This is a fanfic and I make no money from this. Original copyrights belong to Dreamworks and Cresedia Cowell
Chapter 22
"Common lazybones! It's time to fly!"
Kari makes a nonsensical grumble, to her all too chipper mate.
"What's wrong, love? Didn't sleep well?" a huff of his warm breath against her cheek brings an involuntary grin to her sleep addled face.
"It takes so long to get comfortable..." she grumbles. True to her word, Azurestorm had been right. Kari's feet felt like leather sacks filled with water, her scales were duller than she would have normally liked, and she felt as big as a house (not that is showed, her mate would assure her almost daily). Looking from her warm patch of cave, the early light of morning is already reflecting brightly off the blanket of snow. "It snowed again..."
"Weren't you the one telling me, 'Berk has the kind of balmy fun-in-the-sun weather that will give you frostbite on your spleen?' Or how it 'rains nine months of the year and hails the other three'." he says with a chortle.
"That sounds like something I'd say." she yawns. "So what's the plan, then Mister Bossy?"
"I thought we could get some fish, then maybe check out what all the noise is about."
Yawning again, Kari arches her back, working kinks and stiffness from her wings. A quick flutter sends a cloud of dust from the cave back out into the calm of the cove. "What noise?"
Tannlaus watches his mate with an appreciative gaze, "I've been hearing a lot of hammering coming from the village, over the last few days. I know you haven't been back to town to visit your family in weeks. We should go, if for no other reason than to see your mother." He gives his mate a slight frown.
"I know family means a lot to you, Tannlaus..." she lets her thoughts hang there.
"Your father has tried... You know that." Kari gets up, stretching sinuously, letting the length of her body slide under her mates chin. "Umm... What was I talking about?"
Chuckling Kari paces the length of their cave. During the course of the last five months, the couple have hollowed out more of the natural cavern, giving ample room to move about. Kari had even spent a great deal of time transplanting large bushes from other areas of the island to line the front entrance.
Tannlaus watches with a growing look of concern. "Are you hungry?" he asks, not quite knowing what has his mate so agitated.
Huffing impatiently, "No... I'm just not feeling well. My stomach feels twisted, and I'm tired." The dragons watch the sun rise over the cove's tall wall in silence. Tannlaus sits as still as a statue, as he watches his mate fidget and move. Her wings flutter with a barely contained energy, stirring up small dust devils in her passing.
The silence is broken by the roar of a strange Flametongue soaring overhead. Its call is answered by another, then another. Unfamiliar dragons fly in a loose formation toward the northwest. Kari steps to the edge of their cave, a restlessness suddenly filling her with the need to take wing.
"Kari?" her mate asks as he joins her. Looking into the sky, the pair can see dragons of all types and from all over the island beginning to join the strangers. "You want to follow, don't you? Like something is calling you?"
She turns in shock, "What? No... I mean..."
Tannlaus nuzzles her, "I know what's happening..." The grin he gives her, leaves her confused. "It's time, Love."
"Time?" she asks. Rather than words, her mate gently nudges the gentle swell of her belly. She shakes her head, a hint of worry and fear in her voice. "No! It can't be... It's too soon."
Tannlaus nuzzles her again, trying to put her at ease. His eyes catch a cluster of dragons rising above the tree cover, south of the cove. "Be it as it may, I think I can see Azure and Gypsum leading the dragons from Berk as we speak. If we leave now, we can catch up with them and find a nice spot together."
****
For the first time in months the mead hall was nearly full to bursting. Stoick looks out over the sea of faces. 'Where are the dragons? Will they be back? With it just two weeks away, Snoggletog will be ruined!' seemed to be the general consensus. Raising a beefy fist in the air, he shouts over the noise, "Alrigh', Alrigh'! Snoggletog isn't goin' ta' be ruined! We have celebrated Snoggletog without dragons for generations. We can do it this year just as well."
"He's right! We're Vikings! We're tough!" Gobber literally chimes in, setting the bells in his mustache to ringing almost as loudly as the chimes hanging from his hand. "Well... Most o' the time".
Forcing a smile at his friend, he rolls his eyes only to catch his wife with a grin that could only be described as calculating. After giving the villagers his best assurances, he takes his wife by the arm. "Common, Val... Ya' know I dinna' like ya' bein' out in this cold." His eyes dart down to the sizable bump under her robes. "Ya could slip, or someone could bump inta' ya' and knock ya' down."
"Stoick..." She admonishes, "Nothing is gonna' happin'."
Opening the door for his spouse, he lets a wave of heat wash over them before escorting her into their home. "Val?" He pauses, unsure how to ask without sounding demanding. "Ya' lived with those dragons for years..."
"Stoick, I know what yur' gonna' ask. If Kari and the others wanted ya' to know what was happenin', wouldna' they have said somethin'?"
"Kari?" Stoick spin on his heel, "What's wrong with Hiccup!?"
Leaning up, she places a kiss on his lips, "I'm gettin' a wee bit hungry... Do we have any pickled eel, and cabbage left?"
Confused by his wife's sudden craving, he forgets about the dragons long enough to rush out into the blistering cold, "I'll go get some o' Mildew's cabbage. He's bound ta' have a few head stashed away."
****
Astrid kicks at a random snow drift, sending a cloud of ice crystals into the air. The other teens following close behind. "That was depressing... I was hoping to spend Snoggletog with Azurestorm.
"Well it's too bad we can't just ask our dragons why they left. I mean, like who has a dragon that speaks Norse." Astrid, Snotlout and Fishlegs all stop mid-step to look at Tuffnut. "What?" He looks around in a panic, "What?! Did I set my hair on fire again?"
Ruffnut slaps him on the back of the head, "There I put it out... No you idiot, Hiccup! We can go talk to Hiccup!"
Fishlegs looks excited for a moment before becoming crestfallen, "Except nobody knows where 'Kari' and Tannlaus live." Putting emphasis on Kari's name, bringing a pink to Ruffnut's cheeks.
"Right, Kari... That is still weird."
Astrid looks sheepish, as she brushes a stray lock of hair from her face. Her single blue eye catches each of the other teens, one at a time. "I know where they live."
"Well... Let's go! I can't wait to see how my cousin is handling domestic duties." Snotlout laughs, before catching a punch in the ribs.
"Shut your mouth, Snotlout!" Astrid visibly fumes, ready to rip the shorter Viking apart.
"Whoa... I'm just joking... That was a good punch... You know, for a girl." He barely has time to register Astrid's movement before finding his face making intimate impressions into the ground.
"ANYWAY!" Fishlegs calls, "Why didn't you tell us about knowing where this 'cove' they claimed during the wedding was? It was..." He stops to think, "About five months ago. I've seen Tannlaus flying nearby, but never Kari."
Impressed with the larger boys memory, Astrid explains, "I know about it, because that was where Gobber and I found the two of them..."
"So? What's the problem?" Ruffnut asks bluntly, as Tuffnut is still too busy laughing at the concussed Snotlout.
"The problem is Gobber and I captured Kari there, then brought her back to the kill ring..." Astrid's voice falls to a guilty whisper, "Gobber and Chief Stoick nearly beat her to death."
Fishlegs gasps at the accusation, "You don't really mean that Astrid. The Chief..."
"I saw it first hand... I saw them beat her within an inch of her life... It never would have happened if I didn't notice the trees..."
Fishlegs walks over, and tenatavely places his hand on her shoulder, "It isn't your fault Astrid... It's in the past, and the way Tannlaus let you ride him, I'd say they forgave you of any responsibility. But... Maybe it would be best to let you go... You know, ALONE!" He stresses to the others, making Ruff and Tuff frown.
"If we don't know where they live, how can we do anything on Loki-day?"
Fishlegs look aghast, "Do you think it's a good idea to piss off two of the most dangerous dragons on the island, just for a joke?!"
The twins' smiles falter, "We didn't think of it like that... We were thinking more along the lines of just pranking Hiccup... Not 'dragon-Hiccup'..."
Deciding to let the others sort themselves out, Astrid turns and rushes for the eastern paths out of the village. 'I wouldn't put it past the twins to try and follow me... Best give them a false trail to follow, then head to the cove.' Astrid runs toward one of the boggier parts of the island. 'Even in the coldest parts of winter, this patch of mud and slime never completely freezes.' Using a long tree branch like a pole, she vaults into the swampy terrain before changing course and vaulting out towards the north. Once back on firm footing she runs through the thick underbrush and snow mounds, slowing her progress over the icier patches.
Missing the path the dragons had widened, Astrid reaches the edge of the cove, looking over the edge of the short cliffside, she gazes into the little patch of tranquility. Snowfall covers the trees in a white blanket, but the cove itself is mostly free of the recent accumulation. The lake on one side has mostly frozen over, a large area showing signs of being broken through and refrozen, giving it a bluish tinge from being thinner. From her vantage point, she can't see the grotto/cave she knows the dragons had claimed as their home.
"Kari!! Tannlaus!! I'm coming down, okay?!" The quiet noise of winter birds grow silent as her voice echoes through the cove. Working her way around the edge of the stony wall that shelters the dragon's home, Astrid continues to call out. 'I really don't want to walk in on them if they are doing something.' She shudders at the memory of walking in on her parents, years ago, the night they conceived her little sister.
Reaching the path, and following it into the lower level of the cove, Astrid is surprised by the lack of any response. 'I would have imagined either one of them would at least acknowledge my presence. A roar, or growl or even that cute coo Kari makes would be welcome.' The continued silence is deafening, as the blond reaches the hidden opening to the dragon's cave. Bushes line the opening, giving a soft cover to act as a windbreak and camouflage the cave from casual view. Admiring the selection of bushes, Astrid smiles. Her own mother was an old hand at gardening, having grown up with the different bushes on the island, she recognizes several flowering breeds that don't grow natively on the northern side of the island. 'Wanted something nice to look at, or smell during the summer, didn't you Hiccup.' She wonders at the boy-turned-dragoness' creativity. Carefully moving into the entrance, she finds the cave empty. A large stone slab of what looks like shale, lies on the floor in the back of the cave, with a large pile of river stones lying beside it, both showing signs of repeated exposure to fire.
Recognizing the pile of stones as a nest similar to the one Azurestorm uses as a bed, Astrid gently places her hand on the cold pile of loose rocks. "Cold... They've been gone a while." Looking around she spies no fresh fish, or meat. Nothing to indicate they would be returning any time soon. No closer to an answer, Astrid leaves, returning to Berk.