~A/N first fic! constructive criticism allowed, flames not wanted (But i guess i technically can't stop you). I'm obsessed with HTTYD. specifically hiccstrid soooo yea. nuff said. hope you like this!

Astrid Hofferson never got scared. Never. So when that initial blow of fear hit her, it was so unexpected it was almost overwhelming. She was watching him walk into that arena alone, again.

When she promised herself to stand by him, promised herself that she wouldn't make the same mistake twice. But there he was, walking alone and resolute into the kill ring to face a Monstrous Nightmare without Gobber or anyone else to help him if it went wrong, He didn't even get to promise her his safety before being thrown into the ring.

So here she was, scared, mortified for the first time in her life, not for herself but for a certain scrawny russet haired boy. 'He was going to make it' she thought. 'He had to, it was not only for her but for the entirety of Berk!' Her feelings were clouding her judgement, these strange gooey emotions she was trying to shove down and lock away safely like they were before. This boy managed to break that barrier she had fought so hard to put up, in barely an evening too! She was annoyed about that, however, those thoughts were all quickly forgotten when Hiccup grabbed his choice weapon of a dagger and shield (which his father had commented on with low volume, typical) and without stuttering stated:

"I'm ready".

The murmuring of the village quitened as the large, barricaded doors slowly started to unlock…

Astrids POV

I watched the big wooden barricade slowly lift as if mocking him with anticipation of what was to come. I knew he could handle the Nightmare, he did too, it was his father he was more afraid of, yes, that big hairy chief of the Hooligan tribe was more frightening to him than a ferocious dragon which literally had Monstrous and Nightmare in the name.

The dragon burst out like a kid on snoggletog. As if wanting this moment to arise so it could tear the living flesh off of everything in sight. it scampered around quickly, at first completely ignoring Hiccup. Even firing at some villagers who smartly dodged before it finally realized that there was a seemingly terrified young boy standing there… Its noticed him I realized, it had finally snaked its neck around, enraged and curious at the same time.

I have to get in there and help him but I know perfectly well I can't. Maybe I should just throw tradition to the wind this one time and be more like the guy I… There goes my damn feelings again, I struggled to keep my aggravating thoughts to a minimum as I watched hiccup slowly backing away, dropping both his weapons to the now slightly confused dragon.

The crowd began to murmur again, except this time not in excitement, but in pure and utter confusion. Sure they saw him take down other dragons with nothing but his hands (At least they thought), but this was a Monstrous Nightmare! One of the most terrifying dragons around and he's going to lull it to sleep? hardly the fight they were expecting. But what they also didn't expect is that Hiccup didn't intend to fight at all, even I didn't know his plan and I suspect he didn't have one walking in, His hand outstretched at the dragon, calming it with every moment, every eye on him and his father more confused by the second, muttering;

"What is he doing?"

With a few vikings giving a slight heckle of something inaudible or one bright spark who said: "Madness" all while hiccup was weaponless at the dragon who was still angry. Hiccup finally realized the problem, his helmet, a monument of the enemy for dragons apparently, so it wasn't buying peace for one second, even with his charm- Again with the random thoughts! I scowled inwardly. Hiccup knew what he had to do as he slowly lifted his hands to his head as to not provoke the dragon. I suddenly realized Hiccups altered plan, and wanted to scream at him to not. But it was too late, no turning back now, he already said the fate defining words that separated him from the rest, probably for good:

"I'm not one of them".

The series of gasps that followed was nothing compared to the silent Stoick.

"Stop the fight" he managed to say but Hiccup already anticipated this:

"No! I need you all to see this." he said, and I thought the plan was finally working, for once, Hiccup had everyone's attention. "They're not what we think they are, we don't have to kill them".

A majority of eyes looked to Stoick who was still gaping at his sons remark. suddenly sensing he was being looked to for intervention, came to his senses and well, screamed at the top of his lungs (Being careful not to piss off the dragon of course…):

"I SAID STOP THE FIGHT!"

And to put the bilberry on top slammed his hammer into the railing, of course that riled the dragon which now turned its attention to ripping Hiccups head off.

He yelled in surprise and fear while dodging a snapping and flame throwing Nightmare, The first ten seconds were a blur, I was frozen in shock and fear for Hiccup. I screamed his name to no use, watching helplessly as he dodged and weaved around the ring, he couldn't keep this up forever, I looked around and noticed Stoick had disappeared from view, everyone else was watching shocked, angry, confused or concerned, it was a mix really.

Without thinking I grabbed an Axe from the display rack and used its leverage to open the gate just enough so I could slide under, The dragon should not be allowed to escape after all. I didn't know what I was going to do, but If Hiccup could train a Night Fury, I could stop a Nightmare. I watched hiccup vainly try and reach for a shield before having to drop it and run.

I watched a few more seconds formulating a basic plan, I tried his name again naturally knowing it would have no use, and then I saw the weapon pile with a bunch of broken wood, what was left of the weapon rack, I seized this opportunity to give Hiccup time to breathe by kicking up a hammer and twirl throwing it like I had done so many times before with my axe in the woods, and easily adjusting my strength to work with the hammer and hit the dragon right in its snout, not the head where I was aiming but I was used to axes, this slowed it down, however, the realization it had now turned its attention to me was not reassuring. now just putting both of us in danger.

I started to do similar dodging and evading Hiccup had done to keep the beast occupied until someone actually had the balls to do something. Then something unexpected happened, for the umpteenth time this hour. Stoick had lifted the gate (with ease) and called out:

"This way"

So now we could make an escape, luckily on that side of the arena I managed to scramble to his side before the creature could react, Hiccup however wasn't so lucky in his attempt to get to his furious but protective father, the Nightmare blasted fire at his exit, I couldn't see anymore as Stoick shielded me from the blast which luckily didn't hit anyone, by the time I looked back my heart leapt to my throat.

The Nightmare was in the air jumping onto Hiccup, it had decided that he was to blame for this commotion, he was to blame for my protection and pain I delivered so it was going to make him pay. it sniffed him as if savouring victory, I watched in horror but only for a second, a total wave of shock came over me when I heard the distant but ever growing ballistic sound of the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself.

Regardless if I was baffled at how it got out of that cove, the shrill cry was getting louder by the second, Only me and Hiccup (If Hiccup noticed at all) knows that sounds meaning, and why it was here, the Night Fury had come, to save Hiccup, his best friend. with one final cry the Night Fury jumped from the railing he was sprinting down into midair to blast a hole in the railing and charged in before someone could say Night Fury!

With a cloud of billowing smoke that clogged everyone's vision one could only guess what was going on in that fight between dragons, Hiccup just so happened to be caught in the middle of the chaos, again. Even above all the yelling villages the dragons cries were still crystal clear.

When Toothless (Don't ask me why he decided to name his dragon exactly what its not) rolled out with the Monstrous Nightmare, who was clearly losing, the realization that seeped in that there was a Night Fury, in the middle of the kill ring, froze the audience, only Gobber managed a surprised shout of;

"Night Fury!"

Which was a clear statement of the obvious. The dragons seemed to still be locked in combat, however Toothless had quickly gained the upper hand by kicking the other dragon with incredible strength, off of him and putting himself between it and Hiccup, the Nightmare tried still to get to Hiccup, only to have the Night Fury block its way every time, finally realizing it wasn't a match for a Night Fury, it backed down which happened to unfreeze the villagers who finally came to the conclusion that there was the most infamous and deadly dragon standing surrounded in a kill ring. They all dropped down trying to get to Toothless who stood his ground despite Hiccups pleading:

"Alright Toothless go, get outta here, go, Go!"

His father, forgetting about keeping me safe from no longer existing danger, grabbed the display axe opposite to the one I had grabbed as if they were for two opposite things, one on the left to help Hiccup one to kill his best friend on the right it seems. He went straight for Toothless before I could react, Hiccup saw the killers look in his father's eye and then tried pleading with him;

"No dad he won't hurt you!"

Toothless singles out what seemed to be the leader (Who just so happened to be Hiccups father) and swatted any viking in his way aside and jumped Stoick while Hiccup was yelling at his dragon:

"Don't oh n-Don't! oh you're making it worse".

Then I saw how much Hiccup was trying to stop his dragon killing everything in sight:

"Toothless stop"

the dragon ignored him and charged a deadly plasma blast with Stoick pinned beneath him, fear now surfacing in Stoick's face, I was just too stunned to move and too far away to be of any help to either as I watched on helpless, Hiccup seeing his best friend about to kill his father tried one last desperate plea:

"No NO!"

Toothless, finally coming back to his humanity (if you can call it that) swallowed back his gas and gave Hiccup an apologetic look, finally having one thing go his way Hiccup gave a sigh of relief, but it was short lived, the crowd took advantage of the hesitation and quickly overpowered a now unresponsive Night Fury who would not attack again because his rider, his friend, trusts him not too, letting the Vikings restrain him and pin him, simply moans as I have to hold hiccup back from making it worse, he was still calling out to his father or anyone for that matter:

"Oh no no please j-just don't hurt him, please don't hurt him"

The amount of guilt that was hanging in my chest was almost unbearable, I was holding him back from his best friend. And now Hiccup, who was able to talk sense into a dragon, couldn't do it to his own tribe. And we think we're the humane ones!

A villager came up to stoick with his axe as an offering so Stoick could kill the beast but Stoick simply pushed it aside while saying:

"Put it with the others!"

And I was silently thankful for them technically granting Hiccups wish. but was dying on the inside because I knew this couldn't have really gone worse for Hiccup, and without another word, Stoick drags Hiccup towards the mead hall for what I assume is going to be a very heated conversation.

I walked home in silence, as did most of the other villages, still in shock of what took place, but I was fearing for Hiccup, despite everything, I still felt that caring feeling that was bugging me, I still was going to stand by him, and right my wrongs of ignoring him, despite everything, I still cared for him… loved him. And I was determined to help him set it right.

(Long A/N)

~ Ok so this is probably gonna be nothing more than a two-shot as I was just gonna focus on this scene and the last few red death scenes, the romantic flight scene has been done to death but if someone likes me enough i might post it later (clearly no order in that case) or whatever, as I had inspiration for this scene because well, my brain!. I am not a schedule driven updater before you go asking, I go by popularity and/or motivation. unless i'm writing a proper story. anyway hope you enjoyed my first ever fic. ever.

-ps, yes, i researched northern berries from Iceland etc just to find a substitute for the "Cherry on top" metaphor, hence the bilberry. because obsessive accuracy disorder [OAD]... self invented and diagnosed. so yea. same with dialogue, all accurate. except when inaudible or paraphrased. (and yea I saw some metaphors with the axes during that scene, with the axes, facing in the arena the left axe Astrid used to be able to help him, stoick grabbed the right hand side axe to try and kill his best friend and stop his cause. plus hiccup being left handed helps the left = good thing and the whole every good thing has a double edged blade. i.e lost left foot for greater good, left axe helps, right axe doesn't etc, i'm rambling, you get the point, just surprised they used that symbolism in a kids movie :3

Do what people do when they like a fanfic, (like, subscribe, genetically clone monkey or whatever), if you don't then… don't…

Now after that long A/N...
Cyaz