This chapter is short, but necessary, so I'll be uploading Chapter 5 along with this one.
Thanks for all of the praise for this story so far, I hope you guys will keep reviewing as we go along.
4. Eye of the Dragon
Astrid's axe flew up in defense, the attacking shortsword clanging against it with a screech of metal. She swiftly brought the axe downward to parry the next strike and went to work, dishing out her own flurry of attacks before she finally caught the edge of her blade around the sword and ripped it from her opponent's grasp.
The shortsword flew into the grass a few feet away, silently dragging to a stop as Astrid pointed her axe at the blade's owner, holding the cold steel mere inches from the young man's neck.
"Nice work. But I win again, Hiccup." Astrid said.
The boy flashed a smile, "It would seem that you have, milady. Please, spare me."
Astrid couldn't help the smile. She'd given up on hating how he made her smile, deciding that it was a good thing. The feeling of smiling, she found, was good. Astrid lowered her axe, playfully shoving Hiccup's chest.
"Knucklehead."
Hiccup resorted to a light chuckle and walked back to retrieve his lost sword, lifting the weapon and holding it gingerly in his hand. He padded over to a large rock jutting out of the ground and sat, taking a deep, exhausted breath. Astrid gathered her few possessions and walked over, motioning lazily at him.
"Ready to go?" she asked. Hiccup nodded and climbed off of the rock, falling into stride beside her. They hiked out of the woods, eventually reaching the hilly clearing that was the village of Berk. The last vestiges of summer had been chased out, and autumn was nearly in full swing. Two weeks had passed since their first day of training together in the woods, and Hiccup had stuck with the regimen dutifully, meeting Astrid outside every morning by sunrise and heading to the woods to practice.
He'd improved exponentially with the sword. Astrid still bested him in the majority of their sparring matches, but by now he was a far better fighter than he'd ever imagined himself being. And he owed it all to her, the beautiful, amazing, terrifying young shieldmaiden that he was so hopelessly in love with.
And that he was engaged to.
The giddy feeling of those hugs she'd given him had lasted for far longer than they'd had any right to. Perhaps that had been for the best, because she hadn't crossed that threshold again since, returning to her usual sometimes-violent self. Once again, the only physical contact he got was punches on the arm or the occasional supportive hand on the shoulder.
It was back to the status quo, and Hiccup hated it. Why did girls have to be so confusing? The worst part was that she probably had no idea what she was doing to him.
Astrid sighed, a frown on her face as she examined the village while they walked down the street cutting through town. Many homes had been grievously damaged in the previous raid two nights ago, and a few had even burned to the ground. The damage was still being repaired two mornings after the fact.
"Whenever we have a good raid, there's always a really, really bad one somewhere down the road." Astrid muttered.
"Yeah, the other night was pretty bad." Hiccup mused, for lack of a better word. Frankly, it had been horrific. For the first time in a while, there'd even been a death in the carnage. Grimdon, the village's butcher, had had his house set on fire by a Zippleback, and his wife had perished in the blaze. Astrid and the fire crew had tried their best to stop the blaze, but it had been exceptionally bad. Grimdon had stubbornly tried to charge his way into the house and been badly burned in the process, confining him to Gothi's. The man still hadn't woken, and the old woman was treating him constantly. It was even worse for their two children, who had one parent in a coma and the other sleeping soundly at the bottom of the sea.
"That's one way to put it…" Astrid mumbled.
"Hey. It's not your fault." Hiccup said, stopping them both and turning to her. His green eyes pulsed with concern. Astrid met his gaze for a moment and then looked down, brushing her fingers through her bangs and pushing them out of her eyes.
"But it is. If I had been faster, i-if I had been more efficient or been better at leading the fire crew…" Astrid stammered.
"Astrid." Hiccup said. He took a risk and placed his hands on her shoulders, getting her to look up at him. Under normal circumstances, anyone who put their hands on Astrid's shoulders would likely receive a broken wrist approximately two seconds later. Surprisingly (and luckily), she made no such move. "It is not your fault that Grimdon's wife died or that his house burned down. You tried your best, you did everything that was asked of you, and it didn't work out. And that's okay. Sometimes in life things don't go the way you'd like them to, and we just have to move on."
Astrid remained still for a few moments, allowing Hiccup's hands to remain rested on her shoulders before she looked up. Her tormented face had softened, projecting a sort of reluctant acceptance. "Thanks, Hiccup. I'm sorry for getting down like that."
"Don't apologize for that, either. It's only human of you." Hiccup answered with a smile. He pulled his hands away from her, dropping them to his side again.
"Can we go somewhere, before we split up for the day?" Astrid asked.
"Of course." Hiccup agreed immediately. They turned away from the village and walked to the southwest. Hiccup scratched his head in confusion as they reached the outskirts of town and kept walking. The Kill Ring was the only thing of note past this point. "The Kill Ring?" Hiccup asked.
Astrid didn't answer him, only stopping once she reached the edge of the ring. Heavy chains closed in the entirety of the arena, with a large stone walkway surrounding it so that hundreds of people could get close and watch something transpiring inside. A ramp was on the opposite side of the structure, blocked off by a heavy horizontal door controlled by a lever.
"Let's go inside." Astrid said, a strange curiosity in her demeanor. Hiccup decided it was best not to question her and simply followed. They reached the ramp and Astrid pushed on the lever, opening the gate that closed it off. One more gate was at the end of the short tunnel, barring the actual entrance to the ring. "Help me open it." Astrid requested.
Hiccup closed his hands around a few bars on the right side of the gate while Astrid took the left side. When she squatted down to grab onto some of the lowest openings, he quickly corrected himself, embarrassed that he didn't actually know the best way to lift the gate up. Together they tugged, struggling at first before really putting their legs into it and slowly inching the gate up.
Soon enough they got the gate to catch and it held itself open. Astrid grinned excitedly and quickly rolled underneath the gate into the ring. Hiccup followed, stooping down and lowering himself underneath the gate. Astrid turned around as he stood up, grinning at him.
"Not bad, Haddock." Astrid said before slugging him on the arm. He flinched and she whirled around, staring in wonder at the arena. She'd never actually been inside, only being able to watch from the outside looking in for so many years. She'd witnessed a handful of victors from previous classes of recruits take their final exam, killing their first dragon in front of the entire village. The most desirable kill had always been a Monstrous Nightmare, but that was not always the case, since Monstrous Nightmares were rarer and rather difficult to trap. The last class's victor had slain a Gronckle as his first dragon, and while it felt less prestigious, the town of Berk celebrated the warrior's ascension just like they would any other.
But she knew that a Monstrous Nightmare was currently in captivity behind one of those doors lining the arena wall. Maybe it was cocky of her, but she had already spent a little time plotting how she would kill the Nightmare in front of the village. Then again, she probably had a right to be cocky. The twins could be decent fighters if they ever stopped battling each other. She wasn't going to bet on that happening. Snotlout was an idiot, even if he was strong, and Fishlegs was a non-threat.
The only true wild card was Hiccup. She'd seen the potential in him during their training, and she would honestly work as hard as she could to maximize that potential by the time Dragon Training began. But when push came to shove, she wouldn't let him beat her. All bets would be off at that point, if only for a few hours in the day.
"Just think, in three more months we'll be here every morning, learning to fight dragons for real." Astrid said, "I won't have to be on the fire crew by the time the raids start back up in the spring. I'll be a warrior."
"I'm excited for you." Hiccup replied with a smile.
"Why just me? You'll be out here, too."
"Oh, I don't really know about that…" Hiccup muttered, "Can't have Hiccup the Useless messing things up in dragon training."
"Hiccup, come on." Astrid sneered, "I know your dad's taken notice of your training. You're his son, and you're not useless, okay?"
Hiccup silently agreed, his father probably had noticed that he'd been training with Astrid. There were plenty of people milling about through the village when they headed back from the woods, and nothing happened on Berk without Stoick the Vast hearing about it.
"Okay, Astrid." Hiccup relented.
A squawk came from one of the metal doors that served as the opening to a dragon cell, silencing Hiccup and Astrid alike. They exchanged a glance and shuffled towards the cell, keeping as quiet as possible. Another squawk sounded from behind the door, sharp-sounding and pained.
The cell doors in the Kill Ring were thick and built from heavy, rugged metal. A chain was fastened to a long, heavy log that weighed down the door and kept it locked shut. Eye slots were built into the doors and covered by a moving sheet of metal, so that one could slide the slot open and closed and look inside the room. Surprising as it might be, Berk took decent enough care of their captive dragons. They had to be in good shape for dragon training, but not too good, so they were fed what the village could spare and nothing more.
Hiccup slid the eye slot open, peering in with all the curiosity in the world. There was another squawk, much louder this time thanks to the open slot in the door, and a large figure sprinted to the door, its feet scraping along the stone floors. There was a flash of blue scales and a huge, yellow eye appeared at the slot, bulging as it peered out at Hiccup.
"Ah!" Hiccup gasped, jumping and stumbling backwards. He caught himself and Astrid placed one hand on his back to ensure that he didn't fall, dropping it as soon as he was stable. She had jumped from the sudden movement, too.
The dragon inside squawked curiously again, its throat humming as it focused on its visitor. The eye's jet-black pupil flicked to Hiccup's companion, and immediately the dragon inside cried out and backed away, disappearing into the darkness.
"What in the…?" Hiccup mumbled, sharing a confused glance with Astrid. Together, they stepped towards the open slot in the door, both of them peering in. The sun was bright today, and it allowed them to see inside the cell well enough that they could make out the dragon inside.
Glittering blue scales were the first feature that Hiccup noticed, followed by too-large legs and a crown of spikes adorning the reptile's head. There was another birdlike squawk, this one was mixed with fear.
"It's… it's the Nadder that you hit." Hiccup realized.
Astrid's interest was very much piqued. She leaned in as close as she could to the open slot, confident that the dragon would not try to attack. Her guess was confirmed when the Nadder responded worriedly to Astrid's leaning, backing up another step. The dragon crooned weakly, and after a sudden movement it squawked with pain and turned all of its focus to its right wing.
"What's up with its wing?" Hiccup wondered aloud.
"That's where I hit it." Astrid realized. As if hearing her, the Nadder gently lifted its wing, wincing as it did so, and examined the wound hidden underneath it. The gash was dark and half-healed, with a few immature scales in the process of growing back over it. Evidently, the wound was still painful. Without a full stomach and all of her strength, the dragon would be dealing with the wound for some time, though it would be healed in time for training in the winter.
The Nadder looked back at them, crooning again and backing away.
"I think she's afraid of you." Hiccup observed. He briefly wondered about the dragon's initial reaction when he'd opened the slot. He dared to say that it was curiosity. But that wasn't possible, right? Dragons attacked on sight, just like Vikings did.
"Good. She should be." Astrid suddenly snarled. Even Hiccup flinched at her cold response. "It's nice to see them feel a little fear when they've caused us so much of it."
The Nadder focused again on her wing and walked as far as it could away from its two visitors—which wasn't very far. Crooning, the dragon sat down, fussing as it tried to find the right position to avoid hurting its wing in the process. With a sigh, it laid its head down on the stone floor, another weak squawk reverberating from its throat.
"She looks sad." Hiccup murmured.
Astrid didn't respond for a moment. "They're not capable of sadness. They raid and kill and take and feel no remorse, no regret. They're the reason that we suffer. They're the reason that Grimdon's wife is dead, and everyone else that's died when they raid us."
Including my mother, Hiccup thought. "Yeah… I know…" he finally said.
"We should go. My parents will be wondering where I am pretty soon." Astrid suggested.
"Right." Hiccup agreed, sliding the eye slot shut. Before he could close it completely, he peered in at the Nadder again, going painfully still as he realized that it was watching him again. Their gaze held for only a few seconds, and the Nadder turned its eye away as if realizing it had been caught staring. Slowly, Hiccup shut the slot and walked after Astrid.
On the way back into the village, he willed himself to ignore what he'd seen.
Dragons were devils.
Right?