Chapter 4

Hi everybody ! Thanks for the reviews, this chapter won't bring a lot of answers yet, but things will evolve. So here is the new chapter, don't hesitate to point out mistakes.

This morning, Astrid had a feeling in her, an uneasy but familiar feeling that she knew perfectly well and which could only mean one thing: the ogre would hunt again. She went to search for him, she hadn't been able to find him last time he hunted, but this time, she would try to. If she could reach him in time, then maybe, she could save a child, it had worked at times in the past, and recently she saved Hiccup.

She was trying to have her eyes everywhere, imagining him to be hiding in every little spot of the forest. The woods were a strange subject of fear and security, it allowed her to hide easily, but it allowed him to hide as well. She went in the direction of the village, he was more likely to lurk around there, to find his next prey. Keeping her moves as silent as she could, she tried to look for any child or for the ogre. Suddenly, she heard a small voice singing through the woods, a sweet girly voice. She couldn't see who was singing, and in the shadowy woods, it was almost scary...

Following the sound of the voice, she finally saw a little girl with red hair crouching and playing in the dirt. She was small and thin, yet it wouldn't mean the ogre wouldn't... A chill ran through her back, ended in a cold wave in her neck which made her hair stand: she heard it, she heard the ogre's soft growl nearby. He wanted the little girl! She ran toward the child, and the girl barely had the time to react when Astrid caught her by the arm, and put a hand on her mouth.

"Go away, go home, you have to leave now!" she whispered.

The girl made muffled screams but Atsrid went on:

"He will catch you, just like Virn, now leave, I'll try to..."

A loud, terrifying roar was heard and the little girl's eyes widened when she heard that. Astrid pushed her, ordering her to go home and the child ran away, scared to death as she saw the creature emerging from the bushes. Astrid jumped on her feet and held her axe. The ogre was standing before her...

"You..." He snarled.

She backed away, and threw a side look toward the village, toward the path the girl took. If the ogre focused on her, then the kids would be safe. She backed away and started to run in the forest. She heard him pursue her, he yelled furiously:

"Come back here! You little..."

She ran even faster, jumping to avoid obstacles. She knew he wouldn't stop so soon, he wanted to get her, more than any other child on this island. She couldn't let him do that...In spite of all her courage, in spite of her determination, she felt the old, vicious fear spread through her veins...From the girl who just wanted to save people, she was starting to become the scared little kid once more! No, she had to go on, she had to do something! Toothless! That dragon could scare him, if she could find the beast, she would be saved! But where was he?

She continued to ran but found herself unsure. Which way was the right one? She took one path wihtout hesitation, not because she knew the direction but because she couldn't stop. She heard the ogre's heavy footsteps and his guttural voice yelling a threat at her. She ran desperately, but felt hopeful when she started to recognize her surroundings. She took several turns, and the sound of the ogre became more distant: maybe she had hopes!

She sneaked her way through her bushes and trees, she couldn't hear the monster anymore. Suddenly, as she passed between two trees, she saw Hiccup on the ground with someone straddling him. She recognized his aggressor, and felt boiling rage: the ogre wasn't the only one chasing after them!

Grabbing her axe firmly, she jumped on Hiccup's attacker with ferocity, she wouldn't let another one be killed! She kicked the attacker off of him and hit him with the handle of her axe hard. The young ogre rolled on the ground and she raised her axe once more, ready to attack. Her opponent was on his feet soon enough and looked at her with defiance. Astrid smirked:

"You have no weapon. You thought it would be useless wouldn't you?"

"What..."

"Leave! Leave now, and if you tell him that you saw us here, I'll make you pay! We both know I'm stronger than you."

The boy looked at her hesitantly, when suddenly they heard a roar echoing in the forest. A move was heard through the bushes, and everyone saw Toothless jumping between Astrid and their attacker, growling ferociously at the young ogre. Terror appeared on his face and he ran away as fast as he could the dragon started to pursue him but a moan from Hiccup stopped him. The Night Fury allowed the ogre to escape and went to the young human instead. A dizzy, beaten but still alive Hiccup smiled at him, and the dragon rubbed his snout against him. Astrid started to help Hiccup off the ground.

"Come on, get on his back," she said, "we'll go to my shelter."

He made an effort to sit on Toothless's back and the dragon didn't stop him. Astrid picked up the stuff Hiccup dropped and noticed the strange devices he made. Without asking questions for now, she led Toothless toward her hiding place. It was in a small cave behind a tree, quite difficult to spot. Hiccup laid down in there and rested a little. As soon as they approached, Hiccup felt repulsed by the smell around. The cave was next to a swamp, and it exhaled a foul smell that made his head hurt more. In addition to that, some plants Astrid started to take care of his wounds, though they weren't deep or dangerous, they would need time to heal completely. The cut on his head was the worst.

"I'm feeling better already, I should go back..."

"You can't leave now...You're wounded, he would smell the blood...He can smell it from afar."

She trembled at that idea: Hiccup would have to stay here and it only reminded her of something very similar which happened in the past. She didn't want that to happen again...

"He can't smell it here?"

"No, the swamp and the plants mask the odour...Or at least I hope it does it well enough...That's why I chose that spot, I hate the smell but he would already have found me otherwise."

"That was the ogre's son, right?"

"Yes."

"So he has children...Oh, great, I thought the situation wasn't bad enough!"

"Yeah, I warned you."

Once she was done healing him, Hiccup thanked her and petted Toothless once more. How did he got out? He could only suppose that his animalistic instincts allowed him to know that he was in danger and...He told Astrid about it, she was perplex, though she couldn't deny this was the most believable theory.

"So what he couldn't do for his own survival...He did for me."

It was incredible, and Astrid really had a hard time believing it. Yet there were no other explanation she could find, this dragon cared for the young boy, obviously.

"I was...I was always told that dragon were nothing but a threat."

"Same with me. But you know what? I'm tired to listen to everything people say without thinking otherwise. Maybe Vikings don't know that much about dragons."

"Maybe you're right..."

He then showed her what he designed for Toothless. She found that crazy but after all, it seemed like the best solution. Once he felt better he put it on Toothless, struggling with the dragon who wasn't really willing at first. Astrid laughed as she saw them together. When Toothless finally had the mechanism and the saddle on him, he pouted but Hiccup was sure he would soon be delighted. The girl left them and went to search for some food, instructing Hiccup not to go anywhere, or else the ogre could smell them. Sure, Toothless was him, but it was better not to take any risks. When she thought again of what just happened, both Hiccup and a little girl could have been taken and...She didn't want to think of it anymore, she was sick of all this.

She brought back some mushrooms and a few wild berries, it wouldn't be much, but it was better than nothing. Hiccup had made some fire while she was away, and she was glad of it. In fact, having someone in her little lair felt good, she was living alone since some times and loneliness was really taking its toll on her at times.

"You know, I'm quite good to make traps for animals. If you need some, I can help."

"I don't really eat meat," Astid murmured, "or at leas tnot unless it's really necessary, if there are other way to feed myself, I just don't."

"Really? Why not?"

"Well...I'm staying around the ogre to try to save children, and I know what he does to them. Meat disgust me since, even when I know what kind of animal was killed I can't help but imagine it's a person's flesh I'm eating."

"Oh...I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I don't really miss it."

They started to eat together, it was strange how sooner that day he had been attacked and now he was enjoying a relaxing, simple moment with two friends. He suddenly thought of his dad: he would worry, he would eventually notice his absence. Gobber would worry too, he knew it, and he didn't like to imagine them being sared for him while he was fine. Yet Astrid instructed him to stay here, and he had no doubts now that he could trust her. Hiccup then realized he hadn't told her yet everything that happened:

"You know, the ogre's son, he said he 'just wanted to bring me home, and that his dad would be happy to see me'. I don't know if that matter..."

Astrid's mouth opened slightly and she stopped to breath for a brief moment. She looked at him with worry-filled eyes, and then looked at Toothless.

"I'm scared that he could have other plans for you than eating you."

"What kind?"

"I don't know," she said truthfully, "maybe I'm wrong, maybe he simply wants to eat you like the others. In both cases you must not get caught anyway. A little girl almost got killed."

She explained him where she had been and what she had done, Hiccup felt even more admirative at her for saving the child:

"It's really wonderful what you did, you saved both our lives today."

"Thanks, but...It's not such big deal, he is still running out there."

"It's big deal for me and that kid. However, I agree that we must find a way to kill him and quickly. I guess he can defend himself against dragons."

"...He knows how to fight them, yes," she murmured thoughtfully, "and he really dislike Night Furies in particular. He lost an arm because of one. That was a long time ago."

Now Hiccup got why the ogre would never approach them while Toothless was around, and he found himself even happier for sparing his dragon-friend. Once they were done eating and that both teens took some time to rest and talk, it was decided that they would try to help Toothless fly. Hiccup explained her that he thought of studying every position of the tail. It seemed long to Astrid, but they wouldn't take down the ogre in a blink. Hiccup noticed she looked very thoughtful since he spoke about taking down Drago.

"What's wrong? You don't think we can do it."

"No, it's just...I don't know how to explain it. But it doesn't matter, we spoke enough."

It was frustrating, really, how she refused to answer questions, what happened to her that she just couldn't tell him anything? Yet she saved his life, so he wouldn't insist. He started his practice with Toothless, but it soon proved to be difficult in the swamp. Astrid eventually agreed that they had to take the risk and go to a clearer space. They went toward another part of the forest, near at a cliff, and Hiccup started his study. He proposed Astrid to mount on his back and try too, but she refused. She knew now that Toothless was a friend, but something still stopped her. She laughed still every time Hiccup and Toothless were struggling. When the evening came, they went back to the swamp and Astrid's lair. The little cave was tiny, and Hiccup and Astrid had to sleep next to each other while Toothless was staying at the entrance, guarding it. Hiccup couldn't help but blush often. It was the first time he would sleep beside a girl. Astrid wouldn't have said it out loud but she was also feeling something strange while laying at his side. Yet they didn't exchange a word, they just slept in the swamp which didn't seem as smelly and unwelcoming as before.

In the village, Hiccup's absence was eventually noticed. Gobber had noticed he wasn't here for training, neither for smithing and eventually went to ask Stoick if the kid was fine, thinking that maybe Hiccup got sick. Upon hearing this, Stoick was shocked: his son had left this morning, saying he would go finish something at the forge before the training. When the two men realized the boy was nowhere in the village, they got extremely worried, they asked everyone if Hiccup had been seen. A little girl eventually said that this morning that something very strange happened to her, something she didn't tell her parents. She was Ingrid Thorston, a cousin of the twins, she belonged to the smartest branch of the family.

"What happened to you?"

"A very weird girl, pretty but weird, she came and grabbed me and put a hand on my mouth, like this," she reproduced the gesture. "She told me to run, she told me he would catch me like Virn..."

"What? Who was she talking about?"

"She didn't say, but then a very big man came out of the bushes, he was very scary. I ran."

The adults hearing it all froze: a man? Gobber and Stoikc looked at each other, if this was true, then it meant Hiccup had been right...And that man, what if...What if he took his son? He interrogated the little girl a little more, but she couldn't say who were those strange people she met.

"Stoick, if what she said is true, then it's worse than we thought," someone declared.

"I know. But who could be those people?"

"Maybe slave merchants? Maybe pirates who are capturing children to sell them?" Suggested a woman.

"As anyone seen any boat?" Stoick asked. "If any ship had came, we should have seen them."

"Bucket and I can inspect our surroudings," Munch proposed.

"Good idea. We'll go in the forest once more, we'll search for Hiccup, and for those people."

"Stoick we can't go at night..."

"We can't loose any time!"

While the adults were preparing themselves, Fishlegs, Snotlout and the twins had listened to all of this. They proposed to come along but it was refused, Stoikc told them that they were too young. Of course, they weren't really satisfied by this answer.

The twins were pretty enraged, the little girl was their cousin and they were pretty sure she wasn't lying; it meant someone tried to hurt her, and now the adults were saying that this person might have hurt Hiccup as well. While none of them but Fishlegs had a particular liking over him, they didn't wish to see him die either. They often mocked him, they had joked about him getting eaten by a dragon, but they didn't actually wished it. As for Snotlout, even though he had never been close to Hiccup, yet he couldn't help but be worried, they were estranged cousins, even if they tended to forget it at times. Fishlegs on his part, was quite scared for Hiccup. They were friends at a time and they always remained in good terms but their friendship had lessened with time. Now he felt really guilty about that.

"I don't want to stay here while there is some sicko trying to kill people around," Tuff declared.

"Neither do I, he could have killed Ingrid!"

"Yeah, and what about Hiccup?" Fishlegs pointed out. "They couldn't find Virn last time, I doubt they can find him...What can we do."

"Go and search for Him?" Suggested Ruff.

"Stoick won't hear it!"

"Then we don't tell," Snotlout simply declared. "We grab our weapons and we go."

Fishlegs looked at him with a quizzical look.

"You care about him?"

"Hum, no, I...It would be just glorious to save the chief's son."

"Yeah, whatever, let's go."

They four of them took a direction the adults didn't follow and started their search. They weren't really aware of the anger, not as much as Astrid and Hiccup were, they just thought that they were four, that they had weapons and they could fight. Yet soon, they found themselves lost. The ogre was there as well, certainly not lost, the hunger and rage stopping him from getting any sleep. He avoided the adults searching around, but soon he smelled young flesh... Yes...Teenagers would do fine. A sick smirk appeared on Drago's face: he had been unable to catch the little girl, his son had failed as well, but here was a new lot, and this time he would bring some good meat at the table...

So yeah, Astrid definitely has history with the ogre's family, not just Drago himself. As for the teens...Let's hope they'll get lucky. Don't hesitate to review!