The Lost Boy IV - The Hidden World

11 - Two days later

Two days later, Hiccup felt it had been weeks as so many things had happened. He had been rushing here and there, keeping an eye of the building of the village – the vikings seemed really found of this idea to make the New Berk there – he had solved many arguments as several vikings were fighting over a specific spot, he had also been plagued with so many questions about Kosmozis and Joke's pregnancy.

The Hairy Hooligans were quite the gossiping, once something happened in the village everyone knew about it within the day, or the following day if the secret was lucky.

Joke was feeling better. Now that Goathi and him knew what had caused the symptoms, they knew how to handle it, especially with Elska's help. But once he got out of the former-healer's tent, he had been swarmed by curious vikings, asking details about his condition. Luckily, Astrid and Gobber had come to the rescue, becoming bodyguards for him.

Their friends also came to see him. Fishlegs was as excited as if Meatlug had laid another egg. The twins made fun of him, Tuffnut talking about a strange spirited-guide story that was not going to be any of use, Ruffnut telling him he was going to ail. Snotlout, for his part, didn't believe it and didn't try to hide he found this pretty weird, but he ate humble pie when Astrid's fists threaten him.

After that, the fierce young woman walked her brother to visit the Furies, which allowed him to realise Lumiverse had known for a while about his condition. Now, he understood why she had gotten this mania to sniff or nudge his belly and purr without evident reason. Dragons were really smart.

Just like Hiccup, he noticed the eggs were nearing their term, and beamed about it. He couldn't wait to see the new Night Lights and began to think about their names. He shared his ideas to Astrid, who made some propositions too. They had a lot of ideas, some of them simple, others more like the viking tradition. Night, Death Night, Bad Omen, Dark Omen, Augury, Darklight, Midlight, Dawn, Twilight, Twinight... They had plenty ideas.

As Joke was adding more names to the list, his voice seeming to lull the Night Lights to sleep, Astrid let her thoughts wander and looked at her brother's belly. His tunic may be tight and him on his fourth month of pregnancy, it was not visible. His belly was only slightly plump, like it would be for someone starting to get weight.

''And him ? Any ideas ?'' She asked.

Joke hesitated and looked at her, not sure about which dragon she was talking about. He then saw where she was looking at, and did the same before putting a hand on his belly.

''I didn't think about it yet... I still can't get used to it.''

''I understand.'' She smiled, softly patting his back. ''It's a surprise for everyone. At least, it means Hiccup and you don't need plan B anymore.''

''Plan B ?''

Astrid laughed at his puzzled face, but with everything Hiccup had to deal with, she suspected he didn't had found the time to talk about it to Joke yet.

''Hiccup wanted my children to inherit the throne.''

Joke smiled.

''He couldn't have made a better choice.''

''But he doesn't need to, in the end.'' She laughed. ''It just would have been better we had noticed this sooner, that heirs story shook him pretty hard.''

''Yeah, don't tell me. Gobber almost drove him crazy with this.''

Both laughed about it, teasing about the black-smith lack of tact. They stayed with the Furies until night fell on Berk.

When Hiccup finally got back to his tent, he was exhausted. His day had been particularly long and busy, he had almost missed lunch, had nearly failed to visit the Furies in the early afternoon, and as he was calling it a day, he had been called out in the last minute to handle a fire lighted by a Monstruous Nightmare, burning down to ashes two in-building houses.