#witch!astrid

[itsasumbrella]

“A Dream Potion” from the Chapter 3 of Wicked Game called “Unprotected”

“Astrid couldn’t blame his frustration. Humans are not used to live bonded with anyone. She has always been bonded with her coven, although not as limisted as she currently was. She had the need to apologize, but her pride stopped her. Hiccup was as guilty as she was and she was the one who had to pretend to be something that she wasn’t. He at least was playing at home.

Astrid take the small bottle full of dream potion from her saddlebag and put iton the table. Hiccup looked at her with suspicion.

“Have you find out a way to kill me with poison without you being harmed?” Hiccup commented with a sarcastic tone that Astrid hated with all her being.

“It’s the solution of your problems,” she picked the bottle. “But it think I’m going to give it to your dragon, I’m certain he’s more grateful than you.”

Hiccup crossed his arms, still reluctant.

“Solution for which problems?” he asked.

“Your dad has made clear that untill you are not recovered from your insomnia, you cannot get closed to a dragon,” she shaked the bottle. “Well, maybe getting to sleep ‘magically’ we can solve the problem.”

“And what do you win for helping me?” Hiccup asked.

Astrid smiled maliciously.

“You will own me one after this,” she said with fake innocence. “I’m sure that once you get sleep everyone will be happier. Maybe you will become less moron thanks to me.””

Illustration from Chapter 3 from Wicked Game is up!

Hiccup and Astrid are in Gobber’s forge having an argument… AGAIN. What a surprise! However, as you can see, this time the situation is a bit different because Astrid is helping Hiccup, but let’s summarize what happens in this chapter and how they ended in this situation.

So, if you remember the summary of Chapter 2, Astrid is now living among humans, hiding her magical identity by working with Gothi as her pupil. Hiccup forced her to erase a spell that made everyone love her and things are not getting easy for Astrid now. Gothi doesn’t like her, but no one can blame the healer, because Astrid is rude, constanly questioning her orders and she thinks she’s cleverer than anyone else.

But Gothi is not the only one who has issues with Astrid. Ruffnut hates her. A lot. She’s trying to make her life imposible, by setting traps to her. Fortunately, Astrid is cleverer than Ruffnut, so she usually predicts her sick pranks. However, things are getting complicated when Ruffnut starts using dragons against her. She has no proof that Ruffnut is the author of the dragons attacks and Hiccup starts getting annoyed with her.

Until one day she’s attacked by a burning Nightmare and she can’t react in time to protect herself. Ruffnut appears from nowhere to help her, worried that she might have crossed the line. Astrid is hurt, she has an ugly bruise in her ribs and her clothes are burned, but Ruffnut gets surprised when she finds out that her skin is not burned. Witches cannot get burned, so Astrid modifies Ruffnut’s memory for her magical identity states safe.

Then, while accompaning her to Gothi, Ruffnut explains that she didn’t like her because she has stolen her place as Gothi’s pupil. Ruff doesn’t want to get married and being Gothi’s pupil means that she can be single and take Gothi’s place as the village’s healer one day. She woulnd’t need to be dependent to a man and she could do whatever she wanted. Of course, Astrid ruined her plans when she appeared from nowhere.

They get to Gothi’s house and they find Hiccup and Stoick there. Astrid gasps when she finds out that Hiccup has an ugly burn and bruise in her ribs and she realises that he’s hurt because of her. Stoick is furious with his son and they have a huge argument while Hiccup is cured by Gothi. He thinks that Hiccup’s insomnia is the main reason why he got hurt and fell while he was flying Toothless and his state is that bad that he didn’t even realise that a dragon hit him.  He bans Hiccup to do anything related with dragons: he cannot fly Toothless, attend the dragons in the stable or teach in the Academy. Hiccup gets furious with his dad, of course.

After being cured by Gothi and strangely befriending with Ruffnut, Astrid knows that if Hiccup got hurt it’s because the attack she suffered from the Nightmare. She needs to make sure that Hiccup doesn’t kill himself while they are bonded and maybe the first solution to his problems is actually helping him to get cured from his insomnia. She prepares the dream potion that she holds in her hand in the drawing.

She finds him working in the forge. They argue when Hiccup finds out that she is the reason why he cannot fly anymore but he’s surprised when Astrid gives him the dream potion to help him sleep. Hiccup is grateful but Astrid claims that she doesn’t do it for him.

And that night, for the first time in long time, Hiccup sleeps placidly.

As I said, this is just a summary. If you know Spanish, you can read Wicked Game in AO3 and FF.Net. If you have questions about this AU or the plot in the general, I’ll more than happy to answer them. I know that the fanarts are not extraordinary, but I’m not an artist. I do my best and I’m happy with the result. For this drawing I used watercolor pencils and Prismacolour pencils. By the way, if you want to see really good fanart of this fanfic, @poppysfanworld has done incredible fanarts of it. Follow her and give her some love!

[itsasumbrella]

“Innocent soul” from Chapter 4 of Wicked Game called “The Pact”

“The second victim of the plague was a child called Brenna. Her mother, who was six months pregnant, brought her very distressed and concerned that her other children could have got sick too.

Fortunately, Brenna was the only one who fell ill.

At the beginning, the kid had mild symptomatology and Astrid was convinced that she would recover soon. However,

she got worse overnight. She couldn’t handle any food and she was vominting blood. The child, too young to understand what was happening, was constanly crying and Astrid was forced to make her sleep so she wouldn’t suffer.

The death of Brenna affected Astrid more than she would have liked to admit. She was able to revive her once, but she failed at the second time. Brenna passed in her arms. Astrid didn’t cry, but she was in shock when she felt how the soul of that small creature abandoned that little and burning body which was full of sweat.”

This drawing was a bit challenging and I’m not very happy with the result, mostly because of the coloring. Brenna, actually, is younger than she looks here. She was supposed to be around a year and half and two, but I don’t know why, I thought she was three while I was drawing it. So yeah, this child is actually younger than she looks here.

So, what happens in this chapter? Well, winter has come. Astrid has begun dragon training after Hiccup’s insistence and Ruffnut’s advice. She’s not very happy, but she knows that if she wants to continue living discreetly in Berk she needs to do these kind of things. Hiccup finds out that Astrid is just 20 years old and he’s surprised to be older than her (he’s 22 on February 29th). They talked about dragons and flying and Hiccup askes her if she misses flying on her own.

Of course she does.

During winter, a plague strikes Berk. Big part of Berk’s population gets sick, Stoick and Gothi among then. Hiccup and Astrid are forced to take charge to affront the plague and they enforce quarantine regimes. Astrid gets really mad with the vikings, mostly because their lack of hygiene that spreads the epidemic faster than it should. Ruffnut helps Astrid to deal with the situation with the patients while Hiccup manages with the rest of Berk. Seeing Hiccup as a leader surprises Astrid, mostly because of his leadership skills. She starts thinking that Hiccup is not the idiot she was thinking he was.

Nevertheless, things get really complicated when one of the patients, Haran Gormdsen, finds out that she’s a witch. This man has been in vegetative state for many years, but he actually was under a spell made from Le Fey, the queen of the coven which Astrid belonged to. Astrid accidentaly broke the spell (aparentely, the spell would be broken if he listens a witch lullaby and Astrid did it while she was taking care a kid how was beside him). She finds out that this man was a witch hunter many years ago, after witches stole his daugther. Astrid knows this witch (Rosethorn is her name) because she belongs to her former coven. Astrid kills this man with her magic, not before telling him that his daughter is a witch too.

Not long after the murder of this man, Brenna dies in Astrid’s arms. Astrid is really affected by her death, frustrated for her inability to do more for this child. Hiccup consolates her (he doesn’t know that Astrid killed the old man, he believes, as everyone else, that Haran Gormdsen died because of the plague) and he’s grateful for the effort she has made for Berk. The plague would have killed the whole population if it wasn’t for her guidance. For that same reason, Hiccup offers her to stay in Berk after breaking the bond, to replace Gothi when she passes. Astrid is grateful by his offer, but she has no plans to stay in Berk after breaking the bond, as she has her own projects. What’s more, she’s a warrior, not a healer. She doesn’t want to be stuck as that.

Hiccup makes her go to get some rest and Astrid realizes that she has a strange feeling in her stomach everytime Hiccup smiles at her.

For this drawing I used watercolor pencils for the background and Prismacolors for Astrid and Brenna. As I said, the coloring is not my best, but also I think I’ve improved a lot with the movement and expressions of the characters. I’ve not done a background because I was feeling lazy, so I’ve learned the lesson that I shouldn’t be that lazy next time. The drawing for chapter 5 will be published soon and I think it will be the last one I will publish before my holidays. Mostly because I need to finish chapter 24 before leaving to the US. Hope this drawings and summaries are helpful for you all to understand better this AU and to know a bit more about my story.

If you have any questions about the story I’ll be more than happy to answer them :) You can find more fanarts of Wicked Game under the hastag #wickedgame or #itsasumbrella in my tumblr’s Archive. Also, never forget that one of my favourite people of the galaxy, @poppysfanworld , has done few wonderful illustrations of Wicked Game. Follow her and give her some love!

[itsasumbrella]

“First encounter” from the Chapter 1 of Wicked Game called “The Witch”.

“The woman did a gesture of pain and she hissed. She blinked twice and they look at each other. Hiccup was fascinated. Her eyes were blue, like the summer sky. At the beginning, she observed him disoriented, but the anger appeared quickly in her face. She said something in a language that he didn’t understand. His incomprehension annoyed her even more. She gave an elbow in his ribs and she hit him with his knee on his stomach.”

So this is the first meeting of Hiccup and Astrid in Wicked Game. Hiccup is the heir of Berk and it’s well known as the Dragon Master. He suffers insomnia because he’s under lots of pressure and he has anxiety because he cannot stand the idea of disappointing his dad and his people. The first film of How to train your dragon is canon in here, but Astrid has never been in the events of killing the Red Death. The story starts 7 years after killing that dragon, so Hiccup is 22 in here. The events of HTTYD 2 and THW never happened.

In this story, Astrid is a witch. Hiccup and Toothless save her from being killed by her own coven. However, the Queen of the coven —Le Fey— curses Hiccup and Astrid to be magically bonded. What’s the meaning of that? They cannot be separated by more than four or five miles (six – eight kilometres); if one of them gets hurt the other one will too, so that means that if one of them dies the other one will too.

Astrid and Hiccup meet for the first time in a beach  which is in the other end of Berk. They have never seen each other and they are not happy with the new situation. After being expelled from her coven, Astrid realizes that she cannot fly on hew own anymore. Witches are gifted creatures of Freyja, but they can only fly when they are in a coven. Astrid almost kills Hiccup, but when he explains her that they are bonded she confesses that “it’s better to be dead than be bonded with a human”. Hiccup, annoyed with this rude and impossible woman, leaves her on her own. However, he passes out as son as he gets to Berk, as a consequence of the great distance between him and Astrid.

At the morning, Hiccup believes that everything was a bad dream. However, when his dad comes to announce him that Gothi has a new pupil, he seems that his and the village’s attitude are too euphoric. When he meets this new woman, Hiccup’s heart stops. He knows this woman who smiles at him like the devil she is. She shakes his hand and Hiccup recives a electrical shock as a warning from the witch he’s bonded with.

He knows that Astrid will ruin him for the rest of his days.

This is the summary of the first chapter of Wicked Game. I’ll be uploading a drawing for every chapter when I can with a small summary of the chapter. This is the only way I have to share my fic with the people who cannot read Wicked Game in Spanish, because the fic is too long to translate (right now there are 19 chapters and it has more than 230,400 words and it’s far from being finished) so if you have questions don’t mind to ask them! As you can see, I’m not an artist. The colouring is a bit awful, but I’m terrible at colouring. But I do what I can, this a way to practice my drawing technique too. I used watercolor pencil here, but because the paper I didn’t dare to use water here. However, if you recommend me other methods to paint or you can give me any advises, I’m more than happy to listen.

Remember that one my favourite persons of the world, @poppysfanworld, has done fanarts of Wicked Game too. Go and check on her Tumblr, because she’s a cinammon roll who deserves love and recognition!

If you want to read Wicked Game in Spanish you can find it on FF.net and AO3. My account name in both sites is ItsasUmbrella too.

[itsasumbrella]

“First argument” from the Chapter 2 of Wicked Game called “The Agreement”

‘The queen of my coven cursed you, remember?’ Astrid snorted. ‘The coven was going to kill me and you appeared in the the worst moment. You interrupted the sacrifice ritual.’

‘Excuse me? I was trying to save you!”. Hiccup claimed.

‘No one asked you to do it! I had everything under control’. The witch said with poisonous voice.

‘Oh yeah? In which part? In the one in which they were beating you up? Or maybe when you were writhing in pain?’

So, this is the second illustration related to Wicked Game, this time focused on the chapter 2.

They are having an argument in the middle of one of many forests of Berk. Hiccup is furious and you can see that Astrid is containing herself, but she’s even angrier than him.

What happens in this chapter? Well, if you have read the summary of chapter 1, Hiccup finds out that Astrid is a witch and he has been curse by a powerful witch called Le Fey to be bonded with her. If one of them gets hurt or dies, the other one will suffer too. The other night, Hiccup run away from Astrid, hoping that everything was a product of a bad dream. However, everything was very real and Astrid is now in Berk, hiding her magical identity under a human cover. She has manipulated everyone with her magic and now she’s Gothi’s pupil and she will live with her until they find out how to solve this problem.

They argue. A lot. They are super different and they hate each other. Hiccup is afraid that Astrid will harm Berk and Astrid just wants to break the bond as soon as possible to leave this bloody island.

Nevertheless, they know they have to work together. After threatening each other, Hiccup lets Astrid to stay in Berk under some conditions: she will break the enchanment she used over everyone to make them like her. Astrid accepts relunctaly but she gives her conditions too: Hiccup cannot use the bond against her and, of course, falling in love it’s absolutely forbidden.

Hiccup looks at her like… why would I fell in love with you, witch?

They give their word. They will break the bond, they won’t fall in love and Astrid won’t hurt any human or dragon from Berk. This is the beginning of an adventure and a tragic story… but they still don’t know about it.

For this drawing I used watercolor pencils for the background and Prismacolors for them. I’m pretty proud of this drawing. I redraw it like… 3 times? Thanks to my drawing teacher now they look proportionated and I’m super proud with the background forest. I’m not an artist, but I’m improving little by little. The drawing for chapter 3 will be published soon. Hope you like my story, I know it’s not like reading the fic, but as I don’t have the chance to translate it properly this the best way I have to share Wicked Game with english-speaker HTTYD fandom.

If you have any questions about the story I’ll be more than happy to answer them :) You can find more fanarts of Wicked Game under the hastag #wickedgame or #itsasumbrella in my tumblr’s Archive. Also, never forget that the greatest person of the universe, @poppysfanworld, has done few wonderful illustrations of Wicked Game. Follow her and give her some love. 

You can find Wicked Game in Spanish in FF.Net and in AO3.

[itsasumbrella]

So, yesterday I was sick, so instead of writing I’ve decided to draw because I missed my paiting class. This is Hiccup Haddock III from my fic Wicked Game. He’s 22, he’s the pride and heir of Berk and he’s terribly tired. In this picture, he’s working on translating a book and he’s not been sleeping well, mostly because he’s organising his wedding too. Unfortunately for you all, Astrid is not his fiancé because his marriage was arranged by his father and Berk’s Council. Astrid is a witch in this fic and she has been magically bonded with Hiccup by a series of unfortunate events. The bond supposes a great danger for both of them, mostly because they cannot be separated farther than few miles, when one of them gets hurt the other one will too, if one dies the other one will too and they have a super strong attraction to each other. For that reason, Astrid is forced to live among humans, specifically as Gothi’s assistant. 

Hiccup and Astrid really hated each other at first, but now they are pretty close friends and also lovers who enjoy sex for fun. However, Hiccup just realised that he’s deeply in love with Astrid and now that’s a huge problem. How are they supposed to break a bond which is getting tighter everyday if he’s in love with her?

If you read in Spanish you can give Wicked Game a try. You can find it in FF.Net and AO3.

Also, if you want to see good fanart of Wicked Game, @poppysfanworld has made glorious illustrations! Go and follow her!