Chapter 3

Thanks to all those who posted reviews, it's always greatly appreciated! Here is our next chapter, I hope you'll like it!

Edit: I added some little sentences to show that Astrid is really curious about Hiccup, there is some Hiccstrid in this story, but not immediately. Astrid is first curious and fascinated by this boy who is very strange, but it's not love, not until they really get to know each other.

As the hunt progressed, Astrid managed to keep some distances from her parents. She was moving silently while searching: where would a wounded beast go? She saw a small stream and realised that maybe the beast tried to stay around water to drink and fish.

The girl progressed slowly and silently through the bushes. She was so excited: if she was the one to find the Night Fury it would be a glory for her and her family! And she would see the dragon's prince again, she would see his face this time! Astrid knew this hunt might be useless, maybe they had already left, but it was worth a shot. She wished Ruffnutt and Fishlegs were here with her, those two were her closest friends, and she wished she could share this moment with them right now (even if imagining Ruffnutt jealous back in the village always felt a little good).

The stream led her to a little pond surrounded by rocks and trees. She heard a strange and animalistic sound, her guts twisted and she immediately took shelter behind a big rock. Astrid took a sneak peek toward the sound's location. Blood rushed faster in her veins as she saw a big black creature near the water: the Night Fury!

It was the very first time she saw one like this, usually, a vague black form was all Vikings could see, but here she could see it in broad light. It wasn't as big as she thought, but it was still an imposing creature, all black and somehow beautiful...It felt strange for Astrid to find a dragon beautiful. It was lying on the ground, resting obviously, it was probably hurt. She couldn't capture the beast alone, if she was lucky it wouldn't move from here and it would give her time to go and warn others…

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw a masked figure approaching the dragon: the prince! He was still wearing his mask. Her eyes widened slightly as he started to take it off and her heart missed a beat. She was about to see him! Would he have scales? A deformed reptilian face? Her curiosity was boiling, it took all her will to stay in place.

She saw the face of a boy with chestnut hair and fair skin. His face was as skinny as the rest of his body, but he had no scales, and average features. He was perfectly normal...yet it was so strange, such an average face was out of place...I was right though, he is human. It answered one question but raised many others. However she could now understand why he was wearing this mask: without it, he wasn't scary at all. In fact when he checked the dragon's wounds, he only looked worried and sad.

Astrid knew she had to do something, attack them or fetch some people to help, but all she could do was stay here and look at the boy petting the dragon while feeding him with some dead rabbit. It seemed like they were both growling softly. The scene was so strange, the dragon didn't look dangerous and the boy seemed so innocent and caring. She was a tough girl, a fighter, and she could be hard on people but she wasn't cruel or unable of compassion. And for the very first time in her life she was beginning to feel compassion for a dragon...

It was disturbing her, she wasn't supposed to feel like this. Yet the more she looked at them, and the more she wished she hadn't came here and found them. They just looked like two peaceful creatures caring for each other. For the first time, she truly questioned what her tribe was doing. This boy was probably just her age and he was being chased by mighty warriors…But what he did, attacking her village…Frustration grew in her for not knowing, why was a human with dragons? It wasn't supposed to be.

She was thinking about this when suddenly, both boy and dragon froze. She wondered what was wrong and realised they were both sniffing the air. Oh Thor helps her, did they caught her smell? What would they do to her? She had to get away from here, she had to…

"Now!"

Stoick's voice was like thunder in the middle of the tranquil forest and Astrid shuddered as if she was an animal too. At this command, nests and bolas were immediately thrown over the Night Fury and the boy.

A yell of surprise and a roar came from the two wild creatures, Astrid gasped as she saw several people, Stoick and her parents among them, jumping on the pair. The boy dodged the bolas and got out of the net he had been caught in very quickly, but the dragon couldn't react as well, because of his wounds. The boy went to his friend to help him, but the warriors were on them in an instant.

Most of them were on the dragon, who put a hell of fight, whipping his tail at them, spitting fire while trying to free its paws. Astrid saw her mother and another man on the boy, they were fighting against him, so she jumped out of her spot, and went to them. Before she was at their level, her mom had disarmed the little wilding, and the man punched him hard in the face before kicking him the ribs, making the boy yell and fell. Another net was thrown over him when he collapsed on the ground. Astrid took hold of the man's arm: she couldn't stop her tribe from capturing him but at least she could spare him some suffering.

"Take care of the Night Fury, I'll tie him down," she said at the man.

The man nodded, left and helped the others with the Night Fury, leaving Astrid and her mother to tie the savage down. He was yelling and screaming incoherent sounds while they were on him, trying to maintain him down. He was kicking and struggling madly.

"Astrid, tie his hands while I hold him."

She did as her mother told her, trying to push away the feeling she was doing something awful. When she was finally done his hands were tightly bound, they freed him from the net and put him back on his feet. He immediately tried to run to his dragon, who had his paws chained and was struggling while being muzzled. Astrid stopped him:

"Stop that, it's useless."

The boy threw her a furious and desperate look; she noticed his lower lip was bleeding. Once both boy and dragon were securely restrained, Stoick smiled in vengeful satisfaction while looking at the dragon:

"He won't be able to move, now we finally caught one of those demons. It had been so long since I expect this!"

He then turned to the bound boy who was looking at him with hatred. Stoick's eyes narrowed, it was almost humiliating to see that the dragons' prince who had been so difficult to handle and capture was just…This. He grabbed the boy's chin roughly to make him look up at him.

"So you're nothing more than a little runt, no hybrid creature. A scrawny little devil…"

The boy growled and bit his hand hard enough to draw blood, making Stoick gasp. He back handed the boy hard, and Astrid couldn't help but gasp and leaned toward the prisoner almost instinctively. Stoick didn't pay attention to that and turned to the rest of the group.

"Let's go back to the village!"

The travel back to the village went without incident, the Night Fury was still trying to struggle from time to time but otherwise they got no problem, Astrid was careful to keep a firm grip on the feral boy without hurting him. The way he looked at the dragon was heart-breaking, and Astrid figured out he was probably worried because of its wounds.

"They won't let your friend die…Who are you? What are you doing with dragons?"

Her questions went unanswered, but when he looked at her, he seemed more confused than angry. From anyone else, she would have insisted to get an answer, but here she didn't, she felt like it would be useless. She knew she couldn't be too nice toward him, but honor commanded to behave fairly toward prisoners, taking advantage of someone's captivity to hurt them was low, cruel and coward-like.

When they reached Berk, people ran toward them. Instinctively, Astrid drew Hiccup close to her protectively while the boy tensed at the sight of so many enemies and she heard him do a guttural growl. People acclaimed their victory, pushing each others to get a better sight of both boy and dragon. The blond girl saw Fishlegs who was looking at both the prince and the Night Fury with his mouth agape. Stoick raised a hand:

"As you can see, today is a big day! We finally caught one of the deadliest dragon ever, and their so called prince!"

Stoic gestured toward Hiccup who snarled while people cursed at him, yelling things such as 'Loki's son!', 'Go rot in a cell!' Astrid hoped this would be done soon when a stone was suddenly thrown at Hiccup and hit him hard on the head. A small yelp emanated from the boy and then he collapsed, unconscious. Astrid caught him before he could hit the ground, and held his back against her chest, at this moment, she didn't see an enemy but another kid in distress. She saw blood running down from his temple. How low it was to throw stones at someone who was restrained!

"WHO THE HELL DID THAT?!"

The way the girl just screamed in rage surprised people and it was maybe what prevented other attacks. Stoick raised his voice:

"Don't hurt that boy! He is the key to the dragons' nest! Lock the Night Fury in the training arena while I put that kid in a cell. Have someone take care of this wound."

"I will," proposed Astrid immediately.

Stoick's eyes narrowed slightly. He seized the unconscious boy by the arm and hoisted him on his shoulders to lead him the prison. Astrid, her parents and some other people followed him, while others were following the night fury to the training area. Hiccup was thrown in a cell and Stoick turned to Astrid:

"Why do you care so much about him?"

Astrid was surprised by the question but kept her countenance:

"I am a warrior, but I'm no torturer."

The chief's eyes softened slightly at this answer. To tell the truth, now that he had seen the 'dragons' prince' was no more but a boy (even if he couldn't really be called human), he was feeling a twinge of remorse for capturing and leaving someone so young in such a place. Yet, did he have the choice? The boy had attacked people, fought with dragons, was dangerous with a sword. He was definitely their enemy. But the girl was right, it was one thing to do their duty, and another to hurt the feral boy more than necessary. Dishonor would be brought on their tribe if they behaved cruelly toward someone smaller and now defenseless.

"I don't intend to torture that boy either but don't take too much pity on him. He is an enemy, remember that. Now take care of him if that's your wish."

The chief left, giving instructions to always watch the prisoner's cell and to be careful not to let the demon hurt Astrid. The young warrior felt her father's hand on her shoulder, he smiled proudly at her.

"Be home soon, okay?"

"Yes."

Her parents left and she was thankful for that proof of trust. She was given a bowl of water with a cloth to clean his wound and entered the cell. She dampened the cloth, and began to clean the wound gently, it was bleeding quite heavily. Astrid was used to that kind of task; sometimes she would help her parents with their wounds. She studied the boy a little: he had a big bruise on the cheek because of the attack along with his the cut on his lip.

She cleaned his lip, it was done quickly. He seemed to have no other wounds, he would be fine. She saw that the guards weren't looking at her anymore and she gave in to her curiosity. She looked at his face a little more; she looked at his hands to see no claws, just normal, thin and scratched hands. A Viking's old way consisted of abandoning babies who were too weak, because they would never be anything but a weight for the tribe. Berk wasn't really doing that anymore, but other tribes did, and maybe that boy came from one of those tribes, maybe he had been abandoned as a baby, he was very scrawny after all…But it didn't explain how he found himself among dragons. Did a dragon…Adopt him? All her life she had been told that dragons were doing nothing but kill humans, why would they suddenly adopt a baby?

Astrid heard him grunt slightly and let go of his hands. The guards approached the cell again to be sure they could react in time if the demon decided to attack the girl. His eyes opened slightly, and when he realized that a human was with him, he backed away, throwing a death glare at Astrid.

"Calm down, I am just cleaning your wounds."

He narrowed his eyes, it seemed like he didn't believe her. She showed him the wash cloth stained with blood; the boy put his hand on his head and felt the spot which was bleeding less now.

The two looked at each other, Hiccup was feeling puzzled, this girl was the one who tied his hands back in the forest. Why was she being gentle with him now? Why was she cleaning his wounds? He looked around and felt his heart clench with angst as he realized he didn't know where he was. What kind of place was this? Where was Toothless? He felt suddenly very worried when he thought about his brother who could be dead right now. However it seemed not really logical: if they wanted Toothless dead, they would have killed him back there in the forest. Maybe they had put him in this horrid training arena? He was taken out of his thoughts when Astrid spoke again:

"You're better? You just have to talk, tell us what we want."

Hiccup didn't answer. He could understand what she was saying, but he decided he wouldn't say anything, there was no way he would help them. The guards told Astrid to leave, so she just sighed and left as she was told. Hiccup looked at her, she seemed nice right now, but he had to be careful. He wasn't sure about her. She had fought him twice but when he was captured, she had spoken gently to him and she took care of his wounds. Humans…They were complicated.

When the door was closed behind her, Hiccup alternated between walking and crawling on his four all over his cell, sniffing and looking around for an exit, but he understood pretty soon that there was way out, except for this cage-like door, but it was guarded and he knew the men at the door wouldn't let him out. As long as the girl had been here, he had focused on her, but now, all he could see was this empty cell and he was starting to feel smothered and afraid. He knew he was trapped, cornered into a human's lair. The idea of being cornered was really scaring him, he hated that. It had already been cornered by predators in the past and each time he had almost died.

He needed to go out, now! He began to erratically scratch the wall and the floor while letting out little grunts and whims, baffling the guards in the process. He needed to leave this place, he needed to go out, free Toothless and fly away! He went to the only small window in the room, but there were iron bars, he couldn't fit between those! Seeing the birds outside fly freely was almost like a provocation to him, they were taunting him to no end! He scratched almost madly, making the tips of his fingers slightly bleed, he was not even really hoping for a way out anymore, just panicking and feeling the need to scratch...

"Will you stop that, devil?"

He turned to the guard with anger and rushed toward the bars, and hit those with all his strength, while giving them a furious, loud and low-pitched growl like a lynx's one. It made the two men back away and cringes, then he hissed, barring his teeth, before backing away from the bars. Dragons could be scary, but lynxes always impressed Hiccup with the range of scary sounds they could make and sometimes he imitated them too.

Hiccup was satisfied when two men went silent, and maybe letting out his anger on them helped calming him down. Yet, he had to admit there was no way out. He roamed around a little more, just to check, but he didn't scratch anymore, he would just hurt himself. He was starting to understand where he was. He knew what a 'training arena" was, Hiccup had went in those on several islands to free dragons. He seemed he was in a place like this, but it wasn't the arena itself otherwise he would have smelled dragons' presence.

He sat down on the floor and thought. He couldn't speak human language perfectly, but he had a good level. Since Millie died two years ago, Hiccup didn't get the occasion to speak like a human anymore. That's also why he didn't want to talk with those humans: he wasn't sure he would do it well. He didn't even know what he was supposed to say, he had only spoke with Millie his entire life, being suddenly in the middle of all those people and being expected to talk...

He shivered, sighed heavily and brought his knees to his chest, and let his head rest on his kneecaps. He could hear the guards talking about him, but he didn't listen. He only thought about his brother, maybe prisoner, maybe dead.

Now, their captivity starts! I thought it could be more interesting to have Hiccup's animalistic behaviour a little more various, not making him just influenced by dragons but also other animals that he saw in the wild, even if he is still mainly having a dragon's behaviour. Review, please!