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Hiccup has a talent for pushing his luck, and this time it would seem he pushed it too far.
Normally, he can get out of tricky situations by the skin of his teeth, coming out a little banged up but ultimately alright. Normally, if he can’t get himself out of the situation, then he can stall long enough for his friends to get there and help him out. Normally, his snark and sass that he uses against his enemies will get him slapped around a bit and gagged at most when they get tired of telling him to shut up. The bruises and gags aren’t fun of course; but if his enemies are focused on the way he’s running his mouth, then they aren’t usually as focused on the way he’s working his hands to get himself free.
He’s been lucky, with all of that, so far. But now his luck has run out.
Hiccup groans, slowly coming to. For a moment when he opens his eyes he wonders if he even really opened them; it’s dark wherever he is. Darker than even the natural darkness of nighttime. Unable to see, he feels around instead to try and figure out where he is. There’s wood under his fingertips, and really not much else. He seems to be in some kind of box of sorts.
Hiccup sighs, and that’s when he takes note of how heavy the air feels. Heavy, warm, and stale… and it smells like dampened dirt.
Oh no. Oh no no no.
With a sinking realization, Hiccup comes to a conclusion on just where he is now. A wooden box, in total darkness, with stale air that smells of dirt…
He’s been buried alive.
Dread sinks its claws into him, taking root like cold chains around his chest as he struggles to control his breathing and not waste the air he has down here. Hiccup isn’t sure how long he’s been down here for already, doesn’t know how much air he has left. And he certainly doesn’t know how far down he is.
He scrambles for anything that could help him break the wooden box he’s in, but before he goes through with trying to break out once he has something in hand, he pauses; what if he’s too far down to make it to the surface before he suffocates on the dirt he’s buried underneath?
Maybe he shouldn’t push his luck again…