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Astrid rolled off of Stormfly, drawing her axe. As she did it, there was a popping sound, and the sensation of it in her left knee. It didn’t hurt, but when she tried rising, she couldn’t . Her knee wouldn’t work!
“Dammit!” Astrid cried. Still on the ground, unable to rise out of her crouch, she blocked the sword that came at her. “Fishlegs, Snotlout! A little help!” Stormfly was out of shots, but she was shooting spines at their enemies. Snotlout and Fishlegs flew in low to the deck of the Dragon Hunter ship where Astrid was pinned, dragons shooting at the Dragon Hunters that began to surround her. They knew something had happened, and so were going for her while she was weak.
“What happened?” Snotlout asked, landing on the ship. “It looked like you had it, Astrid.”
Astrid tried getting up, but she had to use Stormfly for support. Her knee felt all wrong somehow, and now it was starting to hurt. It burned and ached all at once, on the left side of her knee.
“I must have rolled wrong,” Astrid said. The rest of the Dragon Riders had cleared the ship and were landing. Hiccup noticed that something was wrong and came over.
“Astrid, what is it?” he asked.
“My left knee,” she answered. “It popped, and now it’s really starting to hurt.”
“Well, let’s free these dragons and then get back to the Edge to get you checked out,” Hiccup said. “Can you fly?”
“I’ll need help getting on Stormfly,” Astrid admitted, feeling weak saying it. Her knee just wasn’t working right though.
“I can help with that,” Fishlegs told her.
Astrid gave him a nod of thanks. She then waited above deck while everyone went below to free the dragons, leaning on Stormfly the whole while. It was starting to feel like someone was pouring Changewing acid into her knee, and she didn’t know how she was still standing.
Once the dragons were freed and flying away, Stormfly crouched down and Fishlegs picked Astrid up and hefted her onto her back. Astrid’s cheeks flushed red in embarrassment. She’d never needed help mounting her dragon before. Then again, she’d never hurt one of her knees before either.
The pain grew worse as they flew, and she swore she could feel her knee swelling up. She leaned down to unbuckle the pad she kept around her knee, pulled it off and stuffed it in her saddlebag. There. That felt a little better at least.
They gathered in the clubhouse after getting back to Dragon’s Edge, and Astrid needed help getting down off of Stormfly too. Hiccup supported her as she limped over to a chair in the clubhouse and sat down with a grunt. Another chair was brought over and her leg put up on it.
Hiccup sat on another chair and gently took of Astrid’s boot. Then he was attempting to roll up her pant leg, but Astrid shook her head at that. It hurt too much to do that, her knee probably too swollen.
“Alright, alright. Can I borrow one of your daggers?” Hiccup asked.
Astrid unsheathed a dagger and handed it to him. Hiccup took it and began to cut off her pant leg just above her knee. Then he was able to yank off the clothing. What was revealed was not a pretty sight. The knee was swollen to three times its size and black and purple with bruising.
“That looks bad,” Hiccup said, concern rife in his voice. “Fishlegs? What do you think?”
“Hmm…” Fishlegs gave it a very gentle poke, and Astrid winced. It was like she could feel the muscles in her thigh and calf tightening to try to protect the injury. “You said you heard it pop?”
“And felt it.” Fishlegs scratched his head. “I think you tore something. This is definitely beyond my expertise. We have to get you to Gothi.”
“Fuck,” Astrid muttered. “The last thing I’m in the mood for is another flight.” And besides, she didn’t want it to be torn. Tearing something in the knee could sometimes put that leg out of commission for life. Hopefully the tear wasn’t bad enough to do that, but they wouldn’t know until she saw Gothi. She wanted to cry out of pain and frustration. She was here like this just because she’d done a roll wrong. Stupid! That was so stupid! Astrid had pictured herself getting injured because of someone else, not because of a mistake she made.
“Astrid, it’ll be okay.” Hiccup put his hand gently on her thigh. “You can fly with me if you want.”
Astrid nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.”
Gothi inspected Astrid’s leg with a finger on her chin. She poked at it a little bit, making Astrid wince. Then, she walked over to her sand patch and wrote something with her staff. Fishlegs peered at it.
“Yeah, you tore something in your knee,” he said. “You’ll have to stay off of it for about two months.”
“Two months?!” Astrid cried. Gods, that sounded like forever. What was she supposed to do for two months if she couldn’t train or fight or fly?
“We’ll keep you occupied, Astrid,” Hiccup told her. “I promise.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re going to be okay.”
“But what if I can’t ever fight again?” Astrid asked, feeling on the verge of tears. It felt like someone had stuffed wool soaked in acid in her knee. How would that pain ever go away? She’d never been injured like this before.
Gothi scribbled in her sand patch. Fishlegs looked at it. Astrid waited with dread for him to speak.
“We’ll find out in two months,” he said. “In the mean time, put ice on it, chew willow bark for pain, and stay off of it.”
“Dammit,” Astrid muttered under her breath. She’d been swearing a lot more since her injury, but who wouldn’t in her condition? She didn’t want to have to wait two months to figure out if she could ever fight again. She wanted to find out now. But she could understand having to wait. Gothi couldn’t figure that out while she still hadn’t recovered. And recovery was going to be hard.
Astrid went into her house on a pair of crutches. She was still getting used to them, and had almost fallen, especially while limping her way up the steps, but she had denied any help. She wanted to be able to do all this on her own.
Her parents fawned over her and made sure she got in bed properly, a pillow under her knee to keep it elevated. Hiccup came up when she was chewing some willow bark, as the pain had started getting bad.
“How are you doing, Astrid?”
“It hurts,” she told him honestly. She spat out the willow bark into a bucket by the bed for just that reason. “This just… sucks.”
“Yeah,” Hiccup agreed. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without you fighting by my side.”
“You have everyone else,” Astrid told him, shifting so that she was sitting up straighter. That pulled on her knee and she unintentionally gave a cry. She could handle pain. She could.
“Yeah, but you’re my wingman,” Hiccup said. “Always are.”
“Appoint Snotlout,” Astrid said. “He’s getting better at it. Believe me.”
Hiccup nodded. “Alright. It’ll be hard running missions from Berk, but-”
“Just go back to the Edge then.”
Hiccup put his hand on Astrid’s shin. “Astrid I promised I would keep you occupied,” he told her. “And I will.”
Astrid smiled at him. “You’re a great boyfriend.”
Hiccup leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips. “Well, I try to be.”
As the two months went by, Hiccup did indeed keep her occupied. He played games with her, taught her some art techniques, read with her, talked with her. He did all this when he wasn’t running missions against the Dragon Hunters. When he was, Astrid felt lonely, but she wouldn’t tell him that. She understood his duties, and sometimes because of them he had to leave her alone. He all but slept in her bed some nights. (Of course her parents let him know when it was time to leave, but he would stay as long as he could.)
Astrid found that her injury made her tired a lot though. She napped frequently and slept longer… when the pain didn’t keep her up, that is. Sometimes it did that, and she’d feel irritable and grumpy the next day. The willow bark was helping with the pain though, and the ice was bringing down the swelling. She didn’t move around all that much, even with the crutches. She didn’t really leave the house at all. Gothi had told her to rest, and usually she was terrible at doing that, but her knee demanded it. Sometimes, when she moved it, she could feel the tear, could feel that there was something disconnected inside.
Every day Astrid dreaded what Gothi would say when the two months were up, what she would tell her about continuing her career as a warrior and Dragon Rider. She didn’t want it to end, and worst of all because of a stupid move on her part. That would just hurt her even more in the long run, knowing that this had been her fault.
Gothi came to visit her every week to track the progress of her recovery. She wouldn’t tell her much except to keep doing what she was doing. That was frustrating, but Astrid had to recover, so she would do it. She would recover better than anybody! That was one reason she was mostly staying in bed. If she could help her recovery in any way, she would do it. She didn’t want to be told she couldn’t fight or fly a dragon anymore.
Once the two months were up, Gothi came to visit her again. Hiccup came with her, as he understood Gothi’s hand signals, and he wanted to be there to support Astrid no matter what Gothi had to say.
Astrid held Hiccup’s hand as Gothi examined her leg. The swelling was nonexistent now, and the pain was mostly gone. It was still there though, enough to bother her, enough to keep her up at night, but not nearly as bad as it had been. It had faded to an ache instead of a constant burning and throbbing.
After examining her knee, Gothi made hand signals at Hiccup. Hiccup’s shoulder sagged in relief, and Astrid waited expectantly to hear what Gothi had to say.
“You’ll be able to fight again,” he told her. “Not for a few months, but you’ll be able to.”
Astrid smiled wide. She hugged Hiccup, almost felt like hugging Gothi.
“Thank you,” she told Gothi. “Thank you, thank you.” She had been so worried that this injury would put her out of commission for life, but it wouldn’t. A few more months would be nothing. She could do this.
“You can walk around on it,” Hiccup translated as Gothi smiled at Astrid and continued making hand signals. “But be careful. It’ll be weak.”
“I can deal with that,” Astrid told her. She smiled at both Gothi and Hiccup. “Thank you. The both of you.”
Astrid’s knee would sometimes click when she walked, and it hurt a bit, but she could deal with that. It was hardly close to the pain that’d she’d had when first dealing with this injury.
And as time passed, the pain faded, and she could do more with her leg. After a few months, she was back to flying dragons and fighting, like nothing had even happened.
But something had happened. At night after missions she would have to ice the knee, as the swelling would come back, along with the pain. It wasn’t fully healed, and Astrid wondered if it ever would be, but she could still use it. And that was a blessing from Frigga herself.