For Milady

SEVENTEEN: Consequences

SEVENTEEN: Consequences

Hiccup blearily opened his eyes and found a very round protuberant eye inspecting him from a distance of three inches. He screamed in shock and drew back as far as he could as a pink tongue flicked up to lick the eyeball nonchalantly. The rusty red and brown Terrible Terror gave a bored look and flapped away as Hiccup blinked and his mouth moved in vague recognition.

"I-Iggy?"

"Ah-you're awake." A familiar voice sounded and Hiccup blinked, wondering why his head felt so muzzy, why he was incredibly weak and why he was swathed in bandages. His memory seemed to be pretty fractured as well and he really couldn't understand why he was here...

"Fishlegs? What-what happened?" His voice was a hoarse whisper, parched and rasping and the husky rider immediately came close, offering a bowl of cooled tea and he drank thirstily. Why did he feel so weak? And why did it hurt when he moved...?

Suddenly he tried to sit up and whined in pain as he tried to move-but he was curling up as well and his questing hand found his right leg, hand sliding down the warm flesh all the way to the foot. Only then did he relax.

"Thank Thor...I didn't lose the other one..." he mumbled, lying back in relief. Fishlegs nodded.

"What do you remember?" he asked gently and the auburn-haired Viking looked up blearily. He blinked.

"Toothless!" he gasped and tried to sit up again but Fishlegs caught him and forced him to remain resting, lying back on a soft pillow, blankets draped gently around his weary shape.

"He's fine," the husky Rider reassured him as a familiar warble echoed through the cave and the sounds of a large shape approaching closed. Hiccup turned his head and grinned as the black dragon barrelled in and nuzzled urgently against him. He wrapped his arms around the head and hugged him tight, his eyes closing in relief.

"Bud-oh, Thank Thor..." he murmured. "I'm so sorry, Toothless. It was my fault...I should have...I should have seen them..." But the dragon whined gently and licked him gently, nudging him back into the blankets. And then the Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death itself lay gently down alongside him and purred. "We were captured by Hunters," he admitted slowly and Fishlegs nodded.

"I-I saw your back," he said in an embarrassed voice and Hiccup threw his arm across his eyes. He was aware of the pain now, dragging through his shoulders. "And...um...the other wounds..."

"It's okay," Hiccup sighed. "I just want to get up and get after Astrid again..." There was a silence and the young Viking lifted his arm and peered suspiciously at his friend. "Fish...?" The husky Viking sat down heavily by the fire and sighed.

"Look-you've been really sick with a fever," he revealed. "You've been raving about Hunters, yelling you wouldn't tell them anything, muttering you don't know anything about the King, shouting for Toothless and-and crying for Astrid..." He poked the fire aimlessly. "I'm sorry-I didn't mean to pry and..." Hiccup frowned.

"I remember...Dagur?" he murmured then blinked slowly. "Why are you here?" Fishlegs looked up, his greenish eyes warm with amusement.

"Heather sent for me," he admitted. "So I brought Gothi with me-it wasn't hard to sneak out the village and head here. Dagur and Heather found you. But you were already fighting a fever when we arrived. Gothi needed all her skills to fight the infection and bring the fever down. You've been out of it for fifteen days, Hiccup. And from what we gathered you were their prisoner for about four weeks..."

"Twenty nine days," he said tonelessly. "What else aren't you telling me, Fish? You're still nervous."

"Well, Heather is hunting for food and Dagur should be back from escorting Gothi back to Berk and I'm sure they would be the best people to talk to you and..."