Author's Notes:

• I do not own How To Train Your Dragon.
• I blame wanting to go see the movie again for making me come up with this idea. It was more than a little on the rushed side. It's a bit short too.
• I wanted a chance to write Astrid while she's angry. I had a little bit of fun with the insults I'll admit.
• If it's written 'like this', it's Astrid's thought process.
• This takes place after Hiccup gets picked to slay the Nightmare before all of Berk, but before Astrid encounters Toothless.

Oh she was ticked. Annoyed. Angry beyond words. Furious enough to chop down a few trees without breaking a sweat. She was so cross nobody in their right minds would even dream of encountering her. Even her mother avoiding the fuming blond. Her fists clenched and unclenched, gnashing her teeth together so violently that it would be a miracle if none of them were worn down by the time she managed to lop off somebody's head. Never before had she felt so much rage at once in her entire life! To say she was pissed off was the understatement of the year.

And all of this pent up rage was directed at one Viking.

IF you could even call him a Viking!

She'd been upstaged. Thrown out. Forgotten like yesterday's news. The very idea of somebody being better than her at anything (dragon training no less) was laughable. Which was saying something since Astrid Hofferson was known as the girl made of stone. She never laughed and never cracked a smile. All that she ever focused on was training, finding ways to earn a few more hours of training, getting a few hundred more push-ups in past her last record, seeing how many sit-ups she could do before her spine felt like it was busted, and seeing how many axe swings it takes to cut down a full grown pine tree. To catch Astrid doing anything other than training, eating, or sleeping was about as outlandish as what had transpired mere minutes before.

And yet, it had happened. All known laws of the cosmos, Asgard, Valhalla, and Berk had been broken and soiled upon. There was no way to right this wrong outside of beheading the blasted little devil who dared challenge her.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the worst Viking in Berk history, had outdone himself this time!

He always claimed to be late for something. Astrid knew the rotten fart-smelling, barf-breath troll had to have been training with somebody! How else in all of Odin's domain could Hiccup have possibly even dreamed of surpassing her! THE Astrid Hofferson! The personification of what a Viking her age should be and should esteem to be!

Oh how she wanted to rip his spine out and beat him to death with it. Sure, such an idea didn't even seem possible, but Astrid was willing to put that theory to the test. And she would gladly do it before all of Berk while she was it! Sure, it would mean banishment for killing the chief's son. And if everyone in Berk could see what she saw, that Hiccup wasn't as great or full of magic when it came to taking down dragons, they would cheer her on during his merciless slaughter. But no, they're vision was clouded by his amazing skills which were nothing more than pathetic tricks if you asked Astrid. Never once had she seen the boy swing so much as a dagger at the scaled beasts. And yet before dragon training, he kept going on and on about taking down a Night Fury. Before dragon training, Astrid could have given him the benefit of the doubt and knew he was just saying things to get attention and be accepted by everyone.

But this? This was inexcusable! How dare he best her at her own game! How dare he waltz into the dragon training arena, unannounced, uninvited, and be sarcastic about the entire thing? Like it was no big deal that everyone else had been eagerly awaiting a chance in the ring for years!

Astrid hated him. Plain and simple.

Some might call her jealous. Astrid would scowl and lop of a finger or two for ever associating one such as her to such an emotion. Some might even call her insane. That... Okay, Astrid wasn't sure if she could argue with that one. But she knew that if she got rid of this one little set-back, everything would go back to normal in Berk. Everyone would go back to expecting great things from her and her mother would go back to talking endlessly like a giddy little girl to see her daughter slay her first dragon. Everyone would go back to knowing Hiccup was useless for just about anything outside of the smithy. At this point, Astrid was half expecting to wake up and find that they were no longer at war with the dragons and considered them friends!

But they say fate is cruel and irony knows no bounds.

She had seen him not too long ago in the woods. Astrid had been training and practicing her aim and tumble dodges when she'd spotted him. She had nearly taken off his head by accident that day. Lot of good it would have done her now that she looked back on it. Anyway, Hiccup had been carrying a long, brown something-or-other, froze up once she found him watching her, and beat a hasty retreat and who only knows where. Astrid had tried to follow him, but lost him shortly after he ran around a boulder. Since then, it had become almost a game for her to try and find out just where he was going. But so far, Astrid had had no luck.

Well, enough of that. Astrid was going to figure this out once and for all. She was going to reveal Hiccup for the fraud that he was. Something was up and it was about time Hiccup confessed to his crimes.

Astrid grabbed her axe, told her mom she would be out for a while, and headed out into the woods.

The path she chose was fairly worn. She'd spotted Hiccup going up and down it a few times in the past while she spent hours training in the woods. Thing is, she could only go so far before the paths split or stopped completely, leaving her confused and annoyed. She would call it a day, head home, and try again the next time she needed a break from training so she wouldn't pull a muscle during dragon training classes with Gobber the Belch.

"That son of a sheep chasing, flea-ridden mongrel..."

Not this time. Oh no. Hiccup wasn't going to best her this time after embarrassing her in front of the entire village! Astrid was so lived she couldn't even see straight anymore!

"Dragon turd eater. Twisted Nadder talker. Lying dirty Gronkle."

Astrid lost track of time during her fuming. She'd stumbled down hills and nearly tripped over a fallen tree. She knew where she was, just not where she was going. Her body went on auto-pilot while her mind rambled and screamed relentlessly. Occasionally, the blond would stop and chop down a tree or two to vent some frustration.

"Nightmare licker! Worthless! Pain in my a - - Ow! What the?"

Astrid ceased in her oaths and rubbed her nose. She'd gotten so carried away in her ranting that she failed to watch where she was going. Her murky blue eyes narrowed even further than before (if that was possible) and prepared to take down the tree she'd bumped into.

Only . . . it wasn't a tree. It wasn't a rock. It wasn't even a hill side or, Thor forbid, a dragon!

It was a shield. Or rather, the back of one.

Scowling at the discarded wooden form of protection, Astrid gripped the top of it and gave it a good yank. The shield didn't move. The blond growled and looked around, taking notice of the narrow path she was currently on. Apparently, she had traveled downhill and was currently facing a strange cove of sorts. The shield before her was wedged between two large moss-covered boulders. Her brow furrowed as she bent down and crawled beneath the wooden and iron disk. Once on the other side, side reached over and gave the shield a few more violent tugs. The thing didn't even budge.

Well this was odd. Who just leaves a shield like that? Or, better yet, who comes all the way out here with a shield in the first place? Whoever had originally been carrying it probably was expecting to be under attack. Even though you were never go without a shield, Astrid traversed the woods on a near daily basis without one. The dragon's nest wasn't located on the Isle of Berk after all. Else, wouldn't her ancestors have already found it by now? Shaking her head, and going along with her reasoning, Astrid crept further into the cove.

She spent a good ten minutes down there. And she found a big helping of nothing. No weapons, no other shields, no upturned earth, no scarred boulders... NOTHING! The only thing even worth more than three seconds of her time was a massive lump of black on the other side of the lake. Whatever it was, it was no ordinary boulder. It was within the shadow cast by the massive tree growing into the glade's rock walls, making it near impossible for Astrid to determine it was nothing more than a large black rock. Maybe a stray dragon had once slept here and burned the rock to heat it up? Astrid had never even know this cove existed until mere minutes ago.

Grumbling to herself, Astrid hefted her axe onto her shoulder and turned around. Well, something must be up with this place. Why else would there be a shield stuck in the passage way? Maybe it was a marker of some sort. It sure was a lousy way to try and keep intruders. Astrid was willing to bet her favorite double-bladed axe that whatever was up with this place, it would have something to do with Hiccup. Maybe the shield was a marker that whoever was teaching Hiccup placed to make the boy work for his lessons? It all made sense now!

Smirking a little despite herself, Astrid picked a boulder overlooking the entrance, grabbed up a decent-sized stone, and made herself comfortable. She sat with her legs crossed on top of the boulder's rounded top. And to the pass the time, the blond sharpened her trusted weapon's twin blades by scrapping the stone against it. Her emotionless mask was soon back in place.

And, sure enough . . .

"We're . . . leaving. Let's pack up."

'Bingo. I've got you now you bubbling buffoon.'

"Looks like me 'n you are taking a vacation. . . forever."

'Hah! So whoever is teaching you're expecting to meet here? Hate to burst your bubble... No wait... No I don't. I'm going to enjoy this.'

Astrid remained silent, keeping her head bowed forward and barely able to contain her anger and excitement. She didn't watch him, but did hear him moving around. The blond saw a woven basket deposited on the ground in front of her and that was when she decided to act. Astrid ran the stone against the iron blade of her axe, making she to cause some noise this time. And, thus, getting the reaction she wanted out of his; fear.

Oh if only she knew how quickly the tables were about to turn on her.

Foot Notes:
• I had a little too much fun writing Astrid's threats / insults.
• Mother of Thor . . . I hadn't realized just how prideful Astrid could potentially be until I started proof-reading this.