Somewhere Among the Clouds
Astrid had always loved clouds.
When she had been younger, she would lie in the fields for hours and watch the great puffs float past her.
She thought about all aspects of them. What they would feel like (soft but spindly, like just carded wool).
What they would taste like (some combination of the foam and cream that sat on milk, only sweeter).
What they would look like from the inside (a smooth enclosure of soft colors like the sunrise).
Then she grew older. Old enough to have to work around the home. Old enough to start dragon training. She didn't lose her love of clouds, but now she had to hide it carefully.
She knew it was un-Viking like, that's why she would train so hard. She had to train herself to focus because if she didn't consciously direct her thoughts to what she was doing, they would soar up into the sky. Her head would fall back and she would lose herself in the majestic shapes.
She wasn't sure what it was about them, perhaps it was their freedom, no one expected anything of clouds like they did of her. She was to be the perfect warrior, the spitting image of her well respected parents.
A good Viking would no sooner daydream than cry.
So when the little twerp of an excuse of a Viking Hiccup had dragged her up on that monster and proceeded to throw her around like a punching bag, she was angry and scared, but mostly scared.
First of all, the kid was weird. All scrawny and awkward, always sneaking away and drawing in that little black book of his. Always sitting back and observing instead of running in and smashing things. Ugh, creepy.
And second, not only was he RIDING A DRAGON, which went against everything a Viking stood for, he was riding a Night Fury! (or at least she assumed it was a Night Fury, no one knew what they looked like, but if there were pictures of them they would definitely look like this!)
As they plummeted toward the ocean, she realized that Hiccup couldn't stop the beast. They were going to crash and at this speed it would kill them on impact.
'Maybe if I hadn't tried to kill it, it wouldn't be trying to kill me' she though, both surprising herself with such an uncharacteristic thought (it's not like she had hurt the monster's feelings, dragons don't have feelings) and being desperate enough to try anything. She screamed out an apology and instantly the were floating safely above the icy water. She let go of the twerp she didn't remember grabbing onto and looked around.
She couldn't believe it. She was so close to her beloved clouds, she could easily reach out and touch one.
So she did. And it was everything and nothing like she imagined it would be. They circled higher and she saw that the clouds were far more grand then they appeared to be from the ground. Like the icebergs that floated around her home most of the year, the clouds were much bigger than they seemed they would be.
She was so caught up in her dreams coming true that she forgot about the boy in front of her. He hadn't said a word, had only quietly steered the dragon and let her have her moment. When her eyes fell on him once again, he was looking at her and smiling a little, like he understood exactly what she was feeling.
Like he knew about her love affair with the sky.
Suddenly she had an idea of what was in that book. He probably noticed things about everyone. If he hadn't told anyone that tough-as-nails, one-of-the-guys Astrid spent all her free time daydreaming about clouds instead of coming up with new ways to kill things by now, he probably wasn't going to. He hadn't even tried to blackmail her, what kind of a poor excuse for a Viking was he?
But that's it, isn't it? He isn't a Viking. At least, not like she is. But maybe that's a good thing. He wasn't creepy, he was just different. And different was good. If no one was different, there would just be a bunch of Snotlout's running around!
She felt as though a weight had been lifted off her chest (although, that could have been gravity, Gods, clouds look even better upside-down). She didn't have to worry so much about her secret. She wrapped her arms around his scrawny torso, and leaned her chin on his boney shoulder. She had someone whom she could trust, someone who knew and accepted both sides of her.
If he could keep her secret, then she could keep his.