This is my first story. Thanks to P-Artsypants for being my beta reader and for the support.
After Hiccup defeated the Gronckle, he was declared the winner of Dragon Training and was given the honor of killing his first dragon, the honor of being the first one of the teens who had the possibility to become a real viking. Most of the villagers were happy that the chief's son was the winner of Dragon Training. They hoped that he would be a strong and brave chief after his father and that he would bring glory and prosperity to Berk. But Hiccup had other plans. He knew that he wasn't able to kill a dragon and it was pointless to try and change the viking's mentality after hundreds of years of fighting the big, scaly beasts.
So the best thing for him to do was to run away with Toothless and never return to the village of Berk. Leaving everything behind and starting a new life somewhere where dragons aren't viewed as pests, or at least as archenemies. After the celebration for Hiccup's achievement was over, he sneaked to the forge to get his journal, some of his sketches of Toothless's tail and some inventions of his, and finally a weapon, preferably something light, like a dagger or a short sword. He finally decided on a sharp dagger he made a few years ago. It was a good weapon, not his best, but certainly it won't disappoint. His next stop was the village's storage, to get some fish for Toothless and some supplies for the trip.
After about a hour or so of preparing, he was near the cove where Toothless was hidden. The cove was a very isolated place, it was perfect for hiding the dragon. He couldn't get out of the cove on its own, resulting in him getting caught by the vikings, or worse. The cove also had a supply of fresh water and fish for Toothless, which he would try to catch when he was hungry and Hiccup couldn't get him enough food; or even when he was bored and tired of sleeping.
Hiccup slowly walked inside the cove with all the stuff that he had brought for his plan. He scattered the fish he brought for Toothless to eat, and then, after a brief moment, he said, "We're leaving. Let's pack up. Looks like you and me are taking a little vacation. Forever." After Toothless started eating, Hiccup went to his tail and started mounting his new tail fin. When the dragon finished the fish, he started to get excited about their trip. A few moments after Hiccup finished preparing his tail, the dragon noticed the sadness in his friend and rider's eyes, so he gently nudged Hiccup with his head, getting the boy's attention. He started to pet Toothless's head for a few moments, then he said with a sad voice, "I'm okay, bud..." but the dragon didn't buy the cheap lie and nudged his rider again, getting a different response from Hiccup, "It's just that, they only started to care for me after I became good at dragon fighting, they didn't give a crap about me before. I was just Hiccup the Useless. They never accepted me for what I was, they only cared about their traditions and killing dragons. I don't want to become one of them. You are my only true friend and if they would find you, they would kill you. We should just..." He was interrupted by the sound of a rock falling and hitting the ground. Within a few seconds, Toothless jumped and grabbed the intruder that failed to sneak up on them.
Without Hiccup even starting to understand that happened, Toothless was holding Astrid to the ground, the black dragon made a loud roar, with the idea of scaring the intruder. Astrid was a little too worried about her current situation, being pinned to the ground by a dragon, most likely a Night Fury, by the looks of it, to notice Hiccup running towards them, starting to push the big dragon of her, "She is a friend. You don't have to kill her! Get down you overgrown reptile!"
Hiccup almost yelled at the dragon, making it to slowly back away, but the giant reptile still looked aggressive and ready to pounce at the slightest move she made that the dragon didn't liked. She was too focused on the dragon to notice Hiccup staying near it, until he yelled at her, "What in Thor's name are you doing here?! Why were you following me?!"
The girl was still shocked about the previous events and only after almost ten seconds she asked Hiccup, still with a worried expression on her face, "How did you manage to control this, demon?" Toothless was obviously insulted by that question and let out a low growl making Astrid worried about her life. After all, if Hiccup could control this, thing, he could very well kill her. She wasn't the nicest to him before dragon training and things certainly didn't improved after dragon training.
"He is not a demon, he is a dragon, a Night Fury to be more precise, and he is my friend." Hiccup said defending his dragon.
"Your friend?! Hiccup, you must be insane to call a dragon ,your friend!" She yelled at the young teen. Toothless started to growl louder at Astrid, slowly approaching her with a death glare in his eyes, until Hiccup scratched his head, making the Night Fury stop and look at his friend confused, before stopping and getting back under Hiccup's arm. The girl noticed the interaction between them and she asked, "Can you control him?".
"No," Hiccup promptly responded, "He has its own free will, I am just his friend and he will do his best to protect me." Astrid slowly nodded, beginning to understand the relation between Hiccup and the dragon. "Now why did you follow me?" He asked again.
Astrid was taken aback by his sudden change of tone. She was conscious that he could very well order the dragon to kill her and nobody would ever found out, "I wanted to find out how you became so good at Dragon Training and how you managed to beat me." She said in one breath, slowly backing away from Toothless.
"Well, now you know." Hiccup said, "I learned everything I know from Toothless, he helped me understand dragons, or at least begin to understand them."
"How did you find him?"
"Remember that night when we were raided by dragons? When I told everyone that I hit a Night Fury? And all of you just laughed at me?" Astrid slowly nodded in response. But she didn't laughed at him then, it's true that she didn't believed him and rolled her eyes when he announced that, again, but she never laughed at him. "Well, the next day I went out trying to find him and bring his head to the village so that I would be acknowledged as a true viking. A true, dragon killer." He said the final two words with a slight disgust, "When I found him, I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him. So I him go. And in return, he didn't kill me. The following days I tried to befriend him and I noticed that he couldn't fly. Then I realized that I maimed him. I felt horrible about that so I made him a new tail fin and started to train him. He is my only real friend. He is the only one who accepted me for who I am and didn't try to change me."
"What are you going to do?" Astrid asked, still a little worried about her situation. Her fate was in the hands of the boy everyone made fun of, the boy she never tried to help, afraid that it might ruin her imagine in the village, even thought it was wrong and she knew that, she still never even lifted a finger to help him. Her fate was in the hands of the boy with a dragon.
"Well, I guess that we have to kill you." Hiccup said sarcastically, but the obvious sarcasm in his voice was missed by Astrid, who just widened her eyes at his answer, before jumping after her weapon, the axe that she dropped a few feet behind her, when she fell from the cove's walls. Toothless jumped after her, preparing to attack the young teen, but Hiccup interrupted him when he yelled "For Thor's sake, I was joking!" Astrid already had her axe in her left hand when Toothless pinned her in the wall of the cove. The dragon was giving her a death glare and growling at her.
"Astrid," Hiccup slowly said, "throw your weapon down".
"Are you insane?!" she yelled, making Toothless to growl more loudly at her, waiting for Hiccup's orders to kill her. He just needed his rider to say that this girl was a problem.
Astrid was preparing to hit the dragon with her axe, hopefully managing to free herself. She was tensing her muscles when her eyes widened at a obvious realization. This dragon was only trying to protect Hiccup from a stranger. Not a stranger to him, but a stranger to the dragon. Hiccup probably told the dragon about her, saying that she was a mean person and that she hated him. And so far she wasn't leaving a good first impression. So she sighed heavily and did a thing she wasn't expecting to ever do near a dragon.
She let go of her axe.
Toothless looked a little more relaxed at her after that, but he still didn't backed off, so Hiccup slowly approached them and said with a smile, "I see that you two are finally starting to get along."
Astrid looked annoyed at him, "Hiccup, I'll kill you..." But she was interrupted by Toothless, who started to growl again, showing his fangs. "You're an asshole."
Hiccup laughed at her response, then he patted Toothless on the head, making the dragon to slowly let her go. "She's a friend Toothless."
"Thanks." Astrid said, catching her breath and regaining a somewhat more though posture. After a few moments of silence, she remembered Hiccup's conversation with his dragon, before she fell and interrupted them, so she asked. "What did you mean when you said you were going to leave, forever?"
"Well..." Hiccup started, "I am going to leave with Toothless and never come back to this accursed place." He managed with a fake, sarcastic smile on his face.
"But you managed to command a..." Toothless looked angry at her. "... I mean, befriend a Night Fury. You can change the way vikings think about dragon! You can change our society! You can end the war with dragons. We have to tell you father!" She quickly said, grabbing his hand and her axe, trying to pull Hiccup out of the cove.
But he didn't budge.
She tried to again to move him, saying how he could help Berk to gain a huge military advancement over the other villages. How he could transform from Hiccup the Useless to Hiccup the Dragon Rider. After a few more seconds, Hiccup finally yelled "STOP!"
Astrid froze in place.
Toothless looked surprised to his friend and the other teen.
"I am not going anywhere near that village ever again!"
"What?!" She quickly asked.
"You heard me."
"Why?"
"Because... Because you didn't care about me until I won the Dragon Training. No one from the village cared about me until I won that stupid competition. You all made fun of me for being Hiccup the Useless, Hiccup the Screw-Up. None of you ever tried to accept me for what I was. You didn't even cared about me before that!"
"Hiccup..." Astrid slowly said.
"NO! I don't want to ever go near that Odin's forsaken place again!"
Astrid was looking at him as he went back to his bag, near the rock he was sitting before with Toothless. She was silently looking at him packing his things, going to gods know where.
"Where are you even planning to go?" She finally asked, her voice soft and sad.
"I don't know." He answered promptly.
"What are you going to do to get food?"
"I have Toothless.".
"What do you even hope to achieve from running away?" She asked again, almost yelling the question at him.
"I don't fucking know! Okay?! Are you happy now?!" He yelled angry, turning around to face her. "Why in Hel's name do you even care?!"
Astrid was obviously shocked by what he said, more like the way he said it. She felt hurt by his words. All that anger and sadness he gathered in all those years had left their mark. "I'm sorry about the past. I'm sorry about how you were treated. I'm sorry that I didn't even try to help you. And I know that you might never forgive us for that, but at least know that I am sorry."
Hiccup climbed on Toothless's saddle and looked over at Astrid. "I'm sorry, but it's too late now." His voice quiet, hiding pain and sadness in it. It hurt to yell at her. He honestly didn't wanted to, but it was just too much. She doesn't deserve to be sorry. She could've helped him, at least acknowledge him. Everyone knew that he liked her, the least she could do was to not ignore him constantly. In a weird way it would've been better if she was the one that insulted him, at least she would've looked at him and talked to him.
"Try not to die or hurt yourself..." She said with sadness, "Maybe. If you want, come visit the village from time to time. Maybe we will see that dragons aren't a threat. And then all of us can look up to you. Just...Take care..."
After a few moments of silence. He took off. Flying on his dragon to Thor's know where. Astrid only hoped that he knew what he was doing and that he would stay safe.
Thanks for reading and please leave your opinion about the story so far. This is a short chapter, most chapters will have around 4000-5000 words, but from time to time, there will be this kind of chapters to fill the story.