Sorry for the wait! I had all this homework and I was distracted with life, but yeah. Finally I got on here and I'm like, Wolf, you GOTTA WRITE A CHAPTER OR THESE PEOPLE WILL HATE U! So here's your chapter. Special thanks to a random person and vennetachi. You guys are awesome!.
(Astrid POV)
Astrid looked around the earth toned village in worry. Sure, Hiccup and Toothless sometimes went out on their own, for days even, scouring the skies, exploring unknown reaches of whatever mysterious place they could find. But this was strange. If Hiccup and Toothless planned to be out this long, they would usually notify Gobber or Stoic. And that storm… Astrid shook her blonde head. She was supposed to be the tough girl. They just probably found another dragon nest or something, nothing to worry about.
She jogged over, her furred boots thudding on the packed earth, to where the others were, sitting around, and now and then casting worried glances at the skies as if Thor had some unknown grudge against them. Ruffnut and Tuffnut weren't even clawing at each other today. And as she walked past, Snotlut didn't care to grin at her or make some sort of "manly" remark. Fishlegs looked sadly at his well-worn dragon book in his chubby hand, as if he no longer had the energy to spout out everything in it to annoy the other young Vikings.
Astrid sighed, looking around at the forlorn group. She turned and slumped down on the long log bench. Four heads slowly turned her way. She threw her hands up in the air, anticipating what they would say.
"Okay fine. Rant at me then. We're not going after them. It's too dangerous."
"But it's not fair!" Fishleg's voice jumped up a pitch, "He promised me we'd try to find rare Nadder scale specimens today."
"And we want to have a trick contest!" Ruff and Tuff simultaneously griped.
"And everybody's so mopy, darling." Snotlut earned a piercing glare for his efforts at charm.
Astrid glanced around at the gangly crew. They would be like this until Hiccup came back or they got to go look for him. And as much as a part of her resented it, Astrid knew she could never replace Hiccup's role in the group. She sighed, slumping down further in her seat, her cropped blonde bangs slipping into her face, covering her eyes.
"Fn. Wglokfurthm." She mumbled.
"What was that darling?" Snotlut found himself reeling from a hard punch in the arm as Astrid stood up. She glared around at the group, her pent up rage urging her to grab her axe and clobber everything in sight.
"I SAID FINE! WE'LL GO LOOK FOR THEM! HAPPY!?" The group's somber expressions turned in an instant into excited joy and apprehension. Astrid sighed, her rabid expression softening into what might have been a small smile. They were so happy to help him. They were so loyal to him. She could never lead like that. But what did it matter? They were all going to find him now, and everything would be back to normal.
She led the group of uncommonly excited Vikings towards the large barns where they kept their dragons. The towering wood carvings of dragons painted with crude colors that stood on top of the building seemed both ominous and protective, watching all down below with wooden eyes, seeming to rule the plaza, as if they were the very pets of Odin.
The large wooden gates creaked as Astrid pulled them open, the metal hooks clanging as she let go and stepped in with the other Vikings. Shards of dim clouded sunlight spilled through rifts in the rafters, illuminating the dust in the air like tiny shining stars glimmering in the half-light. The places where their dragons roosted were along the edges of the barn, with more stacked on top of them, reaching up towards the top, where the highest living dragons rested. There were no doors on the separate roosts, as the dragons in this barn were loyal enough to their owners to be trusted.
Astrid whistled loudly, and a crash pounded down onto the ground, sending up a cloud of dust that shot outward, then drifted away in silence. Stormfly, Astrid's Nadder, stood majestically in front of them, her blue scales with tinges of yellow and green catching the glancing shards of light like a prism. Her ridged claws dug into the earth on the floor of the barn, leaving deep birdlike prints where she walked. Her large head and curved predatory beak bent downward as Astrid went over to her.
The other Vikings' dragons were already saddled and ready for flight. Astrid glanced at the group and briefly stroked her dragon's head, before swinging her legs over Stormfly's back, bringing her up to ride the dragon. The dragon leaped into the air, flapping it's short wings fervently as it maneuvered out of the barn, the others following. They rose up in the air above the village, looking as normal as a fishing patrol out to find the best shallows in the coves around the village.
Astrid turned her dragon around so she was facing the gang. A wind rippled behind her, billowing out her hair, but she paid no attention.
"Okay, we're going to look near the nesting caves first. If he's not there, we'll take the ridge towards the tower rocks." Snotlut was pointing and trying to mouth something frantically, but Astrid ignored him, thinking that he was just trying to say something clever. "Fishlegs, you take back left, Ruff, Tuff, upper right with-""DUDE LOOK BEHIND YOU!" Snotlut yelled, frantically staring at something behind Astrid.
Astrid warily turned her dragon around, until she was facing the oceans on the edge of the island where the rest of the gang was staring. Black and gray clouds were forming quickly, seeming to race towards the suddenly small looking village with maniacal force, the black surging like waves in an ocean, the large gray looming darkly behind it. At the center of the rising storm, a tinge of light green was visible, swirling like a vortex in the midst of the black and gray.
The storm was almost above the village now, the dark shadow falling over most of the huts and plains that had looked so amiable minutes before, bleaching all the light from them like another, darker dimension. The wind, swept over the plain, blowing through the grasses and ravaging the waves into mad fury with a howling delight. Most of the Vikings in the village were looking up now, scanning the skies. Astrid and the gang still hovered, the wind blowing in their faces as they braced for what would come.
From the center of the swirling green there came a figure. A pale greenish dragon with three heads emerged from the storm, its snarling grimaces and slits of pupils seeming almost feline. Its wings were huge, flapping in an uneven pattern, the long tail lashing, as if the dragon was in an almost rabid state. The heads coiled amongst themselves on long necks, snapping and fighting but always retaining that insane snarling smile. Claws at the end of the lashing tail grabbed emptily at invisible prey.
The rider of this beast stood atop it, a woman, with long black hair waving in the wind. She was tall and slender, with armored chest and leg guards. She held a long staff in her pale hand, and stretched it outward towards the village.
"Hiccup's dragon has been enslaved! You will all bow before me! FOR I WILL TURN YOUR DRAGONS INTO MY CAT ARMY!"
So, hope you like that. Also I'll be publishing my book soon. It's about wolves and people that can turn into wolves and epicness and stuff, but just a status update for that. Happy reading!