"That's another one." Hiccup said, polishing a newly-made axe. He placed it with the other ones, for Gobber to hand out later. It's been about a week since the panic attack (he was very shocked when he realised what he actually had), and nothing had changed – beside now working at the forge. While his work was amazing, and everyone could see him working in the forge, all of the credit for the weapons Hiccup made went to Gobber, and not him.

And Gobber did no work anymore! He either ignored Hiccup while re-polishing what Hiccup made previously, yelled at Hiccup to get back to work while Hiccup was being physically and mentally bullied by Snotlout and Tuffnut, or gave Hiccup massive amounts of work which he demanded to be done by the end of the day.

Hiccup was tired of it. He secretly carved his initials into the backs of all the weapons he made. All the weapons were made out of Gronckle iron and made to a magnificent standard. Gobber's recent 'weapon' could only stand around 10 good hits before it broke apart. Clearly, he was losing his touch – but Hiccup just kept improving.

He glanced at the clock. 11pm. Time to go home. He was usually allowed to go home whenever he liked (he usually left at 8 or 9pm) and his work was only part-time (basically whenever he liked), but since everyone started treating him poorly, he's been forced to spend all day, everyday in the forge, working from 11am until 11pm, with a small 30-minute break at 1:30pm.

He placed his tools down on the counter, and went to leave.

"Hold on, boy." Gobber said. Hiccup immediately stopped in his tracks. Last time Hiccup ignored Gobber... Well... Hiccup still has the scar on his cheek. It was only three days ago, and Hiccup wasn't going to spend all day making Snotlout a betrothal gift for Astrid (even though she's not here) out of gold. He doubted Berk really had that much gold to waste on stupid objects. Gobber immediately slashed Hiccup's cheek with his hook.

Thor, the scar still ached. Hiccup gently pressed his fingers to his scar, and asked what Gobber wanted.

"I need you to deliver these." Gobber said, before pushing all the weapons Hiccup had made that day back towards him.

"But I just made-" Gobber flashed his hook at Hiccup. "Okay, okay, to who?" He muttered softly, scooping up the weapons with his hands.

"The Wepplers, the Vlahakis and... the Hoffersons." Gobber said, before ushering Hiccup out.

"Hoffersons? Oh, um... let me grab my... stuff." Hiccup said, before grabbing a bag lying on the counter, and a bag hidden on the floor underneath. Toothless greeted him at the door – dragons were not allowed in the forge. He then quickly left, after wishing Gobber a good night, which was not returned.

When he delivered the weapons to the Wepplers and Vlahakis, they only took them and slammed the door in his face (even insulting him – saying that it's an honour to be working in the forge in the first place, since he's pathetic at everything). Their looks of disappointment and disgust made Hiccup want to shrink into the ground and disappear.

Toothless of course tried to stand up for him, but Hiccup refused to allow him to put up a good fight, regardless of how much those Vikings were asking for it. All Toothless could do was comfort Hiccup once they had left, and glare daggers at the Vikings behind Hiccup when he wasn't looking.

"Here we are bud!" Hiccup said, smiling. "The Hoffersons. Let's just get this out of – ouch!" He yelled. He had gotten the bag (the one that was hidden in the forge) out of his satchel, and when trying to remove the contents, it slashed him straight across the arm.

"That really... hurts..."

He lifted his sleeve up and saw the mark that was made. Hiccup stared at the blood that ran from the cut, feeling a strange sense of relief flooding through him. The blood slowly ran down his arm, nearing his elbow. All Hiccup could do was put down the remainder weapons, and sit cross-legged on the grass, following his blood's every move.

It was mesmerising, to see his life gently flow out of him, his very essence leave his skin and trail down his limbs. He gently rested his arm onto the grass and watched as the blood ran off his arm and onto the grass, reminding him of dew. In a weird sort of way, it was quite beautiful.

Toothless roared at him, and pushed his head against Hiccup's shoulder, shaking him, but nothing worked. Hiccup didn't even seem to acknowledge Toothless' existence. Toothless grabbed the handle of the bag Hiccup had seconds before it cut him, and dragged the contents out with his teeth.

A brand-new axe – for Astrid.

Toothless widened his mouth, preparing to plasma-blast the axe to pieces.

"Hmm?" Hiccup muttered, drawing his attention away from his blood to satisfy his growing curiosity over the peculiar purple glow coming from behind him.

"Wait... Toothless? Toothless, what are...? Wait – no! Toothless, no!" Hiccup said, getting up and sprinting towards him. As soon as Hiccup got up, Toothless swallowed his blast, thankful Hiccup was back to his senses. Toothless nudged him gently in the chest as a greeting, as if to say 'Welcome back'.

Toothless motioned to Hiccup's arm, which had a few more scars than the one he had just accidentally made.

"Ah – the arm. Well, uh, Toothless, this was sorta what I was trying to... avoid. You see-"

"Hiccup; there you are!" Astrid's parents said, running up to him from the opposite direction of their house. Hiccup immediately slid his sleeve back down, and folded one cut end of the sleeve with the other, hiding the cut from immediate sight.

"Oh, Mr and Mrs Hofferson!" Hiccup greeted politely, a bead of sweat trickling down his face. "I didn't expect you to be out at this time of night."

"We love to see the night sky." Mrs Hofferson said calmly to him. Hiccup felt at ease listening to her.

"Why aren't you... insulting me, or calling me 'worthless' like everyone else?" He asked meekly. Mrs Hofferson went over and hugged him.

"Besides the fact that we couldn't do that to you, Astrid would murder us!" She said, laughing softly.

"Wait – do you know where she is?" Hiccup asked, hopefully. His smile got wiped off his face, when Astrid's dad denied knowing where she was (they actually didn't know).

"Oh..." He mumbled. "I hope she's doing alright... Anyway, here's your weapons, and... and this." He said, giving Astrid's parents the remainder of the weapons, and the bag with Astrid's gift in.

"It's her birthday in two weeks, and I don't know the next time I can see you, so please give this to Astrid and let her know it's from me."

Astrid's mother gently took the axe out of the bag.

"It's beautiful!" She said, in awe of how magnificent the axe really was.

The handle was a comfortable leather one, dyed pale blue (which must have been incredibly hard, as it would be difficult to gather the ingredients for dye the colour of the sky on a cloudless day – especially ingredients for such a pale, gorgeous colour).

The blade itself was a splendid silver, glistening with every swing. The Gronckle iron looked so sturdy and sharp that neither Mr or Mrs Hofferson wanted to touch the blade, for fear they would get a cut so deep they would die on the spot.

Speaking of which, Hiccup's cut was starting to bleed through his fabric. He needed to get it treated immediately.

He grasped his injury with the opposite hand behind his back, and said to the Hoffersons "If, um... that's all, then I'll... um... go now."

"Did you make this yourself?" Mrs Hofferson asked.

"Yeah." Hiccup answered. "Why?"

"The craftsmanship... It's amazing!" Mr Hofferson said.

"Um... thanks!" Hiccup said, pleased to get some positive feedback. He'd spent over two months on that axe, and was very proud of it. "I need to go now though, so bye!" He said, turning his back (and his arms) quickly around, facing away from them, and started to walk off.

Mrs Hofferson grabbed his injured arm to stop him before he left, pulling on his cut. Hiccup grimaced in pain, and focused all his efforts in not making any sound of pain.

"Hey." Mrs Hofferson said softly to Hiccup. "You can always talk to us if you need to. We'll be here for you whenever you need."

"I..." Hiccup froze. She was being so kind to him!

"T – thanks. I... I will."

And with that, he wrenched his arm from her grasp, shot onto Toothless and took off back home before his dad yelled at him for being late, not realising a bit of blood had gotten onto Mrs Hofferson's palm.

And that's the next chapter! For people who are a bit confused, this section takes place a week after the last chapter (the panic attack), so it's been about a week and three days since Snotlout proclaimed himself to be the dragon trainer.

I was always planning to have the Hoffersons be Hiccup's support.

Actually, that's a lie, I meant for Gobber to be the emotional support, but when I wrote about Astrid leaving that letter for her parents, I decided to change it so that the Hoffersons supported Hiccup instead. I thought that it would be nice to have some people in Berk who would choose their child over the chief. And since Astrid's not currently here, her parents have a child-like hole to fill, which gives another reason for them to be so doting and affectionate towards Hiccup (also they know Astrid has a crush on Hiccup).

But for a while I meant for the Hoffersons to be Hiccup's crutch, and support him through this. I also planned for Fishlegs to take part in supporting him, but not in such a big way (as he would be too scared to take up a more active – and noticeable – role in case Stoick ever found out). That part should happen soon.

I should hopefully get out another chapter before the end of winter break – but no promises!

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊