In Lieu Of A Tail

24. Hiccup Is An Idiot, Again

❤️💛💚💙💜 PLEASE SEE AN AT THE BOTTOM 💜💙💚💛❤️

The day began with the sunrise, as they always do. The riders and their dragons arose and ventured into the forest to capture and prepare themselves breakfast, promising to return soon with some for Gothi and Heller. When they returned – an hour later – Hiccup's face and armour was muddy, and twigs poked from his even-more-bird's-nest-looking hair. He was glaring at Aurora and Astra, while Toothless appeared to be practicing the draconic equivalent of laughter. Hiccup sighed, hefting the basket of fish that remained for the three riders and Terrible Terror, he should have known his sister would 'accidentally' knock him into the bushes, at least the mud was mostly dry now – he could brush is off soon enough. Then he would find some way to get his own back.

They cooked the fish with dragon fire and all ate together. Then the two younger riders and their dragons entered the forest again, the Terror deciding to remain with his companion in the village.

Aurora leapt from branch to branch again, chittering childish; girlish giggles. Astra's wing was healed enough that it was no longer splinted at all, as it had been in a half splint. She couldn't yet fly with it, but Gothi expected that she soon would. The dragon followed her hatchling beneath the trees, careful to ensure she was below the girl in case she fell. Her rider continued her parkour over the branches, if you didn't know her you wouldn't realise she was still injured, she proceeded slower than usual, partially because her arm was still in a sling, and partially because she didn't know these woods as well as the ones on Freja Isle. In reality, it was mostly the latter.

They were already in the cove when the horns sounded. All of them cursed in dragonese, colourfully.

Astrid awoke at the usual time and got changed, she trained for an hour – as usual – and then had breakfast. In fact, nothing about the day seemed out of the ordinary, which is why when the war horns blew, she was beyond surprised. It did not get better when a large flock of dragons appeared, and began to circle, nor did it help when she spotted the troupe of ships that were a little too close to the shore and had far too many vessels to come in peace. To be honest, it may have been just a little bit threatening.

Excuse my sarcasm – and the damage to the fourth wall, I'll fix it soon – my readers, it cannot be helped sometimes, especially when one is attempting to convey how terrifying the event of an armada of ships and dragons appearing is. Just as Vikings are beginning to believe that a certain sarcastic, scrawny little not-Viking – who is now muscled and not scrawny, not the time, sorry – may be right about dragons not meaning harm. This was not going to end well.

Perhaps now is a good time to mention that the riders had, over the years, gained a large number of allies around the world – yes it's round, deal with it, when Aurora discovered that she wouldn't shut up for weeks – and they had a system for if, say, one was attacked by dragon hunters. This system involved notifying Hiccup and Aurora, informing them of any attacks and whether they needed help to rebuild. Oftentimes, the riders – or one of them if the other was indisposed – would visit the island to help, if that were requested, and to collect any details of said attacks – so they could advise their allies on how they could prepare in case another attack occurred. Unfortunately, the messages were always delivered to either Hiccup or Aurora, and if they happened to be MIA, it worried their allies, add that one of them had been expected on Caldera Cay a few days ago – and hadn't arrived – and all their allies were freaking out.

Hiccup had left instructions for the island's dragons to inform any couriers that he was going to be on Caldera Cay with his sister, however when the rider had traveled there, they discovered that neither he, nor his sister were there, and hadn't been for several months. His sister had been due to visit – but hadn't arrived – this wasn't a red flag, she was often late. The red flag was that Hiccup wasn't there and hadn't sent word that they would be late – which was very un-Hiccup-like.