Bab 44: Beyond What We Know (Part 4)
To Kala and I's surprise, the entire outpost was completed and everything was clean.
"Wow, and here I thought they would never get their own huts built." Kala chided as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
I nodded in agreement as I looked at everything. "Same. It all looks amazing."
"There you are!!"
Kala and I jumped and turned towards who shouted, then we both deadpanned when we saw it was Astrid.
"Where were you Hiccup?" She asked as she came up to us, getting all up in my personal space as usual. "We could've used your help ya know."
I glared at her, a growl forming in my throat. "For your information Astrid, Kala and I were exploring the island to know where everything is."
Astrid was acting as if Kala wasn't even there as she took ahold of my free hand, ignoring when both me and my girlfriend growled at her. "Tell me next time, okay? I was worried sick. If you were gone any longer I would've gotten Stormfly to track you down."
"Right." I said sarcastically as I yanked my hand out of her grasp. "Next time I'll definitely make sure to tell you exactly what my girlfriend and I will be doing."
Astrid laughed. "But I am your girlfriend silly."
Kala and I locked eyes with the same look upon each of our faces, thinking the same thing.
'Is she being serious right now?'
I looked back at Astrid to see that she was beaming while leaning towards me in a way to show off her chest. I growled a bit as I backed away and got closer to Kala.
"What has gotten into you Hofferson?" I asked, disgust dripping from my words.
"Nothing! I can't be happy that my boyfriend is back safe and sound? Come on. The others are in the clubhouse with dinner." She said as if this was completely normal, grabbing at my hand again and dragging me to the clubhouse.
I got out of her grip again as Kala caught up to us. She clung onto me and growled fiercely at Astrid.
"Stop dragging Hiccup away from me!" She screeched, some scales starting to appear around her eyes. A clear sign that she was seething in anger.
Astrid looked at her for the first time since we got back from exploring and glared daggers at her. "Shut it demon! You have no right to even be here in the first place!"
"Oh you did not just call her a demon!" I shouted as I glared harshly at Astrid, my free hand inching towards my hidden dagger. "It's you who has no right to be here Astrid! This is exactly why we left without saying anything, because we knew you would do something like this! You always do! What next? You're gonna try and kill her again?!"
"Alright break it up!!" Snotlout yelled as he got between the three of us to keep us from ripping each other to shreds. Kala and I growled lowly as we backed up a bit to get more distance. "Let's not do this right now alright? Let's just go to the clubhouse and celebrate the completion of the base, yeah?"
Kala and I huffed in sync then I gently took her hand and led her away from them. As we walked away, I could feel Kala shaking. I looked at her and saw that tears were welling in her eyes and her hand was covering her throat.
"Oh love.." I stopped and hugged her tightly, the journal falling to the ground as I did so. "Shh..you're okay.." I whispered as I ran my hand through her hair. "She won't harm you as long as I'm here..I promise.."
Kala clung to me sniffling and hiccupping in attempts to keep from bawling her eyes out. "Why can't s-she just take the hint and s-stop..?" She asked.
I sighed and kissed her head. "I'm not sure milady.."
"I hate h-her.."
I chuckled a bit and smiled. "Yeah I do too.."
I looked up as Snotlout came up to the two of us. He smiled softly, which is a rare sight to see with him.
"She okay cuz?"
Kala got out of my hold as she wiped her eyes and smiled at him. "I'll be okay, Snotlout..just had bad memories resurface is all.."
He nodded. "Right. I honestly don't know what got into her. She started acting weird the second you guys left. It's like when she found out you and Kala were a thing and you revealed the truth to the village."
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Great. Just great. Let's just..go eat and we'll figure out what to do about it tomorrow, alright?" I decided as I picked up the journal.
Kala nodded as she grasped my free hand and Snotlout nodded once in understanding.
"You got it cuz. Also what is that? Doesn't look like your journal at all."
Kala and I looked at one another and then she nodded as a way to say 'Go ahead and tell him.'
"It's a journal we found in a cave somewhere on the island. It's basically a manual to Kala's species."
Snotlout's eyes widened in shock. "No way. That's so fucking cool! You've gotta let us in on everything!"
I stifled a laugh. "We were planning on it, calm down. Let's get to the clubhouse and eat before anything else, okay?"
~~~HTLANF~~~
Once all of us were at the clubhouse and had eaten what we could, Kala and I explained everything about the journal. At least the parts that we could without getting flustered.
The others were silent and intently listening in fascination. That is until we got to the bonding process and revealed the major change. My transformation.
"WHAT?!" Everyone shouted at once. Astrid being the loudest and the only one peeved by it.
"That's awesome dude! You'll be able to fly side-by-side all of us on your own now!" Tuffnut exclaimed.
"You could help everyone else learn more about their own dragons this way too." Fishlegs noted. "You'd be able to translate for us."
"Well, yeah, but Kala does that for all of us already." I said blushing a bit.
"Yeah, but now we've got two people!" Ruffnut chided with a grin.
"So you mean to tell me this demon is turning you into a dragon?!" Astrid shouted, hand going for her axe.
All of us went silent and I glared at Astrid.
"For the last time, Kala is not a demon and she had no knowledge of the bond just like the rest of us." I growled out. "She had no control over this and neither did I. So I'm sorry that you're upset about this, but you have no say in the matter. What's done is done, Astrid."
She laughed, but it sounded a bit insane. "No say? No say?! Ha! How's this for no say?!" She yelled as she bolted up from her chair with her axe and pressed it against Kala's throat.
At the same time I was up and had my sword pressed against Astrid's throat, fury radiating off of me as I glared at her. Kala was shaking with tears flowing down her face and scales coating her neck for protection, Fishlegs and Ruffnut by her side to comfort her. Snotlout and Tuffnut had their weapons out, ready to fight if need be.
"Drop. The. Axe. Now." I growled out, pressing my sword just a bit harder against her throat.
Astrid glared at me harshly. "Or what?! Are you gonna kill me?! How can we be sure this is actually you?! What if this demon is controlling you right now?! I won't stand for it!!"
"SHE ISN'T CONTROLLING ME!!" I yelled, utterly pissed off now. "YOU ARE OUT OF CONTROL AND OUT OF LINE ASTRID HOFFERSON!!"
"SAYS THE ONE UNDER THE CONTROL OF A DEMON!!"
I growled deeply as I forcefully removed her axe from Kala's throat and pushed her away from everyone as I removed my own blade from her neck.
"Leave." I said sternly.
"Excuse me?!"
"Leave! None of us want you here." I spat, Snotlout and Tuffnut standing beside me with glares of their own directed at Astrid. I knew Fishlegs and Ruffnut were glaring at her as well. "You're not welcome on Dragon's Edge."
Astrid scoffed and rested her hands on her hips. "You can't banish me!! We just got here!!"
"I just did! Go back to Berk and never return!" I ordered.
"You can't be serious!! I have done nothing but try to protect you since that thing showed itself!!" Astrid started.
"That 'thing' is my girlfriend and the love of my life!! She is not the problem, you are!! Now get off my island before I do something I'll regret!!" I shouted, my grip on my sword tightening and my glare becoming harsher.
Her eyes widened a bit, then she huffed in anger and stormed off.
"Tuff, make sure she leaves. Escort her back to Berk if you have to." I said, keeping an eye on Astrid as she walked away.
"You got it." Tuffnut said as he went after her.
I took a deep breath and went over to Kala. I set my sword down and wiped away her tears gently. "Are you alright milady?" I asked softly as I sat down facing her.
Kala was still shaking, but it wasn't too noticeable now. She nodded as the scales on her neck slowly faded back under her skin. I could tell she was still too shaken up to trust herself with words. I smiled gently and kissed her forehead.
"Uh..Hiccup?" I heard Ruffnut say.
I turned my attention to her with a raised brow. "What is it?"
"Your eyes man. They look like Kala's when she's in dragon form."
"She's right, Hiccup. They must have changed appearance when you were arguing with Astrid just now." Fishlegs added.
Snotlout came up to the rest of us, his mace set aside. "Didn't the journal mention that happening at the halfway point? Or at least around the halfway point?"
"It did. Guess I was angered enough to trigger it." I said as I put my focus back on Kala.
Her scales were completely hidden again and the tears had stopped, but the sniffling and hiccups were full force. She had her cloak wrapped fully around her body. I cupped her face with my hand and rubbed her cheek gently with my thumb. I smiled when she leaned into my touch and started to purr.
"There's my love.." I whispered as her purring got a bit louder. "You okay love?" I asked once more just to make sure.
"Mhm.." She mumbled out as her eyes drifted closed.
Snotlout sighed as he plopped down next to me. "Man. Didn't think Astrid would react like that."
"None of us did." Fishlegs pointed out. "We all thought she was finally past the desire to harm Kala. It's been three years since the first instance. So why now?"
"Could've been because we left without telling you guys." I stated, not taking my eyes off my lover.
"Maybe, but that was totally outta the blue. Not even the Gods could've seen that one coming, and the All-Father knows everything." Ruffnut threw in.
"Can we just..not focus on that anymore? It happened and now she's gone. Nothing more to say." I said, a bit of anger in my tone.
Tuffnut came back into the room about a minute later. "She's gone. Left without her stuff and everything."
"Good. We'll just store her stuff in Stormfly's stall until we can make a trip back to Berk." I decided. "For now let's just not worry about it. We've been through enough because of that woman tonight as is."
The others nodded in agreement as the rest of them settled back down around the hearth/table in the center of the clubhouse.
Snotlout had a mischievous smirk upon his lips once all of us were calm. "Spill. Why wouldn't you explain the mating process?"
Kala and I blushed profusely when he asked and she covered her face in embarrassment.
"W-well..b-because it's personal. Why do you guys wanna know so badly?" I stuttered.
"Oh come on Hiccup! Why wouldn't we?" Ruffnut asked as she rested her arms on the table with her head laying in her hands and a smirk plastered on her face.
I sighed as I grabbed the journal and flipped to the mating section, but only to the drawings of the dances. I placed it on the table so that everyone could look at it.
"These are the mating dances of the Night Furies. This is all you get to know about it, got it?"
They nodded as they looked at the drawings.
"So does this go down before you two go at it or after?" Tuffnut asked and Kala shrunk down in her spot as both of our blushes deepened if even possible.
"By the Gods Tuff, before!" I answered as I covered my face with my hand. I could feel the heat from my blush as I did.
"Just checking! Ya never know with how different everything is for Night Furies."
"This looks easy. Tuff you're doing it with me." Ruffnut said and all of us looked at her with confused looks.
"Are you seriously wanting to try this out?" Snotlout asked.
"Duh." She said as if it was obvious.
"You do realize that if Hiccup was fully a dragon right now, you two would be considered mates among us dragons right?" Kala asked as she uncovered her face.
"Don't care. I wanna try it, so I'm gonna."
"But why with your brother?" I asked.
"Because why not?" She retorted, all snarky-like.
She rose from her spot and dragged Tuffnut from his to a bit further to the space between the entryway and the table.
The twins being well, the twins did the human-on-human version of the mating dance in their own goofy way. Tuffnut initiated the dance and as they were circling one another with their hands intertwined they mimicked flapping wings with their free hands. Then to top it all off they headbutted at the end, both laughing like they always do when they goof off.
Snotlout tried to keep from laughing as they finished the dance. Fishlegs was shaking his head with a small smile on his lips.
I sighed while pinching the bridge of my nose with my propped up arm and I could tell Kala was covering her face with her head down.
"You two are so lucky none of the other dragons are present right now.." I breathed out, exhaustion catching up to me from the events that had transpired throughout the day.
The twins then came back over to the table and sat down again.
It went quiet for a couple minutes, the only sounds being the surrounding nature, the fire in the hearth, and the soft sound of the pages in the journal being flipped.
"Hey, Kala? What does this page say?" Fishlegs asked, which got my attention.
I looked at the page he was asking about and stiffened up when I saw it was the section about the mate deaths. Kala must have to, because the others gave both of us confused yet concerned looks.
"You two good?" Ruffnut asked.
"Y-yeah..we're fine..it's just.." Kala tried to explain, then took a deep breath before she explained. "That section is about mate deaths.."
"Whoa, what? What do you mean it's about mate deaths?" Snotlout asked.
"Is it gruesome?" The twins asked in sync with mischievous glints in their eyes.
"W-well…it's uh…" I trailed off as I rubbed the back of my neck. "Not necessarily gruesome…more like cruel and sad…"
"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, you guys. If it's too hard to talk about, we understand." Fishlegs said kindly.
"We will?" Snotlout and the twins asked, which earned a glare from Fishlegs.
"Yes, we will."
"No, it's okay. We'll tell you. It's just really hard to wrap your head around is all.." Kala said nervously.
The others nodded in understanding and waited patiently for us to explain. I glanced at Kala with a silent question and she nodded. I took a deep breath and looked back at the others.
"Okay..so..when a Night Fury's mate passes away, the one still alive has the amount of time they were mates left for life."
"During that time, the one that survived has to prove that their love for their mate was genuine and wasn't just because of lust and desire. If they truly did love and care for their mate, they would do anything during their remaining time to prove that so they would be able to see their mate again." Kala finished.
The others stayed silent once we were finished with looks of pure shock.
"Told you it was hard to wrap your head around.." I said with crossed arms as I leaned against the table.
"That's..wow..just..wow.." Snotlout breathed out, not able to say much else as he tried to process the new information.
"That makes things way more dangerous during the early days of the relationship…" Fishlegs said nervously.
"Yeah..yeah it does.." Kala said sadly.
~~~HTLANF~~~
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
The_Jonbergdahl
The_Jonbergdahl Just a warning next chapter will be R18+
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone