Aster found himself falling back against one of the rotten, wood barriers that Gobba had made just that morning. Despite it being so new, Aster could see the wear and tear from the used planks having been left outside in Berk's relentless rain. He sighed irritatedly, but the irritation only grew as he saw who was crouched next to him, cowering from the rumbling roars of the Gronckle behind them.
He groaned.
"Stay out of my way!" he snapped at Hiccup, the rounded blade of his axe pressed strongly against the scrawny girl's throat. She was lucky, Aster found himself thinking sadistically. Aster just so happened to have forgotten to sharpen the axe last night because he had been so angry about her rising popularity as the village's exclusive "Dragon Master."
Aster glanced upwards, seeing Gothin, the village elder, hunched over a worn, aged stick. Then seeing Stoicke, the village chieftess, eying her daughter curiously from behind her massive nest of red hair. Having returned only recently from the voyage to wipe out the dragons' nest, the vast woman had yet to see Hiccup's skill in the ring.
'But I am a warrior, a dragon killing beast! She only cheats and uses cheap tricks to bend the dragons to her will!' With that thought, Aster glowered even more savagely at Hiccup's rapidly paling face, who was gently pushing the axe from her skin to reveal a thin, red line at her neck.
Aster briefly found himself pitying her but shook his head to clear the thought. This creature was his enemy, not a friend or anything else of the sort! "I'm winning this thing!" he growled at her.
She merely shrugged with a tired look in her eyes, adjusting the silvery Viking's hat atop her simple ponytail. "Please, by all means," she replied, her voice sounding stressed and exhausted in every single way. Weirdly enough, she looked more than anything honest. Like she actually meant what she was saying.
Aster turned away once more to steal a tactful view of the approaching Gronkle, who had harassed Tuffnut and Ruffnut enough to eliminate them from ever killing a dragon in front of the village's watchful eyes. It was now beelining for Hiccup, causing her awkward smile to falter.
He smirked, darting to another elderly barrier. His fingers tightened around the hilt of his heavy axe, a brief image of the infuriating Hiccup greeting his mind's eye. Gods, she was worse than a Monstrous Nightmare! She…she…!
Aster sucked in a breath, calming himself. No, she would not get the best of him. If he stayed focused, he would certainly knock the Gronkle out, without question!
"This time…This time, for sure!" he shouted to himself, hurdling over the barrier with a warrior's cry of rage. His axe was held high above his head as he vaulted barrier after barrier!
But…he halted. There was no hum of the Gronkle's hummingbird wings. His ears heard no grumbles of a fire lighting within the rocky dragon's belly.
To his dismay, he saw the beast as he looked around. It was lying sleepily on the ground, kicking a leg out weakly as Hiccup stood there, awkwardly holding her weapon in front of her. The dragon's rounded snout was inches from her foot.
'She did this…'
"NO!" Aster's rage swelled up from within him, forcing out curses he'd never thought he could ever say in front of anyone, much less the entire village. He swung his axe around, cruelling crushing the homemade barriers with minimal effort as his vision went red.
This had been his last chance.
And SHE RUINED IT.
But, as he found himself calming down a bit—only a bit, mind you—he caught a glimpse of her sad expression. Hiccup looked totally guilty, her bright green eyes downcast as the village roared and cheered her name. She was biting her lip, shuffling her toes together as she looked like she was trying to escape what was happening right before her.
Like if she shrunk herself down enough, she would disappear from their judging eyes.
Despite the twisting and turning of fury within his stomach, Aster couldn't help but pity her for that single second he saw her discomfort. She was just a small young girl, after all. Their similar age made nothing different—she was tiny. Especially for being the daughter of a woman whose name was quite literally Stoicke the Vast.
But, it changed nothing. She had stolen the most precious things from him without batting an eye. She deserved punishment.
Aster was seething as the students exited the arena, Hiccup carried (against her will) on the shoulders of her classmates who cheered her name with glee at Gothin's decision to have her kill the mighty Monstrous Nightmare locked up in their fireproof cages.
That was his kill. She stole it from him.
Oh, there would be hell to pay.
And so, with a heavy heart and an axe in hand, Aster found himself following the meek brunette from her home to the forest that she practically dwelled in. He had to know one thing; how did she transform from an easily-breakable twig to the most revered dragon-hunting student in all of Berk?
He deserved answers, at the very least.
Hiccup had angry little tears in her eyes as she stomped over to the clearing where her secrets lay hidden behind the murky lake waters. "We are so leaving. We're leaving. Looks like you and me are taking a vacation…forever…" she called out, sounding beyond fatigued. Despite the emotions toiling inside of her heart, she probably looked as though she hadn't slept for years.
Granted, she hadn't slept in a week in order to be with Toothlesse at night so that her mother never found out what the teenager had been doing all this time. The dragon needed to fly to stay healthy, after all, and the black beast couldn't do it all by herself.
But, she pressed the heel of her hand to her eye, disappointed in how today had gone for her. Why did Gothin choose her, of all people? Now she would have to kill a dragon in front of everyone…just because she happened to know where a certain pressure point on the dragon's neck was.
At the thought of how today had gone for her, Hiccup's slim hand grazed the cut Aster had left on her neck. He really seemed angry this time—she'd never seen him explode in such a way before.
Not that she blamed him. It was an honor he had trained for years for, and she snatched it from underneath his nose—and she was probably the worst person to do it to him in the first place.
As she threw the sack of clothing and repair items for Toothlesse's prosthetic tailfin, she kept rubbing the fine, red line on her skin. It had already scabbed, and she barely felt a thing as her fingers glided along the roughened area. It really wasn't that bad…but his eyes when he did it…
They were more fiery than Toothlesse's plasma breath.
Thank the gods they were leaving. Hiccup knew that the moment Aster saw her again, she would be slaughtered on the spot. Not something the brunette particularly felt like partaking in at the moment. "Ah, man…" she grumbled.
She adjusted the harness and pulled up the forbidden 'pants' that were only meant for the men of her village, discarding her skirt once they were riding comfortably on her hips.
But her eyes snapped up when she heard the terrifying grind of a rock against rough steel. Hiccup knew that sound—she'd made that very axe with her own bare hands, after all.
"Agh! What in the—?!" she gasped, stumbling backwards as she saw the death in his scarily dark sapphire eyes. She fell all over herself in her surprise but scrambled back to her feet as Aster smoothly slid down the slick surface of the stone. "Wh-what are you doing here!?" the frightened girl cried.
The warrior-in-training spun his axe, looking ready to kill with those eyes. Frantic, Hiccup scanned the area, hoping to Thor that Toothlesse wasn't in plain sight at that very moment. If Aster were to be startled like this, there would be blood spilled.
Of whose, however, Hiccup was uncertain.
"I want to know what's going on," he said gruffly, throwing the axe from hand to hand. He stormed towards her, making her stumble back out of fear for her very life. "No one just gets as good as you do. Especially you."
Those hot, burning eyes spelled out the word, "Murder" in bright, clear print. Hiccup swallowed, trying to think up of an excuse quickly to save Toothlesse or Aster from a painful death at either the taste of an axe against scales, or fire to the face.
"Start talking! Are you training with someone?"
"U-Uhm…training?" Hiccup could barely process what was happening.
Aster's angry eyes trailed up and down Hiccup's body, analyzing the strange harness fixed to the girl's torso. His hand snapped forward, grasping it roughly as he pulled her close. "It better not involve this!"
"I know this looks really bad, but you see…this is, uh…" The brunette's eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets. Despite her small crush on the boy, he was so utterly terrifying at that very moment and she desired nothing more than to be back to where she once was—swooning over his good looks and bravery from a distance.
It was almost scarier than when Hiccup met Toothlesse for the first time.
She was definitely feeling faint right about then, so it was plausible.
But the panic she was feeling when his face was right up against hers was nothing compared to what she felt when they both heard a loud rustling at the far end of the lake. His eyes shot upwards, filled with curiosity and wariness.
The grip on his axe tightened.
"You're right! Y-you're right!" Hiccup whimpered. "I'm through with the lies! I've been making…o-outfits! So, you got me. It's time everyone knew. Drag me back, go ahead, here we go…."
At the feeling of her slender fingers against the ones on her harness, Aster instinctively grabbed her hand and twisted back as painfully as possible, sending the weak girl to the ground in less than a second. His eyes were screaming at her—don't test me.
"Agghh, why would you do that?" she exclaimed incredulously, clutching her injured hand with the other as she looked upwards at him from the ground. One of her hairclips had fallen from her bangs, sending the locks down over her face carelessly.
Suddenly, she looked far less uptight. Aster found himself regretting what he had done quickly, but hurriedly dispersed the thoughts.
This was a thief. He had no reason to pity her.
"That's for the lies," snarled the blond, looking down at her. He then dropped the hilt of his heavy axe down into her gut, forcing a yelp of agony from the poor girl. It would surely leave another bruise underneath her ribs. "And that's…for everything else…"
But, at Hiccup's cry, a growl resonated from far beyond the edge of the lake. The hurt girl could barely blink before she saw Aster's eyes widen with fear.
"Oh no…" she murmured, before flinging herself forward in harm's way, her tiny hands barely pushing off the axe as Toothlesse roared before the both of them. "No!" she screamed, the axe skidding into the lake waters as she flung up a hand to halt the clearly-enraged Night Fury at her side.
Sand sprayed as the dragon stopped herself quickly, coating Aster in the dusty substance and sending the boy back. "No, it's okay, it's okay…!" Hiccup anxiously held up both hands now, trying her best to stop the maddened creature. But the dragon only angered more at the sight of blackish blues crawling over the side of one hand.
The girl glanced quickly over her shoulder at the boy. "He's a friend…" she whispered calmly, trying to soothe the scaly beast before the blond became an early supper. Toothlesse merely snorted at the girl, glaring mighty daggers at the boy as she thrust her snout forward. Hiccup barely managed to catch it as she held back the dragon.
"You just scared her…" explained the brunette as the boy shook himself free of his stupor. His eyes were pinned on her hands, which were dangerously close to the dragon's hissing teeth.
"I scared her!?" he cried, freezing up again as Toothlesse managed to force out another snarl of anger from Hiccup's silencing fingers. "Who…is her…?"
Finally thinking it safe enough for their lives to not be at risk, Hiccup released Toothlesse's snout, letting the dragon sit up properly. "Aster, this is Toothlesse," she then looked up into the dragon's searing green eyes. "Toothlesse, this is Aster."
Toothlesse bared her teeth, growling like a rabid animal.
Aster backed away steadily, before eying the two of them with pure, utter disgust. Hiccup felt her heart hurt at such a gaze as he turned away, sprinting in the direction of the village.
"Da da da, we're dead," Hiccup sighed, her voice even more tired now than ever before. But, as she watched Toothlesse march off with a satisfied look on her black-scaled face, annoyance welled up within her.
"And where do you think you're going!?" she scolded the dragon, running towards the Night Fury with her eyes bearing a rare, but determined glow. "We're gonna go change his mind. Now."
Toothlesse yawned, clearly disinterested.
Hiccup rubbed her eyes tiredly. She'd had enough of this dragon dung.