Chapter Two.

Astrid stared at the feral boy with wide eyes. The cut her weapon had left on his cheek dripped down freckled skin. Her pulse was a dull roar in her ears, and it felt like her lungs couldn't quite squeeze enough oxygen from the air. The hatchet extended in threat felt heavy in her hand, weighing down her arm.

"End it?" she breathed, her brow crinkling with utter confusion. "How are you supposed to… end it?" The forest's mist seemed to enclose them in a cocoon of fog, a thick blanket that cancelled out noise, light, and maybe even reality.

The wild thing that called himself Hiccup raised up a little more. She'd yet to see him extend himself to his full height, and he stood at an angle, not fully facing her. But she could tell he was tall. Already, with still bent knees and hunched shoulders, he was at her eye level. His eyes darted all across her face, as if trying to read a language he didn't understand.

"Astrid." The sound of her name on his tongue was weird. "Your people. They do want to end the war? Right?"

She felt herself harden. It was a reaction as natural as running from rain. "I suppose. If by 'end' it, you mean kill every dragon in sight."

His response made her flinch. His upper lip curled back, and he bared his teeth with a throaty growl. But the bizarre expression only lasted a second— he seemed to compose himself and sigh, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, his gaze was a little less friendly. "They aren't what you think."

Astrid scowled. Hooking a finger in the neckline of her shirt, she tugged back the fabric so he could see the silvery scars of a Nadder's bite mark. "I've got more of these than I do good skin. If you sympathize with those blood-thirsty demons, you won't find any mercy from me."

He deepened into his crouch, his expression unreadable. And then with a speed she could never have expected, his hand shot out, grasping her wrist with a painful grip and twisting. She yelped with a sudden and embarrassing fear, but hours upon hours of training had prepared her body for this. With a twirl and a sharp yank, she tore herself free and swung the hatchet. He dodged. In the next heartbeat, she successfully landed the butt of her weapon's handle across his temple.

He fell to the ground, but landed on the balls of his feet. The blinding speed with which he moved was incredible, so how had she landed that hit? He had to have let her. One hand to the mossy earth, he winced and brushed his fingertips across the side of his head. "Are you bloodthirsty?" he hissed, his teeth slightly exposed again.

Her glare narrowed, and she shook off the feeling of his hand closed around her wrist. "What?"

"You attacked me," he growled with a frown, pulling his fingers away from his newest injury. She noticed that he faced her now. No more exposing his side to her.

"You hurt me first!" Her tone was tight with irritation and disbelief.

"I'm bleeding from your little axe too." With an emotion akin to disgust, she watched him lick his knuckles and then swipe them across the cut on his cheek.

"You threw those spine things at me!"

"You were approaching with a weapon."

Astrid shook her head, both perplexed and exasperated. The hatchet lowered, but she didn't loosen her grip. "These are my woods! This is my island! How did you even get here?"

"You hate the dragons because they hurt you," Hiccup began, crawling in a circle around her. It was disorienting, and he drew closer than she felt comfortable with. "The dragons hurt you because you attack them. You attack because they're ransacking your village. But they have as much choice in coming as I do in staying." He eyed the satchel at her side with a suddenly distracted curiosity, but then refocused and glanced up at her. "Doesn't that sound as silly as you and me?"

Heat throbbed in her veins, feeling very much like contempt and anger. The boy's presence was so otherworldly, so strange, that he almost felt like a vision from one of the gods. But she'd felt the warmth of his hand against hers, experienced the little lightning shocks up her arm. He was as real as she was. And it forced her to think—

Had a dragon ever attacked her unprovoked?

She shook her head. What kind of ridiculous question was that— dragons were evil, birthed from the mouth of Hel itself. She'd watch them snap men in two with their powerful jaws. She'd felt the sting of claws rake down her chest. This young man was nothing more than a traitor to his kind.

She dug her heel into the ground. "I'm returning to my village," she cooly informed him between clenched teeth. "You'll have a few minutes to disappear from this forest and never come back."

Though she went to turn, he jumped around her, blocking her path. Astrid was taken aback by how closely he stood. And how tall he was. Standing straight, almost chest to chest with her, he had to be at least six feet. She had to look up to meet his gaze. His eyes bore down on her with something like desperation. "Do you care about your people more than you hate the dragons?"

Glowering, she took a step back to regain some of her personal space. "Nothing is more important to me than my village. That's why I'm leaving. Right now."

As she took another step to walk around him, he twisted and leaped so that he kept her captured. His movements were graceful, almost cat-like in the way he crawled and arched. "I can save your village," he said, each word clearly emphasized with earnest. "No more raids. No more lives lost— dragon or human."

Her pulse raced, her brain dizzied by the possibility. "How?"

Lowering his eyes to the hatchet in her grasp, he pressed the back of his hand against her resting arm. She was glad for her long sleeves and his remaining glove. She wasn't interested in feeling his skin against hers again. "Leave this. And I'll explain everything."

She dropped her own gaze to the hatchet. "How do I know you won't use it against me?" Suspicion filled her, almost overpowering her desire to learn what he knew. "How do I know you don't have a little dragon friend waiting to eat me?"

There was a look in his eyes at that moment— a far off sadness that made her blink in surprise. Though she didn't want to trust him, there was an undeniable honesty to him— even maybe a certain naivete endearing him to her. He brought the back of his hand higher. Gloved knuckles carefully raised to nudge her cheek. Her heart slammed in her chest, stuttering out a painful rhythm. She wasn't afraid, but she was too frozen to knock his hand aside.

"You're Astrid," he told her, cocking his head to the side. "You are the first human friend I have ever made." He spoke plainly, as if that was all the explanation she would need. Dropping his fingers, he crouched down on all fours and held out an open palm. "Put down the weapon. Follow me. Let me show you."

The blonde tightened her grip on her weapon. She stared with uneasy indecision. To go with this boy— Hiccup— even if it was on her island, it would be an entirely different place. If the things he said were true, though… Berk was weary and falling apart. The villagers were losing hope, living in fear, scraping together food and materials for weapons. If the things Hiccup said were true, she could change all that.

She let her hand relax on the handle. Then with a silent prayer, she placed the hatchet in his palm.

A beaming smile broke on his face, and for a moment, Astrid was taken aback by the change in expression. It was a boyish smile, a child's smile, and it gave a certain charm to the young man. Then before she could say anything else, he turned and threw the weapon as far as he could into the trees.

"Hey!" she protested, her eyes wide as she watched her favorite hatchet disappear into the forest. When she whipped around to glower at him, he was crawling towards her with a lighter, more playful bounce. "Why did you do that?"

Hiccup curled around her, sniffing and inspecting her with what looked like stifled glee. His fingers traced over the studs on her skirt, tugged on her armbands, even buried themselves in the maze of her plait. "I never knew hair could be so many colors before I came here," he blurted, maybe to Astrid, maybe to himself. He was so close that she could feel his breath on her neck. "And your eyes! I know a Nadder this color!"

She yelped, trying to swat away his inspecting hands, but as soon as she'd push him off one side, he'd be at the other. A strange noise bubbled from him— a laugh— and he petted his palm over the fabric of her shirt. "So soft…"

"Are you going to tell me how to save Berk or not?" she snapped, taking a few steps back. Wrapping her arms herself with a faint sense of self consciousness, she pinned him with an accusing glare. "You said you'd explain everything."

Hiccup nodded. "Come." Seeming to regain a smidge of composure, he dropped to all fours and began crawling across the moss-covered forest floor. Astrid had to run to keep up with him, but luckily he didn't scamper far. When he reached the lip of the cove, he pulled up short and nodded towards the ground below. "Down here."

With only a little trepidation, Astrid watched him pounce easily down the tall rock face of the cove. "How come you've never seen other humans?" she called after him, attempting to climb down at a much slower speed and with much less grace. "Where do you live?"

The feral boy scraped down the side until he came to rest on a plateau. "With my mother," he replied, the first time she'd gotten a direct answer from him. "We live a day's flight from here. We care for dragons."

"Flight?" The rock was rough against her skin as she lowered herself down. Her boots didn't grasp ledges as well as she'd have liked. "You care for them?"

Grinning, he waited for her to land safely on the plateau. "For every human I've ever spoken to, I've met a thousand dragons." And then he was off again, easily jumping the twenty foot drop and rolling to his feet.

"I guess that explains the weirdness," Astrid muttered. She chose the sane route, easing herself down the side until she reached close enough to the ground. Then she let go and landed with a somersault. A part of her wanted to prove that she could be agile too. "How did you get here? Did a dragon bring you here?"

He gave her a short nod. "I'll tell you the whole story. But first, you should meet Toothless."

Astrid froze. "Toothless?"

A blur in her peripheral caught her eye. Her head spun just in time to catch the sight of a sleek black dragon charging her.

She shrieked, and a sardonic voice in the back of her head mocked her for trusting the strange dragon-boy. Just as she'd suspected, the moment she turned over her hatchet, he'd led her to her death. The dragon was fast— even with all of her battle instincts, the only thing she could do was scream and throw her hands up in defense. She sprawled backwards onto her butt.

And then the boy sprang from her side, tackling the beast and throwing his arms around its neck. The dragon roared, and Hiccup hissed, and for a moment, Astrid sat in terror and awe as the two wrestled and grappled for dominance. Eventually the dragon rolled the boy beneath him, and her hand flew to her mouth to hold back a shout. It reared its head. But then— instead of ripping into Hiccup's jugular, the dragon nibbled playfully on the human's shoulder. Trembling with a flood of adrenaline, Astrid shifted to her knees and looked closer. Only gums chewed at Hiccup's furs.

"It's… It's a Night Fury," she breathed, her eyes moving over the flat black scales, the sharp claws, the outstretched wings. Though she'd never seen one up close, she knew the shape of those wings and what they looked like darting through the moonlight. Every fiber of her body was telling her to run. Get out. Tell the chief and gather a hunting party for Hiccup and his beast.

The dragon's eyes turned to her. Large, green, and wary, they flickered over her in evaluation.

"Astrid, Toothless," Hiccup introduced, sitting up on his elbows. "Toothless, Astrid."

The breaths in her lungs felt painful. She turned a fiery glare on the boy. "You brought a Night Fury to Berk?" The itch for her hatchet was terrible. "You— you—"

She tried to summon a threat, an insult that would accurately sum up her ire, but then the dragon— Toothless— hopped away from the boy and stalked towards her. It curled its body and side stepped closer, and she was struck with recognition. Its actions mimicked Hiccup's. And then it was above her, breathing hot heavy exhales onto her face.

For the second time that day, she was suddenly hypnotized by a pair of green eyes.

"Give him a scratch," Hiccup encouraged, a smile faint in his voice.

Astrid drew back as the Night Fury tilted his head at her. "I will not!" she whispered with a hostile glower. It made a strange warbling noise, and she clenched and unclenched her fists. She was fighting every irresistible urge to run, and run far. The only thing stopping her was the unbelievable amount of expression in those reptilian orbs.

In her peripheral, she watched him twist back into his crouch. He crept over to them and reached a hand under Toothless' chin. The dragon's eyes rolled back in his head. It flopped and rolled onto its back with a purr.

Astrid took the opportunity to scramble away. But she felt arms wrapping like steel around her waist, tugging her back down. "No!" Hiccup scolded, sounding sharp and authoritative. His hands found her wrists and extended them toward the beast. "Feel."

For the first time since hearing Hiccup shifting in the forest trees, she made a noise she was embarrassed by. She whimpered. It was awful enough that the feral man had his arms around her, caging her in place. But he was forcing to touch the thing that had been trying to kill her not moments ago. He pulled her hands closer to Toothless' chest, unyielding.

She flinched when her fingertips brushed over warm scales. It wasn't like when Hiccup had offered his hand for her to touch. That was familiar human skin. This— this pelt— she'd only felt that in the heat of battle. The boy stroked her hand across the Night Fury's chest in a petting motion. Beneath her limp and uncooperative fingers, she could feel it rumbling with pleasure.

Shaking her head, she forced herself not to close her eyes like she wanted to. It felt like a dream. Hiccup, Toothless, all of it. "His— he—" Astrid swallowed and tried again. "He's attacked my village for years."

"Not because he wanted to," Hiccup insisted, still drawing her hands across the dragon's smooth scales. "That's why you have to listen to me."

"Let me go first," she breathed, cutting her gaze to him so he could see the burning in her eyes. This felt so… wrong. Sick, even. "I'll listen. Just let me go."

He granted her request, releasing her wrists and allowing her to jerk away. "Toothless didn't bring me here," he explained, rubbing his own palms across the dragon's soft belly the way he'd wanted her to. "A friend of mine did."

She assumed by 'friend,' he meant another winged beast.

Hiccup glanced down at the grass, and a sudden solemnity washed over his features. "My mother— she was once a part of this tribe. She lived here, on Berk."

Astrid's eyebrows shot up at that. She tried to picture anyone like the wild thing named Hiccup every inhabiting her village. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fathom it.

"It's a long story, but she and I were taken away. And we came to live with the dragons." He drew one knee to his chest as he spoke. "She never talked about where we came from. I never asked. But my father—" Cutting off with a strange hissing noise, Hiccup shook like an animal shaking the rain from his fur. "I wanted to know more about him."

She wrapped her arms around herself and watched him with disturbed fascination. "Your father…" Astrid exhaled sharply. "He's— he lives in the village?"

"I don't know," he answered with a bluntness, his lips twisting as he scratched at his short beard. "I don't know his name. What he looks like. Just… he was here." His eyes were somewhere far away, and for an instant, Astrid's heart squeezed in sympathy.

"So you came to find him?"

Hiccup gave a short laugh. At his side, Toothless blinked awake and rolled to his feet. The dragon stalked off to the crystal clear lake to lap at its waters. The boy's gaze followed him. "My mother told me about how things are here. Between the humans and the dragons. The war." He squinted at the Night Fury. "We think there's something controlling them. Making them attack. Away from here, they're… not like that."

This was the information she'd come for. She sat up with interest. "Controlling them how?"

"A queen, she thinks." His eyes cut back to her. "A dragon like the others, but a hundred times larger. Hungrier. They sometimes can bend the will of smaller dragons."

Astrid sucked in a breath.

"Anyways, I wanted to find out more. So we could… So I could come back. Meet him. But to do that, I have to finish this war first." His expression was determined and serious. "I left home. I came to observe. But then Toothless and I collided."

At the sound of his name, the Night Fury's head popped up. His ears perked.

Hiccup gave him a reassuring wave and then looked back to Astrid. "He's injured," he told her with a lowered voice. His brow furrowed with intensity. "He can't fly. And I won't leave him to die."

It took her a moment, but the weight of what he was sharing with her suddenly settled on her chest like a boulder. Toothless was broken. Stranded. Hiccup wouldn't abandon him. By sharing that information, the wild boy was putting both of their lives in her hands.

"I…"

She didn't know what to say. Part of her wanted to believe that this was all an elaborate ruse, and that Hiccup truly meant to use the Night Fury to attack the village come nightfall. That part wanted to sprint back to the chief, to summon a hunting party to kill the boy and dragon alike. But something deeper in her gut was telling her to wait. Not yet, it said. Not yet.

She didn't get a chance to reply. A new sound suddenly cut through the tension. A blast of familiarity burning through the bizarre cocoon she'd been enveloped in.

"Astrid!" a voice echoed through the woods. Snotlout Jorgenson, calling her name. "Astrid! Are you alive?"

The two went still. Hiccup was on his hands and feet in a half-breath, his teeth bared toward the sound. Toothless had looked up and adopted a similar defensive stance.

Astrid forced herself to stand, shocked at the weakness in her knees. "They're looking for me," she whispered. "I've been gone too long." When she started to turn to start up the rock wall of the cove, a hand reached for her.

Hiccup took her by the upper arms. "You can't let them find him," he hissed, his eyes bright and desperate. "Promise you won't lead them here." He shook her. "Promise."

She tore away. "I promise," she replied with a glower. "For now. I have to go." Scrambling towards the plateau, she looked over her shoulder at him. "If I see either of you near the village, I'll skin you alive."

"Astrid! Astrid, can you hear me?"

"Come back tomorrow," he requested, drawing too close to her again.

She stepped away, her heart pounding. "Remember. Don't come near Berk."

And then she turned without a second glance and began her race to reach the top.

!