The Dragon Slayer
pairing: none for the foreseeable future, although I'm still open for votes. I'm really glad you lot are cool with no romance. Because that might be reallyyyy hard to do, honestly, especially with what I do to poor Astrid here. If Hiccup's just into her for being the prettiest girl... welp...
content notes: Extreme gore, some swears, you've been warned. Also, this is now officially AU - alternate universe. See end notes on that.
Astrid climbs the beast's hide. Below her, Viking's jab with spears into the monster's feet and belly, and around her, Vikings climb up. The large scales and knobby hide make for surprisingly good purchase for agile human hands. The animal, for it is an animal as far as she can tell, isn't keen on stepping on human porcupines no more than an elephant would be.
It is not with sheerest deep horror that she watches Vikings die. No. It is with numb shock, that she sees shields heated and eaten away by fire all too easily, and Vikings bowled over and eviscerated with lazy movements of those powerful limbs. Morale is low, only bolstered by the slight glee at realizing, yes, with spears aimed at the feet they can prevent at least one form of death the nightmare, this living Death would visit upon them, and that to their shields this dragon fire is (almost) like any other.
It's insanity when the most comforting thought you can muster is 'well, at least its breath is not that of a Night Fury'.
She climbs, past both her despair and the dragon's neck. It starts to take notice of her now. It shakes and roars and tries to look at her with its eyes that manage to look both beady and small on it and absolutely massive at the same time. Astrid offers a bitter smile, the last thing it shall ever see.
And then she strikes. No, not strikes, so much as digs, straight through its eyes. Hacking with her axe is fun, but it isn't all she carries. She stabs a knife into it for better purchase so it can't knock her off, and worms her way in through those huge eyes, pushing, re-stabbing for newer purchase, until the eye flops free and she hacks with abandon.
It's screaming now, with a bloody dislocated eye, and its own attempts to claw at the source of its pain hit its own eye, making it scream even worse. With such distraction, it couldn't defend itself from the Vikings below, who seized on the opportunity to fire on its belly. Someone even managed to chop off a finger. If she weren't so numb right now, Astrid would feel sympathy for it. But she can't afford a heart to feel pain right now, and she's fixated in her head on her work. Methodical, sawing, hacking, stabbing, covered so thick in deep in blood that no longer is it pure red anymore but brownish black flecked red that she swallows the vile stuff.
She can't decide which she hates more, choking on coppery blood or choking on sulfurous fumes. Somewhere in her head she registers also the salty taste of tears. She doesn't know who's tears it is, hers or the dragons.
It doesn't really matter.
One or both of them is dead. One last hack. She's splitting its skull, getting to its brain now.
There is a horrible feeling of falling. She wonders if all the blood and spongy hacked flesh will dull the fall at all.
And then, inconceivably, for she couldn't believe it, couldn't even think it -
it was over.
.
.
.
She wakes. She cries and shakes, and lunges for her axe on the make-shift table next to her, frantic and needing it for whatever enemies she had to face next.
"Astrid, Astrid, calm down, it's over!" a voice cries, hands held up, placating, and slowly she lowers her weapon, realizing it was only Gobber. A grieving, blooded Gobber who bizarrely had managed to avoid losing any more limbs. She hasn't lost any either, but softly touching a hand up, she learns that doesn't mean she hasn't been maimed. An eye for an eye, it seemed. Half of her face is burned. She wonders how she couldn't have felt it or noticed before: it burns so badly now.
She will never be 'pretty' again.
In some way, that is a relief. She has never wanted to be the pretty face, the one everyone wants to marry not because she's powerful or the best warrior but because compared to Ruffnut (or Tuffnut, they looked almost identical) she was the only 'lust-worthy' one. Not that she thought Ruffnut looked all that bad, actually, if she straightened up and stopped having such a foolish expression on her face all the time - err, alright, that was strange territory to be thinking about, another girl's looks. It hadn't crossed her mind before and made her wonder, could girls even be attracted to other girls?
My mind is rambling, she inwardly curses herself, and tries to focus. Gobber is talking. People need her. She was far from the worst off.
"-dragon attacks, thank goodness. They all seem to have been scared away by your killing the big one."
Your killing. Not theirs. Hers. A small smile makes its way on to her face, but she's horrified to find it slightly crooked, like an involuntary smirk. The burned half isn't moving quite as readily, and it hurts to. She frowns, and its a weird half frown, only making its way to half her face.
"Oh Gods, Astrid," Gobber had not gone into such shock as to lose all sympathy or feeling to the world. "Look at you! I'm so sorry. And Stoick. Who would've thought he'd have gone like that? It should have been me."
"No, Gobber," she reaches out a hand to comfort him, with the arm that hurt less, the one not like she'd just been hitting nonstop with it for an hour. "We need you."
"We needed Stoick more," Gobber argued, eyes tearing up. "We've won, but for what point? Hiccup's gone," Fuck Hiccup, he ran, she thought, not feeling forgiving right now. "Tuffnut's dead," oh Gods, poor Ruffnut. "and we have so, so many injured. It's only with your quick thinking we didn't all die. That was some strategy, by the way," he compliments, trying to find one bright light in all this darkness. "I've never seen a more natural born leader."
Then he looks at her with such sheer hope in his eyes, it drowns her. Make this horror all go away, make this mess right, that hope says, but she doesn't see how she can possibly, how anyone could.
"Alright," she gulps, agreeing against her better judgment, and strolls forward. She scans the aftermath of the carnage, the wounded, the broken weapons, the dead body and the fetid dragon corpse they dragged her from, just feeling glad she can still stand. People stop what they are doing to stare at her, to whisper under their breath. Dragon slayer. "Salvage the boats, make what repairs we can, and let's go home. We'll make as many trips as we need to, even if we only manage to build one boat. EVERYONE is going home, no body will be left behind!" she yells, and to her astonishment, there are actual cheers.
Snotlout struts forward, a cocky grin on his face, maybe a little shakier than usual from everything that had happened. "Yeah babe! And with me as chief, there'll be a bigger celebration than anyone has ever seen before in all of Berk!"
Astrid whirls, with more rage, energy and fury than she knew she could muster right now. This blustering idiot was not taking credit for her victory. "YOU! You are NOT chief, not NOW! I killed the dragon, I took over from Stoick when no one else would, I am getting us off this hole of Hel's, I AM ACTING AS CHIEF RIGHT NOW. YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH IT? BRING IT UP WITH THE ELDER WHEN WE GET HOME! Or do you want to duel me, here and now?"
The confidence completely vanishes off his face. She realizes inwardly she must look more horror than beauty right now, burned and covered head to toe in sticky, smelly blood, gore and dragon brains. With so many more hideously wounded, there had been no time for someone to spend washing her off. Holding her axe, the woman who had slayed a dragon a thousand times her size, she was like something out of a nightmare.
To no surprise, he backs down.
To deep surprise, then he smiles and lifts up her hand in victory. Snotlout does have a good side, deep within him. "CHIEF ASTRID!" he shouts.
Astrid can't believe it. She tries not to cry. Snotlout? He recognizes her accomplishment? After she'd mouthed off to him, the boy next in line for Chief?
Then it became even more amazing.
"CHIEF ASTRID!" the remaining warriors one by one begin to roar, probably eager for morale, any morale that they would even accept her. They couldn't really want her, could they?
"I present to you, Astrid, the Dragon Slayer! No, Astrid, the Living Red Death Slayer, Master of Dragons!" Living Red Death Slayer, really Snotlout? Then again he'd never been so very good with names. But the dragon was clearly more blue than red. She resisted the urge to facepalm.
Looking at those faces with her one good eye, she saw the truth. They didn't see a bloodied, pathetic girl who was struggling even now to keep herself together, to not shed tears and collapse to her knees to weap. They were staring in admiration at their savior.
Thor help her.
.
.
The trek home was quiet, a mixture of grieving and cheerful over victory. Her offensive attack meant a surprising number of boats were still intact, as they'd never given the dragon the opportunity to chase after fleeing Viking into the ships.
The warriors had still been decimated for it.
But they had gotten a new hero and finally, finally defeated the legendary nest and queen.
Thus, mixed feelings were to be expected. But it was not the Viking way to grieve too much, and Snotlout was set on the idea that once they got back, it would be celebration: "The dead are in Valhalla now."
"They've certainly earned it," she agrees with him, rowing, because she's able bodied despite the burns and the pain and she wants to get out of here as much as anyone.
Fishlegs looks at her then, forlorn. "I... don't hit me for this, but I kind of wish it hadn't come to this. That we could have learned to train dragons like Hiccup."
Astrid laughs. "Oh, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Flying dragon pets, setting them against the bad dragons? What a dream. Even if we had dragons, what good would it have done against that thing? Face it, realistically we'd have had just as many casualties. Maybe more, it's not like we have lots of dragon flying training. What do you think, that we'd have the little killers wrapped around our finger and perfectly trained on the same day we learn dragons can be trained and Stoick decides to go after the big bad nest? Well, trained or whatever black magic Hiccup used? We'd have fallen off our saddles."
"Yeah, you're right," Fishlegs sighs. "We could've waited to go fight the nest, though."
"Bah, you're assuming that Night Fury wasn't just tricking Hiccup. It's probably eaten him by now," Snotlout dismisses. "It wanted us to attack, so we'd all die. We sure showed it, though! I'd love to see it show its face again! I'd give it a one two and send it scrambling! How dare it eat Hiccup!"
Ruffnut is being very quiet and reserved. Unusually, for her, who would normally be making some goofy comment by now. But then, she's just lost her twin. Half her world is gone. Astrid spares a hand for a moment to clasp her shoulder and give a small squeeze for comfort. She doesn't acknowledge it, but Astrid didn't expect her to. That would be weakness, and no Viking liked showing that.
"I don't think it ate Hiccup, it was an animal he raised, a pet," Astrid says quietly, mostly for the benefit of Fishlegs, who must have been feeling very conflicted. He'd been the closest to Hiccup of all the teens. "But he chose his side. He ran away, leaving us to face the nest and the dragon onslaught alone. He valued a dragon more than us. As far as I'm concerned, Hiccup isn't one of us anymore. Hiccup is not a Viking. Stoick exiled him, and his words still stand. Hiccup is no longer Stoick's heir," she made it very clear. "and not eligible to be Chief anymore, even if he does come back and repent. I can't take back a dying man's last will." 'No son of mine', Stoick had said. She couldn't undo that.
And Astrid certainly wasn't about to welcome Hiccup back as Chief. No one here was, not even those most sympathetic to Hiccup like Fishlegs and Gobber. "Frankly? In my eyes? Hiccup is a traitor," she spat, "and he didn't want to be here. Good riddance."
The nightmares of Stoick's death, of the countless screams, of the burning agony in her face (will it ever go away?) would haunt her for years to come. Her burned eye would likely never regain its vision, and she would forever be half-blind. But for a moment, just a moment, when they reach home and everyone cheers to see them, home looking as sweet, green and sound as ever, she doesn't think of that.
She thinks of how peaceful the future looks now, and a lopsided smile makes it to her face.
.
.
.
notes:
Thank you all. I was pleasantly surprised by the response (I was not sure this fandom was active for anything other than Hiccup fic and thought I'd get like maybe one review... although some reviewers are clearly still here for Hiccup). I've been kind of review phobic lately too ironically... anyway, to try and answer several concerns brought up by multiple reviewers (or sometimes just one, but meh):
* Drago actually raised the dragon from a baby.
Okay, wow, that makes a lot of sense, I didn't know that - where in the movies is that mentioned? So, no plot hole after all then. Still very minor, doesn't really impact the plot of this in any way. I'm still surprised there isn't a single other fic like this.
* A fanfic without Hiccup in it wouldn't be a fanfic cuz you couldn't plot it long enough.
Okay... one, who said fanfics have to be long? Are one-shots or two-shots not fanfics anymore? I can give this an ending without making this super long.
Heck, it could be fun to end it here and just let you leave the results to your imaginations / your own fanfics. Secondly, the whole premise of this fic is that someone else other than Hiccup can do something interesting. There is a whole set of other characters: Drago, Valka, Mildew (who would probably hate a female chief), all those dragons encountered in the TV series that needed to be dealt with in some way, Alvin and the Outcasts, Dagur and the Beserkers, and if you go with the books, there are Bertha and her Bog Burglar tribe, and the Romans. A Viking Roman conflict could be a lot of fun. Although it would, historically, have to be the Holy Roman Empire, as that's the only one that makes a lick of sense, but whatever, this has fire breathing dragons in it no one said it has to make sense.
* No one likes it when people end fanfics because they don't get reviews. / Don't worry about reviews.
Fair. I probably won't end this fanfic too early unless I get hit by the perfectionism bug (where I feel nothing I write will satisfy anyone. it happens a lot and I get all review phobic when it does...) or run out of free time or I get bored. I do get bored really, really easily. I could easily re-tread old material by painstakingly going through the old TV series and rewatching it again for every little detail, but I don't want to. No one wants a 'Astrid near identical to Hiccup' story (well, okay, some people would read that, but I don't want that story). Right now the perfectionism bug is a lot more likely to kill this fic than anything else. It's stymied my other fics.
* Reconcile them eventually / don't romance them.
This seems to be the main vote so far, besides antagonist Hiccup.
* Make Hiccup an antagonist / without the Red Death you will lack a suitable antagonist for your story, make Hiccup an antagonist
Okay, as a reminder: antagonists other than Hiccup exist (Drago, Alvin, Dagur), not all stories have a single Big Bad human antagonist or need one. But it is a very interesting idea. Would make reconciling even harder, hmm, but definitely a fun twist on the usual. Definitely likely.
* Love your story and hiccup should go back and when the villagers try to capture him he brats them all up and a epic speech
Well, thank you assassin for your review... but, um, I think if he 'brats them all up' or tries to make a speech to people still grieving over his dead father, that will definitely put him in antagonist territory. Still, it would be kind of funny to see how usual Hiccup returns fic behavior may not necessarily make him look like a good guy! Although I always get a lot of shit when I parody people. x_x Sometimes it just isn't worth it.
* Snotlout would hate her as Chief
I have a somewhat more sympathetic view of Snotlout, as may have been noticed. Sure, he may whine and complain, but he did eventually accept Hiccup and he never actually seemed to have a problem fighting alongside female Vikings, and he's always admired Astrid. Plus, in the books we have Chieftess Bertha and the Bog Burglars, so the nearby tribes may not be as sexist as the rest of the world. It makes a lot of sense: dragons don't care what gender you are when they burn your house down. Even in medieval kingdoms/patriarchal societies, women are allowed to defend their castle. That would extend to greater freedom if your 'castle' is attacked every day by fire monsters.
Timeline / on OCS:
I'm leaning to putting this, historically, around the year 1000ish, without much realism / exactness. This means Holy Roman Empire, this means outside of Berk there are Viking Kings trying to conquer England, Viking Kings trying to shove Christianity down throats of other Vikings for political reasons, this means that the Viking Era and Chief Era is actually drawing to a close now and Berk and their neighborhood are just isolated as fuck, Drago has a larger context (he isn't the first or only wanna-be Viking King), etc.
This means, not original characters, but historical semi-mythical characters who will be basically treated as OCs. I know some people hate OCs. I don't care as long as they aren't Mary Sues. If reading mentions about a heavily fictionalized St. Brice's Day Massacre, King Olaf Tryggvason fighting for Norway in Battle of Svolder against King Olof Skotkonung/Eriksonn and King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, Erik the Victorious of Sweden attacking King Forkbeard, King Aethelred of England murdering Queen Gunhild and getting his butt kicked, Thorkell the Tall leading the mythical Jomsvikings, and so on isn't to your taste, don't worry, it hasn't come into the plot yet and it might never. One of those characters or more might end up getting replaced by a canon character (Drago, to make it actually relevant to the plot) or otherwise butchered for my amusement. They'd likely mostly be background / sources of conflict for Astrid as she realizes the world is a big place and that, without dragons to make it un-appeasing, her little Berk may end up getting conquered by somebody else.
Also, Queen Astrid raiding and conquering everyone would be fucking awesome. If a bit villainous, although when your targets are other conquerors you kind of come off looking sympathetic.
To Other Writers:
There are many, many different ways to take 'Hiccup leaves and everyone has to deal with the darker results / slay or train the dragons themselves'. I would love to see other fic of that! For instance, you could slay the dragon with poison or get it drunk with alcohol (lul) instead. Since the Red Death seems to get lots of its food from Berk, they'd have no problem poisoning the supply once they realized it was going to a single individual queen who was causing all their problems. It doesn't have to be straight up combat, I just went that route here for fun and gore.
You could also go the 'Astrid faces a lot of social prejudice, some dude tries to wrest the title of Chief from her' route. I did not... yet, anyway. It's think it's going to happen eventually.