#httyd2 countdown

Chapter 40

Astrid drew in a breath, crossed her arms, and turned her focus on a very dry bushel of Angelica root.

"Thuggory had the nerve to propose I marry him," she muttered.

"Thug—what?" Hiccup wracked his brain for anything that may have spurred the older man into such recklessness.

"In front of the village," Astrid went on, deadpan. "At a meeting."

"...are you?"

Her head whipped around to him.

"Of course I'm not!" she snapped. Hiccup thought she looked rather flustered. "After everything he did? I just—why would he do that?"

"You shouldn't have hit him," Hiccup stated. "Nothing turns a guy on faster—"

Astrid punched him in the arm before he could finish.

The same arm fresh in the stages of recovery.

"Augh!" Hiccup cried out and clutched at it tightly, willing the throbbing to ease. The bandages felt warm under his grip, the warmest part of his body.

Astrid's hands flew to her mouth.

"Oh gods—I'm sorry!" she gasped into her palms. "I wasn't thinking—!"

"Toothless!" Hiccup grouched through clenched teeth. "Did you see that?"

The dragon hadn't so much as opened an eye at Hiccup's pained cry...

☆ HTTYD2 Countdown Continues…☆  

Chapter 39

For one breath longer Hiccup agonized over Toothless' lack of response to him.

They breached the thick of the clouds, the Demon temporarily disappearing from sight. And it was then, when Hiccup's fingers tightened over the leather of the saddle and his leg throbbed from the sting of the wind, that he felt it. Much like his first months under Toothless' watch, Hiccup sensed what the dragon wanted him to understand.

Trust in me, Hiccup.

The words rushed over him in lieu of the wind, which had let up as they came to a suspended halt in their rise.

::ATTACK!::Toothless bellowed in a prehistoric roar. There was something ancient and multilayered to a voice Hiccup once thought he knew. Had he not been riding Toothless himself, the human would have sworn that it was a thousand Night Furies crying for support and not one.

"Toothless? What—?"

Hiccup sucked in a breath.

Dragons began emerging from the clouds—the very clouds they had once escaped into. Diving, all of them, with wings drawn in tight and their mouths open for over a dozen budding flames.

A wild smile came to Hiccup's face as he helped Toothless fall into a missile of their own.

☆ HTTYD2 Countdown Continues…☆  

Chapter 37

Fool in sight, Astrid stormed up to her unsuspecting friend. Snotlout lifted his head just as she slammed her hands on the table.

"You challenged Hiccup to hólmganga?" she snapped. She didn't bother lowering her voice—chances were the entire village knew of it anyway. She wanted her temper heard.

The Vikings seated at the neighboring table immediately grabbed their drinks and relocated.

Snotlout's chest puffed out, his eyes defiant, meeting her challenge. "Yeah, I did."

"Why?" she asked. She shook her head; there was a strain to her voice. A tiredness. "Why are you so threatened by him? He's not taking over!"

Snotlout's face darkened. "They allowed him in the village. That's the first step."

Chapter 38

Hiccup took his watch away from Astrid and redirected it to where Toothless stared. He felt his face slacken.

"What the—?"

It was the Nightmare from the island—in complete control of his actions with his clawed wings braced on the ground. And on his back, clinging to the blunted, jutting spikes, was Snotlout.

"Hiccup!" Snotlout cried through his clumsy attempts to stay seated. "How do I do this?"

He had a wild look of fear and amazement to his features; he behaved very much like he had no idea why he decided to take the Nightmare's offer.

☆ HTTYD2 Countdown Continues…☆  (for reals this time)

Chapter 35 (aka: Romantic Flight 2.0)

"Home?" The word tasted sour on her tongue, having heard it first from his lips. "Is that the way you treat your home? You lied to us! You were a cheat! You didn't care about our village or supporting it or—or protecting it! You chose a dragon over your family!"

"That dragon is my family!" Hiccup snarled. Not a flicker of shame graced his features at his declaration.

Astrid took another step forward.

"You left! You left us!"

"I came back!" Hiccup snapped back, and while his decision to do so might have made all the difference to their village—to their future—Astrid couldn't quite let go of the past yet.

Chapter 36

"Howdy!"

"CRIPES!"

Gobber jerked so violently he nearly fell face first into the hearth. As it worked out, his lurch landed one of his mustache braids in the coals, and the frayed strands caught fire. The blacksmith bellowed and began slapping at the flame with his flesh hand.

☆ HTTYD2 Countdown Continues…☆ (It's a day late for silly reasons… but we're finally back in Berk! We're finally at the fun parts!)

Chapter 33

"Again, he doesn't sound feral," Spitelout added. "Still using that brain of his. He's even got himself a messenger hawk..."

"Does he now?" the Elder spoke up, reminding the men of her presence. She stared at the bird with a high brow.

Spitelout followed her gaze to the marker strapped around its scaly leg—the claim of property. The Berkian-red tag.

He blinked. "Er...is that ours?"

The men all leaned closer to the hawk. There was no mistaking it; they had each used this particular hawk before—several times.

"How did he...bugger!" Gobber swore. "He was in our village?"

Chapter 34

"Swear on this alter. That no harm will come to me or Toothless...or any dragon I should vouch for." ...

"I swear," Stoick gruffly agreed. "So long as no dragon you vouch for harms my people."

Hiccup gripped his father's hand, and he made sure to keep it strong so that the shaking of his limbs would go unperceived. So much nervous energy coiled in his gut that he felt like he could fire Framherja ten times in a row.

Stoick showed no surprise on his face, but Hiccup would forever swear that he saw pride in his father's gaze. A traitor--a vagabond--and for the first time Hiccup could remember his father looked proud of him.

☆ HTTYD2 Countdown Continues…☆

Chapter 31

"When did she do it?" Hiccup whispered to himself. "It couldn't have been...no...I thought I was watching her...then again, it was getting dark..."

Knowing her, all it would have taken was one moment of facing Toothless, one moment where his eyes weren't following her. That was Camicazi's magic. She could have you guessing at how she cheated you for eternity.

"Damn it!" Hiccup threw the bag to the ground, his head oscillating from side-to-side, fruitlessly searching the area for any clue as to where else the rubies could be. He knew she took them; he knew her sixth sense could have never kept them secret from her...

Chapter 32

The crooning, the rattling, ceased. The awareness of the silence slammed into Hiccup with the weight of that neighboring Nightmare's stare. Those benumbed, amber eyes looked at him now. It looked at him with an increasing awareness that seemed to synchronize with his own welling dread.

Only the stare of the dragon behind it could drag Hiccup's eyes away. And of the dragon behind that one, and the dragon behind that one...

His heart pounded in his throat as he realized every beast lining the wall now focused on him. Him and Toothless.