Cave In

Chapter 1: Rise at Dawn, Be Called A Wimp

Finally writing it! I hope you guys enjoy this short chapter, as all my chapters normally start short, but build up. Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

NOTE: Most of this chapter is purely guesses and me making crap up, as far as I know anyway. I simply hope to show more on the life of Berk's most fierce hellion.

DISCLAIMER: I Do Not own HTTYD or any monetary products that are under it's ownership, I do own the plot line and the OC's used.

Yawning the golden bob of hair rose from the fur sheets of the wooden framed bed. And with it rose a rather messy haired Astrid. Mumbling incoherently the blond warrior pulled the wooden come off the oak dresser near her bed, the two former objects having been lifted off a passing Roman ship when her mother had raided it back when she was young, now it was hers.

Slowly she felt the smooth and aged piece of wood as she moved it through her her golden locks before setting it down and then pulling the short bandana around her head, letting her bangs and the part of her hair that covered her eye flow over the strap of fabric before strapping on the rest of her weapons and the discarded leather armor laying around on the floor.

Dawn, Astrid mused as she saw it was still dark out. Most of the village would be asleep by now, but in her opinion, and her fathers, if you didn't rise before the sun, then you were behind the schedule of the world. For she had been taught that the sun told you it was time to work harder, not start working. Or waking for that matter.

Sighing she carefully slid of her room, careful to not make a sound as she moved down the stairs and was nearly to the door before a voice spoke up. "Going somewhere?".

Astrid must have jumped high enough to touch the roof of her families small house, for the uproar of laughter coming from her father as he sat at the table, sharpening his favorite axe, seemed to point in that direction. "Sorry" he said as she glared at him, though it was a soft glare with no real harm behind it. "Didn't mean to scare you..." he said innocently, but he wasn't fooling her.

There were many things that made Sigrum Hofferson what he was, but lying and making it look convincing were not part of him. That was certain. "Uh huh..." she said with a smiling spark in her ice blue eyes as she grabbed her pack by the door. She knew he absolutely loved making her jump when she wasn't paying attention.

Standing at six feet tall, maybe a bit taller, Sigrum Hofferson was a decently tall viking and was one of the more 'Active' vikings in the raids and battles that were constantly fought, both on their own soil and in foreign lands. He had dark black hair, braided at the ends. A nicely tanned skin and massive build and a love of weapons and hard training that rivaled her own. It was because of this man that she had become the weapon she was now.

Smiling, said man nodded his head as he put the axe down and started on a very nice dagger set that he normally had framed over his bed, but brought it down to sharpen and clean every so often.

"Whatever..." she said at last, giving up trying to get a rise out of him as she slung her heavy pack over her back, weighing nearly thirty pounds with all the weapons and survival gear stowed in it. "If mom asks..." she said as she stared walking out the door she had just opened.

"You went to ride dragons with Hiccup" he said casually without looking up from his task. Her mother had long since been angry at him for taking her daughter from her, putting her in dragon training and training her to be a good warrior, but she had seemed to calm down a bit after hearing of how she was seeing 'That nice Haddock boy', making her the third person to probably ever not look down on the poor guy. The scar that ran from his chin to his right temple crinkled as he grinned crookedly at her. "And how is young Hiccup? Treating my daughter well, I hope" he said.

Astrid felt her face heat up a bit. "Uh....we're fine...I-I mean we-w-I..I am fine...perfectly fine" she said, stuttering the more the grin on her father's face grew, somehow he just always managed to undue her when he talked with her about the brown haired boy.

He chuckled. "Good...now go on and get some practice in, the sun will be up in a few hours" he said, still working hard at his task.

Sighing, Astrid left her house with relief and headed over to the pin set up in the backyard. Inside was her Deadly Nadder, which she had named Nad. Both as a nickname and to honor her grandfather, Nadick the crusher, famous for his use of powerful battle hammers, having smashed dozens of men upon the battlefield, before his fall in a battle, who's name escaped her at the moment.

Nad was exactly like every other Nadder, with blue skin and yellow and orange highlights. The only difference was that he had a brown saddle strapped to his back, with small bags and clips hooked on the sides, for various purposes. She scratched the Deadly Nadder on the side of the head, and the dragon let out a appreciative growl as it lowered towards the ground, allowing the dragon rider to easily get on the saddle bag, which had taken days to get on the first time they had tried.

She smiled as Nad prepared to head for the skyline. They had come far since she had first ridden him during the battle with the Red Death only a few months ago. Before he had barely cooperated with her when Hiccup wasn't around and seemed to always try to hide his saddle and nearly set her mother on fire the first time he had entered his pin, but after months of patience and hard work, the former being something she had little to no experience in, had rewarded her with this...

Giving the dragon the barest of tugs on the saddle straps, and then Nad shot off into the air, both his rider and himself careful to keep quiet as they soared over the village, heading for a certain forest that was to the far right of the village. Astrid watched in awe as she soared above the clouds, the faintest of a shadow as the dragon glided over the sea, heading right over the water before heading down towards the ground, where there was a decent sized clearing right next to the shore of Berk. If one was to look close enough, they could see cuts and broken limbs on the trees, both old and recent. There was also a bit of a trail, suggesting that the clearing was used on a regular basis.

Landing on the ground, Nad once again lowered to the ground, allowing his master to land on the ground with minimal difficulty, a testament to Astrid's hard work with the Deadly Nadder. Once Nad had allowed her off, Astrid had reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of small axes, the size of half her forearm.

Having long since gotten used to this, Nad simply dropped to the ground near the seashore and began to groom himself as he watched Astrid start her daily practices.

Each morning was the same, or at least for the first few hours. They would wake up, fly over here and then Astrid would do physical exersise, such as push ups and climbing trees, in full armor, before she began drilling with throwing axes, knives, even a rare set of throwing stars that had been given to her by her father, who had once traveled all over the world before returning to Berk, ready to finally settle down. Once she was done with those, she began practicing with larger axes and short swords, long swords, spears, large daggers and finally a bow. After that she began to do more physical exercises. Then she returned to the trees to gather up her throwing weapons

By the time Astrid had finished, she was soaked in sweat and felt fully awake now as the sun was halfway to the top of the sky. Walking over to Nad, she pulled a large cloth from one of the bags and began to wipe the sweat from her arms, legs and hair before washing said hair in the sea, then she returned the towel to it's pouch and patted Nad on the head.

Moving in one swift motion, the second viking to ever ride a Night Fury swung herself onto Nad's saddle and patted him some more. "Ok boy, let's get to work" she then held tight to the saddle as Nad shot up into the air once again and began to fly past the trees, showing the practice Astrid had put in her dragon, as he weaved through the woods, under the tree line.

They did this for a good bit longer, working on Nad's speed and trying to strengthen their teamwork abilities, even if they were only second to Toothless and Hiccup, and that was likely to never change, but that wouldn't stop Astrid from trying to be the best.

Suddenly though, a large black form flew over her head as she had Nad try and do a triple spin before diving back towards the ground. Stopping the move in mid sequence, Astrid turned around to glare at the person responsible, only to find it was Hiccup, looking a bit awed as he floated there, Toothless staring at her too, but his emotions were as unreadable as the blabbering of Fishlegs when he saw a big feast in the great feasting hall.

Sighing she flicked some hair out of her face and smiled at him. "You couldn't have waited to talk to me before I was done?" she teased as he laughed.

"I just wanted to know if you wanted to race around the island once, but if your too tired...." he said, his teasing tone made her eyes harden.

"Ohh no you don't!" Astrid growled out. "I can race you! Any time, any place and in any shape!" she said determinedly as Nad roared his support as well.

Before he could stop it from slipping out, Hiccup said, "We'll you are in great shape" he immediately hoped he hadn't said the wrong thing again, but to his relief, Astrid seemed to be blushing.

Carefully, and with great care, Astrid guided Nad over to him so that she was within inches of his mouth. "You know something Hiccup..." she said playfully as her lips hovered over his.

Barely keeping from just crashing his lips into hers, Hiccup gulped. "What?" he asked tentatively.

She smiled fiendishly before gently kicking Nad, unseen by Hiccup since his eyes were closed, and just before she took off she called. "Your gonna lose the race!" and then she was flying up the side of the mountain.

Cursing himself for falling for the same trick once again, Hiccup held onto Toothless as the dragon blasted up after his masters' mate.

Like it?

I hope so since I worked on this thing till 2am. Anyways I will continue this, yes there is more, but you better review, or this will die * holds up flaming Molotov *. so REVIEW!