Chapter Twelve: Sore Ankles

Dagur the Deranged was frustrated.

It had been eleven weeks since he had threatened the future chief of Berk and he had been certain he would come up with the perfect plan of attack by then. But despite the weeks of preparation he should have had, he was just as stumped as before. He wanted a brilliant but subtle move. Something simultaneously daring and dangerous as well as simple and easy to carry out. But nothing was coming to mind. And he wasn't about to give up on his determination to have that Night Fury's head hanging above his fireplace.

The rest of the Berserkers had no idea what was taking so long. Not a day had gone by without one of them casually mentioning his delay in coming up with a strategy. He wanted to throttle the first few who did this but now he merely ignored them. There were more important things to do with his time.

"You're needed in the Great Hall." said one of his soldiers, opening Dagur's door and peering through.

Dagur turned to face him. "Yes. I'll be there shortly."

He didn't know why he had called this meeting. He had no new ideas. Perhaps one of the soldiers would give him one. He hated it when he wasn't the one to come up with their plans of attack but there seemed little choice in this matter. If they didn't strike soon, the Hooligans would believe that their threats were empty. Dagur scowled. His threats were never empty. He would strike back.

Well if he was going to strike back, he might as well get out of his chair and go to the meeting. He had always hated meetings. They were necessary evils, of course, but they were so boring. As he sat down at the head of the table, he ignored the opening remarks from his soldiers.

"I'm tapped out." he said at last, probably interrupting someone. "We need to strike Berk soon."

There was dead silence. And then another man spoke up.

"We've been waiting for you to tell us what to do."

Dagur slammed his fist into the table, making several men jump. "And I will!" he sat back and leaned against the back of the chair. "We need a plan that's simple yet effective. Berk is expecting a full out attack."

"Well they might be distracted, what with that new chief on the way." said another soldier. "We could just slip in while..."

"Shut up! Wait a minute! I... I've got it." Dagur's face cracked into a wide smile. "The perfect plan! Subtle but sends a strong message." He let out a loud laugh that echoed off the walls. "I'll have that Night Fury and Berk won't know what hit it. Now we just need a few minutes to work out the details."

"What details?" asked yet another soldier.

"Well we need a few people doing a patrol of the island. This has to be timed perfectly. Keep yourselves to the shadows and don't let yourself be seen." Dagur's smile widened. "The answer has been right under our noses this whole time. Now listen up. Here's what I'm thinking..."

The days were steadily getting longer and warmer. Several children could be seen splashing around in the sea and the dragons often went out to lie in the sunlight. Astrid was too uncomfortable to move. She wasn't sure if she had a fair complexion or if the pregnancy was making her more sensitive the sunlight. All she knew was that she didn't want to do anything physical anymore. Her body was heavy and her ankles ached even when her weight wasn't on them. And no amount of rubbing from Hiccup could dull the pain.

It had been a week since Hiccup had tried to make their anniversary special. One week and she still felt exactly the same then as she did before. Heather came by one day while she was relaxing with her feet propped up, taking deep breaths and feeling as though she wanted to spend some time away from her body.

"I'm leaving." she said as she entered the house without knocking.

Astrid looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. "I think you meant entering. Leaving is when you go through the door the other way."

Heather stopped and stared at Astrid for a few seconds, probably fighting the urge to laugh. Astrid smirked and Heather finally gave her a small smile.

"Okay, that came out wrong." Heather said, sitting beside her friend. "How are you feeling?"

"Completely miserable, thanks for asking." Astrid replied, shutting her eyes again and hoping Heather would see this as a sign that she should leave.

"It's been months, Astrid."

Here we go, Astrid thought, her eyebrows lowering slightly.

"You still haven't spoken to Hiccup and there isn't a lot of time left."

Why can't she just give it a rest?

"How do you think he's going to feel when you do tell him?"

He's not going to feel anything because I'm never going to tell him. At least not until our child is in his late fifties. Then Hiccup will be too senile to know what I just said.

Astrid realized after a few seconds that Heather actually wanted her to answer the question. She took a deep breath.

"It doesn't matter because I'm not telling him." she said, keeping her eyes shut.

"You are impossible sometimes!" Heather snapped, making Astrid jump. "You really plan on keeping this from your husband for the rest of his life? If it were me, I'm not sure I'd ever forgive you..."

"Well it's not you. And it's not your business to talk to me about what I talk about with my husband!" Astrid turned her head to face Heather. "So just leave it alone!"

"Leave what alone?"

Both women looked at the doorway where Hiccup was standing, a cluster of flowers in his hands. If he hadn't been so confused, he might have found the whole scene quite funny.

"Nothing. Heather here wants to see how bad my ankles have gotten and I told her to leave them alone." Astrid said quickly, not missing a beat.

Heather glared at her. "Sometimes they can suffer irreparable damage if you wait too long to do anything. I just wanted to make sure that wasn't the case."

"Is that so?" Hiccup asked, feeling as if he had walked in at the wrong moment. "Well I'm sure her ankles will be fine. I rub them every night."

Heather raised her eyebrows. "Well you'd think that would be enough but..."

"Maybe you should go, Heather." Astrid said, sounding a bit testy.

With a last glare in Astrid's direction, Heather stood up and turned to Hiccup. "I'm heading home to my parents so I'll be gone for a few weeks. But you and Astrid should definitely have a chat about those ankles. Before it's too late."

Astrid glared at Heather until the other woman was out of sight.

Hiccup had never been more happy or more excited in his entire life. As he repaired worn out pieces of his saddle in Gobber's workshop, he began to make up a song as he worked, threading the saddle in rhythm with it. He hadn't noticed anyone walking in (or the fact that his singing had grown louder) until someone tapped him on the shoulder and he very nearly fell out of his chair.

"It's just me." said Stoick, sitting down next to his son. "Nice song. Though you should probably talk to me about adopting the windstorm and the river."

Hiccup blushed scarlet. "I was just making it up as I go along."

Father and son sat in silence for a while. Hiccup turned back to his threading, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Stoick stared at him for a few minutes before speaking at last.

"Not long to go now." He said, keeping his eyes on Hiccup's left ear.

Hiccup nodded and Stoick couldn't help noticing that his hand trembled slightly as he continued to work.

"So what are you hoping for? Boy or girl?"

Hiccup looked up, his brow furrowed slightly. "I'll love this baby no matter what." he said, his eyes showing the tiniest glimmer of fear.

Stoick chuckled. "I used to say that about you. Pretty sure I used to get that look every time someone asked. I never said it but I actually was hoping you would be a boy. A good, strong boy that I could teach everything I knew. I didn't get that." Hiccup sighed. "The son I got was better than that. I know you've got your heart set on one or the other."

There was another long pause as Hiccup froze, mid stitch. He pursed his lips slightly, wondering if he dared say out loud what he had been thinking for months.

"A girl." he said quietly. "I want the baby to be a girl."

Stoick's eyebrows flitted upward. "We never had a woman as chief before."

"That's not why I want a girl. I mean a woman as chief would be a nice change and I'm sure she would be fantastic but it's not why."

If there was one thing Stoick knew about his son, it was that, if he waited long enough, Hiccup would continue talking to diffuse the tension. As he wanted more of an explanation, he stayed silent.

Sure enough. "Mom died when I was really little, you know? And you and Gobber practically raised me after that. And I'm really glad you were there. I'm not angry about how things happened. But until I got married, I never really had a female family member. I love Astrid so much but I think a little girl with Haddock blood in her veins... that would be perfect."

Stoick gently placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Well I hope you get your girl. If not this time, maybe later on."

Hiccup looked at his father and could tell the older man was being quite genuine.

Another week passed without incident. Astrid felt herself growing heavier by the minute but Hiccup insisted that she had never looked more beautiful. Instead of finding these pronouncements sweet or endearing, she had to restrain herself from punching him.

Keeping her feelings from her husband got a lot harder with every passing day. When he placed his hand on her belly and felt a kick, he would look up and smile at her and she would feel a pang of guilt that she hastily shoved down.

She should have known it wouldn't last.

Astrid was lying down on the couch, so bored she was actually counting the days she and Hiccup had been married. Thirty-four weeks and three days... that was 241. 241 days she had been married and it seemed to have slipped away from her before she knew it. The baby kicked her, making her very glad she had used the outhouse ten minutes before. She turned to her side, hoping the pressure on her abdomen would lessen slightly but it didn't help. The baby's wiggling and jerking around was beginning to make her feel incredibly irritated. Did that baby ever settle down when she needed to rest?

Hiccup usually had things to do in the middle of the afternoon but he decided to be irresponsible for once and skip out on them. He sometimes had a sixth sense about his wife and he felt strongly that he would be more useful at home.

He smiled as he opened the door and caught sight of her lying with her feet propped up and both hands on her belly. At first, he wondered if he was wrong and that she was fine. But a strange expression on her face made him falter slightly. He sat down next to her and took her hand in his.

"You doing okay?" he asked, staring into her beautiful blue eyes.

He should have known that something was wrong when she shut her eyes rather than return his gaze. "I think so. I'm just tired."

He smiled, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with love for his wife. "You know, Astrid... I'm really proud of you."

Her eyes snapped open.

"I mean I know this wasn't planned and it's not what you or I wanted but you've been amazing."

She pulled her hand away from his. "Hiccup, please don't say..."

"I mean you've dealt with this day after day and I know it wasn't easy. But you've been so incredible."

She winced. ""Stop it, Hiccup!"

For a moment, there was silence. They stared at each other and Hiccup's mouth dropped open slightly. "What..."

"I... I can't keep doing this to you anymore!" Astrid said, sitting up and placing both hands on her belly.

Hiccup stared at her in concern. He wasn't sure but it was almost as if she was about to cry.

"Doing what?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly.

Astrid put her head in her hands, hiding her face from his. "I don't want it."

"Astrid, what are you..."

"This baby, Hiccup." she said, nearly clutching her face with her fingers. "I don't want this baby!"