Authors note: once again, thank you for all of the views! I have re-done this chapter over four times and im still not overly happy with it. But here you go, chapter four.

Chapter 4 (Astrid)

We have been walking a while now, maybe not, but that's what it feels like, three or four hours. Its dark now and I can see that even Stormfly and Toothless are tired.

"how's your arm?" Hiccup keeps his head down as we walk.

I don't reply.

"it must be painful" he says, he is right, I haven't said anything, but it has been throbbing from when I was trapped under the rock..

"it fine" I say, I know Hiccup hates it when I say I'm okay, but I just, don't want him to do something drastic that could lose time.

He sighs. "the last time you said you were fine, you got kidnapped…"

I sigh. "okay, you got me." I say, folding my arms, only for a couple of seconds because any movement send a shooting pain up my left arm – the one that was trapped under the rock. "you need to lie down Astrid." He stops walking. So I stop to.

"no, I don't. we need to get back to the Chief!" I state. But I don't think that Hiccups mind is going to change. "Astrid…look at your arm, you are so pale, I'm afraid you might drop down dead any minute…"

He is right, he usually is. I glance a look at my arm, its red around the edge of the cut. – must be about 8 inches.

"Hiccup, I, wont sleep, ill just stay awake worrying that, that Valdomear guy might attack the rest of the tribe! I want to go on!" I protest, I know its worthless though. Hiccup will convince me…

"Astrid! I, cant watch you go on anymore!" his eyes start to water in frustration. "please, Astrid, please, f...for me."

He is right, urgh I knew I would end up giving in to him. "Okay, okay. But, only for a couple of hours." I walk towards him. He nods. Then he hugs me, it sends a shot of pain right up my arm but that doesn't stop me from hugging him back.

We hear Stormfly growl and we pull back, we realise she was growling at Hiccup, protecting me and my arm probably. "woe, okay, Stormfly, I wont hurt her, promise" he laughs and slowly backs away. I laugh too.

We find a spot to sleep in eventually. I slump against a tree, my arm is aching and stinging and pounding all at the same time, while the muscles in my legs burn. Hiccup sits next to me, and Stormfly and Toothless sit down with their wings shielding us from the wind, and the rain that has just started.

It's a cold night, and its hard to sleep, and when I finally do sleep I am woken by nightmares.

I wake with a flinch, and then I feel Hiccups hands wrap around my shoulders.

"Astrid!" I don't answer, I am too confused and tired and scared to know what is going on. "Astrid! Are you alright?" when I bring myself to my senses, I nod. I am breathing heavily. Hiccup sighs. "What, what happened?" he says as he sits down. "I don't know" I reply. "It was, on Berk, and there was fire, and war and we had no dragons and, my, my…" I trail off. "Your what Astrid?!" he asks frantically. "My…my parents were there." He doesn't answer, he just slouches against the tree and looks at the ground in front of him. Stormfly starts to cower.

"No, no Stormfly! I never, you weren't even there!" I look up at a quivering, Stormfly. "I'm sorry, Stormfly, and I know you are to. But, just because you, and your kind, were the ones who…who...you know, it doesn't mean, I don't still love you! You're my dragon! I'm your rider! We can't ever not love each other Stormfly!"

She looks down at me, and stops shaking, she bends her head down, and I stroke her nose. I hear her, almost purr…

We seem to drift off to sleep quickly, no nightmares after that one, thank the Gods.

In the morning, Hiccup and I appear to wake up almost simultaneously. Just as I open my eyes, I see Hiccup sit up and stretch his neck.

"Morning milady." He says with a smile.

"Morning" I reply.

After we wake up enough to get moving, we start towards the Hooligan's 'camp' they will have set up for the night. I don't know exactly how long it will take Hiccup and I to get there, but, we have to hope we are at least on the right track.

It has brightened up a little, at least, it's not raining, still cloudy though. Just as we are walking down the path as normal, we both hear a low rumble, almost like, a whisper. As the whisper gets louder and louder, Hiccup tells me to get back, we both ease backwards, not making any sudden movements. Then, all of a sudden, the ground goes in on its self and a whispering death comes out of it. The sound of its teeth rotating is so loud and screechy, like a cats nails scraping metal. As it plunges through the ground, Hiccup and I are thrown backwards. Whispering deaths are rare. Too rare to be on this island by accident.

The whispering sound is much louder now. I just manage to sit up when the dragon spots me. I see its rotating rows of teeth, then I decide it's better to look away from it…

I slowly back, away. Staying near to the ground at all times. But I can't see Hiccup. At first, I find it hard to breathe, I can't control myself. I am panicking, fumbling around trying to find things that I know wont be there, trying to close my eyes and make all of this go away. I just… I cant…

Once I realise how stupid im being and compose myself to a certain extent, I try to look around the dragon, its eyes still trained on me. If only it were a sunny day. The whispering death would not be so keen to be out in the open.

For one moment, the dragon goes silent. I hear Hiccup call "Astrid? Are you alright?" I am breathing heavily. I swallow "yeah…"

The dragon is still just staring at me, with his bulging eyes. Out of nowhere I am - without warning - being charged at by the whispering death. I scramble a little, then I remember something from training when I was younger. 'Find the blind spot'.

I stop, quickly. So does the dragon. I am now underneath the hovering scales of its neck. I slowly step backwards more, and more. Until I see Hiccup when I turn around. He is frozen still, just staring at me as if telling me to move, now!

So I do, I run, as quietly as I can underneath the rest of the dragon but as I come to the end of its tail – also where Hiccup is standing – the dragon whips around, taking its tail with it and flinging Hiccup and I off of our feet. I let out a small yelp, unknowingly. My arm is throbbing so bad, I told Hiccup it was okay… I didn't want to worry him more than he is, but to be honest, its a lot worse than it was yesterday.

I don't have much time to examine the damage. Hiccup pulls me up by the hand and tells me "Astrid, run." I stare at him. "No! I won't leave you here to fight that thing! I won't!" he shakes his head. "I'll catch up." I look at him with disbelief, even without meaning to. I raise my eye brows at him, I have an idea. "Hiccup, eels?" he nods. "Go get some. I'll stay here and make sure it doesn't follow you." I nod, slowly. He gives me a small kiss on the cheek and shoo's me away, so I go to get the eels from the river. I hop onto Stormfly, and we leave.

As I come closer to the river, I approach it with caution, too many things happened here that I want to remember. My head starts to ache as I burry the memories, the thoughts, everything that ever happened here. I grab the longest stick I can find handy, and kneel down at the edge of the river. I can see the eels already, slithering around at nearby rock, not too deep. I poke the stick down into the water and the eels seem to be curios of it. When one wraps its self around the stick I quickly pull it up, and drop the eel on the ground behind me. I have to be more patient on the next one, but of course I get it.

With two eels, I head back to Hiccup.

Stormfly is not keen on the eels. "Please Stormfly, just, one ride with them. Its fine!" Stormfly backs away. "Urgh…Stormfly, if you…act like this for much longer, Hiccup and Toothless won't make it! Please?!"

Stormfly grunts and bows her head to let me on her back.

She is very shaky on the way back, but she makes it through. And plus imagine how much longer it would have taken on foot.

I run to Hiccup with the eels. "you got them!" he says. "well, I do try." I gloat a little. I pass him one of the eels and we lure the Whispering death back into the ground, leaving one eel at the huge hole in the earth, and keeping one with us. The dragons hate it, but we wont last long if any other dragons come at us.

As we start to walk again Hiccup breaks the silence with. "well done, Astrid" "for what?" I laugh a little, looks at him, and smile.

"you knew the Whispering death was afraid of eels, if you hadn't, we might not be alive." he nudges me with his elbow, i nudge back.

"I didn't know…I just guessed. And I'm sure you would have thought of something." I assure him.

We converse back and forth about the different dragons, quizzing each other on their traits, abilities and disadvantages.

When we have quizzed each other on every dragon we can think of, it goes quiet again.

"You said your arm was okay?" he looks at me, still keeping his head lowered to the ground slightly.

I bite my bottom lip. "you believed me" I look back at him wearing a sympathetic smile, I knows he hates it when I pretends im okay. But he knows I hate admitting im not.

"okay, well, next time…ill check for myself." he smiles at me a little bit. i smile back. "is your arm okay?" he says, mimicking his tone form earlier on. i just stare at the ground. "its okay, I guess" I say. Even though its not, not even a little bit okay.

"can I see?" he says. "just to make sure?" i sighs and hold out my left arm – the one nearest to him. We stop walking and he holds my hand with one of his, and my elbow with the other. "oh my gods…" he says, looking at the red, jagged curve, ending just above the back of my hand. i look at him. I can tell he can feel my arm shaking as he holds it. i look at his metal foot. "Hiccup, I cant help but notice…you have been limping the whole way from the river. You said your leg was okay?" he looks up at me with his green eyes. They shine in the sunset sky. "you believed me" he says mimicking me. I laughs. "Hiccup?" he looks back down at my arm, which is still in his hands. "mmhmm."

"are you…okay?"

"Astrid, I'm okay. Now, that I know you are safe, and every things going to be alright." I look at him. "well, Valdomear is probably still looking for us. Who knows what has happened if he has found the rest of the tribe?" he nods, lets go of my arm, puts his hand on one of my shoulders and says "well, we better get back then…"

I nod in agreement.