The Lost Boy V - Short stories

Homecoming 4 - Black Plague Friday

(after Book 4)

Getting out of bed was more difficult some days than others. Especially when woken up by hearing a fit of coughing or a dragon puking. Hiccup opened up his eyes groggily, already sighing.

''Black Plague Friday, yay...'' He mused out loud, his voice hoarse and his throat scratching.

He wanted to cough too, but at least he didn't have a throbbing headache as usual.

Black Plague Friday was one of the only drawbacks of the Hairy Hooligans' new home compared to the previous one. Every year, during their migration from the fortress island to the Hidden World, a pack of Tiny Terrors – some cousins of the Terrible Terrors – used to stop by the berkian isle, carrying with them a whole bunch of diseases. Colds, flus, fevers... Everyone was affected, dragons included.

Normal people would have called in a day-off and bedridded everyone, but not the vikings. Stubborness isssues as usual. Vikings decided to carry on with their life, just naming this day with a curse and insisting on shopping in order to keep themself busy. Hey, it was Snoggletog's holidays, nothing would stop them from celebrating. That day, despite everyone being sick, became the perfect day to purchase Snoggletog's presents.

Hiccup wondered if Joke and him should take the kids to a shopping stroll. That would be a good occasion to spend some quality family time together. With all his chiefing and Joke's healing, especially during the holidays, they hadn't spent much time all together.

Smiling at the thought, he turned around in the bed to face his husband, but found nothing but an empty space next to him. Looked like Joke had already started is overbusy day. Sighing, he sat up in the bed, observing the empty bedroom save from the big scaly dragon laying on the floor. Toothless was half doozing, sprawled on the wooden floor. The mighty Night Fury, the king of dragons, startled and lifted his head, eyes still half closed, before he let out a gargled warbble as a greeting, and plopped back down. Hiccup chuckled at that, but that was before spotting something suspicious on the floor, next to the dragon. That's when he started to smell that infectious fishy-puky smell.

''Ow ! Toothless ! What have you done ?''

The dragon grumbled in reply, already doozing off. Hiccup put on his peg leg and rose to his feet, making his way towards the infection. He tried to push his dragon who was dripping in his own puke and wasn't moving at all.

''Come on, bud, you gotta help me on this.''

Hiccup stopped as he heard a noise coming from under the bed. Slowly, he turned around and spotted Nightsky and Duskstorm laying there, both of them looking nauseous. They had thrown up too.

''Oh great...''

''Dad !''

Quick footsteps rushed to the door and Alwine popped into the room. She looked quite healthy but her face was scrunted in disgust, her nightdress marred with lumps and an horrid liquid that made Hiccup wince.

''Midnight puked on me and my bed !'' The girl complained, flailing her arms in despair and utter disgust.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. That was just what he needed to begin with his day.

''Huh, Toothy too...'' Alwine added. ''They'll flood the house !''

''Okay okay, calm down, we're gonna clean this up. First we'll gather the dragons and bring them to the shed, okay ?''

Alwine kept her grimace but still nodded in agreement.

''Is your brother with Daddy ?''

''Yeah.''