How It Came To Be (An LBR story)

Chapter III

Berk at night was boring. Patrols were always on the lookout for enemies or spies, but now that there are dragons around, no one is foolish enough to to fight us.

A few weeks have passed and everytime Hiccup and the Dragon Riders think they know most things about their dragon, something new pops up. Relationships are forming around them like crazy, and it seems like everyone has someone. Except for Astrid and Hiccup, and that simple fact keeps them from focusing clearly.

They were cleverly paired by Stoick to patrol at nights when their shift came, hoping somehting would come out of it. He didn't know that they had shared an awkard meeting at the forge last time Gobber decided not to show up. Hiccup fixed Astrid's axe, but when he gave it back to her he did it kind of ashamed.

Astrid always tried to go out of her way to apologize for her snap, but it always seems like Hiccup has been avoiding her and it hurts her to think about that. They split every time they patrol, each of them always thinking about the other and the day things got a little different between them.

They both think about the night at the beach after the party and how everything seemed right at the moment. The next day at the forge came and everything went backwards.

************

"What in Thor's name happened?" Hiccup says to himself as Toothless is asleep at the house.

Hiccup spots Astrid in the distance between buildings, but turns around so she doesn't see him. He weaves in and out of the buildings, heading to the forge to continue to work on something. Finally arriving at the forge, he checks his surroundings to see if he was followed by someone and to double check that no one was slipping into Berk.

"Let's see how far I've come with this beauty," Hiccup says to himself.

He pulls out a drawer full of dragon scales from when Toothless was shot down and lost half his tail. He keeps one hung on the wall in his room to remember the day he met his best friend, and the other for when he gets jewelry ideas.

So far he hasn't had to make any jewelry, and now he gets a chance to use the scales.

He was making a necklace for Astrid as a sign of apology for whatever happened at the forge. This was only a model for him to go by when he create the real thing. It was a butterfly etched with symmetrical designs, meaning that both sides were identical just like a real butterfly. The real one would have silver instead of steel for a more beautiful shine.

As he started to work on the model, something stirred the foliage outside of the forge.

************

Minutes ago

Astrid lights her new torch since her original finally went out. She thinks about the day at the forge weeks ago. Ever since then, he feels as if Hiccup doesn't see her as the same anymore.

"Why do I do this to myself?" she says to no one. "Things went well at the beach, and then I have to lose it on a joke and screw things up."

She turns to the right and spots Hiccup down the way amongst some of the houses. She starts to make her way towards him to talk about what happened but to her disappointment he walks away.

Her shoulders visibly drop and she just sits down against the building, wraps her arms around her knees and just sits there curled up. She lays her head down, tears forming in her eyes. Something moves to her side, but she just sits there.

"Astrid?" a voice says. It was Ruffnut. "What's wrong?"

"The same as the past few weeks," Astrid replies, now crying.

Ruff sits beside her and puts her arms around her in a hug.

"What exactly happened that day?" Ruff asks.

"I went to give my axe to Hiccup to repair because I knew he'd do a great job, and he cracked a joke and I got mad," Astrid explains. "And now he won't talk to me, won't stand by, and sometimes he doesn't even look at me. It hurts to think about..." Astrid sobs as she thinks about never getting another chance to win Hiccup's heart.

"Just give it some time, girl," Ruff tries. "Time heals all things."

"Thanks Ruff," Astrid says as Ruff wipes her tears. "Can you help me find Hiccup? I want to talk to him."

"Of course I will," Ruff says.

Ruff helps Astrid off the ground and they set out to find where Hiccup disappeared to. They look where he is supposed to be patrolling but he was nowhere to be found.

"Where could that boy be?" Astrid says.

"Don't ask me. You know him better than I do."

"I mean c'mon. It's not like he's..." and she faceplams. "We didn't check the forge." They just giggle to themselves.

"Told ya that you know him," Ruff playfully hits Astrid's shoulder. "Let's go see what he's up to."

They made their way to the forge and saw that it was lit up. They slowly creep to the window and hear the word "beauty" from Hiccup and him scrounging around in the forge for things. As they made their way around, Astrid trips into the foliage by the window and they no longer hear noise inside.

************

Hiccup grabs his dagger and hold it in a reverse grip (he's been working on his skills with a dagger to start out with weapons).

"Who's there?" he demands.

Hiccup slowly walks out of the forge, careful as to not have his shadow be castes from the light inside. He creeps to the foliage outside the window and quickly uncovers it to reveal nothing. He sheaths his dagger and goes back in.

"It might just be exhaustion. It's not like I've slept since it happened," Hiccup refers to the day at the forge. "One might even say it's all blown between us. But that doesn't mean I'll stop trying."

Hiccup starts his work on the actual butterfly for Astrid. He lays the model on the scale and traces it out with ash as charcoal will be too dark to see. He then heats up a piece of iron so he can cut the scale around the edge. While Hiccup waits for the grinding wheel to get stated, he heats the silver for the intricate etching of the design. Hiccup starts to smooth the edges of the butterfly, forming a near perfect summery on either side. As the silver finishes melting, Hiccup cuts through the scale to make sure the silver will show on both sides. Another minute or so the silver is hot enough to pour. Drip by drip and inch by inch, Hiccup makes careful note not to spill the sliver anywhere but where it's meant to go.

With the butterfly now complete, he holds the small pendant in the palm of his hand, an inch of palm showing on either side of the pendant. He pulls a chain from his pocket and attaches it, finishing the necklace.

"If this doesn't do it, I don't know what will," Hiccup says sadly. He looks out the window to see the sun coming up. "Well, time for me to head off to bed."