Meanwhile Astrid was having problems of her own thanks to an ill-conceived decision to bring Stormfly to keep Toothless company. She had imagined them curled up together chatting in their own language. Not playing tag. They had definitely not been meant to play tag. She heard the ominous clatter of something being knocked off a shelf. Being the son of the chief, Hiccup's hut was filled with priceless, irreplaceable heirlooms. Or at least it had been. She had a horrible feeling that it might not be any more. Toothless bounded up the stairs, his tongue flopping out of his mouth, knocking her off her feet. Stormfly followed, her long tail clearing a table with one sweep- this had not been a good idea. A chirp startled her out of her lamentations- a terrible terror was perched on the window, a scroll tied to its leg. She grabbed it and unrolled the scroll. It took a couple of minutes to decipher Hiccup's scrawl- considering what a talented artist he was, his handwriting was abominable. "Stormfly!" she called. A large crash resounded from upstairs, maybe it would be better to walk.

"How did you manage that?"

"Um… I tripped over a tree root."

"Really, a tree root did that?"

"Yep"

"You sure?" she said, glancing at the metal leg shaped dent in a nearby stump. He nodded in what he hoped was a convincing way.

"Hang on, where's Toothless?"

"I left him at the house with Stormfly."

"How are we going to get home without Stormfly?"

"Um…good point."

"I have a suggestion." he said, with what he hoped was a coy, alluring smile. Astrid shot him a look of fire, causing him to make a mental note to never again attempt a coy, alluring smile. She appeared to go through some kind of internal battle before finally giving in. "What's your suggestion?"

"If I put my arm around your shoulders and you put your arm around my waist we could, wow I can actually feel you hating me right now."

"Fine, lets try it but only because it is the only option." she emphasised with an exceptionally stern look.

It took about twenty minutes to hobble to the hut. When they were still about a metre away, Astrid abruptly let go, causing Hiccup to faceplant quite spectacularly into his doorway. "Ow" followed by "Oh my gods, what happened in there?"

"They may have had a spirited game of chase."

"How does a "spirited game of chase" count as bed rest?" he was trying to sound angry but was secretly feeling very pleased that she'd done something wrong. It'd felt like he couldn't do anything right for a couple of days now. For starters Toothless' accident had been his fault, he'd made a truly disastrous attempt to flirt with Astrid and he had bent his own leg in half by kicking a tree. In addition he was pretty sure that Astrid hadn't bought his plausible explanation, which was irritating because he'd thought it was pretty good.

"Sorry, I thought he might want some company and it got a bit out of hand." she looked down at her feet, letting her white-blond hair fall over her pale blue eyes which shimmered like one thousand sapphires…"What are you looking at?" she snapped. Hiccup turned bright red and looked down at his foot. "I guess I'd better go and get my spare."

"Here." Astrid held out her arm, "Well, I wasn't going to make you crawl. I mean I did consider it but I've decided against it."

"Good".

They made their slow way to the hut. Hiccup leaned against the doorway and was bowled over by a euphoric Toothless. "Hey, Bud good to see you. What's that you've got in your mouth?" He could see a glint of metal. "Have you eaten my helmet again?" Toothless bounded up the stairs and Hiccup ran after him. Or he was meant to but instead of following, he stepped on his non-existent leg, found only air and face planted. In front of Astrid. For the second time that day. And it was only 10am. A slender, white arm reached down to help him up. "You ok"

"I'm fine." he said in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner. Astrid helped him to a bench. "Maybe it would be better if I took Stormfly."

"Oh, ok, you do that." With the aid of chicken she tempted the overexcited nadder out and Toothless who was exhausted from that morning's exertions came to lean his head on Hiccup's lap. "You all tired out, huh Bud. Maybe you could have a relaxing sleep all afternoon and, what are you chewing?" He managed to lever his sleepy dragon's mouth open, and he sighed. "Toothless. Did you eat my leg?" The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself gave him his very best puppy eyes. Hiccup extracted the mangled remains of his prosthetic limb. It was covered in dragon slobber and teeth marks. "Oh gods." Twelve and a half days to go.