All These Lights

not impossible

There was little else that Astrid could do except watch as they wheeled Hiccup's unconscious body through the backstage and into an ambulance, which drove off in some direction to get to the nearest hospital. There were no words to describe the pain shooting through her chest as she had to keep it together and call Stoick and inform him of the happenings. Her head spun in search of an appropriate reaction to the situation, but failed instead offering her vivid day-mares of the unthinkable.

The next few hours, Astrid operated on autopilot. She had sent Eret to the hospital, along with a few security guards, despite knowing Hiccup would rather be alone than with Eret if he woke up, no... when he woke up, she chastised herself lightly for the negativity.

Fans were escorted out of the arena and told they would be receiving emails regarding their tickets and the process of using them at a different show or simply getting a refund. Make-up and wardrobe were packed up for the night and sent to the hotel to wait for news. The sound techs and those who were left watched as Astrid dismantled the entire concert and sat listlessly on the edge of a dark stage, iPad dead in her lap, staring out into a nonexistent audience.

She'd thought briefly about what ended up happening to the other guys, Tuff, Snotlout, and Fishlegs, since she hadn't seen them in a while... but what troubled her most was the alarming and overwhelming presence of Hiccup in her mind. It wasn't like she'd never thought about Hiccup before because she definitely had but this was different. The good memories, the smiles and laughs, and the adventures that they'd been on were suddenly overtaken by the image of him lying practically lifeless on the ground.

Astrid had gotten used to the weird things she felt when she was with him; the missed heart beats and the bated breaths, the slight tremble in her voice when he got too close, the warm sensation left behind by his touch, the jumbled and incoherent mush she turned into when he said her name in a particular way... but this was different. All she could think of was never feeling those things again, like there was something missing and she felt like doing anything to get it back.

It was like she was afraid of losing him, which sounded ridiculous when she muttered it aloud but was it really impossible?

"Well, I suppose nothing's impossible." She muttered to herself, eyes fixing on the empty mezzanine and an image of Hiccup's smiling face flooded her memory.

~~~~~~~~

Hiccup woke to something wet on his face. At first he thought it was water, as Tuff and Snotlout had dumped ice water on him many times in the past but, it wasn't cold like the other times. And there was no muffled snickering just the sound of slurping and the feeling of something climbing on the bed... akin to a dog waking its owner in the morning.

He opened his eyes to something that was not a dog. It was a bit like a salamander, but black, more scaley, and huge. Its eyes were green and the black pupils dilated at the sight of Hiccup's consciousness. It excitedly jumped on the bed and nearly crushed Hiccup in the process.

"Whoa, whoa, okay there... bud, let's just calm down, okay?"

The salamander sat back and stared at Hiccup, contorting its face into some sort of smile.

"Huh, toothless?" He breathed out in wonder. Then the creature brought out it's teeth, now smiling with a full mouth of sharp incisors. "Whoa! Retractable teeth?"

Hiccup, oddly calm, got out of bed (which was entirely wood except for a thin blanket) and stretched. He noticed another strange thing, his clothes. They didn't resemble anything he owned, probably ever. It was a green tunic and brown pants, that didn't quite fit, and some fur boots the same color as the pants.