Who: Hiccup and Astrid What: Geocaching in the woods with some unexpected visitors Where: Random woods in the OC When: January 10th Rating: PG Status: Complete
Winter time was finally back to normal in the OC and Hiccup couldn’t be happier that the snow had finally disappeared. It meant that he was able to go out into the woods again and catch up on the geocaching he had missed. He spent most of winter break trying to convince Astrid that she should go with him once the weather cleared up and today was finally the day. It really wasn’t that bad out there and he wanted to get his mind off off the impending return of school.
But honestly, winter break had been fantastic. He spent a lot of time with Astrid and actually got to experience what it was like to be in actual civilization for a major holiday. His mother cooking Christmas dinner in an actual kitchen was a new memory he would enjoy. The snow couldn’t even truly damper his mood and he had tried to go out and do a few snow related activities that his prosthetic leg could handle.
As he stepped over a log he held tightly onto Astrid’s hand and helped her as well, “Are you regretting this yet? I do have to say that you look totally in your element and incredibly attractive right now.” Was he laying it on thick? Oh yes. Did he care? Nope, not really. He was being honest and he liked to keep the conversation light in case she actually hate the activity.
His gps showed that they were close to another spot and he grinned, “Alright, we’re almost there. Should be just head and we can see what we find.”
“Regret nothing,” Astrid insisted with a huff. Not everyone could be as one with the wild as Hiccup was, but at least the dreams gifted her with some knowledge she had to apply to practice. It wasn’t like Vikings lived in houses with plumbing and had a Walmart around the corner from them for the sake of convenience. Hunting and skinning and cleaning up oversized dragon crap when they had an accident - all in a day’s work.
She didn’t look uncomfortable, though. Astrid had a little bit of a competitive streak and wasn’t about to let Hiccup know if she did something derpy. Or admit that she had tripped a few times. But her hand still clung to his, for romantic reasons. Not because she needed it or anything!
Right.
“What are we looking for, exactly?” she asked, wincing an eye. “Kinda thought we’d be making smores and maybe get naked around the bonfire. Just not a lot of upright dancing.”
Astrid had needs, alright?
“We’re looking for another geocache item. I think the person said it’s by a tree in a rock container. And don’t worry, I promise that we can make smores and get naked after I find this last item,” Hiccup grinned at that idea. Those adventures with his father and mother out in the wilderness were more about smores and less about getting naked. And he was fine to keep it that way, but with Astrid he was more inclined to go on the naked route.
They had packed supplies and a tent into the backpacks they were wearing and Hiccup had been scouting to try and find the best place for them to set up camp while they walked. He just wanted to get this day of geocaching out of the way so then he could fully pay attention to Astrid and they could do things she wanted.
Well, he that sounded like a promise, and Astrid couldn’t help but grin sweetly and squeeze his arm. “Fine, fine. Last item, then smores.” And nudity, preferably in a tent, since it was still a little chilly.
“So, uhhhhh….” Astrid had wanted to ask, but she wasn’t sure how far he was in the dreams now - and certainly didn’t want to get uncomfortable spoilers. Because things had gotten kind of...interesting. “Dream anything new? About some kind of jerkish dragon trapper?”
“I’ve dreamt of a lot of strange things, but I don’t think a jerkish dragon trapper has been in them yet. It’s hard to keep them all straight. It’s a lot of adventures around Berk and learning how to become true dragon riders,” Hiccup couldn’t even keep them straight anymore. But if he had met a dragon trapper he would have remembered that. The thought made his blood boil a little.
“Anything I should know about?” He glanced sideways at her before looking back down at his gps and trying to figure out the way.
“Uhhh…” Well, that was an obvious sign there was a thing or two he should know about, but she forced a cheery smile and tightened her grip on his hand. “Spoilers, and all. Not cool, Hiccup. There’s probably some things that will make more sense when you dream about them, you know?”
There was a knot in her throat, one she forcefully swallowed. Astrid was already a little sensitive about Logan’s death, and then she dreamed about, well... another death. This one wouldn’t carry over, she was sure of it, but...she wasn’t about to tell Hiccup that Toothless killed his father.
It’d destroy him.
She swung in closer, planting a mushy kiss against his cheek. “Anyway, we there yet?”
Yup. Something was going to go on in the dreams because she was acting a little weird, but he wasn’t quite sure what it could be. Maybe he got injured again or something like that? “Well, I’m surprised you want to protect me from spoilers, but I guess I’ll take your advice. Nothing makes sense out of context anyway. Gotta dream it myself then.”
Then the mushy kiss came and he laughed. “You’re the most impatient person ever,” It was adorable and he let go of her hand for a brief moment, “Alright, I’ll go grab it. It should be right up ahead.”
He quickly made his way ahead of her and kept his eyes on the gps. He was almost to the right spot and he didn’t even notice that he was walking towards the edge of any kind of cliff. The object was just by the tree that was right in front of him. As he made his way towards it his prosthetic leg caught on one of the roots and he went stumbling forward. The gps fell from his hand as he tried to catch himself, eyes going wide when he saw what was in front of him, and he let out a scream. The momentum of his body was going to send him right over the cliff.
There was nothing he could do as he went tumbling over the edge with a loud scream.
She’d still follow him, of course, carefully step through and around fallen branches and logs. Really, her main concern was accidentally overseeing something and falling splat on her face, because that’d bruise her ego more than any kind of physical harm.
Though she heard the scream, and Astrid’s eyes snapped from the focus of the ground and her feet up ahead - up ahead where Hiccup was supposed to be, but he was gone and he--
“Hiccup!” Hell, she could trip now for all she cared - her legs carried her as quick and carefully as she consciously could. She was able to see the edge of the cliff quick enough before she halted to a stomp, sliding on some slippery leaves and a tangle or two in some roots, and landed flat on her knees with a painful thump.
Did he just--
Did he just fall over the cliff?!
“Hiccup!” Another screech of his name, choked in fear, and she crawled to the edge.
So. This is what it felt like to know you were going to die? It was kind of peaceful because when Hiccup looked down he didn’t see any possible way of saving himself. There was a moment where he considered trying to scramble to find a branch or something like he saw in cartoons and such.
But he didn’t think there was much time for that because falling happened a lot faster than he expected. His voice was growing hoarse from screaming as his body continued to tumble and the ground was rising to meet him. With reluctance he closed his eyes and prepared himself for what was about to happen.
And then…. he felt himself make contact with something solid, but it didn’t feel like the ground. Where was the pain of his bones breaking? It felt smooth against his skin, but then he quickly felt himself slipping and his hands reached out for something. But he wasn’t expecting his hands to take hold of something that felt like scales.
What the --
He wasn’t dead. He was on top of something and when he blinked his eyes a few times he realize it looked like something from his dreams. Not just any something, a very specific something. Toothless. How was this even possible? His mind wanted to wander, but the dragon was making his way back up to where Hiccup had fallen and he had to quickly remember his training in the dreams and hold on tight so he wouldn’t fall off. As they ascended he saw Astrid’s face peering over the edge and he was so thankful she hadn’t fallen over as well.
Astrid didn’t know what the hell to expect, but she didn’t expect that. Relief, confusion, a certain degree of what the fuck - all swirled into one strange cocktail of emotions as she watched her boyfriend, on a dragon she only remembered from the dreams, fly up.
No, she wasn’t high, this wasn’t the side effect from shrooms.
In awe, she didn’t notice the other fairly large beast approaching from behind - blue scaled, curious with a tilted head. She was a strangely cute thing, birdlike in her mannerism, and she hopped behind Astrid and gave a gentle nudge to her back.
That’s when Astrid screamed, both turning around and falling at the same time, until Stormfly pulled her back in by her shirt. “What the--what’s--Stormfly?!”
No, this had to be an effect of shrooms. Maybe she ate something funny? Hiccup spiked her sandwich? Did Hiccup even know where to get the right kind of shrooms to even put it in her sandwich?
All he could feel was absolute elation. He had dreamt so much about flying on the back of Toothless and the dreams had never prepared him for how great it actually was. He was scared for his life, of course, but he couldn’t believe this was actually happening. He gripped the neck of Toothless tight as they flew in the air and then turned around to head back to the ground.
That was when he caught sight of the blue by Astrid and his eyes went wide at the realization that it was Stormfly. Was this honestly happening?! They both had their respective dragons beside them. How did they get out of their dreams and into the OC? Was this a Dream thing because he never would have expected this.
Toothless slowed down as he went in for the landing. Hiccup braced himself and there was only a slight bump as they made it safely to the ground. He patted Toothless head before quickly dismounting and running towards Astrid, “OH MY GOD.”
Stormfly was very excited - made obvious by the hilariously awkward nuzzles she was giving her respective rider, strange chirps rumbling in her throat, and all Astrid could do was just kind of….stand there and not fall over, horrified.
Seriously. Seriously. Was this really happening?
But she saw Hiccup, on land and safe, and while she still needed to, uh, get properly acquainted with her dragon, she quickly threw her arms around him to latch onto. “Jesus, Hiccup! Are you okay?! How did you manage to fall off a cliff?”
His arms went immediately around her middle and he held her close, “I tripped. It was an accident. Could have been a horrible one, but thankfully dragons are real?” His eyebrows were raised when he said that and then glanced around between the two dragons. This was actually happening. He wanted nothing more than do a little happy dance and scream in excitement.
But instead he leaned down to kiss Astrid, “I promise I will never ever fall off a cliff ever again. And…..you got any idea what we should do with these two?”
There was a mix of excitement and a mix of we’re fucked when it came to Astrid, and she returned the kiss - wanting to put a little more enthusiasm into it, because the jerk fell of a cliff - but she was a little distracted. Because, hey, two dragons! Out of no where!
In the real world.
That wasn’t Berk.
….where dragons were the norm.
“I...have no clue,” Astrid breathed out, eyes wide as she looked between the two - the cat-like darkness that was Toothless, and then back to Stormfly, who looked like she decided to preen herself while the two kind of just stood there, hugging it out. “I have no clue. We can’t--we can’t just keep them here. And my apartment doesn’t cover dragons in their pet lease…”
She’d ask Logan for advice, but oh, yeah, he died.
And then there was a matter of feeding them, and where were they going to take a dump? No kennel would hold them, obviously, and now she was looking a little stressed. “Maybe we can...ask people? Online? I don’t know! I didn’t think we’d ever--they’d ever...show up.”
But they did, and Stormfly approached the two with a little bit of timidness...and pushed her face against them in an unintentionally rough nuzzle.
“Yeah, I think a post on the network would be a very good idea. I’ll make one of those because people already think I’m kind of crazy already,” Hiccup commented with a chuckle, which turned into a large laugh when Stormfly started to nuzzle the two of them. It caused him to stumble back from Astrid and trip over Toothless’ tail. Thankfully his dragon was right there so he could safely land on him.
“Oh god. Okay, we obviously need to do something with them. Would you like to go set up a camp or would you like to do a little bit of riding?” His tone and expression were wicked when he said it. He knew which one she would pick and while they didn’t have their riding saddles and things like that they could still make it work. And it would definitely be an adventure to go riding with her in this world.
Oh, Astrid knew that look. This was Hiccup, the Dragon Enthusiast speaking, and she was still reeling from everything that had just happened. This was both amazing and a total disaster and--
“Whoa!” Decision made, when Stormfly tucked her wide head between Astrid’s legs and tossed her up, letting the blonde tumble onto the dragon’s back. There was a quick shriek that was silenced by grabbing onto the beast tightly, blowing the mess of hair that shadowed over her eyes. “Okay, okay, um…” Obviously Stormfly wanted to have fun, and Astrid carefully...began to pet her, the scales underneath her hands a strangely familiar feeling. “We can...take them for a ride, but after that! ...we seriously need to figure out what the hell to do.”
“Yeah, yeah, we can definitely do that. But for now let’s have a little fun,” he commented as he watched Stormfly put Astrid onto her back. Oh yes, this was definitely what was supposed to happen and he quickly moved to walk along Toothless, running his hand along his friend’s scales, and then hopped onto his back.
Everything felt so familiar from the dreams that it was almost like riding a bicycle after not doing it for years. He flashed another smile at Astrid as Toothless began to rise into the air, “By the way! Love you.” It was the last thing he could say before his breath was taken away when Toothless quickly flew down at a steep drop from the cliff before rising and leading the way for all of them to explore the skies.