Without Saying

Chapter 9 - Should I?

Hiccup and Toothless fly through the blackened night skies and landed on a small plateau near the uninhabited part of the island where he and the other riders had previously agreed to meet at once their mission was done. The other riders were already there, worrying about their leader. Once the masked rider and his partner landed, they were suddenly overwhelmed with questions.

"Sun!! There you are!"

Ivar exclaimed.

"What happened?! You had us worried."

Heather asked calmly, although Sun could still sense her concern.

"I got held up with some unexpected human prisoners, but I got them out safely. How did everything else go?"

"Everything went swimmingly, Captain. We got everyone out, and probably scared most of the auctionees pretty good too."

Ivar beamed. Hiccup was happy to hear it, but Heather and Eret didn't miss the wince when their leader accidentally shifted his arm the wrong way.

"Well, Dagur should have the gathering wrapped up by now, and if we're about finished up here then we could probably start heading back home."

Hiccup thought aloud. Everyone was pretty excited and took off, deciding to disregard their leader's signs of pain as a minor irritation. They didn't even notice the drifting of Hiccup's eyelids or the slight sway and instability he had while riding. Hiccup was too stubborn to tell anyone about it. After all they were almost home, and he could fix himself up properly when they arrived so no one would have to worry about him. It wasn't until they landed back on Dragon's Edge Island that Hiccup realized just how bad his injury might be. He was sweating really bad and the area around his would hurt like a Scauldron bite. He had to take care of it fast. But the second he stepped off Toothless' back whatever was affecting him hit full force. Suddenly his legs didn't want to work, feeling incredibly weak. If it hadn't been for Toothless grabbing his falling form, he would have landed flat on his face, but he was too weak to care. The others rushed to their leader's side.

"Sun, what happened?"

But he didn't answer.

"He's passed out! He must have gotten hurt back at the auction!!"

Eret announced, being the first to reach their fallen leader. Then it was Heather's turn, quickly removing Hiccup's armor to reveal the seeping bandage around his left shoulder.

"He's bleeding out. It looks like a sword, but it's recent. He shouldn't be reacting this badly yet if it were getting infected, though."

Heather thought aloud.

"Unless the weapon was poisoned."

Eret added with a solum expression. Heather agreed.

"You might be right. Toothless, help me get him to the infirmary! Eret, Ivar, can you unsaddle the dragons?"

They nodded, and Heather left with Toothless to the infirmary.

~

I woke up with a splitting headache. Everything hurt, but my body refused to stay still any longer. I sat up with a groan and looked around. I was lying on a small cot in the infirmary back home. I found myself waking up here a lot lately. Whether it was swords, arrows, or murderously trained dragons, Drago always had something after me, but it was never anything I couldn't handle myself until now. The sword was probably dipped in poison, there was no way I would have reacted that badly unless it was. Drago was getting pretty desperate. Slowly my right hand rested against the now tight bandage that encased my shoulder. It was a new one. Heather must have replaced the one Astrid did. Astrid...
Seeing everyone again after all these years was not a good thing for me. I was finally getting to a place where they weren't the first thing I thought of every day. I wasn't dreaming of going home to Berk when I slept, and my chest didn't hurt nearly as much when I thought about them because I was starting to believe the lie that they were doing better without me - that I was protecting them by staying away. But seeing them again, threw all of that away. Dad looked so sad and tired, and Astrid looked like she had been crying when I first found them in that cage, nothing like the fierce headstrong vikings I knew eight years ago. It made me curious about the rest of Berk. But curiosity was not something I needed right now. Slowly I lifted myself off the small cot, leaning myself against the wall as I walked to the door. I had to distract myself somehow because if I keep going down this rabbit trail I may not come back out.