NFF-Hiccup's encounter with the god of night.

Chapter 14

By the time Hiccup is finished with him, Shadewrath is just sleeping contentedly; covered by the tranquil blanket of rest and dreams. Since he's too big to move, Hiccup just moves on to Toothless, who sits contentedly as he waits. The first touch he gives lulls him into a calm state.

This action took up about half of Hiccup's current thinking, the other was solely focused on understanding exactly what to respond to Astrid's confession. His mind went in different directions, turning through all possibilities; during which time his dragon alter-ego made itself known. 'You could just burn her, it'd save you the bother of this thinking business.' It suggested, too casually spoken to convey the horrific nature of that thought.

Such a suggestion was enough to bring Hiccup out of his confused state; yes he was shy, but this was love, not a battlefield.

"Hiccup? Are you in there?" Astrid asked, coming obnoxiously close.

He opened his mouth to speak, turning to meet her eyes, but once he met her features with his gaze he couldn't say anything, to entranced by the combination of such a pretty girl and one that had just admitted she liked him.

Okay, so perhaps love was a little bit of a battlefield; shields up, swords out and try to survive the encounter.

"Uh… no, no I didn't." Hiccup said meekly, although, inside of his mind, he was celebrating first contact, first victory.

"Well you know now." Astrid stated, unaware of his little mental conflict.

"Yes, yes I do." Hiccup said, just agreeing with her as he slowly returned his thoughts to cleaning Toothless.

"Too embarrassed?" Astrid continued, pushing the matter.

That was enough to stop Hiccup dead in his tracks, to the slight annoyance of Toothless below. "If Astrid stops Hiccup doing this, I swear to god I'll kill her." He said under his breath.

"Shush." Hiccup whisper-shouts covertly. It wouldn't be very good if he actually went through with that threat. "I've still got my hands on you, needy reptile." He reminds him, still trying to keep it inconspicuous.

"Hiccup?" Astrid asked, following up her previous question.

"Yes, yes. I'll admit it, I'm embarrassed." Hiccup confesses quickly, feeling required to do that to prevent further issues.

"You shouldn't be, you're a handsome devil." Toothless says casually, with his eyes closed under the hypnotising effects of Hiccup's massage.

Such a statement was enough to break Hiccup momentarily. "WHAT?!" He exclaims, causing Astrid to jump and Toothless to let out a slow round of laughs, gradually building in intensity.

"Hiccup, what was that about?" Astrid questioned, on edge from his outburst.

"Uh, just something shocking I just realised." He said in a forcefully-calm tone, half-lying, to her. "Are you being serious?" Hiccup whispered to Toothless, being glad that his massage/clean gave him the excuse to turn away for this exact purpose.

Toothless laughs a bit more. "Yep." He says, still unconcerned, causing Hiccup to blush madly again.

"Toothless!" He whisper-shouts again, before putting it to one side to keep his composure. "We can talk about it later, not now." He says firmly.

Toothless can't stop himself for a while, just giggling at his tease, eventually calming down to a light chuckle and then silence; just enjoying Hiccup pushing his bunched muscles around, letting them uncoil and recover; a pleasurable feeling on Toothless's end.

"You don't seem to be telling the truth." Astrid complained, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well… I don't know how to tell the truth; It sounds like a fantasy to me and I'm living it!" Hiccup explained honestly, but it only added to Astrid's confusion and suspicion.

"Really, you know something, but you can't explain it?" Astrid said, although the apparent curiosity was rendered null by her tired look; annoyed that Hiccup was being so slow.

Hiccup felt he had no choice but to tell the truth; not only was he already in big trouble with her for his delay, but she was also kind of hot… and that wrecked his resistance.

"Fine, the thing is that I can talk to dragons… to put it very simply." Hiccup said.

Astrid's eyes widened slightly at the surprising information; she didn't expect something that outlandish, then they relaxed as her face adopted a steely look that she reserved for people she didn't quite trust.

Here Hiccup started to feel like he'd royally screwed up, Astrid's eyes seemingly blazing into his back, speeding up his hands; so he'd at least have done most of Toothless before she chased him with an axe.

Finally, she finished her moment of hard contemplation. "Alright, fine. You kind of surprised me with that, but why should I care that you can talk to dragons? Just an extra skill, really..." Astrid said, in a tone so casual that it made Hiccup worried.

"…Unless you talk about me behind my back. Then I'll have a problem with it." Astrid threatened, making Hiccup wince in anticipation of an 'aid' to remember that statement.

Thankfully, it never came; instead Astrid actually offered some positive news. "Only if you do that. Otherwise, would you like to be my boyfriend for the time being?" Astrid offered.

Now Hiccup was almost sure she was messing with him. "Are you serious?" He says, strongly disbelieving.

Astrid smiles, somewhat pleased that she was able to evoke such a reaction.

"Well, think about your competition; Snotlout's way too arrogant for his own good; Fishlegs is nice, but way too geeky and with a poor sense of what is an 'acceptable' way to eat. Tuffnut is… well you already know, so that leaves you." Astrid outlined.

Her description of the others seeming to calm her down, so she wasn't as suspicious anymore, which Hiccup was glad for; any de-escalation of tensions was fine by him, especially when it meant less tensions between him and, what could be, his girlfriend.

Hiccup was honestly stunned, absent-mindedly still cleaning Toothless while he tried to process what he'd just heard; happy, but with the incredible suspicion that he'd tripped and fell into dream world at some point just now. "Uh… well … Okay then! I just really didn't think you'd go for a runt for myself."

"…but I did." Astrid stated blandly, feeling like she could get him to accept where it was, making herself sound as though it was already extremely obvious.

"And… and socially awkward." Hiccup said, trying to purge her mind of any misrepresentations of him she may have because, in his mind, he wasn't good at anything at all!

"That is something I can work with. At least you aren't rude." Astrid said. "Apart from not answering my questions sooner, although I assume you'll improve on that?" She continued, with the latter part in a tone that said he would learn how to do that.

"Yes, yes sure." Hiccup replied, instinctively not wanting to encourage her wrath.

"Good then. I assume that means that you'll clean my dragon." Astrid commented, getting him comfortable by telling him to do something he would do anyway.

Stormfly grumbled. "She didn't like that." Hiccup stated. To his surprise, Astrid just smiled as though it was an inside joke.

"Good to hear, we seem to share the same personality." Astrid stated calmly, reaching for her axe.

Her action confused Hiccup. "Why are you doing th-" He started.

He was cut off when she fully withdrew it from the sheath and used it to block a vicious tail swipe from Stormfly; sending her skidding back but without injury.

"Like I said, same personality; I wouldn't like it either if someone said I belonged to someone else, nor if they assumed they were equal to me." She stated, impressing Hiccup with her predictive power. A certain part of her smiled when she saw that; for some reason she enjoyed his awe.

Stormfly wanted to give her another strike for that, but resolved that it would just lend credence to her argument, so she just grumbled as she walked away.

By this time, Toothless's body had been done ; scales clean and vivid, but not shiny; they were stealth creatures after all. He stands up, shaking himself clean of any leftover water on his body and then giving Hiccup an appreciative lick before lying down next to Shadewrath and going to sleep.

Hiccup almost forgot that his hands had been still tending to Toothless, so he jumped when Toothless started to move. However, he recovered quickly and took the lick with mixed feelings, before returning his attention to Astrid.

"You've convinced me that you two are very similar, although for the sake of neutrality I'm not going to tell Stormfly that." Hiccup whispered quietly to her. Fortunately, Stormfly didn't hear, but she did come over to get her own wash; somewhat heartened by what she'd seen happen to Toothless and Shadewrath.

Hiccup's hands went back into autopilot as soon as Stormfly's scales were in reach; scraping away the dirt and grime that clung to her shiny scales.

"Is this relationship just going to be about me taking care of Stormfly? It's not that I mind, she is a beautiful dragon, but is that it?" Hiccup asked, still unsure just how far this would go. Stormfly cooed in delight at the comment.

"If you impress me, we can go to marriage." Astrid stated bluntly, enjoying the reactions she got from these kinds of statements.

Again, Hiccup was surprised. "Marriage, really?"

"Like I said, your competition isn't very good." Astrid said, still to the point.

"But… but forget about them, you're a badass warrior maiden! You don't need to get involved with someone like me at all." Hiccup said, still working on making sure he didn't disappoint.

"I am, yes, and I'd like you to refer to me as such. But you're the one that I'd like; you don't seem to notice it, but you have a lot of good qualities; humility, determination, kindness to name a few." Astrid replied. "Also, I feel like it would be nice for someone to call me 'badass' whenever I like who isn't just trying to say that to get my clothes off." Astrid continued.

"I… I need time to think." Hiccup said, stunned beyond words; inside his other two psyches were celebrating the success but he told them in quite a stern mental that it wasn't the time to be partying. Reluctantly, they calmed down.

"You can do just that, I'll help you on Stormfly." Astrid said, joining him on the other side of Stormfly, contributing her hands to the cleaning effort; sending Stormfly into a deeper state of bliss, even if she was annoyed that it was the girl who'd messed with her earlier.

Hiccup shyly thanks her for helping him, although still embarrassed that he'd be the object of her affections.

Elsewhere, two fishermen were slowly moving through the water.

They weren't special, one of about 100 deployed to keep the island of Berk supplied with fish for both the people and the dragons; their action was important to the health and freedom of both species, but they rarely received any gratification for it, save from Stoick and Hiccup who congratulated them whenever they met.

Their names were Gulti and Bandli, where Gulti was the main fisherman on board, dealing with the catch and storage; while Bandli was the ship's captain, trying to find where the next catch-place would be and manoeuvring accordingly.

However, they would find an interesting sight which would convert their roles. "Bandli, is that… a dragon hunter ship?" Gulti asked, peering into the deeper waters away from Berk to a suspicious-looking vessel.

Bandli joined him on deck, putting a spyglass up to his eyes to get a better view. Eventually he dropped it down, astonished. "That's a dragon-hunter scout ship, for sure; She's got two main ballistae on board." He commented, worried.

Gulti was somewhat hopeful. "It's a scouting ship though, right? It'll just sail right past; we don't have any dragons in the air that we need to worry about." He suggested.

Bandli shook his head grimly. "She's four-anchored. Apparently they have some business here."

Gulti gulped, but still was somewhat optimistic. "Perhaps we could just sail over, tell them they're in our waters?" He asked

Bandli just shook his head again. "We don't mess with them as fishermen; those ballistae will kill us just as easily as it would a dragon, and they like to take our boats; rig 'em up to be more dragon-hunters to join their ranks. So we do what we traditionally do when we see a dragon-hunter; leave it the Helheim alone, travel back and get a warship involved." Bandli stated, going towards the helm to steer them away.

With both of them working on Stormfly, it was quick work; soon her entire body was clean, shining unlike the matte scales of the Night Furies. There was some clear pride of Stormfly as she stood up from the cleaning; inspecting her new body and cawing happily at how nice it looked now.

Once done looking at herself, she talked to Hiccup. "Thank you so much! I look like myself again." She said, posing slightly to emphasise it. 'well, perhaps she's a bit more obsessed with looks than Astrid' He thought, only to turn and see Astrid polishing her axe to a gleam. 'Okay, maybe not. Looks like they are very similar' He amended.

His calm observations were interrupted when the sound of frantically-flapping wings could be heard. Looking up, Hiccup could see his father and Gobber racing off towards the ocean.

"They look like they're in a hurry, perhaps there's been an incident." Astrid said.

"Perhaps." Hiccup agreed. "But I'm sure they can handle it well enough." He commented.

Astrid shrugged. "I would say if they had my parents with them, they'd be absolutely fine." She replied.

"Alright, alright, so they don't have your parents, but they should still be fine." Hiccup compromised.

"Should be." Astrid confirmed.

Gobber and Stoick circled carefully around the ship they'd been warned about by the fishermen; from above they could see this was indeed a scout-class dragon-hunter, but there didn't seem to be anyone on board; allowing them the clearance they needed to land; where they'd be more capable than riding on their dragons. After a few seconds waiting for an ambush, they got nothing.

"Ye think they just left this here?" Gobber asked Stoick, slightly suspicious.

"I share your concern, old friend, I don't understand why they'd just leave a ship here unattended." Stoick said, with a serious tone.

Gobber put on a thoughtful face. "Nah, me neither." He decided, shrugging. "Still, we can't just leave this here with all the weapons." He continued, switching his axe for a more dexterous arm which he used to start taking out the bolts from the ballistae mountings.

Stoick nodded gruffly and ducked below decks to see what kind of things he could take from this vessel.

Hiccup roused Shadewrath from Toothless from slumber. "Guys, I think something's going on." He states.

Shadewrath awakens slowly, releasing a low growl that shakes the very earth they were standing on, getting a few surprised glances from the others.

Toothless just gets up calmly, happy to see Hiccup even though he was woken up from his sleep.

Their moment was interrupted as one of the lookouts rushed in. "Hiccup, Astrid! Thank Odin, I've been looking for you two; there's a fleet to the east, looks like 5 heavy battleships. Stoick and Gobber are busy, so that leaves you and the other dragon riders." He explained frantically.

Hiccup nodded, now with steely focus on the task.

Astrid reacted quite similarly "Hiccup, let's go get the others, we'll hit them before they even know what happened." She says, packing her axe away expertly; barely a brush could be heard as it went into the holster.

To his slight shame, Hiccup was temporarily stopped by his appreciation of how well she did that; his die-hard appreciation of her abilities still a thing.

Toothless shook his head with a knowing smile, before charging through his legs to forcibly get him on his back. "Toothless, what was that for?" Hiccup asked, with shock.

Toothless smirked, pumping his wings to get them airborne. "Someone's a demi-dragon lovebird… Midnight."

Hiccup winced at his all-too-accurate description, as well as his use of the name the god of Night gave him.

"And you were good enough to captivate two Night Furies." Shadewrath joins as he lifts off; juxtaposing his strength with his distraction from love.

"Why are you doing this…" Hiccup says a bit saddened that they would tease him in such a way.

Toothless and Shadewrath gave him a reassuring smile. "We're just teasing you; we adore you really." Toothless amends.

That gives Hiccup some calm as Astrid calls for Snotlout and the twins to form up, not being able to find Fishlegs around. Then he gets a bit worried. "Did you say 'adore'?" He says, getting his worries up again.

Toothless sighs. "Another time, for now we've got to deal with whatever fleet that lookout was talking about." Toothless reminds him.

Hiccup nods quietly; just content to let his two fury friends do the action while he recovered from whatever this was.

Those on deck of Drago's ships rushed around to arm up; they would have done this sooner, but it wasn't necessary in calm weather. Now that they had eyes on their quarry, however, they were getting ready.

Drago watched those on deck with barely any notice, before turning back towards Berk with a spyglass, smiling as he saw the conglomeration above Berk. "Ah… predictable Stoick; always one to go straight for the source of his people's concerns." He said, before shifting to the dragon riders. "You gave away the position of my quarry, though, and that's all I care about for the moment." He said packing away his spyglass.

Then he addressed his men "Come on! We must be ready for their arrival; load the ballistae and get your crossbows ready!" He roared, causing those around him to bear up their weapons in readiness or bear one of the many bola projectiles into the ballistae.

End of chapter.

Sorry, can't believe i almost forgot about this part; THANK YOU FOR ALL MY REVIEWERS (on this story or others by me); your support is both critical and something I look forward to and I really hope I can hear more from you all in the future.