "Hiccup..." The boy backed up, shaking his head.

"You wouldn't have said it if you didn't mean it," he said quietly. "I understand it doesn't seem important to you. But how do you think we're getting weapons? How will your axe be serviced or my sword mended? Or is that just me playing around as well?"

"That's not what I said..." she protested.

"That's exactly what you said," he accused her. "I thought you understood why I wanted to do this...so we could be properly protected and..."

"And we wouldn't need to be so protected if you hadn't insisted on going off trying to rescue a load of dragons all on your own without trusting me to help you?" she retorted.

"And I'm supposed to just leave them to suffer? What if it was Stormfly still imprisoned?"

"But she's not-she's here...and we took all of Berk's dragons..."

"But Barf'n'Belch flew back to the twins and Hookfang took himself back to Snotlout!" Hiccup snapped. "They are back on the Arena for nights, restricted though not caged..."

"Can you two please try to argue more quietly, some of us are trying to sleep," Henryk yawned, his crumpled shape appearing from the gloom, a small candle in his hand. His tow hair was sticking wilding in all directions and he glared at both of them. "Honestly, it's like having some the younger kids..." And he trailed back into the gloom, heading for his little bed. Astrid stared at Hiccup for one moment then burst into giggles. Though hurt, the boy found his emerald eyes crinkling as well at the admonishment. He raised his hands.

"Let's talk in the morning," he sighed. "I'm sure we can do something about both our concerns-once we have rested." She nodded.

"I'm sorry," Astrid told him, almost reaching for his hand but pausing, unsure how he would react. "Hiccup, not all your inventions self-destruct. Look at Toothless's tail and saddle! They're amazing!" He managed a small sad smile.

"I know," he sighed. "But what you said was really...hurtful, Astrid." He turned away. "Get some sleep."

oOo