"Daddy?"
He didn't wake. She shoved him a little harder. "Daddy?"
"Hmm?" Hiccup said groggily, barely awake.
"I'm scared."
Hearing that woke him up fully. He sat up to see Zephyr shivering at the side of his bed. Her small cheeks were red and puffy, so Hiccup knew she had been crying. Before Hiccup could say anything a clap of thunder scared Zephyr and she burst out crying. "I hate that noise!"
"Oookay, alright. C'mere." Hiccup scooped the little girl into his arms and set her on his lap, allowing her to snuggle into him and cry.
"I want mommy!" She cries at the second clap of thunder.
"Shhh. I've got you." Hiccup said softly. "Mommy's at a meeting."
The storm seemed to worsen outside as the wind grew louder and the rain poured more intensely, which made Zephyr even more frightened. "I hate the noises.." she whimpered. "They're so scary."
"I'm not gonna let a storm hurt you, Zeph. You're always safe, as long as you're with mommy or daddy."
"Promise?"
"I promise." Hiccup chuckled. "You're my little girl and I'll always protect you."
"And me too, dad?" Came a small voice from the doorway.
Hiccup looked over and saw Nuffink standing in the doorway looking barely awake. His hair was in an extreme case of bed head and he could barely open his eyes.
"What's a matter bud? Storm scare you too?"
Nuffink waddled over and climbed up on Hiccup's other knee. Zephyr did not appreciate having to share dad.
"Go away, Nuff." She grumped.
"There's plenty of room for both of you." Hiccup chuckled. For a moment he wondered what if would have been like to have a sibling at that age.
"Dad, can you tell us a story?" Nuffink yawned.
"Ooh, yea please?" Zephyr agreed.
Hiccup ruffled Nuffink's hair playfully. "You guys do realize it's like, three in the morning right?"
"Pleeaase?" The kids said in unison.
How could he say no to the precious little faces looking up at him? "Oh alright." He smiled. "But you have to go to sleep afterward.. You can stay in here Zephyr." He added when she clenched at his tunic and whimpered.
"I wanna stay too!" Nuffink exclaimed.
"Okay okay." Hiccup said hastily. If he got riled up now there was no way he'd go to sleep.
"What kind of story do you guys want?"
Zephyr tugged his tunic a little. "Do the one about the dragons again."
"Yea yea." Nuffink agreed.
"Okay."
Hiccup thought back for a moment, then began his tale.
"Many years ago, fourteen years ago to be precise, I was on an island called Defenders of the Wing Island. The people that lived there were protected by a giant dragon called an Eruptodon."
"What did the people need to be protected for?" Nuffink murmured.
"The active volcano that sat not too far away from their village. See, Eruptodons eat lava. They need to have it alllll the time. Otherwise, they get so hungry they get really upset and make lava come out of the ground all on their own."
"Cool!"
"Yea. So my friends and I had gone to Defenders of the Wing because they needed our help. Their Eruptodon or the Great Protector is what they called it, had laid an egg. Normally she would take her egg into the volcano to be born aflame, but laying the egg had made her so tired she couldn't do it."
"Oh, no.." Zephyr looked up at Hiccup. "Did you take the egg to the volcano?"
"With the help of Fishlegs and his dragon Meatlug I did. Even the queen of the island came with us."
"The queen?!"
"Yep." He chuckled. "The thing is, it was very dangerous taking the egg to the volcano. Lava was rising fast and we didn't have much time. By the time we figured out to give the egg to dragons that lived in the volcano, we almost didn't make it out of the volcano!"
"Woa!" The kids said.
"In the end, the little baby Eruptodon was born, and all was saved."
"Aweee it's over already?" Nuffink whined.
"Already?" Hiccup laughed. "You can barely keep your eyes open."
"Nuh-Uh. I'm not tired at all."
"Yes, you are. Come on you two. Climb under the covers."
Just when Hiccup has thought they had fallen asleep Nuffink yelled:: "I wanna sleep on dad's arm!"
"Well, I'm already here!" He felt Zephyr stiffen at his side.
Nuffink tackled her and tried to pull her away. "But I want to sleep there!"
"Hey hey hey!" Hiccup sat up and pulled them apart. "There's room for both of you, you guys know that. He picked up Nuffink and set him on his left side, and Zephyr snuggled back up to his right side. "See? You two don't need to fight."
Neither child answered for they had fallen asleep. They had their dad and were no longer worried about the storm, so they had finally succumbed to their heavy eyelids.
Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle. If only sleep came that easy for him. But he knew better than to wish for it. He wouldn't sleep well until Astrid was back home and he knew she was safe. So he kissed the top of his children's little heads and tried to keep his mind from wandering. Astrid should have been home by now, and he didn't like that she wasn't. What could be keeping her?
****
Astrid hurried out of the great hall, eager to get home. She was exhausted. She groaned at the storm and began running through the rain. She was almost to her and Hiccup's hut when she saw movement in front of her.
"Hello? Who's there?" After a few moments, Astrid decided it was a trick of the rain. Just as she was about to continue running home an arm wrapped around her throat and another held her close to their body.
"Hold still," a cold voice warmed. "And don't make a sound. It'd be a shame if I had to do damage to that beautiful face of yours."
Astrid longed for her battle axe. She thought about throwing the stranger off her, but what would she do then? She had almost no energy and without her axe, it would be difficult to fight the man off whoever he was.
"You're not gonna make any sudden movements, Astrid Hofferson."
Hofferson? She hadn't heard that one in a while.
"It's Haddock now, actually. What do you want from me?"
"Revenge." The man growled as he started dragging Astrid off.
"For who?!"
"Quiet!" He hissed, tightening his grip. "The Grimborns will make you pay!"
Astrid gasped. Not good.
*******
Hiccup quickly sat up at the sound of footsteps on the stairs. He immediately knew it wasn't Astrid; the footsteps were too heavy to be hers. Moving gently so as not to wake the kids, Hiccup got out of the bed and grabbed his sword, Inferno. He then slowly made his way out of the room.
"Alright whoever you are you have no business in my house." he hissed. "Show yourself."
BAM!
He slumped to the floor in an unconscious heap.
***
"Nuffink! Wake up!" Nuffink whispered.
"Huh?"
"Daddy's gone and I heard a loud noise."
"He probably went to see mommy. Go back to sleep, Nuff."
THUNK.
The little girl jumped up. "Okay maybe not!" She grabbed her little brother's arm. "Come on!" She dragged Nuffink to their room.
"What's happening, Zeph?" He whimpered.
"I don't know, but something's wrong. We need to hide."
Nuffink got down on his hands and knees and crawled under his bed. "Come on." He motioned for Zephyr to join him. She grabbed her small axe that Astrid had given her, then joined Nuffink under the bed.
"Come on out kiddos!" Came a scratchy voice. "I know you're around here somewhere! You can't hide from me."
Nuffink gasped. "Shh!" Zephyr hissed.
They saw a person enter the room. They could only see the person's feet, but they both knew it wasn't Hiccup, nor Astrid.
"Really?" The man said as he walked to the opposite side of the bed. "The ol' 'hide under the bed' scheme? I thought your parents would've taught ya better n' that!" With a yank on her feet the man pulled Zephyr right out from under the bed.
"They did!" She yelled as she rolled over on her back, swinging the axe at the unknown man. "Leave us alone!"
The man leaned back to avoid being sliced open, then grabbed the axe mid-swing. "Did you really think that would do you any good?" He pulled Zephyr against him and held the axe at her throat.
****
As Hiccup came to he heard struggling. He shook his head, trying to get his vision to clear.
"Leave us alone!!" He heard Zephyr cry.
"What's happening?" He said aloud. His vision blurred worse and worse and he could barely think as he heard the conversation in the next room.
"What do you want with us?! My daddy's gonna kick your butt when he gets here!"
"Wrong! That's not what's gonna happen, stupid kid! But nice guess."
"Then my mommy will!"
Hiccup struggled to his feet and staggered into his kids' room, knowing full well he wasn't going to be able to stay conscious much longer.
****
"Come out little boy, or I'll kill your sister."
"Nuffink you stay under there!" Zephyr shouted. "You leave my little brother alone!" She struggled against the man but she couldn't break free.
Nuffink crawled out from under the bed and threw himself at the man. "Let Zeph go!!"
Since he was so small this didn't do much. The man grabbed Nuffink and threw him into the corner of the room, then did the same with Zephyr.
"Stop struggling. Don't make this harder than it needs to be, little ones." The man growled as he pulled out a knife. "One stab for the both of ya' and you're dead. Easy as pie."
Both children screamed in horror. Just as the man took a step closer to his kids, Hiccup leapt forward and tackled him to the ground, ignoring the sharp pain that had erupted in his left side.
"Daddy!" Zephyr screeched.
"She was right the first time." He choked out before knocking the man unconscious. Then Hiccup himself fell over as well.
"Dad!"
He felt the blood begin to pool out of his stab wound and knew he needed to get his kids out of here. His vision continued to worsen, his head felt like it was going to explode, and now he'd been stabbed.
"Kids I want you to run to Grandma's house as fast as you can."
"But daddy your head's bleeding!" Zephyr began to cry.
Hiccup tenderly felt his forehead, and discovered that it was indeed bleeding. At least she hadn't noticed his worse wound...
"I'm-I-I'm okay, Zephyr." He could barely talk now. "It's just a little cut."
Nuffink noticed all the blood beginning to pool on the floor and both he and Zephyr burst into tears.
"Hey look at me, look at me. You guys need to go to grandmas, okay? Tell her what happened, and under no circumstances do you leave her house. Do you understand?"
"But what about you?"
"I'll be fine. Now go, before he wakes up." He jerked his head at the intruder."I love you both very much."
The children replied in kind, and without another word, they ran out of the house for Valka. As they ran out of the room Hiccup's eyes fluttered shut and his head hit the floor with a dull thump.
******
"Boss, I got the blonde. Louis sent a terror mail, he deserted the house before Hiccup noticed their were two of them there. We haven't heard back from Larry."
"Tie her up with the mother."
Astrid struggled against her kidnapper, but he was too strong. She felt him tie her arms and legs together, then she was thrown to the ground unceremoniously.
"Astrid? Are you hurt?"
Valka?
