Work Text:
Hiccup muttered to himself as he sulked through the forest. The wedding rehearsal had, predictably, been a disaster. He had managed to not only completely stumble the vows —that had been repeated to him ad nauseam— but he had also set Astrid’s mom on fire in the most embarrassing fumble of his life. He hadn’t been happy with the whole ‘arranged marriage’ thing, but accidental arson was not the way he wanted to try and call the whole thing off.
Not to mention, the withering and disappointed look his dad shot him made him wonder if he should pitch himself off of a bridge and into a river. But then Astrid would have to get hitched to some other guy and—
Hiccup sighed. He didn’t want to marry her, but this was the best option for both of them. Astrid knew it too. At least they knew each other well enough to know that it wouldn’t be a completely miserable affair. They were friends. Good friends. It wouldn’t be a loveless marriage, per se, but it wouldn’t be the one either of them deserved.
The least Hiccup could do was say the vows right.
“It’s really not that hard.” Hiccup stared into nothing as he walked deeper into the forest. “Just a few simple vows.”
“‘With this hand,’” He began reciting, “I will take your w—” He grimaced, then tried again. “With this hand, I will cup your— No!“ He flushed. Thank god he hadn’t messed it up that badly in front of Astrid and her parents. Silver linings and all of that.
With this hand, I will…
The words bounced around in his skull as snow and twigs crunched beneath him. His steps slowed and he took a breath. Again.
“With this candle, I will…” Nothing. Hiccup tried again. “I will…” The image of Astrid’s mother’s face flashed in his mind. “Set your mom on fire. Damn it.”
He looked at the twisted, dead tree he had stilled in front of. Crows stood upon its branches, their beady little eyes boring into him like a macabre imitation of Stoick’s judgmental glare. Hiccup withered.
He couldn’t even blame it on nerves anymore. He was alone and still messing it up. Maybe everyone had been right about him before. Maybe he was just a pathetic fishbone.
He reached into his pocket where the ring sat, weighing him down with each step, and pulled it out. The cool gold band glinted in the even colder light of the moon, just barely illuminating it, but Hiccup couldn’t stare at it for more than a second. It felt like it was blinding him. He closed his hand around the metal and glared up at the tree covered starlit sky. No, he would do this.
Not for himself, but so his friend wouldn’t have to be married off to some guy she didn’t even know. He couldn’t do that to her.
Hiccup opened his hand and glared at the ring for a moment before he rolled his shoulders back and lifted the band into the air. This time, he didn’t look away.
“With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine.” Good start so far. Hiccup couldn’t help the almost proud smile that made its way into his face at that. He would’ve cheered but, instead, he stepped toward a nearby tree with a confidence that was slowly brewing in him and grasped one of its branches like a hand.
“Mrs. Hofferson,” Hiccup shook the branch-hand. “You look… great this evening.” Yeah, maybe not the best idea to imagine the woman he just set on fire while he was practicing his vows.
Still, Hiccup moved on and snapped a dried off branch from another tree without so much as stumbling. “With this candle,” he tipped the thinnest, most wick-like end of the branch toward another, “I will light your way through the darkness.”
“With this ring,” Hiccup tossed the branch aside and paused, only momentarily, before he saw it. A small, odd looking sapling that reached toward the moon like it would pull it from the ground and make it grow tall. Hiccup got down on his knee and presented the ring to it like an offering before sliding it onto the tallest part of the sapling. “I will ask you to be mine.”
Hiccup stared at the ring for a moment. Another, then, “I did it!” Hiccup raised an arm and cheered this time. No one celebrated with him, of course, but as Hiccup glanced up at the night sky once more, he could pretend that the stars were glinting in joy for him.
He stayed like that for a moment, relishing in his success before it went… silent. The rustling of the leafless tress around him stilled and the faint sounds of life around him halted. Hiccup’s ears rang in the suffocating quiet that pressed down around him. Suddenly, like the life had been slammed back into the forest around him, the wind began to howl violently. A cacophony of cawing thudded in Hiccup’s skull as something grabbed his wrist.
Hiccup turned his head so fast it almost hurt and stared in disbelief and horror as the sapling gripped him.
Not a sapling, Hiccup realized with sinking horror while he tried to wrench his wrist away, A hand. It pulled him down. His head slammed into the ground as his arm was pulled down into the cold, wet ground.
Hiccup gritted his teeth and pushed himself up and managed to get back onto one knee before the hand tightened around his wrist and tugged harder. Hiccup tore his arm away as bony fingers dug into his skin and fell back with a startled shout as the resistance finally gave away for the most part.
For the most part?
He lifted his arm. Hiccup’s heart skipped a beat in his chest as he saw the hand still circled around his wrist. The ring around its’ finger glinted at him mockingly as he shook it off and watched it land on the frozen ground around him. Hiccup didn’t even get a moment to pinch himself as the ground where the hand had been sticking up from began to shake and crack.
Another hand —flesh covered, Hiccup noted in dismay— clawed its way out and dug into the ground and a head followed suit. Hiccup scrambled and cursed as his prosthetic leg slipped under him twice before he stood. Horrifyingly, the person that had dug themself out of the ground rose when he did.
Hiccup took a step back as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. What once was a man, Hiccup guessed, stood before him. He was dressed in dirt covered white with a tear at his ribs, exposing them in all their skeletal glory. Hiccup couldn’t see any blood or any indication that the man was breathing as Hiccup took another step back.
Blood pounded in Hiccup’s ears as he forced his eyes to the figure’s veil covered head before the fleshy hand lifted it away. What stared back at Hiccup was the face of a boy. Young. Around his age, maybe even a year younger. He was pale and gaunt, his sharp features even sharper from decay. He would’ve been beautiful, if it weren’t for the fact that he was dead and staring at Hiccup with piercing blue eyes.
The boy opened his mouth, and with whispered words that felt like they were carried by the wind itself, he said; ”I do.”
‘I should’ve listened when the twins said the forest was haunted’, Hiccup hysterically thought to himself before he did what any other person would do in this situation.
He ran.